Homeward Bound !

On the plane in Jakarta before takeoff

Churches Visited

During this mission to Indonesia our team visited the following churches...

     West Java

1) Bandung Sundanese 9/12, am

2) Bandung Indonesian 9/12, am

     Central Java

3) Klaten, 9/12, pm

4) Purangmojo, Solo, 9/13, am

5) Pengging, (Andres/Sarmi), 9/13, noon

6) Margosari, Bayolali, 9/13, pm

7) Bulusari, 9/13, pm

8) Salatiga (Martono & Ira) 9/14, afternoon

     West Kalimantan

9) Singakwan, 9/15, pm

10) Monterado, (Petros & Toulos) 9/16 am

11) Transmigration, Sendu, 9/16, afternoon

12) Sungkaibinyuh, 9/16, pm

13) Nangka, 9/16, pm

14) Pasie, 9/17, am

15) Balio (house) 9/17, am

16) Tamiangan, (Ikus) 9/17, am

17) Rorongan, (Alius), 9/17 pm

18) Sendaung, 9/17, pm

19) Sukamulya, transmigration, 9/18, am

20) Brunei, 9/18, am

21) Kerampung, 9/18, noon

22) Inti3 (MTS grads Dewi, Devi), 9/18, afternoon

23) Pontianak, (Nikopolis) 9/19 am worship

24) Sungaikakap, (Andreas) 9/19 pm

       West Java

25) Bekasi, Jarkata (Eddie & Mewar) 9/20 pm

Our Last Service

On our final evening in Indonesia we enjoyed a wonderful time with the Bekasi Church in greater Jakarta, West Java.  Eddie and Mewar minister to this fine congregation made up of city professionals and young adults.  They have many skilled and talented musicians and a comfortable worship center.  They prepared special western food for us--while the rest of the congregation enjoyed their familiar eats.  Eddy asked us to challenge the congregation to pursue missions beyond the congregation itself and we had a special prayer time for the church and church planters.  Steve appreciated the translator for being a fellow University of Illinois graduate.

Bekasi Church in Jakarta

Recent Experiences in Pictures

Nangka - mountain village (notice the satellite dish?)

Road (?) to Serindu

Church Planter's family in Pasie

Monterado Church

Brunei church in Mountain jungle

Prayer meeting under palm tree

Team with Nikopolis at Equator Monument

Pontianak

We have just finished 4 and 1/2 days in the Indonesian State of West Kalimantan.  Pontianak, the capital, is a city of more than 2 million people that sits on the equator, and I had never heard of it before.  We arrived Wednesday afternoon and were greeted by the API church planter who leads a congregation in Pontianak and serves as the regional director for API.  Our team of 6 includes the Americans, Herman from API, Eddie from Jakarta and Nikopolis from Kalimantan.  Herman is the Coordinator for all 104 API church planters all across Indonesia.  He is our primary translator and Eddie is our skillful driver.  They have served us excellently and made this trip possible for us.

We have visited 16 churches in these few days.  We have covered hundreds of kilometers on crowded, challenging highways and rugged mountainous paths.  We have traveled via the ubiquitous Indonesian motorbike and we have hiked in the jungle and oil plantation country.  (An oil plantation is a grove of palm trees from which oil is extracted from its fruit.)  We have traveled in the rain and in the darkness and under the equatorial sun.  (Thank God for a van with air conditioning--working most of the time.)  Everywhere we have been received graciously and with much anticipation.  The church in Sangwakang waited for nearly 2 hours for us to arrive.  Everywhere we have been served hot tea and rice accompanied with various vegetables, chicken, fish, pork and beef, cassava, fried bananas, various cakes and crackers and things we don't remember (or maybe don't want to.) We spent a night in a home in the jungle without electricity and showered in the mountain spring.  Everywhere we have prayed earnestly with brothers and sisters who completely depend on God for all they have.  Some have very little else, but that is having more than having everything without God.  We have prayed and worshipped by kerosene light, under a palm tree, in tin roof churches, in bare wood huts and in dirt floor homes.  We have greeted people who have never seen an Amercan before except on tv.  We have smiled and shaken hands and communicated through our eyes and with our body language as best we could.  We have garbled phrases like "treima casi" (thank you), "Tuhan membe gati" (God bless you), and "Selamat bagi/ciang" (Good morning/afternoon).  We have met dozens of faithful church members and leaders--men and women who courageously follow God in a muslim culture and work fervently for the expansion of God's Kingdom in the middle of a spiritually difficult field.  They cherish our prayers on their behalf and they worship exhuberantly.  We have been blessed and pray that God has given them a blessing with our visit to them.

Kalimantan Next

After leaving Bandung Sunday afternoon we flew to Yogya in Central Java where Steve preached for a Sunday night church service.  We spent the night at the home of church planters in a village and then visited four churches on Monday. Each church welcomed us warmly with snacks and lunch.  (It's not a meal if you don't have rice.)  Everywhere we go we pray with our brothers and sisters and we consider ourselves blessed to meet these faithful Christians in their challenging circumstances.

