Christians wonder how the new administration will respond to their presence in the Muslim majority nation of more than 280 million. They hope for greater favor than in the past.

Juserdi Purba with A3 explains that there are different levels of persecution Indonesian believers go through.

(Representative stock photo courtesy of John Ragai on Flickr: https://goo.gl/HVMTRr.)

“Commonly, we face opposition from non-believers because they believe that we are in the wrong way. So they try to convince us (to convert),” Purba says.

Another level he identifies is physical persecution. However, it’s important to note that Indonesia is composed of more than 17,500 islands. The degree of social, legal and physical persecution a Christian might endure varies from one family, community or region to another.

No matter the circumstance, Purba says the church’s first move needs to be Christ-like love, godly living and a relationship-building approach to Muslim neighbors. He says in many cases, people have actually asked why Christians aren’t responding with hate to the pressure or mistreatment they suffer.

“That is the door open for us to say what we do, because we have love in Jesus, and we want to show to them that Jesus also love them,” Purba says.

Join Indonesian believers in praying for deeper godliness and a winsome witness to God’s love.

“We have prayer meeting[s], and we hope that one day the door is open for us to to preach the good news,” Purba says.

“[But] I think this is the first [step]: we display Christ, [a] good example, good life. We show love to them.”

Header photo of an Indonesian Bible is a representative stock photo courtesy of Yosi Prihantoro via Unsplash.

Jakarta suffers from severe overcrowding, with congested traffic and a significant waste problem. The city is also sinking into the ocean at a rate of 25 centimeters per year.

Bruce Allen with FMI says, “When Jakarta was designed, it was only designed to handle a few million people. The plan that has been talked about for many years was that they would divide the capital in two. The administrative, or the political side of the capital, would move to a totally different island, and yet the economic capital would remain in Jakarta.”

Allen compares the arrangement to the United States. Washington D.C. serves as the political capital, but the money flows through New York City.

Opportunities for ministry

The new capital city will be built in an area that holds very little population right now. But the new city will bring an influx of people. That’s an opportunity for local churches, Allen says.

He recently spoke to FMI partners on Borneo. “They’ve noted that new mosques are already being built in this area before a lot of people even arrive. The Muslim majority, they’re preparing for this influx of population. Yandi, our Director of Partnerships on the island, is saying we need to do the same thing. We need to have the church planters there now. We need to be fortifying what exists right now in what is a rural area, soon to become an urban area.”

People will flock to the new capital from islands and cultures across Indonesia. Pray for a strong Christian presence in the city.

The header photo shows a rural area of East Kalimantan, near where the new capital will be built. (Aidenvironment, 2005, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Rohingya people living in Cox’s Bazar (the largest refugee camp in the world) showed strong resistance to the idea; many claim they were coerced to participate in the project. Hundreds already live on the island.

Photo courtesy of World Mission.

The sufferings of the Rohingya people

Rohingyan people have endured many injustices in recent years. Greg Kelly of World Mission says they suffered horrible genocide as they fled from Myanmar, driven out by a largely Buddhist government.

Today, many Rohingya eke out a living in Bangladesh. But Kelley says, “They’re living in areas that were never intended to be populated by human beings. We’re talking about hills that when it rains, there are mudslides. Even their tents get washed away.”

Meanwhile, Myanmar continues to persecute the Rohingya, and more keep fleeing into Bangladesh.

Reaching the Rohingya for Christ

Kelley says the plight of the Rohingya needs to capture the attention of Christians. The Rohingya people have lost everything, and this is an opportunity to tell them that Jesus loves them.

Photo courtesy of World Mission.

But it can be challenging to even reach the Rohingya, Kelley says. “You can’t even get into these camps. I’ve tried it. They refuse your entry. So you have to use national leaders. So let’s pray for them, but we also need to resource them. We just recently, for example, sent motorcycles to our national leaders in Bangladesh so they can more easily get around. We’ve sponsored medical clinics, we’ve sponsored leadership training.”

Additionally, World Mission is working to supply the Rohingya people with Bibles in their own language.

How to pray

Rohingya people that do embrace Christ instantly face persecution for it. Kelley says, “One of our churches that we established inside the refugee camp, it got exposed. And I saw video footage that just terrorized me. People were coming through with sticks and bats and beating new Christians.”

Pray many Rohingya would embrace the love and hope of Jesus. Pray also that more local leaders would take up the task of ministering to them.

To support these leaders, donate to World Mission here.

The header photo shows Rohingya refugees and is courtesy of World Mission.

If the volcano does have a major eruption, it would endanger island residents’ lives, water supplies, and power. Such a natural disaster would also disrupt ground and air travel.

