A Leap of Faith | David Tjiptogarsono's Serving Story
Perhaps you’ve seen David Tjiptogarsono Sunday mornings as he documents Westside’s story through his camera lens. If not, we’re confident you’ve seen some of his incredible work, capturing unexpected moments of worship, baptism, and community.
At Westside Family Church, Loving like Jesus, Becoming Like Jesus, and Serving like Jesus are central to our mission. When it comes to serving, we know it’s not a one-size-fits-all, and we are passionate about everyone finding their “fit” in serving. For David, that fit started with a camera and a God-given talent for documenting life as it happens. Here is the rest of this story.
David grew up in a Christian community in Indonesia, a country that is 90 percent Muslim. The faith tradition he learned as a child was filled with legalistic ideologies that focused on what it meant to be a good Christian rather than a relationship with Jesus. When he came to the states in the 1990s to attend school at KU, he carried that belief system with him.
For decades, he chased after the image of being a good Christian. Then, four years ago, when he joined a Men’s Fireside Group at Westside, God changed his heart forever.
Like many of us, David’s “leap of faith” was made up of many small steps as he learned to trust God with every aspect of his life.
Tsitsikamma, South Africa, July 2022.
The South African music filled the air, and David took note of the workers who danced to the rhythm as they brought out paperwork and harnesses. He loved the fun vibe. It was cheerful, energizing, and a good distraction. That last part was probably a good business decision on the part of the bungee operators!
“If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?” David blurted out to his travel companions. It was clearly a joke that referred to the very real situation he found himself in. The others laughed, but deep inside, David was seriously questioning the wisdom of his decision.
He glanced over at the sign in the office. “Guinness Book of World Records. The highest commercial bungee jump in the world...709ft high.” What had he gotten himself into?
Click. That was the last safety harness connection. The crew tightened all the straps and re-checked the connections. It felt like only Houdini could escape that contraption, which was somewhat comforting.
The worker motioned David to the pathway leading to the skywalk. He followed the others in his group onto the narrow skywalk that hugged the edge of the bridge. He tried not to look down – 709 feet is a long distance to fall.
He grasped the handrail a little tighter with each step.
“All because I couldn’t be shown up by the girls,” he thought. But there was no turning back now.
As he approached the jumping platform, David’s knees felt weak. The man offered David a hand and began helping him properly strap in.
“You’ve done this before, right?” David tried to joke.
Cracking a smile, the man replied, “Oh, just a few times! Everything’s gonna be alright! Nobody has ever died here with us!”
The bungee operator continued to double and triple checked each harness point, tightening the straps. Point-by-point, David, too, checked them for himself.
“OK, it all looks good. Ready to jump?”
“No!” David laughed and looked at the incredible view in front of him. Honestly, he’d rather be here to photograph than jump.
He looked again at the bungee operator. Either he was going to trust the man and the harness he’d put on…or he wasn’t.
Perhaps the bigger question was this: What would he risk by not jumping?
4 years earlier.
The sun had yet to visit the horizon’s edge. David looked at his watch.
5:55. It was early, indeed.
Click. Click. Click. Click.
The left turn signal blinked on and off while he waited for the light to turn green. Taking another sip of his coffee, David wondered what the morning might hold for him.
For more than ten years, David and his family had been attending Westside Family Church. He and his wife Yulia loved how their daughter connected with the kids' program and was growing in the knowledge of God’s word. David had even involved himself with serving at church with his photography skills. Whenever Westside needed a photographer for Sunday mornings or events, he was happy to come. David did everything he thought a “good Christian” should do. But as much as he loved his church home, he still felt disconnected and lonely.
The previous Sunday morning, he signed up to join a Men’s Fireside Group on a whim. He purposefully picked a group that met midweek, early in the morning. At that time of day, he felt confident there would be no room for excuses not to go.
Walking into the meeting room, David was welcomed by a small group of other men. He recognized several faces, but some were also new to him.
Like clockwork, every Wednesday morning, David showed up. He really liked the group but continued to keep his guard up. One morning, one of the men began sharing his deepest hurts and life messes with the group. Surprised by his candid transparency, David wondered how this would be received by the other men. To his amazement, week after week, the others gave this man a safe place to be vulnerable. Not only that, they encouraged him in life and in Christ.