On Tuesday David and Warren shared preaching for the chapel service at the Bible College.  Afterwards we enjoyed the surprise birthday lunch for Gi.  It was a great fellowship of church planters and Tanbunaan family.  We enjoyed a gift of relaxation after lunch and then we visited a Smartpoint (Pondosi) in Salatiga.

Wednesday morning we begin our travel to West Kalimantan.  We expect to be in more remote locations visiting churches and their leaders for the next several days.  Thank you for your prayers.  Pray for the brothers and sisters here in Indonesia who maintain such vibrant and attractive faith.

'snacks' with church in Pucangmojo

Smartpoint at Pengging

Warren preaching at Bible College in Saltiga

Church at Margosari

Sundanese Worship

Today we enjoyed wonderful worship with precious brothers and sisters who welcomed us warmly.  We were with our eternal family and experienced a little of what it will be like to praise God together around His throne.  We were honored with gifts and special greetings.  We will miss the beautiful people we have come to love and appreciate in just a few days.

Warren preaching at the Sundanese worship

Steve leading communion meditation

David preaching at Indonesian worship

On Saturday night we enjoyed an exceptional fellowship with the students of the Mission Training School.  The students sang for us and even got these Americans to get into the act.

Bandung

We toured the city of Bandung the 3rd largest city of Indonesia with a population of 4 million.  It has a history of Dutch rule which defines the style of the older architecture.  The city bustles with cars and trucks like any large city of the world, but it also accommodates thousands of motorbikes carrying one, two, three or four riders--as well as pedal taxis and horse drawn carts.  The motorbikes squeeze between lines of traffic and cross the center lane line in order to pass.  Motor vehicles are right hand steering and drive on the left side of the road as in England.

We wandered through "Paris von Java" a modern shopping mall and ate hot dogs and drank Orange Julius's at the Dairy Queen.

Sunday morning begins with Warren preaching at the Sundanese Church worship service following which  David will speak at the Indonesian service and Steve will provide the communion meditation for both.  Sunday afternoon we fly to central Java and updates may be less frequent--particularly while we are in rural West Kalimantan for the second half of the week and weekend.

Gi in front of Governor's Mansion

mall shopping cart on escalator

Idul Fitri - Muslim Holiday

Today we enjoyed the generous hospitality of friends and neighbors around the mission.  We were invited to the home of an official in the local mosque to have refreshments and we enjoyed meeting the neighbors.  Gi and Mei are a blessing to their village and their neighbors appreciate and love them dearly.  We foreigners are humbled by the gracious reception we have received and pray that all these people come to know the saving grace of our heavenly Father.

Mosque official and family

Holiday feast

Home prepared foods

the way to greet every person

Neighborhood near the mission

There's a monkey in the cage and a strange creature outside too.

Ramadan Ends

This morning we enjoyed the Mission Staff devotional time.  We prayed for the requests presented and for the church planters and for unreached people groups.  Afterwards the staff practiced their English by each reading a verse from an English language Bible followed by the same verse being read in Indonesian.  Warren and David read verses from the Indonesian Bible although they didn't know what they were saying.

Mission Library

After lunch we took a trip to see a volcano.  Although the steam rises from the ground and the air is filled with a strong smell of sulphur, there is no historical record of this volcano erupting.

After 6 pm Ramadan ended and the night air filled with prayers broadcast from every mosque.  The surround sound cacophony will last all night long.

Beginning the First Day

We arrived at the APCMI Mission Training School and Church campus at 5 am following a 6 hour drive from the Jakarta airport.  Holiday travel meant the 3 lane highway became 5 lanes bumper to bumper using the shoulders as driving lanes except when blocked by people taking a rest stop or having a family meal on the roadside before dawn during the Ramadan fast.

After breakfast we enjoyed a 4 hour praise and worship service with testimonies and group prayer time.  The worship was beautiful, heartfelt and inspiring.  It was a glimpse of heaven when people from every nation and tribe gather before God's throne to worship and enjoy Him together forever.

We received a beautiful, traditional, peacock dance reception just before our lunch feast in the beautiful gardens of the mission compound.

Click to download video

Activity Schedule

We are going to hit the ground running.  After only a few hours sleep we will begin our activities meeting with the APCMI team for worship, encouragement, prayer and reporting.  You can follow the general schedule that was given to us by the mission just before we left.  Click on the following link to download the file which contains our daily schedule.

Activity Schedule

Team Departure

We arrived at the St.Louis airport at 5:30 am Monday to begin our journey.  The team members (l-r) are:  Warren Brosi, Steve Stewart, and David McClary.  Warren and Steve have known each other before but I met these brothers for the first time Sunday night.  We're excited about the things God will show us over the next 2 weeks!