My Indonesian

"Jesus Praying in the Garden"
Tapestry by Ignatius's aunt
(Indonesia, 2008)

Ignatius Budi Sriyono
at work, Batam, 2000

I have an Indonesian. If you don't have one, I highly recommend getting one...

Seriously. Ignatius is my "Indonesian Son," as he sometimes signs his messages to me. (He calls me "Mama Kate.") Occasionally he simply signs, "Your Indonesian," which makes me smile -- His messages often make me smile.

Today he wrote about praying...

"Jesus teach how to pray, and one of them, give us each day the food we need. I mean, when we pray, if we have breakfast in this day, we must grateful with the other gift."

(Sigh.) How many times I have said the Lord's Prayer, taking for granted that I will be given -- at the very least -- "breakfast" (as well as all the other meals I need to round out my day), never recognizing that my full belly is an answered prayer! (And that does not take into consideration all of the other blessings I recieve daily which fall under the "Bread" category!)

Ignatius goes on...

"Usually when we pray, we always request, request and request. I think if we grateful with God about our sick, our difficulty, our 'cross' and gift all things to God's hand, maybe God will change our life...In my country, most of people difficult to find food for daily life, so when we have food for today this is enough. The other gift from God is our blessed."

I am humbled. I am blessed. I am grateful.

I first "met" Ignatius after I logged onto a Catholic website in search of materials for the Catechism class I was teaching in November 1999. He came across my address in the on-line guest book I had signed, and sent me a message introducing himself as an "Indonesian Roman Catholic guy." He apologized for writing to me when I did not know him, and he apolgized for anything his people "dirty did" for my "nationality." He explained that all Indonesians were not the same, and that he did not hate us, because we are family and friends. His last line was "Jesus love us...!!"

Ignatius was 21 years old -- slightly younger than my Meagan. He explained that he just wanted to write to a friend who lived in another country.

I still have all of those messages from my long-distance friend. Via the Internet, I got to know Ignatius quite well, and learned to love him for his spirit, which shone through the barriers of language and distance. I worried about him whenever I heard of a natural disaster or an act of terrorism in Indonesia. (There were plenty of both.) A small item in the newspaper would send me scurrying for the world map so I could see how close Ignatius's island (Batam) was to the disaster.

We exchanged gifts and photographs by Air Mail, but not very often. After a couple of years, Ignatius's commissioned job ended, and he no longer had access to a computer. No more e-mail. We exchanged a few more letters, then communication stopped. After a while, I assumed the worst; I was certain that if he were able, Ignatius would have stayed in contact. My addresses -- both e-mail and physical -- remained the same. I wondered for several years if I would ever know what had happened to my friend.

Then, six years after I had last heard from Indonesia, I finally received a letter -- Ignatius was alive and well! (Alas, I misplaced that letter before I could answer, so I had no idea where to send my reply.) Finally, last spring there was a message in my Inbox from my Indonesian, and we have been exchanging messages regularly ever since.

Of course I can't know why God put Ignatius in touch with me nearly ten years ago -- or why he had him vanish, only to reappear years later. I suspect it has something to do with "Daily Bread." I can't remember what was going on in my life when I received that first message from across the seas, but that is not important...Right now I feel like I am in special need of prayers, and every message from Ignatius resonates with hope and trust in God (and, always, assurances of his prayers for me and for my country). If Ignatius gets through to God as clearly as he does to me, then I consider myself well prayed for!

God bless you, my wonderful Indonesian son! I am thankful for the "Daily Bread" you provide in my life!