David had never seen anyone lay all their cards on the table with such raw openness and trust, only to be met by loving care and concern.
Drawn in by the idea of community, David was hooked by how he saw these men serving one another. And as they dove into various studies, David slowly began to see that being a Christian was not about checking off a list of things or trying to be a good person. It was all about Jesus, and he wanted to become more like Jesus.
David’s Fireside group along with most of their spouses at a group picnic.
September 2020.
“David, what if he isn’t being honest about the money?” Yulia pressed her husband. “Seven hundred dollars is a lot.”
David took a deep breath. It was a lot of money. The fact remained that a new friend they didn’t know well said he needed it for rent or he would be evicted. Like them, this man was also an immigrant, and David and Yulia knew the challenges he faced all too well.
“Yulia, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about it too. It is entirely possible he isn’t being completely honest, but what if he is? Just as we learned in the Dave Ramsey class, we need to trust God with our money. I want to be willing to take a risk here and trust God. What if he really does need the money? With the pandemic, it really is possible. I’ve seen his apartment – he really doesn’t have much as it is. I can’t imagine getting evicted in this season.”
David and Yulia prayed more about giving the man the money and followed their conviction. David even went as far as taking the man to the grocery store to help tide him over to his next paycheck and stayed in touch with him.
When thirty days passed, the man came looking for another handout. David's heart sank as he realized they had indeed been scammed and sought additional help for him through Avenue of Life. He felt frustrated that he didn’t have better judgment and prayed about that.
As David attempted to apologize to his wife, Yulia quickly reminded him that it was God’s money to begin with. They had acted obediently in the way they felt God was leading them. The sting of trying to do something good for someone else only to be tricked, however, wouldn’t leave.
About two weeks later, David opened up his email one morning. There was a message from a woman who had inquired about some portrait photography some time ago. David had nearly forgotten about the information request, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a follow-up that morning.
As he began reading the message, his heart started racing. The woman was writing to let him know they had selected a package in the amount of…$850.
Dropping his head into his hands, David sat in awe of what God had just done.
David picked up the computer and walked into the kitchen, where Yulia was cleaning up from breakfast. “Yulia, you have to look at this.”
David handed his laptop to her with the email message filling the screen. Wiping her hands on a kitchen towel, Yulia looked over at the screen and began to read. She paused and looked at her husband with eyes big as saucers. “David!”
“I know! God replaced everything we gave that man, and then some! We acted in obedience, and He kept his promise to always take care of us.”
“This is just amazing!”
“I know! I can’t believe it. And the amount … It’s almost like God is saying, thank you for trusting me, and here’s some extra for your trouble.” David laughed.
“God is so good!” Yulia exclaimed wrapping her arms around her husband with a celebratory hug.
2021.
“David, I saw Mission Adelante is looking for volunteers,” Yulia casually mentioned one Sunday after church.
“Do they need a photographer?” David laughed.
“You and that camera!” Yulia teased. “I don’t know exactly what they are looking for, but I know we recently enjoyed serving there with the Community Impact team. I thought it might make sense to look into it a little more. Besides…you’ve been working on learning Spanish for a year now – this might be an interesting opportunity to use it as well as for us to help other immigrants.”
“That’s an interesting thought. Yes, let’s look into that.”
David and Yulia came to America in the 90s as students at KU, where they eventually met. Having both grown up in Indonesia, they knew their background would be different from the Latino immigrants from South and Central America. Still, they were eager to offer what help they could. If nothing else, they knew what it felt like to arrive in a foreign country, not knowing a soul or having anyone to walk through it with you.
After meeting with the director at Mission Adelante, David and Yulia decided to help teach "English as a Second Language" classes. The irony of the fact that they were not native English speakers was not lost on them, but they were excited and willing to serve where they could, and this was a critical need at the ministry.
Over the coming weeks and months, David found himself amazed by the resiliency of his students and shocked by all they had overcome to be in this country. He and Yulia came to America as international students studying computer science and electrical engineering at KU. These people told harrowing stories of hiking across the hot desert with a baby in one arm and a gallon of water in the other.
