UNCOMFORTABLE Stirrings Within

We have known for a long time, that as leaders you spend the first 18 months observing, learning, listening and absorbing your new environment (i.e. work setting).  And that applies to living here.  We have been in Indonesia now for around 16 months and the culture, the stores, the peoples ways and needs are only just beginning to all come together for us.  I am sure that many of you follow my husbands blog, also.  He has begun writing about the pastor’s that work interior. 

My mind is haunting by how poorly these pastors have been taken care of.  They live in homes with no screens to keep the mosquitoes out.  The floors have slats that allow all kinds of bugs are creatures to enter.  They are in remote places with no means of communication.  They are not given extra time or allowance to go and get supplies to supplement them during their time out in the bush.  They and their families become victims of tropical diseases that are seriously life threatening.  These pastor’s feel alone, discouraged,  and like no one cares.  I cannot get the image of the pastor’s wife face out of my mind, whom I met yesterday.  She looked desperate, to not return to their post.  She gets malaria, every time she goes to the jungle with her husband.

Darron has asked me to put together medical kits for these pastors.  They will include rapid malaria tests, and medicine’s for malaria treatment, etc.  Also training that would be of beneficial to their survival and comfort.

God is laying on our hearts a heavy burden to be advocates for these families who are sacrificing much for the sake of the gospel.  I feel frustrated when I think about how people make excuses that they can’t give to missions because they don’t have enough money and yet they are driving around in two cars and planning their next vacation.  I point fingers at myself when I think about what I am willing to sacrifice, because I like my imported foods and extra comforts.

Truly it will be the Indonesian people that finish the work here in Papua.  We, the x-pat missionaries, feel that it won’t be too long before the Indonesian government will close it’s doors at least to mission aviation.  The Indonesian workers deserve to be treated better.  No organization would dream of putting us x-pats out in the interior with no means of communication or without protection against malaria.  And yet it is being repeated over and over again with the local workers in many Christian organizations.

My heart is stirred.  Perhaps this blog makes you uncomfortable.  It is uncomfortable to look into the face of these pastor’s and not  do anything.  And so I write, because God has given my husband and I the opportunity to see their eyes and their pain and their struggles.. We have to do something to help support them better.  If you would like to be a part, feel free to email me and we will see that your donation goes to being a support and a life line to those who are reaching the utter lost and bringing the true life giver to the uttermost ends of the world.