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Resources - Missions (Overseas)
December 1999
SWIMing in Bali
Rev. Peter Abetz
A SWIM team to Bali? That might
sound more like an excuse for a holiday, than a genuine short-term
mission or cross cultural experience. When my wife and two youngest sons
had a holiday in Bali in February 1999, our Youth Worker suggested I
check out the possibilities for SWIM teams, since this would be very
close to us geographically, and so make it more affordable.
I made contact with the Protestant Christian Church in Bali, and they
were very positive about a team coming. Several possible projects were
discussed. There was also much enthusiasm for it in our congregation,
now here we were on July 3 1999 taking off from Perth airport headed for
Denpasar with a team of 9 people. Our team consisted of Chris Bongers
(our part time Youth Worker) and myself as leaders, Amanda Meyerink,
Odette Bolt, Bradley Verdouw, Scott Hobers, Jeff Bongers, Rodney
Blennerhassett and Esther Kuipers.
We had been farewelled by a huge crowd of church members and families.
After an uneventful flight, we were met at 1 am at Denpasar airport by
Rev Ketut Arka, a minister of the Protestant Christian Church in Bali,
and Director of the MBM Foundation (the development arm of the church)
with whom I had organised the project. It was 2.45 a.m before we were
all in bed at our hotel.
On the Sunday morning we boarded a bus at 8 a.m. (yawn, yawn) for
Pincasari where the church was having a special family day to mark the
dedication of a Youth/Convention Centre they are building. Here we
experienced being among people who were having a great time, and we did
not understand a word.
On the Monday we had a quiet day at the hotel. Rev Husada, himself a
convert from Hinduism, giving us some lectures on the Hindu religion and
Balinese culture. The next day we travelled to the village of Ambyarsari,
where our team was to work for a week, assisting in the construction of
a church.
In order to understand the uniqueness of the village of Ambyarsari, let
me give you some of the fascinating historical background of
Christianity in Bali.
The History of Christianity in
Bali
When the Dutch governed Bali, it was very different to the island of
Java. Bali was (and still is) predominantly Hindu. It had a very complex
social system and was divided into 8 kingdoms, each ruled by a King.
This made it very easy for the Dutch to deal with this island – they
just needed to communicate with 8 kings. As a consequence, the Dutch
authorities did not allow any missionaries onto the island. The official
reason was that they did not want to “disturb the culture”.
However, in 1929 a Chinese Christian Tsang To Han , a representative of
the Christian and Missionary Alliance was allowed entry to Bali to look
after the Chinese Christians, many of whom had married Balinese wives.
Later he was joined by another CMA minister. On Nov 11 1931, twelve full
blooded Balinese were baptised – the very first Balinese converts. In
1932 another baptismal service took place in the river near the markets
at Denpasar, in full public view. This caused a public sensation in
Bali. For the Christians publicly declared that they had disposed of all
their Hindu idols and superstitions. Soon another 75 were baptised. The
Dutch Resident Officer in Denpasar ordered the two ministers to leave
Bali, for they were clearly no longer just looking after the Chinese
Christians, but were doing illegal mission work. When they left in 1933,
there were 266 male converts. Despite the absence of their two leaders,
the number of converts continued to grow.
The Hindu ruling class saw this as a threat to their power. The water
supplies to the fields of the Christians were cut off, landlords refused
to rent their farm land to them, and they were boycotted at every turn.
Their crops were destroyed, their houses burned. Individual Christians
were often attacked and beaten to death. It took great courage to
maintain their faith in these trying conditions.
In 1934 the Dutch Reformed Church sent Dr Hendrik Kraemer to Bali to
assess the situation. The result was that the church sent two Javanese
ministers to care for the new converts, and so they came under the
umbrella of the Dutch Reformed Church in east Java until 1942.
The ever increasing number of Christians became an embarrassment to the
Dutch authorities who were committed to maintaining the Balinese
culture. The whole social structure of Balinese society is inseparable
from the Balinese Hindu religion with its castes and governing system.
