ramblings from the heart

How are things going, you ask? For starters, we have been meeting in LIFE Groups with working single adults and married couples in Jakarta on Tuesdays at 7:00 pm and students from Universitas Pelita Harapan in Karawaci on Wednesdays at 6:30 pm. LIFE stands for a life of love, a life of investment into others, a life of faith, and a life of enjoyment. It has been so encouraging to see the people that God has allowed us to cross paths with, and despite meeting after a hard day’s work, I find that I have come out of each gathering so refreshed.

Last week, we had our Preview Sunday Celebration (in which our team was able to experience working out the many kinks involved with starting a church plant!) Pastor Seth preached on recognizing the condition of our hearts – that God always initiates things, that he doesn’t need us to do his work; but rather, we have the privilege of letting him use us as his vessels. I am realizing that you cannot give what you do not have – only what you do have (thank you for the latter part of that statement, Captain Obvious…) But I say it because it’s true.

I have actually been writing a lot since arriving here in Indonesia almost all of two months ago – but I have been hesitant to post anything because I feel like I am still finding my voice. While I haven’t yet been to the beach in Ancol, North Jakarta, I have been diving into the depths of my heart, and slowly mustering up the courage to recognize my true condition – rather than thinking of everything here in “blog mode” (which has been a tendency in my new surroundings) and edit and edit and edit myself until I think it’s presentable for the world to read…I have a lot of scabs on my heart, from old wounds from years ago. I thought everything was okay with the passing of time, and I am seeing how these things have affected how I treat people. I treat them how I anticipate being treated by others, some who have wounded me to the heart – whether intentionally or unintentionally. And because of these scars and scabs, I have wounded other people over the years – and have built up walls around my heart, and parade around with facades of things like intelligence, courage, and strength to protect me from further wounds…

For some reason, being away from where I was, it is easier to be honest with myself about who I really am: intelligence is my security, because I am afraid of the consequences of not being a good problem solver, of not understanding how things really work; courage – for things like killing cockroaches that somehow find their way up through the tiny slats in our kitchen sink drain – is actually fostered out of my fear of looking weak; and I fear looking weak because then I am vulnerable to attack and to what others think of me, regardless of whether these things are positive or negative.

I divulge these contemplations because the contrivance of my heart is all I have had to offer, to anyone, for such a long time. I used to be so afraid of coming to this place, even though I believed with my heart that it was God’s plan for my life, because of things like the 17 July bombings in Central Jakarta and the earthquake that registered 7.3 on the Richter scale a couple of days ago (which had me questioning my sense of balance - or was it the coffee that I have become so dependent on, and am currently drinking now?) And now that I am here, I recall these verses from Psalm 18 that I discovered when my senior year LIFE Group read them aloud together:

“They confronted me in the day of disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” (Psalm 18:18-19)
For this season in my life, Indonesia is my spacious place. When I think about the condition of my heart over all of these years – experiencing hurt, and then inflicting it on others around me, I realize how difficult I have been to love…and how thankful I am for a God who loves me just as I am, no facades required. It is because of this love that I am here, with my teammates who have also experienced the love of God powerfully, and want to share it with others who have not yet experienced it. This is a place to be honest with myself, and a place to heal.

From the previous thoughts, you see the brokenness and imperfections of my heart – and you can multiply that by the 12 other people on our team! In light of these things, please keep the Jakarta Team in prayer, as we are preparing for our Inaugural Service on Sunday, September 6, 2009, to be held at Sekolah Pelita Harapan at 10:30 am. To address the things that have been surfacing in my heart since arriving here, I praise God that he works in ways counterintuitive to my understanding: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27) I think we’ve all adjusted fairly well within two months, but still looking foolish as we navigate cultural cues and differences. And even though we’re a team of 13, we are weak because we lack in people power for the time being - but I know that God can do so much with little, like feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and still having leftovers! We give what we have, as I mentioned earlier - and you can pray with us that all that we have to offer to them is not our wisdom, nor mere experience, nor strength, but Christ. Please pray that through this church plant, people can come to experience transformation in their hearts through the powerful and perfect love of God in their lives.

