Penghulu People Group Profile

“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness” (2 Corinthians 9:10, ESV).

The 20,000 Penghulu live in the Western districts of Jambi Province. They tend to be shorter than average and are believed to be part of the “Older Malay” race.  Their language is a mixture of Malay and Minangkabau. They do not have a strong cultural identity. Most Penghulu would not know to identify themselves as such. Only the keepers of cultural history understand the distinction these days between Penghulu and other Malay people groups.

Most Penghulu are rice farmers, although some grow rubber, cinnamon, and coffee. The Penghulu are also known for their traditional methods of gold prospecting. An important custom for the Penghulu is called menyerayo. In this custom the entire village works together to plant, cultivate, and harvest the fields.

 

The Penghulu are Muslim, but their animistic traditions are still strong in daily life. Many Penghulu believe in spirits inhabiting sacred places. Some Penghulu still offer sacrifices to these spirits to appease them. It is also common to consult the dukun, or occult healer, for health or personal problems.

There are a few Penghulu believers and an indigenous Penghulu house fellowship. Still, the vast majority of Penghulu have yet to hear of God’s gracious provision to pay their sin debt through the sacrifice of Jesus.

Pray that:

Believers in the area, though small in number, will become bold to share the Gospel broadly with their Penghulu neighbors.

The Holy Spirit will prepare the heart Penghulu to hear and receive the Gospel of peace.

Entire families and even villages will come to faith at the same time among the Penghulu.

Penghulu believers will be bold to share the Gospel with family and friends.

Penghulu believers will be effectively discipled and gathered together into house churches.

Penghulu will seek after God and His truth as diligently as they have sought after gold.

Penghulu believers will make a clean break with animistic traditions.

Training the Citizenry

These young men are doing field drills before going out for a camping weekend. The photo was taken in the city of Padang. Most of the children in this troop are from police or military families. The children are taught camping and survival skills. They learn about working as a team and doing community service. They are taught about the ideals of being a good citizen of Indonesia. Probably the closest analogy in American society would be the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

These citizenry programs are part of Indonesian public school. The government hopes to create a future populace bound together by common values and principles. It’s not a bad idea, but it’s not modeled by society as a whole so the impact of the teaching is limited.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to show the gap between the ideals being taught and the reality of societal behavior as being sin.

Pray for these students to realize that good works and more effort will not free them from the power of sin or enable them to pay the debt of sin.

Pray for these students to hear the Gospel and give their hearts and minds to Jesus Christ to be remade into new creations – dead to sin and alive to God.

Pray for believers on Sumatra to understand that knowing the truth and even teaching the truth is not enough.

Pray for believers to live out and model the truth of being born again in Christ. 

Ice Cream

This photo is of an ice cream vendor on a university campus in Padang, Sumatra. Ice cream is very popular on Sumatra. But you have to be careful when eating ice cream in Asia. Many an unwary American has bit into what they thought was a strawberry ice cream to find out it was yam or red bean flavored.

A group of volunteers bought what they thought was vanilla ice cream for refreshments during training for field workers. As the workers started eating they knew something was wrong. Upon checking the container they discovered it was coconut ice cream, not vanilla. It’s not bad, just not what was expected. Another common food shock is to eat what you think is sour cream to find out that mayonnaise has been substituted. It looks about the same, but it’s not.

These are small examples of what workers experience as they enter into different cultures. Sometimes the biggest jolts come from things that look familiar, but in fact are very different. It is when strawberry expectations collide with yam flavored reality!

Pray for workers who are experiencing culture shock.

Pray for them to be able to find pockets of comforting, familiar things when the sea of strangeness around them becomes overwhelming.

Pray for them to round the corner and find that the culture they are entering has some things that they enjoy.

Pray for cultural guides to help workers understand and enter more fully into the new culture.

Head Coverings

“Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered?” (1 Corinthians 11:13, ESV).

This photo of mannequin heads advertising the Muslim head covering for women called a jilbab [jill-BOB] was taken in a traditional market in Padang, but it could have been taken in just about any city in Indonesia. The main purpose of a jilbab is modesty. Good Muslim women will not go outdoors without having their heads covered. This is a sign of submission to God as well as to their fathers and husbands. Behind closed doors, within her own home a Muslim woman need not wear a jilbab, but if a guest comes to visit she will quickly put on her head covering.

