On the last day of March 2017 we received a wonderful blast from the past. Thirty years before that in 1987 after we had served as missionaries in Indonesia for nearly nine years, the Indonesian government expelled us from the country and we returned to the USA. At that time we left a brother named A Bak in charge of the ministry; we had led A Bak to the Lord in 1980 and discipled him. Brother A Bak and his wife had several children. One was a very cute little girl named Sury.
Brother A Bak and his wife A Bak So (ca. 1985)
Sury’s little friends being taught in our house church (ca.1981)
That was in 1987…thirty years ago when we left Indonesia.
Over the years of course, we did not lose touch with Brother A Bak and the believers we had been forced to leave behind. The seed of the living Word of God had indeed be planted in good soil, and it grew and grew and spread and bore much good fruit over the years.
But out of the blue on that final day of March 2017 we received an email from someone named Harta. He identified himself as the husband of Sury, A Bak’s little girl. Harta shared that he used to be an atheist, and was educated in Singapore and the UK. But somehow came to know the Lord Jesus. Today he is serving the Lord with Sury, the “little girl” we remembered from way back when.
Here’s what Harta shared with us in his email:
“We set up this ministry (named “Joseph Ministry”) in 2013, Sury and I. We have our vision to re-charge the young generation youth to serve God as early as they can. We hold Revival Services and concerts in places where people will not go. We also have our Joseph Ministry Youth Branches in East Nusa Tenggara, Kalimantan (Borneo), Surabaya (second largest city in Indonesia) and Jakarta where our youth have a meeting once every 2 months. They will go to the orphanage, old folks home, prison etc.”
See in the video below how the Lord is now using Harta and Sury—the little girl whose parents and family we brought to the Lord 37 years ago.
The seed of the Word of God is indeed ALIVE!
Now that the work of The Elijah Challenge in India is established and bearing much fruit, we are going to set our sights back on Indonesia—the fourth most populous country in the world with more Muslims than any other nation. In addition to India where the fastest-growing ministry in India is now co-laboring with us, we will now seek to do the same in Indonesia where Elijah Challenge-trained servants of God already have a fruitful track record reaching Muslims.
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Brother A Bak (right) and his wife seated at front (2017)
Brother A Bak (right) and his wife seated at front (2017)
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