INDONESIA - Coming Full Circle

4 years ago my life was looking pretty well set up.

I was working for a resort in the Mentawais, & the plan forward was to spend 3 months there each year- surfing, shooting content, curating interviews & articles for the resort. The other months of the year I’d either be in Exmouth or the South West, flying out to remote Indigenous communities each school holidays to do sport, art & music programs through Ngurra Kujungku with the kids. They’d take us hunting for witchety grubs & honey ants across country. It was an honour & a privilege to be learning from them.

I was getting more freelance photography gigs & t-ing up travel where brands were basically paying me to create & go have a good time. I was supposed to fly to New Zealand for the Single Fin Mingle to shoot mate & Rhythm ambassador Jack Medland for the next Spring collection. Life was looking good & the future exciting.

Then BAM. Covid-19 hit. How do you respond to these things? To everything you knew shutting down? How do you cope with adversity? What do you put your hope in? Your faith in? Money? Your career & well-paying job? For me at the time it was my urgent desire to move. To escape habitual banality through travel & stories. To get out of the mundane & into the uncomfortable.

It’s ironic, because little did I realise that staying put was the most uncomfortable & daunting thing I ever did. I almost jumped on the plane to New Zealand. It would have been a time I’m sure, residing in someone’s paddock or sleeping on the beach with a right hander out front. But, begrudgingly, I stayed. Mates called and said that they were leaving for Gnaraloo that night to escape before the lockdowns came into place. I fully packed my van & was ready to leave with another friend. Mum & dad went off at me. There was no way. This had happened before where I’d gone on some mad rideshare trip across the country, but this time it felt different. I felt like I would betray them & their trust by leaving. I stayed.

Now that I look back, ooft I am so grateful. Mum & dad really do know best ha. I had to fight against every cell in my body not to run. To not just escape & be free of constraints. But what was I running from?

Sometimes the hardest thing we can ever do is just sit with ourselves. To be still. To listen to the thoughts playing throughout our mind. To stop. To question. To re-assess. What’s important & what do I truly value in my life?

Distraction truly is the devil of modern-day society. You know the saying, if he can’t win you over fully, he’ll distract you from knowing or seeking out truth. Anyways, I saw Covid as a massive blessing. To stop, slow down, sow into the local community, my family, and actually really come to appreciate Perth- a city I once so despised.

So that was 4 years ago. 6 years ago I was living in Bali as the Deus Ex Machina in-house photographer. It’s been a time. Throughout the whole 4 years cut off from Indo, I kind of resigned the idea of ever going back there / ever even travelling again ha; with the vaccine mandates in place for what seemed like our whole lifetime. I totally let that love of the place, of the waves & of the people go.

Shooting the Deus 9ft & Single, Bali, 2018.

BUT… God is SO good. When we seek the Kingdom & his righteousness first, the rest shall come unto us. Matthew 6:33. As we rolled into Will Taylor’s dads place in Ocean Grove- after literally just driving 40 hours across the country in a big orange van carrying 6 people to go study sem 2 of CSALT (surfing & studying the bible through Christian Surfers)… Will put on his dad’s DIY surf film from their boys trip to the Mentawais. 5 minutes into it I’m balling my eyes out & sobbing uncontrollable tears of joy. It was quite a sight. And a bit of a shock to say the least aha. As another guy would start paddling for a wave, more bursts of tears flowed out. Memories of my time in the Mentawais & love for Indo came flooding back. ‘Open Up Your Heart’ by G.Wayne Thomas, the soundtrack from Albe Falzons ‘Morning of the Earth’ was playing over the top of the footage. More heart-wrenching sobs and outbursts. I had to leave the room to really let it all out. I think I wrote about 10 pages in my journal, just pouring my heart out and how God has so imminently & solidly put Indonesia & surfing back on my heart… Gracie & El prayed over me later, asking ‘Lord, if this is where you want Jemma to go, & not back to Margaret River, show her a vision Lord.’ A moving still of Bali instantly came into my mind. I actually forgot all about this and it wasn’t until I was on the boat in Indonesia when I recalled this moment.

It's actually wild writing & recollecting these memories & events now. Knowing that God was calling me back, but for what or where specifically I had no idea. Now I am here. Sailing through outer islands to the remotest parts of Indonesia- surfing, storytelling, curating interviews and writing articles, learning the language & learning from the people. Walking with the Lord. I got in touch with Brett Davis (founder of Christian Surfers) a few months after that original outburst.

