A Tiny Man in a Big Ocean (Part I)
“My story is not something amazing to me. It’s something God gave me to prepare me.”
– Manatap Sianturi
During our first month of ministry on one of the 17,000 islands that make up the country of Indonesia, my life crossed paths with a young man named Manatap. This is his story. I share it with the hope that you will see the beauty of second chances and the fingerprints of the One who gives them.
“Manatap Binsar Marasi Sianturi. That is my full Batak name.” Manatap begins his story, from across the wooden table. Later I learn that the Batak are a tribe who have long resided in Northern Sumatra. Before being colonized by the Dutch East Indies Company, the Batak were known to be fearsome warriors. Today, although some of the original Batak traditions, like cannibalism, have been forsaken, others, like wedding ceremonies, are still widely practiced (Britannica.com).
However, as I sit across from Manatap and ask him where he grew up, his reply is one of astonishing uncertainty. “None of my family knows where we were born.” He tells me. “If I ask my mom where we (were) born, they do not know.” And where is not the only unknown in the matter. When is another matter in question. “My birthday is not my birthday exactly.” Manatap states quietly in the culturally soft way that most Indonesians speak. I lean in closer so that I can hear him continue, “A teacher picked a day (for me in the) second grade.” The date his teacher picked was May 15th. However, I quickly find out that May 15th is an insignificant day for this simple man as he goes on to tell me that he has never really celebrated his birthday. Not until he was married, that is. Which means that he has celebrated only one birthday in his lifetime.
As I probe for more of his history, and long to step fully into his world, he tells me that his “family broke” when he was a young boy and he began living with his grandmother in the first grade. “I don’t have a family moment that I really remember,” he says matter of factly. “What I remember (is) that my parents had a business and I saw them twice a month and then they broke. We split, my brothers and sisters.”
Manatap proceeds to describe to me how the breaking in their family caused his parents to divide him and his four siblings among friends and family to be raised. It was not a matter of choice, but a matter of survival, he clarifies. As a result, Manatap was dropped off alone at his grandmother’s home, where he lived from the age of eight to the age of twelve.
At the age of twelve he left the care of his grandmother. He moved away from his Batak roots near Toba Lake to Jambi, where his father lived. In Jambi he looked for a family to stay with that could find him not only a job, but also an education. Even as a young boy Manatap understood the value of pursuing an education. Thus he found himself in Jambi living with a doctor and his family. The doctor gave him a custodial position at the hospital and soon his days stretched long before him. The days were full of hard work and study. Manatap’s work shifts were separated solely by school and sleep. Rising with the sun he left his bed to clean the hospital from 4am until 8am. Then he set off for school returning to work from 2pm until 6pm. Using the English he learned during those long days and years, this is how Manatap describes his time in Jambi to me:
“The idea (behind why) I went to Jambi was to see my dad. It was years that we hadn’t met. And I met him. I think during my time in Jambi it was a good transition…my sister supported me. I worked hard. I studied hard. It was a good time for me. People knew me. I got scholarship. It was survival and looking back now I think, how can I do that?”
Across from me, I watch his mind as it moves to consider the question. After a short pause he continues, uttering only one single word, “Desire.” That was the thing that gave him the motivation to keep moving. “I want(ed) to change.” He tells me. “I want(ed) to see something. I never had time like this to hang out with people. It was work. School. Work.”
During that time, in his life Manatap survived on sheer determination and willpower, but he was growing weary and found it unsustainable by willpower alone. Then, at age 25 he found himself working in Malaysia as the navigator of a cargo ship. He worked on this cargo ship for two years and it was during these two years that God readied Manatap’s hard-working heart. “It’s amazing,” Manatap smiles, ”God called me when I was in Malaysia.”
A truer statement, I know not. For it is the confident belief of my heart that God called Manatap to an abundant life. And called him for a purpose. For a plan. For a hope and a future. For I know no other grace than the one freely given by the Lord, that would allow Manatap to be able to sit across from me and share his story with me. I say this with such conviction because of the miraculous happening that occurred next.
On December 24, 2004 as all of the Indian Ocean collected into one tsunami of a wave, Manatap sat aboard a cargo ship. “It was Christmas night,” he recalls, “and my heart was like crying. I remember Christmas lights. There is something empty in my heart and I pray(ed) for that. I don’t know if it (was) a dream or real and God speaks to my heart and He says, ‘Why do you forsake me?’ I was a tiny man in the big ocean and his creation spoke to my heart. I talked to my boss and I said I need to go home.”
Yes. On December 24, 2004 Manatap was floating aboard a cargo ship with the Indian Ocean stirring below him. On that same night he heard the Lord tell him to return home. The next day he stepped off the boat and onto dry land. His boss had given him two weeks leave. Two days later a devastating tsunami rocked the islands of the Indian Ocean. “I don’t know what happened.” Manatap explains. “I was watching T.V. I don’t know what happened to my ship. I stayed in Borneo for a few months not really making a decision. I worked as an English teacher to survive. To be able to go back home, until a pastor comes to me.”
A humble pastor of a small church came to Manatap and asked him one question that transformed him into the awe-inspiring man of God that he is today. “What are your desires?” was the question. “I have no money,” was Manatap’s reply. How about surrendering your life to the God who saved you out of the sea? The pastor suggested. And just as the Lord stirred Manatap’s heart on December 24, 2004, so He stirred it again through the prompting of the pastor. Yes, I want to do that, Manatap agreed. And so Manatap dedicated his life to the Lord. Thanking him for His abounding grace, that saved not only his physical being, but the entirety of his being. It was at this time that the Lord instilled in Manatap a deep desire to know the Truth and to make disciples. It was in this perfect timing that Manatap recounted the good deeds of the Lord and decided to offer his life more fully to the Lord. And it was a decision, a yes, that carried him through three years of seminary and a short time in ministry. And finally to become the maintenance supervisor at an international Christian school where you would find him today – married to his lovely wife and expecting his very first child.
As our time of conversing comes to a close and I step out of his story and back into my own I find myself overwhelmed by the ocean of grace in which we’re all sinking in. Also I find myself overwhelmed by the assurance and humility with which Manatap has come to understand and live out that so many of us long for in this life. He knows that he was saved by God for a purpose and during my time in Indonesia I had the privilege of watching him live his life in that purpose each day.
I will share more on exactly what that looked like in Part II of this post. Until then, I want to thank each one of you for your continued prayers and support. This journey and these stories are as much yours as they are mine.
