NTM

The only benefit that we can see to waiting so long between updates is that we have plenty of news to share with you. This month has been a busy one for us. With Independence Day celebrations, the beginning of Ramadan (a month of fasting for the majority of Indonesians), some meetings and evaluations, another group of new families arriving for culture and language study, and much more we’ve managed to keep ourselves well occupied since we last wrote. 

On August 17, we joined our Indonesian friends as they celebrated their 64^th year of independence. We are found that they love to party and find this holiday a great excuse to do just that. Starting weeks before, there were neighborhood competitions (like Eel-in-a-Bottle, Water-Bag-Pinata, Kerupuk Eating Contests, and many more) that got us all involved. We hung flags from our fences and cleaned our streets together. We collected donations and planned together. And finally, we culminated the whole celebration in a late night block party complete with an awards ceremony featuring international guests—yes, us! It was a great time to bond and relax with the people who we share most of our lives with here. But as a local pastor shared later in a men’s Bible study, the freedom that we celebrated was only partial. Only a portion of us really enjoy true freedom. It was refreshing and challenging to hear his vision for bringing true and complete freedom to every part of this nation, starting with those closest to us. 

(more…)

We are just back from our trip, and want to take a chance to fill you in on some of the things we experienced, discovered, and decided while we were away. As we had said, we took some of our free time between units of language study to go explore central Indonesia. Since we were considering that area for a future ministry location (while awaiting allocation to a tribal church plant), we were happy to spend some vacation days there looking around. 

In our 6 days there, we were able to attend a local church service (at a church that will have a big part in helping us adjust to the area), meet with local mission leadership, visit the Indonesian missionary training center, talk with staff and students there, and share a meal with some Indonesian tribal missionaries. In all, it was a good and profitable time. We made a  definite decision to move there when we finish our language school here (mid-November or early December). And we have a more accurate idea now of what to expect (or not expect) when we arrive. We still have many questions about our specific ministry roles and other details, but right now we’ll be involved in three main tasks: 

1. Finishing our language study. We’ll finish our language school with plenty of room to grow and with the fluency standards that our mission has set for us, we’ll still have a lot to learn.
2. Helping other families with language study. We’ll be in a place to be an aide to NEWER families who will be arriving and studying language there as well. Since we are NOT Indonesians, we will only help facilitate these language learners meeting with local churches/believers who are Indonesian.
3. Serving at the missionary training center. We’ll take this last ministry on slowly as our language ability allows us. There are needs for teachers over the next few semesters as the student body is as large as its ever been, so we might find ourselves taking on those type roles by early next year.

 There are many aspects of these different ministries that are quite frightening! We are trusting God to arrange all the details and bring us through His path at the right pace. For the time being, though, our primary ministry goal is studying Indonesian culture and language through relationship building in everyday experiences with the people we share life with now.

 We’re excited about moving on to new things, but we need your prayers for the endurance and patience to finish well what we are currently doing. We also need your prayers as we add another little person to our family in 8 months or so! Amy has been morning sick for a few weeks already and would love to feel well again. She was to a doctor yesterday and everything looks good…so now we wait!

Thank you for taking part in what God is doing in our lives and around the world. God bless.

The Huttemans.

Well, we are technically half way through our language school course (although we feel far from half way capable in Indonesian yet). That means that we are half way through this beginning time of transition and orientation. It means we are half way to moving on from here to another island. It means we are half a step closer to our eventual goal of moving interior and beginning a tribal ministry.

 All this begs the question: WHAT NEXT?

 Of all the options that are open to us right now, some seem better fitting than others. As we are now between units of study (a sort of mini summer vacation) we decided to take some of that time to visit another city where we could possibly allocate after leaving Central Java. Although not a tribal ministry, the things available to us there are very exciting and challenging. Our team leaders agree that we should keep focused on moving into a tribal location. So, like our current role as bookkeepers, any ministry we get involved in there will be a short term commitment. As we are already finding, everything that we do during this preparation period will only help the overall team and hone our skills and gifts.

 So we are leaving Friday afternoon for a week of vacati—…I mean, survey in another of Indonesia’s major cities. We’ll have a chance to meet some team members there, explore the city, visit a local missionary training center, attend a local church, and get an overall feel for the place that God might be taking us next.

 We will be thinking through all our options and making some definite decisions during this week and the weeks to come. We are not stellar decision makers, but God has made this choice a little easier already by showing us that He is able to use us anywhere that we are willing to be used. If that means serving in this new city for a while before moving on to other things, than we’re willing.

Please pray that we would constantly seek God’s Wisdom.

 Photos and stories when we get home.

