You Haven't Eaten...

In English we call it by one word – rice. In Indonesian there are many specific words about this important staple of their diet. In the field it is called sawah. At harvest time you potong padi. Uncooked rice is called beras. Cooked rice - nasi. Indonesian’s say, “You haven’t eaten until you’ve eaten rice.” Because rice is a staple to every meal it’s not uncommon for individual families to purchase large bags of rice as pictured here.

Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life (John 6:35). Perhaps the contextual expression of this verse would be that He is the Rice of Life. When Sumatrans eat rice they will always become hungry again, but the food that Jesus offers satisfies for eternity. The problem with many Sumatrans is they are often satisfied with physical food, and do not feel their need for spiritual nourishment.

Pray for workers to have creativity to communicate the Gospel in culturally relevant ways.

Pray for Sumatrans to hunger and thirst for true righteousness that comes from God.

Pray that Sumatrans will deeply feel their need for spiritual nourishment that exceeds even their need for daily food. (Pray this prayer especially for the Riau area.)

Pray for many Sumatrans to find the Rice of Life so that their deep spiritual needs will be eternally satisfied.

Single Line Fishing

This Aneuk Jamee youth is fishing off a cliff. He had not caught anything, but was hopeful that the fish would start biting soon. Many Sumatrans fish for their livelihood, but even those who don’t often enjoy dropping a line in the water.

Many of the first followers of Jesus were fishermen, and Jesus promised them they would be made to be fishers of men. While fishers of fish often employ nets to catch many fish at once, the fishers of men on Sumatra are finding that mouth to ear sharing of the Good News is more effective than sharing to masses of people.

The problem with mouth to ear sharing is only a few people hear at a time. This is problematic if only a few people are out fishing for souls. If Sumatra is going to be reached with the Gospel, all of the believers need to be trained and encourage to go fishing. With a million lines in the water the chances of reaching the lost becomes much better. When the church works together the body always increases. God has made it a sure principle.

Pray for believers who are fearful to share.

Pray for workers to be faithful to train other believers.

Pray for new believers to be trained and to start sharing the Gospel immediately with their friends and family.

Pray for the Aneuk Jamee to have the opportunity to hear the Good News.

 

Price of Convenience

The main gas outlet in Indonesia is Pertamina. It is a government owned business that subsidizes the cost of gasoline. Just recently they increased the cost of gas per liter by 2,000 Rupiah or about 20 cents. This is a big deal to most Sumatran families. The populace of Indonesia has staged demonstrations every time the government has tried to reduce the subsidy amount for gasoline.

However, people who live in small villages far from big cities often pay extra for gasoline because small stands like this hauls the gas in so that people don’t have to travel to the city to get it. Usually this is done by individual entrepreneurs, but recently the government has opened up mini-gas stations called Pertamini. They did this to reduce problems with the local business people mixing water and palm oil into the gasoline to get more money for the gas they sell.

Rural areas are often cut off from infrastructure and subsidies that are readily available in the urban centers. Getting resources to these isolated areas is a real challenge for Sumatra’s government.

Pray for creativity for government agencies so that more resources can get to remote, rural areas of Sumatra.

Pray for local business people to be honest in dealing with the farmers that they service in remote rural areas.

Pray for economically disadvantaged families on Sumatra to experience better opportunities to better their circumstances.

Pray for the Gospel to be shared in the remote corners of Sumatra.

Riau Malay People Group Profile

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, ESV).

By and far the most dominate of the ethnic groups in Riau Province on Sumatra is the Riau Malay. The Riau Malay are dispersed among 3,200 islands in the area. Although the 1.8 million Riau Malay are neighbored by other ethnic groups such as the Javanese and the Minangkabau, they have remained largely insulated against outside influences to their culture.

Most Riau Malay work as farmers and fishermen. Many of them live in traditional wooden homes raised on stilts next to the river. They have also been known to build floating houses on rafts. Because their livelihood depends on farming and fishing, the economic standing of most Riau Malay is below that of other ethnic groups that have migrated to the area.

 

In Riau Malay culture, to be Malay is to be Muslim. Yet, for life’s everyday problems, they often consult the dukun or religious shaman to protect them from evil spirits. They believe these spirits are the cause behind most illnesses. As for education, Riau Malay parents generally value religious education above academic education.

There is not yet an indigenous Riau Malay church. There are only a handful of believers from among the Riau Malay and they are scattered among other ethnic groups that have churches.

Pray that:

The Holy Spirit will prepare the soil for broad, bold sharing of the Gospel.

Workers in Riau will not lose heart in sharing as the Gospel is often rejected.

Spiritual strongholds among the Riau Malay will be destroyed and the captives will be set free.

The church in Riau will be unified and bold to take the Gospel to the Riau Malay.

Riau Malay believers will grow in grace and maturity and leaders will emerge to lead Riau Malay house fellowships.

