Before I begin, I want to thank each one of you yet again for investing in the Kingdom by sending me out to encounter and interact with stories such as these. I know I have not done a great job of including you in this journey up to this past HALFWAY point (yikes!) and I would like to extend my sincerest apologies. I would also like to let you know that am not giving up!! It is one of my greatest hopes to share God’s goodness with you more diligently in part two of this incredible journey.
A Tiny Man in a Big Ocean (Part II)
“All we do is but a drop in the ocean but if we do not do it, the ocean will be one drop less.”
-Mother Teresa
In Part I of this post, you met Manatap. He was a tiny man that was saved out of a big ocean by a gracious God whom he now lives to serve. Today Manatap is still a tiny man and he still finds himself on a ship in a big ocean, however the boat, the water, the waves and the captain all look a little different and are not so literal this time. The following is a small look into my time with Manatap in his new ocean.
I am in Indonesia. The fourth most populous nation in the world. A country where only six religions are officially recognized – Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Catholicism, and Protestantism – and all citizens are required to choose one religion to identify with. I am in Indonesia. An archipelago made up of some 17,600 islands, where some 722 languages are spoke and over 87% of the country’s population identify themselves as Muslim.
I am ferried by kind followers of Jesus to my home for the month. I wake up early and ready myself for the day. My team and I walk fifteen minutes on a dirt road past fields of corn. Our feet keep beat to the call to prayer that pushes its way through the thick morning heat. We arrive as most explorers do; curious and hungry to help. It is our first month of ministry. I stand on the shore of it and feel my feet sink deep into the unknown that awaits. My eyes, they glance up at this unfamiliar horizon and begin to take my new surroundings.
I see a international school trimmed in dark blue standing in front of me. I see Sundanese and Indonesian men, young and old working outside these walls built for learning. In their hands are bricks and cement, weed whackers and rakes, lawn mowers and wheelbarrows. They are building. They are repairing. They are preparing for a celebration. A brand new pool has recently been built and a soccer field too.
All at once, I am invited out of my observations and into this new world. My team and I timidly step inside the gates of safety and past the friendly Indonesian guards. “Selamat Pagi.” We mumble shyly, still uncertain of the proper pronunciation of this good morning greeting. Not wanting to forget a moment of my first day, I stumble back into my observations noticing that the hand inviting us into this new world is a white one. It takes me a moment, but I take note too, that the white hand holds tightly to a brown one. Manatap and Charity Sianturi are their names. Manatap, to whom the brown hand belongs, is the Maintenance Supervisor of this international school. Charity, to whom the white hand belongs is the Elementary Principal of this international school.
The two of them welcome us most warmly and we dive right into this new world. Our first assignment is to work alongside the young and old Sundanese/Indonesian men I noticed only a moment before–mowing, weeding, and removing concrete. We are excited to get our hands dirty, so we jump into the work with great enthusiasm. We quickly learn from Manatap that we are a strange sight to those we are working alongside. Their Sundanese eyes are not familiar with the picture of women laboring in yard work next to the men. We learn that Manatap and Charity have placed us next to these men carefully; strategically–extending to them an invitation to see a way of life that might otherwise remain foreign to them.
Our second assignment is to help within the walls of the school – sharing, praying, teaching, and working with children who are anything from American, to Indonesian, to Chinese, to Korean. We are also excited for this work. It is why we have left our homes and family. We are bursting at the opportunity to share the Love of Christ with the world. Here, on the inside, we work alongside the primarily white and western teachers. There is nothing strange about it. We blend right in.
As our time in Indodesia goes on, I find myself drawn to Manatap and Charity and the story of how their brown and white hands became intertwined. I am drawn to their story, because it is not the norm. I am drawn to their story because it is the road less traveled. I am drawn to their story because these two incredible humans have shaken up seas I can only one day hope to stir. Their marriage alone is a testament to that.
In a world where the lowly Batak should never even dream of marrying the highly esteemed white western women, Manatap dreamed and dared. The world tried to drown him, but God saved him out of the ocean. The world told him he was a tiny and unworthy man. God told him otherwise. His family and friends told him that the idea of marriage between a Batak man and a white woman was absurd. They told him he was undeserving. After one year of prayer, God told him to go for it. Manatap listened to the Lord. He heeded the voice of the Lord instead of the voice of the world and Charity did too. Together they accepted the invitation to enter into a privileged marriage, one unique with the power to break barriers, bridges gaps, and tear down long existing walls.
For example, their marriage has allowed them to bridge gaps in their workplace. The two were kind enough to share with me a story about a celebration lunch that was hosted for the international school staff. The entire staff was extended the same invitation and yet when it came time to eat the meal, the Indonesian staff sheepishly stood back to let their white/western coworkers eat first. Now, maybe the local staff was simply being polite and honoring the foreign guests as so many hospitiable Indonesians are quick to do. But the reality that they may feel out of place sittting at the same table as their coworkers could be true too. Manatap and Charity have recognized this. Thus, they continue to look for ways to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ that stretches across cultures and breaks barriers in long established traditions and in their work.
In the grand scheme of life, getting married may seem like a small thing. Integrating the maintenance and administrative staffs at an international school via a celebration lunch may also seem small. Like drops in the ocean they all might be. And yet as Mother Teresa so wisely points out, this great big ocean of life would be one drop less and all too incomplete without such seemingly insignificant acts of great love. This truth, my eye have borne.
