Indonesia

Considered one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history, the Asian Tsunami of December 26th, 2004 will remain an event imbedded in most of our minds. Banda Aceh, located on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, was the closest major city to the earthquake’s epicenter. Almost 200,000 residents of that city lost their life to the tsunami.

Servants has been working in Banda Aceh since the disaster, bringing relief and rehabilitation to survivors. Aceh was a relatively unique context for Servants because our ministry there has inevitably been more relief-orientated and located in a more rural context than usual. So early on, we sensed that God would eventually call us to a more urban setting.

Our desire to work closely with local Christians led to a partnership with the social action arm of a major Indonesian church denomination. By God‘s grace, together, we have become known in Banda Aceh as people who consult widely, using an incarnational approach to serve amongst and alongside the community. God has been gracious during our time there…so much so that Servants will be able to transition out of Banda Aceh to a more urban setting in 2008.

New Team Forming for Jakarta

Now, during what we believe to be a pivotal time in Indonesian history, our friendship with this Indonesian church denomination has opened doors in the nation’s capital, Jakarta. In late-2008, Servants will partner with them to send a new team to live and work in the slums of this massive city.

Jakarta is a megacity of 10 million people, with 23 million in the greater metropolis (known as Jabotabek). As Indonesia’s biggest city and capital, Jakarta hoards 80% of the country‘s wealth.
This has led to the greatest contrast of extremes between affluence and poverty within all of the nation‘s major cities. There are massive shopping plazas and luxury high-rise condominiums popping up throughout the city.  Yet, Jakarta is also home to the nation’s poorest urban slum communities, which comprise a quarter of the city’s population.

Many church denominations, Bible colleges, and mission agencies are headquartered in Jakarta. Lord willing, there is great potential to humbly model Servants’ five principles with the hope of God inspiring others to do likewise.

Our calling is to move into Jakarta’s slums amongst those that we are ministering to, modeling the upside-down Kingdom, and equipping the Indonesian church to serve God by serving the poor. The number of urban poor in Indonesia, a country with more Muslims than any other country (including the entire Middle East), are rapidly increasing; yet few Christians are pursuing wholistic, incarnational ministry with them.

Is God Calling You to Indonesia’s Urban Poor?