Serawai. It is a subdistrict of Sintang district in West Kalimantan, with an area of 2,127.50 km2, located about 200 km from Sintang city, with a travel time of about six hours by water with a speedboat or by land with a distance of 7-8 hours. Serawai is the center of government and economy, located at the confluence of the Melawi and Serawai rivers. 64.52 percent of the area consists of undulating or hilly plateaus and rivers branching off from the main Melawi and Serawai rivers.[1] With this regional structure, Serawai has 38 villages spread along the Melawi and Serawai rivers to the mainland.[2] The means of transportation generally used to reach one village to another are by waterways with speedboats, longboats, small boats, or by land with motorcycles or cars, but with limited road access as the road conditions are not all viable and interconnected. In 2021, Serawai’s population reached 21,580 people. Nanga Serawai village, the capital of the subdistrict, has the largest population (2,264 people), followed by Begori village with a population of 1,068 people. Meanwhile, the village with the smallest population is Nanga Tangoi, with a population of 141 people in 2021.[3] Most of the Serawai population comes from the indigenous Dayak U’ud Danum tribe, then from the Malays, Chinese descendants of the Khek-speaking tribe, immigrants from Java and Sumatra, etc. In daily life, the Serawai work as farmers, gold diggers and palm oil workers. While immigrants are more involved as traders, civil servants (ASNs) in both offices and schools. Serawai traders are dominated by people of Chinese origin. Only a few indigenous Dayaks work as traders. Civil servants mostly work in government offices as clerks and in schools as teachers, especially in the center of Serawai subdistrict. The availability of educators in central Serawai makes the level of education quite good, starting from elementary school (SD), middle school (SMP) and high school (SMA). However, school facilities in Serawai villages are not the same. Most villages do not have a comprehensive school level (generally only elementary school).[4] For this reason, village parents choose to send their children to the center of Serawai subdistrict in the hope of receiving a better education. If Serawai people want to continue their education at a higher level as students, they have to go to the city. So far it is common to find Serawai children studying in large cities such as Pontianak, Malang, Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Jakarta. This is a sign that openness to the importance of education is increasing from time to time, although there are still many things that need to be addressed regarding educational facilities in Serawai villages. Based on 2022 data, Serawai’s population consists of 6,359 Muslims, 3,180 Protestant Christians, 11,811 Catholics, 2 Hindus, 150 Buddhists, and 80 others. [5] These data show that the majority of Serawai’s population is Catholic. This number certainly did not appear in a short time. The long journey of spreading the faith in the Serawai region has been started since 1937 by the Capuchin priests (OFM), then continued by the Montfortian priests (SMM), and finally the Lazarist priests (CM) until today. The 11,811 Catholics[6] in Serawai belong to a unified Catholic Church called St. Montfort Serawai Parish, which is currently divided into four groups (around the parish centre) and 36 stations with varying distances from the parish centre. As a parish in the hinterland of West Kalimantan, the Parish of St. Montfort Serawai is one of the parishes under the Diocese of Sintang. Serawai Parish which is located on the banks of the Melawi River borders with other parishes, namely the downstream side of the Melawi River borders with St. Louisa Parish, Menukung (other CM confreres serve here), the upstream side borders with the village of St. Mary Immaculate Parish, Ambalau Kemangai. The strong determination of the early missionaries is undeniably the forerunner of the seeds of Catholic faith that flourish and bear fruit until today. 
