Damage Control

Oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor! The Lord rescues them when they are in trouble. – Psalm 41:1 (NLT)

In late 1993, our family was ready for a second visit back to the U.S. We had been in Indonesia for seven years. It was hard for me to leave but reassuring to know Brenda would be there to help the small team of HeartCraft leaders who oversaw our 200 employees.

Brenda and I talked about where things stood. We both agreed HeartCraft had reached a plateau and needed some strategic, structural changes if it was to move into a new level of impact and fruitfulness. One key, we thought, would be to hire someone responsible for the spiritual aspects of HeartCraft—a kind of chaplain. After all, we weren’t just trying to meet people’s physical needs. We wanted to see them freed from destructive cultural patterns and spiritual bondage as well. We knew it would be best to find an Indonesian—ideally, a Kantoli—to take on that ministry. Another important role that needed to be filled was someone to serve as director of the entire program—a CEO for HeartCraft. Until now several of us had filled the role by working as a team. It was time to have a clear Indonesian leader.

While we were in the U.S., Steve and I got word from Brenda that she had hired two top-notch people for those key HeartCraft jobs. What great news! One of them, Amir, was due to graduate from a local university and would be available soon. He was a Christian Indonesian from another island, a sharp English speaker with a degree in business. Amir would make an excellent director for HeartCraft.

The other new hire was a Kantoli man named Rohandi. He was an elder in a Kantoli congregation and was enthusiastic and gregarious—just what we needed to oversee the spiritual aspects of our work. Rohandi’s wife, Lena, was also personable. Both appeared to have a clear desire to serve their own people, and I was eager to work with them when I returned to Denalia.

After five months in the U.S., my family and I flew back to Indonesia. It was exciting to be back in the middle of things. I was pleased and thankful to meet Amir, Rohandi and Lena. I liked them all. We had navigated many difficult transitions and trials, and it felt good to now have reliable leaders at the helm.

Steve and I attended Amir’s graduation—amazed that we would have a director with a degree in business. We began to pour ourselves into him. He seemed to understand exactly what needed to be done. Rohandi, too, became very busy making trips out to the village areas. His job was to take the work packets to the groups outside the city, pick up completed orders, and at the same time, encourage the groups spiritually. The momentum started accelerating again.

For greater efficiency, we followed Steve’s advice and expanded the cutting division of the business. By doing this and focusing on marketing, we could enroll more workers. Steve met regularly for Bible study with the men of the cutting team. It was exciting to see their hearts open as they read and discussed passages of Scripture.

One day Steve and I were in our van going somewhere and witnessed a hit-and-run motorcycle accident. A young man lay motionless in the middle of the road and obviously needed help. We jumped out, put him into our car and drove him to the nearest hospital. We waited until he regained consciousness, which wasn’t a long time, so perhaps he’d only had a minor concussion. He was extremely grateful for our unsolicited help but explained that he was unemployed. The doctor’s bill was more than he could pay. Steve and I glanced at each other, and I suggested that the young man interview at HeartCraft. Shortly after he healed from his injuries, he became a part of the cutting team and eventually embraced Christ as his Savior. Events like this were constant reminders of God’s presence and direction. He gave us many divine appointments that we could never have arranged for ourselves.

Rohandi went to work assembling and distributing packages of quilts that had the patterns and directions clearly spelled out on the front. He became fast and efficient, although we also began to see another side to his personality. Sadly, he often clashed with Dewi and the other leaders. We started to get complaints from the villagers about Rohandi’s style. He loved to boss people around and give orders. Visitors from the cooperatives would share their disappointments about Rohandi’s visits. Something was going wrong. He had been hired to be a pastor and spiritual counselor to these quilting groups, and that certainly was not being accomplished. In fact, he was having the opposite effect. I pondered these things, and we tried to help Rohandi soften his approach.

In some ways I really liked Rohandi. His style was similar to what would be expected in an American working environment. He called things as he saw them. The only problem was, we were not in America, and we needed someone with a humble attitude to deal with the people in the villages. They were getting uneasy and resentful. Many aspects of the work were in turmoil, and Rohandi’s heavy-handed approach wasn’t helping matters.

During this time of growth, the Lord added once again to our Pioneers team. Dean and Jane Chester and their four children joined us. Dean had been a pastor for several years in upstate New York, so they came with considerable life experience. While some expressed concern about the potential difficulty of their adjustment as a large family with older children, Steve and I felt it was worth the risk.