Spiritual apathy among the Riau Malay will be broken and they will see the true spiritual condition of their lives and respond with repentance.

Riau Malay will know Jesus Christ as the way, truth, and life.

Two Swans

Many traditional Jambi Malay houses have wood work like this built into the roof. It is a reminder of the two swan heads that represent the city of Jambi. Many businesses and city offices are marked by Duo Angso or the two swans. And there are real swans in Jambi.

A symbol is a powerful thing to communicate values and ideals. The swan represents beauty, grace, and poise. These are somewhat ironic as Jambi is known as being corrupt beyond the normal in a country whose corruption is already an assumed fact by the general populace.

The problem that mankind has is in the difference between the ideal and the reality of performance. People often know the right thing to do, but they lack the power to do it consistently. This is a major part of the Gospel message. Jesus not only came to forgive the sins of mankind, but also to provide the power to do the right things for the right reasons.

There are 1 million Jambi Malay who are living under the bondage of sin and are in desperate need of the Savior who can both forgive their sins and give them power to live as being dead unto sin.

Pray for believers in Jambi to be bold and holy.

Pray for Jambi Malay to be brought under deep conviction of sin.

Pray for the power of sin, corruption, and laziness to be broken among the Jambi Malay.

Pray for a vibrant, rapidly reproducing Jambi Malay church.

Quiet Streams

Sumatra is home to many places of natural beauty, such as this stream in Aceh Province. A place like this is reminiscent of Psalm 23:2-3, “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.” Such beauty cannot fail to turn a man’s thinking to God the Creator.

This place also points to God’s proclamation about Himself in nature in Romans 1:19-20, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

The peoples of Sumatra have many clear evidences and signs of God, but they still deserve to hear the Gospel before they pass on. The people who know God need to be faithful to share with those they meet in the way.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to flow like a stream into the parched souls of lost people on Sumatra convicting them of both sin and righteousness.

Pray for believers on Sumatra to declare the glory of God with those living in darkness around them.

Pray for believers to encounter God beside the quiet streams of life so that they have something to share with the lost and thirsty people around them.

Pray for believers to not let opportunities to share the Gospel slip by them like water flowing down a mountain stream.

It’s funny the things that come to mind beside a quiet stream.

Sweet Wood

These Kerinci farmers are stripping bark from a cinnamon tree. They call it kayu manis or sweet wood. In the days of colonialism this area was controlled by the Dutch. There are still bridges in use that were built by the Dutch. The mark of colonialism still runs deep in many Sumatran cultures.

These farmers grow and harvest the cinnamon, but they outsource the processing to other countries. The net result is they don’t get a fraction of the value from their crops. The profit is made outside of Indonesia. This is a result of colonialism.

Many Sumatrans will accept what a foreigner says as being true because there is still a subservient attitude that is left over from being ruled for 350 years by the Dutch. Some Sumatrans are angry about the amount of wealth that the Dutch gained from their rule of Indonesia. Others are whimsical about the good ‘ole days of better roads and buildings that the Dutch built.

 The problem comes in that many Sumatrans desire to have the “foreigner” take care of them. This cultural attitude makes it very difficult for workers to share the Good News without creating a dependence that causes the movement of the Gospel to be limited by the reach of the “foreign” worker. The independent, can do confidence is often lacking from new believers on Sumatra.

Sumatra has tremendous potential, but that potential will never be realized until Sumatrans are willing to take ownership of their own destiny and follow the Lord with confidence. As long as they are waiting for someone else to do the work for them, they will continue to be taken advantage of and will experience limited advancement.

Pray for Sumatran believers to be filled with confidence and a can do attitude by the Holy Spirit.

Pray for the churches on Sumatra to own the Great Commission without looking to outsiders for leadership and finances.

Pray for Sumatran business people to set up businesses that create finished products so that the people of Sumatra will receive the full value of their natural resources, and this will result in all the people being able to advance to a better standard of living.

Do You Really Understand?

It is often humorous to see the English on hats and shirts of Sumatrans. This Penghulu man certainly looks like a die-hard Iron Maiden fan, doesn’t he? Another time a worker met with a Rejang man who had a shirt that said, “I’m an alcoholic”. When asked if he understood the meaning of his shirt, he said that he did not. It just goes to show that it is not wise to wear something in a foreign language if you don’t know what it means!

In a similar way many Sumatrans hold religious views without really understanding the meaning of what they claim to believe. For example, most Muslims on Sumatra believe that they will have to spend some time in hell before they will be able to get to heaven. They share this belief without any concern or emotion about the reality of what that means.

One worker likes to challenge this by asking for a lighter. Most Sumatran men smoke, so it isn’t too difficult to find a lighter. He then asks the man to hold out his hand. “What finger do you use the least?” he asks. When the man tell him, he says, “Okay, I’m just going to burn this finger for five seconds. Is that okay?” The man always jerks back his hand. The point is made.

