OMC XIX theme was rural development with strong emphasis in farming. For some, the theme seems not relevant because of our education and profession. However, FICA felt that God wanted us to start focusing on rural area of Indonesia. The story began in 2009.
In 2009, Mr. Sadikin Djumin (former FICA’s president) shared his desire for FICA to engage in rural development in Indonesia. His reasoning was three folds: 1) majority of the poor and the underprivileged live in rural area, 2) most rural areas do not have capable leaders, and 3) FICA’s calling to develop public leaders in Indonesia according to biblical mold. Indonesians Bureau of Statistics predicted that about 16% out of 120 million people living in rural area were poor in 20111, http://dds.bps.go.id/brs_file/kemiskinan-01jul11.pdf. This means that about 70% of the poor reside in rural area.
Unfortunately, the majority of capable farmers leave their villages to work in the cities for higher quality job with guarantee better pay. This is the central problem that FICA’s found in 2009 during the discovery trip. The implications of this phenomenon are not only the lost of valuable human resources to develop the farm and its supporting business, social structure, and communities, but also the vacuum of local leaders that would have had strong desire to lead the community out of poverty. We observed two events where the local leaders inspire and finally lead the community and the whole out from the despair of poverty.
Mr. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama and Mr. Hasan Karman both responded to God’s calling and came back to Belitung Timur and Singkawang from their comfortable life in Jakarta. Mr. Hasan Karman told our team in 2009 that he came back not to obtain glory or riches, but to offer service and sacrifice to the people of his native origin in Singkawang. This finding opened our eyes to what God’s plan for Indonesia. He wanted us to serve in rural area in Indonesia. This finding convicted us to talk about servant leadership (2010 OMC theme) in the context of rural development (2011 and 2012 OMC themes).
The main difference between the rural and urban areas is the profession of its residence. In rural area, the majority of the population work in farming sector, while in urban areas they work in service and manufacturing sectors. We need to understand farming in order for us to engage in rural development.
The issues surrounding the farming sector are mainly similar to those in other sectors but are manifested in different forms. This is because the uncertainty or risk in farming was tied to how well we tame the nature, which would be related to our view on God and self. Because we believe that God creates everything and gives the authority to be His steward of the earth, we have confidence that the earth is perfectly capable of producing enough food. This responsibility also calls us to conserve the earth instead of punishing the earth thru harmful and irresponsible farming practices.
The world’s idea of God and self is different and will not only hamper the rural development, but also exploit the earth and enslave its people in corrupt system. We need Christians those hearts have been redeemed and minds been transformed for Indonesia to develop its rural area. OMC XIX has inspired and provided some us avenues to serve in rural area in Indonesia. Most of the results will be presented in OMC XX in 2013.