Thank you for reading…it’s been rather overwhelming trying to think of what exactly to post here. I want to post everything! From my thoughts on the human resources management industry (which here in Southeast Asia is widely connoted with “human trafficking” – but I assure you, my company is legit, e.g. not human trafficking, and I will share the sheets and sheets I have written on that topic later!) to my favorite foods here, (the quality, and price – so cheap by USD standards! and I am positive that my spicy tolerance will have increased a million fold by the time I return) I miss you all and owe so many of you well thought out e-mail responses. You can imagine that between two life groups and working life that it’s rather overwhelming to think about things that are outside of my current surroundings. Still adjusting, and it’s been absolutely wonderful to be here because it’s exactly where God wants me to be.

on work: language lessons

Roomies on the first day of work. L-R: Training, Local Marketing, Accounting, Human Resources

I work at a Human Resources Management firm, dekat bandara [“close to the airport” – we say this phrase every morning to our Blue Bird taksi drivers!] Initially, I started out in the Human Resources department – which was daunting because I had virtually no background in human resources and my first task was to evaluate reports and suggest improvements to the company’s performance management system!

Lunch with some of our colleagues from Human Resources and Overseas Marketing at Hokka Hokka Bento, Soekarno-Hatta Airport

The following week, I was actually moved downstairs to the Local Marketing department. I’m sure many of you are wondering “Human Resources Management?” We are a PJTKI (Perusahaan Jasa Tenaga Kerja Indonesia or Administering Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers Overseas) and our “products” are people: TKI (Tenaga Kerja Indonesia – factory workers) and TKW (Tenaga Kerja Wanita – female domestic helpers). Our firm provides vocational and language training to the workers while we job match, process paperwork, and send them on to their 2-3 year contracts overseas. My department is responsible for recruiting these men and women, mostly from Java, and keeping track of their legal documents and registration and job match payments. My job: to analyze the daily reports – monitoring the progress and status of payment and documents and following up with staff so that we can send these workers on their way to their new jobs, “For a Better Life.”

Classrooms at Pt. Yonasindo Intra Pratama

My department is actually very noisy: cell phones constantly sounding ringtones ranging from the Nokia theme to emo Asian music, people talking on the phone simultaneously, people greeting the new recruits and discussing the process to get them working overseas, and a very loud phone that everyone in the department uses located conveniently on my desk! Fortunately, I developed the ability to tune out noise as a child trying to read books at big fat Filipino family gatherings (thank you, cackling aunties! Please know that I really mean this in love) and generally have no problem getting in the zone in noisy environments. I mentioned the noise because it’s has been very easy to drown it out and everything and everyone else in my department by burying myself in work – not to mention I know dikit-dikit [little] Bahasa Indonesia and I was placed in a department where only three people can communicate in English.

Probably the longest sentence I can say right now (besides “may I please have a fork and spoon” – Boleh saya minta sendok dan garpu?) is “I’m sorry, I don’t speak much Indonesian because I don’t know many words - but I want to learn…” [Ma’af, bicara sedikit Bahasa Indonesia karena tidak tahu banyak kata - tapi mau belajar…] I’ve been realizing since the move to my new department that there is so much more to overcome than the language barrier: a bad attitude about getting to know my colleagues better and being in my new surroundings, and fearing rejection – the former, a sobering realization; and the latter, I am grateful to have finally understood now that I have come all the way across the world. After hours of staring at excel spreadsheets, I knew that there had to be so much more to my time here. To describe the transition to Local Marketing, I will reference the PDCA cycle (which I ate, slept, and breathed the attempt to understand it…actually, it’s a simple performance management model when, used correctly, can be very effective in facilitating growth and improvement) as a tribute to my short time in the Human Resources department:

Plan – Why am I here at Pt. Yonasindo Intra Pratama? Not just to work, but to build relationships with my colleagues and to share the love of Christ with them through my life – in actions, and hopefully someday in words

Do – I was doing my job analyzing reports and then discussing the data with my supervisor, the CFO. I would actually skip the morning briefings with my department to try and sift through at least eight reports in an hour and a half before meeting with Jeffrey to discuss.

Check – Upon evaluation, I can say that I did pick up quickly on what it is that I am actually supposed to do in terms of actual work. But I wasn’t doing a good job of loving people with the love that Christ has for me. My heart wasn’t in the right place with the meetings, for example. It’s true that I needed to analyze the data to talk with Jeffrey about how we can move forward and keep track of things like payment and achieve our monthly target recruitment…but I didn’t want to be sitting in meetings where I couldn’t understand a word. It just seemed like a waste of time, especially after feeling very awkward in the first morning meeting that I attended where everything just sounded like a blur of Bahasa Indonesia.

