This True Testimony of Joshua Turk is from some years back when he was an "MK" (Missionary Kid) with his father Dr. Louis Turk and Family, and all were working in Indonesia as missionaries.

I was in Indonesia passing out tracts with my father and some of the members of our mission. We had passed out tracts for several hours and it was becoming dark. Since we only had a couple hundred left we decided to stay about fifteen minutes longer and get rid of them all.

It was quitting time in Bandung, one of the most densely populated places on earth, and the traffic had become very thick. A few people stopped at the red light saw us giving away pamphlets and asked if they could have one. Someone next to them wanted one and pretty soon everybody wanted one. No one knew what they were, but since they were free they really didn't care. So every time the light turned red I went through the traffic held my bag open and let everybody grab a tract.

I was glad that they were going so fast because I was tired and ready to go home. The light turned red. I passed out some tracts. When I got to the other side of the street a man came up to me with a tract in his hand.

"Are you the one who has been passing these out?" He held up a tract.

"Yeah, He's the one," said a bystander pointing an accusing finger at me. A crowd started gathering, and I could see that the near future didn't look good for me. I started to cross the street, but the first man grabbed my arm and dragged me into a small restaurant. He pulled out his billfold and showed his badge. He was a member of the secret police. He ordered all the people to leave and made the owner close the store. After we were alone he started spitting out questions.

"Who are you? Why are you here? Where are you from? What's your name? Where do you live? Are you alone? Do you have a permit to pass out pamphlets?" He was trying to intimidate me by asking questions so fast that I didn't have a chance to answer him.

Albert, my Indonesian partner, watched from across the street as the policeman dragged me into the store and knew I was in serious trouble. He hurried over and knocked loudly. He was taking a risk of being identified as my partner and being arrested himself, but he went anyway. The policeman opened the door haughtily.

"What do you want?"

"I saw a friend of mine come in here and just wanted to see him."

"He is being interrogated right now."

"Oh?" Albert looked surprised.

"Can you talk with him?"

"Yes."

"Well, speak to him in English and find out what he is doing."

Ah! I hadn't said a word to anyone and he assumed that I didn't understand Indonesian.

"I only know a little English, sir." Slick move. Now they couldn't interrogate me and they would have to let me go. The policeman didn't want to give up so easily.

"There might be someone at the station who will be able to speak with him."

We arrived at the station and several people tried their broken English on me. I couldn't understand a word of their English but understood their Indonesian beautifully. Only they didn't know that. Finally, around 1:00am they decided to let me go.

The novelty of having captured a foreigner wore off (also no one wanted to stay at the station all night and watch me) so they gave us a bus fare and sent us home. I arrived just as my dad and everybody else did. All the time I was being "held" at the police station everyone else was driving around town looking for me and Albert. My dad went back home to tell my mom what happened and I arrived about five or ten minutes later. -- The End!