Letters to the Editor

Missionary letter from Indonesia

What an unbelievable six weeks these have been since the earthquake and tsunami devastated such a large area surrounding the Indian Ocean. Just as we have been heart broken by the enormous amount of death and destruction, we have also been moved and strengthened by the incredible outpouring of care and contributions to help the suffering survivors in all of the countries affected.

We know that aid has come from caring people from several religions and many organizations throughout the world, but the impact of the compassion shown by Christians will not be a lost witness in this country. Christian volunteers doing all kinds of relief work to help the grieving and homeless people of Nias Island and Aceh and North Sumatra Provinces are courageously demonstrating the servant hearts of Christians. This genuine witness of giving and serving is being used by God in countless, life-changing ways. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) recently reported that more that $6 million in donations have been received so far. We know that many of you have contributed to UMCOR through your churches and that many of you have given in other ways.

Donations that have come to the Jakarta Area Annual Conference to help the survivors from the Methodist churches in Aceh have totaled around $80,000. These funds have come from churches in Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea and the USA, including a $10,000 direct contribution from UMCOR. These funds have been used to help more than 500 Methodist refugees from Banda Aceh (350) and Meulaboh (100) as well as 30 non-Christian refugee families that have started coming to the Methodist Church in Medan since the disaster. This first step has been to help them meet their basic day-to-day needs while they are living in refugee camps or with relatives in Medan and Jakarta. About 10 students from Aceh are attending Imanuel School where they are given free tuition. Ramona has six of these students in her classes.

This week the Indonesian government declared the emergency stage over and will now give attention to cleaning up the mounds of debris that still contain many bodies of those who were swept away to their deaths. When conditions are such that the refugees are able to return to their homes, the church will continue to help them. Rebuilding of the churches and the Banda Aceh Methodist School will also come later.

Ramona and I have not yet traveled to the areas of destruction. So far our roles have been pastoral in our own congregation and giving support to Bishop Bachtiar Kwee and the Conference Social Services Department. We have also been able to help connect people and resources from outside the country with contacts here. Wesley Church Jakarta has responded with more than $2,500 in donations through the Conference and we are exploring possibilities of joining with Habitat for Humanity in building new homes. Habitat for Humanity's long range plan is to build 10,000 homes in Aceh and 200 in Nias.

We are so grateful for all of you and for your concern and prayers for us and the people of Indonesia. The Jakarta Metro TV station that used the caption, "Indonesia is crying," during the first two weeks now uses the slogan, "Badai pasti berlalu - the storm is sure to pass." It seems like an unrealistic thought but it does reflect the desire and hope that we all have that healing and restoration will come quickly and that much good will come from this horrendous tragedy.

Most of the relatives of our Wesley Church family who were living in Aceh have been found and are safe. But Yenty Thomas has a different story - 18 members of her extended family are known dead or missing.

Jan. 22 was Idul Adhal, the Islamic Day of Sacrifice in which those who can afford to do so donate sheep, goats and cows to be slaughtered and given to the poor. We read of one family in Aceh who expected to donate a cow this year but instead, with everything lost, stood in line in a refugee camp with a voucher to get the first meat they had eaten since the tsunami. The lives of so many have been turned upside down.

God is using his people everywhere to bring love and comfort to the people of Indonesia. We believe that one of the results will be a new understanding of the Gospel that has transformed the lives of the generous donors and now gives new hope to those who still long for inner peace and security.

With much love and prayer,
Don and Ramona Turman
General Board of Global Ministries Missionaries in Jakarta

Consider another booklist

Remembering Jim Morin from the NIC Board of Trustees in the seventies, I too have a booklist. This would be from dyed-in-the-wool United Methodist third (or fourth) camp. In light of my own version of Ecclesiastes - "of the making of many book lists, there is not end," I might title it "A Modernist Neo-Orthodox Wesleyan United Methodist" booklist.

Over a period of 25 to 30 years I have had the kind of awakening which Thomas Oden speaks of in his The Rebirth of Orthodoxy: HarperCollins. Oden tells of his pilgrimage from liberalism to orthodoxy.

So not necessarily in order of importance (after Oden):

The Meaning of Jesus by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright: Harper San Francisco;

The Real Jesus by Luke Timothy Johnson: Harper San Francisco;

The Bible and the Historian by Paul S. Minear: Abingdon (Chapter 15, "The Hope" should be must reading for all those interested in theological education!);

The New Creation - John Wesley's Theology Today by Theodore Runyan: Abingdon;

A Future for Truth-Evangelical theology in a Postmodernist World by Henry H. Knight III: Abingdon;

How Now Shall We Live? By Charles Colson and Nancey Pearson: Tyndale;

The Battle For God by Karen Armstrong: Ballantine (A History of Fundamentalism);

In God's Time by Craig C. Hill: Eerdmans;

C.S. Lewis Companion & Guide by Walter Hooper: Harper San Francisco;

And then, if you want to branch out:

Evidence of Purpose by John Marks Templeton: Continuum; and

The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene: Vintage-Random House.

Paul Steele
Fort Wayne, Ind.

Last updated on 25 Apr 2008

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