The Congregation of the Mission is not the pioneer of the spread of the Catholic faith in the parish of St Montfort Serawai. The spread of the faith in this area began in May-June 1937 by Franciscan priests (OFM cap) who at that time were working in Sintang Parish: Egbertus Nobel and David van de Made. They were the first missionaries to visit the Serawai, Ambalau and upper Melawi regions. With limited transportion at that time, they spent one month travelling and visiting the three regions. The next visit was made by Father Octavianus OFM cap., in December 1939. After his visit, for a long time, no more priests visited the area. Until in April 1947, a Montfortian priest, Father Linssen SMM, visited the Serawai area called Rantau Malam. He also travelled along the Lekawai river, Ambalau river and Melawi upstream. Father Linssen’s visit and experiences shared with his confreres then received a positive response from the SMM leadership at that time. A priest named Adriaan Schellart SMM was then sent to Serawai and asked to stay there since 17 November 1947. This date is considered to be the forerunner of the establishment of the Serawai parish under the name “Darah Yesus yang Mulia” (Precious Blood of Jesus), which at that time was still part of the Nanga Pinoh Parish. He bought a house and land which he then turned into temporary buildings for the church, rectory and public school dormitory.
In the beginning, for about three years, the Serawai baptismal book was still part of the Nanga Pinoh Parish. It was only in 1950 that the Serawai Parish Church had its own baptismal book. This is what marks the establishment of Serawai Parish. The missionary force that came to Serawai was even stronger with the entry of Father A. Bernard SMM. In the course of time, in 1978, he built a permanent church building by giving a new patron name: Saint Montfort. This name also replaced the previous name “Darah Yesus yang Mulia”. The presence of the missionaries not only sowed and nurtured the seeds of faith in the Serawai region. They also paid attention to the importance of education of the Serawai people. This was shown by the construction of boys‘ and girls’ dormitories by Father Bernard as a support for the villagers who sent their children to Bukit Raya Catholic Junior High School in Serawai which was established in 1962. According to the records of previous missionary priests, primary schools that were initially managed by the Church were later handed over to the government. Only Bukit Raya Catholic Junior High School has been maintained to this day. 
In 1976, the Congregation of the Mission of Indonesia (CM) began carrying out missions in the Sintang Diocese, marked by the presence of Father Gros CM and several confreres who had previously carried out missions in Vietnam. At the beginning of his arrival, CM immediately had the opportunity to help with mission services in the Melawi region centered in Nanga Pinoh (at that time assisting Father Van Keik SMM). The presence of these CM priests became a valuable presence for the Sintang Diocese considering the decreasing number of Montfortian priests at that time. Father Grabriel Dethune became the first CM priest who then entered the St. Montfort Serawai Parish and worked with Father Bernard SMM in 1977. Two years later, Father Aryono CM joined and strengthened the mission there.
The presence of the mission in Serawai then gave birth to several parishes that were previously part of the St. Montfort Serawai Parish station. There were at least three parishes as a form of mission development in Serawai, namely: St. Peter Parish – Nanga Ella, St. Louisa Parish – Nanga Menukung and St. Mary Immaculate Parish – Ambalau. It cannot be denied that the presence of CM missionaries in the West Kalimantan region, especially in the Sintang Diocese, has had a major impact on the development of mission areas and the establishment of new parishes which were previously stations. It should also be noted that the confrere’s mission service in Nanga Pinoh itself has given birth to new parishes. There are at least four parishes resulting from mission work in Nanga Pinoh, namely: St. Paul Parish – Tuguk, Salib Suci – Nanga Tebidah, St. Joseph – Nanga Mau, and St. Mary Immaculate – Belimbing.
Since the beginning of CM’s entry into Serawai until now, there have been at least 18 confreres serving in St. Montfort Parish, Serawai. In the nearly 50 years that CM has been present in Serawai, the seeds of faith that have been sown by OFM and Montfortian missionaries have gradually grown and developed well. However, this does not mean that there are no challenges faced by CM missionaries in their mission. With a very large number of stations and difficult road access, not all stations can celebrate Sunday mass every week. Not a few stations celebrate weekly mass at least once a month. Furthermore, they celebrate the liturgy of the Word led by the station leader or pastoral staff from St. Montfort Parish, Serawai. 
