December 26, 2008

Dear Friends,

One of the exciting things about living and working overseas is not only meeting Indonesians but also getting to know a wide variety of people from other countries who, like me, are living far from home. Most of the Westerners who live in Indonesia are Dutch, due to the fact that Indonesia was a Dutch colony for 350 years. But there are other Europeans, as well as Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, and approximately 10,000 people from the United States. I am lucky to have met many fascinating people from all over the world who have come here to serve and work with the people of Indonesia.

Barbara Hopwood outside her home in Jakarta, July 2008.

When I arrived at Jakarta Theological Seminary last year to begin teaching, there was an American professor by the name of Barbara Hopwood. She taught two subjects: spirituality and Christian education. She was extremely popular with the students. From the first moment I met her, I was impressed with her faith, her easy facility with the language, and her skill and calmness in dealing with Indonesian bureaucracy and all the confusing aspects of living in this very different culture.

It shouldn’t be surprising that she was so well-adjusted, since Barbara had been serving for 35 years as a missionary in Indonesia. Barbara worked under the auspices of an organization called OMF International, a mission agency with roots in China that has spread throughout East Asia.

Barbara first landed in Indonesia in her mid-twenties and began teaching at a remote Lutheran seminary in north Sumatra. After several years there, she moved to central Sulawesi to an area called Toraja that is predominantly Christian. Barbara taught for over 15 years at a seminary there. Then she came to Jakarta Theological Seminary and had been there for two years when I arrived.

Luckily for me, her office was directly across the hall from mine and she became a very important mentor to me. (In my June 2008 newsletter there’s a photo of Barbara and me at the seminary graduation ceremony.) We met weekly to pray together, often with other members of the faculty, about issues both personal and community-wide within the seminary. She invited me to her home for delicious home-cooked meals. After so many years in Indonesia, she had figured out ways to make homemade breads and cakes that tasted amazingly like the way they taste back in the States.

Jakarta Seminary students in a classroom making get well signs to send to Barbara during her illness, Jakarta, December 2008.

Barbara had never married. One day as I talked with her about my struggles with being single in a country where everyone over the age of 30 is married, she shared how she had actually felt called by God to stay single. In spite of the endless queries from Indonesians who could not fathom such a choice, she remained true to her call and devoted her whole life to teaching Christian spirituality to Indonesians.

She did, however, adopt a young Indonesian woman whom she had met at the seminary in Sulawesi and who had needed financial and mentoring help. Just this last summer, Barbara was able to attend the wedding ceremony of her adopted daughter as one of the bride’s mothers, seated next to the biological mother. This young woman was only one of many Indonesian students and friends whom Barbara assisted throughout her many years of service.

Barbara retired at the end of the 2007-08 academic year. The seminary gave a party in her honor before she left in July, 2008. She returned to the United States with plans to care for her ailing mother in a suburb of Baltimore. But in August she fell ill and was diagnosed with stomach cancer. It was quite a shock to everyone because she had seemed perfectly healthy when she left Indonesia.

After several months of unsuccessful chemotherapy, Barbara was moved into a hospice center and on December 18, 2008, she passed away. I spoke with her mother shortly afterwards, and she told me how much Indonesia had meant to Barbara and to her life.

As all of us who knew Barbara try to deal with the sorrow of losing her so quickly, I also find myself feeling deeply grateful that her service in Indonesia overlapped with mine. At a tough period during my adaptation to a new position at the seminary and living in the overwhelming city of Jakarta, she was my “still, small voice of calm.” She gave me advice and a sense that I would survive and even thrive. We often spoke together of what a privilege it is to spend our lives teaching people about God.

I write about her now with a sense of sadness at the loss, but also in joy at having encountered such a strong woman of faith. I am reminded of those who have gone before me, paving the way for those of us still struggling and growing as we try to follow our call. Like Barbara, there have been generations of missionaries, be they Presbyterian or OMF or whatever their sending organization might be, who quietly and without fanfare have become God’s hands and feet, loving the people around them and reminding them that we belong to an awesome God.

Sometimes I feel that in the busy-ness of our lives in the United States, we forget the incredible gift that so many people do for us by going to serve as our representatives among people of other races, religions, and nations. As a newcomer to the field, going rather late in my career, it is remarkable to me how many people have gone before me and spent long periods of time or their entire career overseas. Knowing now how difficult it is, I salute them and the selflessness with which they relinquish the comforts of home to minister to others with their whole lives, not just from 9:00 to 5:00 but 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

So here’s to Barbara Hopwood and countless others who have chosen a life of service overseas, with thanks for their tireless, fruitful service, and celebration at their homecoming someday into the peace that passes all understanding. Thanks be to God for this great cloud of witnesses who surround us and our neighbors near and far on this earth, to sing with the angels, “Behold, I bring you great tidings of joy, which shall be to all people…”

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 94