Cosmopolitan Sumatra

These three high school boys are from three different people groups. The boy in the red is Minangkabau. The boy with 91 on his sleeve is Acehnese. The boy on the right is Javanese. There is another boy at the top of the picture frame. He is from yet another people group – Jambi Malay. This scene is not unusual in the cities of Sumatra. Many cultures meet and mingle in the cities.

The challenge of reaching people in the cities remains an enigma. All of the major response to the Gospel on Sumatra has come from rural areas among predominately homogenous groupings of people. Workers have tried several strategies to reach peoples in the cities, but none have been overly successful.

Because the cities have a lot of mixing of cultural ideas and identities it would stand to reason that the Gospel would gain an easier hearing, but that is not the case. Most people in the cities are more interested in seeking their fortunes than in hearing about their eternal destinies. City people are more mobile and have less time for chit-chat. They also tend to be more suspicious of people they don’t know. In effect, they are even more isolated and less open in the midst of a sea of humanity than those in hard-to-reach rural areas.

Pray for workers focused on the cities of Sumatra to be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading.

Pray for successful strategies to be developed for urban work on Sumatra.

Pray for the Gospel to be boldly and successfully proclaimed in Sumatra’s cities.

Pray for believers from among all 53 of Sumatra’s unreached people groups to be reached within Sumatra’s cities.