Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta’s Ministry Methodology
- Tanggal : 10 September 2025
- Jam : 18:00
Christ called Farsijana to serve in the national development aspect of Indonesia, which is facing social transformation and globalization. Global political influence on trade has been present in Indonesia since the era of Western (Portuguese, Dutch) and Eastern (Japanese) colonialism in the archipelago. The transition from World War II and the post-communist transition in Indonesia led to the transfer of Papua to Indonesia for full integration into the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia in 1969, 24 years after Indonesia declared its independence in 1945. However, in terms of mining, Papua was handed over from the Netherlands to Indonesia, which then transferred control to the United States in 1967. The world’s largest gold mine is located in Papua, controlled by Freeport, a US company. The Cold War transition between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the separation of smaller nations from the Soviet Union. At the same time, there was also a reform movement that brought about the New Order government, under the leadership of President Soeharto, who served from the post-communist era in 1966 until the end of his 32-year presidential term.
It was during this reform era that Farsijana conducted her doctoral research in North Maluku from 1998 to 1999, where violence between Muslims and Christians occurred. She wrote her dissertation on the tragedy of social violence in Maluku’s history. She also played a role in facilitating peace between Muslim and Christian communities in Maluku, involving the Governor of Maluku and the Governor of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in 2004. From then on, Farsijana realized that her ministry must include critical education for grassroots communities, which are potentially targets of mass violence between groups with different religious backgrounds.
Reconciling conflicting groups must be done by presenting the reality of their encounters on the land where they live together. They must see the changes that occur after a violent conflict that separates community members in a particular area. Returning to their home is the goal of all conflicting parties, especially those who own property, namely their own homes and land. Agrarian conflicts become new problems if religious-based conflicts cannot be resolved properly. Currently, Farsijana clearly understands God’s calling to work systematically on issues of land, forests, indigenous and interfaith communities, social justice, and community economic empowerment according to their potential in the islands outside Java.
Java has been Farsijana’s area of service for 23 years as a missionary with PC USA World Mission. Farsijana received God’s will to establish the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation after an accident that broke her L4 and T11 vertebrae in 2013 in Ventura County, Southern California, United States. Farsijana had to use a brace for six months in Boston. After returning to Indonesia in 2014, Farsijana expressed her gratitude for her and her husband’s safety by establishing the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation.
Farsijana was 49 years old when the accident occurred. She returned to Indonesia to celebrate her 50th birthday, which she believes is a jubilee year, a year of deliverance from the accident. Therefore, establishing the Griya Jati Rasa (English: House of Authentic Sense or HAS) Foundation is an expression of gratitude for the jubilee God has given Farsijana. The goal is for Farsijana to continue hearing the sounds of pain, such as broken bones, hardship, pain, poverty, disasters, unrest, and social conflict in her community. Therefore, the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation conducts critical analysis and empowers individuals with capacities, such as intellectuals, to collaborate on beneficial activities to empower them according to their potential and market their products. Essentially, the community is empowered to build together and share according to their respective abilities.
The establishment of the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation coincided with Farsijana’s time as a PCUSA missionary, serving under a collaborative agreement with Duta Wacana Christian University. The Griya Jati Rasa Foundation’s management comes from a background of women’s activists, social activists, and academics who are Farsijana’s partners.
Since then, the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation has implemented various programs. It held social entrepreneurship training in villages. Alumni of this training later formed the Griya Jati Rasa cooperative as a grassroots economic organization in 2017. On March 27-28, 2025, the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary by reflecting on its dedication to community empowerment in Indonesia over the next 10 years. This important moment was destined to happen because at the end of March 2025, the PCUSA concluded its World Mission, which sent its mission co-workers around the world. But Farsijana clearly believes that God continues to fight in His missionary work in Indonesia, as written in Psalm 74:22, the theme of the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation’s 10th anniversary celebration. The verse reads: “Arise, O God, and fight your battle.” Each board member received a certificate commemorating their 10 years of service, quoting the verse.
The Griya Jati Rasa Foundation has facilitated donations from Presbyterian Church of the USA churches and individuals for various programs related to empowering and strengthening the activities of the Griya Jati Rasa Co-op. The Co-op management manages this assistance so that members can access it for various activities. This assistance is received as a loan, which must be repaid by members so that the funds can be used by other members. The activities and their respective funds are listed below.
Furthermore, the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation also facilitated the development of the Semar Jati Rasa mobile application, funded by private donors. The Co-op members can download the application for free from Google Play Store.
Furthermore, the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation plays a role in providing peace and social justice-based civic education, empowering local potential, training in business strengthening, marketing, capitalization, improving the quality of the Co-op members’ products, strengthening village-level development activities, processing environmentally friendly packaging, providing supply chain changes, and maintaining a sustainable production environment.
