I am Jovita Triwiludjeng who is called by family and friends Lulut. I was born in Jakarta on 9th June, 1970. My father (Julius Franciscus Suwandi) was born in East Java and my mother (Julia Maria Supartija) was also born in East Java. My parents met each other while they were still studying and got married five years later after their graduation. They had four children and I am the third child.

A ritual which held much importance for our family was every Sunday. After mass my mother would take us to the traditional market and buy each of us our favorite food. Each of us would hold our food carefully and then go to the garden which holds the National Monument called in Indonesian ‘MONAS’. I remember that my family would always choose to sit near the water fountain.  Each time I sat near the water fountain I would feel secure and I would wait to return to this favorite place the following Sunday.

There were other activities too in my life that were my favorites, like going regularly to church, being a member of the children’s choir, lector, become the master of ceremonies for our children parties etc. In short, I was happy to be in the church whether inside or in the compound! The church became important for me because I grew up with people of different faiths and cultures.

When I was in high school I would accompany a religious sister who went to give communion to the sick and suffering people in the villages. Even though the road was long and I would be walking from house to house from morning to evening I did not get tired on the contrary I enjoyed it very much. However, I would think that only giving communion was not enough I wanted to do more, but what that ‘more’ was I did not know….I only knew at the time I wanted to become a sister, I told my mother often that I wanted to become a sister and her reply would be ‘I support you, I too wanted to become a sister’.

For ten years my call to religious life was dormant or perhaps was taking root in the depths of my being….This call was awakened when one day I went to see a vocation fair held in the Jakarta Cathedral. It was, I remember, the 9th of May, 1998. I saw many congregations but the one that attracted me was a congregation that had its stand outside the Cathedral! The most simple stand with only two women who said they were sisters, they wore no traditional habits or cross that I expected. This was strange for me and I wanted to know more. I came home with the impact of this simple stand and the two sisters who were there.

The impact did not fade, it continued and for days and my heart felt on fire…..the feeling got deeper and deeper. The water fountain that made me secure as a child was now becoming ‘boiling water’ in my heart. The feeling of security became stronger. I did not wait for these two sisters to call me but I called them and became a frequent visitor of the RSCJ. Two months later I told my mother I was going to spend a week with the RSCJ but I did not return and stayed on……Today I am a Young Professed!

One of my big joys as a young professed in the Society in Indonesia is the fruit of my prayer, of God’s action in my life. I see this concretely in the faces of children. Their joys, pain, difficulties and responses to life I feel are my own. When with children I seem to know exactly what to do and what to teach. But now as an RSCJ I not only know what to teach but how to teach! The garage of our novitiate community has now become a nursery school for the neighbourhood children. The programme began with the hope of only 12 children but on the first day 24 registered! Pondok Bocah (The house of children) is two years old.  Three times a week 17 students come in their pink uniforms (designed by their parents).  Class is supposed to begin at 8am till 10 am but at 7.00 the doors of our community have to be open to welcome our little visitors who stay on till 11.00!