As I mentioned in my previous blogs, my team and I have been participating in ATL (ask the Lord) since entering Asia. I wanted to take some time to shed light on what this has looked like for my team and me, as well as share how God is currently leading us in Indonesia.
When we first left the USA, our route consisted of us traveling to Mongolia and China and partnering with hosts in those countries. When we were informed of a route change in March, instead of plugging us into ministry hosts selected for us, Adventures in Missions wanted to give us the opportunity to participate in ATL in the countries we were being rerouted to: Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. What does this look like? This means that Adventures in Missions gives Racers (my team and me) a chance to be on the field though an established organization, with a chance to learn how to use our skills to connect with hosts, ministry contacts, and practice listening to the Holy Spirit as He guides each step of the way.
Our mentors have always emphasized the fact that “life is ministry and ministry is life”. This means developing a mindset where instead of thinking of ministry as an allotted amount of time each day we spend with a specific contact, we shift our mindset to one where we apply ministry to our daily walk. My team had this in mind when we began ATL, and knew ministry would look different each month and each day during this time.
In Malaysia, we spent our first week debriefing with our mentors and leaders as well as resting after spending three months in Africa. The next two weeks consisted of my team and me focusing on building relationships with the locals in KL and Port Dickson. We stayed in one hostel for the majority of the time and would frequent the local coffee shops, sharing community, stories, and cups of caffeine with each other and the people there as well as prayer walk around the city. Throughout our time in Malaysia, we saw God provide in supernatural ways, and highlight several people to pour into and get to know. Many of the people we ran into told my teammates that they could see something was different about us, and some even guessed that we were Christians.
Soon after we arrived in Indonesia, my team and I felt God calling us to a seek out organizations in the country and come along side them and serve them in their ministries. After flying into Jakarta, we spent two days there making travel plans and reaching out to potential contacts. Once we had settled into a plan, we made our way to Yogyakarta where we spent the day with other believers from Chi Alpha. Afterwards, we made our way to Banyuwangi where we spent the week at a hostel getting to know the locals, and prayer walking similar to what we did in Malaysia. We also realized the people of Banyuwangi actively use black magic, and were able to pray into this as well.
We arrived in Bali on April 29th and partnered with ICC (International Christian Community Bali) until May 4th. We spent the week going in pairs each day to volunteer with ICC in teaching the local children English. As usual we kept our eyes open for any open doors with the people in the area, and God highlighted Aris, one of the employees at the hostel we stayed at.
Aris is 23 years old, works and lives at the hostel we stayed at. He speaks English well, and he drove us wherever we needed to go throughout the past week. God has used him to challenge me to truly give and put relationships first. It’s a little embarrassing to say that God used a non-believer to remind me, a Christian, of this- but He did.
One of the things we did with Aris was take him to a waterfall. Along the way, he asked if we minded if he stopped at a convenience store. We waited in the car, and when he came out with two bags of chips and cookies, we laughed saying he had the munchies. We were promptly shut down when he smiled and gave us the snacks saying, “For you.”
As I write this post, we are currently on a train traveling to Surabaya where we will be partnering and lodging with a YWAM base in the area.
I can honestly say that God has used the people in Indonesia to challenge and inspire me. Respect and honor goes a long way this culture, and the people will prioritize relationships, and pleasing you by any means necessary. I’m not sure if I’ll ever stop getting humbled by the amount of kindness strangers consistently show us.
The atmosphere is dark and heavy spiritually, the people mix Buddhism with animism and ancestral worship. I’ve never seen more statues of gods in my entire life and the streets are filled with offerings to Shiva (Rebecca and I went to Starbucks one morning and in the doorway sat a bowl of flowers and a small cup of coffee). But the people are easy to love and invest into. As we are about to enter into a different city, I ask for prayers and for God to continue to open doors with the people. I love spending time with them, and I love getting to know the people in Asia. They’ve been some of the warmest and kindest people I’ve come across, and my hearts desire is to build relationships with them while allowing the light of Christ to shine.