The Huttemans

Do you ever feel just a little bit uncomfortable doing something…but you do it anyway? 

sometimes it takes wearing a skirt to fit in

Recently I sat around with a few friends drinking coffee and chatting until 11 pm. Now, sitting around with friends is a very comfortable thing. Drinking coffee is one of the MOST comfortable things. And chatting has become more and more comfortable as we continue to soak up new language.  Remaining coherent until 11 pm has been something that I’ve been practicing and with the aide of the overly sweetened coffee, I am also pretty comfy doing that. The one thing that made this particular shooting of the breeze slightly uncozy was the fact that most of us were wearing skirts (well, technically they were sarungs…but we all know the truth). This being my first time to venture outside in my newly acquired wrap around, I felt just a little bit conspicuous. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to worry too much about sitting etiquette as I was advised to wear my shorts underneath. 

I won’t get into how well I adjusted to the new attire or how I forgot to take it off when I got home. Those are all minor details that don’t really contribute to the theme of this email. What does relate however, is that we have definitely been asked to do some uncomfortable things in order to adapt ourselves to life and ministry here. Lately that has meant hosting a neighborhood Bible study group, attending funerals, showing up at an engagement party at our landlord’s place even though we haven’t been formally invited just to show that we care enough to crash their party, drive new missionary families (only slightly newer than us, really) through white-knuckle traffic into town so they can do some essential shopping to set up their houses, and more of the same. None of that would fall into the “naturally comfortable” category for us. 

But just like wearing a man-skirt in public, these little discomforts have managed to become more cozy. We continue to praise God for the grace He gives us to make these minor changes in ourselves that allow us to become the people He needs us to be. A big part of that process still includes becoming slightly fluent speakers. We are currently in our 5^th of 9 one month units of study at the language school here. As we near that mid-point, we are beginning to seek some direction for our ministry after language study. Some options have been presented, but as we are still uncertain we feel it is unfair to you if we claim right now to know which way we’ll go. We do ask, however, that you please pray with us for wisdom to make these decisions. All of them include us making more adjustments and taking on more uncomfortable tasks and responsibilities. But as long as I can wear my sarung, I guess it doesn’t really matter where we end up!

Thank you for praying for us recently in the situation with the little girl who had the motorcycle accident. The family just arrived home from the hospital. Amy was able to visit this afternoon (surely an uncomfortable thing for her) and she said that she didn’t know which child it was until her mother pointed her out. After that, Amy did realize that she didn’t talk much and had some difficulty getting around. All in all, the recovery seems to be going well. We are looking for the right way and opportunity to share that they and their family were prayed for by so many of our faithful friends back home (ie: YOU). Thank you for giving the chance to talk with them about something as important! 

And thank you for your support and prayers!

Michael and Amy Hutteman

 This story was featured on New Tribes Mission’s front page

Since writing and asking prayer for our neighbors and their 2 year old who was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident this week,  we’ve been able to learn a little bit more about the situation. In fact, I just walked in the door after hearing the latest news. A van load of people from our community drove 2 hours to Solo and back to visit the family in the hospital there. Although the little victim is still in the ICU, they say that she “already woke up” but that she “can’t remember yet”. We’re finding that in these medical situations, the language barrier seems pretty thick; but I take that to mean that she’s awake but maybe not totally coherent yet. 

We got so many responses from people who have been praying for her, that I wanted you all to know what’s happening and to ask you to keep praying. I was able to talk with one close friend about the whole situation and I told him that I was praying for the victim and her family. Although we cast our requests in two very different directions, I think that he can appreciate my intention there. Maybe our neighbors will see the hand of The Great Physician at work in their situation and be drawn to Him through it. 

Thank you for supporting us through your prayers.

Michael and Amy

Recently we have been studying some of the cultural patterns expressed through Indonesian relationships. One of the strongest bonds between Indonesians is that with their neighbors. We’ve already written a bit about the monthly meetings, the cooperative work projects (I’m sure you remember the road resurfacing we did here a while back!), cooperative savings groups, and other such examples. Another area that we beginning to discover is how neighbors interact when there is sickness or some tragedy in the community. This one was easy to witness as we have been passing through the pancaroba (or netherworld between rainy and dry seasons). It seems like most everyone has had some kind of flu or cough or general illness. Luckily pigs are not very prolific here—either are Mexican tourists—so we treat everything as the “common” flu. 

what a cutie

More recently, though, we’ve been provided the chance to practice our newly learned culture skills in a more acute way. A neighborhood family took their toddler to the hospital today: she has a brain hemorrhage after falling from their motorcycle onto the highway. Her case was too severe for our local hospitals, so they were transferred to a nearby city with better facilities. This family doesn’t yet know the ONE who can give the only true comfort. Their situation is especially hard for us because their son is G’s age, so sympathy comes easily. As we communicate care and concern in a culturally appropriate way, we want to communicate some TRUE hope and love. Neither task will be very easy considering the cultural barriers we still face! 

