Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship
social network - where our vision, values, ideas and friendships all connect
Update from PCCF Jakarta! - October 2009
Greetings from Pccf Jakarta,
Hope all is well with all of you in your part of the Lord’s Vineyard!!! Below I will try to bring everyone up to date on what the Lord has been doing in Pccf Jakarta the last few months.
October 8, 2009 – Pccf Jakarta Update
June 2009 Crusade Results:
In the middle of June we had three brothers from the Chula Vista and National City Praise Chapels visit us. We had three nights of special evangelistic services at our church. We were amazed to see so many Muslims from the nearby neighborhood come out for healing. Many were healed and many responded to the altar call to receive prayer and forgiveness. It was such an unprecedented thing that happened I decided to continue the nightly meetings after the brothers from San Diego headed home. The next week we continued to have a regular service on Tuesday nights and a Bible study on Thursday nights. On Sunday evenings we showed various films about the Bible such as the “Jesus Film”, “The Passion of the Christ”, “The Nativity”, etc. For the next two months we continued to have about 10 regulars from the original crusade meetings coming to hear the Word and learn more about Christ.
Soon the pressure of their neighbors got to most of the regulars. They were forced to choose either to continue to come to the church and listen to the Word of God or remain “respectable” Muslims and members of the neighborhood! All but three of them chose the way of worldly respect over the love of God. This is all too common in Muslims areas. But three have remained with us though they have had their share of ridicule for their connection to us and their interest in the Word of Christ.
These three still need your prayer, since they are not yet Christians. They are open to the message of Christ and enjoy the acceptance and truth they receive at the church, but they are still rooted in their Islamic traditions. There is one single grandma (name: BuMami), and her daughter (name: BuLeni) who is a single mother of two. The third is a single young man named Didi. They have other relatives that have not been coming, but have a generally good impression of the church and the things we teach (i.e. The Gospel), so please pray for them as well. About 7-10 children from the neighborhood come regularly to join the children’s program. Please keep those “little lambs” in your prayers as well!!!
It is very hard for those of us unfamiliar with the daily life of Muslims to understand how people can be healed and touched by the Spirit of God and yet choose to ignore that and return to the bondage of tradition. But I think those that have been around church for some time have seen the same thing happen even in “Christian” countries like America. Jesus gave us the “parable of the sower” to help us understand and prepare for people hearing and being affected by the Gospel, only to turn back to the ways of the world. Some never understand in the first place, some can’t handle the pressure, some let worldly desires choke out the Word, and yet there are those that continue on in the faith and bear fruit in abundance! Please pray that these few that are still coming around, their families and their children will receive the Word with “good and honest hearts” and bear fruit 100 fold!!!
The Church in Jakarta is Blessed:
This month (September 2009), our friend Rory Butler had three nights of special services with an evangelist from Switzerland in his Chinese speaking church. He had many non-Chinese speakers show up and get touched. Since we share the same building with him, we were able to follow up on a few of them and get them plugged into the Indonesian speaking congregation. Besides the additions from the Chinese revival services and the Muslim neighborhood outreach, our weekly cell groups (bible study discussions) have been bearing fruit in the form of new members as well.
For the last 3 and a half years we have been making disciples and building leaders here in Jakarta. Though we have also been faithful to do regular outreaches of many kinds, we rarely saw much fruit from that, other than the hearts of our members becoming more and more equipped to minister to the lost. So this last season of numerical growth has been a great encouragement to all of us. Esther and I have been particularly blessed to watch the members of our congregation rise up in their callings and begin shepherding the new people. Please pray for the new people to get plugged in to Christ and His Body and grow in their faith. Pray also for the core members of our church to continue to faithfully walk out all the vision they have receive over the last few years.
Also pray for continued wisdom and direction as we try to fashion a wine skin that will contain the new believers and members that are hanging around on the edges of our community of faith. We have now turned the Tuesday outreach service into a regular service, expanding the focus from only reaching out to the Muslims in the surrounding neighborhood, to also focusing on the Catholics, Buddhists and nominal Christians in the apartment complex where our church is located. Please pray that this service grows. Since Jakarta is a big city most of our old members aren’t able to make the long journey through traffic on week nights. It is for this reason we have the cell groups split out around the city during the week. To travel to our church, in week night traffic, can take up to 1-2 hours (one way) for our members!!! But many still come to the new service to minister to the children or help greet the newcomers. So in one sense this Tuesday service with the accompanying cell group on Thursday nights is like starting a new congregation from scratch. Though of course this time around we have a great team of workers to help out!!!
