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Peacemaking with paintbrushes
PUNDONG, Indonesia – Last year when an earthquake demolished homes in this largely Muslim community, the Indonesian Mennonite Diakonal Service (MDS) organized with local Muslim groups to rebuild homes.
In this context where Muslim and Christian communities have sometimes clashed, a four-member Youth Evangelism Service (YES) team served for most of January through April 2007. The team lived in a temporary bamboo shelter across from the Pundong Mennonite Church and helped to paint the newly-constructed homes.
While the team succeeded in painting 59 of the 106 new homes, they found their Swiss-German work ethic constantly challenged by the friendliness and hospitality of the mostly-Muslim homeowners, who begged them to come down off their ladders to drink tea and eat.
“Before coming I had a perception of Muslims as terrorists, an unfriendly people,” said Jared Neff. “But we were treated so hospitably. I discovered that they were people exactly like I am, with the same hopes, dreams, and fears. When they spoke to me of their hopes for their children, and their hardships, it gave me a whole different view of Muslims.”
Team leader Jeremy Byler added, “We worked, but our main ministry was building relationships. And transformation went both ways – our feelings about Muslims and their feelings about western Christians.”
In addition to their warm interaction with the Muslim families whose homes they were painting, the YES team enjoyed trips to the nearby beach with the MDS staff and local Muslim youth. Badminton and Frisbee were favorite after-work activities.
And there were many surprises. One evening Byler said a Muslim friend he was hanging out with offered to let him listen to music on his head set. Byler was amazed to hear that his friend, who didn’t know English, was listening to English Christian praise and worship music.
“In every culture, God is at work in ways we have no idea about,” Byler said.
In February their outreach coordinator, Mennonite pastor Paulus Hartono, invited the YES team to have a meal in the Hizbullah* command center in Solo, Indonesia. The meal was part of a special day focused on Muslim-Christian dialogue with key religious leaders.
The YES team witnessed the growing friendships between Muslims and Christians, replacing the mistrust and violence of previous years. Byler said he awed by the ministry of Hartono in working for reconciliation and helping to move the whole region toward peaceful resolution of conflicts.
“Too often we demonize the enemy and feel justified in fearing and hating them, but we saw another way – the way of Christ,” Byler said.
The YES team members working in Pundong were: Jeremy Byler from West End Mennonite Fellowship in Lancaster, Pa.; Sabrina Martin from Paradise Mennonite Church in Paradise, Pa.; Jared Neff from Living Stones Fellowship in Peach Bottom, Pa.; and Crystal Zook from James Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pa.
The team shared their Indonesia experiences with friends and family at the Salunga (Pa.) Meetinghouse on April 26 and in an EMM chapel on May 1. To read more about their experiences, visit their blog at 42indo.blogspot.com/.
Youth Evangelism Service is a program for young adults ages 18-30 who desire to grow closer to God during two months of discipleship training and four to eight months of cross-cultural outreach. For more information, visit emm.org/short-term or contact Sherrie Ober.
-Jewel Showalter
*A traditionally militant jihadist group, different from a group with a similar name in the Middle East
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