Week 13: Magelang, Piano & Pare

This missionary picture was taken at our recent Zone Training meeting that is held
every six weeks. These young and women are remarkable in so many ways; they
are young and really enjoy being together and being instructed by their mission
president. Zone conference is wonderful for Margo and I as well. These young
people are devoting two full years, at their own expense to serve others. It is truly a
miracle to witness. We just try to keep up!

One of the many significant differences in our service from the young
missionaries is that they get transferred to other cities while we will spend our
entire mission in the same area of Solo and Central Java. This week we experienced
our first transfer of two young missionaries we serve with and love so much; the
Sister is from the Philippines and the Elder is from Georgia.

We do many different things during the course of a week. I love this picture
where Margo put stickers on each of their fingers of her piano students indicating
fingers 1-5 . I thought the older kids and parents would think it was silly but
everyone had a great time…I even had fun with mine until they pulled the hair of my
fingers trying to get them off!

Margo cooked an American tasting version of an Indonesian vegetable “pare” for
a church women’s group cooking contest and won fourth place. It was fun for her a
reminder that everything here is very different, especially food. Even though we
enjoy some of the Javanese foods and many spices we still love a good KFC and Pizza
Hut from time to time.

On Saturday we flew to Jakarta, about a one-hour flight, and a fifty dollar fare, to
listen to one of our Church leaders from Salt Lake City, an Apostle, Elder Stephensen,
and the Area President from Hong Kong, Elder Funk. They spoke of how the church,
is now reaching into the fourth generation in Indonesia since the first members
were baptized in the early 70’s. Faith is becoming stronger and lifting each
succeeding generation.

The highlight of the week was a visit to Magelang, a city about three hours away
on the other side of the volcano. We visited our small church building on the way to
an amazing Muslim boarding school we were asked to visit to see how we might be
able to help them.

The school has about fifty permanent students from a wide variety of
circumstances that live on site from first grade through high school with some
college classes even offered to the older students. They currently have a few more
boys than girls. The young missionaries teach English classes there twice a week
and the students love them! The leaders and teachers couldn’t say enough good
things about them.

 We volunteered to teach 6 special workshops over the next 15 months for the students on topics related to life skills. We are excited to develop warm and lasting relationships with these
beautiful children, their leaders and the many volunteer teachers and coaches.
Here are a few pictures of the children, the school and their devoted teachers.

The school is self-reliant and consists of all volunteer teachers. They mix
teaching with traditional Javanese life style including the students building all of
their own buildings, raising all of the food that they eat, and teaching the young men
and women academically and how to succeed in the world. They boys collect
firewood for cooking from the jungle and the girls cook all of the meals in traditional
Javanese ovens. They raise fish and have semi-hydroponic gardens to raise herbs
and greens for cooking. They make their own soap, traditional medicine and other
basic necessities use and sell on the streets. They are learning basic computer skills
from old technology but have no access to TV’s or cell phones. Each student is given
a bank account and all of the money they earn from selling their products on the
street is deposited into their accounts so that when they are finished school they
will have capital to start their own businesses.

LDS Charities funded the construction of new toilets for the school which the
students are building under the direction of an LDS project manager and coach. The
picture below shows the toilet before the tile is applied.

Week 12: "We Really are Serving as Missionaries!"

Today during the worship service, Sacrament Meeting, a striking young 19 year old girl spoke quoting verses of scripture found in I Corinthians Chapter 12 about the diversity of “Gifts of the Spirit “. I thought deeply about what she was presenting and about as individuals we are all unique. Life really is a project of learning how to love, accept and serve each other no matter how different we are. She was excited about leaving to serve a mission in Brisbane Australia . After she concluded speaking, the congregation sang “Called to Serve” “Kita Dipanggil ‘Tuk Melayani.” I barely understand the language but I felt the spirit of the message as we sang, and tears ran down my cheeks because at that moment …..it really hit me …. after all the years of my life thinking about being a missionary we were sitting on the other side of the world, really serving as missionaries and doing whatever we can to make a difference in the lives of others. Missionary service is incredible! We talk frequently and communicate with our children at home, but daily life is different for us because we are immersed with the desire to invite others to hear the gospel of Christ, serve, and for us to be an example of a believer.

