[Individual articles from the Spring 2018 issue of Intersections will be posted on this blog each week. The full issue can be found on MCC’s website.]
Young adult exchange programs in Indonesia offer a good case study of the relevance of investing in cross-cultural skills needed to navigate life in multicultural settings. For young adults from Indonesia, and I suspect many other countries, the development of these skills is helpful to their ability to navigate their identities and interactions both at home and abroad. In the Indonesian context, young adult cross-cultural exchange
programs help to promote unity within the vibrant diversity of Indonesian society.
MCC’s work in Indonesia has taken place in many different parts of the country. In the past, MCC has worked in multiple parts of Indonesia, including Borneo, Sumatra and Java, all parts of the Indonesian archipelago with distinctive cultures, languages and ethnicities. Over the years, the MCC team brought together people not only from Canada,
the United States and Indonesia, but also from many other countries and cultures. At its best, MCC was a vibrant site of multicultural, or intercultural, service in Indonesia. The team’s multicultural character in turn reflected the fundamentally multicultural character of Indonesia itself.
People from the multicultural societies of the United States and Canada, in my experience, often tend to view other nations as monocultures. Many MCC workers who came to Indonesia from Canada and the U.S. to serve were surprised to realize that Indonesian Christians generally and Indonesian Mennonites specifically are already engaged in intercultural service.”
People from the multicultural societies of the United States and Canada, in my experience, often tend to view other nations as monocultures. Perhaps rooted in colonial assumptions about what constitutes a nation, this unreflective assumption of “one country one people” means that many MCC workers who came to Indonesia from Canada and the U.S. to serve were surprised to realize that Indonesian Christians generally and Indonesian Mennonites specifically are already engaged in intercultural service. Indonesia, after all, is made up not only of scores of islands, but is also marked by many different languages and ethnicities. Javanese culture, for example, is very different from the culture of East Indonesia. Even within Java itself, culture varies markedly between eastern, western and central Java, while more than ten languages are spoken on the island.
Today, MCC is not implementing any of its own program in Indonesia, but instead supports the work of Indomenno, a church-based association begun by the three Mennonite synods in Java. At present, Indomenno encourages youth to participate in both international and more localized exchange programs. Through the Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN), a shared program of MCC and Mennonite World Conference, and MCC’s International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP), churches from the three Indonesian Mennonite synods send their young adults to Canada, the United States and other countries around the world. When the young people who participate in these eleven-month MCC exchange programs return to Indonesia, they have gained many skills related to cross-cultural work. They have immersed themselves in new cultures in their placement countries and have learned how to accept and adapt to new cultural patterns, mixing those new patterns with cultural practices from their home communities. When they return to Indonesia, they have re-adapt to their home culture, while discerning how to use their newly-developed skills in cross-cultural exchange.
The Mennonite synods of Indonesia offer Indonesian Mennonite youth ways to further develop their cross-cultural skills. One Mennonite synod has a youth program called Youth for Peace, in which young adults work together to identify creative ways to promote peace within Indonesian society. IVEP and YAMEN alumni have found the Youth for Peace program to be one outlet for using their new cross-cultural skills.
Other Indonesian Mennonite churches have developed a “live in” program aimed at equipping Indonesian Mennonite young adults with a deeper understanding of cultural diversity within Indonesia and with the skills to form friendships across cultural divides. The program sends participants to rural parts of the country to live with local families for a brief stay, ranging from a couple days to up to three weeks. During this time, young
adult participants learn skills such as wood craft from their host families. Participants also serve in their placement community’s local church and carry out community service. Usually the participants come from big cities and have never experienced the culture of rural Indonesian life. Through this program, Indonesian Mennonite young adults develop an appreciation for the diversity of Indonesian society and the goodness of different ways of life.
Intercultural service in the form of cross-cultural exchange equips participants for a peacebuilding mission of building unity amidst diversity.”
The cross-cultural youth movement supported by MCC through Indomenno does not only happen in church, but also between religions. Because Indonesia is so diverse, Indonesia has many communities with adherents of different faiths. Learning to be a Christian peacemaker in Indonesia means learning the value of tolerance and the ability to live in peace and harmony with people who are different, including people of different religions. Indonesian Mennonite churches, with support from MCC, provide young adults with opportunities to learn the importance of tolerance and good relations between members of different faiths. Through conversation with people of other religions, stereotypes of those religions can begin to break down: Indonesian Mennonite youth gain a deeper understanding about what other religions believe and practice, while also helping non-Christians gain a deeper understanding of what Christians believe and practice. By breaking down stereotypes, this program, which brings together young
adults from Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi and other parts of Indonesia, builds bridges of peace and helps create unity amidst diversity.
Intercultural service in the form of cross-cultural exchange equips participants for a peacebuilding mission of building unity amidst diversity. Through participation in a variety of exchange programs, Indonesian Mennonite youth contribute to this peacebuilding mission.
Anielle Santoso is the Indomenno connecting peoples coordinator.
Intersections 