The Hindu leaders quite rightly saw Christianity as a threat to their
power. As the violence escalated, the Dutch authorities in 1939 offered
to give every Christian family 5 acres of land in a malaria infested
piece of jungle at the west end of Bali. The Hindu’s were delighted with
the solution. They were convinced the Christians would die of malaria,
and those that would survive would be eaten by the tigers or be bitten
by snakes.
Some 29 families set out to make the malaria infested swamp a place fit
for living. They carved out a clearing in the shape of a cross , and
built their village. They were leaderless, but supported one another and
worked hard without any support from outside sources. They felt they
were an “orphan” church. Yet under God’s hand they prospered, and
developed their village into a model community and developed a Bali wide
reputation for the quality of their rice, and the cleanliness of their
village. This village is known as Blimbingsari and a few kilometres
away, a satellite village, Ambyarsari was started.
The influence of the Dutch Reformed Church is very evident in the order
of service used by the church. They describe themselves as a Calvinistic
church. While in Bali in February, I had the opportunity to attend an
Indonesian Lord’s Supper Service, which was complete with a deaconal
offering at the table.
Our Ambyarsari stay
On arriving at Ambyarsari, one of the things that impressed the team
most of all was the cleanliness of this village compared to the Hindu
villages. The Christian villages are clean and tidy, the people are
generally clean, and healthy in appearance. Their modest homes have neat
gardens around them. Each home has a basic bathroom and ‘squat’ toilet
connected to a septic tank. You shower by having a plastic scoop with a
handle and you tip the room temperature water over yourself, then soap
yourself and rinse. Quite invigorating!
The Christians place great emphasis on education. In contrast, the Hindu
villages were dirty, often bare dirt/mud around the house, the children
looking very unkempt, and no gardens around the houses.
We were billeted out in four homes in the village. I stayed in the home
of the pastor, who spoke some English, while the others stayed in homes
where no one spoke any English. Thankfully Esther Kuipers had studied
Indonesian for a few years, so she managed to make sure we were
understood. We had all our meals together in the pastor’s house, so this
made it easier for us to communicate with one another.
On the Tuesday we started work at 8 a.m., joined by a large group of
curious villagers, who had volunteered their time to help too. Our task
was earthmoving: the heavy volcanic clay was quite sticky and heavy. The
way this was done amused us: we used hoes to dig a few clumps of dirt
out, these were placed in a bucket, then the bucket was passed along a
human chain to where the contents were wanted. Once emptied the bucket
was passed back along the chain. We managed to enlist a cart which sped
things up a little. Our enthusiasm for swinging hoes resulted in several
broken handles. On the first day, just after morning tea (water and a
variety of sweet cakes made from rice or boiled eggs) we were told it
was “knock off time”. We thought 11 am was a little early to knock off!
So we insisted on continuing to work. The locals left us, and so we
continued on our own till 12 noon when we wandered down to the manse for
lunch. The pastor explained to us, that we really should not work when
the locals are not with us, since we are their guests, and it is
embarrassing to them for us to continue working. It was explained to us,
that volunteer community work is done from 8 to 11 after which everyone
goes about their own daily work.
This faced us with a challenge: how would we spend the non working part
of each day? They soon made it clear that they wanted to learn English.
So we improvised, and had some English lessons. English is the language
that leads to jobs in the tourist industry, which is the only industry
on the island besides agriculture. Consequently the young people are
very keen to practice their English. We also played various sports, but
soccer was the local young men’s favourite, and some of them were
extremely agile. After the games, we would sit on the sports field
(which was mowed by a large group of people wielding sickles!) and one
of their young men would climb a coconut palm, and we’d drink coconut
milk and talk.