We were in Yogyakarta for a baptism.  A really nice girl we have visited and taught with the missionaries and developed a friendship with who has a Muslim background asked to be baptized.  Her mother passed away and she cares for her father who suffers disabilities from a stroke.  She is married to an American she met on line and it is very difficult for him to get a visa and get legal re-entry into Indonesia. It is just like the US it is not easy to cross borders.  She hopes to go to America this year for a short visit.  She texts me because she lives in a different city.   She studies English with the Elders in Yogyakarta and is learning!  It is really wonderful to watch how the gospel of Jesus Christ  strengthens and lifts people in so many ways.

We often visit the sick. We see what we describe as a crisis in the number of stroke victims and the evidence of diabetes.  With shortened life-spans and long term care in many homes we see generational Christ-like service in combination with the financial burdens and stress resulting from death and illness. We helped to organize a support type group for Widows and shared a theme from Mosiah 18:21 “having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another”.  It was a great beginning and we learned so much from women who have recently lost their husbands. They taught us what strengthens them and the kinds of positive support that is helpful.  Tonight, we attended the 100 day “Remembrance” of the loss of one husband/ father.  We gathered and sat together on the floor in her home with many friends and neighbors lining the Gong and it was beautiful! It was amazing to me because not long ago we were in the same home on the 40 day “Remembrance” which I remember as somber.  There was last night a feeling of the beginnings of healing!  The Javanese tradition of “Remembrance” of the passing of a loved one we shared with her at the  40 day , now 100 day ,  and we look forward to sharing the 1 year.  Additional remembrance will continue at  2 year, and 1,000 day remembrance.

We feel so fortunate to work with all the young Elders and Sisters.  There are many people in Indonesia that the young missionaries meet every day and have abundant opportunities to teach and serve.  We often meet the young missionaries and assist with teaching and they translate for us.  We are often helpful as a Senior couple because of  our mature  “age” and lifetime of experience.   Many  view us as the “Grandma and Grandpa”  which can be a comfortable friendship.  Our white skin is also of great interest because in Solo there are very very few white skinned people.

It seems that everyone in Indonesia, like America, has a cell phone in their hand.  Many have very old technology and others have smart phones.  Even as we walk in very humble Gongs we see many phones. The young missionaries will soon have smart phones to be able to keep up and communicate with those they teach and serve.  That will be a great help.  Most of us use a service called  “Whatsapp” and apps are only available with a smart phone.

We had zone conference this week and we had great leadership training.  It is fun to be together.  The young Sisters who we each reimbursed bought enough of the same fabric for ties, skirts and dresses that we each had made for all of us in the Zone.  In central Java it is the culture and shows unity to wear matching fabric.  The color and design of traditional Batik is unique and a very important form of art in every city so if you are dressed in the traditional color and design of Batik someone would be able to identify the city you lived in by the Batik fabric.  Before we leave the country I hope to have a shirt for Elder Miller and a dress for me made in the traditional Solo Batik fabric design and colors.

We went to a spectacular waterfall Tawangmangu  with the young 4 Elders and 4 Sisters and it was such a great day off from Missionary work.  We hiked and ate and laughed and enjoyed the beautiful outdoors. There were little monkeys everywhere and they were kinda creepy they will  try to steal any food in your hand and  actually open a back pack looking for food if its set down.  We do not have an oven in our apartment.  We have two propane burners and a rice cooker.  I made chocolate chip cookie batter and Robert fried them in a pan with a lid to take on our picnic it was hilarious watching him fry the cookies ha ha but oh they were delicious!!