The Taal Volcano already had an eruption of ash and lava on January 12. Since then, the volcano continued to spit and sputter and now is at a simmer. But researchers say the danger isn’t over and the volcano remains at a level 4 — the second-highest volcano alert level.

AMG International ministers in the Philippines through child sponsorship, media evangelism, medical care, and supporting national Christian leaders. AMG’s Bill Passons says they are monitoring the situation closely.

“We do have three projects that are…within a 20 or 30-mile radius of the volcano, so we do have some things that have been affected. Right now, most of the effect has been that we’ve had some covering of ash and other things falling from these not-so-minor but not major eruptions yet…. We have not had any major damage to anything at this point, but obviously it’s a concern and we continue to be on alert.”

Devastation in the Philippines from Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. (Photo courtesy of AMG International)

AMG is also raising funds and leading recovery efforts in response to the recent typhoons.

Christmas Eve’s Typhoon Ursula cut a similar path to Super Typhoon Haiyan from 2013. Many people in Eastern Samar remember Haiyan’s wrath and now must rebuild again.

“Some people that we had helped before as far as rebuilding their houses and livelihoods, their houses were destroyed again,” Passons says. “We’re coming back and reassessing how we can help them again. So that’s ongoing, obviously.”

Meanwhile, Typhoon Kammuri swept through Northern Samar on December 2nd, and AMG was directly affected.

“We had significant damage to some of our properties, our camps, [and] our hostels where we have kids. So we’re in repair mode and recovery and helping meet basic needs initially. But then [we are] helping people plan for how they can rise up out of those situations too.”

While AMG is not directly a disaster relief organization, when disasters like this happen in AMG’s backyard, they jump to respond. Passons says in the midst of hardship, God is moving hearts.

“When we respond, people get to see the love of Christ because they say, ‘Why are you helping us?’ We have compassion because Christ in us produces compassion,” Passons says.

(Photo courtesy of AMG International)

“But then secondly, when we come in there and we’re working in there, they see that our faith is real and that, yes, even in the midst of disasters that we still are worshipping. We’re still seeking Lord and He’s still good. It becomes a testing of the faith of our people there and people do notice that.”

Right now, the Philippines needs your prayers — both in the wake of the damaging typhoons and in the midst of the volcano watch.

“The situation is very tense, so just pray for wisdom and for how to respond…. Pray for peace and that we would keep our eyes focused on Christ.”

Passons also asks, “As the resources come in — and we have limited resources — just pray for discernment on how those would be best used and that they would be used in a way that would produce the most benefits and be the best for the community, not just short-term but also long-term.”

If you would like to support AMG’s ministry in the Philippines, click here!

Header photo courtesy of Exec8 via Wikimedia Commons: https://rb.gy/lcxnmr.

Mission Aviation Fellowship flies into hard-to-reach areas of Papua with aid and Gospel hope.

According to MAF pilot Dennis Bergstrazer, “There are roads that are starting to be built, but still they are in very poor condition. Most of the airstrips that we go to have no roads at all.

“We’re sort of a lifeline to folks living interior as well as the church and the church workers — the pastors and evangelists and laypeople. That’s the way they get back and forth.”

Papua, Indonesia (Map courtesy of Wikimedia/CC)

Part of MAF’s work includes medical flights for remote people living in the island’s interior. Bergstrazer says they conduct several medical flights a month in Papua across their five bases.

Recently, Bergstrazer flew a sick four-year-old boy from a remote village to a hospital in Timika. The little boy had been sick for so long that his eyes and skin were yellow and his stomach was swollen.

“His father came with, but his father has never been to Timika nor does he speak Indonesian. He just speaks the local language…. So his uncle came with as well then because he had been to Timika before and he does speak Indonesian at least a little bit.”

Bergstrazer flew the trio to Timika. Then, he and his wife, Rose, drove them to the hospital in the ministry’s car.

(Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

Right away, the doctors ruled out malaria — a common disease transmitted by jungle mosquitos. Bergstrazer continued to check in on the family, and doctors discovered the little boy had serious liver problems.

“It’s fairly common for something like that to happen where folks are living interior. Unfortunately, he had probably been sick for a month. This was the first opportunity he had to jump on one of our airplanes and get to someplace where they had some medical care.”

Bergstrazer says moments like this give MAF pilots and families the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

“I think the Lord gives us those opportunities to just be in the right place at the right time to show compassion and love toward those in need.”

MAF needs more people to join them in Papua and serve as Christ’s ambassadors to remote people.

“There’s especially a need for teachers,” Bergstrazer says. “We have a mission school on the coast and one interior. Our folks can serve remote places because they’re confident that their children are getting a good education if they’re in boarding school on the coast. But we have a critical need for teachers to instruct in various subjects — kindergarten through high school.