Our missionaries in North West China:
Most of your know that a year ago we sent out our assistant pastors to the Turkic region of Northwest China. They have been faithfully learning the Turkic language and ministering to their friends and neighbors over this last year. For a long time they didn’t see any noticeable fruit. But in June they saw several people come to Christ and start meeting weekly for services. Of course these services are held privately in their home, since public services (and private ones for that matter!!! Ha-ha!) are banned in their area of China.
On July 6th the Turkic population of their city rioted in protest against what they feel are the oppressing policies of the Chinese government towards their people. The army quickly over-ran the city and crushed the rebellion. In the end the government admits that hundreds were killed, and only God knows exactly how many people perished that day. From that time on the internet in their city has been shut down and they can not call out internationally. We can only rarely call into the city from outside the country and our communication with them has been severely limited.
At first the government was trying to get most of the foreigners in their district to leave and told them that their visa would not be renewed. But we thank God that He opened a door and they received a 6 month extension on their visa. Since they have three children and the situation is quite tense, we prepared for them to return to Indonesia if they wished. They told us in no uncertain terms that if we told them to come back home they would, but if the decision was in their hands they had no intention of leaving the new believers behind to face the trouble that is still in store for the Turkic population of that city and province. We praise God for their faith and commitment! Since July more people have come to Christ and the first several believers have continued to go forward in their faith through the midst of all the turmoil!!!
-Continue to pray for Yopi and Ina and their three children. Also pray for the new converts as well as the other believers that came to Christ while Esther and I lived in that city. Also lift up the other missionaries from various organizations that have stayed to continue to minister in this difficult season. Also pray that God continues to provide the Jakarta congregation with the funds needed to support this work in NW China.
Our Brother in Pakistan:
Some of you know that I have taken a few trips to Pakistan over the years. The first time was just after the war broke out soon after 9/11. The reason was to minister to a man that we met while living in NW China. He was from the now famous tribal areas of NW Pakistan where it is believed Osama bin Laden is hiding out. He believed in Christ soon after meeting us and has continued in his faith all these years, though he doesn’t know any other Christians where he lives. Though the years we have tried to contact him with people in his area that know Christ, but it is an area with few believers. And those that do believe are reluctant to accept someone from his background into fellowship.
In 2002 we invited him to come live with us in NW China and fellowship with the other missionaries in our city. Upon arrival, the missionaries said that he could not fellowship with the others because his background would draw too much attention from the Chinese police. This crushed him, and us, and he soon returned to Pakistan. Two years ago we tried to get him a long term visa to stay here with us in Jakarta, but the government refused to give him one. So after staying here for only one month, he had to return again to Pakistan.
After returning to Pakistan from China in 2002 his family forced him to marry and over the last few years he has had two beautiful children. Out of fear he didn’t tell his wife about his faith but kept it secret. Recently his wife was pressuring him to take the oldest child, a boy, to the mosque to be trained in the Koran. He kept refusing to do this. Finally he broke down and told his wife that he believed in Christ. The wife was outraged and said she would not live with a non-Muslim. She said that she would move in with her brother and take the kids with her. He asked her to please not tell anyone the reason, because in that region Islam (of the Taliban type) is what rules the hearts of the people. Having spent time in that region, I have no doubt that his relatives will kill him as soon as they find out he has left Islam. Since he has been so good to her over the years, she has refrained from saying anything so far to anyone.
In the meantime we are working on getting him a teaching position in Jakarta so that he can leave Pakistan. We have trouble getting him a visa in the past, so we need your prayers. His situation is very serious and we need all the prayers that we can. Over the years we have become very close. We have discussed often about the possibility of martyrdom, and he is willing to die if it comes to that, but he is scared and feels alone. So please pray for him. For his sake I will not use his real name here, but he likes to be called Abraham.
Family News and Prayer Requests:
Our oldest son, Iman, is now a first grader. He is super smart, sometimes too smart!!! We went to a water park recently for a family day and I refused to put on sunscreen. By the end of the day, I was a tomato!!! The next day when I was complaining endlessly of the pain, he just looked at me, while shaking his head back and forth disapprovingly, and said “its your own fault!”
