Beyond Our Walls: Finding Jesus in the Slums of Jakarta

EMQ » Jul – Oct 2024 » Volume 60 Issue 3

Reviewed by Boye-Nelson Kiamu, PhD candidate (ABD) Fuller Theological Seminary. Kiamu serves with several mission organizations and theological institutions in Africa and America. He is a lecturer at ABC University, Yekepa, Liberia, and an adjunct professor at Pentecost Biblical Seminary, Wayne, New Jersey.

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Christian missionaries have long prided themselves on living on the field with the people they serve, but do we see the slums, home to more than 1 billion of the world’s population, as a place for missions? How does one serve the poor up close and as a response to God’s call to mission? Where is an example of a Christian serving in a slum community? These are some of the questions that Beyond Our Walls answers.

Using her personal story, Anita Rahma narrates her call in 2011 to serve the poor in the slums of Jakarta and how she met God in the day-to-day rhythms of living, being in community, serving, and being served by people in the slum community for twelve years. This book is a personal faith memoir, not a theoretical work, that describes, in powerful words and stories, Anita’s journey of going beyond her American socio-economic, religious, and geographical walls to follow the call of Christ to serve in the slums of Jakarta.

The book has twenty short chapters with a prologue and epilogue. Every chapter begins with a bible verse or quote by Christian experts dealing with poverty or cross-cultural missions. It is an honest and realistic engagement with the challenges and joys of serving in the urban slums – the new unreached people group. In these chapters, the reader hears the story of a young university student heading out as a missionary.

You walk with her in the slums of Jakarta, encountering her challenges and experiencing the joy of community that she experiences in the slum. Anita asks, “What will change in this city [Jakarta] – and in cities around the world – if followers of Jesus would dare to go beyond the physical, socio-economic, and religious walls that we have constructed to meet him in poorer communities?” (xxviii).

One of this book’s significant contributions is providing an example of what it means to serve God in places beyond our walls or comfort zones. It is a call to unlearn how we approach slum dwellers and see communal transformation in an individual’s willingness to serve.

The book should appeal to people who are considering missions in urban contexts. It will provide scriptural support to help you engage with ministry in the urban slums while encouraging you that this is another unreached group that requires serious consideration. The book also demonstrates how the process of serving changes the recipients. Often, in ministry with the poor or slum dwellers, it is easy for the missionaries to think that they are doing all the transformative work.

However, in this book, Rahma demonstrates how seeing the community come together to help each other during a fire or sharing food with the white stranger demonstrates that ministry is always an opportunity for both the receiving community and the missionary to find God beyond their walls. The appendix lists further reading and organizations currently serving in slum communities. These are helpful resources for those looking for ways to start serving.

For Further Reading

Subversive Jesus: An Adventure in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness in a Broken World by Craig Greenfield (Zondervan, 2016)

Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development by Bryant L. Myers (Orbis Books, 2011)

God’s Missionary by Amy Carmichael (CLC, 1939/1997)

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EMQ, Volume 60, Issue 3. Copyright © 2024 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.