Act – Sometimes, you just have to jump. It’s no fun feeling dumb, and even worse, no fun anticipating getting laughed at when you try and fail – with anything! But specific to this situation, trying to speak a language one doesn’t know very well at all. But, on Tuesday, after asking God for help with a change of heart on the way to work in the taksi that morning, I said to one of my colleagues, Warsid, in my broken Bahasa Indonesia that I was sorry that I didn’t talk much. He said that he understood that I was sibuk [busy], which broke my heart. After exchanging a few more words, he apologized for his poor English. I assured him that his English was better than my Indonesian, and said “Saya mau yang kita teman,” [literal translation: I want that we friend]. He and another woman, Nur, agreed enthusiastically, and we agreed that we would learn together each other’s languages. They also invited me to the morning meeting and to a birthday lunch later that day from some people here at the firm.

I can’t believe I’m referencing Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People because I feel like I read it ages ago in my high school sophomore seminar taught by Mr. Coyne. One of the habits is “Seek first to understand, rather than to be understood.” Tuesday morning I also realized that morning meetings were an easy opportunity to improve my listening skills. Good perspective makes everything so much better! After that brief conversation in Bahasa with my new friend Warsid, I braved the meeting with the aid of my iPod touch (thanks to Josh Tishhouse for helping me purchase it and the computer from which I write this entry) and the iKamus/eKamus [kamus = dictionary] application. I typed words into my dictionary like crazy and wrote down the definition and each word 5 times (this goes back to my days at First Assembly Christian School, thanks to people like Mrs. Anita Rumery – such a great way to learn words!) while listening. I not only understood that there were many masalah [problems] but I was able to match the words to the feelings of my colleagues and really understand the thoughts of the people who write the comments on the reports that I diligently upload into Google translator everyday (thank you, Google. I love you. Except for when you don’t have translations for common words – and when you have incorrect translations for simple words, too. Please care more, thanks. I kid you not – I actually really want to write that every time I click “contribute a better translation” on translate.google.co.id).

Celebrating birthdays at work

What ended up happening to the birthday celebrants at the work birthday party

Jadi, saya belajar pelan-pelan bagaimana bicara banyak kata [So, I learn slowly how to speak more words] and am trying everyday to understand my surroundings and the people better. It’s been so exciting to learn so much! Sampai nanti [until later]!

I love snail mail

so if you like writing it, you can send it to me here:

Kondominium Golf Karawaci

Fairway - Apartment 6F

Jl. Jend Sudirman Blue 2890

Lippo Karawaci 2800

Tangerang 15811

Indonesia

I'm afraid that's all I have in terms of updates for now (of course, there is always more to write about...), and I have been itching to write snail mail to many of you. Now I have to figure out how to use the pos, or our postal system here!

on traffic, and getting to where I am now

I congratulate you in advance if you decide to wade through the many words I have just posted. Since being here in Indonesia, I have really enjoyed the time to reflect on my new surroundings.

21 juli 2009
Pt. Yonasindo Intra Pratama
8:45 am – first day of work

If I had perfect pitch, I could tell you immediately what note the fluorescent lights sound as they flicker over my head in my new boss’s office. He is not here, so I am sitting here writing while we wait for his arrival. I don’t have perfect pitch, so I will use my time to write instead…shout out to Dr. Victoria Hsiao, also known as Vicky, for the Moleskine journal in which I wrote down all of my thoughts that follow.

Upon arrival in Indonesia, we discovered quickly that anyone who is someone has a driver. I estimate that a driver’s monthly wages are somewhere around $100-$120 USD a month – considered a decent salary, sufficient for supporting a driver and his family. Rather than hiring a driver, we have purchased a used vehicle, into which we normally cram 9 members of our 13-member team (the Kim children Josiah, Elliot, and Karissa are small, which helps). Today, no such cramming was necessary as only four of us – Irene, Ruth, Sarah, and I – were the only passengers. Driver, you ask? It’s Pastor Seth!

If you have not visited Southeast Asia, you’d be amazed to observe the commute to work. Over the past year in Ann Arbor, I drove to work every day sitting on the left-hand side of my car, driving on the right-hand side of the road, with the majority of my commute being State Street, which turns into State Road just after the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport – my uneventful daily commute ranging anywhere from 9-12 minutes. (And if you’re sitting reading this at 880 Technology Drive, Suite B, I miss all of you very much!) Although traffic this morning wasn’t terrible, we felt bad for Pastor Seth, who had the privilege of navigating the labyrinth of expressways and toll roads this morning without clear directions to our new place of employment.