For many Muslim women in Indonesia, the jilbab is seen as a status and fashion statement. It’s not uncommon to see very elaborate and expensively ornamented head coverings. It just goes to show how something meant to protect modesty can become the very expression of a person’s vanity. Many younger Muslim women have been influenced by Western culture and do not always wear a jilbab in public, but may only wear the jilbab to the mosque.

Pray that Sumatran women will come to realize that external fashion may make them appear holy, but does nothing to atone for the debt of sin.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will bring deep conviction of sin to people on Sumatra that will lead them to realize that external good works will never make them right with God.

Pray for an increasing awareness that Jesus Christ is God’s great sacrifice for the sins of man and that many people among the peoples of Sumatra will hear and respond with faith to the Gospel.

Delman

This photo was taken in Bukit Tinggi in the heart of Minangkabau territory. These horse drawn carts are called Delman. It’s fairly common to have these horse drawn carts in tourist areas. To ride around a market area in a Delman is considered a cultural experience that both Indonesians and foreign tourists enjoy.

While many of the traditions on Indonesia are harmless and charming, there are other traditions that keep millions of people from even considering the Gospel. Only the Lord can reveal the difference between traditions that are positive and those that are spiritually fatal.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal that religious traditions will not save a single soul.

Pray for the peoples of Sumatra as they desire to move forward while preserving the best of their cultural traditions. This balance is a struggle for every nation.

Pray for believers to have wisdom to confront traditions that are keeping people on Sumatra from responding to the Gospel.

Beating an Old Drum

The photo of this drum was taken at a mosque in Jambi. The drum is often used to call the community together in times of emergency. It’s also used specifically during the month of Ramadan to let Muslims in the area know when the fast commences and when it can be broken.

The drum also has connections to past animistic beliefs concerning loud noises scaring off bad spirits. Most educated Indonesians will laugh about such traditional beliefs when talking with Westerners, but in private they often still believe. Uneducated Indonesians are also embarrassed to talk with outsiders about the world of spirits, but they most certainly believe in evil spirits and take traditional precautions to ward off their attacks.

The Bible clearly teaches that evil spirits exist. We are wise not to let our cultural bias negate the clear testimony of God’s Word. Spiritual warfare is real, but in Christ believers are far from helpless in the battle.

Pray that believers on Sumatra will walk in victory over demonic powers without resorting to traditional protections.

Pray that new believers from people groups on Sumatra will not succumb to mixing traditional, animistic beliefs with faith in Jesus Christ.

Pray for enemy strongholds on Sumatra to be brought down by the power of God through the faithful intercession of the saints on Sumatra. Believers here need to learn how to exercise the authority that they have in Jesus Christ.

Kikim People Group Profile

“Let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy” (Psalm 96:12, ESV).

The 80,000 Kikim [key-KEEM] live in the Lahat Regency of Southern Sumatra. They are a Malay people group who speak a dialect called Kikim. They live mainly along the Kikim River. People from the area quip that there are more trees than people in this region of Sumatra. Most Kikim work on palm oil or rubber plantations. The farming they do on their own land is often not enough to support their families

The Kikim follow Folk Islam with vestiges of animistic beliefs from pre-Islamic times. The Kikim are known for a traditional ceremony called Sedekah Rame. In this ceremony the entire village gathers to sit in the middle of a rice field and eat a religious meal. The field is called Tanah Badahe Setue (Land of Future Graves). The ceremony is concluded with a large bonfire. This spot is then designated as the place to make ritual offerings and burn incense to appease spirits for the rest of the year.

 

There are no known believers among the Kikim. There are no known cross cultural workers focused on reaching the Kikim with the Gospel. Lahat is the nearest city that has a concentration of believers to reach out to the Kikim.  

Pray that:

God will call a workers to live in Lahat and focus on reaching the Kikim.

The Holy Spirit will break the spiritual bondages that have been forged by generations of participation in community wide occult ceremonies.

Believers in Lahat will experience revival and then get training to share the Gospel with the Kikim and other people groups that live near this strategic city.

Believers will be guided to people of peace among the Kikim and they will boldly share the Gospel.

Education and economic opportunities for the Kikim will improve.

New Kikim believers will be given good discipleship and gathered into Kikim house fellowships.

Many intercessors will adopt the Kikim for prayer until the church is firmly established among them.