Indonesia and Japan 2023
Our trip to Indonesia this November is not quite going as planned…and we’re excited about it!
Pangandaran is an unreached city and province in southern Java, Indonesia. This area has no churches, members, or missionaries. Our original plan was to take a group to claim Joshua 1:3, pray for the people of Pangandaran, and seek God for His plan to bring the Gospel there.
But before our arrival, God has shown us how He is already at work, and His vision is much greater than ours.
In preparing for this trip, we learned that the local conference had tried to start work in Pangandaran a few years ago and purchased a hotel to worship in. The locals were unhappy that people came to their town just to start a church, and they tole them they had to leave. However, they could have something like a school or clinic that would benefit the community. Even a Christian school would be okay. Currently, the building is being used as a hotel, but the conference is hoping an Adventist ministry would do something there as a ministry.
In addition to praying for Pangandaran, we now have a new focus: to pray for God’s will to be done in this building for these people. He knows what will be best, so we want to follow His leading, which is ascertained through spending time with Him. We’re so excited to see God begin to move before we ask!
And that’s not all. We also learned that in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, a local church built a large, five-story building in a different part of the city (Jakarta has 11 million people) to use as a church plant and school. Similarly to Pangandaran, the locals opposed the church's presence, so the building is sitting empty. They are also open to an Adventist entity using the building for ministry. We don’t know how to use it (We have ideas, but which one will work?) but we believe God knows and so we plan to spend time there praying for God’s will in that area of Jakarta.
Japan
Japan has been a burden on our hearts for some time. When planning the trip to Indonesia, some team members shared the idea of prayer walking in Tokyo for a couple of days on the way home. As we have prayed about this possibility, God has opened doors for us in Japan as well.
One of our missionaries has contacts in Japan and thought it would be an excellent place to have a short FaithCamp. He contacted one of the churches in Tokyo, and they invited us to come!
We also learned that GLOW is planning a trip to Tokyo at the end of March to pass out a million GLOW tracts. While we are not officially partnering with GLOW, we plan to spend some time praying for their efforts in the places where they will be sharing their literature.
Most recently, we also learned about a possible property in Hiroshima that a church member is interested in donating for God’s work.
We don’t yet know what God plans to do with each of these opportunities, but we are confident that He is leading.
While we already have the maximum number of people going on this trip to Indonesia and Japan, we have NOT maximized the number of people who can pray for these places from home!
As James Fraser, a missionary to China, once said, “Believers at home can do as much for overseas missions as those actually on the field. I believe it will only be known on the last day how much has been accomplished in overseas missions by the prayers of earnest believers at home.”
You can join us through Zoom video conference calls as we prayer walk the cities. We will share more details in a future email.
Finally, there are some participants who are stepping out in faith and want to take their teenage children but don’t have all the funds yet. If you would like to help them be able to go, please click this button.
If God is leading you to invest in the ministry of FaithCamp for Japan, please click the button below.
If God is leading you to help invest in the development of ministry work in Pangandaran, Indonesia, please click the button below.
-Contributed by Jesus for Asia
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