The traffic during the commute is a sight to behold, as well. We do have lines that demarcate where each lane of traffic should be – but once off the expressway, they are essentially meaningless. At any given intersection, where three lanes of cars [mobil] might appear, there are at least six if not more! Ojeks, or men who offer the backseat of their motorcycles to passengers as a type of taxi ride, contribute to the convolution of the lanes – weaving between cars effortlessly, sometimes so close that should I open my window and stick my hand out, I could touch them. We also have minivans with the side door ripped off that function as buses, driving slowly enough so that people can hop in or hop out as they please. Interspersed throughout traffic are people – pedestrians and passersby. And then there are those who remain between the “lanes,” holding their wares on their heads or shoulders, looking to make eye contact with anyone who might want to buy something of theirs – a purchase which would contribute to their income, which would be valued at pennies, I’m sure. I find this heart breaking, because in order to not buy, one has to avert their eyes and ignore these vendors, who are people.

Today I will meet my new boss, who started this company 10 years ago with this thought in mind for the people of Indonesia: ”For a Better Life.” I saw this company mission statement on the green t-shirts of the women who greeted us this morning with smiles and bows, these women who are training to become domestic workers and maids, in order to give themselves and those they love a better life. I was expecting to work in a skyscraper somewhere in South Jakarta – even hoped for the possibility of being hired into the company that first employed me as a brand new graduate, since they have a bureau here in Jakarta. I actually work in a small compound, on the outskirts of Jakarta, located near the Soekarno-Hatta airport. Surrounded by rice paddies, with classrooms made from bamboo and thatch, I would hardly say that this was the place at which I was expecting to work. I should clarify that in spite of my previous expectations, I know that there is no place in the world that I would rather work than di sini – here. I decided this after our superior Jeffrey took us on a tour of the compound last week. I went from sitting in an air conditioned conference room with chairs big enough to get lost in, to stepping outside into another world – thick heat even so early in the morning, classroom huts surrounding the nicely manicured grass. Through the classroom windows, the four of us could see faces peering curiously at us. That day, I remember worrying about what to wear since “first impressions are everything” – after deciding on a 52% wool skirt and heels, I realized the impracticality of such vanity in this hot weather, and how silly my shoes sounded clackering on the pavement where these women stood, barefooted.

Between each classroom where we were greeted enthusiastically with “Good morning, ma’am – how are you, ma’am?” Jeffrey explained that many of the trainees were single women looking to support 2-3 children. He said that the divorce rate here is very high because the culture here is to marry very young. Hearing this from him reminded me of a conversation I had with my friend “Dr.” Matt Schumann on this topic – and reinforced the reality of not only the stress of making enough money to support a family, but also the reality of pain and heartache. I thought that I knew the pain of heartbreak when I ended my relationship with my boyfriend of two years, almost two years ago. And while the pain I felt is not invalidated by the greater suffering of others, I see that my perception of pain was naïve and very small. Jeffrey is more familiar with these women, and I don’t know if he sees more than just women who are training to be domestic workers. I am sure that he understands the plight of the poor here in Indonesia – otherwise he would not still be here at this company.

I know sedikit-sedikit [very little] Bahasa Indonesia, but I am hoping to be able to get to the point where the four of us working here can speak the heart language of these people – regardless of how well we pronounce things or any grammatical errors we make. I am no one to talk about pain, but I know a Healer who is qualified, who knows the deepest hurts of the heart, who experienced pain Himself, even death – but conquered it so that he, by being broken, could mend broken hearts – and also break them further again for his purposes. I can’t say that I enjoy having my heart broken. But if Christ’s heart broke over me, because in my heart of hearts I was so destitute and trapped in the poverty of sin, then a broken heart is what I want to have for other people, too. I guess this is the long-winded (as is the nature of kids who study political science) answer to “why Indonesia?” which so many of you asked me before I left. Mengapa [why]? For a broken heart.

discovering gifts

20 juli 2009

Kondominium Golf Karawaci, #6F

[9:48 pm - elektrik mati, or electricity off] Three air conditioner units, a washing machine, and one eventful switch of a light later (the last done by none other than yours truly), I am sitting in the hot, still darkness of our apartment – with the exception of the light coming from my computer. As early as it is in the year, I feel like I am already discovering new gifts I never realized that I had: bug killing (going on my resume as “freelance insect exterminator”) and the uncanny knack for causing blown fuses. Tonight is case number two for the latter, and I can feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead as I type.

