HOPE travels

The Outreach Indonesia team plans short-term mission trips to assist several Cherry Hills missionaries. If you are interested and have skills in computer networking, web design, video production, radio broadcasting, soil and water engineering, or tropical agriculture.

Contact

HOPE serves

To create effective programs, staff will often travel to villages spending extended time listening, learning and developing trust with communities. On a recent trip to a small island village accessible only by boat, a staff member, Juddie (not her real name) shared her experiences.

“The women cannot speak the Indonesian language,” Juddie says, “so it was difficult for me to communicate with them. Even so, I tried to communicate with the elderly mother as best as I could. My methods were to help her wash dishes and sweep the house. So she was able to understand that I was interested in her. These challenges can be daunting, particularly in remote and rural locations. The residents of this island are very cautious of foreigners. I know this from when I spoke with one man, but in my presence, he was not too suspicious because I used clothing that is polite in their eyes.”

The heart of our work is expressed through actions, such as washing dishes and sweeping floors to help an elderly woman feel valued, and through humility exemplified by Juddie’s comments: “From this lesson I learn that the main thing is how to convey God’s light through our love in our efforts.”

Juddie learns—and we learn from people like her who have been called with us to this place. We learn to love people in genuine good will, we learn to trust the source of our true security, we learn to face challenges with gratitude. As Juddie says, “I am thankful because this forms an opportunity. God has already answered all our prayers and it seems will give opportunities to follow.”