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.