Saturday, June 29, 2024

Refuge from the Storm

 This week was a huge turning point for us. We found a real focus and purpose for our being in Indonesia and it has helped fuel our momentum immensely. We've found a purpose on the M part of our MLS assignment and with the members we can communicate directly with, sans translators. With the Bishop and 1st counselor of the Jakarta 3rd ward being out of the country for a few weeks, and the EQ president who moved away last week so there was a vacancy in Priesthood leadership, we received a distress call from one of the refugee members for help with a problem. It kick- started our reaching out to the refugee members in earnest. We made appointments to meet a few of them in their homes. Each Sunday we see them at church, we talk briefly and share a few pleasant words in passing but we don't really know their stories. Why are they here in Indonesia and what are some of the heartaches of their pasts they never talk about? How did they come to learn of Jesus Christ and his restored gospel? What are their conversion stories? These were the things we wanted to learn by having more time with them. Now that we've met with a handful of them, I wish I could convey all of the amazing and harrowing details of their lives to you but for their safety, it's best their names, countries of origin, etc, not be shared. Not that this blog has a wide readership, but it's always best to err on the side of caution. Just becoming and being a Christian is enough of an endangerment for their lives in their countries. For some, it's the reason they had to get out. Others found Christianity and the church and the missionaries once they came here after fleeing for other harrowing reasons. Some still have wives and children, and parents and siblings back home. Now you may be thinking, wow, that's really tough for them to be away from their family for a couple of years like us. Try for 8 years and for some, over a decade! They can't work here, the single ones can't marry without complicating their cases. So they are just stuck in their progress. But they are all so intelligent, so resourceful, and creative and happy! You would be inspired to know them and you'd feel honored to be in their presence. The other thing that would grab you by your heartstrings is their absolute faith in Jesus Christ. They are TRULY converted to Him and tell varying stories of how he appeared to them in dreams offering them water when they were in a desert. They see His teachings as being the way of peace. They bear testimony of The Book of Mormon and how reading from it daily has been their anchor of hope and keeps them going without despair through these many years of trial. They all express hope. Many of them have sponsors and a goal and dream of relocating to America and Canada. They simply wait patiently for their cases to be reviewed and to receive interviews so their dream can become a reality. Until then, our church helps them with rent and food, also we offer a ward family and a sense of belonging. I've mentioned before how this English speaking ward is a real United Nations of members from several countries but that's not my favorite metaphor any more as it's this supporting organization that has largely ignored them and kept them waiting for years. I think what we have in this ward is more aptly called Zion, being of one heart and one mind although there are still great discrepancies in the haves and have nots. We're working on it though.  Someday, there will be no poor among the people of Zion. I've shared with them my dream about being together with them in Zion in a future day. Even the countries they dream about coming to are presently not the Promised Land anymore. But you don't want to squash their dreams of a better life by telling them things aren't so rosy in our country either. But at least they could work and marry and enjoy other personal freedoms. Just today we talked to one young man who was arrested here for sleeping at his friend's house. Can you imagine? 

So our plan in each case was to meet them where they live and take them out to eat and talk over lunch. Our first visit was to a man and his son that come regularly each week. He had spoken in church and I was so moved with his talk, he was first on our list. We hired an English speaking Bluebird driver to take us to their home and wait while we then took them out to eat. Imagine our first surprise when we learned he has a wife too and a darling little baby daughter! She is also a member! We had no idea!

               
He kept telling our driver he didn't need to stay. They knew of the best restaurant and they would take us there. We were so confused by this arrangement and the sudden change of plans. But all along when they learned we were coming, they had been planning our arrival with a huge meal.

It is extremely humbling to have a refugee family prepare you one of the most delicious meals you've ever eaten in your life. We learned they run an online restaurant out of their home and are able to make a small income with that. It is their custom and generous nature to feed their guests and they were lavish with their spread for us. The chicken, beef kebabs and the rice with some kind of currants were absolutely divine. Their food is not overly spicy and has sweetness along with the savory flavor so our taste buds were in heaven! Their darling little daughter was a bit wary of us at first but we didn't push ourselves on her and gave her time to warm up to us.

When they brought out the homemade chocolate ice cream (be still my heart) and cake for dessert and let us feed her, she instantly became our best friend. What a blessing to us who are new grandparents but haven't been able to love on our own grandsons yet. 

