The rainbow never sets

ultimate power and decision was with the Australian church. In the present case, GMIT had agreed to the Self Help Project at Tarus, receiving a lump sum for making the rice fields viable in lieu of an annual scholarship. And yet, when the Theological Academy at Oesapa (ATK) was running, GMIT still expected our church to pay a scholarship. Had our church in Australia, and the Dutch church for that matter, made GMIT so dependent on our aid that they didn't look for resources within their own church? Or could it be that our church was unwilling to share its resources generously with GMIT? It may have been both, of course, but the negative effects of paternalism were there.

It was not easy, though, to immerse myself fully into Indonesian culture. I saw one aspect of it as very detrimental to the church, and I raised it with the leaders. GMIT seemed to be unable to deal with people in their ranks, who were either dishonest or incompetent and who caused a lot of harm, not only to the people it affected in the congregations, or the agencies of the church, but also to the image of the Christian church as a whole. It frequently happened that if the church became aware of such a person, he or she was either promoted out of their job, causing harm in their new positions, or more often GMIT would sweep it under the carpet and do nothing about it. In this case it became quite intolerable for people who suffered under that person. I saw it as culturally determined, because the people abusing their power often came from a particular suku or tribe, in which they or their family were royals or high up on the social scale, and no one from a different suku dared to intervene.

On reflection, the misuse of power was probably practised in GMIT as it is in our church in Australia. But it was still frustrating, for instance, when Peter and I had nominated an intelligent student from Tarus to go for further studies to the Theological Seminary in Jakarta (STT), that this was rejected outright by the executive of Synod. I felt that perhaps the student didn't have the backing of his suku, or some other standards were applied in his case, but for us it seemed clear that the church missed out on training a future leader, and we felt sorry also for the student, having given him false hopes.

It gradually dawned on me that precisely at the point of conflict and frustrations, the real missionary work is being done. The Gospel always brings an element of foreignness with it, and an exchange of personnel is the best way to bring out this otherness in the church. Otherwise a church could fall into the trap of tribalism or mono-culturalism, and thus lose its right to be called a church.

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