With all the development work David had undertaken in Indonesia, his reputation began to spread. Soon Christian aid agencies and relief organizations from around the world were calling him and asking him to come and consult with them on development projects they were planning or were undertaking. Before long David was traveling the world from Bali to advise on development projects or to bring under control a project that had gone awry.
David soon realized that it was not particularly easy to get to the rest of the world from Bali. The more he traveled, the more he began to think that he needed to be located someplace close to a major international airport. And, of course, he owned a house in Sydney that was located less than a half-hour drive from the airport.
David talked the situation over with Carol, and together they came to the conclusion that perhaps it was time for them to relocate back to Australia. David had just celebrated his fortieth birthday and had accomplished a lot in his life so far. But he knew that more and bigger things lay ahead for him. Besides, while David had done much during his time in Bali, most of what he had accomplished was now self-sustaining and did not need his constant input.
Eleven-year-old Natasha and nine-year-old Rachel were less than enthusiastic to be returning to Australia. Bali was home to them. They understood the Balinese culture, spoke fluent Indonesian, had lots of friends, and loved the life they led there. Indeed, David could see that the girls, particularly Natasha, thought of themselves as Indonesian. Despite the girls’ protests, it was time for the Bussau family to head back to Australia.
A round of farewell functions in their honor followed the announcement that David and Carol were returning to Australia. David did not feel particularly comfortable at these events. He preferred to be working behind the scenes rather than have the limelight shining on him.
From Bali the family flew to Jakarta, where David had several meetings with Hillary de Alwis. Then in early January 1981, the family left Jakarta for Sydney. No sooner had their flight left the ground than Carol doubled up with pain. Her face turned white as the pain wrenched her body. “What’s wrong?” David asked.
“I think it was something I ate at the tooth-filling ceremony before we left,” Carol replied. “But I think the pain will pass soon.”
The pain didn’t pass, however, and after they reached Sydney and returned to their Darley Road home, Carol began to get delirious. Immediately David called for an ambulance to take Carol to the hospital, where her condition was diagnosed as hepatitis. The doctor explained that she must have contracted the disease from food prepared for her in Bali, and it would be some time before her strength would fully return. It was an unfortunate end to what had been one of the most exciting chapters in their lives so far, and neither David nor Carol let the disease cloud the affection they felt for Bali and the Balinese people.
David reflected on the change that had taken place in their lives from the first time the family left Sydney to go to Darwin. Back then he had been searching for some direction and larger meaning for his life. Now he had returned to Sydney certain of what that direction and meaning was. He believed that God had placed him on a path, and it was time to focus on the next step forward.
Chapter 13
An Expanding Ministry
As Carol regained her strength, David resumed his hectic schedule, traveling around the world to consult on various development projects. He also made several trips back to Bali to make sure that things were progressing well with MBM. Often he was gone for long periods of time, and when he was home, a flow of visitors came to the house to meet with David about upcoming projects.
While David enjoyed the challenge of helping other people and organizations around the world, he was always glad to return to Sydney to be with Carol and the girls. While home he would spend as much time with them as possible. Living back in Australia after Bali was a big adjustment for them all, especially the girls. After having been homeschooled by Carol during the time they had been away, Natasha and Rachel found it a challenge to fit back into a regular school in Australia. David did his best to encourage them through their transition. He also was deeply appreciative of the way Carol allowed him without complaint to travel and pursue his calling.
David continued to stay in close contact with Barry Harper and IIDI. The two men had forged a close friendship, and they would often talk together, brainstorming about possible development projects IIDI and Maranatha Trust could partner in. Then one day, several months after arriving back to live in Australia, David received a call from Barry, who explained that IIDI was considering expanding its work to the Philippines. “Would you be willing to work with us to transfer the leading method in Bali to the Philippines?” Barry asked.
Certain that this was the next step for him, David replied, “Sure. I’ll meet you in Manila.”
David met Barry in Manila in October 1981. It had been thirteen years since he and Carol had first visited the city on the way back from their time in Europe and Canada. Manila had been an overcrowded and poverty-ridden city then, and it was even more so now. The city’s population had ballooned to over six million people, the rivers were so polluted that the water flowing in them was jet black, and diesel fumes choked the atmosphere, leaving a layer of soot on everything. You couldn’t help but notice the squatters. Their ramshackle huts were all around, often butting up to the high concrete walls that surrounded the elaborate homes of the wealthy. Somehow the rich and the poor in the city coexisted side by side. Most of the squatters in the city were from outlying rural areas and had come to Manila seeking jobs and economic opportunities, but all they had found was poverty and squalor. These were the people to whom, if the project in the Philippines was successful, David and Barry hoped to provide resources so they could raise themselves out of poverty.
