INDONESIA: Mission Trip 2011 Day VI

May 26, 2011

Jagalan, Surakarta

I gave a 2-part, 2-hour lecture today at STT AIMI (School of Theology). I had not fully finished my PowerPoint presentation, so last night I had to stay up later and woke up later to finish it. As an unfortunate consequence, I missed my daily morning devotions today. Anyway, I was fairly nervous to give my lecture, as I had never done anything alike in my life. My seminar series was entitled "Relationship With God Through Songs". And yes, the whole thing was successfully conducted in Indonesian (praise the Lord), even though there were a few glitches here and there with the vocabulary (I promise I'm still a native speaker!). But overall, the students very receptive and welcoming to what I had to say. Whenever I struggled with some of the Indonesian words in the middle of the lecture, the students would always help me figure out the right words – their English was surprisingly good! And they were hilarious!! Because of this, I had such fun and greatly enjoyed leading the seminar, and the whole 2 hours of lecture went by in a breeze! It was more of a casual lecture as opposed to a formal one, which was better for me because I had been worried that I would bore the students to sleep (typical me).

Before I started the second part of the series, I asked/challenged each student to write a one-stanza poem within the given 10 minutes and present it later during the lecture. It was sort of a contest and the winner would be awarded with my CD album. The poem could be in either English or Indonesian. Two of them impressively wrote theirs in English, while the rest stuck to their mother language. In addition, some even presented the songs they have written beforehand! Kak Ester was in charge of taking pictures and recording videos, while Ko Steven served as the judge. Without any bias or impartiality, a winner was chosen. It was Kak Face (read: Fah-chay)! The funny thing was that when he presented his song, I liked it most out of the other ones. They were all excellent, but Kak Face's was the one that really caught my attention. The words were beautiful and the melody was simply enthralling. A slight minor progression stole my heart. It was an incredible worship song. However, the final decision was completely made by Ko Steven alone, absolutely without my advice. Little did I know, he selected Kak Face as the winner! It was, nevertheless, a very tough decision to make, as Kak Telly and Kak Artha's songs were just as good.

Kak Ester is expressively delivering Ria's poem haha

Ko Steven continued the seminar with his first portion of lectures. His was on the theme of Youth. Today was supposed to be the day of fasting and prayer, but we started late because we couldn't find the cable to connect to my laptop to the LCD (ahh... the convoluted joy of having a MacBook). We were 40 minutes behind schedule! BUT, I managed to fill up exactly 2 hours to finish my lecture. I guess I did okay (all for God :-)). After class was over, we went to a Panti Werda (senior home), located just behind the bible college. We chatted with the Mbahs (grandmas) there, and this one particular Mbah struck me. She's much shorter than me – maybe around 4"something and she had a disproportionally large head. The way she was walking resembles a penguin (no exaggeration, but I found it really cute!). That's one feature I remember most about her. I thought she was adorable!!! Sadly, we didn't really get to chat with her for long. I'll never forget her.

Inside the senior home

One of the grandmas' beds

The grandma I was talking about is the one seated near the bottom right hand corner

In the evening, the mission team from Jakarta had our own individual plans. Ko Steven shared a message at church upstairs for the Thursday service, while Kak Ester and Kak Elyda went to Colomadu to serve there during their weekly prayer meeting. As for me, I used the free time to catch up on sleep (good idea, yes?). I almost slept the evening away, from 8-10PM. I was so caught up in my sleep, I almost didn't want to shower (boohoo). But I did and ended up sleeping late.. yet again.


To watch the videos, click here:
Kak Face's song: http://youtu.be/3E5gSyBDAUQ

Kak Telly's song: http://youtu.be/LrGBTVx43XU

Kak Artha's: https://vimeo.com/44295463

Kak Eras's song: http://youtu.be/N3OsLb6l5QY

6th day lesson: THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS

"14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 
15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 
16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 
18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 
19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 
 20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 
21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 
22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 
23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 
 24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ 26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 
27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 
28 Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 
 29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 
30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’" ~ Matthew 25:14-30

LESSON 6: Talents are God-given skills or abilities given to every single person to be thrived and cultivated. An enshrouded talent is none other than a way of obscuring God's glory.

I believe God has given all of us a talent. Those who say they have no talent are still on their way to discovery. Everyone must be good at at least something. Those who possess a certain ability or skill should always be thankful for that. For some reason, this day's mission blog post reminded me of the Parable of the Talents.

The Master goes away, leaving each of his servants with the respective amounts of talents. When he comes back, two of his servants report to him with the good news of making the best use of their talents, while the other one has not done anything else other than burying his given talents because he was afraid of losing them. On this account, his master rebukes him and sends him away "into outer darkness" (that doesn't sound very pleasant, does it?).
As servants of the Lord, we should follow the examples of the two first servants. Why must we hide and conceal the talents that God has generously given to us? They are an exquisite privilege! We should make the best use of them and when the time comes for us to report to the Lord, we could say with deep satisfaction that we have done Him well. And the Lord would then say, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (25:21).

I was honestly beyond amazed at what the STT AIMI students were capable of doing. They are a very talented bunch. I am utterly thankful that the Lord has given each one of them such great talents that they can further refine and cultivate. I am convinced that they have so much more than what we were able to see and hear at face value.

The goal of this life is to live a God-pleasing life that honours him and brings Him glory. And how do we please God? By doing the things that He wills us to do and by using the equipments with which He has provided us. Ergo, our talents equal equipments. These equipments are the tools God has given us to reach out to those who are lost. And that is our mission on earth. So what to do with these tools of talents? Be grateful for them. Cherish them. Use them. All for the glory of God.

Much love,