Happy New Year!!!
And a belated.. Merry Christmas too!!
Hope you are all enjoying the Holidays!
   
I am really excited about going into the new year! We have a lot of great plans for 2007. Thank you for your prayers during this time. We thank God for His direction, creativeness, and wisdom as we make the plans for the next few months. The other night I spoke to the youth in our home town of Berastagi.. and I asked them to pray and to think about what they want to do in the new year.. I told them. ‘Think Big! Think of something New! Think of how with God there are no limits!’.. Isn’t it amazing that there really is nothing that is impossible for us?!!? Even though some of the things that I want to do seem totally crazy.. I know that in Jesus it’s all possible! Every day with Him is watching the impossible become reality!
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On Christmas Eve I stopped to talk to one of my ‘little brothers’, Herman. I just asked him right out “What do you want to do?â€.. “You tell me what you want to do in the new year and we’ll do it togetherâ€, I said. A few days later he gave me his answer. He had come up with a creative way to do village outreaches. Just the very thing we had been thinking about. I was so impressed with this 18 year-old boy. He had really put a lot of thought into it and already had detailed plans of how we could reach the young people for Jesus! It’s really an amazing thing that after being here for 3 years I can now just help them and they are the ones taking responsibility for winning their generation to Jesus! They have become so creative and gone beyond the limits of what we thought was possible!
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I spent most of the month of December in Papua, which is the Indonesian province that shares an island with the country of Papua New Guinea. It was a great experience! When I first went to Timika a few months ago tribal wars had just made peace the day before I landed. When I say ‘tribal wars’ you may think of tribes dressed up like warriors fighting each other with arrows and spears.. well.. this is 2006. but if you imagine it like that.. you’re right on. That’s really what it was like. I had the privilege of heading into what was the battle area a few months ago. I went there to invite the people to come to the festival. All that I had heard about the tribal wars became very believable when on the way out our car was stopped by some men with bows and arrows trying to scare us into giving them money. The area really needs Jesus! It was amazing because every night the people from these villages climbed into buses or even filled up the back of dump trucks to come! The festival was a really amazing time of celebration.. all of what Jesus has done for us! It was incredible!
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The very 1st night of the festival I was working on one side of the stage. Crowds had formed on the stairs of all of those who wanted to go on the platform to testify what Jesus had done for them that night. One enthusiastic Muslim lady pushed her way through the crowd and made her way to me. So I quickly interviewed her. Her name was Ibu Kanang. She said that her leg had been healed. So I asked her to show me..did she ever! She was so overjoyed she took off running and dancing all over the stage! Immediately I heard a burst of shouts.. the choir of about 200 youth on the back risers saw what had happened and could not contain themselves..they were shouting and jumping!! I think that moment was the truest form of celebration that I have ever experienced! I was completely overjoyed as well!! (pic below) 2 days later I had another great joy.. I got to go visit Ibu Kanang in her home and hear her whole story. Ibu Kanang shared what had happened to her. “Peter Youngren said it didn’t matter what religion you’re from. You can call on Jesus. So even though I am a Muslim I called on Jesus. And He came and healed me!..That is the first time I have ever prayed to Jesus..Before I never knew that I could call on Jesus.. I have never been this happy!†She was bursting with joy.. every one of her Muslim neighbors had already heard what had happened.. and their response was awesome.. one of the neighbors just turned to our team and said ‘waduh. Tuhan Yesus itu ajaib.†(wow. That Lord Jesus is wonderful)…it was such a beautiful time!!
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And now about some of our Muslim neighbors.. I’ve been sharing all year about Ibu Tika and her family. We’ve seen this family change incredibly over the past few years. Especially her husband. Even though many times Ibu Tika or the children have asked for prayer the husband has always stayed out of it. But at the beginning of this month he finally came to our team asking for help. He has been suffering for years with a weird skin disease. Every night his skins swells and becomes red and very itchy. No doctor has ever been able to help him.. but praise God.. we have the ultimate doctor.. Jesus! After our team prayed there was a noticeable difference and when we came home a few weeks later he came to say thank you..he was healed! It is so amazing how God has been working in this family! That was a month ago. Then I came home from Timika and the 1st night Ibu Tika tells me she was waiting for me to come home because she had a problem. They had been asked to move to another area to open a restaurant.. the problem was she didn’t want to go, but her husband did. She told me the reasons she didn’t want to go. The number 2 reason was because she didn’t want to move away from us! “You are like my family†Ibu Tika shared.. I’ll just be honest. When I came to Indonesia 3 years ago.. I wanted to be close to the Muslim people.. but I never imagined they would accept us so closely.. to the point of calling us family! It is so awesome how Jesus works! Once again Ibu Tika and I talked about Jesus’ love for them. And I promised her I would go home and pray for her and that God would help her in this problem.. the next morning at 5am her husband told her that they wouldn’t move.. and she was so happy! The most amazing thing is that through every single time we’ve prayed for them (this is only 2 examples that happened this month.. there’s been so many more!).. God has done a miracle.. every time!! It’s amazing to see how God is working in our neighborhood!
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One more story.. I just returned home from Bandar Baru. Almost a year ago God gave me a burden for that area. One of the girls we worked with there, Desi, received Jesus a few months ago. Since then she has really changed! She stopped working as a prostitute and starting working in a field. About a month ago they were really disappointed because their small chili field was barely growing. She sat with some of the locals who help us in the ministry there and prayed, asking God to help. Not long after God blessed them with someone who gave them everything they needed for their chili crops. And now their chili plants are as tall as I am..The biggest in the area! And they have even been able to expand their field into other vegetables. (pic below) As we stood in the field earlier and prayed Desi was almost teary eyed and shared, “I know this is the Lord’s helpâ€. She and her husband’s lives have been so touched by God! They even went to their villages, a days travel away, and shared about all the wonderful things God has been doing!!
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2006 has been an incredible year.. I have two words for 2007… even better!!
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Thank you for making it all possible!!!
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Hope that your Holiday Season if full of Celebration!! .. remembering that the good news the angels brought 2000 years is the good news we have today!! Our saviour has come!! There’s no better news than that! Let’s share it!!
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Susan Joy