Currently, there are two confreres running the mission in St. Montfort Parish Serawai, namely Father Novan and Father Agus. They see several problems and challenges that they face in the Serawai mission area. For example, the limited health facilities and medical personnel available. There is only one hospital and inpatient health center with inadequate facilities and one pharmacy.[9] These limitations often pose a great risk to every resident who experiences serious health problems, because they must be referred to a hospital with more adequate facilities in Sintang or even to Pontianak with a long travel distance. When those who are sick are in Serawai villages, the chances they face to get health services as soon as possible become increasingly difficult, so the risk of death due to late medical treatment often occurs. The confreres really hope for government attention regarding adequate health facilities and medical personnel in order to minimize the risk of people experiencing health problems.
In addition to health challenges, our two young confreres are also faced with more complex challenges, not only education, limited health facilities, or inadequate access, but also ecological problems that have become increasingly concerning over time. Serawai, as part of the West Kalimantan region, is an area that used to have very large forest areas and rubber plantations. However, since the early 2000s, when palm oil companies began to enter the Serawai region, pros and cons have emerged regarding the impact of palm oil plantations on people’s lives. The most obvious impact is the increasing loss of popularly owned rubber plantations. The lure of large amounts of money is something that clouds people’s view of the dangers of their future because they prefer to sell their rubber land and get money instantly. Once the money they receive runs out, what can they do? The rubber plantation land no longer belongs to them and has been converted into oil palm land.
In addition, the offer that opening oil palm plantations will bring jobs for them also seems to promise a good future. In fact, they will be selected by nature, because to be able to survive and get a decent job in an oil palm company requires good qualifications, especially in terms of formal education. In reality, not many people in the villages have received adequate education to then be able to survive working on oil palm plantations other than as laborers. So now many people who were initially proud to be workers on oil palm plantations, then regret because they are only laborers on their own land. Another problem that then arises is horizontal conflict, namely between communities that support the entry of oil palm and communities that reject oil palm. This problem is also a sensitive issue that then also has an impact on the life of the Church. How does the Church speak out among people who support and oppose oil palm plantations? A challenge that is not easy to face. Another obvious ecological problem is the community’s gold mining activities along the river and around the riverbed, which causes river water pollution due to chemicals used such as mercury. In addition, the impact of mining around the riverbed causes the emergence of pits that are left unattended. Of course, this situation can cause siltation of the river around the mining and also damage the surrounding environment. Gold mining that has been going on for years has ultimately led to the use of river water being very limited other than for water transport routes. It is almost certain that the river ecosystem is also disturbed by the mining activities.
How then to face the challenges? Both our confreres and the Church see the importance of adequate and quality education for the people. With better education, they believe that the people will have a more precise understanding of the importance of the environment and the negative impacts of mining and palm oil planting activities that currently exist. So the educational work that has been pioneered by the missionary predecessors and then continued by the CM confreres in a more mature manner becomes a strategic path to provide quality and adequate education in facing the challenges that currently exist, including modern life that has also penetrated the villages in Serawai. Definitively, starting in 2012, CM is present through the formal education management of Bukit Raya Catholic Junior High School carried out by the Lazaris Foundation (CM Education Foundation based in Surabaya), where previously Bukit Raya Catholic Junior High School was under the auspices of the education foundation of the Diocese of Sintang. Since handling Bukit Raya Catholic Junior High School, the Lazaris Foundation has tried to plan and implement educational programs, improve teacher quality, and improve facilities that support the implementation of learning.
In addition to formal education, non-formal education in the form of a boys’ dormitory supervised by CM priests and a girls’ dormitory supervised by Daughters of Charity provides strategic support for parents in Serawai villages who want their children to attend Bukit Raya Catholic Junior High School. Not only as a place to live for children attending Catholic Junior High School, the boys’ and girls’ dormitories also have a development program that makes them practice independence and foster spiritual life through their involvement in the St. Montfort Serawai Parish, for example through daily mass, choir, art development, etc. The presence of these boys’ and girls’ dormitories is seen as a strategic position to support the sustainability of Bukit Raya Catholic Junior High School, especially in instilling Catholic and Vincentian values for the young generation of the Serawai Church.
