April Update!
This month started off with our Youth Festival in Village called Tiga Panah. (Three Arrows). It was a really exciting time! It was truly amazing to see how it all came together! About 70 youth were involved to make it all possible! They made an incredible team! I was soooo proud and excited. This was the 1st time that it was their idea and they were the ones running it! There is nothing that gives me more joy than to see young people on fire and using the great potential that is inside of them to bring people to Jesus!
We had an awesome time both nights!(pics below) Each night so many people raised their hands as a sign that they wanted to pray and accept Jesus into their life! We took over 200 names of those who prayed that for the 1st time! And the follow-up has begun! Going from house to house visiting those people so that they can grow and learn what it really means to be ‘saved’!
Do you remember how I wrote about the band members I wrote about last month? Well.. watching them at the festival gave me soooo much joy! There was one song where other musicans asked to play.. I thought they might be upset or something.. but instead they ran into the crowd infront of the stage and began to jump around and even dance around with a group of the children there! I had never seen such joy in them before!! It was amazing! The next day I met them downtown.. I was feeling exhausted and they looked the same. But their 1st question showed me their hearts.. ‘When will do the next festvival?â€
This past month has been a month of answered prayers!! It is amazing! Every little thing.. until every big thing! Do we really believe His word when He says ‘Ask so that you may receive and your joy may be full!â€.. our joy is amazing when we ask and He gives.. it just makes me love him more and more.
For example. One day I was going down to Bandar Baru. Now we’ve seen some of the girls there really touched by God and it is amazing. But I was really desiring to meet more than just the few we were working with. So I prayed before I went down one day to meet many more girls.. well. I only met one new girl.. but more than just meeting her, we had a beautiful discussion and I was able to present the whole gospel to her!! It was awesome! After she left I found it out she is from the unreached people group near us that I have praying about reaching!! Wow!! God answered two prayers at once!! The next week we met another girl who immediately asked us to come to her house and began to share about her life with us… God really loves them sooo much!!
God also answered another one of my prayers. Since the big earthquake in Jogyajakarta (Jogya) last year I have really wanted to go there. Well. God gave me my desire this month! I started setting up for a festival there with Pastor Peter Youngren.. which will be history making for the that city! Plus they’ve already asked me to come back during the summer months to travel around to all the villages preaching the gospel! Amazing!! And… (there’s more!) while I was there I actually got to go the earthquake disaster places and meet some of the people there and encourage them about God’s love for them! Not that God is angry or judging them.. no. just to tell them God really does love them. It was great!
One night I was in my home just praying and worshipping God and I was singing one of my favorite Indonesian songs, ‘Besar AnugerahMu’. (Great is Your Grace). As I was worshipping God through this song I could hear my Muslim neighbors gathering in the house across from me doing their chants. It hit me.. how different the two situations were.. they were right across the street trying to please God through their religious works.. God who is far away and angry…. And there I was enjoying God’s presence right there with me.. because of His grace! Not because of anything I could do. God lives inside of me! Is with me every moment.. but I am no different than them.. the only difference is I have discovered what Jesus did for me because of God’s grace! It became so real to me as I sang the words.. ‘Great is Your Grace, overflowing with your Love, even more the days, it only increases, great is Your Grace’! In 2 Cor5:19 it says that God does not count the world’s sin anymore! He’s already paid for it! He has already reconciled, made peace, with the world! So why is the world not saved? Because they don’t know!!! That’s our part.. because it says in verse 20 that we are ambassadors for Christ! Let’s share with the world that their sins have already been paid for..
This month was encouraging because I could tell my language has gotten better.. because recently some people have been surprised when they meet me face to face. They are surprised that I am a ‘bule’ (a white person) they could not tell from my language that I was not a native.. that is another testimony of God’s grace!
The month ended by celebrating the way it had begun… with a party for all the youth who had been involved in the Tiga Panah Festival. It was a really fun night and they are all excited to go on and do more! That night I gave away a prize. The boy who won it is from that village of Tiga Panah. He is a brand new believer but in the festival had done a lot of work. Including sleeping on the field to guard it, handing out flyers, etc. The most amazing thing in all of this work is to see lives changed like this young boy.. through his new excitement of Jesus he brought his parents to know Jesus too! Isn’t that just beautiful?
I realize I haven’t been very good about letting you know what I will be doing in the future.. for example. Right now I am writing this email from Finland! (suprise!..haha) Praise God for opportunities to bring His word to even more places! Here are some upcoming events.. please start praying!!
I will be in Finland ministering in many different cities until April 11th.
After that I will be stopping in Malaysia for 2 days for a new visa before I enter Indonesia.
Our next project in Indonesia will be to travel to the western Island of Nias. Nias has been hit by the Tsunami, some huge earthquakes and disasters that have destroyed much of the island. I will be working with Franziska to do a festival there (April 24-25).. to tell them the people how much God loves them.. what they need to hear!
The week after that we’ll be going to Perbesi. A village about 2 hours from our house to do a Festival there. (May 1-2) This village has been known as a Hindu village but is open to the gospel! We pray this will be a huge history making gospel event for this village!
The rest of May I will be spending in 2 cities in Jawa, Kudus and Jogya, to be a part of the Festivals there with Pastor Peter. These Festivals will be touching 10’s of 1,000’s, leaving huge effects on each city!
After that my plan is to up into Aceh, the Muslim province above us for a week!
And usually I would be coming home to Canada for the summer, but this year I have decided to stay longer in Indonesia…an exciting summer is already planned through big Youth Festivals and Village Outreaches!
Kitos! (Finish for ‘thank you!’..the only word I have learned! Haha)
Susan Joy