Pray for Sumatrans to realize the gravity and reality of hell.

Pray for Sumatrans to see the beauty and reality of the Gospel.

Pray for a harvest of souls from among all peoples on Sumatra.

Malam Minggu

This young couple is sitting along the banks of the river enjoying the sunset together in Jambi, Sumatra. It is Saturday evening or malam Minggu. It is not socially acceptable to be alone with members of the opposite sex in public unless it is malam Minggu. That is the one night that couples are allowed to date. It is not unusual to see dozens of couples together at scenic places like this on malam Minggu.

Societal norms and pressure exert a tremendous influence in every area of a Sumatran’s life. Questions such as who you can date and when you can date lead to who you can marry, what work you do, what religion you follow, how you raise children, and the cycle repeats. Such influence is not necessarily negative, but it can become so when the societal norms prevent people from obeying God. In many of the Sumatran people groups the Gospel is unilaterally rejected because it does not conform to societal religious norms.

Pray for new believers on Sumatra to have courage to stand against societal norms for the sake of being obedient to God.

Pray for people groups on Sumatra to have courage to examine their own societal norms and reject those norms that keep them from following God’s truth.

Pray for workers to have courage as they go into new areas and challenge existing societal norms for the sake of the Gospel.

Family Planning

Keluarga Berencana (KB) is a common Indonesian term for family planning. As with many agricultural cultures, it was seen as a blessing to have lots of children. As population increased to the point that the land couldn’t support the people, the Indonesian government started education campaigns to encourage families to have fewer children.

This sign connects the words for independence and prosperity below family planning. It then says, “Two children are better.” Many of the wealthier, better educated urbanites have embraced this idea. The families in rural areas still often have three to five children per family. Many times they aren’t financially able to care for them.

Thinking outside the cultural norm is often met with resistance, and change comes slow. More important than having more or less children is having a right relationship with God. The Gospel is the way to have a right relationship with God, but it’s currently outside the cultural norm among the people groups of Sumatra. Therefore, it’s often met with resistance. Acceptance is slow.

KB is the abbreviation for family planning in Indonesia. It’s also the abbreviation for Good New or Kabar Baik. We need more of the second kind of KB to be shared on Sumatra!

Pray for those who are hearing the Gospel for the first time on Sumatra to have open minds and hearts to hear and receive God’s way of salvation.

Pray for those sharing the Gospel on Sumatra to be bold and to persevere when the message is received coldly by the peoples.

Pray for Kabar Baik (KB) to be shared to every person living on Sumatra.

Football to the Rest of the World

These Acehnese boys are playing sepak bola (foot ball) in their neighborhood street. Boys grow up playing soccer like boys in America grow up playing baseball or basketball. It is many boys’ cherished dream in Indonesia to grow up to be a professional soccer player. It is a dream only realized by the very few.

But even those who never become professional soccer players still get good exercise, learn how to work with a team, and learn how to show good sportsmanship. These are all good things. The Apostle Paul commended this type of discipline, but recommended something even better.

“Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7-8, ESV).

While every boy on Sumatra knows how to train for soccer, very few know the skill of training for godliness.

Pray for the truths of God’s Word to be broadly proclaimed on Sumatra so that people can discover the value of godliness.

Pray for discipleship with new believers on Sumatra to succeed in building up true godliness among all peoples of Sumatra.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to give young boys on Sumatra the desire to be holy that is as strong as their desire to be a professional soccer player.

Balancing Act

Okay, so you have 50 pineapples that you want to carry to market. You only have a bicycle for transportation. Your basket on the back will allow you to carry 25, so you make two trips, right? No, that would be silly. Instead you take plastic string and tie the other 25 to the handlebars of your bike. Problem solved!

Sumatrans are amazingly good at putting more stuff on a bike or motorcycle than you’d think would be humanly possible. Indonesians have astoundingly good balance. They have also learned to make do with what they have. They have a high risk tolerance in order to keep from duplicating effort.

It’s not that big a deal if you take a risk and lose 50 pineapples, but millions of Sumatrans are taking the risk that their good works will be enough to balance their sin. While they have astoundingly good balance, this balancing of the sin debt through good works will never work. It is an eternal wreck waiting to happen.

Pray for Sumatrans to see that only Jesus can pay for their sin debt.

Pray for Sumatrans to realize that taking risks in some areas is good, but in the matter of eternal destinations it is disastrous.

Pray for believers on Sumatra to carry the Gospel to those who need to hear.

Weighed in the Scales

This Kerinci man is leaning against a scale used to weigh rice and other produce to determine how much the buyer will pay to the grower for his crop. This scale is very important to the people of this village as most earn their livelihood as farmers.

