Tearful Plea

At a recent training one local field worker mom stood up and passionately asked for prayer for her children. She shared how her children are constantly bombarded with religious indoctrination at school and in the community and because their family is the only believers in their neighborhood, her children don’t have the support and balance they would have had from extended family. With tears in her eyes she said, “I’m trying to reach them, but I’m becoming afraid of losing my children in the process.”

There are many wonderful things about raising children in a cross cultural setting. They learn to appreciate different ways of doing things and looking at things. Their world is much larger than a single culture upbringing. They often become bi-lingual and bi-cultural. But there are also costs.

They don’t feel like they fit anywhere. They often have to endure being stared at and being treated as “different” from other people around them. This is especially hard when they become teenagers.

Parents embrace cross-cultural work as a calling and a choice. Children have no choice. They are where they are because of their parents. While the power of “the call” is very meaningful to the parent, it often doesn’t have the same power with the children. This willing sacrifice and abandon by the parent can become a deep resentment in the heart of the child unless God intervenes on many levels.

Ideally, the children will embrace a family calling and feel the same strong sense of God leading them to their people group and adopted culture as their parents. This process of the children embracing “the call” needs to be nurtured by the entire community of workers.

The evil one loves to attack God’s called out ones, and he often does so by attacking their children. The devil is no gentleman. It’s not beneath him to attack and destroy a child if by doing so he can stop God’s work from moving forward. He will do it gleefully if he gets the chance. Let’s not give him the chance on Sumatra.

Pray that God will guard the hearts and minds of worker’s children on Sumatra.

Pray that these children will embrace God’s call to the nations as their own.

Pray for workers on Sumatra to be sensitive to opportunities to nurture “the call’ in the lives of all the children on their teams.

Pray that families on the field will have wisdom to protect and nurture their children in the face of community pressure and in the absence of extended family support networks.

Pray for moms who often times are called upon to singlehandedly create a loving, nurturing Christian home in the midst of non-Christian or even an anti-Christian environment.

Pray for the evil one to be bound and have no opportunity to harass the children of field workers on Sumatra.

Wife Shopping

It’s not unusual for foreign men to be asked by local people if they are looking for a wife. It’s also not unusual to have people tell you that it’s okay if you are already married, because you can have more than one wife. This is a photo of Mr. Eddy. He’s an Acehnese man workers met at a roadside coffee shop.

Mr. Eddy was an unusual proponent of having multiple wives being that he already had four wives. He suggested that because there are more women than men living in his city he is actually doing his wives a favor by marrying all of them. He considered his multiple wives as a good work that earned him merit with God. He quipped that his wives worked for him so all he had to do was hang out with friends and drink coffee.

It was hard to tell if Mr. Eddy was being serious, or just having some fun with the foreigners. Regardless of Mr. Eddy’s situation, a man having multiple wives isn’t a joke. Because polygamy is a common topic of discussion it’s interesting to hear the positions of men on the topic compared to the positions of women. Most men are in favor of the arrangement, but I’ve yet to meet a woman who thinks it’s a good idea.

I remember one man who enthusiastically told of his support of having multiple wives. I asked him what he thought about one of his wives searching for another husband. His response was equally passionate, “I’d kill her.”

This issue occasionally comes up while sharing the Gospel among the peoples of Sumatra. We have had men come to faith with multiple wives. They want to honor God, but are unsure what to do about having more than one wife. I’m guessing that this isn’t a topic covered in most marriage counseling classes or discipleship materials in the United States!

Pray for workers who are encountering tough questions about faith and culture.

Pray for new believers who are sorting through what it means to follow Jesus and dealing with baggage from their old lives.

Pray for men workers as they travel on Sumatra and often have to deal with crude joking and sexual propositions.

More than One Type of Banana

This photo is of an Aneuk Jamee or Padang woman selling bananas at a traditional market in Tapaktuan, Indonesia. Before moving to Southeast Asia I didn’t know how many types of bananas there were in this world. I was only familiar with one type. I had also never tasted the difference between bananas that were picked early to ship long distance compared with bananas ripened on the tree. All I have to say to those of you living in America is you have not experienced the real deal!

Thinking of the varying types, sizes and textures of bananas reminds me of the variety of people groups that we have on Sumatra. There are 66 distinctive ethnic groups on our island. And within groups there are sub-groupings. For example, the Singkil people and the Kluet people, who are neighbors of the Aneuk Jamee, have three or more distinctive sub-groupings each.

The challenge of bringing the Gospel to Sumatra is huge. The barriers are not just language, but culture and physical access. Workers who have labored long among the peoples of Sumatra will tell you that as soon as they think they know the culture they invariably encounter another nuisance that had been missed. It’s kind of like bananas. To know one is not to know the whole bunch!