He sent me a list of friends / contacts that were doing surf ministry in Indonesia. I saw Sail4Purpose & initially thought, nah that’s too good to be true. My parents live on a catamaran too so it wasn’t too outlandish, if anything it would feel just like home. A few zoom calls, business meetings & many prayers later here I am. There was a point where I was like ‘Lord, this is totally my own desire isn’t it. Surfing, sailing & spearfishing throughout Indo…’ Yeah. He showed me that it was through His word (the bible). So I was like ‘right! I’m going back to Margaret River. Lord, I never want to do anything other than your will for me, I never want to take my own course or follow my own plans; I want it to be your will & your plans alone Lord.’ After fully surrendering the idea & just being stoked to do whatever God wanted; He opened all the doors to go. The desires of our hearts are HIS too! It makes Him smile when we live out our passions & our dreams, we just have to surrender it all to Him first, and He will give it back to you 100 times better.

A few cool testimonies of God’s provision & goodness whilst being onboard…

A month into the trip I realised that I’d overstayed my visa 6 days, even though I paid for 60 days on arrival, immigration only stamped 30 (my fault for not double checking). We wouldn’t be back in Kupang until another few days. In Indonesia it’s 1 million juta ($100 AUD) per day fine of overstay. That’s $1000. The realisation hit, woah that’s a lot of money, but I just surrendered it right then & there. I only had about $800 in my account, but said it’s just money, God is faithful & worry is not going to fix anything. I had a knowing peace and trust that it would be okay. 2 days later before going into immigration, I check my bank account to make sure I can atleast pay it. I’m gobsmacked to see the figures on the screen. A random donation of exactly $1000 was deposited into my account.

The description… ‘from MR CHRIST.’

WOWWWWWW. Does it get any more insane than this haha?! Like I’ve heard stories before of believers receiving random cheques in the mail of the exact amount needed for a bill or an urgent situation, and money just randomly showing up without an explanation or that makes any logical sense; except that the Lord will literally never leave us nor forsake us, we just have to have faith & trust. I honestly think if I reacted out of fear & panic & tried to resolve this in my own strength, I might not have seen the fruits of this money. We can never place ‘works’ above the grace of God or say ‘I made this happen’, it’s all the Lord, but it is our faith & unwavering belief in Him that allows these things to happen. Let’s just say I won’t be overstaying my visa again haha. Thank you Lordddd.

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for & assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1

Another cool testimony-

David & I (one of the boys from Hawaii that came over for 5 weeks to help out on the boat), jumped in our small tender (tiny boat) to go scout for some waves around the other side of the bay, to a place called Wanakaka in Sumba. We pulled up but it was dead flat. We were so amped to just get in the water so we drove out a bit further and dropped anchor. As I dropped the anchor out over the front of the boat, the chain & the anchor just dropped straight down without the rope attached. Somehow the D-ring connecting them had been unscrewed. We sat there for about 10 seconds dumbfounded. What just happened aha?! How? Finally, we dove in after it, but we’d already drifted a little & it was deep & murky. David geomapped our location on his phone & we went back to the boat for snorkels, masks & dive gear. I said ‘we’re going to find it, God is faithful.’ And before diving in for round 2 search, I thanked the Lord that we’d already found it & that he IS faithful & so so good.

We didn’t find it haha.

But, 2 days later, surfing out at an island 8 hours from Wanakaka, I looked down below my surfboard onto the reef & watery depths. There was something shining- a fish? I dove down and prodded it. HA. No way. It was an aluminium anchor. I rose to the top with it laughing, and shouted, ‘David! God is faithful, hahahaha!!’. We were all pretty in awe. It shouldn’t have been there so far in. Turns out Rob was actually looking at buying that specific anchor for the 65ft Catamaran to anchor up on reef haha. God redeemed it with something even better. I one-armed paddled it halfway back to the boat.

There are many other stories of times on land here in small villages & sailing through the remote islands of Indonesia, but I’ll leave that for another time.

Since coming to faith & devoting my life to Christ, I am a living testimony for seeing dreams come to fruition & miracles happen. From originally going to go live in a caravan on a bush property immersing myself in the Vedic-Hindu scriptures, surrounded by a new age community; to since finding Christ & realising that I was living in a caravan on a bush property studying the Christian scriptures / Holy Bible, surrounded by a Christ-centred community, ha! To now having the opportunity to sail around Indonesia for 3 months on a 65ft catamaran… God WANTS to give you the desires of your heart, and make the unimaginable imaginable. “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

When we surrender our lives & do everything for His Kingdom, & for His glory, he blesses us & all the tiny little plans & yearnings & desires of our heart that we would never ever think would actually happen. He does it.

But it comes at a cost… “for whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25. You have to surrender everything to him. Lay down your whole life. Let Him into your heart. Sound daunting? It’s only the best thing you will EVER do. God will give it back to you 100 x better than what we could ever create or plan ourselves. “Lord, if you are real, reveal yourself to me, I want to live unstoppably too!”

“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart…” Jeremiah 29:11