Many Kerinci believe in another type of scale. This scale balances the amount of good works they do against the sins they commit. It is their hope that their good deeds outweigh their bad so that God will receive them into heaven. Most people who follow this belief admit that they will likely have to spend some time in hell to pay for their sins.

Proverbs 20:23 shares that dishonest scales are hated by the Lord. The scale that many Kerinci people are trusting with their eternal destiny is a dishonest scale. It over values the worth of good deeds, and underestimates the debt incurred with even the smallest of sins. All who trust in such a scale will meet with judgment and destruction at the end.

The only thing that can balance the scales of God’s just wrath against sinful mankind is the great blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Only His imputed righteousness can tip the scales in man’s favor. The Good News of what Jesus has done is little known among the Kerinci.

Pray for workers to go and share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the Kerinci so that their sins may not just be balanced, but be completely forgiven.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to bring deep conviction to the hearts of Kerinci people regarding the true wages of sin.

Pray that long-held traditions and beliefs will not keep the Kerinci from hearing and accepting the Gospel as God’s way, truth, and life.

Pray for multiplied groups of Kerinci believers gathered around God’s throne in heaven at the end of this age.

Pasemah People Group Profile

"So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us" (1 Thessalonians 2:8, ESV).

The Pasemah or Basemah are an energetic and enthusiastic people. They have played an important role in South Sumatra. Historically they have held key leadership positions in government and educational institutions. Many of the 330,000 Pasemah make their livelihood with farming. The center of the Pasemah territory is on the rich volcanic slopes of Mount Dempo.

 

 

Most Pasemah follow Sufi Islam. The teachings of Sufism are focused on subjective feelings and stress that it is more important to know God than to merely observe religious rituals. On Pasemah plateau there are 26 historical, religious sites. The Pasemah use these sites as special places for making sacred pledges to their ancestors for protection and good fortune. The Pasemah are also prone to seek help from a dukun (shaman) for many purposes including healing the sick.

Pray that:

 

One of the pressing needs in many Pasemah villages is for better medical care. Currently there are no Pasemah churches.

God will call workers to live in Pagar Alam and Lahat and focus on reaching the Pasemah.

The Holy Spirit will create a hunger in the hearts of Pasemah to hear and receive the Gospel.

Bold and broad Gospel-sowing will increase among the Pasemah.

Christian medical professionals would plant their lives among the Pasemah to serve them while sharing the Gospel with them.

God will strengthen new believers as they endure persecution and spiritual attacks.

An indigenous, resilient, courageous Pasemah church will be planted soon.

Signs, wonders, healing powers, visions, and dreams would be given to Pasemah people as the Gospel is shared in a clear, culturally sensitive way.

Just JUMP!

This Musi boy is getting ready to jump into the river. He is jumping off an embankment that is about 12 feet high, but that was not enough of a thrill. So, he climbed a mango tree that put him another 15 feet off the ground. Besides being about to lose his pants, it begs the question if he hasn’t also lost his senses! Doing stuff like this is how you have fun in the village or kampung.

A far scarier jump is the leap of faith needed to receive the Gospel. While it makes perfect sense to jump off a branch 27 plus feet in the air to plunge into the river, it does not make sense to receive the perfect sacrifice for sin. Such a jump as that goes against everything Musi are taught about God from the time they are small children.

Coming from our American mindset, it is difficult to even imagine the magnitude of this decision for those on Sumatra. There are deep social and economic realities that new believers have to face when they decide to make the jump from what they have always known to receive what the Gospel offers to them.

Pray for Sumatrans who have heard the Gospel and are counting the cost to be a follower of Jesus.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to strengthen and encourage new believers who are facing persecution on Sumatra.

Pray that many Musi will make the jump of faith to become Christ’s followers.

Unusual Roadblocks

This photo was taken on one of the main roads going through the Rambang people group in Southern Sumatra. While in language school, one worker was advised to avoid hitting a pregnant goat at all costs when driving through the villages of Sumatra. On this particular trip the worker saw three dead goats that had been killed by traffic.

It’s not unusual to have to dodge goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, cows, water buffalos and occasionally monkeys on the road. That’s in addition to HUGE pot holes and other vehicles of all shapes and sizes going all different speeds. One worker’s child described driving on the roads of Sumatra as being a cross between a pinball machine and a video game. The way you know you’ve won is if you make it to your destination alive and without killing anyone or anything!

Similar to the challenge of navigating the roads is the challenge of navigating culture and language to share the Gospel. It’s not unusual to experience roadblocks that are as varied and surprising as the ones encountered on the roads of Sumatra. Both driving on the roads and regularly sharing the Gospel result in an increased prayer life. Without God’s power, guidance and protection it’s impossible to reach your desired destination.

Pray for travel safety for workers who go many miles on Sumatran roads to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.