On their arrival, the Chesters immediately plunged into the culture and language. They deliberately chose a home in a relatively poor and very populated area, even though it had water problems and was located right next to an Islamic cemetery, which they could see from the upstairs window.

“Jane, why did you pick such a radical place to live?” I asked.

“The cemetery reminds us why we’re here,” she replied. “Besides, this community is so tight. It will force us to learn the language faster.”

What a remarkable family they were. And God even brought to HeartCraft our very own expert quilter. Jane had done it all! She not only knew the art of quilting, but she was also a mathematician. We were having some trouble making our patterns work, but in no time at all, Jane standardized all the patterns and created new ones for us. She had great ideas for design and color combinations at a time when I was moving ahead in other areas of the work. Jane even made patterns out of hard plastic sheets to replace the cardboard ones that wore out so quickly. Everything became more accurate. Jane helped the staff create new quilt concepts based on authentic Indonesian batik cloth. These new designs were stunning. Because she lived right up the road, Jane was able to stop in frequently to check the quality of the work. It was like having a Linda Bauman available to us all the time.

By now we had totally outgrown our little store and really needed space for a showroom. We found it on the ground floor of a new building that our friend Yayan was constructing. The building was big enough to house our team’s English Institute, Yayan’s personal offices, a conference and prayer room and offices for Steve and some of his staff. The building had four floors, and the ground floor became a HeartCraft showroom. What an incredible provision from the Lord! We were blown away by Yayan’s generosity and vision for ministry. He was a Boaz to us once again.

Not long after the big new store opened for business, Jane came to visit with new ideas, samples and her usual words of encouragement. As she was leaving the store, I saw her walk toward the big plate-glass wall at the front of the showroom. The glass had only recently been installed, and we had not yet put any props or furniture near the window. Jane walked right into it with a loud bang. She fell backward and hit the ground, blood pouring from her obviously broken nose.

The HeartCraft driver and I quickly scooped her up and rushed her off in the van to the hospital. On the way, Jane commented that God must have a purpose in it all, just like when she arrived in Indonesia and a motorcycle drove over her foot. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Jane was such a wonderful person. Why did these things keep happening to her?

We drove to the emergency room as quickly as we could, only to wait for a long, long time in a line of sick and suffering people. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. I wondered why they even called it an emergency room. Finally, after what seemed like years, they ushered us into an exam room. I explained that my friend had broken her nose and needed help. The doctor seemed more interested in the story of how Jane broke her nose than in doing something about it. Finally, he took a flashlight and shined it up her nose.

“It will be fine,” he said, switching off the light. “She just stunned it in the accident. Take a couple of aspirin and go home for rest.”

“What?” I said, rapidly losing patience. “You have got to be kidding!”

In her sweet and calm voice, Jane told him, “But sir, I can move my nose around on my face. It is very loose and has never been this way before.”

The doctor insisted we were overreacting and told us to relax. We went back out into the waiting room, and I felt very frustrated. What could I do for Jane? She was obviously in pain. Just then I saw a sign on a wall. Just what we were looking for: an ear, nose and throat specialist! I pulled Jane behind me and marched toward the office. I’m sure I startled the nurses when we barged into the office, but it was time for action.

“Someone help us!” I called out. “My friend has broken her nose, and she’s in pain.” They quickly ushered us into the doctor’s office.

The specialist shined a flashlight into Jane’s nose again. “She has broken her nose,” he announced. He sent Jane away to be x-rayed while I waited for news. After a long time, the x-rays came back, and sure enough, Jane’s nose was broken in three places. It was also swelling rapidly, and she did not look like the same person. The nurses prepared her for surgery. When I called her husband to tell him what happened, Dean was not surprised by it all and was cheerful just like Jane.

Jane had a special splint on her face for a few weeks. She was hardly recognizable, but the cast did not deter her from returning to HeartCraft and working with the quilters. In fact, she used her extra rest time to make a large, beautiful quilt with Bible verses on it. Each embroidered square was unique and gorgeous. I thought about the old saying, “When life gives you scraps, make quilts.” That was Jane!

It wasn’t long before Jane was right back in the groove. Both she and Brenda were using their gifts to pour into the staff members while also giving them freedom to make decisions and to grow the ministry. Our role was to be in the background. Lia also showed herself to be quite impressive. She was gifted not only in sales but also in administration and production. When she had suggestions, she would give them to Rohandi and to Amir. They were not always receptive to her ideas, however, and seemed to feel threatened.

