A report from Jakarta
For the last ten days I have been in Jakarta with the “Children Under the Bridge” project. I was joined by two readers from Ohio and two from South Africa. The experience was transforming for all of us. Usually updates about this project are sent only to those who help support it, but today I want to give all of you a glimpse of what we are doing, what is happening and the challenges we face.
Children Under the Bridge started when one woman who was abducted into sex trafficking decided to return to Jakarta where she lived before she was taken in order to help those women who were still victims of the sex business. The program began with 35 children, almost all born out of prostitution, who lived with their mothers or someone else on the street. They had nothing—literally. No clean water, no sanitation, no permanent shelter, little or no education, no medical help and often no food. Over the course of the last two years, the outreach has grown to 200 children and their mothers. We have provided life’s basics and tried to assist these women with alternative economic means so that they can leave prostitution. The most successful effort to date has been the “coffee bike.” Through your donations, we have purchased, renovated and equipped 20 bikes that the women use to pedal coffee and other food to their communities. Basically this is an entrepreneurial micro-business for each woman who participates. And the results have been life-changing. These twenty women have left prostitution. They are now able to earn enough to provide for themselves and their children. In fact, in some cases this has led to other economic ventures for them. For the first time, they have hope. You can see it in their faces. Their children often help in the business. They are able to have a place to live. They no longer fear the pimps. Without any doubt, this effort has been an enormous success. The stories of these women will be published on our updates for those of you who sponsor our effort. The stories are heartbreaking and joyful at the same time.
But we’ve also had a major setback. The Indonesian government has determined to rid the streets of homeless people in the area where we work. That does not mean the government provides housing. It means that the police arrest those who live on the street, confiscate and destroy all their worldly goods including any clothes or articles they use to live, ship them to detainment centers for up to three months and then simply release them back to the streets with nothing. Why are they doing this? Because there is a big “national day” coming, a day when Indonesia celebrates its independence, and the government wants things to look good. In fact, we know of cases where street children have been picked up by the police and put into the “social welfare” system or simply shipped to another city without contacting their mothers or any family. Obviously, this has completely reshaped what we can do. The children and women of the streets are in fear of their lives and they have gone into hiding. The streets are empty, but the prostitution persists and the children are just as desperate only now we have to find them. There is no safe place for them anymore. The government has made things much worse.
Our job becomes more complicated. We have to find safe places to provide education, medical care and food. We have to convince these frightened mothers and children that we are not going to turn them over to the police. We can do this, but it will be much more difficult until, in a few months, the government will have satisfied itself that the streets are “clean” and they will no longer harass these mothers and children. Life will return to the wretched normal.
We asked every day, “What kind of world is this where political correctness destroys what little family these people have and removes all hope they have of life itself?” The answer is abysmal: as far as the government is concerned, these are not people. They are trash that needs to be collected and thrown away.
During this time I finished reading a book by Fredrick Buechner. Something he wrote paralyzed me because it is so true of me, and so necessary for me to hear right now, in Jakarta.
“‘Woe to you that are rich,’ Jesus said, ‘for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.’ It is a text that is not often preached on to people like us because it cuts too close to the bone, but woe to us indeed if we forget the homeless ones who have no vote, no power, nobody to lobby for them, and who might as well have no faces even, the way we try to avoid the troubling sight of them in the streets of the cities where they roam like stray cats. And as we listen each night to the news of what happened in our lives that day, woe to us too if we forget our own homelessness.” Frederick Buechner Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, p. 250.
We won’t stop doing what we can here. We need your prayers for the safety of these homeless children and for their willingness to be seen. If you want to help us, please consider becoming a supporter of Children Under the Bridge (CLICK HERE). Perhaps now we should have another name: The Invisible Ones. If you want to read more about these real people, then join our effort.
Here are some of the things we saw:
The area where our children live somewhere hidden from police
The coffee bike women with us
The “library”, our one place for education that is safe
What’s left of our street classroom during police cleanup
You can’t dampen play, even in a dump.