Pray for wisdom and boldness for workers as they share the Gospel with the peoples of Sumatra.

Pray for the intervention of the Holy Spirit to take the witness of workers and penetrate the hearts of lost people so that they understand and receive salvation.

Modern Day Cowboy

This Kluet man is hearding water buffalo between family fields. It is unusual to see a man doing this work. But it is very common to see a motorcycle being used. This work is normally done by a 10 to 15 year old boy.

A water buffalo is an expensive animal. Depending on the size, these animals can sell for $1,000 to $1,500 dollars each. That is a huge amount considering the normal day wage of a common worker on Sumatra is $5.

The water buffalo is often killed for special occasions such as weddings or after an extremely lucrative business success. When an animal like this is offered it is a show of wealth and prosperity in the community. This cultural concept shows a common truth. The greater the value of the sacrifice, the greater the love that is shown.

God reveals both His generosity and His great love by the value of the sacrifice that He freely made to redeem the Kluet from their sin.

Pray for the Kluet to hear and receive the Good News of God’s great sacrifice made for them.

Pray for the Kluet to value Christ above the status of many water buffalo.

Pray for new Kluet believers to follow in the footsteps of Christ in both generosity and love to other people around them.

Walk & Talk are Both Important

This is a Transmigrant Javanese (TJ) man. He is part of the largest people group on the island of Sumatra. Most TJ people are Muslim, but there are enough who have become Christian that it’s usually accepted if a TJ person decides to follow Isa Almasih (Arabic for Jesus the Messiah).

Late one evening a worker was sharing about the great sacrifice of Isa being the only plan of God to pay for the sin debt of mankind with a TJ man about the same age as the one pictured here. The worker shared about the importance of following Isa without reserve because in Him there is new life including the power to live in a holy way before a Holy God. The man listened with interest, but he was not ready to follow Isa.

After the worker finished sharing the TJ man said, “I am not a smart man to figure out what is true and what is not regarding religion, but one thing I’ve noticed. You’re kind to your wife and children in ways I have never seen before, and it touches my heart. I have a friend who has been on the Hajj (Arabic for pilgrimage). He’s considered holy, but I know he still likes to gamble. It seems that religion that doesn’t make you holy isn’t very good religion.” The worker restated that it’s Isa who alone can pay for sin, and alone can help a person to live in a holy way.

Pray for this TJ man to meet Isa and give his life to Him.

Pray for workers on Sumatra to live in a holy way so that their lives will match their testimony about Isa, the life changer.

Pray for the TJ people to be convicted of sin and righteousness by the Holy Spirit.

Pray for revival among TJ churches on Sumatra.

Krupuk

This Transmigrant Javanese woman is making a traditional snack called krupuk or fish crackers. There are many different types of krupuk and this snack is enjoyed all over Southeast Asia. Krupuk likely originated in Indonesia. It takes three days to produce krupuk from start to finish using traditional methods. This particular family was new to the business. They learned from a family from Solo. Most people who produce Krupuk have had the tradition handed down for generations.

Many industries on Sumatra are time and labor intensive, because time is readily available and labor is cheap. As Indonesia modernizes snacks like Krupuk will be mass produced, but the quality will not be the same. Much of the flavor will be lost. The time and effort put in does make a difference in the taste.

The process of making krupuk is similar to the effort of making disciples among the peoples of Sumatra. It’s time intensive and labor intensive. There have been attempts to streamline and modernize the process, but the results are not as good. You can no more microwave discipleship than create instant krupuk. The difference can be seen in the quality and flavor of the end product.

Pray for workers who are going through the difficult time and labor intensive process of helping new believers become established disciples of Jesus Christ.

Pray for wisdom for the Indonesian people as they weigh the tradeoffs between their current culture and traditions and the promised economic prosperity of modernization.

Pray for the Transmigrant Javanese people to have the opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel on Sumatra. The Transmigrant Javanese are the largest people group on Sumatra.

Sunk in the Dock

This fishing boat in Tapaktuan is an odd sight. It is sunk, but it is still tethered to the docks. The worker who took the photo was told that the boat was beyond repair so the owners had just left it to rot in the docks. Such a boat must certainly cause problems for the other active boats that still use the dock.

Believers who stop being obedient to God’s Word are like this boat. They not only cease to be effective, but they cause problems for others who are still striving to be obedient to the Lord. While the owner has written this boat off as hopeless, there are no hopeless causes for the Lord. He can restore, renew and re-energize inactive church members. He can bring revival to those tethered to tradition or legalism so that they can serve again with joy and grace.

Pray for revival among the churches on Sumatra.

Pray for believers willing to leave the docks of safety (the church) for the unknown of the high seas (the place where the fish are) and thus becoming fishers of men.

Pray for believers to be obedient to God’s Word above the traditions of man.

Sikhule People Group Profile

“But as it is written, ‘Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand’” (Romans 15:21, ESV).