Please pray for this family as they go through such a hard experience. And pray for us—their neighbors—to be able to express the help and care that they need right now. We are trying hard to become part of this community, and yet we want to be set apart from it as well. That balance is difficult to find and more difficult to maintain.

 Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Michael and Amy Hutteman

This post was featured on New Tribes Missions’ main page

Well, it’s official: we are not WORSE at speaking Indonesian than when we got here! 

Recently our language skills were evaluated by our New Tribes language consultants here and they gave us the good news that we are both “progressing”. I suppose we already knew that—although we often feel that our progress is in the wrong direction—but it was encouraging to have some concrete answers to the nagging question: “How am I doing?” Through an hour of conversational question and answer time, our evaluators were able to spot some areas where we need to focus our attention at this time; they have seen a lot of barely fluent speakers and bring tons of experience and help to the learning process. These evaluations also served to remind us that we are only progressing—we most definitely haven’t reached our goal yet!

Please pray for our stamina and diligence in the areas of language learning that require larger quantities of both.

 Another official change to our status here: we will begin taking on some new responsibilities for our missionaries in this town. NO, that is not a change of plans (maybe an addition, but not a redirection). We still hope to reach an acceptable level of fluency and allocate to another area for full time ministry within the next year. But while we are here, this is one way that we can begin contributing to the team. And it seems that God had this in mind when he gave the gifts (and openness) that we feel make this a fitting ministry for us. Nonetheless, this added responsibility will bring some added commitment. Please pray that we’d have wisdom to budget and balance our time in the most effective way to allow us to reach our goals during these busy days. 

Some other activities that will begin filling our days include: teaching English to some teens at our church here, and maybe doing the same to a group of 30 adult students in a Buddhist school near our town. Both of these are exciting chances to minister (in different ways, of course) and build a wider range of friendships with a more eclectic group of Indonesians. In both settings, the students already have a background in our mixed up language, but they need a little more exposure to natives (like us) who can help take what they know out of text books and into conversations. We can really empathize with that need, as we feel the same way with our clumsy use of Indonesian. As we plan and begin teaching in these two classes, please pray for opportunities to share more than just our pronunciation and syntax skills—if we still have any! 

So we expect to become a little more busy in the next month. Isn’t that how Spring always is? We will keep you posted on these different ministry outlets as they begin to unfold. Thank you for your continuing prayers and encouragement. They are always needed and appreciated.

 Michael , Amy and G

You’ll be glad to hear that we made it home safely and enjoyed our trip (even if it was short).  

Oh…where did we go? I almost forgot that with the business of our last week, I never told you what we were doing. Well, here it is—sorry it’s late. 

My parents (John and Debbie) arrived Monday afternoon for a 5 day visit. They are heading home from a trip to Papua New Guinea where they visited with family there, spoke at a missionary conference, and attended the celebration marking the completion of the New Testament translation into the Iwam tribal language. Since they were in the same hemisphere as us, they swung their itinerary our way for a quick visit. Although their time here was short, we made the most of it by jamming as many purely Indonesian experiences as possible into our days. We ate a bunch of local food (sorry  Mom and Dad if that catches up with you later!), we met as many neighbors and friends as were around, we took some trips into town, visited a batik factory, rode a train through rice fields, climbed a nearby mountain (with the help of a truck), and more

 G loved the treats his MomMom and PopPop hauled half way around the globe for him. He loved the attention that they dumped on him. He loved showing them some of his favorite things about Indonesia: the neighborhood monkey, pedicab rides through town, our new motorcycle (Mom never agreed to ride along…that’s strange). He even got a chance to “help” drive a dokar horse cart home from shopping yesterday. It will be hard for him to realize tomorrow morning that life is back to normal and that he’ll have to start creating his own fun again—not that he’s  ever really alone with all his friends here. One thing that really shocked my folks was how much talking G does! They were often confused talking with him though, because he blends his languages into something closer to Indonesian than English. 

One example that made us all laugh arose as we were flying to Jakarta together. G was ecstatic to have his own seat for the first time—and by a window at that! But the feeling faded and turned to dread as the plane rumbled down the runway and the ground suddenly dropped from beneath his window. He calmed down a bit once the in flight snack was served, but wanted us to go down for the rest of the flight. Following the “we’re making our decent” announcement from the pilot, G turned to me and said: Pak Gino, turun. Pak Gino, turun. He thought he recognized the voice over the speakers as our neighbor Pak (Mr.) Gino. And thinking he finally found a sympathetic ear, he was begging him to take us down (turun). And to his surprise, Pak Gino listened!

 So, if my parents were visiting us, why were we travelling? We used their coming (and going) as an excuse to take a trip to Jakarta for a night. Airfare and accommodations are relatively cheap here, so we decided to accompany them on their domestic flight and hang out one more night together before they left this morning. It was sure nice to spend that extra time with them and see a tiny slice of the capital city together. They flew out this morning for more LONG hours in small airplane seats, and we flew home this afternoon to restart some semblance of normal life.