And finally this, the 11 year old who has no parents cares for the 1 year old who is not her sister while the mother services customers in order for all of them to survive.
Thank you, Skip and everyone else, for your willingness to go and minister to these precious souls. I am grateful every month when I read Shinta’s updates. I will continue to pray for the safety and protection of all who are involved with Children Under the Bridge.
Thank you, Skip. Children are the nearest to my heart. I know this effort is right because you have been blessed in it: you have been enabled to do it. We are blessed with the opportunity to help the least of these, too. I pray for this ministry even when I can’t support it.
When I went on a mission trip to Honduras, what struck me the most was the disparity of the Americans living in their luxury compound as opposed to the people of the village and countryside who lived in mud shacks with nothing but a clay platform with a cooking hole in one end to sleep on out of the rainwater that surged across the floor every night. I thought “if you want to make a difference, you have to BE that difference: live sustainably and in a way that anyone could copy and do better. Live just like they should be living.”
I thought of Yeshua who “had no place to lay His head”. He lived hand to mouth, like “the least of these” so as to reach them. I am working to change my life so as to be able to seamlessly reach all around me. I want to be accessible and to live as a model as well as a vector. If I am to be, like Saul of Tarsus turned into a “chosen vessel” I need, like Yeshua, to empty my life of all that is barricading that access to the needs of those around me.
This post today was just what I needed to light a fire under me to hurry my efforts to finish getting my farm ready to sell. I want my life to change and all my resources to be liquified. I pray they stay that way from now on, too. I don’t need “investments”: I need to look like a coin to be “spent” by any and everyone at any time, so help me God! I am praying for the Jakarta mission as my main prayer today. Thank you again for emptying enough of your life to give us an opportunity to share with you. I pray we all be grateful for that (rare indeed) opportunity!
Skip may YAHWH ,bless you always for what you are doing, does at GODS TABLE, connected to Children under the bridge as that is where my contribution goes through Amazon smile?
I appreciate what you’re doing here, though I am in no way able to provide any financial support (let’s just say my finances have gone from bad to worse). That said, if I may, let me leave everyone here with this scathing rebuke of the American ‘church’, using an analogy that fits the context of this ministry. I may not entirely agree with the overly simplistic history, but the assessment of the American ‘church’ is spot on:
THE QUESTION that CHANGED MY LIFE
-by David Ryser.
A number of years ago, I had the privilege of teaching at a school
of ministry. My students were hungry for God, and I was constantly
searching for ways to challenge them to fall more in love with
Jesus and to become voices for revival in the Church. I came across
a quote attributed most often to Rev. Sam Pascoe. It is a short
version of the history of Christianity, and it goes like this:
Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece
and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution;
it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and
became an enterprise. Some of the students were only 18 or 19
years old–barely out of diapers–and I wanted them to understand
and appreciate the import of the last line, so I clarified it by adding,
“An enterprise. That’s a business.” After a few moments Martha,
the youngest student in the class, raised her hand. I could not
imagine what her question might be. I thought the little vignette was
self-explanatory, and that I had performed it brilliantly. Nevertheless,
I acknowledged Martha’s raised hand, “Yes, Martha.” She asked
such a simple question, “A business? But isn’t it supposed to be
a body?” I could not envision where this line of questioning was going,
and the only response I could think of was, “Yes.” She continued,
“But when a body becomes a business, isn’t that a prostitute?”
The room went dead silent. For several seconds no one moved or
spoke. We were stunned, afraid to make a sound because the
presence of God had flooded into the room, and we knew we were
on holy ground. All I could think in those sacred moments was,
“Wow, I wish I’d thought of that.” I didn’t dare express that thought
aloud. God had taken over the class.
Martha’s question changed my life. For six months, I thought about
her question at least once every day. “When a body becomes a
business, isn’t that a prostitute?” There is only one answer to her
question. The answer is “Yes.” The American Church, tragically,
is heavily populated by people who do not love God. How can we
love Him? We don’t even know Him; and I mean really know Him.