A missionary’s journey cannot be separated from the mission he or she has to carry out in the mission place. It is not enough to celebrate
the Eucharist, perform sacramental services, foster the people or even carry out charitable activities. The underlying spirit of a missionary must be based on a willingness to do the will of God himself. The mission of a missionary is the mission of Jesus himself. Therefore, whenever a missionary carries out his mission, he must always place it in the perspective of Jesus himself. Because Jesus is present in human culture and tradition, missionaries must blend into the context in which they carry out their mission. The confreres currently carrying out their mission in Serawai honestly admit that in their missions of proclaiming the Gospel, they often experience challenges, difficulties and struggles in the face of local traditions, culture and beliefs, especially the Dayak tradition. For Father Novan, who has only been on mission in Serawai for a year, facing a mission site that has a different culture even though it is part of Indonesia, Simon Peter’s question to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Or Vincent’s question “Hic Nunc Iesus?” often troubles him when he sees Dayaks who have been Catholic for a long time but at the same time faithfully carry on traditions and customs inherited from their ancestors, which often conflict with the teachings of the Catholic faith. In general, Simon Peter’s words are seen more as an affirmation that the apostles will not leave Jesus, because Jesus’ words are words of eternal life. They have believed and known that Jesus is the Holy One of God, so they will not leave him like the other disciples who withdrew because of their inability to deal with the consequences they would face for following Jesus (cf. John 6:25-71). For Father Novan, Simon Peter’s words are seen more as a form of pastoral struggle that gives rise to a new understanding as a missionary with a different cultural context: “The choice to follow Jesus always has challenges to face, wherever you are.” The experience of Father Novan, who worked for a year in Saint Montfort Serawai Parish, can be an example for every confrere, especially missionaries, of how the challenges, difficulties and struggles of proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are indeed real. As mentioned earlier, most of the people living in Saint Montfort Serawai Parish are from the U’ud Danum Dayak tribe. They have different traditions that are very different from the traditions and customs of the other Dayak tribes in Sintang Diocese. For example, when a U’ud Danum Dayak dies. The events surrounding death are perhaps one of the most unique aspects of the Uud Danum Dayak tribe. When a U’ud Danum Dayak dies, his or her body must be kept at home for three days and nights. The atmosphere of death, generally full of grief, is opposite in the U’ud Danum Dayak tribe. At night, when people wait for the body to be buried until the third day, they usually play a game of fire soccer in the house. This game is meant to ward off evil spirits that might come while the body is still stored in the house. nother unique tradition surrounding death is during the “Darok” Ceremony (Bone Removal). The ceremony is celebrated with great fanfare, full of joy, accompanied by dances set to music. There is no sense of sadness emanating from this ceremony.
It seems that the purpose of these festive ceremonies is to entertain the grieving family. However, when explored further, there is another meaning behind the ceremonies they perform, namely the belief in the existence of life after death. The belief that there is life after death for the U’ud Danum people must be celebrated in traditional ceremonies that have been carried out for generations. For them, death is not to be mourned, but must be celebrated because there is a new life waiting for those who have died.
Starting from the understanding of the tradition of death, the interpretation of one of the Church’s celebrations eventually also experienced “strangeness”, especially in the commemoration of the crucifixion and death of Jesus on Good Friday. The Church clearly and firmly establishes Good Friday as a day of abstinence and fasting, where the character of silence, sorrow, and repentance is very striking. However, for some people who have a background in the idea of ”new life after death” in the Dayak U’ud Danum tradition, they celebrate Good Friday with joy. They mark this joy by slaughtering pigs as is the case in their culture when there are big celebrations. Such understanding and practice clearly pose a challenge in the pastoral work of the Church. There needs to be an adequate cultural understanding so as not to easily judge traditional practices that existed before they knew the Catholic faith, so that they can accept the teachings of faith as truth.
