May - Month of Miracles
Wow.. can you believe it is May already?! How is it that this year is already 1/3 over? How could that possibly happen so quickly?! Haha.. well. Even though I’m shocked that April went by so quickly as I look back I see that it was another month of miracles!!
 
On April 1st I arrived in Finland, and no, this is not turning into some weird, late april fools joke. I really did… I arrived late so I went right from the airport to my first meeting. Each day I traveled to different cities and each night we had wonderful services and God was really working and doing awesome things! In most meetings we would pray for the sick.. I couldn’t believe how many sick people that were there! Wow. One of the meetings we had just prayed for a lady and she was overjoyed as she began to realize that she had been healed of arthritis and athsma for 2 and 5 years repectively! It was amazing.. after we had prayed for her another miracle took place.. without us even praying for it.. suddenly my translator realized that she was had been healed while praying for others! She was supposed to have her shoulder operated on because it was so painful and she couldn’t lift her arm up.. but suddenly she could! God is so awesome!! So many miracles took place! It was so great!
When I was in Finland one night I was preaching on how it is ‘normal’ for a believer to be preaching the gospel and seeing miracles take place! This is normal for every person we believes in Jesus! Don’t believe me? Check out the end of Mark 16! When we believe in what Jesus has done we tell others.. and miracles and wonders will happen because what Jesus has done is so powerful! I am not an ‘extreme’ Christian. I believe I am just a ‘normal’ Christian. The only difference is I get the joy of doing I full-time, and not part-time like most people. A normal believer life is not for us just to go to church on Sunday and be called a ‘christian’.. A normal life for us is to have the power of Jesus working through us everyday changing the lives around us!!
It was hilarious sometimes how different Finland was than Indonesia! (pic below) The 1st thing I noticed was the weather.. the day before I left Medan it hit 41 Celsius! Some days in Finland weren’t even making it to the plus side! Haha.. I felt like a foreigner there.. like I do here.. but people weren’t staring at me (like the do here!) and when on the train they would always talk to me in Finish.. I was so confused because I was thinking.. ‘can’t they see I’m not Finish?’.. but then I thought about it.. ‘no. they can’t!’ .. haha.. it’s not like Indonesia where my white skin, blue eyes, and ‘biggness’ make it obvious I’m not a local!
A big difference was that there they loved me because I was young (where in Indonesia it’s often looked down on). One night I was talking to the young people after a service. When they heard I was 24 they all gasped outloud! And said to me ‘I always heard before that young people could serve God like the older ones.. but I’ve never seen it before. But now I’ve seen it through you! We really can!’ It was a real joy to encourage the young people to use their youth to the max!
When I came home from Finland I could see your prayers working!! 1st of all I got my visa in Malaysia within 24 hours!! That’s the fastest ever!! And not one single problem!
Then we I got home I stopped by the house of one of our neighbors who I have written about before who has been in the hospital a lot lately. He is one of the respected Muslim leaders in our community.. but as we sat there in his home he asked us to pray for upcoming operation! ‘It’s ok right?’ he asked ‘Even though we’re from different religions.. I can ask you to pray for me right?’.. I could barely believe my ears!! I know the reason he asked is because I’m sure the other neighbors have shared how when we prayed they were healed! I couldn’t believe the change in him!! Thank you for praying for our neighborhood!! They are experiencing God’s love and live through miracles!!
Are you ready to hear about more miracles? Because after being home for a few days I joined Franziska in Nias for a festival there called “Mujizat di Nias†(Miracles in Nias) and the flyers didn’t lie.. It was 2 beautiful nights! On the 2nd night we had many come up and testify and all the different things God had done! (pics below) One lady had been healed the 1st night and on the 2nd night when I asked her how she felt because she had gone through a whole day able to breathe normally after 2 years! This little old lady grabbed the mic, through up her arms and yelled out.. “oh.. Aku senang sekali!!†(oh.. I’m so happy!) and the whole field roared with celebration! Others who hadn’t been able to do things for over 10 years were healed.. of all different kinds of sickness and diseases! And the most amazing miracle.. the people got to hear about God’s love for them! A group of people known as gangsters, murderers, and robbers.. got to experience God’s love and forgiveness! That’s a miracle!
During the week in Nias, including the festival I was interpreting for Franziska, I don’t always do this for my team, but in some cases, like this one. I was the best choice. The day before the festival we had a pastor’s meeting and we were sharing with them. Franziska was talking about unity and the body of Christ. So as an example so showed what would happen if her hand didn’t listen to what her head wanted it to.. and did it’s own thing.. and her point was really proved how this causes damage when she accidenitly stuck her finger in my eye!! Unfornately I didn’t just continue translating as I should have..but instead I yelled out ..’Oh.. my eye!’ and all translating and speaking stopped as we tried to figure out what happened and stop my eye from watering! I don’t know how funny we looked.. because all I could see was the expressions of the pastors… and that was probably even more hilarious! Haha..
As you know, I have recently started a band with a group of young guys around here. Which they have named “4LL 4 7C†which stands for ‘All for Jesus Christâ€. (pic below) God has been doing awesome things through their lives! Their vision is really increasing! I can see that music is the key to reaching the young people of Indonesia. So I’m so excited to have a team together that is working along with me in that vision! We’ve been discussing how to be more effective. And we have so many different things we’d love to do…travel to further unreached areas, go into high schools and campuses, open a music studio, etc! thank you for praying for us, that God will open the way for us and will provide all the funds we need to do this!!
We can expect that May will be full of miracles too!… Because of Jesus!
Susan Joy