Russell and Eileen's Church Missions: REVENGE OF THE COLONEL

This week has been a busy one for us. On Monday Russell went to inspect a future water project with one of the senior missionaries. I (Eileen) stayed with some of the senior missionaries and one set of younger missionaries. I had heard this group of missionaries had been doing a weekly service project to clean up parks and other public places in Surabaya. I thought this was a great thing for them to be doing. We worked together on trying to make it into a bigger project that would involve the community and perhaps even continue on after the missionaries are transferred or go home.

On the way back to Surabaya Russell and another senior Elder stopped to get dinner. The other elder doesn’t tolerate Indonesian food well, so they stopped at a popular American food chain. We then left to travel to Semarang. While we were on the plane and then in the cab traveling to our hotel, I could tell Russell had been hit with a very severe case of food poisoning. This was very disconcerting as we had about 10 hours of driving in the car the next day and a very important day ahead of us. The miracle of it all was that before I left on this trip I had been prompted to bring some Cipro with me. Cipro is an antibiotic used to treat food poisoning. I don’t usually bring it on the short trips we go on but this time I did. The other wonderful thing is that we had another Elder from our church staying at our hotel. Elder Smith from Malaysia was able to come give Russell a priesthood blessing. Just as in the times of Jesus when Jesus healed the sick, Elder Smith was able to lay his hands on Russell’s head and give him a blessing. Elder Smith blessed him that he would be able to perform his duties the next day. Although weak and exhausted, Russell was able to leave early with the rest of the group the next day.

Tuesday we attended a medical equipment handover ceremony in a city called Pati. This is the home of the spiritual leader of a group called the NU (Nadlatul Ulama). Our church donated some medical equipment to two hospitals in Pati and Demak. One of the leaders of the NU, Pak Said Aqil, talked about the origination of our church and praised the commitment of the Church to help the poor and the needy. He quoted verses from the Qur’an and the Bible to support charitable actions and cooperation between organizations to provide assistance for those with serious needs. He said, “Luke 10:27 teaches that we should love our neighbor as ourselves and 1 Corinthians 13 defines charity and the need for it.

Elder Subandriyo spoke on behalf of our church and shared a few thoughts at the ceremony. Quoting Joseph Smith he said, “We are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this church or any . . . we are created equally in the eyes of God." He also noted how, like Muslims who are fasting this month for Ramadan, members of our Church all over the world fast for two meals the first Sunday of each month. He explained that members contribute the money saved by fasting, and in many cases much more, which is donated to the Church for use in helping those who are less fortunate.

After visiting Pati, we then traveled on to Rembang where we visited with some of the medical personnel there, and learned more about their hospital.

Thursday we visited a NGO partner that we will talk more about in the future. This partner does several things, one of which is working with amputees. Another of their projects that they have just started that we have not been involved in is a school for children that come from low income families. These are families that make less than $100/month/family. The school has a van that picks up the children from a central location and brings the children to school. The children then change their clothes at school into uniforms provided by the school. In addition to teaching each child in subjects that children would normally be educated in, the children are taught etiquette, how to greet people, how to get rid of garbage, morals, instructed in computer, dance and music. We observed the children greeting us politely, standing quietly in line, folding their clothes nicely to put in their lockers….these were children that were only 3-6 years old and had only been in school for 9 days. The school was impeccably clean. The cost to sponsor a child is $400/year. The hope is that there will be enough funds that the school can expand and that the children can stay with the school each year as they grow older rather than go back to their neighborhood school.

I asked if I could go to the neighborhood where the children come from. I was told it might be difficult to go into one of the homes because if the parents saw a bule (white person) then they might ask for money. Instead I was taken into one of the teacher’s homes. The children gather at her home before school and she reads to the children and also teaches the children on a basic computer before they are picked up by the school van. Russell and I were very impressed by the efforts of this school. We believe this generation of children will grow up with a new outlook on life if this school can continue on with the education of these young ones.

Some pictures courtesy of Kent and Linda Smith (Public Relations missionaries for Malaysia and Indonesia)