Thank you for your prayers for the church in Indonesia while we were there the past week. God has raised up incredible leaders that have a true vision for church planting across the entire nation of Indonesia. Steve and I were able to visit a “free Medical services” clinic offered by the hospital in a town 45 minutes outside the city. Some 500 people went through the clinic that was hosted inside the town’s government office, which is predominately Muslim. Steve was able to talk to one of the former leaders who claimed to be Muslim.
The hospital is a vital asset to the church community providing a positive influence on the community in order for churches to be established without resistance. Each person has to claim a religion and have their license id card labeled as “Christian” or “Muslim” or “Hindu” or “Catholic… If you are a Christian things don’t come easy for you. You are not allowed to have any signs for your church or proselytize. In order for a church to build a building there must be a certain number of members AND a petition has to be signed by 60 or more non-members from the community. These types of things make establishing churches difficult.
After the Medical services visit, Steve and I traveled another 20 minutes to a local church plant that is the 3rd church plant by the senior Pastor in his area. They meet in a house and are planning to build a church building next to the house property but they are waiting to build until they have enough funds. They have the foundation laid on a plot of about 1080 square feet which will be used for a church that will seat approx. 80 people and a parsonage for the pastor to live. Completion of the project is on hold for funds that would equal what you and I would pay to buy a used car.
Becky and Jodie ran a teacher’s education conference from Monday through Saturday totaling approximately 50 hours of training for the teachers of the Christian schools that are run by the churches in Sumatra. It was a huge success and Becky and Jodie were loved by all the teachers. These Christian schools are an amazing tool for ministry and evangelism in the local communities here. One school in North Sumatra has 1000 students for just an elementary drawing many non-Christians in attendance. Most all these schools have been started in the last five years so they do not have the established grades past junior high but that is where they are headed in the future. I was able to talk to the pastor of this church during the Mission’s Conference and he was expressing to me his desire to see an American teacher come and teach English for a semester and teach from God’s Word. This is what Steve’s ministry is all about – Partnering with the local ministry to provide ministry help in any way we can. We are praying for these kinds of opportunities and praying for those who will answer the call and be willing to come from America to teach for a semester here – possibly a college student, or recent graduate.
God has taught me many things about the ministry here in Indonesia and it has been a true blessing to be a part of the Mission’s Conference for Team Sumatra. I was surrounded by 50 incredible pastors that have a great heart for evangelism and church planting. While they gave me the opportunity to speak with them about a couple of things such as God’s plan for the church to reach all the nations to bring citizens into the Kingdom of God and from John 17 about the importance of prayer in evangelism – I most certainly had many more things I learned from them and their experiences. I also had the opportunity to preach both Sundays we were in Indonesia and I pray that God’s word was a blessing to the congregations. As we leave Indonesia pray for the ministry there that God would bring many more people to faith.
We are now on our way to Charachandpur, India where we will be for the next five weeks – pray for us and also as we are here, pray for the church in India and specifically for the region we will be ministering in. The region surrounding Churachandpur has 65 Baptist churches in the New Testament Baptist Churches association, with a seminary, Christian school, and an orphanage. This area is rural and “in the hills” with limited resources, but we know that God does mighty things from the lesser of things among us.
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