Reflection on My Years - Sunoko Lin

The years I spent in SMAKI were good formative yearsbefore I moved to the States to study, and started my life here in Los Angeles. Teachers and friends at SMAKI have helped develop me as a person passionate for learning and for serving God.

I remembered in 1982 when I entered SMAKI, my friend RH, would call me every Sunday morning to join him to go to Persekutuan Siswa Pintu Air, but in the first few weeks I resisted with many excuses. Did it stop him? No. Finally, I gave up, and came with him to Persekutuan. There I received Christ. Thank you, my friend. God has used you to transform me. No one knew, not even in my family, that I struggeled spiritually as teenager. My life was empty and purposeless. Inside, I was hungry spirtually and was searching, but I was too shy to go to church until I could no longer resist. There on my first visit, a speaker who did not know me, preached what I was looking for, and I accepted Christ, and He has transformed my life ever since. Dr. Clinton, my professor at Fuller, coined it "Divine Contact".

Now I am studying in Fuller Seminary for my graduate degree to help me prepare for my ministry as I am called to plant a multi-ethnic church, church that will be a home to Indonesian, Vietnamese, Chinese,Philipino, Anglo, and more.

I will close with my favorite verse from Luke 2:52,"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." Jesus grew in four areas: He grew in stature, He grew in wisdom, He grew in favor with God and He grew in favor with Men.

As Jesus grew, we all need to grow in our intellectual dimension, physical dimension, social dimension, and spiritual dimension. I thank God for the opportunity to study at SMAKI as those years have played a critical part in my spiritual growth.

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Lost in Translation

Coming together again after 20 years can be an exciting yet confusing experience. Although we all graduated from the same high school but the time has definitely parted us.

Granted that the internet is relatively new, the communication style being used is very similar to the old days: non-structural and injected-humor in unexpected sentences. Most of them write in “street” style as if we can not spare few seconds to write appropiately. Further the content being written is light, short and directive.

Our friends here are highly educated so they obviously know how to write. However as someone pointed out Indonesian communication style reigns regardless their background. It's hard to get things acrossed but you are expected to show your teeth. Has anyone seen “Lost in Translation”? Better get the DVD now.

Update - SMAK 1 Mailing List

Saat ini ada sekitar 70 teman2 IPA and IPS yang sudah join mailing list. Mereka datang dari tempat yang berbeda2. Ada yang tinggal di S'pore, Australia, Nederland, Canada, US dan Indonesia. Mayoritas dari Jakarta. Sayang sekali banyak teman2 yang ternyata tidak mudah untuk dapat email access sehingga tidak bisa ikut serta.

Suasana di SMAK I mailing list lumayan ramai kalo ada teman2 baru. Setelah itu suasana hening kembali dan di-dominasi oleh beberapa gelintir teman yang kebetulan lagi kangen sama Indonesia dan teman2 SMAK1. Kebanyakan teman2 lebih senang mendengar daripada bersuara, maklum deh pada sibuk dan juga mungkin agak rikuh karena sudah lama tidak berhubungan atau barangkali memang belum terbiasa berkomunikasi di mailing list.

Setelah hampir 20 tahun kemudian, ternyata teman2 kita sudah ada yang lawyer, dokter, pengusaha, engineer, manager, executive, karyawan, trader, investment banker, housewife, pendeta sampai property investor. Mereka semua sibuk tapi bersedia untuk join agar kontak tetap terpelihara dan berharap bisa suatu hari reuni atau kumpul2.