I’ll share about the first newfound gift, since the process surrounding the discovery is actually quite amusing. On our first night in Lippo Karawaci [July 11], while exploring our tiny yet cozy and adorable kitchen (white cabinets, with red knobs and red countertops – we also have a white heart-shaped dish rack, which for me, was the icing on the cake), we discovered some creepy crawling neighbors – cockroaches!

[10:09 pm – the electricity is back on!] Rachel met our tiny neighboring tenants first actually, and I knew it from her screams. Two weeks, and I’ve already forgotten which roommate ran into the kitchen after her but whichever girl it was, the two chorused in a shrieking extravaganza. I knew that I could either join in the screaming, or we could do something to keep the cockroaches away. I grabbed a large can of bug spray and started spraying the floor and the counters. Once they reached the newly sprayed surfaces, the cockroaches started flipping over, legs flailing, and then were still. It seemed that our problem was solved – but it seemed that every time I entered the kitchen, there was a new cockroach. Total casualties to the cockroach population, before John Eom helped me to find the drain hole from where they were entering the apartment: 8.

If I took any sort of pride in the “courage” displayed from killing those bugs, I had a good slice of humble pie for breakfast the next morning when I realized that I have been developing another gift over the past year, which I happened to bring with me to Karawaci: blowing fuses. (And if Nancy Choi is reading this, she is probably laughing because she knows that it’s true…).

Before showering on Sunday morning, I spied a plug on the bathroom wall that looked like it would be the water heater for my bathroom. Without thinking about the further implications of having at least two air conditioning units running, along with the water heater in the other bathroom, I inserted the plug into the socket. Almost instantaneously, I was standing in darkness. If I remember correctly, poor Irene was in the shower at the time, and I’m sure she was surprised not only by the change in water temperature but also by the lights going out! With five women living in one apartment in Jakarta, it’s really easy to forget how much electricity we are accustomed to consuming – and that that what was second nature to us in terms of using energy is actually an overload for the resources that we have available to us here.

We found the fuse box in our apartment, but despite all of our attempts to get the power back on (e.g., flipping every switch), we were unsuccessful. Fortunately, when the power went out the first time, we were about to leave the apartment anyway for a day with a full schedule. Strike two, and I’m writing the night before embarking on a new adventure – working at Yonasindo Intra Pratama for one year.

Holiday

J.Co Donuts and Coffee, Supermal Karawaci - 12:00 pm

Almost two weeks since leaving Ann Arbor, but I feel like two months has passed by in the process of settling into our home in Lippo Karawaci, Jakarta - especially in light of Friday's events.  Southeast Asia teems with shopping malls, and within them abound people - and air conditioning!  I am sitting inside Supermal Karawaci, writing at Indonesia's version of Krispy Kreme (I just inhaled a green tea frosted donut!) on this national holiday, the Ascension of the prophet Mohammed, I have to say that today appears to be just like any other day.  

It has been interesting, however, as an outsider to observe the reactions of the nationals to the bombings in South Jakarta.  Yesterday, my teammates and I attended Gereja [church] Bethel Indonesia, a fellowship with over 500 churches all over this vast island nation.  The service was held in Senayan City, a super mall near Central Jakarta, and conducted entirely in Bahasa Indonesia - with the exception of the song "I am a friend of God." At one point, the worship leader halted, and spoke to the congregation for a few moments, after which everyone placed their hands over their hearts and began to sing, "I'm not afraid anymore" instead of the chorus "I am a friend of God."  This man was speaking to the people about Friday, and how we do not have to be afraid of anything if we place our complete trust in the Lord. What a comfort, especially in the face of circumstances that we cannot control.

On Saturday, we spent some time with a Michigan/HMCC alumnus Eunice, at Plaza Senayan (across from Senayan City), who has been working for the Singaporean Embassy here in Jakarta for the past month - located very close to the two hotels bombed on Friday.  She shared with us that she was actually supposed to have lunch at the Ritz Carlton on Friday, and that if the bombers had waited, she may have perished that day were it not for God's protection and care.  