The Sikhule are a small people group located on the northwest end of the island of Simeulue. The roughly 28,000 people who call themselves Sikhule primarily work as farmers, fishermen, and lobster divers. Their life on a day-to-day basis is very simple as they mostly live in small wooden houses, bathe in nearby rivers, and, until recently, lived without electricity.  

Despite the fact they identify themselves as being followers of Islam, they are still very much influenced by animistic beliefs as they regularly call on witch doctors and often share stories of spirits dwelling inside of people and objects found in nature.

 

There are hardly any believers living on Simeulue and many Sikhule live and die without ever having the opportunity to hear the Gospel. The challenge of getting the Gospel to the Sikhule because of cultural and physical barriers are formidable.

 Pray that:

God will send more believers to live among and share the Gospel with the Sikhule.

The Holy Spirit will open Sikhule eyes and ears so that they will perceive and understand the truth.

Believers living on Simeulue will be bold and persistent in sowing Gospel seed among the Sikhule.

New Sikhule believers will have courage and perseverance to face societal pressure and persecution.

Jesus will set Sikhule believers free from fear of spirits that attack people and exist in nature.

Signs, wonders, and power will be displayed among the Sikhule together with the preaching of the Gospel.

An indigenous, doctrinally sound, rapidly multiplying Sikhule church will be established soon.

Sawing Logs

These Jambi men are working in a saw mill. These trees are being cut into finished lumber for construction projects. Much of Sumatra is covered in dense, lush jungle. The need for lumber has resulted in deforestation in many areas of the island.

The balance between current needs and future needs regarding the use of environmental resources is always a fine balance that is difficult to find. The balance between the physical needs and nature of man and the spiritual is also a difficult balance to manage. When the “rice bowl” is full, many Sumatrans are not even interested in seriously considering spiritual issues.

While this lack for foresight and awareness is not unusual, it is extremely dangerous. Most souls do not enter hell through terrible wickedness, but rather by gradual descent. People often make decisions without realizing the balance that they are breaking within their own spiritual lives. The destruction of a soul is tragic no matter what method is used to bring it about. Many people on Sumatra are spiritually “sawing logs.” They need to wake up before it is too late.

Pray for Sumatrans to become more aware of the spiritual balance that is needed in life.

Pray for believers to be bold to share the only means for achieving this spiritual balance that leads to eternal life.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to remove the blinders that hide people from awareness of the gradual descent that will eventually lead them to ultimate destruction.

Pray for true spiritual balance and revival on the island of Sumatra.

A Heaping Cup

Many farmers work through buyers. They bring their harvest to these buyers and get paid cash depending on the agreed upon measure. This is a measuring cup for farmers selling nutmeg. The buyer will pay an agreed rate for as many fruit as they can fit in the cup. These buyers are very good at filling the measuring cup to overflowing.

A good day harvesting nutmeg might yield 5 or 6 of these cups at $5 a cup. When it is harvest time, the farmers do well, but the buyers do even better as they will sell the nutmeg for two to three times as much as they paid for it. Obviously the famers would do better financially if they could sell directly and cut out the middle man.

In the spiritual world it is the same for many Indonesians. When they have troubles they go to specialists called dukuns or shamans. They pay them for their advice and service, but they would be better off if they had direct access to God. Many people living on Sumatra do not realize that a way has been opened giving them free access to the Lord.

Pray that believers on Sumatra will use this free access to the Lord to meet their needs without going to the dukun.

Pray for the Gospel to be broadly and freely shared to people who have not yet heard about the way opened up by Jesus’ great sacrifice.

Pray for the lost on Sumatra to respond to the Gospel and experience the cup of blessing that overflows into abundance and leads to eternal life.

Fix It and Make Do

This motorcycle was manufactured in the 1960s. It was photographed on the island of Belitung off the Southeast coast of Sumatra, Indonesia in 2011. For nearly 50 years this motorcycle has been patched together and is still in use. This is not an unusual sight. People on Sumatra find that it’s more affordable to fix something than to replace it with something new.

The idea of hanging on to the old rather than investing in the new is also seen in many people’s views about God. It’s very difficult for a Sumatran to consider something new, when their old, comfortable identity has served them good enough for generations.

While the Gospel isn’t really new, but it’s radically different than what most Sumatrans have grown up hearing. Many Christian background people on Sumatra have never really heard the Gospel more or less received it unto salvation. But many times, when they hear it they distrust the Gospel because it’s not the same as their comfortable church traditions.

While making do with an old motorcycle won’t hurt anyone, making do with a works based, comfortable religion is dangerous. No one will come unto the Father except through one channel (John 14:6). The Gospel explains the channel, and woe unto those who refuse to receive it.

Pray for Sumatrans to be open to the Gospel, even though it seems so new and foreign to them.

