Indonesia

For a new beginning

Dear friends of the Mission, Rejoice in the Lord. With God’s help, we are in good health. I am writing this update to give you a briefing about our Mission in Indonesia:

1. The general situation in Indonesia is not good. Now let me briefly explain about the problems we are confronted with in our Mission in general. Both churches and mosques are almost closed and do not operate normally. Although they are open, the number of people allowed to attend is limited. This is the case with our own churches as well. Usually, it is me and Presbytera Elizabeth in the church. This situation has been going on for 6 months now, but we do not anticipate that it will stop soon. Schools are closed, and students are taking lessons online. As you know, our Mission revenues, which are limited, come only from small churches and schools. As regards myself, I got my salary from the Holy Diocese of Arta, because I was ordained priest there, but none of our priests here in Indonesia has any salary at all. Prior to Covid19, schools were open smoothly. The majority of our priests here are teachers in these schools, thus they could make ends meet this way.

Now that schools have been closed since March 2020, our priests have no income at all the local parishes are closed. The Diocese of Singapore cannot afford to pay anything to their priests. I told our problems to the Metropolitan but I received no answer. Now I do not know what to do. Here the Protestant Church takes care of their priests and has no problem. What are we supposed to do since we have no money to support our family members, who are suffering from deprivation. The situation in our new Orthodox Mission here in Indonesia is very difficult indeed.

Fr. Chariton with our Orthodox community on Nias island

2. Our news from the island of Nias is more or less the same as that from the city of Medan, except for something that happened last week. There was a big storm on this island and a strong wind blew off half of the church roof. We want to have it fixed, but currently it is too difficult for us to afford the expenses.… Now our church and our schools are closed. As a result, Father Chariton is facing a serious financial problem. Fortunately, there are plenty of bananas there, and the people eat them to survive.

3. My brethren, since due to this pandemic we have to stay at home, we think it is a good idea to take advantage of this opportunity and start translating paternal as well as other spiritual books, such as the Synaxarion, John of the Ladder, Ecclesiastical History, Gerontikon, Orthodox Church. These books are very useful as a means of Mission, and I intend to put some in the library of our St. Paul the Apostle Theological School. We want to have these books printed and then, we priests can sell them to have an income to live on. Due to the fact that our priests cannot afford to run the Mission, it is a solution for the time being. Both the Synaxarion and the Ecclesiastical History consist of two volumes. So we now have 7 volumes that are ready to print.

The problem is that we have no money. We print at least 100 copies of each of these books. The printing cost of each book is about 9 euro. If you want, dear brothers and sisters, each one of you can help by undertaking the printing cost for as many books as you want, eg 10, 20, 30, 40 books, and keep this money in the Orthodox Missionary Fraternity until the whole sum is raised. Please remember to send us the names of the donors for commemoration during the Office of Oblation. In this way, we, the priests here, try to run the Orthodox Mission by selling books and at the same time earn our living.

4. Scientists here in Indonesia predict that this coronavirus thing will not stop soon. That is the reason why I intend to return to the village again to grow some fruit and vegetables so that we can have our own produce in 4-5 months. Of course we still have the orange tres, but the fruit quality is not very good because I could not afford to buy very good fertilizers. I want to buy good fertilizers so that in December 2020, we can have really good fruit. If you have the possibility, please help us in this matter. In my village is my paternal land, about 10 hectares, and I intend to plant and grow corn there. To facilitate the projects, we have to use tractors there. Here we can rent a tractor. The cost for 1 hectare is 320 euro. Once again, we make an appeal to your loving heart for help.

5. My brothers, since currently we cannot meet face to face because of the coronavirus, we have to use some means that helps us realize this meeting (professor with students, priest with believers), like, for example, a cell phone. However, as my cell phone is not good and makes some strange noises if we make communication connections, we want to buy a slightly better quality device for this purpose so that a voice can be heard clearly by others without much noise. We have asked for prices and found out that such devices cost about 750 euro. I really need such a good, reliable “machine” because I do my teaching through this.

6. Dear brethren, if this coronavirus situation continues until 2021, we, as a new Mission here in Indonesia, must take some steps to make sure that our priests can survive. I explained some things to you before. Please pray for us as regards this matter so that we can have deep faith in God. I have asked for many things, I know, but I would like to share the burden we have to carry here so that I can take courage and strength to carry on. That is all our news for now. May our Lord Jesus Christ protect you all with His power.

Wishing in the Lord,

Fr. Chrysostomos Manalu