Rolling Down a Hill

A Letter from Don Ho and Sook Nim Choi serving in Indonesia

September 27, 2015

Dear friends and family,

Greetings in the Holy Spirit!

It has been roughly two months since we came back from California. On our return to Yogyakarta we were gladly surprised by the fine weather. It is the dry season, from May till October, when the humidity drops—although temperatures remain the same. The new academic year at the Duta Wacana Christian University (or Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana, in Indonesian—UKDW in short) started in early August and we jumped right back into it.

Sook is becoming increasingly active in the Department of Product Design. From September 13 through the 17^th she supervised a “Workshop in Glasswork” organized by UKDW and Nam-Seoul University, of South Korea, and led by Prof. Sung-Hee Koh, Korea’s recognized glass expert.

On our return trip to Indonesia, during a layover stop in Korea, we had visited Nam-Seoul University, which has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UKDW. The MOU, signed 10 years ago, had become “dormant,” and UKDW’s president had asked us to see if it could be revived. The meeting with Nam-Seoul’s Director of International Cooperation was short but intense, and we positively exchanged ideas to reactivate the MOU. Following the meeting we toured their campus and met Prof. Koh, the head of a burgeoning group designing and producing glassworks. Prof. Koh told us he was very interested in coming to Indonesia. He wanted to do research on a theory arguing the possibility of the trade of glass beads from Java with the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla 1,800 years ago. In his excitement he asked, “What are the chances of meeting on campus, during the summer lull, people from the very center of Javanese culture?”

Six weeks after that encounter Prof. Koh and his team of six (staff and students) landed in Yogyakarta. The seminar was a big awakening for our Indonesian students and Sook’s colleagues. The possibility that their ancestors, almost 2,000 years ago, produced some glass beads and exported them to a faraway kingdom in Korea made the students proud. Also the possible history of trade between two ancient kingdoms may presently enable a closer emotional tie between the two modern nations. During this short visit Prof. Koh’s team visited the Buddhist temple in Borododur and the Hindu temple in Prambanan, two of the places from which the Silla glass beads are purported to have received influences. Before they left for Korea another MOU was signed between our department and the Glass Art and Design group of Nam-Seoul University with more specific and immediate steps for exchange and collaboration.

Sook’s other activities include visits to local industries, setting up a gallery space and attracting local artists and designers to exhibit in it. Last week she visited a bamboo furniture workshop in a nearby small village with a class of 25 students and 2 other lecturers. It was a steaming hot day, with no air-conditioning or fans in the workshop. The students learned to use bamboo, arguably the most abundant furniture material in Indonesia, which is also eco-friendly.

Don continues to take a long view of his appointment. He is confronted on almost a daily basis with realities both inside and outside of the university that shape and constrain its development as an institution and the lives of its diverse constituents. Admittedly the task of discerning God’s will is complicated in the noisy and confusing drama of particular needs and wants of real persons and set against our conflicted understandings of what constitutes “good.”

Rather than emphasizing and focusing on the minority Christian population in Indonesia (less than 12 percent, counting Catholic and Protestants), Don feels the urge to address and pray for solutions to the state of inequality among the whole populace. The island of Java, where we are ministering, is the most developed one—this can be seen when one travels by bus or train: the land is blessed with excellent farming conditions and its people live in decent conditions for the most part. In lesser-developed islands (such as Kalimantan, Maluku and Papua), however, individuals and communities struggle with intractable socio-economic and political problems, the solutions to which hinge on developing manifold aspects, all at the same time, most critically their human resources. The need to provide wider and better education, which has been chronic throughout Indonesia’s history, is now acute. If this opportunity is missed, large number of young people will not only be denied a chance for better lives, they will become an unbearable social burden for future generations. In the context of current world polarization, arguably caused by religious fundamentalism but also by the despair and anger of youth in lesser-developed countries who see no hope and are therefore lured by extremist ideologies, we shudder at the implications for the current situation in Indonesia and pray that the people of God hear this call and respond with vigor. Inculcating our graduates with values, skills and dreams that aim at making them recognizably indispensable citizens and leaders of Indonesia (having therefore high potential for impactful contributions) is what we feel called to help with. It can be the backbone of a long-term strategy to alleviate poverty and inequality, fight corruption, address other structural root causes behind violence and war, and revitalize the church.

As Don’s position as advisor to the university president on international cooperation continues to develop, he is learning where students might benefit from programs of research and entrepreneurship and from institutional and academic development. For example, the kind of entrepreneurship nurtured in academia at large and in UKDW in particular is keen to emphasize innovation and initiative while ignoring the harsher and less egalitarian disciplines and strategies of competitive entrepreneurship in capitalistic economies. What if UKDW in partnership with World Mission could foster entrepreneurship among undergraduate students and nurture them, together with other entrepreneurs, to master the complex set of skills needed for starting businesses and creating jobs?

Last, we picture ourselves in a car rolling down a hill. We know we can keep it going for now and drive it to wherever we wish to go. We keep telling ourselves: if we take good care of it, it will serve us well and last for a long time, go to interesting places, and do fun and meaningful things. This picture appears to hold most of the time. But we know there are limits. We have been pushing against some limits and it gets tricky. Therefore we are feeling and noticing signs of stress and are addressing them. We hope we can overcome this and learn and grow.

We thank you for your continued friendship and support. We have shared with you our joys and challenges, thinking that you might feel called to partner with us. As our ministry here unfolds, we will continue to share concrete opportunities for volunteering your prayers, your time and your financial support—to build one team. Please pray:

1. For the timely processing of our work-permit visa
2. For Sook to make new friends and develop collegial and productive relationships
3. For Don to persevere in pursuing realistic and meaningful goals as an adviser
4. For the many university staff who serve others sacrificially

Peace and grace,

Sook and Don Choi

The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 239