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Wycliffe Bible Translators

Engage - Indonesia 2010

July

God has opened up a new opportunity for Engage 2010 – we are offering to send a team to Central Kalimantan (formerly known as Borneo), Indonesia, in July. The team will visit Wycliffe’s local partner organisation, Yayasan Kaleb & Yoshua.

  • What work does this organisation do?

  • What will the team do?

  • What is Kalimantan like?

  • What will the team be like?

 

What work does this organisation do?

The goal of this organisation is to see God glorified by the people of Central Kalimantan through lives that have been changed by God’s word through the media and language that is closest to their hearts. We want to see the Dayak people leave behind their animistic and syncretistic belief systems but still value their culture that is in line with Biblical values. We desire to see churches (Pastors, Sunday School Teachers, and members of the congregation) use the translated Word of God during their worship services, Sunday Schools and other discipleship programs.

We provide training for churches and local people in order to see these goals reached. This organisation is made up mostly of local Dayaks, Kartidaya members, and Wycliffe Asia Area members. We are currently involved in facilitating translation projections in 4 Dayak languages. We develop Sunday School curriculum and train Sunday School teachers to use these materials in remote villages. The Sunday School material is currently being translated into one of the Dayak languages. We have also developed Bible Study booklets that are being used with the current translation programs as well as in Indonesian. We partner with and train churches, para-church organisations, as well as like-minded believers to use any of these materials that will help support their ministries.

What will the team do?

You will experience life in a beautiful but challenging part of Indonesia. You’ll see how Wycliffe is working in partnership with local people to encourage and equip them in their ministry.

It’s important to know that, like in many other parts of the world, plans are often changed, scrapped, modified depending on the local situation, unforseen circumstances and cultural issues. We do hope that the Engage team will be able to participate in:

  • language learning
  • development of a Sunday School curriculum
  • prayer ministry
  • Bible studies with University students
  • village visits

Other possible activities include:

  • seeing local translation teams at work
  • observing a Scripture-in-use workshop
  • observing and assisting with a Sunday School workshop
  • assisting local churches in their ministry

What is Kalimantan like?

The Schwaner Mountains stretch from the north-east of the province to the south-west, 80% of which is covered in dense forest, peatland swamps, mangroves, rivers, and traditional agriculture land. Highland areas in the north-east are remote and not easily accessible. The centre of the province is covered with tropical forest, which produces rattan, resin and valuable timber such as Ulin and Meranti. The southern lowlands are dominated by peatland swamps that intersect with many rivers.

The province's climate is wet weather equatorial zone with an eight-month rainy season, and 4 months of dry season. Dry season usually occurs sometime between July-November.

The Dayak of Central Kalimantan are the indigenous people made up of between 20-25 distinct language groups who live mostly in villages located along 8 major river systems throughout Central Kalimantan. Many Dayak are still strongly influenced by their traditional belief system known as Kaharingan.

The main language of Kalimantan is Indonesian. English is taught in the schools but is not used much, so it will be important that you make every effort to learn some basic Indonesian before your trip.

What will the team be like?

This team will ideally be made up of around 6 people including leaders. Have you:

  • maturity in your walk with God?
  • a heart for prayer?
  • flexibility and a desire to serve wherever there is a need?
  • a desire to experience something out of your comfort-zone?

Other skills this project would find useful include:

  • an ability to illustrate children’s materials
  • training as a teacher
  • training/experience as a Sunday School teacher
  • general experience in developing materials for teaching children (crafts, critical thinking skills, memory verses, activities)

If this interests you we would be delighted to receive your application. Please follow the link below to find out how to apply.