We Really ARE Serving as Missionaries!!!  Love Sister and Elder Miller

Week 11: The Power of Honest & Hard Work

 Indonesia is such an interesting place to live.  There is much that can be learned from a country who’s economy significantly lags that of many western countries.  We see evidence of the emergence of a larger middle class but the majority of people still cling to a delicate balance between subsistence and poverty.  We have seen a few neighborhoods made up mostly of families who we might call well-off but mostly the larger homes are surrounded by the homes of the poor.  Life is hard for most people and they work very, very hard.  Even for those fortunate enough to receive some post high school education it is very hard to get good paying jobs with a reasonable life style.  The daughter of someone we recently met graduated, at great sacrifice by the family, from a program in the hospitality industry.  Sadly, the only job she has been offered is that of making beds twelve hours a day with only one day off in a month for very very little pay,  

     The amazing thing to see however are all of the incredible things that people do to support themselves.  Most people live without most of the things that we might think are basic necessities.  Homes are very very small with little of no furniture.  Most people have a small mat that they put down on the hard floor for us to sit on while we are visiting.  One man we meet with regularly borrows chairs from his neighbors so we do not have to sit on the floor.  Beyond the receiving room there is usually limited lighting and even less furniture.  Most have what is called a “wet” bathroom which consists of a squat toilet with a large barrel of water next to it and a ladle to pour water into the toilet to wash it into the gutter outside the home.  The streets fortunately have mostly open gutters to collect and channel waste out an away from the homes.  In the wet season, which is all we know so far, this system works pretty well as it rains very hard most every day and the system is constantly cleared out.  Not sure what will happen in the summer. 

This man is a professional motorcycle parker

     People are willing to do almost anything to work and the entire system is set up to provide the maximum opportunity for people to do something.  Having very few traffic lights provides work for people to stand in the middle of intersections and try to make some order out of the chaos.  They get paid by people who appreciate not having to sit in a traffic jam by handing small amounts of money into their palms as they pass.  If you want to park somewhere you just turn on your signal light and someone emerges from the side of the road to guide you inch by inch into a small space then stand in the street to stop traffic while you back out.  This is done for a small fee of 2000 rupia (rp) or about 15 cents.  This system even applies in the McDonalds parking lot.  Many many people prepare food in their homes for sale to the warungs which are the small omnipresent and portable food stands.  A meal sold from these stands is very affordable for local residence, often as low as 25 cents, so many get their primary meal of the day from the street.  This may consist of a small bowl or rice, steamed or fried, with perhaps a small vegetable and/or a small portion chicken and a watered down drink.  

     Sister Miller and I often talk about the conflict between raising salaries and the value of keeping them low and providing the self respect that comes from having work.  Ultimately for the standard of living to be raised, incomes must increase faster than the cost of living.  We of course already knew this from our home in America but it somehow seems much more real when people are starting at such a different place than most of us enjoy at home.  This week we met in a neighborhood or gong, where every family lives by making shuttlecocks  or badminton birdies.  Badminton is a favorite sport in Indonesia.  This is done starting with a large bag of chicken feathers and is all done while sitting on the porch of their homes.  Another lady sits a home every day and folds plastic bags.  Many men collect used items and sell them on the streets, including second, third or even fourth hand motorcycle parts.  We are learning a great lesson about the power and dignity of honest hard work.  No matter how hard life can be, people are always lifted by knowing they are taking care of themselves.  In America we often kid about the burden of children living at home after getting married but in Indonesia almost every home is filled to the brim and overflowing with three and in some cases four generations.  With a very limited social safety net, parents naturally give everything they have to help their children then the children feel a huge responsibility for the care of their elderly parents when they are no longer able to care for themselves.  When this happens at both ends of the life cycle this creates many hard challenges, in other ways it keeps families close together and family values are easier to develop and maintain.

     One small but very interesting observation is that at home it is often  a struggle for many parents to get their children to go to piano lessons and to practice.  Sister Miller offered to help a few children learn to play the piano after school.  Two weeks into the process she now has 17 students in a group lesson with ages ranging from four to 40.  It a lot of work and even though none have a piano in their home, they want to learn, practice on a plastic printed keyboard and share a few keyboards in the church to share during the lesson.  We have made application to a foundation for a donation of keyboards for those that stick to it long enough to complete the required program.  They have a great deal of fun learning to keep time, understand rhythms, and to recognize half notes, quarter notes, full notes and dotted half notes, etc.  Sister Miller bought two sets of children’s tambourines, shakers and triangles to help them keep time.  I told her it was more like professor Harold Hill’s “think system” from the music man.