by Rebecca Muir

The 23rd floor of the Shangri-La hotel in the heart of Jakarta was the setting for our morning team meeting, a far cry from much of the surrounding accommodation visible from the hotel windows. Parallel to the main street just outside the hotel runs a canal transporting the city’s litter from west to east. This city is certainly one of extreme contrasts and unlike many other cities where the slums skirt the city parameters, squalor and wealth exist side by side throughout Jakarta.

On a lighter note, Evita won the “Gummy Award” in recognition of all of her hard work in organizing the logistics for the team. Brett also surprised us with the unique equip “ugly shirt,” except this time it is an Indonesian shirt.  To Evita’s chargrin the shirt was her second award of the day, but she came up with a good compromise and wore it around her waist.

Evita’s and my first stop was to visit a seminary (ETSI) building in progress, largely funded by Menlo Park Presbytarian Church, in California. Evita has been the liaison between MPPC and the ETSI and so she came to see the progress of the building project which will include several classrooms, a large chapel room, as well as a library and computer suite, including Internet connection, for student use.

We were also accompanied by Gerry Thompson, a retired school teacher from Menlo Park, CA. Prior to retiring, her students started a foundation called “Children Matter” in 1989 which has been used to fund the development of cultural-specific books for beginner readers in an impoverished area of Indonesia called Lombok. It is also currently used to sponsor children in Indonesia, although the long-term goal is to establish one project in each continent focusing on the needs of children. Gerry travels to Lambok at least once a year with the two-fold goal of putting books in the hands of all the Indonesian children living in Lombok and training teachers in a variety of teaching strategies for reading.

The remainder of the team split into groups to meet with various contacts made during the Transform World conference and also some connections made before leaving for Indonesia. This included a meeting with representatives from the Building Project Foundation of Love and Care for Indonesia, who felt led to establish the foundation last November, just a month before the Tsunami struck Indonesia. They are currently involved in providing basic care to the victims of the Tsunami, but hope to provide low-cost housing (approximately 1 million houses, costing 1,000 to 1,500 US dollars each) and to create other businesses in both Aceh and Nias. This of course could be a key connection in developing the housing project spearheaded by Don Cook and Brett Johnson. There was strong interest from all sides in building a prototype of the proposed low-cost housing in the Jakarta area to provide high visibility on the part of politicians and potential investors.

Brett, Bob and Evita also met with Justi J., Stephen C. and Roy T., principles of one of the largest Christian-owned conglomerates in Indonesia, to discuss a common understanding of their working relationship through early Fall which would include specific deliverables such as a business seminar in July of this year. The longer-term prospect is to establish a consulting firm in Jakarta.

Finally, as I write this update, the equip seminar is in progress with 35+ key business owners and managers from around Jakarta. While Brett explains the equip vision we hope to gauge the readiness of Indonesia for equip ventures. Throughout this last week we have already had a very positive reception from the businesspeople in Jakarta and we are excited about returning to Indonesia for the second stage of this process.