Omid is almost 3 but has taken along time learning to talk. He has 2-3 languages floating around him at any given time so it is normal. But in the last couple months he has started to make sentences. Of course the languages are mixed together and he has his on personal pronunciation of each just to keep us guessing! But it seems that Iman has the gift of interpretation of tongues, so he can usually clue us in on Omid’s meaning. But when he can’t we just smile and nod our heads to make him feel he is understood!
Our youngest, Hadassah, is 10 months old. As Omid is learning to talk, she is learning to walk. Omid is 100% boy from head to toe, and though she is a girl, she has become a faithful disciple of Omid! So we have a definite tomboy in the making. She will give me a kiss, then smack me in the face and just laugh up a storm!!! Her brothers are rough with her, and she likes it, but it seems she takes it all out on me!!! Haha!!!
Esther of course is wearing many hats! She is mom, wife and assistant pastor all at the same moment! And somehow she remains a Christian through all of it!!! I am still trying to learn her secret!!!
Jakarta is a beautiful place, but it is very polluted. So many people here have lung and sinus problems. It seems the kids have a cold 2-3 times a month and I am dependant on allergy vitamins to keep me breathing normal. So please pray for our health in that area. Over the last few years I have really struggled with back pain. The problem is not too severe, but I am a wimp, so sometimes it keeps me up at night and just seems to wear me down at times. So I would appreciate all the prayer I could get for that. I praise God that the last several months it has shown improvement, but I still need more prayer.
Our finances are just below what we need, but I have come to learn that most of us can say that. But in the midst of it God always provides for us and we are not suffering any greater than most of you through this time of economic trouble. But we would appreciate your continued prayer for our financial support.
Lastly I would just like to say that we are so grateful for all of you that pray for us, love us and support us. And I would especially like to express our appreciation for Paul and Shauna Neville, and the other laborers in Mission Global Harvest. They have been awesome to us. We thank God for them!!! They are always ready to help in whatever way we need. They are faithful to send us detailed reports every month about who supported and how much. So those of you that have been supporting can know that the offerings you send aren’t getting lost somewhere in the system. They are on top of it! And with God’s help I will follow their example and update you all more frequently!
God bless,
Chris, Esther, Iman, Omid and Hadassah Chapman
Hope all is well with all of you in your part of the Lord’s Vineyard!!! Below I will try to bring everyone up to date on what the Lord has been doing in Pccf Jakarta the last few months.
October 8, 2009 – Pccf Jakarta Update
June 2009 Crusade Results:
In the middle of June we had three brothers from the Chula Vista and National City Praise Chapels visit us. We had three nights of special evangelistic services at our church. We were amazed to see so many Muslims from the nearby neighborhood come out for healing. Many were healed and many responded to the altar call to receive prayer and forgiveness. It was such an unprecedented thing that happened I decided to continue the nightly meetings after the brothers from San Diego headed home. The next week we continued to have a regular service on Tuesday nights and a Bible study on Thursday nights. On Sunday evenings we showed various films about the Bible such as the “Jesus Film”, “The Passion of the Christ”, “The Nativity”, etc. For the next two months we continued to have about 10 regulars from the original crusade meetings coming to hear the Word and learn more about Christ.
Soon the pressure of their neighbors got to most of the regulars. They were forced to choose either to continue to come to the church and listen to the Word of God or remain “respectable” Muslims and members of the neighborhood! All but three of them chose the way of worldly respect over the love of God. This is all too common in Muslims areas. But three have remained with us though they have had their share of ridicule for their connection to us and their interest in the Word of Christ.
These three still need your prayer, since they are not yet Christians. They are open to the message of Christ and enjoy the acceptance and truth they receive at the church, but they are still rooted in their Islamic traditions. There is one single grandma (name: BuMami), and her daughter (name: BuLeni) who is a single mother of two. The third is a single young man named Didi. They have other relatives that have not been coming, but have a generally good impression of the church and the things we teach (i.e. The Gospel), so please pray for them as well. About 7-10 children from the neighborhood come regularly to join the children’s program. Please keep those “little lambs” in your prayers as well!!!
It is very hard for those of us unfamiliar with the daily life of Muslims to understand how people can be healed and touched by the Spirit of God and yet choose to ignore that and return to the bondage of tradition. But I think those that have been around church for some time have seen the same thing happen even in “Christian” countries like America. Jesus gave us the “parable of the sower” to help us understand and prepare for people hearing and being affected by the Gospel, only to turn back to the ways of the world. Some never understand in the first place, some can’t handle the pressure, some let worldly desires choke out the Word, and yet there are those that continue on in the faith and bear fruit in abundance! Please pray that these few that are still coming around, their families and their children will receive the Word with “good and honest hearts” and bear fruit 100 fold!!!
