We were fortune enough to be able to spend Christmas with about 600 people without homes in 2001.  These homeless people came from every corner of Jakarta.  The celebration was held in Wisma Kinasih in Puncak, West Java.  The venue was organized by Campus Diakonia Modern or KDM.  In that day, we could see the faces behind the numbers we often read in the news.  Their smiles melted our heart and blessed our soul.  We felt that we were being ministered by them that day.  They showed us the reality that life was hard and injustice was real.

For the very first time, we could comprehend that famous scene described in Matthew 9:36.  Matthew 9:36 said “When Jesus saw the crowds, Jesus had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”.  We felt it was ironic that in the midst of extreme wealth of Jakarta, there were people so poor that would not be able to feed their babies and their young ones.  We were sick to our stomach listening to their stories about the injustice and oppression they experiencing.  The worst thing was they have nowhere to go and nobody to reach.

Immediately, we felt helpless.  The problem in Indonesia was very complex.  It took a lot of resources to take care of these people, even for the urgent needs such as taking care of the babies and toddlers.  We cannot rely on the system at the time.  The system was messy and plagued with corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN).  At the end, we were just 19 years old college students.

In the midst of this helplessness, God interfered.  His answer was just few verses away.  We have to pray earnestly to God and be willing to be sent to be God’s laborer.  We should not worry about the tremendous challenge and the complex system, just focus on the task at hand: Proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand in every where we serve.

FICA’s DT program allowed us to go beyond our comfort zone.  We were forced to confront the consequences of human sins embedded in the corrupt Indonesian government and society.  However, this experience energized us for the work of the Lord, because it showed us that the harvest or opportunities were plentiful, but the laborers were few.