Kingdom Expansion in South Sulawesi

Ibu Kaihatu

Church planting is Tim’s heart and what drew him to the Island of Sulawesi in the first place.  When we first came to this island the GSJA (Assemblies of God of Indonesia) was under the leadership of a great man named Pak Kaihatu. He recently passed away a few years ago, but Tim had the opportunity earlier this year to visit with his wife while he was in the same town she lives in for meetings with the printing company in Java about his tablet project for pastors and church planters. Ibu Kaihatu is still a vibrant and passionate woman of God and encouraged Tim and Pak Supri (the leader of our pastor’s training school in Palopo, and a fellow church planter) to keep on expanding the Kingdom of God in Sulawesi.  She inspired them with stories and reminded them of the importance of continuing to plant seeds and never give up, for at the right time we will reap a harvest!

Makassar

After leaving Java and traveling to Sulawesi, we were able to spend some time in Makassar the capital city of South Sulawesi, where we have helped with three church plants, but the need for the Gospel is still so great with millions in the city who have still never heard about Jesus. Please pray with us for the Makassar people as we still have such a burden for this city.

Wells Chapel

A ten hour drive from Makassar, we arrived in Pepabri, the village where STAT/Karisma campus is located outside of the small town of Palopo. I included a photo of the chapel that a faithful financial partner helped us build there.  STAT is our pastor’s training school that we helped revitalize in 2011, and is now running strong! Karisma is the Christian High School that was began on the same campus in 2013 when we realized that many of the students who came to be part of the Bible College level program of STAT, had no high school education.  Today Karisma and STAT are both strong programs that are discipling and preparing young pastors to pastor the existing churches of our island.  However even more exciting is that in past couple of years Tim has been working with them to see the vision of an expansion come to pass of a special program devoted specifically to church planting! This will equip and train those called to expand the Kingdom of God among the Luwu, Bugis, Enrengkang, Torajan, and Makassar people of South Sulawesi. Keep this project and it’s slow but steady progress in your prayers!

Ibu Hanni & Pak Supriadi

In this photo featured we spent time pouring into a dynamic couple that we have partnered with in ministry for nearly 15yrs. (Many of the foods featured in the foods blog were meals shared with this couple during our time with them in January.) Ibu Hanni runs Karisma, Pak Supriadi is the President of STAT.  As one of their side ministries they have also revitalized a church that was down to 1person in a nearby village.  It is now a thriving congregation of over 50.  Please pray for them and their three children that are in high school. They are very smart kids who have worked really hard and desire to go to University. This amazing couple serves sacrificially in their roles and their combined income is less than $100 a month.  Will you help Tim and I to bless them so that their kids can come one step closer to their dreams?  To find out how you can do this email Tim at reachingonemore@gmail.com, and thank you in advance!

Indonesian Cuisine

Indonesian food is amazing! It is so full of flavor and very fresh, in the US we would say “farm to table”. However in Indonesia three things are highly valued when it comes to food, especially street food: Fast, Cheap, and Delicious! Most foods will check all of those boxes. It may have taken all day to make, but you will be served it fast (this is a relative term, a western “fast” may not be the same speed as in Indonesia). It is incredibly affordable, and blow your taste buds minds delicious! I am going to share some of our favorites from our time in Indonesia, that I thought to snap photos of, so here goes...

First up, Ayam goreng

(deep fried chicken) with sambal (a sauce of ground chili’s, garlic, and salt), and nasi (steamed white rice) typically also served with a few pieces of (kole) raw cabbage. This filling meal is a favorite of most everyone and a solid go to for lunch or dinner, and may only cost 2-3 dollars a plate!

Bubur Ayam

(Chicken porridge) One of our favorite breakfast foods, and the go to food for anyone who is sick. Rice boiled in chicken broth until it is a porridge consistency. Topped with shredded chicken, hardboiled egg and garnished with fried garlic and chives. Sambal is added to achieve the desired spice level, and soy sauce is added to achieve the desired saltiness.

This is a meal for 1-2 dollars.

Ketumpat

(steamed rice in palm leaves) This rice is so yummy, and becomes a solid single portion block. The leaves are sliced on one side with a knife so the eater can easily open the wrapped rice and spoon out the insides to add to soups usually.

However it can also just be dipped in sambal and easily eaten with the hands. Usually this is free and on the table at any respectable coto (a traditional soup I will feature some time later) restaurant!

