Going My team did not have a host to stay with as we went into this month. We approached our time asking the Lord where he wanted us to stay and what He wanted us to do within our designated city, Semarang, in central Java.
The lord provided ministry opportunity through a personal connection one of my teammates, Anna, had. Anna had been roommates with Sara in college. Sara is a native Indonesian and her father, Sivan, is a pastor at a church in Semarang.
Their family was eager to have us come join them in ministry for a few weeks. They helped coordinate, translate, and drive us around the city throughout our stay.
Doing ministry with their church was the best opportunity I have had to speak life and truth into a community of believers. I will try to give you a picture of what we did:
On Tuesday-Thursday, and Saturday, we would go to home groups of the people who belonged to the church community. We would usually divide our team into two groups to visit two different homes in the evening. Earlier in the week we would pray over who should preach in each home group and listen for a response from the Lord. We would go to the home of a family and be welcomed with warm and inviting smiles and we shook hands with everyone and found a place to sit on the floor.
We would join them in worship as they excitedly sang a few songs with an acoustic guitar. Then, we would ask for testimonies from the group to share about what the Lord is doing in their lives. We heard many stories of how God has worked miracles and completely changed lives in order to lead people to follow him. We heard about how the Lord had turned tragic loss into gain and continues to pursue the hearts of His people.
After testimonies, the teammate we had designated to preach would share scripture and speak on whatever topic the Lord had laid on their hearts for that evening.
It was amazing to experience how the Lord spoke through us to encourage and strengthen the faith of the local believers. There were times when what we spoke about was exactly what God had been impressing on their hearts and our words of Truth came as confirmation of God’s will.
After prayer for specific requests and an offering, the members of the home group would bless us with a home-cooked meal.
On Sunday, we would go to church and one of us would give the sermon. After the service, we would join the children’s ministry. We acted out stories from the bible and had Sarah translate as we shared the stories of David and Goliath and Noah’s Ark.
After church, We went to another home group, or to the home of Christians in the area to pray with them. We asked God to build the community of believers, to establish His Church in areas dominated by Islam and to protect and bless the Christians we met.
Our team was so blessed to have the opportunity to connect with local believers. I feel like the Lord was able to encourage and inspire deeper faith in all our hearts each time we met together.
One of the things that struck me about the faith of the Christians in Indonesia was how desperate they are to see their loved ones and their communities come to church and discover the truth about who God is. Their prayers were for the expansion of the gospel and the salvation of the Lost.
This speaks to me of their love and concern for other people. They are not content with letting others live without experiencing the love of God.
As a side note: I think we often take the name and stoy of Jesus for granted when it becomes common knowledge in our culture. Perhaps we have lost the desperation to see every person come to know God.
Thanks for keeping up with this adventure! More to come soon from Sri Lanka!