The job of a cross cultural worker is to be sensitive to the differences and uniqueness of each people group. It requires God given wisdom and extreme humility and patience to peel back the surface issues in order to get to the fruit of the matter with people who have never heard the Gospel. Such work needs your prayers! When God guides a worker, then and only then will the work will be fruitful.

Pray that workers will be sensitive to the people groups that they are trying to reach with the Gospel.

Pray that barriers of language, culture and physical access will be removed by the power of God.

Pray for humility and patience for workers as they enter into new cultures in new areas.

Pray for mutual forgiveness when cultural misunderstandings occur. Because they will occur!

Pray for the entire bunch of people groups on Sumatra to taste and see that the Lord is good!

Lost Opportunties

This photo is of a Balinese man working on the wall of a new Hindu temple on the island of Belitung off the southeastern coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. He had recently moved to Belitung seeking better work opportunities in the growing tourist industry on the island. He worked as a volunteer building the temple to please the gods that he worships and fears.

If you visit a Hindu temple in Southeast Asia, you will notice that their gods are often vicious and cruel looking. They often have fangs dripping with blood, bulging eyes or blue, corpse like skin. When asked why Hindu gods looked so scary, this man replied that perhaps it was so people will fear them and serve them.

The door was wide open to share the Gospel with this man, but the worker let the opportunity pass. It’s a shameful thing to leave one’s country, move to a foreign field, and learn a new language for the opportunity to share the Gospel, and then to have an opportunity and not share. It’s a shameful thing for any believer to have the chance to share, but to remain silent. Believers in Jesus Christ have been called to be His witnesses. If we remain silent, then we are not being obedient to the mission that God has given to us as His ambassadors on earth.

Pray that workers on Sumatra will be bold to take every opportunity that God gives to them to share the Gospel.

Pray that workers will deeply feel the burden of lost souls, so that they will not be able to remain silent when they have a chance to proclaim words of life to the lost peoples of Sumatra.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of people to hear and receive the Gospel and be obedient to follow Jesus with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength.

Prayer Beads

This necklace-like strand of beads was photographed in a mosque in Jambi, Indonesia. It’s used like a Rosary. Each bead represents a name of God that highlights His wonderful attributes. There’s a famous Arabic proverb that states, “Only the camel knows the 100^th name of God.”

It’s interesting that many religions have similar systems to allow their adherents to focus during a prayer related ritual. The Buddhists and Hindus have similar practices. The problem with all of these systems is they can quickly become ritualistic and lose the meaning that they originally helped people to focus on.

Every good religious practice has within it the seeds of ritualism. Many Muslims believe that if they faithfully recite the names of God, it will bring them blessings and protect them from evil. Prayer itself has become a magic charm to get God to do whatever the person desires. If believers are not careful, this tendency towards ritualism can enter into Christianity as easily as it does into other world religions. We have the same tendency to view prayer as a means to use God.

Pray that believers who are focused on praying for the peoples of Sumatra will not fall into the trap of ritualistic praying that has no passion and no meaning.

Pray that Christians on Sumatra will be set free from traditional rituals that no longer have meaning, or whose meaning has become inconsistent with God’s Word.

Pray for those praying to a God they don’t yet know to meet with believers who can introduce them to Him.

Pay to Pass

These elementary school students are Belitung Malay. They are the equivalent of 3^rd grade. As you can see, students on Sumatra generally wear school uniforms. Government assistance is provided up through 12^th grade, but most Sumatran children in rural areas stop going to school by 6^th grade. The reason for this huge drop-out rate is poor Indonesian families cannot afford the cost of uniforms, books, and transportation that’s not covered by government assistance.

The higher education system in Indonesia is often corrupt. It was reported in local newspapers that some students purchased degrees outright without having to do any of the course work or set for any of the examinations. It’s also not uncommon to have professors not show up to class. Students have to pay the professors “tutoring fees” to actually be taught the classroom information. Students also have to pay additional “fees” to receive their test scores.

The students pictured here are fortunate. Their school is K to 12^th grade. Most of them will receive more education than the average Sumatran child. Before Indonesia will be able to truly progress as a society major education reforms are needed.

Many workers on Sumatra provide financial assistance to children living in the area so they can continue their education.

Pray for workers to have wisdom as they help children in their area to have a brighter future.

Pray that Christian teachers will resist the “fees” that many other teachers charge to supplement their income.

Pray that Sumatran schools will pay their teachers a more livable wage so that the temptation to seek other income is not so strong.

Pray for Sumatran students to resist the urge to take the easy way out by paying for grades. Ask the Lord to give them integrity and a desire to actually learn the course work.

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.