Through this ministry we got to meet many local children.

It is amazing to see what God is doing. November 2019 was the first time for me to visit a street children’s weekly gathering in a slum area of Jakarta. It was special (and very loud) to see all the kids gathered into a small, hot room, where, after some fun games, I could also share my personal faith story with them.

Michael, the pioneer of Jakarta’s street kids ministry

This ministry was initiated by Michael, a former drug dealer. After graduating from Bible school he returned to his old neighborhood, began to reach out to his former friends and associates, also ending up starting a ministry among the street kids. Michael has an official authorization to give drug education, which he’s been doing in different parts of Indonesia. Sometimes the students of these cities are brought into a stadium, where he doesn’t only tell them about the dangers of drugs, but also gets to share with them about the faith that changed everything.

– Jonathan Lemmetti

On Monday we flew to Myanmar’s 2^nd largest city, Mandalay (1,2 million). About 300,000 monks live in this city known as a stronghold of Buddhism. However, our thoughts were anywhere but in tourism. A young pastor from the northeastern corner of Myanmar, Simon, came to meet us. He has already been involved in pioneer work by sending out three short-term pioneers to work amongst the unreached.

Early the next morning we met with 12 key church leaders, having arranged a breakfast gathering and reminding them of the church’s most important calling. After our introductions, I shared with them the vision of the unreached in Asia, emphasizing that it is primarily their churches’ calling. Next Shierley, as a fellow Asian, shared how they have been able to send people out to the unreached from Indonesia.

The presence of the Holy Spirit spoke to the attendees and we saw how the vision began to unite them, despite denominational barriers. There was an Anglican bishop, the Trinity church pastor, Baptists, Pentecostals and others.

During our time in Tanzania we visited several villages in the Zaramo area. It was in one of these villages that we met a sheikh’s daughter, whom we will here call “Rebecca”. She became a follower of Jesus some years ago, as did later her husband too. Here Rebecca shares about her conversion:

“Rebecca” is of the Zaramo tribe

– We lived nearby a small church. Out of curiosity, I observed through a window how they prayed there. One time while watching, I sensed a large darkness surrounding me and I got terrified. After a while, the darkness started to ease off.

– Then some church people came to visit my home and told me about their faith. My heart opened up and I asked Jesus into my life as my Lord.

 – I began attending Bible studies and slowly began to understand God’s way of speaking to me.

– At that point our landlady, who was a witch, cursed me and I began to have nightmares. I was persecuted for my faith, as the news spread of me becoming a Jesus follower. We had to leave our house at a day’s notice. Thankfully, I had a Christian friend who taught me how to pray.

 – Despite being destitute, a devoted Muslim gave us a house rent-free. What happened was that, after a while from moving in, the landlord visited and told us that ever since we came, he had been able to sleep like a baby through the night until the morning.

– Until then he had been tormented by the powers of evil, so that he could not sleep. The landlord inquired of us which witch do we visit that has such a power to affect him so favorably too? We told him our Lord is Jesus Christ.

– For this reason, the Muslim landlord decided to let us stay in his house for free. As we later were about to move elsewhere, he began to grieve for losing his protection. As we prayed with him, he also wanted to become a Christian.

– Now our former landlord is also a grateful follower of Jesus.