Hey Gang!
It’s been a while, I’ve been in Batam Indonesia living it up for the Lord!! I’ve been eating some amazing food, enjoying the AC at all of Batam’s mega malls, and pretty much getting baptized in our own sweat everyday. I am on a team of 22 people and it’s been super awesome getting to live with all of them here and get to know an entirely new group of people.
Since we’ve been in Indonesia we’ve been partnering with a ministry called The Life Center, which is a location for all the children in the village to come learn English, music, and Brazilian jui jujitsu. Most of the families here are Muslim and evangelism is illegal here so we cannot teach the gospel while we are there but we have been intentionally loving on these kids and their families and praying praying praying that God will show his face to these kids and their village. These kids are so full of energy and it’s so fun to be able to pray for them as they literally climb me, or as I launch them while we’re playing for the umpteenth time. I have discovered that I can hold approximately 3 ½ Indonesian children at the same time. How many Indonesian children do you think Jesus could hold at once while they are climbing all over the savior of the world. Do you think this is what Jesus felt like when he said “Let the children come to me” because they sure will come and they’ll come at full force, sticky and somehow also wet.
We’ve also been doing some evangelism at the malls and at the Muslim Mosque which has been somewhat difficult due to the language barrier and the fact that missionaries and evangelism are illegal here. However, we’ve been able to pray over a couple of people and have even found a couple of other Christians as well. People are generally willing to talk about spiritual things as long as it doesn’t get too specific to any religion. I’ve been praying specifically that these people can experience freedom in Christ, and that they can come to a loving Father without needing to cover up or to meet any requirements but they can run to him just as they are and he will call them loved. How loved we are that we can have a true friendship with our creator.
God has been showing me new parts of himself and new ways to worship him. People here have a lot of varying church backgrounds which has actually been awesome because I’ve gotten to learn a lot and get out of the Mountain View bubble a little bit. I’ve been trying to grow in being very intentional about leaving space in my mind and my heart for the Holy Spirit to speak. God has given me a strong desire to hear his voice on this trip, and I am excited to see how he answers that prayer.
We are in Batam until Wednesday and then we will start the travel to Chang Mai in Thailand where are teams will split up and we will start new ministry. Our team is very excited as the ministry there is a lot more established than it is here and will hopefully provide us with more opportunities for deep relation with the people there.
I miss you all lots, may the Lord bless and keep you all!
Some things to pray for:
- That the Lord would move radically within the Muslim population here
- That the children and families at the Life Center can see the love of Christ through the people that are there
- What our team could be unified under God
- That our team can be healthy and rested for Thailand
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