2024-10 STM Trip Journal (2)

10/8/2024

We thank the Lord for strengthening us. The STM team, consisting of eleven members, arrived in Pontianak last night. After settling into the hotel, everyone had a good rest on the first night.

The next morning, after breakfast, we were ready to go, and the minibus from GKNI Pniel Church Pontianak arrived at the hotel at 8:15am to take us to the church. Although GKNI Pniel Church is within walking distance from the hotel, Pastor Liliana was very considerate, as it was raining and the roads were narrow and difficult to navigate, fearing we might not be accustomed to it.

At GKNI Pniel Church Pontianak, the 9am Morning Service was fully attended on both floors, with a majority of adult congregants. The early service is usually conducted in Indonesian and Hakka as the primary languages, but we were able to preach in Mandarin translated to Indonesian Bahasa. The Holy Spirit was with us, and the worship was vibrant. The worship team led the congregation to actively sing praises to the Lord; the congregation's thirst for God’s Word, their warm care for each other, and their passionate commitment to outreach were evident. We are very grateful that the STM team had the opportunity to share songs and messages during the worship service, feeling completely at home, deeply encouraged, and joyful in spirit.

At the Afternoon Service at 4am, the congregation was mostly young people, and the energy and engagement during worship were just as lively, if not more so, compared to the Morning Service. The STM team also had the chance to share songs and messages at this service. We were very happy to meet some brothers and sisters from the church, thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to share meals and conversations, serve together, and encourage one another.

We greatly admire Pastor Liliana’s leadership at the church, her tireless service, and her exemplary conduct in various aspects. She is filled with a servant's heart, vision, and vitality for God’s kingdom, enabling the church to grow and develop in every way. She mobilizes the congregation to participate in various evangelistic works, seizing opportunities and breaking geographical barriers, making church life far from mediocre. The lives of the church members are impactful, bearing beautiful witness to the Lord in their daily lives. Pastor Liliana serves God with her life as a living sacrifice and serves as an excellent role model for us in learning about mission work.

Spending a full day at GKNI Pniel Church for Sunday programs provided the STM team with a valuable learning experience, allowing us to reflect on our own lives and gain some understanding of the needs and challenges in the Indonesian mission field based on what we saw and heard.

After the experience of Sunday worship at GKNI Pniel Church yesterday (Sunday), the STM team set off this morning (Monday) to the inland town of Batang Tarang to visit BTCC SMPTK school and Christian Center, where we stayed for a night before returning to Pontianak the next day. BTCC is about a three-hour drive from the city of Pontianak.

Although it is currently the rainy season and we encountered heavy rain multiple times over the past two days, our journey was smooth. During the times we were outside, the weather was generally clear, with sunshine but no rain. West Kalimantan Pontianak is in the tropical region, situated right above the Equator, and due to intermittent rain during the rainy season, the weather isn’t too hot. However, in places without air conditioning, it can feel rather stuffy.

The BTCC Christian Center has made significant progress compared to six months ago, with ongoing construction of dormitories and new equipment. They have just begun the second phase of large-scale construction, including an education building, a hall, a girls’ dormitory, and a teacher’s dormitory. The project is progressing rapidly to prepare for the increase in number of students and the addition of high school classes. The SMPTK school currently has three junior high classes for grades 7-9. The number of students has increased from just 20 in 2022 to 97 currently, with 57 boarders. The students come from various ethnic backgrounds, including DAYAK, Chinese, NTT, and Sulawesi. There are 17 teachers working at the school.

Although the STM team stayed at BTCC for only two days, we had many opportunities to share and interact with the students, who were eager to learn and very polite. The students maintain a disciplined lifestyle; the 57 boarders have morning devotion led by teachers at 5am, and they take turns helping with kitchen and household chores. They also receive daily training that helps them learn self-care, develop personal character and interests, and practice service skills, striving to build a holistic growth for each student.

GKNI Pniel Church Pontianak places great emphasis on discipleship training through Christian education. Although BTCC Christian Center is not directly under GKNI Pniel Church’s ministry, the church brothers and sisters generously support it with their resources and manpower. Different groups in the church frequently visit BTCC and assist their ministry program because they believe that today’s investment in children’s education will soon lead to future enhancement in ethnicity, culture, and Christian faith. As stated in 2 Corinthians 9:6: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

While at BTCC, our STM team had the opportunity to visit a small church in the nearby Muyak village after navigating muddy mountain roads (a one-hour drive). Pastor Dominik Logan has been serving in this village church for ten years, and resources for children’s ministry are extremely lacking. Through the Lord’s wonderful guidance, Pastor Logan’s wife works at BTCC school and has thus been connected to BTCC’s outreach ministry. A few weeks ago, BTCC staff and students began to establish a village Learning Center in Muyak. This is the fifth children’s Learning Center opened by BTCC in the nearby rural area, aimed at supporting children’s ministry in the villages while also allowing parents to understand BTCC’s educational approach, hoping that village children can later enroll in BTCC school. The Muyak village is primarily inhabited by the Dayak Tribe, and their cultural mentality is relatively behind. The faces of the children we saw today are lovely, and though we cannot foresee how they will be 20 years from now, but we believe that through our actions today, with God’s great love, we can help to create a different future for them! By God's grace, we can make a difference in their lives!