We soon learned that the limiting factor for building the church was not
labour, but the money to buy the materials. Thus there was no sense of
“lets hurry” on the part of the Balinese. They worked at a leisurely
pace and were quite amused at the energy with which we applied
ourselves. Rodney earned the distinction of being referred to by the
locals as Mr Power! The tools were very basic, and we felt we could work
much better if we had some round mouthed shovels. We went to the local
markets at Melaya, and Esther did the bargaining and we bought two
shovels for 15,000 rupiah each (that’s A$3 each!). But for a labourer
that is 3 days wages! They appreciated this practical gift.
Almost every evening the pastor would go to the church to give a short
devotion. A wooden gong would be sounded about 10 minutes before
starting time, and then whoever wanted would come. Those who cannot read
and write particularly appreciate coming, as it gives them the
opportunity to hear the word of God during the week.
On the Sunday morning, I had the privilege of preaching to the
congregation, with Rev Ketut Arka translating and handing over the gift
from our church for their building fund. The Sunday on which the
Reformed Church of Willetton commissioned the team, the second offering
had been for their building fund, and this raised $2040, which became
9,119,000 rupiah. Given that a labourer earns about 5,000 rupiah a day,
this was a huge sum of money – more than one man earns in 5 years. Some
of the church members had tears of joy in their eyes and we were thanked
profusely. This money would allow them to complete the next stage of the
building project.
Until the recent East Timor problems, Bali was a very popular tourist
destination for West Australians. Kuta, Legian, Senur and the like, are
full of 4 and 5 star hotels. You can go to a restaurant and eat a three
course meal for under $A5. Behind the glamour of the tourist areas there
is grinding poverty for the lowest caste Hindus. The tenant farmers have
to turn over 4/5 of their crop to the landlord. A labourer employed in
the fields gets about 5,000 rupiah a day, that is about $1. That buys
barely two kilograms of rice.
While we were in Ambyarsari, a medical doctor who works for MBM spent a
few days with us. This was most helpful, as she spoke excellent English,
having worked in a Brisbane hospital for one year. She told us that
behind the tourist face of Bali there is much suffering. She told us
that most Hindu people do not have access to a toilet. Disease is
rampant. Infant mortality is still very high. In one village where
several families had been converted, the church has gone into the
village and built a bathroom and toilet facility for public use. No one
in the village ever washed, and people just did their ‘business’ in the
back yards of their houses. Gastro is a constant problem. She encouraged
us to come again, and to consider involvement in the health clinic work
the church is doing. Creating safe drinking water supplies is also an
important need, as many people draw their water from irrigation
channels.
In Denpasar Rev Arka took us to his favourite seafood restaurant. As we
got out of the car, we were confronted by beggars: real poverty as you
see in World Vision photos, but this time it was not a photo. These were
human beings, we could see them, they touched us with their dirty hands
and we could smell their dirty bodies and clothes. Some of us found it
hard to eat our food in the restaurant, knowing that these 4 or 5
beggars were hungry outside. Before we left the restaurant, we gave each
beggar 5,000 rupiah. Some of their faces beamed. Others just had a dead
pan look, and then walked away. Rev Arka told us later. “You will never
understand how much joy you brought those people today. People never
give beggars more than 100 rupiah!”
We thought we had come to Bali to help build a church. We did a little
of that. But the work we did could have been done by a bobcat in less
than an hour! While we came with the idea that we would help the people
in Ambyarsari, in many ways we were the ones who received. We saw the
simplicity of their lifestyle by living in their homes. We saw their
contentedness, even though they were by our standards poor. We saw and
experienced the culture of the markets. In seeing the contrast between
the Christian and the Hindu villages, we saw first hand what a
difference the gospel of Jesus Christ makes to the every day life of
people. We saw the transforming power of the gospel.
It was my first SWIM team experience. And I am thankful to the Lord, as
were the other members of the team, that we had the opportunity to live
among Christians of another culture, and see in a powerful way the
transforming power of the gospel.
It is our prayer that we can build
on the friendships we have established, and that we can send another
team. If you are keen, let me know!
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