And yet, as he listened and learned, he could also see the trust-worthy hand of God that protected these people as they sought a better life for their families.
2022.
“Yulia, what do you think about South Africa?” David casually asked his wife over breakfast one Saturday morning.
“South Africa?” Yulia replied. “What do I think of South Africa…well, it’s a place below the equator!” She laughed.
“I’m being serious…what do you think about GOING there?” David rephrased the question. “Westside is leading a trip this summer.”
“Oh, I see,” Yulia played along. “And you want to go take pictures!”
David knew he’d been caught. “Well, OK, when you put it that way, yes. BUT! I think it’s also weird that I’ve been meeting all these people lately who are either from South Africa or have ties to South Africa. Kinda makes me wonder if God’s been preparing my heart for it.”
“David, I won’t deny that all the South African connections lately are unusual. Actually, to be totally honest, I’ve been talking about it with some other women at Bible study for a while.”
“Really?”
“Yes, literally, for the last two years it’s been coming up in conversation and I’ve thought about going, but, you know…the pandemic...”
“Oh wow. So maybe He has been working on both of our hearts. There’s a meeting at church next week. Let’s plan to go.”
“Great, I’ll put it on the calendar,” Yulia answered, reaching for her phone to open her calendar.
“Yulia, wouldn’t it be fascinating to do a missions trip in a foreign country?”
Yulia put down her phone and looked at her husband quizzically. “Are you being serious? We are both Indonesian…living in America…teaching English as a second language to people from Latin America. How much more international can we be?”
David burst out in laughter. It was exactly the response he was looking for. Yulia knew he caught her again with his sarcastic humor and she joined him laughing at the irony of life only God could orchestrate.
Within weeks the pair had made their decision and David began filling his time researching. He wanted to learn as much as possible to use his camera to help tell the story of the people helped through Westside and the One Life children’s sponsorship program.
June 2022, South Africa.
David had been wrecked by what he had experienced and seen for the last few days. It was one thing to hear stories of hardship from the English students he taught back home in Kansas City. It was quite another thing to see the shanty towns of South Africa, meet orphaned children growing up there and see the abuse they suffered, and then experience the vast cemetery filled with victims of HIV/AIDS.
To see the work at the schools supported by Westsider’s generous financial gifts and One Life Child Sponsorships encouraged and challenged him. Many school workers had dedicated their whole lives to supporting the children. One Life was their life.
David had multiple SD cards filled with thousands of photographs documenting the trip, these beautiful people, and the crazy, unimaginable problems they face.
Today, as the trip ended, the leaders decided to take them on an excursion to the Bloukran’s Bungy Jump in Tsitsikamma. When a few girls in the group jumped at the chance to go, he knew he couldn’t back out.
The Jump, July 2, 2022.
It was David’s turn to hop up to the platform's edge. He tried not to look down.
“OK, let’s do this.”
With that, David jumped.
The air rushed past him as his body went into a complete free fall at what felt like 100 miles per hour. He was hurtling toward the river. Faster. Faster.
“Dear God, don’t let me die!” David prayed over and over.
He could barely scream. And then, the elastic cords snapped him back up in the air.
As he bounced through the air in quiet solitude like a yo-yo high above the Bloukrans River, God seemed to whisper, “David, when have I ever been unfaithful to you?”
“Never,” David whispered back.
“Then remember this day. Will you take the leap of faith and trust me – 100 percent – with the rest of your life?”
“Yes, Lord.”
David’s bounce began to slow, and he felt his body lifted back up to the platform.
“Was it amazing?” Yulia asked, hugging her husband tight.
"Amazing doesn’t even begin to describe it!” David replied.
As they rode back to the hotel that afternoon, David continued to think about the jump.
Leaning over, David nudged his wife. “Yulia, this is what it’s like when we follow Jesus. It’s an adventure filled with excitement and even scary experiences…but He never lets us down.”
“No, He never has,” Yulia smiled.
“I couldn’t agree more…and I can’t wait to see what’s next!”
Are you ready to get involved with serving with Westside? Learn more here!
