First Year Challenges

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

December 28, 2015

Dear friends and family,

Greetings in the Holy Spirit!

From Sook:
When I left Korea (I was 13 years old at the time) I realized I had lost my sense of a “hometown.” At first I suffered, but eventually I adjusted. Last year, when Don and I accepted the call to serve as mission co-workers, I thought it would be nice to go to new places and explore a nomadic lifestyle as a spiritual descendant of Abraham.

In reflecting on my first year in Indonesia, I think of my new life as a study in contradictions. All of my experience of having lived in many places and of having made my most earnest efforts to adjust—all of those could not stop me from again feeling lost and confused. As if I were having a second puberty, I was shaken deeply again by the loss of home, feeling uprooted, and suffering the outsiders’ syndrome: loneliness, emptiness.

Paintings by Pandu

To be clear, living in Indonesia has been a comfortable and peaceful life on the surface, but also somewhat mysterious, as if there were many layers wrapped on top of each other. Maybe the mystery of all these layers represents one way Indonesia has managed to make peace among many ethnic groups and religions. Anyway, my common sense of what is right and wrong has faced daily testing. The uncertainty of what to expect and how to accept unpredictable outcomes made me feel insecure. Also, the steadily hot and humid weather made my body react with multiple infections and rashes.

But despite these struggles, I have found joy in meeting with my students and other youth in Indonesia.

I teach Art and Product Design as a lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Design of the Duta Wacana Christian University (DWCU) here in Yogyakarta. Last August I was assigned a big space in the main building of the campus, so I decided to use it to set up an art gallery. During the installation of art works, I noticed a male student staring in from the outside for a long time. It did not take me long, by looking at his body language and eyes, to know that he also was struggling with a loss of “home,” the outsiders’ syndrome, just like me.  On an impulse, I invited him into the gallery to see the art works up close and asked him some questions. His name was “Pandu” and he was a fifth-year Architecture student. His fellow classmates had already graduated and he was hoping to graduate next year. He was from an island far off called Borneo, and he had had a hard time adapting in Yogyakarta. He told me he spent a lot of time by himself doing his favorite hobby: painting in watercolors. Without much thought, I asked if he wanted to be my intern in the gallery. He said, “yes,” and I hired him on the spot. Other lecturers told me that he was not a “good” student, not a good fit to be an intern. They were shaking their heads with worries.

Oddly, I have liked his work. With each assigned job accomplished, I thanked him and told him how much I appreciated his work. We have shared time, food, ideas and laughter. The gallery became full of his native songs and humming. I could see, little by little, his “roots” growing. In the final project class, his work was selected by his teachers as one of the best. On the last day of the semester he came to me and, placing my hand to his forehead, he said emotionally that I was sent by God.

“Punctum” is a Latin word derived from the Greek word for trauma.  In art criticism, a punctum is the intensely personal way that a piece of art grabs us and “wounds” or “punctures” us. My difficulties and painful situation have made a scar, a hole, and “light” has shined through it. It was God’s work.

The end of my first year in Indonesia turned out to be very different from the beginning. I expect that my challenges will continue next year and pray that God’s grace will continue to rain upon us, helping me grow roots here.

From Don:
Yogyakarta is the second most popular place in Indonesia for tourists (after Bali) and a hub for education (there are over 100 colleges and universities here). But even so, the pace of business and life still seems to derive from the agricultural base going back centuries—if not millennia. For two people used to the fast pace of life in Silicon Valley, everything at first seemed to go so slow…

The traffic serves as an indicator: although its streets are full of cars and motorcycles, the average speed never goes above 40km/hr (25mph). People are sure friendly and willing to help, but at their own pace! Nothing ever seems to be impossible, but everything takes such a long time… In our typically Western fastidiousness, we lamented our slow language learning, and the passing of time, and our not being able to make use of it as efficiently as we were used to.

That said, this must have been our busiest quarter since we arrived a year ago. That is good news!

As the Senior Adviser to the University President, I assist him in developing partnerships with other universities around the world. In November I went with him and the Dean and Vice-dean of the School of Medicine on a trip to South Korea. The School of Medicine is looking for training programs for its staff. We spent two months preparing for it. As a result, in one week, three cities were visited: seven universities, nine hospitals and two research centers. After returning I was asked to be the contact point for further communications. We foresee that the first half of 2016 will see the fruits of this trip, as many of the people we met will come to visit us and explore areas of cooperation. For example, next month a lecturer in the Korean language from Hanseo University in South Korea will come to stay for at least one semester. The Korean language course will help DWCU students in exploring further studies in South Korea as well as benefit people outside of the university planning to spend time there as foreign workers. Based on the success of this trip, I have been tasked with establishing similar contacts with Christian colleges and universities in the United States. To do this I have contacted the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities (APCU), a private, not-for-profit organization of colleges and universities associated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

I am also assisting the university in its effort to build critical thinking skills in our students, and to encourage our docents to adopt “Learner-centered Teaching” methods in their classes. A two-day workshop is being planned for May 2016. We plan to invite leaders and docents from other Christian universities in Indonesia as well. At DWCU we think of our lecturers as persons who have responded to a call. The call encompasses more, much more, than a transfer of knowledge and skills. We see it, in its most basic and fundamental aspect, as “journeying together.” The lecturer, just like the student, is a human being yearning to live out of a solid sense of purpose and to feel satisfaction from his/her efforts. We believe that this approach will humanize what we do as teachers and learners, giving ourselves a chance to re-authenticate our relationships and rekindle old passions and start new ones afresh. Students will be the ultimate beneficiaries. Transcending the concept of “receiving” instruction, they will learn to learn, cultivating meaningful relationships with the instructor as well as with each other, and will experience (without naming it explicitly) Christian discipleship. This, we believe, is Whole Person Education.

Looking to expand our horizons, we visited the city of Surabaya (the second largest city of Indonesia, located in Eastern Java) in October. Drs. Luciana and Agus, friends of our dear Indonesian friend Dr. Hanafi Tanojo of Covenant Presbyterian Church (Palo Alto, Calif.), hosted us graciously and introduced us to three groups (two churches and a campus ministry) collaborating to support Papuan students, some of whom we met and talked with about their lives in Surabaya. Luciana and Agus also took us to visit Petra University and Widya Mandala University. We made plans to visit Papua next year with Rev. Reyco, who has an active ministry there. This trip allowed us to get exposed to a setting different from Yogyakarta: the pace was faster and interactions more direct.

Our wishes and prayer requests:

As we continue growing into our assignments, we see so many things happening contrary to our plans or expectations. We believe this is God’s doing. We are also reminded that we are not alone in this. We are encouraged by your continued friendship and support. We have shared with you our joys and challenges in hopes 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 for:

1. The timely processing of our work-permit visa (we are almost there!)
2. Sook to continue experiencing vulnerabilities becoming strengths
3. Don to be open and inclusive as an adviser and friend to many
4. Colleagues and students who are lost and struggle with emptiness

Peace and grace,

Sook and Don Choi

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