Missionary News Travels to Indonesia

I was asked if I could write something about my April/May 2026 mission trip to Indonesia. I must confess that I find these tasks challenging. First, how do I be concise & coherent after “drinking from a firehose.” Also, in contrast to my structured mission trip with Joni and Friends, my trips to Indonesia are freelance with many “other duties as assigned” on the agenda. I like to describe my job as “being a cheerleader” for the indigenous Church, who is doing the real heavy lifting. I do whatever I can to support our brothers and sisters in the spread of the Gospel.

This trip did have an anchor purpose. I was invited to speak at the 2026 graduation for SMA Kristen Indonesia Sejahtera (Prosperous Indonesian Christian High School) on Rote Island, a school I’ve partnered with since 2018. I owed them a ‘debt of gratitude,’ as the whole school held a praise and prayer service during my cancer surgery and I desired to thank them.

I felt completely unqualified during this trip, I spent my career in construction, but this trip I visited seven schools, from elementary to college level, with four different organizations. My visit included a wide variety of Christian traditions, including Reformed, Methodist and Charismatic. I began and ended my trip with my own Anglican tradition. I landed in Jakarta and visited with Father Aan of Providence Anglican Church and ended with visits to Immanuel’s own Cross Cultural Worker teaching on Bali.

Indonesia is a large country.  In comparison, it would cover the same space as the area from Vancouver, Canada to the island of Jamaica including all the continental US. Geographically, the population is concentrated on the islands of Java and Sumatra. Nearly 87% of the population is Islam. Christianity makes up only about 10% of the population. The rest is made up of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Animism or “folk beliefs”. Technically it is illegal to be an atheist in Indonesia. The two ‘Great sins’ in Islam are Unbelief and Ungratefulness, so you are legally required to have a religion.

As a “Bule” (boo-lay, the word means albino), I’m given special status. I always try to use that for the Lord and/or the marginalized. I was involved in several Q&A sessions with students and teachers. I was impressed with the quality of their Catechism knowledge and the tough questions I was asked. A fifth-year student asked me, “Why are you here?” I told her about the graduation speech I was asked to give and then told them to look between their feet. As they did, I told them that that’s their mission field and  since I find myself here, I’ll preach Jesus here.

Praise be to God,

Kevin Robertson