Despite our leadership struggles, before long, the HeartCraft showroom became well known and people came from all over the country to see it. It was a happening place, and sales were strong. We tried to market the crafts and products every way we could. I even visited oil camps in Sumatra. I shipped huge bags of quilts ahead of me and set up an exhibition for the “captive” American women. They were bored, had lots of money and were more than happy to shop! We sold about $10,000 worth of quilts on each visit—a lot of money to us.

It was exciting watching all the growth, yet underneath it all, I sensed a brooding tension. Although I could not immediately put my finger on it, something was wrong at HeartCraft. On the outside, we looked like a thriving business, but inside rumors were flying. Finally, we realized there was a crisis. In fact, there were three of them. They were all going on at the same time and were about to converge.

First, Hasan, our production manager, was quite sick with tuberculosis. We were helping him by paying his medical bills. Then we learned that he was using his wages to set up a competing quilting group on the side! One of his relatives, who worked at HeartCraft, would take our patterns home in the evenings to train their workers. Needless to say, I was saddened when I found out. But I didn’t have time to handle this crisis because there was another. Every day there were more and more complaints about Rohandi offending the villagers. Rather than being a blessing to them and an example of Christ’s love, he was overbearing and abrasive. He was also in a power struggle with Amir, Lia and Dewi.

As if that wasn’t enough, our bookkeeper, Yani, began to notice something: a steady leak of money over several months. Then she realized it was not just a small leak, but a big one. As much as $10,000 had been siphoned out of HeartCraft over a period of about six months. Yani and Brenda pored over the books to be sure and to determine where the money was going. Then someone decided to pay a surprise visit to Amir, the director of HeartCraft. His small, modest home was full of expensive electronics. Amir had a healthy salary, but certainly not enough to buy all this equipment. For weeks he had been telling us emotional stories about dying relatives, medical bills and other mishaps for which he needed money. We’d given him some helpful pay advances, but none of the stories could be verified. We trusted him. What we hadn’t realized was that he was also pilfering a lot of extra money from HeartCraft on the side.

What were we going to do? Hasan was financing a competitor, Rohandi was undermining morale and Amir was embezzling money. All were serious cases, and their Muslim co-workers were observing their behavior closely. During this time, we also lost a few villages due to some of the Muslim groups wanting to start their own effort. They convinced people to join them with promises of higher wages. These were people I had poured much time and effort into. I felt betrayed and had to lean on the Lord’s strength.

After much prayer and thought, Steve advised that we take decisive action. Radical surgery was needed. Though in Indonesian culture it was rarely done for fear of a possible backlash, we dismissed Hasan, Rohandi and Amir in rapid succession. Those were painful days for us. Each of them was my personal friend, but each had abused the privilege of leadership in a thriving ministry. If anything, Christians needed to measure up to a higher standard than the world around them because Muslims were always looking for opportunities to discredit them. Despite the cost and possible reaction, we saw this as a critical test of what HeartCraft was all about—and quite possibly a matter of survival.

Hasan became angry and very hurt. Rohandi threatened to file a lawsuit against HeartCraft. Amir threatened to report some of the foreigners to immigration on trumped-up charges or to expose the project to the Muslim community. We committed it all to prayer and trusted the Lord for His protection. There wasn’t much else we could do. We braced ourselves and kept on pressing forward. Steve’s advice was just to lay low, pray and keep our hand to the plow.

As days and weeks passed, nothing cataclysmic happened. Gradually, a fresh breeze began to blow through HeartCraft. We had been willing to see the whole thing collapse rather than leave corrupt and immature leaders in charge. God miraculously preserved the work. Gossip and rumors started to subside. Emotions healed. Joy and laughter returned.

Lia replaced Amir as HeartCraft’s director. Of all the staff, she was the most skilled and reliable. We had thought that to be culturally appropriate we needed a man in charge, but God wanted a woman for the task. Just as Moses was a reluctant leader, Lia didn’t really want the top position, but she was willing to do it. In the days and months ahead, we found out just how solid of a leader she really was.

In the midst of all the trauma and change, God gave Steve and me a peace and a sense that He was in control. We prayed more for each other and for the ministry. In my relationship with Dewi, the crisis opened up opportunities for us to talk about standards of integrity and the effects of sin. She was definitely making connections in her mind.

During those tough times I was encouraged by Psalm 126:5-6, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.” The words certainly seemed applicable to our situation. James 1:2-4 has a similar message: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

The Lord gave the HeartCraft team the strength to persevere. The pain and tears were a part of the process. I was completely dependent on the Lord, and I knew His grace would be sufficient.