Some of you may be asking, what are you doing over there? Are you missionaries? Are you working? And why in Indonesia? We are not missionaries in the sense that it's usually understood--we are not with a missions agency, we didn't have to raise support, and Jeff does have a job at a University. We are here intentionally and with the hopes of living missionally, just as we would hopefully be living in the United States. We have prayerfully and intentionally brought our family to live cross-culturally as we've followed God's leading to use our gifts in a part of the world that is close to our hearts. We are living in a culture that is predominantly Muslim and where the gospel is desperately needed. As I write this, I can hear the Imam's call to prayer through the loudspeakers that fill the city. We have put ourselves (or rather, God has) in a new place and a season of change with all of the stresses that come along with it, and so we are getting the opportunity to lean in to Jesus as we feel our weakness more keenly. (This is something that can happen with any change in life, it doesn't necessarily take moving to another country.) We are praying that God would show us how to serve and love him in this place, how do we do this as a family and in a season with young children.
We don't have answers for these questions, yet, but I do feel that God is showing a way that we can move forward in these areas. And most of it isn't glamorous or even as frequent or "big" as I'd like. It looks like college student ministry. It looks like baking cookies with students and having them over for dinner, teaching them good theology and teaching methodology, being faithful to meet with them when they have questions, learning Indonesian, plugging into a church, teaching our kids to pray, gradually stepping into the culture as we are able (which generally means leaving our town, which is why it only happens in bits and pieces). Baking my first batch of cookies with my Indonesian tutors and having a group of students cook in our kitchen felt so familiar, it brought back memories of countless activities with college students when we taught EFL.
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| Ugandan and Filipino students. |
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| A Cambodian student cooking one of her dishes. It was so yummy! My first time to eat Cambodian food. |
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| It was great to have time to get to know them better. |
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| Busy students cooking Cambodian, Filipino, and Chinese food. They did a great job! We had a feast. |
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| Lydia was the star of the show since Elias was sleeping. |
So what ARE we doing here? We came because Jeff was offered the unique opportunity to work with a group of international students at the ITC (International Teacher's College), a college that is accredited by a US institution and offers two different majors: Primary Education and Secondary Education with a concentration in English. The vision of the school is to produce graduates who have a Biblical worldview and who can return to their countries as excellent teachers and shape the next generation. This is a small school of around 100 students, and they will be graduating their first class of about 13 in the spring. Along with teaching methodology classes and all of the usual gen eds, there are several required Bible classes. Jeff was hired as a New Testament lecturer, but in reality his class load is diverse since the faculty is so small. He teaches a class on "Acts and the Early Church," an Introduction to Education class, and Classroom Management. Almost all of the College's 100 students are in one of his 3 classes, so he has the opportunity to get to know almost all of them, and the challenge of learning all of their names.
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| On the left, the second floor above the pool, is where the offices and classrooms for the ITC are located. |
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| Jeff's walk to campus in the mornings. |
All but 2 of the students are on full-ride scholarships made possible by a foundation called the Yayasan Pendidikan Pelita Harapan (briefly more on this below); otherwise they would not be able to attend. The students are particularly selected because of the need for Christian education in countries where this is not as developed. The freshman class has 9 countries represented in it: the Philippines, China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Poland, Uganda, and Kenya. All of these students hope to return to their own countries as teachers when they graduate. Some of them are as young as 17, the oldest is 27 and several of them already have degrees and years of teaching experience under their belts already. I've had the opportunity to get to know some of them through helping to lead a Conversation Circle of 9 students. It is so encouraging to hear their stories about how God led them here, and I've been challenged by their faith in him as well as their desire to serve him through teaching. Jeff says that the students are wonderful to work with--most of them want to be there, and they don't take the opportunity to study there for granted. All of them had to have certain TOEFL scores (an English test) in order to enroll since all of the classes are taught in English.
Besides the students, there is a small team of about 7 faculty, and 4 staff that Jeff has really enjoyed getting to know. They regularly share ideas as they build curriculum and best practices with such a new school. Three of the other faculty live in our neighborhood, and Jeff often walks to school with the dean. The school has a family feel to it, and even though I don't teach there, every time I take the kids to the office to eat lunch with Jeff, I have felt welcomed and appreciated by his colleagues.
The ITC school is a smaller subset within a larger university called the Universitas Pelita Harapan (often referred to by its initials UPH and pronounced "oo-pay-hah"). In Indonesia, this school is often known as the school for rich Chinese kids, however, underneath the surface is a very interesting model for being solvent while also expanding the Kingdom of God. In essence, the school uses tuition rates from its prestigious schools in order to fund scholarships for students who can't afford schooling. The foundation that manages this is the Yayasan. Nearly 1,000 students from all over Indonesia are accepted to the university each year through these scholarships which provide room and board, tuition, uniforms, and the students' first job. It is not a requirement for a student to be a Christian, so many of these students are also hearing the gospel for the first time.
The ITC is a part of this larger vision of offering education to those unable to afford it by extending these scholarships outside Indonesia to make an impact around the world for Christian education. The students at ITC are likewise fed, clothed, housed, educated, given their first job, and paid through the same unique program; however, the students must express a personal Christian faith in order to attend.
At the risk of losing you all with this long post, I'll leave it there, but will post more later on Yayasan foundation that makes it possible for the school to operate, and their larger vision for Indonesia and this part of the world.