… I stand by my statement that most American Christians do not
know God–much less love Him. The root of this condition originates
in how we came to God. Most of us came to Him because of what
we were told He would do for us. We were promised that He would
bless us in life and take us to heaven after death. We married Him
for His money, and we don’t care if He lives or dies as long as we
can get His stuff. We have made the Kingdom of God into a business,
merchandising His anointing. This should not be. We are commanded
to love God, and are called to be the Bride of Christ–that’s pretty
intimate stuff. We are supposed to be His lovers. How can we love
someone we don’t even know? And even if we do know someone,
is that a guarantee that we truly love them? Are we lovers or
prostitutes?
I was pondering Martha’s question again one day, and considered
the question, “What’s the difference between a lover and a prostitute?”
I realized that both do many of the same things, but a lover does
what she does because she loves. A prostitute pretends to love, but
only as long as you pay. Then I asked the question, “What would
happen if God stopped paying me?”
For the next several months, I allowed God to search me to uncover
my motives for loving and serving Him. Was I really a true lover of
God? What would happen if He stopped blessing me? What if He
never did another thing for me? Would I still love Him? Please
understand, I believe in the promises and blessings of God. The
issue here is not whether God blesses His children; the issue is
the condition of my heart. Why do I serve Him? Are His blessings
in my life the gifts of a loving Father, or are they a wage that I have
earned or a bribe/payment to love Him? Do I love God without any
conditions? It took several months to work through these questions.
Even now I wonder if my desire to love God is always matched by
my attitude and behavior. I still catch myself being disappointed
with God and angry that He has not met some perceived need in
my life. I suspect this is something which is never fully resolved,
but I want more than anything else to be a true lover of God.
So what is it going to be? Which are we, lover or prostitute?
There are no prostitutes in heaven, or in the Kingdom of God for
that matter, but there are plenty of former prostitutes in both
places. Take it from a recovering prostitute when I say there is no
substitute or unconditional, intimate relationship with God. And I
mean there is no palatable substitute available to us (take another
look at Matthew 7:21-23 sometime). We must choose.
I will pray for you all there every day!!!!!
I wept when I read this update this morning. I so wanted to join you all this year but, it wasn’t the year. My heart just breaks for these children (and women) and I want to hug them. I haven’t been able to give as I’d like to, yet. I’m so thankful for the updates and that others have joined in to love them and help as we can! I will continue to share with others who may be able to help. And one day, I WILL get there. Shalom to all!
You know, there is terrible guilt on my people for this situation. The Netherlands had Indonesia (Netherlands Idies) as a colony until 1950. The woman I am going to marry in october is the great great great granddaughter of some governers general for Indonesia in the 19th century. To her horror she discovered that her family did nothing for this people but enrich themselves in the most immoral way immaginable. So I feel partially responsible for this tragedy. As it is I prayed to God this morning to show me another goal to spend a part of my tenth, because my wages went up and I don’t know what to support. So I think it’s only fair to repair a tiny bit of the damage the Dutch have done by donating more to this goal. God bless you, God bless these women and children!
Kees, Good to hear from you again and mazel tov on your upcoming nuptials. I am sure most of us don’t have to dig as far back in our genealogy as 4 generations to find occurrences of dark deeds, unsavory character and moral turpitude, in fact, when recently shaking a branch of our family tree some of those same sharp sticks fell on my head and bloodied me, only to discover that I was the broken limb from which they fell.
On the global scale, America, though much younger than England and the Kingdom of the Netherlands seems to have caught up with, if not exceeded, in the ravaging, exploiting and damaging the nations and peoples of the 3rd world in a new type of colonization and slavery, misnamed “democratic capitalism”. OUR particular sin may be, as Abraham Joshua Heschel noted, indifference: “there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” Thanks Kees for being “different”, concerned and in taking responsibility for helping to support these poor women and children in Jakarta. I am only half way there… for now.