Serving Indonesia from the United States

A Letter from Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta, serving in Indonesia

Summer 2023

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Dear family, friends and colleagues,

It was a great joy for Bernie and me to wave the miniature red and white Indonesian flags as part of the closing activity for the global partner program of the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) at Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS). Colleagues from other countries, such as South Korea, Australia, Nigeria, Malawi, Myanmar and India also waved flags from their respective countries.

I participated in the 2022-23 global partner program to celebrate 100 years of OMSC. Throughout the nine-month program, which began in September and ended in May, global partners gave lectures related to their research project. These nine Christian leaders lived together in Payne Hall on the PTS campus. OMSC also hosted an Artist in Residence program.

I was sent to OMSC as a global partner by the Business Faculty of Duta Wacana Christian University (DWCU). I received permission from World Mission of PC(USA) to be involved in the program while on Interpretation Assignment. This allowed me to visit churches throughout the U.S. and conduct meetings via Zoom. I was grateful to welcome two new congregations that are now supporting my ministry, namely the First Presbyterian Church (FPC) in Vancouver, WA, and Geneva Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, FL. As a follow-up to my visit to the FPC in Vancouver, two members of the church, a husband and wife, visited Yogyakarta during the Easter holidays. They visited HAS Co-op as well as some of the Co-op members in their villages.

I am very grateful to First Presbyterian Church in Farmington, NM, which also supported the research that directly impacted the ministry and mission of HAS Co-op and has contributed to HAS Co-op through the PC(USA). Thanks to these contributions, we were able to employ two research assistants. The first was Rev. Gunawan Adi Prabowo, the head of the Javanese Christian Church in Yogyakarta. The second was Ustad Beny Susanto, head of an Islamic boarding school in Yogyakarta. They invited 40 participants consisting of 20 Muslims and 20 Christians. The participants were members and non-members of HAS Co-op, and all had entrepreneurial backgrounds. My students from the master in management entrepreneurship program of the DWCU Business Faculty were among the participants in the two workshops.

The first workshop was conducted on January 19, and the second was held on February 23. These workshops aimed to understand how the influence of religious practices shapes economic practices and are reflected in the interaction of Muslims and Christians in Indonesia as equal citizens before Indonesian national law. The first workshop demonstrated the barriers in the relationship between Muslims and Christians in responding to the implementation of Islamic law-based economic practices. For example, Muslim homeowners sometimes had difficulty renting houses to Christian tenants.

Yogyakarta is an educational city in Indonesia. Many students, including Christian students, come from all over the Indonesian islands to study in Yogyakarta. In the second workshop, we invited policymakers, the police and religious leaders to answer how we can avoid the impact of implementing Islamic law in renting houses that could be used by those with Christian backgrounds coming from outside Java. The issue was openly discussed by both bureaucrats and legislators at the second workshop. Participants involved in the discussion contributed to a deeper understanding of the economic interactions presented by religious teachings and how to address this issue wisely.

At the academic level, these two workshops have become a source of my research to understand religious formation as it relates to economic practices that would enable participants to respond to sustainable development programs that are implemented in Indonesia. Two analytical reports were completed to understand how the participants responded to the questionnaires. While still working on my book, an academic paper for an international publication, I have published two articles for the local newspapers in Yogyakarta. They discussed citizenship, relations between Islam and Christianity, the practice of Islamic sharia in Indonesian society, and the evaluation of national development under President Joko Widodo.

I thank the congregations and individuals who continue to support my ministry involving DWCU and the larger communities around Indonesia when justice, peacemaking, love and compassion of Christ have been planted. I hope to write again to you all when I am home in Yogyakarta in June. Please pray for our trip back home.

Last, but not least, I would like to introduce Angie Wuysang, the 2023 Indonesian International Peacemaker, and encourage you to invite her to visit your churches. Her available dates are Sept. 15-22. The PC(USA) International Peacemakers website has information about her and how to invite her to visit your congregation.

Salam (peace)
Farsijana and ( Bernie )

Please read Farsijana’s articles mentioned above .

Monitoring the Results of Development, Monitoring 2024 Election, By Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta*)

Fasting and Islamic Sharia in Indonesia, By Farsijana Rohny Cootje*)