Sewing Machine Goes to North Jakarta

Yesterday my friend Esther McIntyre and I headed into Jakarta, picked up Maria Samual, an Indonesian national, and headed to one of the warehouse shopping districts to buy a sewing machine. Originally we had planned to take the money that was donated by my parents and their Campbell River friends and head into East Jakarta. Maria, the woman who has taken both my parents and myself to the slums for a visit, found out that the store she wanted to buy the machine from had closed down, so we headed into another area of Jakarta. Wouldn't you know it, we found a brand new Singer machine for almost 750 000 rupiah ($75) less than we would have purchased it for in the original store we'd been looking for. God is good! Both Maria and I have been praying for the best price for a good quality machine, and we found both. Noth only that, if I want to buy a machine for myself, the shop owner will sell it to me at the Indonesian price, not the one that they give to foreigners (bules). Now I just have to find that store again....

The women who received the machine are part of an empowerment project led by Maria through the Yayasan Emmanuel (Emmanuel Organization). The goal of the project is to teach women who are eager to learn, how to sew or do handicrafts. They sell these items to provide an income for themselves and to purchase more supplies for future projects. Once each woman has reached a certain level of training, she is expected to take on 4 students of her own, who she then teaches her skills to. Not only are skills taught and improved, this also serves to draw these women together, which is so vital to the survival of the community. Before this project was introduced into this particular slum, all of these women in this photo had to compete against each other for survival, and some couldn't stand each other. Although Maria does not preach to these ladies, she demonstrates the love of Jesus to them through her actions; she had been told numerous times by these women and others that they know that Maria is a Christian because of the way she treats them. They feel her kindness, love, patience and confidence in them and their abilities. All but one of the women in the group are muslim, but they are very aware of the power of Jesus and his Father God, and recognize it verbally. Now, these women have learned to work together, to be patient with one another, and to sell for profit but not to be greedy in doing so.

What is exciting for Esther and I, and now for those who have been a part of the donations towards the sewing machine, is that we have been an answer to prayer by one of these women. I believe her name is Iian (Ee-eean), and she is the woman in the white shirt with the big smile. Iian knows how to sew and finds such life in it. She was extremely happy to be part-recipient of two donated sewing machines just a while ago, but after a time the Yayasan decided that there was an even greater need for these machines in another slum area. The day that these machines were taken elsewhere, Iian cried and cried. Maria told her that they could pray together and ask for another machine, and although she was hesitant, Iian agreed. That was a few weeks ago. Last week I arranged with Maria to meet the next Thursday to purchase a new machine, and she told the ladies in her group to expect a new machine next Thursday. Apparently Iian didn't believe her, and so when we walked in with a boxed, never-been-used Singer sewing machine she was very, very happy. For some of us, a sewing machine is something that we use in our spare time, or we at least think of using one day, and we fit time into our schedules to figure out how it works and what it can do for us. For ladies such as Iian, this machine is her life. She has the time to fill tinkering with the machine and she has the desire to learn how to create a life using the machine. Because this machine was purchased brand new and specifically for these ladies, it is staying in this area.

Thank you to those of you who donated money towards this project. There is money left and it will probably go towards another machine; this particular purchase was a bit of an experiment to see how things worked, and they worked out great! I realize that some who gave were not able to give much, but you gave anyways. Because you did, Iian was able to see that God loves her enough to hear her prayer, even a prayer prayed hesitantly, and supplied her with a sewing machine even better than the ones she had to give up.

How's that for exciting?
Thanks for reading.