One friend asked recently what we’d like to do more at our leisure time. I said I’d like to write more, I hadn’t the time to do that for a while. This trip has clearly given me time to do that 😀

A few more things that I’ve noticed in this trip..

QRIS

One thing that I got used to in this trip is the popular payment system in Indo called QRIS. I initially thought it’s a bit surprising they don’t take credit card or even cash at some places but QRIS. But someone told me that’s what many locals do now because it makes sense.

I am so used to paying by credit card, the first thing I wondered was: why use debit when you can use credit? But for many small merchants, they prefer QRIS (which is essentially a debit payment system) as there are no fees on their end. Also, not everyone has a credit card, but they have either cash or savings account.

I initially thought, ‘Why pay now when you can pay later?’

But come to think about it, the concept of debit system is actually not a bad thing. You spend what you have. Meanwhile the credit system encourages people to spend what they don’t have. But you don’t notice these things when you’re swimming in the culture. Living on credit starts to feel normal. And over time I simply assumed that was the sensible way to do things.

The movies

It was in fact in one of the movie theatres that I first realised I couldn’t even order the food because they only accept QRIS. This time I could when I took my nephew for our next movie date.

Talking about movies, I noticed half the movies in the list are horror. Thriller horror, action horror, comedy horror. Apparently they sell. And the horror shows in Indo will give you far more nightmares than the Hollywood ones. It’s horrifying, I don’t understand why people pay to fill their minds with large screen sized kuntilanaks (a type of Asian female ghosts).

Radical kinship

I mentioned in the last post about the eternal family. What I have also noticed during this trip is the way things are in my biological family is actually a kind of glimpse into the radical sharing the early church did.

There is a real blur between what is yours and what is mine. Or perhaps it isn’t even blurred at all—everything simply belongs to the same pool. Not in a messy or dictatorial sort of way, but in a genuine and generous kind of way. It’s been like that for so long that I didn’t think much of it until now. When I think about it, it’s actually quire rare, given how often I’ve seen or heard of families falling out over inheritance and the like.

The family I have is a great blessing, and I know (and we each know) none will be left in need, because, for example, what my brother has, he really shares (and perhaps not even thinking it is sharing, it’s just taken to be the way it is that everything belongs together because we are family). Who lacks will be given, who has will share. It kind of reminds me what the early church did:

.. and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.. There was not a needy person among them..’

Acts 4:32, 34

God uses my blood family to remind me of what it might look like for a group of people (in the early church) to share with each other in a radical way. My family does that and while it’s not so common, we see that and still think it makes sense and understanable because we are blood related. But if that kind of living and sharing is among people who aren’t related in that way, that would raise eyebrows. Well, that’s exactly what happened in the early church. The household of God is supposed to love each other in that way. And they did raise eyebrows and that’s what made the church so distinct from the rest of the world (the radical loving and caring which don’t make sense).

This reminds me of two talks I heard recently about what it means to be a family of God as it’s meant to be.

The Bible first redefines family—who your true family is. Then it redefines how you are to relate to one another in that family. However, by default people tend to make biological family their identity-defining relationship. And perhaps as a result of that, the Christian community can sometimes feel lacking in the way people relate to and treat one another. It’s an area not often preached on as it rubs against our culture the wrong way. But well worth reflecting on.

The two-part talk I’d recommend to listen to, on a topic that’s worth a closer look, and to be spoken of more by us who call ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ:

It is radical, and none of us lives it perfectly, but something worth reflecting on, and repent of, and grow in, and aspire to be.

Giver more than the gifts 🎁

One time we were out with the kids and one of them got a bubble tea. When her Dad leaned to take a sip, she pulled the bubble tea to herself refusing to share the drink as she loves it so much. We laughed about it, someone saying the kids will give it to you only when they didn’t like it. And we joked that before you give the bubble tea, you should have sipped it first as it’s still yours, then give it to the kid 🧋

I note that’s just how we are with God too. When all we have are actually gifts and His, and when he gives something we really like, our attitude is: this is mine! As soon as given, so soon the Giver is forgotten. That’s who God is dealing with everyday.

We lose the greater things because we are more interested in the lesser.

Unseen changes

Being in another place, meeting different groups of people, seeing and hearing things, I am learning and appreciating different spiritual truths.

I do not go to my church for the last couple of weeks as I am clearly away from Melbourne. With regards to things back in Melbourne, and how I think or what I believe, or hold dear, or concerned about, have actually been going through some changes too. Sometimes there is no grand event, no deliberate effort, no particular conversation. Yet somewhere along the way your thinking changes. Your perspective shifts. And only later do you realise how differently you now see things. It could be the smallest thing that triggers it. I don’t fully understand that either. But what I can say is God works in mysterious ways.

What I come to see is God ordains all the things the way they are, at exactly the time He determines them to take place. If you step back to acknowledge His soveriegnty and kind rule over all things, then you see things very differently. Even if it means in tangible ways, you can see the good. For example, when business is not doing well, that may also means your time is freed up. Likewise, when there is a change in ministry decisions that’s out of your say or knowledge, it may also be an indication that your season in it is over. God opens and closes doors. He guides me in the path He wants me to go. I have seen that all these years. But now I realise He even manages my workload in His mysterious and wondrous ways. I couldn’t have planned it the way things unfold 🤔

Things and people change, and God as the first cause of all things will use both the good and the bad, the wise and the foolish, for the good of those who love Him. The moral of the story is that I only need to trust Him and follow His leading by serving unto Him faithfully, cheerfully, trustingly, and hence peacefully and freely.

A Turning Point

By contrast to a good God, there is no man you can fully rely on otherwise. There is a lot of anger against the government understandably (see my previous mention of it), and also regret for whom they have elected to be the leader of the country. Promising figures who turn out the opposite aren’t too uncommon in this world.

When I told some Melbourne friends about the situation here, one of them replied that the Australian government is no better.

I begged to differ though. Of course the context is very different and perhaps you can’t compare it apple to apple strictly. But as someone who’s been in both countries, I can’t honestly say we have it as bad in Melbourne as in Jakarta.

One is like a parent who gives their kids too much handouts for their (kids’) own good. 💰💰💰

The other is like a parent who beats the crap out of the kids for their (the parent’s) own gain. 👊👊👊🥴😵😵‍💫

The way I see it, there is no contest.

Anyway, things don’t appear to be heading in a particularly good direction.

Miscellaneous

Other things I notice include.. things to fix around the house. To name a few, this time round I have replaced one of our toilet shower head and the hose, install a shower head for the maids, fixed the bedroom storage ottoman, Mom’s drawer organiser, set up Mom’s new TV (we siblings got her a new one as a birthday gift), re-adjusted furnitures in her living room to maximise space, fixed some power plugs, and glued some torn stuff in furnitures.

Mom joked with people at home that she’s hired a handyman from Australia 😂. She told my brother to quickly tell me if they have anything that need some fixing in the apartment (before I leave to Melbourne). She joked and said that out of all things, I learnt to be a handyman in Melbourne. My sister-in-law asked is it because the tradesman are so expensive there that we learn to do things ourselves? Haha.. well, you learn to do it when you need to. And yes, the Australian labour is indeed very expensive.

Anyway, I’m actually quite happy to be useful to them in this way. It makes for good stories for them to tell too.