JANUARY UPDATE
JANUARY UPDATE
Halo, Selamat Natal dan Selamat Tahun Baru!
Hello, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Is it too late to say that? I think my Bahasa (Indonesian) language skills are slowly improving (although I know I still have a lot to learn)! One Bahasa word I have been hearing a lot this past month is “Natalan” which means “Christmas”. Natalan is also the name of the biggest event our church does here each year. This year, over 200 people (including many “cousins”) showed up for a night of Christmas worship and remembering the birth of our savior followed by a fun time of games and giveaways. There also may or may not have been a video of me helping lead some dance moves. If such a video exists, it is not getting shared here. 😂
When the angel appeared to the shepherds in the Christmas story, he said that he was bringing good news of great joy FOR ALL PEOPLE. One of the many things that I love about serving the Lord in another country is the opportunity that it gives me to meet and invest in the lives of people from all around the world. In addition to Indonesians, during my time here, I have also had the privilege of working with people from places like the Philippines, India, Germany, Nigeria, Tanzania, Madagascar, Cameroon, DRCongo, and more. As part of our Natalan service this year, I had the opportunity to lead a video project capturing the Christmas story being read in 14 different languages from Indonesia and around the world. You can view the final result below.
On Christmas Day, we had an online church service in the morning. Then, in the evening, we invited several of our Chi Alpha students who were still in the area over to our house for a movie, games, and homemade hot-chocolate.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
Next month, we will be having our first ever national Campus Ministry Conference where we will be gathering with teams from all over Indonesia to learn together and to cast vision to reach university students across the country. We believe that if we can reach the campuses with the message of Jesus, we can change the future of the nation! Please pray that God would go before us and give us wisdom in every detail of preparation for this event.
Last week, I officially reached the six-month mark for being here in Indonesia which means I am now half-way through my term here. At this point, I am starting to think about the big question, “What’s next?” Will I come back to Indonesia for another term? What will life look like when I return to the USA? While I don’t need to know all the answers right away, it is time to start thinking about it. I would really appreciate your prayers as I seek God’s leading in these big questions.