Entering 2020 the world is staggered by Covid 19, a highly contagious virus previously from China in December 2019. The spread of Covid 19  is rapid from one country to another and it has taken millions of lives. Not only lives, the pandemic crippled the economy and changed human activities at schools and on campuses, offices were forced to close, and activities involving many people were run online in order to hamper the spread of the virus.

Inevitably, early March 2020 the virus was detected in Indonesia and spread to various regions in Indonesia including Maluku. The central and local governments with health authorities are making various efforts such as appeals, regulations and prohibitions until healing program to reduce the spread of this viral infection.  Although the Aru Islands district is classified as a green zone, schools in the Aru archipelago are off from March 20, 2020. However, this decision only lasted a few days and further learning and teaching reopened through online learning methods by considering the importance of education for the young generation in the local area.

PGRI Senior High School of Dobo, often called Smaper, where I teach Bahasa Indonesia is one of the schools in Aru Islands district that implements online learning method. Actually it was school holiday but it was reactivated with Learning From Home (LFH), so the teachers and students used Facebook, WhatsApp and Zoom for the process. Each class follows two subjects daily, from Monday to Saturday. I and other teachers delivered materials using school facilities covering computers, wifi and other devices, then at the end of learning the teacher sent the material to the learning groups in pdf or video format so that students could learn more.

The method of learning from home seems simple but it is actually not easy, considering the internet network in the Aru Islands area, especially Dobo tends to be unstable and not all students have gadgets, or some have gadgets but do not have credit to access internet. These problems hinder the learning process, so that it really needs the support of parents, teachers and the government. I noticed there are various things to do by parents, such as lending gadgets to their children, students borrow the divice from their brother or hanging out with other friends to follow online learning. Exams become the next challenge, when exam questions are sent to study groups, for students who do not have gadgets and who do not have internet packages, teachers have to deliver exam questions to their places. This is not easy because students’ homes are scattered in different regions even  some are out of Dobo island. Teachers and students agreed the time to collect the exam questions and when they had finished, the teachers came again to take them. For students who use gadgets, and have a data package can directly send their answers through WhatsApp or Camscanner to the subject teacher.

On mid of July 2020, the Aru Islands are still included a green zone so that local governments loosened regulations and the schools could start face-to-face learning with health protocols, by using masks, keeping distance, checking body temperature, and washing hands before entering classes. The classes were filled only 20 students, and it is half of the classroom capacity. The situation changed again when a patient was detected Covid 19 and the learning was done from home again.

The situation is uncertain and changeable, but everyone involved in the school activity remains vigilant so online learning is still the option. For me, Covid 19 really causes unrest, however I catch wisdom as I can improve my skills using new applications on the computer and hone teaching methods so that students will not get bored. Not only that, when driving school work to the student's house, I found a variety of unique experiences, such as getting to know and talk to the students' families, feeling the atmosphere of the student's residence and visiting new places in Dobo such as Tugu Cenderawasih, Namajala, Bambu Kuning, because I live in Gardakau. So, be sure that in every situation whether fun or troublesome, there are definitely new experiences to be found.

The education in Indonesia takes a bitter pill because of the pandemic of Covid 19. The virus bring fear to everyone for its spread not only in cities but also villages. The Lainjanji village and its surroundings were not free from the news, either news of increasing patients or death due to Covid-19.

The Education Office of East Sumba regency issued reccomendation for the pre-school education, elementary school and junior high school in East Sumba for running the Study from Home (BDR) at the end of April. The schools will open as usual if the pandemic subsided. Since July 2020 Indonesia implemented a ‘New Normal’ and the people restarted their activities comply with health protocols.

The learning process at school has been suspended and replaced with learning from home. The school principal of Junior State School of Wulla Waijelu (SMP Negeri 2 Wulla Waijilu) where I teach, received news via telephone from the Education Office and at that time the class IX was in the fifth day of mid-semester test. Then, the students implemented Learning from Home with offline method. They did not go to school but study at home instead. On Monday and Wednesday the teacher delivered materials to their home and picked up the assignments. The challenge is actually not too difficult even though located in hilly area. The problem is the damaged condition of the roads among villages. Then, the teacher held evaluation meeting on Friday. This activity was regularly done until the ‘New Normal’ set up.

