Tag: Indonesia

Music as an Instrument to Release Children From Poverty

Music has long played an important part in Indonesian culture. The Indonesian jofa is one of the most common traditional instruments and it is used in every occasion or celebration.

In Watuliney, a small village in southeast Minahasa, Indonesia, most of the people love music. Those who are able to play the  jofa also like to teach it to their children to perpetuate the musical tradition, but that opportunity does not come to all children. Most schools don’t provide a program for music. The parents who work as farmers can’t afford to buy the instruments for their children or to pay for the music course.

Because of his passion to preserve traditional culture, Adri, the coordinator of Silo Student Center, proposed to provide the jofa for children at the center. He believed that the children in his center had the talent and willingness to learn music.

After receiving a positive response from the church, Adri immediately checked the price of a jofa and ordered some made from a substitute material.

“We changed the material to plastic pipe. We call it jofa. Jofa is the basic instrument that has same tone as the original clarinet.”

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There Is Power in Sponsor Letters … in Your Letters

At some point, everyone feels like God has left them. Yunita, one of the youngest translators for Compassion Indonesia, felt as though she had been abandoned by God until she read the words of a sponsor.

Extreme Makeover: Heart Edition

I am a sucker for reality TV. Seriously, if someone is weighing himself or trying to win a quick-fire cooking challenge or ripping down a house on TV, I’m there.

But I’ve got to tell you, working at Compassion spoils you for pop culture. Suddenly everything is in perspective.

Before starting my job here, I used to love Extreme Home Makeover. I loved seeing the crazy kitchens, the creative design and the happy people. I would cry with them when they yelled with Ty, “Bus driver, move that bus!” And I still do love the heart of helping and generosity it is spreading.

But since being daily faced with the realities of the majority world, I can’t help but be distressed by our sometimes-trend toward bigger is better and more is more attitude. We seem to be in a never-ending game of one-upmanship.

I don’t personally think there’s anything inherently wrong or sinful about a big house. What is dangerous is the subtle message we are ingesting that if our homes aren’t big, if they aren’t new, if they aren’t decked with the trendiest design, it’s a reason to shake our heads shamefully. We can begin to look around at what we have and think, “This isn’t that great” when we compare it to the over-the-top luxury we see.

It’s sad. We have so much! Think of Joshua’s home in Indonesia. (more…)

Seven Were Chosen to Serve the Needy

Compassion, which reopened its East Indonesia ministry in 2005, has brought new life to the ministry of some churches. Pastor Pangkey is one pastor who has been inspired by Compassion to begin new patterns of ministry.

He had the opportunity to take part in the Global Leadership Summit in 2007 in Jakarta. At the meeting, God asked him to challenge his congregation to open its heart more for the people in the community.

Pastor Pangkey felt that God wanted him to look to the others who haven’t yet been reached by our programs and the church. This is how he began the Stefanus Group.

“God spoke to me through the scripture in Acts 6:1-7, which speaks about the seven chosen men. The Twelve Disciples chose Stephen and six other men to be responsible for what the people needed at that time.

“We know that people who live in poverty are not only people in the past. We still meet a lot of people who live in poverty today. They can’t afford their basic needs like meals because many of them don’t have opportunity to have a job or build their own business. They have to struggle every day to fulfill their basic needs.”

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Protecting the Children in Our Program

In Indonesia, children’s rights are a critical issue — as in many countries, women and children are often the most vulnerable members of the community. Compassion Indonesia understands the urgent need to address this issue that often remains silent.

Christmas in Indonesia

One might think that celebrating Christmas in Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim nation – can be a problem. Even though 90 percent of Indonesia’s 220 million people are followers of Islam, it does not mean that Christmas is not celebrated.

The biggest signs of Christmas (i.e. the traditions of the Western festive season), can be seen in the malls. Most of the major stores in the larger cities like Bandung have huge Christmas trees, and restaurants tend to put on some manner of Christmas fares.