After dinner, Elder Dunlap introduced to them the idea of dedicating their home with a priesthood blessing so it could be a holy space where the Spirit could constantly dwell. Rob instructed the father on the beginning verbage and gave him ideas using D & C 109, the dedicatory prayer on the Kirtland Temple as a template, then the father pronounced the blessing in his native tongue. We couldn't understand the words but we felt the Spirit in rich abundance. It felt as holy as a temple. The wife and I bonded too as she wept and shared tears of losing a previous baby daughter and how the Lord had blessed her with another daughter and what a joy she's been to them. She told me of a dream where Jesus Christ was offering her water in his hands and she was so very thirsty, she just drank and drank. These people know Jesus is the Christ!! This is not part of their cultural upbringing. It amazes us and strengthens our testimonies of Jesus Christ too.
We also offered to teach them more English, using the English Connect program the church has developed.  Although I enjoy the classes we've taught in group settings in India, Timor-Leste, and now with the missionaries here in Indonesia, this one-on-one teaching with her is my absolute favorite experience so far. Elder Rob is teaching the men, and I'm teaching the women in individual tutoring sessions. More than just helping them with English, it is deepening our bonds of friendship with them by becoming involved in their lives. These are friends now we want to keep forever. This I feel is where we'll make our deepest impact here and where we have been deeply impacted and changed for the better. 
                  Hearts knit together in love

Our other two visits this week were with two single men (or so we thought).  Come to find out one has a wife and 2 daughters but not living with him in Indonesia. The other brother lived in a part of Jakarta that didn't have too many restaurants but it had a Pizza Hut so we ate pizza and salad on the one table in the waiting area with ice cream cones afterwards from the Indomart next door. You would've thought we had treated him to the most lavish meal of all time. How I wish we could've done more, but we sent him home with all the leftovers. His faith and hope in Christ was a beautiful thing to witness. He bears no anger or malice in his one room meager situation where he eats and sleeps on the floor. He has the purest heart.
          A pauper's meal for a prince of a man
                 Friendship is the sweetest treat

Our next friend said he had the means to meet us at the mission office near a large fancy mall. We went to eat at the Thai restaurant we went to for my birthday but there was a 30 minute wait. I had seen a Korean restaurant across the street and he said he had never eaten Korean food so I suggested going there since we could eat right away. This place turned out to be catered to the wealthy Korean business man, apparently as that's all we saw. It was very very fancy and quite spendy but we ordered a ton of food and ate to our hearts content. This friend just kept saying he was grateful for everything, for the bottles the clean water came in, for the chefs that cooked the delicious food, for the chairs we ate on and for us, his new friends. His gratitude for everything was his key to his happiness in his situation. He acknowledged Christ as the Prince of Peace and said he was so grateful to have found His true gospel. He says it is the greatest honor of his life to bless the Sacrament with the priesthood he holds. 
                          Food and more food
                                        BFFs
       Can't you see the light in his countenance? 

You can't be around people like this without feeling more happy, more grateful, and more blessed yourself. They gave more back to us than we could've possibly given them. And so we will continue to befriend them and care about them and tutor them in English. They already have sponsors and people committed to helping them once they get to their new homes someday, but we will add our widow's mite to their causes and daily prayers and anything else we can offer them. To them we are the richest people in the world because we have freedom. How we take that blessing for granted.  But we all freely partake of the blessings of the gospel together and consider it our greatest wealth. Now because of them, we can honestly say, we are so very grateful to be serving in Indonesia.

"The Savior knows how it feels to be a refugee—He was one. As a young child, Jesus and His family fled to Egypt to escape the murderous swords of Herod. And at various points in His ministry, Jesus found Himself threatened and His life in danger. Perhaps, then, it is all the more remarkable to us that He repeatedly taught us to love one another, to love as He loves, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Truly, “pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction” and to “look to the poor and the needy, and administer to their relief that they shall not suffer.

This moment does not define them, but our response will help define us."

Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles "Refuge from the Storm April 2016

Come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

2 Nephi 9: 50

P.S.

The last memory of this week we want to remember is saying farewell to our dear mission leaders, The Tandimans, who we've come to love even after just 2 months. They had to vacate the mission home and spend their last night in a hotel. They invited the 3 senior couples living in Jakarta and our office manager to their Last Supper at another wonderfully fancy restaurant.
  Levesques, Sister Tandiman and the Kusus
      The kindest President and Dhika, our asst. 

 Afterwards, we had a farewell devotional where the entire mission gathered online to say goodbye and bear testimony and express gratitude. Then they were presented with a Book of Remembrance and performed a strange ritual of cutting off a tie and a scarf that is some long-standing tradition in the mission. (We hope we can sneak away without doing that, I can't part with any of my scarfs!) Goodbye Tandimans! We love you and thank you for taking such good care of us! 
     Don't forget us, we'll always remember you.
                           Big-hearted leaders

For a going away token, we sang them a light-hearted medley of songs after the devotional that we had hardly practiced so it was very rough, to the tune of Candyman, and Dey-O:

 "Who can lead a mission, bilingually at that? 
Keep it running smoothly without throwing in the hat? The Tandimans...the Tandimans can. The Tandimans can 'cause they lead us all with love and made us all feel good...

Day-O, one more day one more day one more day.... Daylight comes and you gotta go home. Come Sister Tandiman, time to pack your bags up, daylight comes and you gotta go home. Come Presdent Tandiman, time to take your badge off, daylight comes and you gotta go home home. Day O Day O.......
God be with you til we meet again! 








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