The Church in Jakarta is Blessed:
This month (September 2009), our friend Rory Butler had three nights of special services with an evangelist from Switzerland in his Chinese speaking church. He had many non-Chinese speakers show up and get touched. Since we share the same building with him, we were able to follow up on a few of them and get them plugged into the Indonesian speaking congregation. Besides the additions from the Chinese revival services and the Muslim neighborhood outreach, our weekly cell groups (bible study discussions) have been bearing fruit in the form of new members as well.
For the last 3 and a half years we have been making disciples and building leaders here in Jakarta. Though we have also been faithful to do regular outreaches of many kinds, we rarely saw much fruit from that, other than the hearts of our members becoming more and more equipped to minister to the lost. So this last season of numerical growth has been a great encouragement to all of us. Esther and I have been particularly blessed to watch the members of our congregation rise up in their callings and begin shepherding the new people. Please pray for the new people to get plugged in to Christ and His Body and grow in their faith. Pray also for the core members of our church to continue to faithfully walk out all the vision they have receive over the last few years.
Also pray for continued wisdom and direction as we try to fashion a wine skin that will contain the new believers and members that are hanging around on the edges of our community of faith. We have now turned the Tuesday outreach service into a regular service, expanding the focus from only reaching out to the Muslims in the surrounding neighborhood, to also focusing on the Catholics, Buddhists and nominal Christians in the apartment complex where our church is located. Please pray that this service grows. Since Jakarta is a big city most of our old members aren’t able to make the long journey through traffic on week nights. It is for this reason we have the cell groups split out around the city during the week. To travel to our church, in week night traffic, can take up to 1-2 hours (one way) for our members!!! But many still come to the new service to minister to the children or help greet the newcomers. So in one sense this Tuesday service with the accompanying cell group on Thursday nights is like starting a new congregation from scratch. Though of course this time around we have a great team of workers to help out!!!
Our missionaries in North West China:
Most of your know that a year ago we sent out our assistant pastors to the Turkic region of Northwest China. They have been faithfully learning the Turkic language and ministering to their friends and neighbors over this last year. For a long time they didn’t see any noticeable fruit. But in June they saw several people come to Christ and start meeting weekly for services. Of course these services are held privately in their home, since public services (and private ones for that matter!!! Ha-ha!) are banned in their area of China.
On July 6th the Turkic population of their city rioted in protest against what they feel are the oppressing policies of the Chinese government towards their people. The army quickly over-ran the city and crushed the rebellion. In the end the government admits that hundreds were killed, and only God knows exactly how many people perished that day. From that time on the internet in their city has been shut down and they can not call out internationally. We can only rarely call into the city from outside the country and our communication with them has been severely limited.
At first the government was trying to get most of the foreigners in their district to leave and told them that their visa would not be renewed. But we thank God that He opened a door and they received a 6 month extension on their visa. Since they have three children and the situation is quite tense, we prepared for them to return to Indonesia if they wished. They told us in no uncertain terms that if we told them to come back home they would, but if the decision was in their hands they had no intention of leaving the new believers behind to face the trouble that is still in store for the Turkic population of that city and province. We praise God for their faith and commitment! Since July more people have come to Christ and the first several believers have continued to go forward in their faith through the midst of all the turmoil!!!
-Continue to pray for Yopi and Ina and their three children. Also pray for the new converts as well as the other believers that came to Christ while Esther and I lived in that city. Also lift up the other missionaries from various organizations that have stayed to continue to minister in this difficult season. Also pray that God continues to provide the Jakarta congregation with the funds needed to support this work in NW China.
Our Brother in Pakistan:
Some of you know that I have taken a few trips to Pakistan over the years. The first time was just after the war broke out soon after 9/11. The reason was to minister to a man that we met while living in NW China. He was from the now famous tribal areas of NW Pakistan where it is believed Osama bin Laden is hiding out. He believed in Christ soon after meeting us and has continued in his faith all these years, though he doesn’t know any other Christians where he lives. Though the years we have tried to contact him with people in his area that know Christ, but it is an area with few believers. And those that do believe are reluctant to accept someone from his background into fellowship.