 Please keep praying for us! Language study is a constant, continuous project. We were encouraged by the amount of getting around we were able to do this week; but we have so far to go! And thank you for remembering to pray for Amy. She has been managing her allergies with medicine, but they still sap her energy and leave her totally drained by the end of most days. 

Thank you for being a part of our lives and ministry here. If you would like to book your own visit to Indonesia, we would love to have you!

 Until then.

the Huttemans

Every day we experience something new here! These past few weeks we’ve had quite a share of them. It makes me wonder what our neighbors will awe us with when they’ve exhausted their arsenal of cultural wonders (we should be safe there for QUITE some time). Some of the activities and insights have been especially interesting to us; maybe they will to you, also.

One Friday afternoon, two young guys (whom I recognized as our neighborhood “public broadcast system”) came to our house to extend an invitation to come to a _________ at a neighbor’s house that Sunday morning. Since the blank wasn’t filled in with the original version (at least not the way my brain read it) I gladly agreed to be there, closed the door and began wondering. With a few nonchalant questions put to some kids playing nearby—“Is anything going on this weekend?”, “So, what’s Mr. Soandso doing on Sunday?”—I discovered that I was going to be participating in a Sunatan. For those who aren’t familiar with this religious coming-of-age ceremony, you can check your Indonesian-English dictionary (the way I had to) and find that it is a party thrown for a teenaged boy when he is circumcised. As you might imagine, I was a little leery of just showing up at a party like that. Thankfully, these kinds of events are attended by nearly everyone in the area; while at church earlier that morning I found someone whom I could tag along with (and found there is even a word for “tag along”…what luck). So we went together and I was able to ask a lot of questions (just like a toddler, especially since I talk like a 2 year old) and get a small understanding of the culture behind the event. I also learned how to react when the tarp strung over your head for protection funnels monsoon rain in torrents onto a crowd of dapperly dressed guests—that one was pretty easy: DIVE for dry ground! In all, the first sunatan was very interesting and I hope that I learned some things that will help with the next one that I accidentally accept an invitation to.

 That same day, Amy and G went to a wedding down the street from our house. I say down the street, but it was technically “in the street”. Like most big gatherings here, the only space large enough for the crowd lies between two curbs (or in our case, two raging drainage ditches). They were happy to be introduced to the bride and groom, share some food, tea, and conversation with other neighbors, and find out what makes a wedding here different (and the same as) a wedding back home. One difference that Amy pointed out was that usually, the guests at an American wedding are not invited to tour the bridal suite during the reception (at least none we’ve been to…you might have experienced otherwise).

 Later that week, another neighborhood event was arranged when a woman in our community died unexpectedly. This was another experience that I stumbled upon in my ignorant willingness to accept any invitation. As it happened, one of her sons was out of town (out of island, really) and would miss his own mothers’ funeral, since it is imperative that the deceased be buried the same day they die. Word got out that I—the curious white guy—had a camcorder, so the family decided to ask me to capture the sad happenings for the returning son. I was a bit nervous to play so vital a role in my first Indonesian funeral, but luckily a family member (who had better access to whatever was happening inside the house of mourning) borrowed the camera and took all the video that was needed. The next day, the son arrived and watched the DVD we had burned of his mom’s funeral. I really hope that my insignificant contribution of a few minutes of video editing may have comforted a grieving heart. It was hard to sit and watch the footage, though, knowing that the bundle of white cloth that was laid into the muddy Javanese grave held an empty body. It was harder still to imagine what awaited the spirit who had recently vacated that body.

 Whether they are wedding celebrations, circumcision parties, or funerals, the things that happen every day here are more than just social gatherings. These are windows into the minds and souls of our neighbors. Our ministry goal for this period of language study is to become as Indonesian as possible in order to communicate as clearly as possible. We have a much needed message of hope and joy, but we are (and forever will be) limited in the way that we share it here. Please pray that we will find acceptable and penetrating ways to interact with Indonesians so that message will get through.

 In other news:

• G is wearing underwear, using the toilet, and loving it!
• We finally bought a motorcycle (we were waiting to get Indonesian licenses first) so we finally have a means of self conveyance.
• And we will taking evaluations Friday (the last day of classes for the first unit of language study) to determine how MUCH we still need to learn.
• My parents arrive in a few weeks for a quick visit on their way home from a trip to Papua New Guinea. 

I apologize if your coffee got cold while you read this email. We feel like so much has happened here lately that we really wanted to let you in on some of it. There are so many other stories and laughs to be shared about these and other events! Remind me to bring them out of the vault when we need something talk about.

 We need and depend upon your prayers. Thank you!

Michael Hutteman