On Friday, July 29th around 11pm, we flew into Jakarta, Indonesia to kick start Month 10 of the race! However, my team and I are doing ministry in Medan, Indonesia which is on a completely different island – so our flight to Medan was at 6am the next day. Hopeful to sleep in the airport, we headed to our terminal only to find out it didn’t open until 3am so we would have to sleep outside. So we bunkered down for the night to try and catch a little bit of shut eye before our 2 hour flight to Medan. Upon arriving in Medan, we met our host Pastor David and our soon to be friend, Clarence! Realizing we were exhausted from the days of travel and not really sleeping the past two days, Pastor David graciously let us sleep ALL DAY on Saturday – it was glorious.
We got up Sunday morning wide-eyed and bushy tailed ready to take in our surroundings and here about how we could walk alongside the Lord this month!
We are staying in the Church of Elim Indonesia. We have our own little room with 6 mattresses on the floor and a fan so we can try and stay cool at night. There is a woman that lives at the church that cooks us AMAZING food for lunch and dinner (with no shortage of mash potatoes and corn!). And we would have to take bucket showers but we all bought a $50 gym membership at the gym at the mall that is 5 minutes away with nice western showers – so that takes care of that! (We also workout sometimes). I mean, it’s Month 10 of race: we need to start preparing for what it is going to be like to come home!!
Our ministry this month is a lot of teaching and preaching. We have been asked to share our testimonies and give a message on Sundays, Sunday school, run an English program for kids 2 days a week, help with youth group (which we quickly found out was “peer group” as all the people that came were 25-30), speak at different events, participate in the prayer meeting on Saturdays, and help keep the church clean. Each one of these ministries is such an amazing opportunity to reflect on what we have been learning on the race and teach others! The Lord has brought each of us through so much and I enjoy learning from my peers when they teach and see what the Lord lays on my heart when it is my turn.
So far for church on Sundays, 4 of us have shared a brief part of our testimony and one of my teammates had the opportunity to teach on thankfulness – which was a reminder I needed at the time. I am still walking through a hard season of waiting with the Lord but when I look around and thank Him for what and who I have, everything else seems pretty irrelevant. The message was perfect timing for me and I’m so thankful for where the Lord has me and what He is teaching me!
Sunday school is like you would think it is: games, songs, and a fun lesson for the kids! Unless it’s someone’s birthday… my teammate and I volunteered to do the first Sunday school as we were asked a few minutes before it started (this is the day after we arrived). We were excited and anticipating what God was going to do through us for the next 30 minutes. We played games, sang songs, gave a little lesson and then it was time to celebrate 2 of the little girls 2 year-old birthday party! Which meant cake!!! Culturally, the adults feed a bite of cake to the birthday kid before anyone else eats cake: we did not know that. Therefore, when we were handed the plate with a small piece cake on it, we picked it up with our hands and stuck it in our mouths. And everyone died laughing – our host’s wife, Naomi, ran to our rescue and told us that we were supposed to feed the children the cake and gave us another chance! It was so funny and so embarrassing – we still joke about it with them! And later, Naomi, offered us more cake by saying “do you want more?” Which only resulted in more laughter. A great first impression is so important!
At the English program we have been able to teach children the alphabet, numbers, animals through Bible stories, body parts and so many games! The kids are from the neighborhood so now when we walk around me, we are able to have friends on the street to stop and high five and talk to! What an honor it is to invest in the lives of these children for a month!
For our first time doing youth group – we prepared games and a lesson for high school students, like we would in America. However, when everyone arrived – not one of the youth were under 25! But we went ahead with what the Lord had laid on our heart and it went great! They loved the games and the group ended in great discussion. We taught on trusting the Lord through times when it is hard and listening to the Lord’s voice for guidance. We talked about Job and what it looks like to ask the Lord questions and sit and wait for the Lord to answer. Are there questions that you don’t know the answer to? Ask the Lord! And invest time in what it looks like to have a dialogue with the Lord instead of a monologue. Listening prayer has been a crucial part of my race and an integral way of relating to the Lord and letting the Lord relate to me! So it was great to be able to share that with other brothers and sisters in Indonesia and hear what they had to say about it!
This week ministry looks a little different. Pastor David has brought us to Lake Toba with his family and a couple of other pastors, one being from South Africa! Lake Toba is about 6 hours from where we are staying in Medan and we made the trek out here on Monday, July 9th. The lake is beautiful and looking over it brings a lot of peace into my heart as it reminds me of the vast love of the Lord. The next couple days we will sit in teachings under the South African pastor. At the time of writing this blog, we have sat in the first day of the teaching and it was incredible – life changing incredible. The teaching was on the Holy Spirit and the importance of being lead by the Holy Spirit and how to engage the Holy Spirit in your life. I learned so much and am excited to see what the Lord will teach me through the teaching tomorrow! We are also planning on going to see some hot springs that are close to the Lake!
In the upcoming weeks, ministry should look very similar to the first week that I described above. However, on Saturday, my teammate and I are teaching at a revival service. Prayer would be greatly appreciated as we seek the Lord’s guidance on how to be a vessel to present the message of Jesus in a way that will give the Holy Spirit space to move. Pray that we won’t be heard but that the words of the Lord will be spoken over the people. And pray for the hearts of the people! That many will become new brothers and sisters in Christ!
Also, I would like to ask for prayer for Pastor David, Naomi and their three young children. They have invested in us by hosting dinner and making sure all our needs are met. And in their community by doing house visits to church members that are ill and in need of prayer and friendship. Pray for rest and strength as they continue building the Kingdom through their kindness and zeal for the Lord.
I have loved it here so far and in this season the only option I have is to draw closer to the Lord which is a hard and sweet place to be. I can already tell this will be one of the hardest countries to leave because of our host family and the people in the church the Lord has blessed us with!
Thank you for your continued support and prayers!! The power of prayer can not be over emphasized so please keep praying!