Griya Jati Rasa Foundation and the Center for Community Development and Transformation Studies, Faculty of Business, Duta Wacana Christian University won the program funding competition from Presbyterian Women for the implementation of activities in 2019 – 2021. Farsijana, as a grant writer for both institutions, involved herself in its establishment of the community organization (Foundation) and the academic organization (Study Center) by involving different important professional figures in the management of each organization.
Over the next 10 years, the Foundation will focus not only on the green economic transformation that has already occurred but also on climate change mitigation. Education for Co-op members is a commitment to ensuring that the impacts of social change are mitigated and do not harm poor members of the community if they are continuously empowered and have a platform to manage their economic resources.
The Griya Jati Rasa Foundation consistently facilitates empowerment programs directly for members and the general public, implemented in their residential areas to encourage them to develop their local potential and, in particular, to provide opportunities for members to collaborate across religions, social groups, and genders. By involving experts in their respective fields according to the needs of the members’ empowerment programs, the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation consistently collaborates with the Griya Jati Rasa Co-op to ensure the quality of products and social services is maintained in accordance with the cooperative’s fair trade principles. This ensures that the Co-op products can be marketed under the Fair Trade Grounded label, reflecting interfaith cooperation, justice, and environmental stewardship. The Co-op’s products have passed a curation selection process for domestic market sales, allowing them to be marketed at Yogyakarta International Airport and online.
Currently, the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation is developing a globally marketable emissions-free product by grouping and empowering forest farmers who plant trees for a zero-net-emission program. It is hoped that the sale of carbon emissions from the Co-op’s tree-planting activities will offset the emissions footprint of various communities in Indonesia and around the world that have collaborated with the Foundation and the Griya Jati Rasa Co-op. Empowering renewable energy from nyamplung trees (English: Tamanu) and creating zero-net-emission villages are part of the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation and the Griya Jati Rasa Co-op’s 10-year program.
Education and capacity building are carried out by the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation, while sales and profit sharing are managed by the Griya Jati Rasa Co-op. Both the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation and the Griya Jati Rasa Co-op are independent, professional, with separate and transparent management. Both are registered and supervised by the Indonesian government.
Bernard and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta donated their home, called Pondok Tali Rasa, to serve as the two organization’s office. Members can conduct activities in an open meeting space, and a dedicated pantry is available for training and production activities, particularly repackaging members’ products for sale at the market.
The Griya Jati Rasa Foundation facilitates educational and training collaborations for the Co-op members by involving various foundation partners, such as lecturers from various departments at Duta Wacana Christian University (Faculty of Business, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Design and Architecture, and Medicine). Another foundation partner that continues to provide equipment and training is the Yogyakarta Institute of Quranic Sciences. Experts who provide knowledge and social engagement capital come from Christian universities and Islamic institutions. Through this collaboration, over the next 10 years, the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation will focus its services on green economic transformation and climate change mitigation. On April 22, 2025, the green economic transformation and climate change mitigation movement was launched.
This Declaration outlines the direction of the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation’s services for the next 10 years and is a key component of Indonesia’s response to the challenges of the global climate crisis, which must be addressed systematically, contextually, globally, networked, and peacefully. Simultaneously, the Griya Jati Rasa Co-op has expanded its reach to the national level in Indonesia. This allows its membership to include residents from outside Yogyakarta, where the Co-op’s office is located. Previously, its reach was limited to Yogyakarta Province. Papua and Maluku are crucial regions for inclusion in the Griya Jati Rasa practices and movements, as described in this document.
The Declaration can be found below.
Papua and Maluku, along with 36 other provinces, are currently the only provinces in Indonesia to have adopted rural-based Co-op. The Indonesian government has established 88,000 Co-ops using state aid to establish and launch their nationwide activities. The Griya Jati Rasa Co-op differs in that it is a member-led organization comprised of former alumni of training programs conducted by the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation. Funding for the Co-op comes from its own members. The collaboration between the Griya Jati Rasa Co-op and the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation ensures that communities where cooperative members reside receive services in the development of potency local resource management, business capital, and product marketing expansion. It is hoped that this will serve as a model for other government-formed Co-ops.
Churches and individuals everywhere who feel called to support the Griya Jati Rasa movement, which aims to build a true temple of God with balanced considerations of conscience and a sense of justice and peace for fellow human beings, all creatures, and the universe, can sign up for our quarterly newsletter, visiting its website of https://griyajatirasa.com or follow the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation and the Griya Jati Rasa Co-op directly on social media platforms such as Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/griya.jatirasa) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/griyajatirasa). The addresses are above written. If you would like to donate to the Griya Jati Rasa Foundation, you can request a budget planning document of Farsijana’s fundraising efforts.
