Hey yall!
Sorry this blog is so late. We got to Malaysia for debrief about 5 days ago. Our leadership team came from the states for this week and we have been spending time together in worship, fellowship, teachings and fun!
There are many things the Lord did in the last week of being in Indonesia. As a team we went 7 hours from the boarding school near Jakarta to another boarding school in the mountains. Aba Aos lives there and runs the school and a drug rehabilitation center. I was really excited to go to the rehab center and connect with the girls there. When we got there we met many of Aba Aos’s followers, children and grandchildren. It was really cool to meet his inner circle and play with his grandchildren.
One morning while we were there we were praying as a group and asking God what he wanted to do that day. I got the word “Gospel” and felt that he was telling me to just tell the Gospel plainly and that there was going to be power in doing that. The verse that popped into my head was:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” Romans 1:16
I was a bit nerves about sharing it straight out because we were in the middle of Aba Aos’s house, followers and family, but I was gonna do it any way if the Lord gave me the opportunity that day.
Later that day I was talking to Aba Aos’s 5th daughter Fithri and asked her how she had encountered her Allah in her life. She said that he had helped her emotionally, but that she had never seen healing before or anything else. I was able to tell her some of my own personal encounters with the Lord and how I’ve seen him heal 2 women in Mexico and she was amazed. This specific Muslim sect believes in the mystical things of their god so it gave us the ability to talk a lot about the Holy Spirit and Gods power. We then went to an older lady’s house with Fithri and were able to pray for healing of joint pain in a 95 year old woman that she was close to. Fithri was translating for us as we prayed and after we prayed we asked the Lady if she felt any better. She told us she felt a bit better. Getting in the car Fithri asked “how does that happen?” I told her it’s Jesus healing through us.
This conversation lead to a 2 and a half hour conversation about salvation, healing, water baptism and a big question of why there is hurt in the world. To answer these questions we read the word and talked. Fithri was an English teacher and the principle of the boarding school and was able to read English well. She was very interested in reading the Bible, to learn more about Jesus and the Old Testament. We were able to leave a Bible with her and she said she’ll be reading it! She also has my email to keep up with me and ask questions.
Fithi and I!
That same day I went to the addictions rehab center to talk to the girls and get to know them. They ended up asking me my life story and I was able to share it with them in depth. One of their counselors could speak English and volunteered to translate. One of the girls listening in particular really connected to my story and was crying. Her name was Wendy. It was cool to encourage these girls that their stories are important and that their stories can help others when shared.
They had prayer and so we took a break and met up again afterwards. Wendy then asked me the question ” Why are you Christian and not Muslim?”. For the next hour I was able to share with them that I had felt God in my life through my sisters death and how that changed my walk with God. I shared that I felt a hand on my shoulder while she was passing away and that I looked back and no one was there and that this made me know God was real and that that changed my life. I was then able to share the Gospel. I told them that I am fully forgiven through what Christ did on the cross and through that I could have a direct relationship with God because of that and that they could also have a relationship with God through Jesus. Wendy later expressed that her dad was Christian and her Mom was Muslim and that she didn’t know which one to choose. Her counselor encouraged her to ask Allah to reveal the truth to her that night ( whether Christianity of Islam was true).
Sitting there was crazy. To hear an Islamic counselor allowing me to share the full Gospel through him translating and the fact that he encouraged the girls to pray about what the true answer was regarding Jesus blew my mind. He told the girls that the prayer they pray before bed in Islam is a prayer of asking “should I choose choice A or B? and that it would be answered in their dream that night or in the future” I had heard of Jesus appearing to many Muslims in there dreams and so that night we prayed as a team that this girl would meet Jesus that night. The next morning I was saying bye to Wendy at the rehab center and she whispered something in my ear that was either: I Love Jesus, I choose Jesus or I saw Jesus. I was stoked! Jesus encountered her some way in this last night! I didn’t get to follow up with her about what she said cas we had to go, but I’m praying for her and believe that Gods doing a work in her life and that she may become a leader of a Christian movement within her village.
Wendy! My favorite picture so far! So blessed to have met her! She’s a strong Lady!
If you could be praying for both Fithri and Wendy that would be great! The Lord is doing a mighty work in there lives and it’s awesome!
