Indonesia
My wife and I have pastored together for 25 years at a church in downtown Jakarta with a congregation of around 250 people. We really enjoy our ministry’s call to grow together with the congregation we pastor.
We have one daughter who is now in her sixth semester of medical school preparing to become a doctor.
Since our time in the seminary, my wife and I have been mentors to more than 120 teenagers. We discipled them so that many of the active members in the church today are the teenagers we mentored.
If I were asked what position or role is the most meaningful, it would be being a father to the many foster children we have brought into our home as part of our family. I treasure this more than all the other roles I have held in our synod or national church or even globally.
A home with open doors
This story began when my wife and I were still dating at a seminary in Salatiga.
We had the same passion for loving children and young people, guiding them to know the Lord Jesus and to grow in all aspects of their lives. We both realized that our existence is only due to God’s grace; and we wanted other people to also experience God’s grace.
After we got married and our daughter was 10 months old, God sent a young man to us. He had no parents and was rejected by his family. His body was emaciated and he had a burst eardrum due to violence from his uncle.
A member of the congregation took him to our place and that night we agreed to take care of him. He stayed with us for many years. We were able to guide him to meet the Lord Jesus.
That young person went on to complete theology and mission studies and has been serving for 10 years as a missionary in the interior.
Since then, God has sent many children from various regions and ethnic backgrounds to our home.
Some 43 children have become part of our family. Generally, they are from poor families in villages and remote areas who don’t have a father or mother. Several of them have special needs or have conditions like epilepsy that need to be controlled by a doctor.
Bringing so many children into our home is not an easy thing. From the beginning we were committed to using our own money, which was very limited at first, even for daily meals. As pastors our income is not large. It became difficult when our foster children increased from 4 to 10 then 13 and then 17. Yet we see it as our calling to bear all their living expenses: food, clothing, school fees.
For two years we ate salted fish almost every day (which made my wife suffer from high blood pressure). But we never regret doing it because God gives us joy.
In the way of God
The hardest thing is not how to provide food, but how to educate our children in the way of God in light of their different family and cultural backgrounds.
We are not creating an orphanage, or even a dormitory for children. Instead, we are making them part of our family. We often tell our children that this is their home and this is a family, so that they rediscover the warmth and security of a family they never had.
Our goal is not only to allow them to pursue their dreams, but to educate them to become transformed by Christ and find their callings as his disciples.
When our daughter was in elementary school, she once asked: “Mom and Dad, why do you bring so many children into our house? Our house is so full. It would be nice if it was just the three of us living alone, and everything was mine.”
However, when she was a senior in high school, she wrote an essay for a writing competition hosted by the biggest newspaper in our country.
“I was born as an only child who should be able to enjoy that blessing without needing to share with others. But my father and mother brought many children to be raised in our house, which meant that I had to share everything, including my father and my mother. At first, I was sad and found it difficult to accept. But my parents were very loving people who longed for other children to feel God’s love and have a future. They allowed their lives to be disrupted so that they could become trees that sheltered many vulnerable people. Today, my house is filled relatives from all across Indonesia. I now understand that life must be shared. Where is the beauty of life if it is only lived for yourself?”
We shed tears as we read her reflection, grateful that she has also discovered that the true meaning of life is found only when we share.
As it turned out, she won the contest.
Currently, many of our children have graduated and are pursuing their vocations as pastors, missionaries, teachers, nurses and working in the marketplaces. If they ask, “How can we repay you for all the kindness you have shown as our father, mother and sister?” we always answer, “Repay it by sharing God’s love with others so that doesn’t just stop with you. We look forward to visiting you seeing many children in your families.”
Of course, there are many dynamics in this whole process – many joys and sorrows. But God has allowed our dream to be fulfilled.
Pray that our children will continue to become believers and faithful disciples, serving God according to their gifts and callings.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
—Agus W. Mayanto is the Mennonite World Conference Regional Representative for Southeast Asia. He and his wife Rosmaida are co-pastors of GKMI Cempaka Putih Jakarta in Indonesia since 1999.
This article is adapted from the speech he presented at Renewal 2024, “Transformed, together we live Jesus” 6 April 2024 in Brazil.
