Update from BHW Indonesia Partnership Facilitator

Here is a brief report following a conversation I had with AM. 

Recent Events

Activities

The work continues to develop and is generally going well. They have 98 students in the kindergarten with about 80-85 attending each day. They have around 150 other children in various village programmes led by their teams.

There is an increased need for help obtaining paperwork and there are between 40–60 in process at any given time. This is very important as without papers, children cannot get into school and people cannot get medical assistance.

Literacy classes continue to be important and popular, and they have recently begun digital literacy classes as everyone needs to now be able to engage that way.

There is a lot of help required for people in the medical area, especially for those who do not have the correct paperwork. They need to provide transport and go with people to hospital as older people are afraid to go by themselves. Often, they leave it too late for help, last week someone died in their car on the way to hospital. 

Leadership development is at the heart of their work. They have several leadership retreats a year. The most recent one was on the subject of “telling your story.” For many, this was the first time they had ever told others about themselves and what had shaped them to this point in their lives. It was very moving and helpful, and for most they realised how they fitted into God’s plan. They also have many camps a year. The next one is the 40th camp they have run, it is titled, “Keep the Fire Burning.” 

Covid

It was very difficult during Covid to keep the work going. They had to continue helping their team and they had no local income from the kindergarten. Also, several international donors stopped their support. However, in June 2022 a man from Switzerland came to visit them. He worked in a company whose owners are Christians and was someone they had met in the past. The man loved what they were doing and went back to his company and told the owners about it. This company has decided to commence regular support which is giving them considerably more income than they were getting before Covid began. They have also promised to keep some funds aside to assist people who are leaving Islam to follow Jesus.  

Income Generation

Apart from what BHW is supporting, AM has several projects to help with income generation for the family and the ministry. He has a pineapple farm some 2½ hours drive from their home city. This is slowly coming good, although he struggles to find reliable staff. He also has an English language academy in the city near the pineapple farm. Prior to Covid it was marginally profitable with about 120 students. He kept it going through Covid and since then it has grown to over 300 students and they have had to take on another building. It employs 22 staff. 

Comments

During Covid they became quite discouraged, and it was very difficult to stay focused. They began to question being there. But now, they are much more settled. A’s nose issues are much better. He still has some healing to do and a slight bleed from time to time, but he has almost regained full energy and they are very thankful.

They are thankful to BHW too as we were able to continue our financial support right through the Covid period. Some months it was the only support they received.