Pray for men and women brave enough to stand against the cultural norms to receive the gift of eternal life.

Pray for Christian background people to see the difference between cultural Christianity and saving faith.

Pray for workers on Sumatra to not grow weary in the labor of sharing the Good News to those who are closed and unresponsive.

Tearful Plea

At a recent training one local field worker mom stood up and passionately asked for prayer for her children. She shared how her children are constantly bombarded with religious indoctrination at school and in the community and because their family is the only believers in their neighborhood, her children don’t have the support and balance they would have had from extended family. With tears in her eyes she said, “I’m trying to reach them, but I’m becoming afraid of losing my children in the process.”

There are many wonderful things about raising children in a cross cultural setting. They learn to appreciate different ways of doing things and looking at things. Their world is much larger than a single culture upbringing. They often become bi-lingual and bi-cultural. But there are also costs.

They don’t feel like they fit anywhere. They often have to endure being stared at and being treated as “different” from other people around them. This is especially hard when they become teenagers.

Parents embrace cross-cultural work as a calling and a choice. Children have no choice. They are where they are because of their parents. While the power of “the call” is very meaningful to the parent, it often doesn’t have the same power with the children. This willing sacrifice and abandon by the parent can become a deep resentment in the heart of the child unless God intervenes on many levels.

Ideally, the children will embrace a family calling and feel the same strong sense of God leading them to their people group and adopted culture as their parents. This process of the children embracing “the call” needs to be nurtured by the entire community of workers.

The evil one loves to attack God’s called out ones, and he often does so by attacking their children. The devil is no gentleman. It’s not beneath him to attack and destroy a child if by doing so he can stop God’s work from moving forward. He will do it gleefully if he gets the chance. Let’s not give him the chance on Sumatra.

Pray that God will guard the hearts and minds of worker’s children on Sumatra.

Pray that these children will embrace God’s call to the nations as their own.

Pray for workers on Sumatra to be sensitive to opportunities to nurture “the call’ in the lives of all the children on their teams.

Pray that families on the field will have wisdom to protect and nurture their children in the face of community pressure and in the absence of extended family support networks.

Pray for moms who often times are called upon to singlehandedly create a loving, nurturing Christian home in the midst of non-Christian or even an anti-Christian environment.

Pray for the evil one to be bound and have no opportunity to harass the children of field workers on Sumatra.

Wife Shopping

It’s not unusual for foreign men to be asked by local people if they are looking for a wife. It’s also not unusual to have people tell you that it’s okay if you are already married, because you can have more than one wife. This is a photo of Mr. Eddy. He’s an Acehnese man workers met at a roadside coffee shop.

Mr. Eddy was an unusual proponent of having multiple wives being that he already had four wives. He suggested that because there are more women than men living in his city he is actually doing his wives a favor by marrying all of them. He considered his multiple wives as a good work that earned him merit with God. He quipped that his wives worked for him so all he had to do was hang out with friends and drink coffee.

It was hard to tell if Mr. Eddy was being serious, or just having some fun with the foreigners. Regardless of Mr. Eddy’s situation, a man having multiple wives isn’t a joke. Because polygamy is a common topic of discussion it’s interesting to hear the positions of men on the topic compared to the positions of women. Most men are in favor of the arrangement, but I’ve yet to meet a woman who thinks it’s a good idea.

I remember one man who enthusiastically told of his support of having multiple wives. I asked him what he thought about one of his wives searching for another husband. His response was equally passionate, “I’d kill her.”

This issue occasionally comes up while sharing the Gospel among the peoples of Sumatra. We have had men come to faith with multiple wives. They want to honor God, but are unsure what to do about having more than one wife. I’m guessing that this isn’t a topic covered in most marriage counseling classes or discipleship materials in the United States!

Pray for workers who are encountering tough questions about faith and culture.

Pray for new believers who are sorting through what it means to follow Jesus and dealing with baggage from their old lives.

Pray for men workers as they travel on Sumatra and often have to deal with crude joking and sexual propositions.

More than One Type of Banana

This photo is of an Aneuk Jamee or Padang woman selling bananas at a traditional market in Tapaktuan, Indonesia. Before moving to Southeast Asia I didn’t know how many types of bananas there were in this world. I was only familiar with one type. I had also never tasted the difference between bananas that were picked early to ship long distance compared with bananas ripened on the tree. All I have to say to those of you living in America is you have not experienced the real deal!

Thinking of the varying types, sizes and textures of bananas reminds me of the variety of people groups that we have on Sumatra. There are 66 distinctive ethnic groups on our island. And within groups there are sub-groupings. For example, the Singkil people and the Kluet people, who are neighbors of the Aneuk Jamee, have three or more distinctive sub-groupings each.

