Indonesia: Two Years and a Dream

The apostolic work of Opus Dei began in Indonesia two years ago. Here is an enthusiastic first-hand report from some of the young women there.

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This past July marked the second anniversary of Opus Dei’s apostolic work with women in Surabaya, Indonesia. Shortly after we arrived, a retreat for cooperators and friends took place amid the mild climate and beautiful hill country of Lembang. For years people here have been praying that Opus Dei would begin in this island nation. So we all wanted to start with a few days of prayer—the best way to begin anything!

About that same time, we also began catechism classes in English for a group of girls, some of them engaged in housekeeping services. Another class for younger girls, ages 7 to 10, who live nearby also began and quickly filled up. The classes were given by Jane, a psychology student in her final year at Widya Mandala University. Shortly afterwards she found a job and contributed her first paycheck to buy catechisms.

Several months ago we started another catechism class in Gresik, a town close to Surabaya, where Assy and her two daughters live. Assy decided to be baptized thanks to Kelly, her Buddhist mother-in-law. Kelly had gotten to know Agnes, a supernumerary who spoke to her about the Catholic faith and about Opus Dei’s arrival in Indonesia. As Kelly has a great admiration for the Catholic Church and knew of her daughter-in-law’s interest, she arranged everything for her to start the catechism classes.

This past summer, our group of university students teamed up to begin two social-service projects. The first involved giving classes in English and human virtues to students at Karitas High School. The second project, which we started in February, was tutoring students at St. Yulia, a boarding school for girls, and during the summer helping them to clean and paint the school library. We also collected money from friends to buy new books.

Recently, it was a great joy to see the Surabaya Cathedral full on St. Josemaría’s feast day when the Bishop, Most Rev. Vincentius Sutikno Wisaksono, celebrated the Mass. It was a great opportunity to bring our holy Founder into the lives of many Indonesian families.

As we begin our third year in this country, we dream about what our Lord will do to bring more people to Him and his Church.