In 2002 we invited him to come live with us in NW China and fellowship with the other missionaries in our city. Upon arrival, the missionaries said that he could not fellowship with the others because his background would draw too much attention from the Chinese police. This crushed him, and us, and he soon returned to Pakistan. Two years ago we tried to get him a long term visa to stay here with us in Jakarta, but the government refused to give him one. So after staying here for only one month, he had to return again to Pakistan.
After returning to Pakistan from China in 2002 his family forced him to marry and over the last few years he has had two beautiful children. Out of fear he didn’t tell his wife about his faith but kept it secret. Recently his wife was pressuring him to take the oldest child, a boy, to the mosque to be trained in the Koran. He kept refusing to do this. Finally he broke down and told his wife that he believed in Christ. The wife was outraged and said she would not live with a non-Muslim. She said that she would move in with her brother and take the kids with her. He asked her to please not tell anyone the reason, because in that region Islam (of the Taliban type) is what rules the hearts of the people. Having spent time in that region, I have no doubt that his relatives will kill him as soon as they find out he has left Islam. Since he has been so good to her over the years, she has refrained from saying anything so far to anyone.
In the meantime we are working on getting him a teaching position in Jakarta so that he can leave Pakistan. We have trouble getting him a visa in the past, so we need your prayers. His situation is very serious and we need all the prayers that we can. Over the years we have become very close. We have discussed often about the possibility of martyrdom, and he is willing to die if it comes to that, but he is scared and feels alone. So please pray for him. For his sake I will not use his real name here, but he likes to be called Abraham.
Family News and Prayer Requests:
Our oldest son, Iman, is now a first grader. He is super smart, sometimes too smart!!! We went to a water park recently for a family day and I refused to put on sunscreen. By the end of the day, I was a tomato!!! The next day when I was complaining endlessly of the pain, he just looked at me, while shaking his head back and forth disapprovingly, and said “its your own fault!”
Omid is almost 3 but has taken along time learning to talk. He has 2-3 languages floating around him at any given time so it is normal. But in the last couple months he has started to make sentences. Of course the languages are mixed together and he has his on personal pronunciation of each just to keep us guessing! But it seems that Iman has the gift of interpretation of tongues, so he can usually clue us in on Omid’s meaning. But when he can’t we just smile and nod our heads to make him feel he is understood!
Our youngest, Hadassah, is 10 months old. As Omid is learning to talk, she is learning to walk. Omid is 100% boy from head to toe, and though she is a girl, she has become a faithful disciple of Omid! So we have a definite tomboy in the making. She will give me a kiss, then smack me in the face and just laugh up a storm!!! Her brothers are rough with her, and she likes it, but it seems she takes it all out on me!!! Haha!!!
Esther of course is wearing many hats! She is mom, wife and assistant pastor all at the same moment! And somehow she remains a Christian through all of it!!! I am still trying to learn her secret!!!
Jakarta is a beautiful place, but it is very polluted. So many people here have lung and sinus problems. It seems the kids have a cold 2-3 times a month and I am dependant on allergy vitamins to keep me breathing normal. So please pray for our health in that area. Over the last few years I have really struggled with back pain. The problem is not too severe, but I am a wimp, so sometimes it keeps me up at night and just seems to wear me down at times. So I would appreciate all the prayer I could get for that. I praise God that the last several months it has shown improvement, but I still need more prayer.
Our finances are just below what we need, but I have come to learn that most of us can say that. But in the midst of it God always provides for us and we are not suffering any greater than most of you through this time of economic trouble. But we would appreciate your continued prayer for our financial support.
Lastly I would just like to say that we are so grateful for all of you that pray for us, love us and support us. And I would especially like to express our appreciation for Paul and Shauna Neville, and the other laborers in Mission Global Harvest. They have been awesome to us. We thank God for them!!! They are always ready to help in whatever way we need. They are faithful to send us detailed reports every month about who supported and how much. So those of you that have been supporting can know that the offerings you send aren’t getting lost somewhere in the system. They are on top of it! And with God’s help I will follow their example and update you all more frequently!
God bless,
Chris, Esther, Iman, Omid and Hadassah Chapman
Tags: updates
Comment
About
Birthdays
Sponsors
Custom Search
Verse: John 3:16; Jn 3:16; John 3
Keyword: Salvation, Jesus, Gospel
With Operators: AND, OR, NOT, “ â€
Badge
© 2009 Created by Robert Jimenez on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
You need to be a member of Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship to add comments!
Join this Ning Network