Pisang Goreng

(fried bananas) with cokolat (chocolate) and keju (cheese). That’s right! The perfect mix of sweet and salty fried goodness! These are smaller, sweeter bananas sliced, dipped in batter and fried.

A salty fresh parmesan cheese is put on top that doesn’t melt easily being a hard cheese, and chocolate sauce is drizzled on top! It is yum, yum yum! And yes, those are regular French fries in the background just in case you aren’t up for a food adventure.

The fried banana dish can run between 1-3 dollars, the fries are usually between 2-5 (imported food is always more!)

Yes, Coffee!

So one thing I love is a good coffee date! It seems that even little coffee shops in out of the way places in Indonesia have barista’s that are so talented with coffee art.

Coffee is also a major crop that grows in Sulawesi along with several other islands in Indonesia, so it is fresh and always a good idea! Sadly, coffee shops don’t typically open before 9 or 10 am especially if you are not in the city. This coffee was only 2 dollars a cup!

Chocolate

Sulawesi is resource rich, but especially if you are talking about coffee, tea, spices, and chocolate! This may look like just another tree, but this is one cacao tree of the many in the chocolate forest that our kids grew up playing in when we lived in the village. Most of the chocolate grown in Sulawesi is sold to the Mars Candy Company to become many of the worlds favorite candy bars.

Nutmeg

has a rich history and originally was only found one one island in Indonesia. The Dutch East India Company colonized and dominated most of the trade and resources in Indonesia for over a hundred years, but the one island with nutmeg was controlled by the British and heavily guarded. Nutmeg was rare and highly valued! Then a trade was proposed...this island with nutmeg under British control for an island the Dutch controlled off the coast of the British colonies in the Americas. And that is how England acquired Manhattan from the Dutch! Now, Nutmeg is grown on many Indonesian islands including Sulawesi.

Cinnamon

Not all cinnamon is created equal. It is the bark of the cinnamon tree that after it is peeled off the tree dries and curls into what we know as the cinnamon stick. I love the flavor and smell of the local Sulawesi cinnamon. Literally like red hot candies!

You can buy it very cheap in the market and grind it yourself (it’s always best fresh ground), but you cannot buy it outside of Indonesia because a large company has contracted nearly all Sulawesi cinnamon for it’s business. So if you want to know what this cinnamon tastes like, go to the closest Cinnabon, it is their unique signature cinnamon, and is all that they use!

Cream Puffs

Lastly, I had to show a photo of one of my favorite stops at the airport. Oddly enough Bearded Papa’s is found in many airports in Indonesia. They serve the best creampuffs I’ve had anywhere in the world outside of some childhood memory of trying them for the first time at a friend’s grandma’s house! They are a little pricy but so worth it!

Journey to Fiji: Finding an unexpected darkness...

Journey to Fiji

I learned so many things when I traveled to Fiji in July of 2022 to visit Treasure House Children’s Home.  An orphanage that Asia’s Little Ones has partnered with since its inception, but with whom we were recently struggling to get communication from.

The trip was just over a week, and while part of it was visiting and ministering at the orphanage, Treasure House.  The other part of the trip was helping to host a team of grad students from South Eastern University as they explored missions and ministry in Pacific Oceania.  Spending a week with these students, I am so hopeful for the future and am praying even more fervently for the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into the harvest fields!

It was a fantastically

successful trip, and yet at the same time I came home with a huge burden for the places and people that we interacted with.

*Did you know there are 333 islands that make up the island nation of Fiji?

*Did you know that nearly 28% of the population of Fiji is religiously Hindu and ethnically from Southern India?

*Did you know Fiji exports bottled water all over the world, but 47% of its own rural population doesn’t have access to clean water?

*Did you know that there are 61 high school boarding schools in Fiji (some boarding upwards of 900 teens) and many children from Fiji, and surrounding island nations live basically on their own as they go to high school?

*Did you know that Fiji is on the tier 2 watchlist for human trafficking, with the majority of the victims being young teens and women?

Please pray

for the minority Indian Hindu population of the country!  They are surrounded by Catholicism and Christianity and yet as the minority, there is a deep division between most native Fijians and those of Indian decent, and a great darkness still blinds them.  I walked around a Hindu temple and the spiritual resistance was palpable.  I went to a soccer game at an Indian (Hindu) school and it was heavy there too.  It is also not lost on me that everywhere the demonic strongholds of Hinduism become deeply rooted; the suffering of the poor, widow’s and orphans is greater, the value of women decreases, and the evils of human trafficking prevail.

