More from Rosta Merry Gultom

I am Merry Gultom from Indonesia. I was born into a simple family. I was active in church youth activities and also joined the Sunday school service in our church in 1988.

Because I was actively serving, I neglected to pay attention to my younger siblings. At the time, I thought that was my parents’ job and that it was important for me to live my life well without making problems. I kept thinking this way until I graduated from college and began working as an elementary school teacher for honorarium in government schools. I was still busy and was not sensitive to the problems my family was having at home.  Even though I am a theology scholar, I did not feel sensitivity to the problems that happened in my house, maybe because I was so focused on my own busy schedule. I was always trying to find a school that could give me a big salary because my parents were aging and my father had retired. While we had many problems, I did not focus on them and really did not know what was happening. 

Several years passed, and I failed to be a government employee. I was very upset. I had worked honestly, but I didn’t succeed because I did not want to compromise with bribes. I was confused, desperate, and unemployed. In 2005 my father died without having solved any of our problems. But more problems arose, and now I was standing behind my mother to help solve our problems. Each time we felt grateful that a problem could be resolved, it was only a brief relief. In truth, those problems had not been resolved and new problems continued to arise until my mother died. 

At that time I was confused and crying in my heart. I did not know what I should do, especially since I was not working.  Two of my younger siblings were single parents whose children had been cared for by my mother. Finally I gave in and decided to help take care of them, but I still don’ t have money. To make a bit of money I teach private mathematics for two of my neighbor children and have also been writing.

Our lives continue to run as ordinary, but one problem has not been resolved and is repeated every year. Since my mother died, one of my younger siblings has wanted to take the only legacy my parents had, the house we are all living in today. If the house were sold, our lives would become very chaotic, so  I have told all my siblings that no one can sell the house because the children are living there. My mother’s message to us was to maintain the integrity of the family and not become scattered, so I have had to take over the house and am always looking for ways to improve it so that my younger siblings will stop trying to sell it. When I made the decision to take over the house, I was brought by God to start theology school. 

This was a very painful time. I had to try to maintain the integrity of my family, but I was also trying to keep the house and fix it up. I cried and felt I could not talk to anyone about my family’ s business. Then a few months after all that turmoil, my sister was in an accident and was brought to the hospital. I had to use my savings to pay for her treatment. Thankfully the commotion in my family has begun to decrease and calm down. 

My life returned to usual slowly, without me realizing that God had answered my prayers one by one. I needed patience, loyalty, and obedience to God for every answer in every problem. Each day we only got through because of God’ s grace. I am very grateful. The side of God helps me stay strong and grateful even when others demean me. Slowly but surely, God will answer our prayers because God has a beautiful design for each of our lives. Amen.