Discovering Grace

Surabaya, East Java – October 2008

That morning, the crowd on the outskirt of the city was stirred and shocked by the discovery of a dead body nearby the traditional marketplace.

It was a newborn male infant, barely twelve hours old. The poor baby was wrapped tight in a plastic bag and left to die in a bush near the marketplace.

The police was called. Whispers spread as to predict who could have done such a thing.

Some suggested it might have been a prostitute from the D-complex. Some said the baby might have been the undesirable result of some immoral act. Others just winced at the possibilities and hurried back to their businesses, leaving the tragedy of that horrid morning behind.

Medan, North Sumatra – November 2002

A married couple was preparing to move to Surabaya.

Up to then, they had been married for years and the wife still showed no signs of conception. Even after taking so many suggested medicines and waiting for so many years, she remained childless.

Eventually, they planned to settle down elsewhere, to a metropolitan where procedures for in-vitro were far more accessible.

They did move – and went through the procedures. The wife became pregnant. The couple was very happy.

But it didn’t last long.

The baby was miscarried before reaching twelve weeks.

Minahasa, North Sulawesi – December 1979

The night was cold and rainy. The darkness nearly reached midnight.

A group of people, carrying lanterns and wearing raincoats, were out in a peculiar search up on a hill. The leader of the team was a 43-year old pastor who had a wife and nine children waiting back home.

Several hours ago, the pastor had heard the confession of a young woman whom he knew had conceived due to an act of indecency.

Learning that her parents would not accept her baby in the family out of shame, the troubled girl took her newborn daughter in one hand and a shovel in the other. She went to the hill, dug a hole, and buried her baby. Then, weeping, she ran to the pastor’s house and confessed the murder she had done – believing the infant to be dead by then.

But the pastor, who was shocked by the confession, wasted no time.

He immediately put on his raincoat, took a shovel and a lantern, and called all the members of the congregation who lived nearby – all the men he could find.

Together, they ran on top of the hill in search of the baby.

Suddenly, one of the men shouted as he found the mound under which the girl had buried her infant. There was a mumbling sound from underneath.

The pastor hurriedly dug – and found the baby alive!

They wrapped her in a clean towel, took her home and bathed her.

The pastor adopted the baby and entrusted her in the care of a couple whom had long been waiting for a child.

And she was named GRACE.