Just Need a Push

The nice thing about living in Sumatra is that people are willing to jump in and help when a need arises. This truck wouldn’t start. No problem; several men jumped in and gave the truck a push to get it started and off they went. One worker remembers a time when his car’s tire was stuck in a ditch and four Sumatran men jumped in and lifted the car tire out of the ditch so the worker could back up. It’s amazing what Sumatrans can do when they work together!

There are many churches on Sumatra. They know the Bible, and they know how much God loves the lost. They know the gospel, and that they are supposed to be sharing it with those around them. But, like the truck in this photo, they need a little push to get them rolling.

The 53 Unreached People Groups (UPGs) on Sumatra will not be reached until the church on Sumatra is awakened to their Great Commission responsibilities. One of the key activities that workers on Sumatra are involved in is to train and vision cast with churches. Oddly enough, workers are finding resistance to this effort not from the church members but rather from the pastors of the churches.

Pastors here are afraid of community reaction. They might get threatened. Their buildings might get vandalized or even burned to the ground. They might have to go through persecution. These fears are not unfounded. Yet, even so, they need to be obedient to God’s commands, and they need to lead God’s children to obey the Great Commission. To do this takes heavenly courage.

Pray for believers on Sumatra to have the opportunity to be trained in how to share the Gospel in a contextual manner.

Pray for workers to have wisdom and influence to give believers here the push they need to get started in sharing the Gospel to all the peoples of Sumatra.

Pray for God to soften the hearts of pastors on Sumatra who have opposed the idea of reaching out with the Gospel to the UPGs living around them.

Pray for God to strengthen persecuted believers in Sumatra so that they will obey the Great Commission in the midst of the fire.