The challenge of bringing the Gospel to Sumatra is huge. The barriers are not just language, but culture and physical access. Workers who have labored long among the peoples of Sumatra will tell you that as soon as they think they know the culture they invariably encounter another nuisance that had been missed. It’s kind of like bananas. To know one is not to know the whole bunch!

The job of a cross cultural worker is to be sensitive to the differences and uniqueness of each people group. It requires God given wisdom and extreme humility and patience to peel back the surface issues in order to get to the fruit of the matter with people who have never heard the Gospel. Such work needs your prayers! When God guides a worker, then and only then will the work will be fruitful.

Pray that workers will be sensitive to the people groups that they are trying to reach with the Gospel.

Pray that barriers of language, culture and physical access will be removed by the power of God.

Pray for humility and patience for workers as they enter into new cultures in new areas.

Pray for mutual forgiveness when cultural misunderstandings occur. Because they will occur!

Pray for the entire bunch of people groups on Sumatra to taste and see that the Lord is good!

Lost Opportunties

This photo is of a Balinese man working on the wall of a new Hindu temple on the island of Belitung off the southeastern coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. He had recently moved to Belitung seeking better work opportunities in the growing tourist industry on the island. He worked as a volunteer building the temple to please the gods that he worships and fears.

If you visit a Hindu temple in Southeast Asia, you will notice that their gods are often vicious and cruel looking. They often have fangs dripping with blood, bulging eyes or blue, corpse like skin. When asked why Hindu gods looked so scary, this man replied that perhaps it was so people will fear them and serve them.

The door was wide open to share the Gospel with this man, but the worker let the opportunity pass. It’s a shameful thing to leave one’s country, move to a foreign field, and learn a new language for the opportunity to share the Gospel, and then to have an opportunity and not share. It’s a shameful thing for any believer to have the chance to share, but to remain silent. Believers in Jesus Christ have been called to be His witnesses. If we remain silent, then we are not being obedient to the mission that God has given to us as His ambassadors on earth.

Pray that workers on Sumatra will be bold to take every opportunity that God gives to them to share the Gospel.

Pray that workers will deeply feel the burden of lost souls, so that they will not be able to remain silent when they have a chance to proclaim words of life to the lost peoples of Sumatra.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of people to hear and receive the Gospel and be obedient to follow Jesus with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength.

Prayer Beads

This necklace-like strand of beads was photographed in a mosque in Jambi, Indonesia. It’s used like a Rosary. Each bead represents a name of God that highlights His wonderful attributes. There’s a famous Arabic proverb that states, “Only the camel knows the 100^th name of God.”

It’s interesting that many religions have similar systems to allow their adherents to focus during a prayer related ritual. The Buddhists and Hindus have similar practices. The problem with all of these systems is they can quickly become ritualistic and lose the meaning that they originally helped people to focus on.

Every good religious practice has within it the seeds of ritualism. Many Muslims believe that if they faithfully recite the names of God, it will bring them blessings and protect them from evil. Prayer itself has become a magic charm to get God to do whatever the person desires. If believers are not careful, this tendency towards ritualism can enter into Christianity as easily as it does into other world religions. We have the same tendency to view prayer as a means to use God.

Pray that believers who are focused on praying for the peoples of Sumatra will not fall into the trap of ritualistic praying that has no passion and no meaning.

Pray that Christians on Sumatra will be set free from traditional rituals that no longer have meaning, or whose meaning has become inconsistent with God’s Word.

Pray for those praying to a God they don’t yet know to meet with believers who can introduce them to Him.

Pay to Pass

These elementary school students are Belitung Malay. They are the equivalent of 3^rd grade. As you can see, students on Sumatra generally wear school uniforms. Government assistance is provided up through 12^th grade, but most Sumatran children in rural areas stop going to school by 6^th grade. The reason for this huge drop-out rate is poor Indonesian families cannot afford the cost of uniforms, books, and transportation that’s not covered by government assistance.

The higher education system in Indonesia is often corrupt. It was reported in local newspapers that some students purchased degrees outright without having to do any of the course work or set for any of the examinations. It’s also not uncommon to have professors not show up to class. Students have to pay the professors “tutoring fees” to actually be taught the classroom information. Students also have to pay additional “fees” to receive their test scores.

The students pictured here are fortunate. Their school is K to 12^th grade. Most of them will receive more education than the average Sumatran child. Before Indonesia will be able to truly progress as a society major education reforms are needed.

Many workers on Sumatra provide financial assistance to children living in the area so they can continue their education.

Pray for workers to have wisdom as they help children in their area to have a brighter future.

Pray that Christian teachers will resist the “fees” that many other teachers charge to supplement their income.

Pray that Sumatran schools will pay their teachers a more livable wage so that the temptation to seek other income is not so strong.

Pray for Sumatran students to resist the urge to take the easy way out by paying for grades. Ask the Lord to give them integrity and a desire to actually learn the course work.