David and Barry began to meet with a number of influential church leaders and businesspeople in Manila. David could tell that many of these people were skeptical as he explained how the small-loans program worked. The leaders and businesspeople seemed even more skeptical when he told them that IIDI, in conjunction with USAID and Maranatha Trust, would donate three hundred thousand U.S. dollars to fund the project and another ninety thousand dollars over three years to cover the program’s expenses, and that the funds did not need to be repaid.
Three hundred thousand dollars was a lot of money for an organization to give, and many of those he spoke to asked David questions to see whether there were strings attached. David explained that the only provision was that the money had to be used to make small business loans to the poor.
Questions arose about whether indeed the poor would pay the money back with interest. David explained that in Bali that had happened. Ninety-eight percent of those who had received loans paid them back, a figure that impressed many of the bankers and businesspeople David spoke to.
Still others questioned the whole notion of helping the poor by making small loans available to them to start businesses and climb out of poverty step by step. Nobody had taken this approach before. This was not the established way of dealing with the poor. Most often, aid organizations and churches would come and tell the poor what they needed to better themselves and then provide it. After all, weren’t the greed and exploitative practices of businesses and entrepreneurs partly responsible for poverty?
The questions were not new to David, who had heard them all before from missionaries and those involved in development. These people had argued that what was needed was a redistribution of resources in the world, moving resources from rich countries to poor countries. David called this the “Robin Hood Approach” to development: taking from the rich and giving it to the poor. But as he pointed out, this approach was not working, and levels of poverty around the world were increasing. Instead, he argued, why not stop talking about wealth redistribution and start talking about wealth creation. Instead of accepting the notion that there was a finite pool of financial resources to be divided up and shared among the people of the world, why not just make the pool bigger through wealth-creation schemes, like the small-business-loans scheme? He would illustrate what he meant by recounting what had happened to poverty-stricken people in Bali when they were given access to resources (money) to help themselves. As a result of small loans and focused development projects, the change in the economic well-being of people in Bali had to be seen to be believed. David’s persistence and patience in answering people’s questions finally paid off, and a group of people decided to participate in and support the new approach.
Still, David had a few questions of his own about the scheme. In Bali the loan program had been conducted mainly in a rural setting in villages that had a clearly defined social structure. In the Philippines, however, the program participators would be working with people living in chaotic barrios in an urban setting. David, though, was sure that the model he had established in Bali would translate to the conditions in Manila and that any problems that arose could be solved along the way. Besides, it was important for the program’s success that it adapt to conditions in the Philippines and that it have a distinct Filipino character.
In Manila an organization called Tulay Sa Pag-Unlad Incorporated was formed. In Tagalog the name means “Bridge to Progress,” but soon everyone was referring to the organization as TSPI. David molded those who had committed to support the program into an effective board of directors. When he had done this, he brought Leigh Coleman to Manila to set up the lending and loan management systems, train staff, and identify and initiate the first programs.
In his time with him in Bali, David had watched Leigh blossom into a gifted worker in the field of development. Not only had Leigh learned how to effectively manage development projects, but also he understood all facets of the small-loans program, or microfinance, as it was now being referred to. And his easygoing personality and thoroughness made him perfect for the job in Manila.
With Leigh taking care of things in the Philippines, David resumed his busy travel schedule, stopping regularly in Manila to check in on how Leigh was doing and helping to solve any problems that had arisen as the microfinance scheme was shaped to conditions in the Philippines.
David also joined the board of directors of IIDI and began making regular trips to the United States to attend board meetings. The organization wanted to change the model it was using for lending in Latin America to the model David was using in Asia, and it wanted David’s input at the highest levels of the organization as it did so.
When Cyclone Isaac slammed into the tiny Pacific Ocean nation of Tonga in 1982, the Australian Council of Churches asked David to go to Tonga and assess the situation and come up with suggestions as to how they could help the Tongans recover from the disaster. The thatched Tongan houses, or fales, had not been able to stand up to the onslaught of the cyclone-force winds. After visiting Tonga, David came up with a design for a new fale that was cheap and strong and would withstand a cyclone. He then oversaw a pilot program to build a hundred of the new fales in Tonga.
On one of his many trips, David met Vinay Samuel, a Cambridge University–trained Anglican theologian from Bangalore, India. The two men quickly became good friends, and before long Vinay had invited David to come to India and establish a microfinance program there. David and Vinay began to actively plan for this. As they talked things over, David learned that the Indian theologian had a dream—to start an institution where Christian leaders, particularly from non-Western countries, could come and study issues such as poverty and how to adapt church structures to local cultures. David and Vinay talked the issue over at length, and David gave Vinay much practical help in how to organize and run the institution in a sustainable way. As a result, in 1983 the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies opened for business in an abandoned nineteenth-century church in Oxford, England.
