A BALINESE PERSPECTIVE

The impact of the pandemic on our daily lives has been significant and long-lasting. What began as a novelty has now become a global lament. Risk and resilience have become the calling card of our season, and it asks us to reflect daily on the impact across the world.

It is a rare event, where we together have faced a moment of reckoning. We have felt the tragedy of lockdown in Australia with businesses closed and the constant-change fatigue. But the difficulty of this season on the Hillsong creative team who live and work on the island of Bali, Indonesia has been immense. The daily count of cases regularly reaches over 10,000 people with a total count of over four million. This has resulted in extremely limited work and food supplies, as well as a strained healthcare system.

From the beginning of 2020, when the pandemic began to shut the island down, tourism stopped overnight. Life as they knew it changed irrevocably, as the wedding industry, in which 90% of the worship and creative arts volunteers worked, was made redundant. Years of bookings were cancelled. Artists, singers, videographers and musicians, who served faithfully every week with the Balinese congregation in the city of Denpasar, were unsure whether they needed to return home to their villages. They realised their community and life may never return to normal.

Helping those in need within their community became their focus in a time of pain and heartache. There was a risk of catching COVID-19 themselves in deciding to serve the local community with courage. This significant moment of risk turned into a building ground of resilience for our team. They saw need after need, person after person, desperate for help and answers. Their question and focus became, ‘How do we bring hope amid the suffering?’

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of resilience is, “The capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused by compressive stress.” Resilience is talked about often, but in a season of lament that seems long-lasting, what does it mean to respond? When lockdowns continue week after week, how can we rediscover our ‘why’ and adapt to our current reality?

Rebi Rey serves as the Creative Pastor for the Hillsong Bali campus. She grew up on the island and lives her life to serve the creative team in Indonesia. For Rey, the greatest risk that turned into an opportunity for courage was helping her team find houses, work, and supporting their daily needs. She herself tested positive with COVID-19 and had to rest for recovery, even though all she wanted to do was help her team members. Now healthy, she’s learned how to support others going through the same thing.

“Because I have gone through it, recovering from COVID-19 myself, I now know how to comfort others,” Rey said.

THE IMPACT ON THE BALINESE COMMUNITY

While still experiencing the effects of lockdowns in Australia, a simple idea was formed of taking up an offering for the Bali creative team at Team Night (Hillsong’s weekly creative team gatherings). This resulted in hundreds of hampers being distributed through the community.

Over $11,000 AUD was given to help create and hand out these hampers to the Denpasar community. Rey and those who are part of the Balinese team expressed how grateful they were for the support.

The impact of the hampers helped those who were desperately seeking assistance and has been longlasting. They included five kilograms of rice, a dozen fresh eggs, instant noodles and a litre of cooking oil. They are collated in the kid’s ministry room, and then distributed through connect groups as a part of the Kilo of Kindness program (a Hillsong initiative that provides food relief through community partners.) The Bali team believes that close to 90% of the hampers went to people who are currently

“We see our reality outside of our internal dialogue, and it reminds us that as we give to another, we sow hope into our everyday as well.”

outside of the church program.

Rey reflected that even the local authorities were overwhelmed by the generosity of the church.

“It was a moment when I saw the Acts Church in action, meeting the needs of the people, to give them hope and strength to remember to keep holding on.”

LOOK FOR THE HELPERS

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” - Fred Rogers

We are the helpers. We were designed with this innate capacity to respond with empathy. When we move towards action, even something small enacts a series of growth opportunities when we understand the pain of another.

In times of isolation, distraction, and discomfort, when we grow in risk and resilience to reach out and bring hope, there is transformational change that happens in our hearts, minds and lives. We see our reality outside of our internal dialogue, and it reminds us that as we give to another, we sow hope into our everyday as well.

The team in Bali wanted to turn the difficulty of the season into a line of surrender, where they are volunteering, serving and bringing beauty to those broken places. Despite the vast majority being without work, they have made it their mission and mandate to bless others — to continue to move with encouragement and to show people Jesus in the lament. By handing out hampers, meeting the needs of the local community, praying for people, and distributing medical supplies, the church truly left the building. Rey smiled as she shared her heart: “God can use something so tragic. In twenty years, I want to look back and remember the risk it took to bring

those dry bones back to life — the reflection of God meeting people in their broken places and bring hope.”

A scripture that continues to encourage our Balinese team in the daily difficulties that they face is Jeremiah 5:22b. It says, “Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it.” (New International Version, Jeremiah 5:22b)

The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail.

The oceans may roar, but they cannot cross it.

This is their line of victory in a season of so much loss, found in broken places.

As the congregation members in Bali make their way back to in-person gatherings, they have a COVID-19 test each time they enter the building. It is a humbling and raw reality with the impact of the pandemic still so present across the world.

As we walk together towards the new days that this transformative resilience is creating in each of us, let’s remember to look for the helpers and meet the needs of those who cross our paths. Remember that the waves may roll, but they cannot prevail. The ocean may roar, but God will continue to meet us in these darkened times. Risk, resilience and helping others is the calling card of this season.