Another tradition or custom that poses a challenge for evangelising in Saint Montfort Serawai Parish is marriage. For the Serawai people in general, marriage can be done quite easily, namely through a traditional marriage which is considered valid. The impact that then arises is the large number of early marriages. In a certain sense, this customary marriage can become the legality of “kumpul kebo”. [10] When early marriages occur frequently, the preparation of couples to build a family seriously and well becomes very poor, because economically and mentally they are not yet mature. This economic and mental immaturity is what often triggers divorce in families that marry at a young age. Usually, even this divorce is handled according to custom, because most of these customary marriages cannot be legalized by the Church, given the obstacles to marriage. Another impact arising from these customary marriages is the hindrance in processing official documents with the civil government (e.g., family card, child’s birth certificate, etc.) This is because Indonesia considers a marriage valid if it has been legalized through a religious institution. Of course with the minimum age limit for marriage that has been established: exactly 16 years for women and exactly 19 years for men. These marriage issues are a challenge for the brethren on mission in Saint Montfort Serawai Parish in proclaiming Catholic marriage as unique, holy and indissoluble. The ease of divorce by local tradition makes the sanctity of marriage a foreign concept to the people here. How do we deal with this reality? Is Jesus also present in this place? Perhaps a more appropriate question to ask in addressing this situation is “how do we present the face of Jesus in their midst?” An interesting message taken from the words of St. Vincent, when he spoke of “zeal for missions,” seems to be able to be the spirit with which to present Jesus in the midst of the Serawai community for the brethren currently working there: “How happy will be those who, at the hour of death, will be able to say these beautiful words of Our Lord: Evangelizare pauperibus misit me Dominus! You see, brothers, that Our Lord’s essential purpose was to work for the poor. When he went to others, he was only passing through. But woe to us, too, if we become lax in fulfilling the obligations we have to help poor souls! For we have given ourselves to God for this purpose and God counts on us.” [11] A missionary’s soul must always cling to Jesus’ own mission of proclaiming the Good News to the poor. The presence of missionaries is to help souls in need of Jesus’ hand through those whom He has sent. Like Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate in a human being and entered their lives to save them, missionaries must also enter into the midst of the lives of the communities in which they are on mission, so that they understand how the lives of those communities are lived and understood, so that eventually the proclamation of the Good News becomes contextual and can be accepted by the local community. Edited by: Fr. Ignatius Novan A., CM and Fr. Antonius Hari P., CM [1] Cf. Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS) Kabupaten Sintang, Kecamatan Serawai Dalam Angka 2023, 5. [2] Cf. Ibid, 17. [3] See Ibid, 27. [4] Based on data from Statistics of Sintang Regency 2023, three elementary school and two middle schools were closed in Serawai subdistrict from 2020-2022. See Ibid. 38. The closure of a school also affects the number of students who go there to further their education. The possibilities are then twofold: either they have to leave their village to attend another school or they stop going to school because there is no other school they need to continue their education. [5] Cf. BPS Kabupaten Sintang, Kabupaten Sintang Dalam Angka 2023, 135. [6] There are significant differences in the government and parish data. According to the brethren currently serving in St. Montfort Serawai, the data of parishioners in 2019 is 16,578 people. It seems impossible that in a period of 3 years, the number of parishioners has decreased by about 5,000 people. Therefore, it is necessary to further confirm the number of parishioners by conducting a new census. [7] Cf. Keuskupan Sintang, Aku Menyertai Kamu Senantiasa Sampai Akhir Zaman. Kenangan Syukur 50 tahun Gereja Katolik Keuskupan Sintang 1961-2011 , Keuskupan Sintang, Sintang 2011, 94-96. [8] Cf. Ibid, 96-97. [9] Cf. BPS Kabupaten Sintang, Kecamatan Serawai Dalam Angka 2023, 42. [10] The term “kumbul kebo” is used to refer to those who live together as husband and wife outside of marriage. [11] Repetition of prayer, October 25, 1643. Cf. Pierre Coste, Correspondence, Conferences, Documents, Volume XI. Conferences to the Congregation of the Mission vol. 1, New City Press, New York 2008, 122.