During the New Normal, I designed learning by dividing the students into 4 groups according to their house clusters, namely the Lainjanji group, the Lumbumanggit group, the Latena group and the Laipandak group. In e

ach cluster consists of students in grade 7, 8, and 9 where the gathering points are at the church, village office, residents' house, and possibly under a tree. Actually, I face no hard challenges in teaching the students because they were enthusiastic in participating in it. It felt hard to manage 7th grade students who tend to run and play during the shift between classes.

Actually the process of study from home has been done since the end of April 2020 and many sweet and bitter cases experienced by the teachers and students related to teaching and learning activities. Teachers were not satisfied with the delivering and picking up assignments due to lack of time to explain the material, and on the other hand, students found difficulties to learn by their own, especially English and Mathematics which require more in-depth explanation, however, they stayed optimistic and completed the assignments. Meanwhile, the parents complained that their children will get dumb because they spent their time a lot with silly things because they were not at school, but the teachers gave understanding and explanations that the teacher had given them assignments, including asked the parents for good cooperation by assisting their children while doing assignments.

Indeed, pandemic of Covid 19 has changed everything but with sincere motivation and good thoughts, everything will be fine and will get the best solution. Let us fight the Covid by staying at home, wearing masks, maintaining health protocols and having optimism for a better situation in the future. Keep up the passion for teachers, students and parents. ***

The pandemic still occurs in East Nusa Tenggara province which force the community obey health protocols including family both in city and village. The local government continuously campaigns of working, studying and doing activities from home, wearing masks when traveling and washing hands frequently. This warning also directed the church's weekly worship service, so the church service is temporarily held online from home. The communities that are covered by communication network and have enough data package easily join the online church service, but those who live in remote villages with limited communication network due to the hilly geographical conditions, commonly in East Nusa Tenggara region, cannot access it. However, for the Christians, the church service and preachinf of the gospel must still be delivered, by home visit to their houses, while applying health protocols such as physical distancing and wearing masks. This service is not only for adults, but also for Sunday school children.

It is my concern, because since in Yogyakarta I have been involved with children's activities, from teaching Sunday school at the church, being a teacher in several elementary schools and junior high schools, football trainer and outbound facilitators. So, I think Sunday school children in my working area should also receive care to build their faith. Children have more spare time because the learning and worship are done at home and they can learn about the God's word. The church services for the Sunday school children in family run during the period of May 7-13, 2020 covering 11 regions in South Central Timor regency and it was delivered in Sunday school teaching package consisting of 4 teaching topics of ‘Christ, My Light’, drawing pictures and 3 sets of crayons. These materials can be used for one month with one topic per week in a family. It is time for the church servants and parents play the role to assist their children to learn the God’s words.

Some locations are nearby but some are far from Soe to travel through the hills, passing tarmac road to rocky path and crossing rivers. Nonohonis village in Soe district (3 kms from Soe), Nunusunu village, Kualin district (90 kms), and Kot'olin village Kolbano district (70 kms), and the travel to Kot’olin village needed struggle by passing through a mountain. There are 126 families of Lutheran Church in Indonesia received the program in East Nusa Tenggara province.

Related with the Sunday school material, it contains: 1) ‘God Created Our Beautiful World’ (Genesis 1: 1-2:3); 2) ‘God Saved Adam and Eve’ (Genesis 3); 3) ‘God Care for people in Babylon’ (Genesis 1: 28; 9:1; 11:1-9); and 4) ‘God said: Abram listened (Genesis 11: 27-12: 9). The church servants at Lutheran Church in Indonesia, especially in East Nusa Tenggara said that they were glad and much supported with this program. They also hoped that each family could study the God’s Words together, while the parents also got closer to their children and grew the family faith.

The writer hopes that this program would be a blessing for every family for the growth of children's faith, and the family finding joy and peace in the midst of the pandemic. Let’s pray together, may God bless and protect us wherever we are.

