Evangelism in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore (Nov 04)

The winter days were still cold, dark and wet when I left Perth eight weeks ago but now it is spring and it feels good to be home again.

Every evangelism trip is exciting and challenging but this recent one has a different dimension because God gave us new openings to minister not only across the nation of Indonesia but also to Malaysia and Singapore.

Ps Benjamin Widjaya who is one of the five General Council members of AOG Indonesia and I had meetings with the Presidents of AOG Malaysia and we established new networking relationships for the exchange of ministries between the countries. There is a firm commitment from the AOG Malaysia to provide financial support to pioneer a minimum of 300 churches across Indonesia within the next year. I was so touched and impressed by their generosity, praise the Lord!

In Singapore and Malaysia, I ministered to the pastors and church leaders and by the grace of God, I was able to do this in English. Thank God, I have learnt some English after living in Australia for nearly ten years! With my limited English, I was surprised to be invited to return to Singapore, West Malaysia and East Malaysia (Sarawak) for more work next year. We thoroughly enjoyed this trip and needless to say, as we travelled from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Alor Setar, we delighted ourselves with the authentic, delicious local food.

From Singapore and Malaysia, I had a day rest in Jakarta before I took off again to North Celebes for eight days. Every evening, we had crusades across the cities of Motoling, Tomohon and Manado and thousands of souls were harvested. Signs and wonders followed the preaching of the Word and there were testimonies of how the blind man saw, the lame woman walked, the deaf hears – what only God can do, not men! All glory to God and His Name is Jesus!

The mayor of Tomohon attended the crusade and after the meeting, he offered to let us use the city’s largest government owned building when we return to Tomohon again for the next crusade. This is a breakthrough because it was so difficult to the clear the red tapes before we could even hold this first crusade!

My friends ala 5-star missionaries from Western-Australia, Kim Poh and Victor Teo, arrived in Jakarta in early October to join me in my subsequent trip to Java and Kalimantan. While Kim led the seminar for the pastors and crusade for the churches in East Java and also ministered to other churches in Jakarta, Central Java and East Java, Victor shared his testimony and enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Indonesian people. The results from the seminar were impressive. Prior to the crusade, I was amused to see the disappointed expression on the Pastor’s face when I told him that Kim would be leading the crusade instead of me. Praise the Lord that the crusade was a success as the Holy Spirit moved in a mighty way to touch the people that night. I remain firm in my conviction that God can use anyone to do His work, including lay people who are keen to serve Him with a sincere heart.

In Surabaya Java, we met Ps. I. Kaihatu who is the President of AOG Indonesia when I preached in his church in Ambe-ngan. The Ambengan church serves approximately six thousand people across the various strata of society including the poor such as beggars. As we step out to win the unsaved for Jesus, we must come back to basics and follow our Lord’s example where He did not neglect the poor. Many churches today have lost of the character of our Lord as they are distracted with pursuing the rich to get their money to build an awesome kingdom. It is a tragedy to see that the focus on winning souls, rich or poor, has been compromised.

Kalimantan has always proven to be a challenging evangelism field and this trip was no exception. In our first attempt to arrive in Palangkaraya, the plane could not land due to thick haze from the burning of forests. We had to return to Jakarta. In our second attempt to be there for the scheduled 2 night citywide inter-denomination crusades, the plane was forced to land nose-dived due to the haze again. The plane almost crashed but thank God, we live to tell the tale! The hall we hired for the crusades were jammed packed with thousands of people and as truly as the Lord said in Matt 9:37, the harvest is plentiful, the altar was full of people who so readily responded to the Word and gave their life to Jesus. Praise the Lord!

In this trip, I also preached in Duta Injil Casablanca and GBT Surabaya. These are the elite churches where the rich and affluent Indonesians such as bankers, corporate leaders and successful businessmen gather for fellowship. To these rich churches, I always remind them not to be too exclusive but to use their wealth as channels of blessings for God’s work.

As I was travelling home to Perth, I cast my mind back to the early days when I just started to do doing God’s work. God has indeed blessed me in so many ways.

Regards and blessings
Evangelist Sebastian Sugiarto

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