April 2006 Newsletter by Adrian Julian

Reflections
Adrian Julian, III, in Indonesia

April 29, 2006

Dear friends and colleagues,

I’ve now been a Presbyterian volunteer in Indonesia for 2½ months. How did I get here and why do I want to stay longer?

I began to struggle with where my life was headed immediately upon graduating from UNC Chapel Hill in Spring 2004. After a frustrating year with no direction and the ending of a significant personal relationship, I felt I needed to make an abrupt 180? turn. However, I didn’t want to hop into just “anything.”

My family and friends were all very supportive. I was blessed by getting to live with my grandparents while I searched for my next step. This interim period gave me a chance to work and share conversations with members of my family. Even though I was impatient to get on with my life, I valued getting to be around them, listen to their thoughts, and receive so much of their love.

Eventually I found the “One Door” website of PCUSA. Perhaps because of prior interest from a college class, my interest was grabbed by a volunteer position listed in Indonesia. I took a course to qualify me to teach English as a foreign language and, slowly, everything began to fall in place. With substantial spiritual and financial support from both the Presbytery of Western North Carolina and Banner Elk Presbyterian Church, I arrived in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in mid-February 2006. The experience has been amazing from the first day.

So what is a missionary? I did not come to Indonesia to “save souls.” I came to teach English and to represent the PCUSA and the Church of Jesus Christ. I came to continue working at loving my neighbor. Admittedly, I also came for new experience and personal growth. I figured there must be a reason for the Church to send English teachers, but have only recently understood why.

I expected to gain an appreciation for things I’d always taken for granted, but didn’t anticipate English being my first language to be one of them. Considering my own difficulties with language study in the past, I can’t imagine what it would be like to have my intelligence assessed using my proficiency in a foreign language. I thought the TOEFL test was for non-native English speakers seeking to study in the States. This is not the case. It turns out that brilliant people may actually be denied scholarship, even in their home country, because of low-level English competency. Just last week two students weren’t permitted matriculation into the Master of Divinity Program here at Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana, (UKDW) because of low TOEFL scores. The reason for this requirement is that there is a lack of available and adequate translations into their language. English is also used in most international settings. That’s why learning English is so crucial for these students. So teaching English in a Christian school here is not just “educational,” as when many Americans study another language. It is a means to an end that impacts the future.

I am deeply indebted to the church for investing in me and making it possible for me to work in Indonesia. It is an investment, not only in hoping to improve UKDW’s ability to better prepare and educate young Indonesian women and men, but an investment in me. I grow and learn everyday.

Both my patience and ability to trust have grown. I barely speak any Indonesian, and even simple things often take a long time. Since first arriving here I have been dependent upon the kindness of strangers. I have been met with generosity and acceptance in almost every situation. In just two months I have gained far more than I hoped. I have met so many genuinely good men and women and am treated the same way my church at home treats visitors from other countries. I have visited many friends’ homes.

Every Christian I meet invites me to his or her church. A busy, young Muslim woman has gone out of her way to look out for me and show me around. While taking a break from writing this letter, I was invited by a Sufi philosophy student to accompany him sometime in prayer and to dinner.

Still, there are religious tensions here. With Christianity’s history of missionary work coinciding with colonization and imperialism, the large minority of Christians here already have that stigma to overcome. Plus, western interests can still be seen making large profits from an economically poor nation. So it is important that the Presbyterian Church, as part of Christ’s body, have representation, possibly more representation in Indonesia. (I think Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta are the only permanent missionaries from the PCUSA. See their work at http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections.

Let me remind you that Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, with nearly as many citizens as the United States. There are more Muslims here than in all of the Middle East. Thankfully, there are groups that continue to work at opening and maintaining dialogue. Yet, with world religions’ growing trends towards fundamentalism (a harkening for a return to a utopian time in the past that never existed), the church must continue to be a positive representation of Christ’s love for all people.

So I am on a “journey” in more ways than one. I am learning from wonderful people, and am constantly examining where I, and the Church, need to be.

Til the next time,
Ab