The pandemic of Covid-19 which has spread to various provinces in Indonesia has caused anxiety among the communities, including in Soe, South Central Timor regency, East Nusa Tenggara. The provincial and regencial governments have been massively warning the community to always wear masks and wash their hands when going out of their house. In fact, besides the efforts of the local government, there are also the participation of various social institutions to campaign information and prevent the spread of Covid-19 from spreading, while also educating the public to adopt clean and healthy lifestyle.

The writer took part in this activity as a field staff at Karya Wiguna Indonesia Foundation, an institution engaged in health, education, agriculture and also clean water solutions in collaboration with Lutheran Church in Indonesia. The writer joined the foundation since January 2020 to work in the service area of Timor island after previously being part of Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta.

During April 2-17, 2020, through activities on prevention and socialization of Covid 19, many relief packages consist of masks, soap and poster were distributed to the church members of Lutheran Church Indonesia in South Central Timor regency, such as in Nonohonis, Kot'olin, and Nunusunu. A total of 580 masks of various sizes were distributed to children and adults and there were 280 soap packets distributed with two bars for each family. For education about Covid-19 I played a short video and put posters containing steps to prevent Covid-19 at the churches. There are 11 churches in dispersed locations received the relief supports. The challenges to reach the churches were not easy with winding roads, rocky and climbing steep hills, even sometimes crossing rivers. It was great when we reached our destination, met and interacted with the church members which mostly worked as corn farmers.

The posters that were distributed contained steps to prevent Covid-19, first, keeping a minimum distance of 1 meter from one to another / prohibited to mingle. Second, washing hands with soap in running water at least 20 seconds after doing something. Third, not touching face area, like mouth, nose and eyes before washing hands. Fourth, covering mouth and nose with elbow folded when coughing or sneezing, or with tissue and immediately throw it into closed trash bin. Fifth, being productive at home, school at home, work from home, and held worship from home.

The warning and socialization are important but the main point is the people’s behavior to carry out all protocols with discipline, and completed with prayer and surrender to God, because prayer contains hope and strength for daily activities. This activity is also a means to greet church members and to encourage them to continue to rely on God as helper in life and to provide way out of every problem.

Although this activity is simple, the local community felt that it was so meaningful, as due to the dispersed location, people here have limited access. Hopefully, the pandemic of Covid-19 will soon subside and the community can do activities again normally. Keep the spirit to work, protect yourself and others. May God bless and take care of us.

The situation above becomes my challenge, Sukaningtyas, a Christian Education teacher at SMK 3 Wonosari, Gunungkidul regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta. In addition to teach Christian Education and Characters subjects, I also responsible as homeroom of Mechatronics class with 35 students from various family and religion backgrounds. There is an 'image' in society that vocational students are more difficult to deal with than high school students, and this is what I face especially as most of them are boys. Fighting, playing truant, having friendship problems, economics and family problems are common cases I’ve faced when accompanying them. Honestly, it was not easy because I was involved more in education of children not teenagers, but additional skills I got from training, sharing experiences, and having various interaction that I had from Stube-HEMAT helped me to assist my students as subject teacher and homeroom teacher.

My experiences in the programs of Alternative Education, Gender, Multicultural and field exposure training by visiting and discussing directly with education practitioners, and Interfaith open perspectives, change my paradigm of education and inspire me that students are not just objects. They have uniqueness in their personalities. As a teacher, I play role as facilitators placing myself as 'learning partners' in the learning process and encourage them to ask questions actively, to find and to express their thoughts. It is actually inspired by an old Confucius saying 'I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand' also 'I find myself I master it.

The success of education process requires the role of parents and community so that it encouraged me to visit every student's home to get to know their family, family conditions and environment that is certainly very influential in their daily lives and personalities. This activity is very challenging, because they are spread in seven districts in Gunungkidul regency with various geographical areas from flat to hilly, and various road conditions from tarmac road to rocky path. This also revealed their struggle to attend school as well as their family background, parents' work, daily life and economic conditions. These findings helped me get to know them and find the right personal approach.

Experiences of Religion Diversity

Inspiration of Gender Equality

Awareness of social reality.

My teaching experience is still on its way, so the dynamics of learning will continue to occur, for me and the students. I hope this article may enrich the insight of Stube-HEMAT friends in various regions through out this country, especially for those who work as teachers. Please continue to sow goodness and virtues. (Sukaningtyas).