However, because of Jesus, there is always hope. I had the opportunity to visit with a pastor who shared his testimony of coming to Jesus after being a Hindu priest, and his church was dynamic!  More church plants reaching the Hindu community are desperately needed across the country.

Also after many years of no Assemblies of God missionary presence, we have new missionaries there! One is a children’s minister, and another is focused on ministering to teens, especially those living on their own at boarding schools.

What does this have

to do with Treasure House Christian Children’s Home? Well most of the children that come to the orphanage are also Indian, and were orphaned by abandonment.  Sadly, calls come every month from the dept. of welfare asking if there is room for another child, and unfortunately because of space and department staffing the home is already at full capacity and unable to take in any more.

What happens to the children who can’t come?  They are sent to a Hindu orphanage, and receive the bare minimum to survive since it is believed in Hinduism that current social status and suffering in this life is punishment or karma for things done in the past life.  Oh, how I wish we could take in every child that needs us, and wrap them in the loving arms of Jesus!  Raising them with the truth that they are beautifully and wonderfully made.

Please pray for Treasure House and for the 21 children that they care for. (Five of these are severely disabled, are highly special needs cases and will require lifetime care).  And please pray for the needs of the ministry!  The land owner they were renting from passed away suddenly, and the day before I arrived, Treasure House received an eviction notice. We have until December 2022 to find them a new home! 

If you would like to give to help Treasure House click here.

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Cambodia 2022

I knew very little about Cambodia before going there. In high school I studied the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, and the murderous devastation they had wreaked on their own people. I knew nothing of the land, food, religion, and people there now.

Phnom Pehn (the capital) has been a city rebuilt and beautiful. An Assemblies of God Bible School training future pastors and discipling young people is there as well as many devoted missionaries.

95% of Cambodians practice Buddhism, and the spiritual stronghold there is as staggering as in other places in the Buddhist world such as Thailand, Myanmar, and Sri-Lanka.  There is a numbness and hopelessness of the soul that weighs in the air,  and my heart screams to share to good news of life, love and joy in Jesus!  I feel as if the heart of God must break for the Buddhist world. I have been learning so much from everything that has been shared by the Change The Map initiative, and I encourage you to do the same.  Educate yourself on Buddhism, the Buddhist world and pray with us to Change The Map! (you can visit www.changethemap.net to learn more.

The purpose in my visit to Cambodia was for an orphanage that Asia’s Little Ones has been involved with helping.  Interestingly in Cambodia, for many years it was a closed country to foreigners and missionaries.  When it reopened, there were so many orphans and education was so low and in demand that opening/running orphanages and schools were the only visas missionaries could get to return to the country.  The kids at the orphanage were amazing young people.  Full of hopes and dreams, and incredibly smart and talented.  As I spent time playing with the little ones, swimming with the older ones, eating, worshiping, and praying with the kids the house mothers, and staff my heart was so drawn to this place and this ministry I even asked the Lord if one day He might call us to Cambodia? 

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some photos of the kids.  Please pray for them!  To give to the orphanage in Cambodia click below.

One of the house moms. Each mom has 5 children in her care.

This house mom had some

serious cooking skills!

This

little

gal

was

always

animated

and

fun!

This little gal was mostly non-verbal and had difficulty using her left side.  But her smile and joy were infectious.

Delicious

meal

of

chicken

curry

with

rice.

Guitar provided by BGMC! This young man is all self taught, and loves to worship.

I am four years old and the youngest at the orphanage.

They love water

and swimming!

Sharing some durian!

A special treat! It was yummy!

No white board? No problem when your walls are tile! She is smart and resourceful.

I am graduating soon, and have grown up in the orphanage.  This is my home, and my family.

As a newborn

this little boy was found discarded on the beach dirty, naked, and barely alive. Someone found him and took him to a nearby hospital, who called the orphanage and said, “Please take this baby, there is nothing we can do for him. He will most likely die.” It was a long and difficult road for this little boy, but with patience and prayer, the love of Jesus has a healing touch. Today he is a healthy little boy full of hope, and joy, and mischief!  The enemy tried to snuff his life out from the beginning, but God has big purpose for this young man and he knows it!

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