I am writing this from a porch in Indonesia, while rain hammers the roof so loudly I can barely hear myself think. Six months ago I was doing my final outreach preparation at Heidebeek. Nobody told me obedience would sound like this.

How I got here

During my DTS, Indonesia kept surfacing — in prayer times, in conversations, in a lecture about unreached islands I could not stop thinking about. I resisted it for a while. It seemed too far, too big, too not-me. My small group prayed with me for three weeks before I dared to say it out loud.

Mission Indonesia, one of the movements based at Heidebeek, had been building relationships here for years. I did not have to start something; I had to join something. That distinction carried me through every doubt since.

What the work looks like

Most days are gloriously unspectacular. Language lessons in the morning — my tongue still trips over consonants the children here pronounce perfectly. Afternoons at the community centre, helping with homework clubs and English practice. Evenings with our host family, where I am slowly learning that sharing a meal is the real ministry.

Every few weeks we take the ferry to smaller islands where the team supports local believers. There are house churches there younger than my DTS. Watching them worship recalibrates everything I thought I knew about the global Church.

What Heidebeek gave me

People ask what a DTS actually prepares you for. Honestly: this. Not the ferry schedules or the language — but a heart that has learned to hear God and a stubbornness to keep saying yes. The rain has stopped. Time to go.