One of our major tasks as missionaries has been to
administer the distribution of humanitarian aid (funds) of our church in
Indonesia. That task has three major
objectives. While no project seems to
fit all three objectives perfectly, they provide the goals we hope to achieve.
First, help the poor and the needy. We have been admonished to “impart of your
substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as
feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to
their relief.” While the definition of
poor may be relative, we can always find someone around us who has less than we
have – someone to share with.
Second, provide meaningful opportunities for our church
members to render service. When Christ
said, “Come follow me” it was an invitation not only to follow Him literally
but to follow His example in what we do and say. Rendering service was one of the major themes
of our Savior’s life. While the effects
of helping the poor and needy may be of temporal benefit to the recipient, it
is of eternal benefit to the giver. It
is indeed better to give than receive.
We should remember the words of King Benjamin when he said that, “When
ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your
God.”
And third, “Bring the Church out of obscurity.” While notoriety and credit for good works are
not the primary reasons for rendering service, the Lord himself told us to “Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father which is in heaven. I also
like how Isaiah puts it, “And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and
satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy
darkness be as the noonday.”
Our efforts, and those of our predecessors, to identify
opportunities to assist, involve local members to participate in rendering
service and maintain relationships after the projects are over have been a
challenge. As foreigners we will rarely
see the needs of those around us or be able to maintain long-term relationships
built by rendering service as well as the local people can. It is also true that you are a lot more
motivated to render service in a project you had a stake in developing, than one
thrust upon you. For these reasons we
have invited the local congregations (wards and branches) of our church to
develop and administer part of our humanitarian funds. The following are four examples of projects that are or have recently been worked on.
The Surakarta (aka Solo) wards have chosen to renovate a
public toilet and washing facility. This
facility is located near one of our chapels.
The Manado branch paved 50 meters of narrow, previously
dirt, road/walkway between a main road and three schools.
The Bogor ward has purchasing four hand-pulled garbage
wagons for the local public works authority.
They are also picking up litter and spraying for mosquitoes. Dengue fever, which is spread by mosquitoes,
has afflicted several of the members and missionaries during our time here.
The Jogjakarta (aka Jogja) ward is building a metal roof for
a local public meeting facility. This
facility is a 40 square meter, open sided pavilion common in Central and
Eastern Java. It is used for a
kindergarten run by neighborhood women and for social gatherings for women and
the elderly.
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