What else can I say about life here?  Irene and I start work tomorrow with Ruth and Sarah at Yonasindo, a Human Resources Management company that trains maids and domestic workers to be sent overseas.  We actually have no idea what we will be doing, but I know that God has already thought of each task.  Our higher ups speak English, but the majority of people at the firm speak Bahasa Indonesia.  I am looking forward to this intense language immersion, especially after my first impulse purchase, Welcome to Indonesian - an English linguistic explanation of Bahasa Indonesia and comparisons between it and other Austronesian languages  (such a nerd, I know).  

Off to shop for blankets, peroxide, and other necessaries that we've forgotten - and then hanging out with Grace Liu tonight, hopefully for dinner and Harry Potter!  I'll share more about that and other adventures later.  Thanks for reading!

thoughts on the aftermath

Uno Cafe, Lippo Karawaci, West Jakarta 10:46 pm

Writing to you while sipping my new favorite love, lychee iced tea while listening to a rendition of "If I Ain't Got You" here at the Uno Cafe, across from Kondominium Golf Karawaci, also known as home (I'll post my official mailing address next time). Posting to let you know that yes, the Jakarta Team is safe and sound west of Jakarta on this Friday evening. I wrote out my thoughts below earlier this morning, when we first got word of the terrorist attacks in South Jakarta. One of the organizations that sponsored us for our visas is actually located between the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton, and some of our teammates were actually in that area earlier this week. We are thankful for God's protection. He is good and faithful, even in the midst of uncertain circumstances. Disclaimer: I am actually light of heart right now, here with my teammates as we are all typing furiously to let you know that everything is all right. Know that you are in our hearts, too, and that we are thankful for you.

Friday, July 17, 2009 12:12 pm

Kondominium Golf Karawaci, #6F 

Writing while watching Al Jazeera English news, regarding the terrorist attacks [Bahasa Indonesia: serangan teror] that happened in South Jakarta earlier this morning.  To this point in my life, I can’t say that I have ever been so close to breaking news as I am now, sitting in my living room west of Jakarta. 

Wednesday morning, I was at home lining drawer shelves when I heard our front door open and the voice of two of my roommates, Sarah and Ruth, worriedly calling, “hello? Hello?” even though they knew that Irene and I were at home.  Ruth and Sarah had left not half an hour before, to do some research before starting work on Tuesday, so we were surprised to see them back so soon. 

“There was an explosion,” I heard Sarah say as she turned on the TV to see if what they had just seen was news, “and they were evacuating the mall,” where the girls had gone in search of internet access.  I looked out the window, and I could see the smoke rising over the mall and the mosque [masjid] nearby. The four of us were also supposed to meet our roommate Rachel later that morning, at 11:30 am at the Supermal Karawaci to do our grocery shopping for the week.  Rachel was already out running errands, and since our cell phone situation hasn’t been sorted out yet, we had no way of contacting her to see if she was all right. She actually returned home an hour after we were supposed to meet, exclaimed half-exasperated, “I was waiting for you!”

We inferred that whatever Ruth and Sarah had witnessed is actually quite commonplace, because it was cleaned up so quickly, which allowed Rachel to enter the mall to meet us, with virtually no knowledge of what had happened earlier that day. I mention Wednesday because it was an opportunity to give way to fear – just as today’s events are. 

I meant to bring the book The Hiding Place with me, but books are deceivingly heavy so I didn’t.  For those who have never heard of this book or read it, it is the autobiography of a Dutch woman, Corrie Ten Boom, who with her family hid Jews in a secret room in their home during World War II.  The plan was discovered, the family arrested and sent to concentration camps.  Corrie emerged after the war the only survivor.  I wish I had the book here so that I could quote verbatim something that Betsie, Corrie’s older sister, said to poignantly, regarding safety (so I will paraphrase): “There are no safe places in this world …but God is our Hiding Place.” 

One of my qualms about moving to Indonesia was the compromising of my safety – in particular, events like the things that happened today.  But now that I am here, even though it is frightening to think about how close we are to South Jakarta proximity-wise, and I am saddened by images flashing across the TV screen, I have a great sense of peace in my heart, and am comforted to know that no matter what happens, God is my security and my hiding place.   I shared all of this not to frighten you and make you anxious for my safety, but that you may take comfort in God’s care.