Indonesia

there was no staff meeting on a regular basis to make decisions, but things seemed to be working fairly smoothly in spite of this. If a teacher didn't turn up, the students would sit and study or just talk. No one seemed to get ruffled. It was just us foreigners who always seemed to be so frightfully busy, that we had no time to relax. We thought, of course, that this situation needed to be changed. Well, I still had to learn a lot.

Was this the culture shock we had been warned about at All Saint's College? Later on I would learn that there was no need for us to impose our ideas on a people who were used to a different way of life. Would I ever learn this and be able to relax? As I am by nature a very punctual person, I arrived in Indonesia deliberately without a watch, but I found that to unlearn a habit ingrained in culture takes more than leaving one's watch at home.

I tried to immerse myself immediately into the students' way of life, and I welcomed the fact that Chris had suggested to teach English right from the start. I soon turned my lessons into a two-way learning situation.

"You teach me Indonesian, and I will teach you English," was our unwritten understanding.

There were so many theological terms I had to learn, that my little vocabulary book was filling up fast. To my consternation, only three weeks after I had started teaching, Chris said to me one day: "I have to go to Bali for medical treatment for a few weeks and I would like you to teach year four Dogmatics during my absence."

"But Chris, I can't do that. I don't know enough Indonesian yet." "Oh, don't worry about that. Here is the text book. Just get one student to read a paragraph, and then you can discuss it and let them ask any questions."

"Yes, and then I won't know what they are talking about." "They will tell you. And besides, it is better you read with them Dogmatics, than no one at all. They won't do it by themselves. You will see, you will learn quickly."

Famous last words, but Chris was right. I had to talk to them in Indonesian, and the students were very helpful and understanding. In fact, because I didn't come to them as the know-all, but more as a friend, I established a wonderful lasting relationship with that particular year.

When the Synod met in November, I attended most sessions. Listening to Indonesian all day long was very tiring, but it was interesting to hear reports from the whole area of GMIT, from the outer islands and the far end of Timor, close to the Portuguese border. I also met some fine ministers who had graduated, some from Tarus not so long ago, others from the SoE school, in the centre of Timor, the predecessor of Tarus, during the time when Gordon Dicker and Colville Crowe were the Australian missionaries in Timor.

Peter was glad to hand over to me the treasurership of the Kolportasi, the Synod Book Shop, which occupied a couple of rooms in the Synod

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