CONCEPT OF CONTEXTUALIZATION
For me, the most motivating reason for me to travel to observe happenings and life in Blimbingsari was a concept that the Rough Guide writers had shared about the structures and traditions of these two Christian enclaves in West Bali: This was the phenomena of “contextualization of faith”.
Namely, the founders of both these Christian communities appear to gone out of their ways to disprove the widely held belief that the Hinduism, its tenants, and practices cannot be separated from culture society on the island of Bali.
In both the Protestant and Catholic Christian township, “missions were founded on the principle of contextualization within Balinese Culture, so many elements of Balinese Christian practices have distinctly Balinese-Hindu roots, including church architecture, dress, and thanksgiving offerings . . . . Balinese music and dance, for example, are taught in Blimbingsari and Palasari, but the characters and stories are taken from the Bible rather than from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and the churches . . . are quite astonishing , blending Balinese and Western European architecture to dramatic effect.”
Sadly, due to the same developmental problems that rural societies are facing all over the planet these days, both Palasari and Blimbingsari townships are facing the problems of aging and falling populations as generations young people are forced to move away from their hometowns to go to work or to continue at a university—and they are often unable to return to live in their hometowns later in life.
With all this information in mind, I had determined some time ago to visit these two villages on my trip to Bali in 2008 in order to get a taste of the villages and life there in those Protestant and Catholic enclaves before the sad transformation of small town societies leave further scars or gaps in community life there in West Bali.
MY PARTNER CHURCH IN SOUTH BALI
As noted above, I had arrived in Bali on the 25th of January, 2008 with the intention of spending one week in South Bali and the second week in West Bali. On the second day of my stay in Tanjung Benoa I was picked up and taken to a partner church of my own congregation back in Kuwait.
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