Lions, Tigers & Natural Disasters

Well, three weeks have gone by here in Indonesia. This is by far the best outreach I’ve had. We’ve been able to do so many amazing things! We’ve spoken at about 20 different locations already. (I’m beginning to really love preaching and teaching!). We’ve prayed for dozens of people, and we’ve even seen a salvation!

One of my favorite things to preach on is a message God gave me about cultural equality. I am trying to encourage the people here to worship God and do church in the context of their own culture, and discover their unique gifts and treasures. Every church we’ve been to is very western in every way. They dress western; they play western music (which there’s nothing wrong with that, but I want to see some Indonesian-ness in the church!). I’m using Colossians 3:11. The Colossians were in a situation where they thought they had to accept certain traditions (from the Jews) in order to be real Christians, but Paul wrote them to say, “STOP! You have all you need! You have come to a fullness in Christ! You can be Colossians! No culture is better than any other because Christ is all and is in all!” Well, that’s my paraphrase…

We’ve also been able to give our first seminar of about 6 hours on the inductive study method to a group of theology students. It went extremely well. Martijn and I split the teaching, and they were very hungry for it. They asked us to come back. We did lots of reviews, and it showed that they really learned a lot!

We have moved out of Pamulang, and into the city proper now, to join forces with Megacities. I’ve seen quite a few old friends from Perth, which is exciting. The ministry here is at a much different pace, and we are still in the process of making contacts and setting things up. Please pray for us to get plenty of opportunities!

One crazy story: We visited this insane zoo where none of the animals are in cages! You stay in your car the whole time and drive by all these dangerous animals. These lions and tigers are huge, and there’s nothing in between you and them but your car window. We even saw one lion attack a car! It was nuts. I got some videos that I’ll post some time! I also pet a baby black leopard! =D

There is a lot more to tell... Crazy experiences. Amazing and exotic foods! Wonderful people. Oh, there was a terrible flood in the city, we drove through 2 feet of water, and thousands of poor people were displaced from their homes, please pray for that too!

Thanks so much for the support and prayer!

Blessings,

SPF