For example, the big stores have had their Christmas decorations up for weeks in anticipation of cashing in on the season. Naturally, hotels and malls cater to visitors by erecting Christmas trees ornately decorated, and “Merry Christmas” signs. Shopping hours are extended, and the seasonal specials jump out of nowhere.

There is a Christmas tree in every mall, and a man dressed in a Santa Claus suit and a white beard can be seen giving out presents to the children. It is the same in the other cities like Jakarta, where all the major department stores join in on the festive season.

One of Compassion’s partner churches in Bandung is Immanuel Baptist Church. Christmas decorations have been in place since the first week of December. A plastic Christmas tree stands by the front entrance door to welcome all the visitors; its snow-like glitter and many small butterflies on the leaves delight the small children.

Yes, the church entrance had been decorated with an artificial Christmas trees replete with pristine snow-like glittery ornaments and small butterflies – standing unaffected by the boiling tropical heat. (more…)

The Difference is Jesus

Not too long ago, Kelina wasn’t your ideal mother. She would spill her anger over onto her three children, hitting them every day. Her children were scared of her.

Pengucapan: Indonesian Thanksgiving

Every year from June until September, the people in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, have celebrated a traditional thanksgiving holiday from generation to generation, called Pengucapan. It is the way the people of Minahasa express their gratitude to God for the blessings of the previous year.

The Pengucapan tradition started when the people in this remote area of Indonesia still worshiped gods. They expressed their gratitude to the ultimate god or the highest god, known as opo wanatas empung walian empung rengan-rengan.

After the harvest, Minahasa people held a kuman kan weru ceremony to eat their harvest for the first time and express their gratitude though song and praise to their gods for fertility, good weather, harvest and health. They would  bring their crops as an offering to their gods.

Christianity came to Minahasa in the 1800s, and Minahasa now has one of the highest rates of Christianity in all of Indonesia.

Pastor Philep, who works with a Compassion child development center in Wiaulapi, explained that after Christianity’s arrival, the Church rejected all forms of worshiping gods as part of animism. But the Church at that time saw the expression of gratitude that Minahasa people had in this tradition and allowed them to continue it through churches.

With the presence of the Church, the form of kuman kan weru changed. (more…)

Tsunami Disaster Relief in Indonesia

Four years ago, on December 26, 2004, one of the deadliest natural disasters in history hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. More than 225,000 people were killed in 11 countries.

Banda Aceh was one of those communities devastated by the tsunami. We had no active program in Banda Aceh before the tsunami, and in fact, none of the areas where we worked in Indonesia before the tsunami were affected.

But when the tsunami hit, we initiated temporary relief work under the name ‘ARIEF’ or Aceh Relief for the tsunami victims. This local name was chosen in order to allow a local ministry to take over the relief and do follow-up work for the beneficiaries of the programs after our initial relief work ended. Our relief work was initially planned for one year. (more…)

Christmas Memories

It was Christmas morning, and I lay impatiently in my bed awaiting the sound of my parents stirring downstairs. We’ve never been the kind of family that wakes up and rushes to the living room to tear into the gifts before we have properly washed the “eye boogers” out of our eyes (disgusting I know, but hey . . . the truth is ugly sometimes). We tend to be a little more reserved about the process.

We sleep in, which for our family is until about 8:15. We shower and dress for the day, as we usually spend the afternoon with extended family, and we often debate about what we want Dad to make for breakfast. It’s usually his world famous omelets. If you think I’m exaggerating . . . well, I’m not. They’re insane.

This one particular Christmas, though, held one very unique gift, wrapped in a beige envelope and delicately placed in between the branches of our tree. There were actually two envelopes; one had my brother’s name on it and the other had mine, written in my mother’s elegant penmanship.

Curious as to what could possibly be in something the size of a letter and thin as paper, my brother and I opened them slowly, simultaneously.

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