Hudson Taylor Style...Learning the language

During my many summers of CYIA and 5 day clubs we always had the opportunity of telling missionary stories. Stories of Mary Slessor, missionary to Nigeria, John Paton, missionary to New Hebrides Islands, as well as Ringu, the little boy from India, and Ti-Fam from Haiti who both hear from missionaries about God constantly ran through my head. The story that sticks with me the most is the story of Hudson Taylor. 

Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China in the 1800's. When I say that his story sticks with me the most, it is not that I actually remember much about him. His story sticks with me the most because he was one of the first, modern day, missionaries to meet the people where they were at. Instead of trying to get the people of China to dress and talk like Englishmen, Taylor chose to dress and learn the language of the area. He even went as far as adopting the hairstyle, queue (not sure if that is spelled correctly). This is the style where the front of the head is shaved and you have a long braided ponytail in the back. He did this so that he could engage the culture God had placed him in.

I am now coming up on the end of three years in Jakarta. I have been to many cultural sights. I have made the national fabric, Batik. (At least tried anyway) I have been to almost all of the hub cities: Jakarta, Bandung, Jogja, Palembang, and Bali. I have taken almost all means of transportation: boat, airplane, train, taxi, bus, bajaj,  and ojek. I have climbed mountains and volcanoes, crossed rivers, trekked through jungles, and swam in different parts of the ocean. Yet, I have not engaged the culture.

To engage in a culture you need to understand the backstories, the quirks, the traditions, the religious beliefs, the food, the holidays, the school systems, and the celebrations. I am sure there are more that I could list but I think you get the picture. Who better to get a better understanding of these things from than from the local people. Unfortunately I am unable to communicate with them and that it is why I have yet to engage with the culture. 

I was thinking those exact thoughts when I was invited, by one of the security guards at my school, for kopi (coffee). I sat there as my new found friends tried to engage in conversation with me in their broken English and my not even close to broken Bahasa Indonesian. Needless to say we sat there awkwardly most of the time. After that night I realized the mistake I made by not learning the language 3 years ago. I could blame this on the people who said oh you don't need to you live in an expat community, unfortunately I cannot. I can only blame myself because many of my friends have taken the opportunity to go to language school, and because of that they can do more than give directions and say good morning. 

That night when I got home I started looking up how to learn the Indonesian language. The biggest thing that I found was saturate yourself with the language. So I bought a few more Indonesian movies to add to my collection. I looked up youtube videos of songs. Doing this allowed me to constantly hear how the words are built. I also began using an app that taught me meaningful phrases that continues to build and test my vocabulary everyday. I started going to a reading group on Saturday and Sunday to listen to a kids book being read. I started hanging out with the security even more. Now, I am nowhere near fluent, not by a long shot, but with the words I have learned and google translate (which has been very helpful) I have begun to engage.

I have been able to sit with kids at reading club at 6 AM and follow along with the story about Harun and the Sea of Stories. There have now been to many late nights hanging out with the security. Getting to hear their life stories, finding out about loss of loved ones, new marriages, hunting and fishing stories, and stories of their families. 

Why would I care to do this? It is not easy, but God has called me to engage the culture that I live in. So that is what I am working on doing.  I am learning the language so that I can continue these conversations without Google Translate in between. 

One last thing as I wrap up this long post, as I was thinking about Hudson Taylor and saturating myself in the language. It was a good reminder to be saturated in God's word. Because just as I need to be listening to Bahasa to better understand it, I need to also constantly be in His word to better understand Him and how to serve him.

So if you ever move to a place with a different language please learn from my mistake and learn to be like Hudson Taylor and engage early.

Big City Living- Is it an advantage?

I think back to my time teaching and coaching in rural Lebanon, Oregon (15,930). Many of the students that I coached and some people that I was acquainted with had aspirations to live in a "Big City." For some that meant areas like Portland (632,309) or Seattle (684,451).  While others there goals are Los Angeles (4,030,904), Chicago (2,720,546)  or New York City (8,550,405). They want to move to these places because small towns don't have things to do. They don't have malls, movie theaters, sports venues, or many restaurants.  

Living in a Jakarta (9,607,787) has taught me the importance of those things. They mean diddly squat if you don't have the people to actually do them with. Jakarta alone has  about 173 malls, not all high quality but still malls. As many of you know I am a very social person. I enjoy meeting people and getting to know people. Many conversations that I have had with people have pointed to the fact that although these cities continue to fill with people, the meaningful interactions tends to decrease. The biggest contributor is that with populous cities comes traffic. The new people that I have met within the last few weeks feel alone in this big city, mainly because getting anywhere in the traffic takes forever. Something that is 10 miles away, quite possibly could take 2 hours to reach. This deters so many people from going and hanging out. For awhile I could not figure out why so many of our students would just stay and hang out in our lobby or the Starbucks next door. I now realize it is because once they head home, interactions with their friends is limited not for lack of transportation, but because of the time it would require in the car. 

I bring this up not because I am lonely, on the contrary, it is to point out the blessing that God has given me. I live in the school I teach at, and while it has its disadvantages it also has its advantages. I live amongst people who are my colleagues, friends, and family in Christ. We may not always see eye to eye on everything and we may tire of each other occasionally, but we have a built in social group. And while these people will occasionally drive us crazy, it is important to remember that God uses this community to grow us and keep us sane. The other great thing is that wherever I move, if there is Gospel preaching church, then I have community there. We may have different cultural backgrounds, but we are united as one with Christ. 

So, if you plan to move to the "Big City" and want meaningful relationships, get plugged into a local church and be involved.

*All these stats are taken from each cities Wikipedia page. So take it with a grain of salt. I do not condone this as a source of research. :) 

Basketball-Teachers and Staff

Teacher and Staff Appreciation day

Small Group