I also experienced this situation when I returned to my hometown, in Pugungraharjo village, after finishing my study in Yogyakarta. I am Redy Hartanto, from Pugungraharjo, a village in East Lampung regency, Lampung province.  The year of 2014 was the beginning of my adventure to Yogyakarta to study Theology at Marturia Theology College. During my study in the period of 2014-2019, I took part in several activities out of campus, one of which was Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta. I have participated in several training programs, namely Entrepreneurship, Church and Politics, Conflict Management, Organic Agriculture, Cultural Heritage: From Local to World, Parenting Skills, Multicultural and Interfaith Dialogue, Learning from Failure: A Strategy, and even the opportunity to explore Sumba through Sumba Exploring program. These activities really broadened my horizons, along with the awareness that would be beneficial when I lived among society. I went through this long process until graduation in December 2019.

Two weeks after graduation I returned to my hometown with a dream of applying every knowledge and experience that I could with an expectation that it would benefit many people. But apparently, I am also still confused about what I should do first. Yes, I do have the goal of being a pastor, but the process of becoming a pastor is not a short time, it needs process and stages and I need a 'transition period' to prepare myself to be more mature. ‘What am I going to do now?’ This becomes a question within myself, and finally I sort out the experiences that I have found, including off-campus activities, one of them is entrepreneurship, about a valuable lesson in entrepreneurship training to take advantages the potency in the surrounding area. This is an idea to start a packaged coffee business because Lampung is the second largest coffee producer in Indonesia after South Sumatra province. Besides that, in my village, nobody sells premium quality coffee, most of the coffee on the market is made from a mixture of coffee beans and rice or corn. I focus on premium coffee as an opportunity to start because premium quality itself is a ready-to-use coffee product using grade 1 coffee beans and a proper roasting process so that each coffee bean has the right level of well-roasted. This is the maximum coffee character, a typical Lampung coffee taste when one drinks it. This premium coffee uses basic ingredients of Peaberry Robusta Lampung coffee and Robusta Single Origin Lampung coffee and it is packed in 100 grams and 150 grams pocket.

I experienced ups and downs in starting a business that use local potency, lost enthusiasm when there were no buyers, or the coffee stock ran out when there were sudden orders. In fact, the stock of coffee is not much to maintains, the quality of the coffee with maximum taste must not exceed than 3 months, otherwise the aroma and the taste will start decreasing. But my optimism revived when market orders came from outside the region. Actually this is part of my big dream to be an example for the young people in my village to build own businesses using local potency, and one of them is coffee. I fought for myself and proved it because I was in a village that tends to ask successful evidence and further others will follow. I am open to transfer enthusiasm and knowledge of coffee that has been running now by inviting young people who have a motivation for cooperation, training them to know the characteristics of good coffee beans, processing, doing product packaging and marketing.

Every young man who returns from the city after completing his study certainly has personal struggle and he should be smart to find what he should do in the 'transition period'. A broad knowledge is important when knowledge in campus is complemented by experiences gained outside of campus without forgetting the responsibilities as student. There I found a new alternative that I did not get in campus, and was finally useful when in my hometown. The ability to map local potency is a plus value for me when I become a church pastor, not only providing ‘spiritual food’ at the church services but also answering economic needs of the church members by developing local-potency-based businesses. This is a challenge for young people who are studying in city, complete their knowledge in campus with off-campus trainings that will enrich their experience as provision for living in the real community. (Redy Hartanto)

The dream when I left my place of birth, Lainjanji, Wulla Waijilu, Sumba was be a nurse, by continuing my study at University of Respati Yogyakarta (UNRIYO). But it was just a memory, because now I am working not caring for people, but as an alumnus of Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa University of Yogyakarta (UST) majoring in English Education, I have a mission to serve in education institution to teach and educate students as the nation's next generation.

Fortunately, when I was studying in Yogyakarta, I joined lots of training in Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta, so that I had many life skills to survive and move forward. Beside teaching, I also pay attention to agriculture by helping my parents to manage cashews, growing vegetables, and trading goods. I also have a plan to open English course for children in 2020. So, I will never surrender to survive, rely on God and work diligently, surely my life will be blessed. (Siprianus Ndawa Lu).