OUTREACH to CENTRAL JAVA

Our one week outreach in Central Java has been very fruitful.

Our first stop was in Pekalongan, nine hours by car from Jakarta for us. We left at 6 AM and arrived just after 2PM. Most of the way was through rice paddies where there were many colorful sights of women with bright orange, blue, red hats and shirts planting. They put seedlings into the mud under water, so the surface of the water reflects the bright colors, making for a nice picture.

Our main event was a Full Gospel BussinessMen meeting Monday evening, but along the way we had many home visits to pray for people, and perhaps a highlight, having an hour on the radio, taking calls for the last half hour. Now, that I really enjoyed, and consider getting a similar program in Surabaya on a regular basis when I am there. Another pleasure was that the hotel where we stayed has a large (nearly Olympic size) swimming pool, and I swam laps for 45 minutes early morning on Tuesday.

Wednesday, a morning swim was out since we left at 6 AM for Mayong, our next appointment where we were to have a healing seminar with some 50 local pastors and church members. After what was supposed to be a two hour trip but took us four due to road construction, we were to start the seminar at 10. After the usual confusion and waiting for participants to show up, we started at 11 AM with mostly local church members, maybe two visiting pastors curious to see what was up. The purpose was to train teams to pray for healing, and it would be culminated with a healing service open to the general public. After the first morning session, the group settled into about 15 very responsive participants. The healing service was held in Jepara, a small city about an hour away, the general area where our next ministry was to be.

The service was in a fairly large church, seating perhaps 400 downstairs and another hundred in a balcony. Lots of marble, very shiny and nice looking church. As our team prayed in a back room in preparation, we found a woman standing with us that no one knew. She had come for healing prayer. We told her she had to wait.

The church was packed, but apparently only with church members. They were largely unresponsive to the message, and only 10 people came forward for prayer. All were healed, and gave enthusiastic testimonies complete with stompling feet, arm waving, deep knee bends and toe touching as they demonstrated their new found freedom from pain. The audience was unresponsive. The lady who had first come to us was not one of the ten. I went into the audience to encourage them, and noticed her. I asked her why she did not come forward, and she said that she had been healed during the service! She came forward and told her story. I was amazed at how dead the audience was, with the exception of only a few people. Apparently they were there only because it was a usual church service on Ascention Day (which is a holiday in Indonesia).

In one ladies’ meeting in Ploso, one of the small villages we visited, we were trying to get one woman to have confidence to look someone in the eyes. This woman was suffering heavy low self esteem. I had a sudden inspiration, called another woman who had come forward for healing of her legs, and told the first that when she looked into this other woman’s eyes, she would be healed. It happened just as I said, and at that, people really started paying attention to what was happening!

We have been kept fairly busy the seminar all day Wednesday after our travel, a service Wednesday night, early morning Ascention Day service followed by more seminar, our trip to Jepara and the evening healing service on Thursday. Friday we had two women’s meetings in different churches. Saturday was largely free, except for visitors coming seeking prayer, and a meeting of some 20 pastors in the evening. Sunday was three church services, one an hour drive away.

We have seen many people healed, many set free from heavy burdens of worry or fear. It has been a very busy and rewarding week.

It is now 4:30 AM and we are on our way. I will take a plane back to Surabaya this morning from Semarang, Liana and Ira will stay in the area one more day before heading back to Jakarta.