Defiled

This Kerinci man proudly wears his white peci which signifies that he has been on the Hajj. He consented to having his photo taken, but refused to shake hands with the foreigner. There is an idea in Islam that anyone outside of the faith are kafir or the infidel. Taken to an extreme this means that coming into physical contact with an infidel can make you unclean before God. For those who have been on the pilgrimage to Mecca, or the Hajj, the idea of being set apart as holy is often highly valued. Therefore, to come in contact with an infidel is especially repugnant.

While it is not universally believed, there is a significant portion of the Islamic community on Sumatra that believes that it is okay to lie to, steal from, and even kill an infidel. After all this is God’s provision for His chosen people. While very few go to the extreme of killing the infidel, it’s not uncommon to lie to and steal from them.

The truth is no person is more holy than another. In God’s sight we are all unclean and worthy of eternal judgment. No special trip or meritorious good work can make us worthy of salvation in the sight of Holy God. It took a blood sacrifice of the Lamb of God to wash away our sins. Only those washed in this sacred blood are able to stand blameless and pure at the Last Day.

Pray for this Kerinci man and others like him to accept the hand of fellowship offered with an understanding of the universal need of being cleansed by God.

Pray for believers on Sumatra to accept mistreatment and return love in order to extend God’s invitation of salvation to all the peoples of the island.

Pray for the Gospel to be shared broadly among the Kerinci.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of those who hear to gratefully receive the great sacrifice offered for them.

Photo taken in Nias

Kluet People Group Profile

“‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch’” (Malachi 4:1, ESV).

The Kluet [Kloot] are extremely proud of their heritage, language and religion. There are 50,000 Kluet in Southern Aceh. They have no known believers and no indigenous church. They are one of Sumatra’s least reached people groups. The Kluet are friendly and open to visitors who come to them, but they tend to keep to themselves. There are three regions of Kluet that all have slight variations on language.

Most of the Kluet work in farming. They produce rice, coffee, palm oil, nutmeg, and a variety of vegetables. There is some gold mining, but that is being developed by outside interests. The Kluet area is rich in natural beauty and could easily be developed as a tourist destination. Two challenges that the Kluet are currently facing are problems with wild elephants and problems with dying nutmeg trees. The Kluet have sought outside help for both of these problems without success.

The Kluet are Muslim. They mix their Muslim belief with animism. Some Kluet have rings that they believe have magical powers. Because the Kluet often remain to themselves, and there are no churches close to them, the result is they often have never heard the Gospel.

Pray that:

God will call workers to focus on reaching the Kluet people.

God will help workers to have wisdom to help with deep community wide problems such as the wild elephants and dying nutmeg trees.

Fellowships on Sumatra and in the United States will adopt the Kluet for focused prayer and will send teams to share the Gospel.

Believers will have wisdom to help the Kluet develop the tourism potential of their beautiful area, and that this help will lead to open doors for sharing truth.

First fruit Kluet believers will hear the Gospel and come to faith before the end of this year.

Kluet believers will stand strong in their new faith, and will be bold to share the Gospel with friends and family.

God will reveal the Gospel to the Kluet through demonstrations of His mighty power through His servants as they are witnesses of His truth.

Boat Builders

This Aneuk Jamee man is building a new fishing boat. It normally takes about three months to complete a new boat to the point of it being seaworthy. When fishermen go out on the sea in a boat this size they often journey several miles off the coast and are at sea all day seeking a catch. They are counting on the boat builders to have done their work well. In fact they are staking their lives on seaworthiness of the vessel every day.

Even the best built boat can encounter storms on the sea that result in catastrophe. Ultimately a boat is not a proper object of faith. People need a stronger foundation to build their lives upon. Unfortunately many people choose to place their faith in things as insubstantial and uncertain as a boat on the sea. They trust in prayers five times a day. They trust in fasting one month a year. They trust in giving to the poor. They hope that at the end of their lives that these good works will pay for all of their sins.

The Word of God says that all such hopes are ill founded and destined to destruction and great loss. There is only one object of faith that can securely anchor a man’s soul. That object is Jesus Christ. He alone lived a perfect life and died a substitutionary death so that all who believe in Him might not perish but receive eternal life.

Pray for the peoples of Sumatra to recognize that only Jesus can provide an unfailing foundation for saving faith.

Pray for followers of Jesus to be more confident and bold in proclaiming this Gospel of peace to the peoples who are perishing around them.

Pray that the evil one, who is blinding the eyes of the lost on Sumatra, will be bound so that the captives may be set free.

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.

Shoes off Please

It is practically a universal truism in Eastern cultures that you take off your shoes before you enter a home. This is true even when there is a dirt floor in the home you are entering. This picture was taken outside an Islamic center. A group of children had gathered to learn to read Arabic, which is an important part of their worship.

The reason you remove your shoes is to keep from tracking in dirt from outside. In many cases roads are still gravel and dirt and become mud bogs when it rains, which is often in the tropics. This custom does help reduce the amount of dirt that a person carries into the house, but it does not remove the problem. Floors are normally mopped every day in Sumatran homes, because dirt still gets in quickly.

This custom is much like the efforts of many to keep the dirt of sin out of the home of their hearts. No matter how hard people try to be holy and righteous the dirt of sin still stains everything they do. God knows the helpless state of humankind, which is why He sent His Son to pay the debt and completely clean up the mess of sin in the lives of people who will receive His gift by faith. Many Sumatrans still have not heard that God did this for them, so they are still trying to clean themselves up. The frustration of this hopeless effort weighs heavy on many hearts on Sumatra.

Pray for Sumatrans to hear a clear, culturally sensitive explanation of the Gospel.

Pray for Sumatrans to understand that they cannot clean themselves up. The dirt of sin is too pervasive.

Pray for Holy Spirit conviction that the Gospel is true that is greater than the pull of tradition, community approval, and religion.