So first things first, a little update on where we are: We made it to Indonesia! It was a grueling couple of days of travel (over 23 hours on a plane all told) and 12 hours of time zone gain, but that is the price you pay to literally go half way around the world. And all is well now, most of the jet lag has been defeated (most), and we are taking a few days in the city of Bandung to get ready for the next few weeks. My team and I will be heading to a different city soon and will be loving on people in a refugee camp there. The crazy thing is that there will be refugees from over 90 nations there (so we’ve been told) and many will be from the areas of the Middle East that are “too hostile” for us to physically go to. Something else that’s crazy- most of the folks from this area either speak English or want to learn it. Wow! Are you kidding me, God? I am so pumped for this. My prayer right now is that God would grant us a few that would really take hold of the gospel and for us to spend the time building into them, raising up leaders and “teaching them all that I have commanded you” so that they could take it back to their nations, places that we can’t even go! Disciples of all nations y’all. This has been something that Downline really stressed, to see the people where you are as a gateway to places you could never go! The kicker is they will be better and more effective at sharing the gospel with their friends and family than I could ever be. They know the culture, they speak the language, they have a common heritage. If trained to do this thing the way Jesus showed us how, they could bring many sons and daughters into the Kingdom. See the masses, through the man, and equip the man to reach the masses. That’s what Jesus did with the 12. Discipleship is great. Please join me in praying that God would bring us the faithful men, and for the faithful men to be known to us, and that we can equip them well, and that they would be able to return to their homelands and bring many to Jesus.
In other prayers, Indo is obviously a very culturally Muslim country. 4th largest in terms of total population,over 200 million, right behind the USA. Over 80% of those people consider themselves Muslim, with varying degrees of devoutness based on their people group and other factors. Its not unlike the southern US, where just about everyone you meet is a Christian, even if they couldn’t tell you what it meant to them. I say all that to say this, our home for these first few days is right next door to a mosque. And the folks here in Indonesia get their day started pretty early… The call to first prayer this morning was just before 4 AM local time. It’s great though, because that is pretty much the only reason I am able to get this blog out. One thing I’ve been thinking about and has been a theme of our group discussions is the idea of enemies vs. captives. If we could just grasp that Muslims are people too (I know, blasphemy) then maybe we could begin to love them as people and show them the Father’s heart for them. Of course, there are radicals. There are people that blow up buildings in the name of Islam. But they are in the great minority, I truly believe. The vast majority of Muslims are born into a culture and family they did not choose, and in place in the world they did not pick, and into a works based religion that says to shun all other religions and to leave Islam is a sin worthy of death. Maybe we could have some grace. Maybe we could pray to see the captive set free. Maybe we could turn off the TV and stop listening to all of the propaganda and ask Jesus how he would have us see them. You know they’re not totally unlike the Southern Baptist boy who went to church camp at 5 years old and prayed the sinners prayer and has relied on Grandmama’s faith and thinks that at the end of the day as long as he does more good than bad, lives a good life, he’s gonna get to go to heaven. If this hits a little close to home or steps on some toes, good. I’m really not gonna lose to much sleep over it. I wish that we could get the church to see the 1.6 billion people living in slavery of Islamic works based theology for what they are. Lost people. Captives. Then maybe we could begin to help them find the way. Then maybe we could begin to see the captive set free. OK, rant over for today, come back for more later.
If I haven’t made you mad yet, or even if you are mad, but are still reading, now you get to hear all of the fun stuff we have gotten to do over the past few days.
-On the plane ride from Boston to Doha, one of the cabin crew told us that he was a Christian worship leader in Doha, and found some guys on Facebook and sent this super encouraging message and said he would love to meet up at some point during the race. SO COOL!
-We have tried so much good Indonesian food. Stinky bean fried rice. Yellow cone rice. Chicken sticks with peanut sauce. Peanut tempe. Tofu, curry beef, spicy shrimp hot sauce, the list goes on and on. Mom, I am not going hungry here! HAHA.
-The city we are in, Bandung, is in a valley surrounded on both sides by volcanic mountains. Yesterday afternoon we hiked up, almost to the volcanic crater closest to us. I was wonderful and we really got to interact with some of the locals and try out the few Indonesian phrases we know and just smile at people and say “Hallo”. Smiles and laughter are universal. The people are very friendly and a touch shy. We also saw a monkey on the hike, the kids were feeding it bamboo shoots.
-Last night Soloman, myself and our host all went on a night watch walk. Some of the men from this part of the city get together and walk around the neighborhood and keep watch. Its not really dangerous, I think they just like having an excuse to meet up and play dominoes and smoke cigarettes. It was a lot of fun, and Solo brought the guitar and played a bit for them.
-Just before we got to the night watch meet up spot, we met some kids who had a guitar and some hand drums out. We stopped and jammed for a minute, it was so fun watching the kids freak out (because they are so shy) and play with us.
-We went to an ATM, got out local money and went to a store a couple minutes from our house and bought drinks. This seems like such a little thing, but it still blows my mind that half way around the world we can still communicate enough to do basic tasks with no real understanding of each others language. People are people, everywhere.
I love you all. Indo is great. I am really hoping to blog soon, after we get to the refugee camp. Please continue praying for me and team and folks we meet. Til next time, Go with God!