“We need pilots and mechanics too. We are so short here. We have five bases and we have anywhere from one to ten families working at these different bases, but we’re all short. We’re probably operating at about 20 or 30 percent of what our capacity is for pilots and mechanics.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

Click here to check out job opportunities with MAF!

Meanwhile, please pray for the hospitalized little boy. Ask God to give the doctors wisdom. Pray for complete physical healing for this child and spiritual comfort for him and his family.

Header photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship.

“We were able to rapidly get an aircraft in, bring some of our disaster response surge team, and join up with some partners Ethno360 [Aviation]…and set up a response out of Palu, which is kind of the epicenter of the disaster,” MAF’s Global Director of Disaster Response John Woodberry explains.

Responding to Disaster

(Photo courtesy Mission Aviation Fellowship)

Yayasan MAF Indonesia is an aviation non-profit serving isolated people in remote areas. The non-profit has been serving in Indonesia for over 60 years. For Yayasan MAF Indonesia, flight support comes down to speed and helping where there are critical needs during a disaster. This translates to delivering relief, supplies, and helping move people in and out of remote areas. The non-profit, in partnership with other local aviation groups, has been using two fixed-wing [Kodiak] aircraft and a helicopter to accomplish the task.

“One of the initial things we were doing is, because Palu was devastated where we are based, is there [were] a lot of kids that needed to get back to their home villages in remote areas. Often family members host children of family members that live remotely so they can get a better education,” Woodberry shares.

“But, with the need for water, food, and just the scale of devastation in Palu, we did a lot of flying in the partnerships—getting them back where the infrastructure wasn’t damaged, and back with their families.”

Be Prayerful, Be Active

Since infrastructure has been destroyed in Palu, MAF also brought in a rapid response team to support Yayasan MAF Indonesia and set up a VSAT Communication system at Palu airport. The system has helped MAF’s operation with responding to the disasters while also helping aid agencies communicate with their teams.

(Photo courtesy Mission Aviation Fellowship)

“The other day we were able to basically, in a flight, find a village with about 5,000 that was totally cut off, and be able to be a part of getting relief to go to that area. The ability to fly places and leapfrog over roads that have been cut off, areas that are isolated, is a blessing of speed and access that aviation can bring in a disaster response,” Woodberry says.

However, the Yayasan MAF Indonesia team is tired. They have been sleeping in the hangar and have faced challenges in securing fuel for generators. Still, Woodberry notes how the team’s challenges are not like those they are serving.

Pray this team would continue to have the energy to serve well. Ask God to heal and provide for the people on Sulawesi following these disasters. Also, pray for Indonesia’s recovery from this triple-disaster.

Support MAF’s work in Indonesia here!

Note: A Smithsonian article addresses how large earthquakes could trigger smaller quakes miles away. This could be a concern in Southeast Asia. A 6.0-magnitude earthquake recently impacted Indonesia’s Java and Bali islands. Less than 2-hours later a 7.0-magnitude earthquake affected Papua New Guinea. Pray for the people impacted by both these quakes.

Header photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship.

Citizen-Soldiers of the Puerto Rico National Guard patrol one of the main highway of the metropolitan area, affected by the flood after the Hurricane Maria. (Photo by Sgt. Jose Ahiram Diaz-Ramos/PRNG-PAO via Flickr)

In addition, nearly half of the nation’s grocery stores are out of drinkable water. All of Puerto Rico is under a boil advisory, meaning you have to boil any water before ingesting it. But with the power down, a boil advisory does no good when you have no power to boil your water.

Omar Haedo, President and CEO of Elan Insurance Group, explains, “All of that infrastructure was torn to pieces. I mean, the big power lines looked like dental floss…. That takes down the power grid, that takes down the water supply, that takes down communications. So the government in San Juan couldn’t even speak to the policemen and rescue…. You have a situation where you have 3.5-3.6 million American citizens with no power, no water, no communications, no cell phone, no internet, and everything is dark.”

Christian Aid Mission has a solid relationship with several local churches in Puerto Rico. When the hurricane ripped through the island, Christian Aid’s Latin America Director Luis Janeiro immediately reached out to their contacts.

Janeiro says, “We have a long story with Puerto Rico and we can witness the generosity of a lot of the Puerto Rican people. There are a lot of Christian churches there and our experience in the past is they’ve been very generous to missions — in our case, indigenous missions. So when we found out the situation, we really wanted to be able to help. I was calling all the pastors I know on the island and couldn’t get through to any of them.”

Meanwhile, a representative in Florida got in touch with Haedo and found out he had an 80-foot boat that could deliver aid to Puerto Rico from Miami. The representative connected Haedo with Christian Aid Mission and a partnership was formed to spur the hurricane relief efforts.

The coast along San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Together, both by boat and by plane, Haedo and Christian Aid Mission have made it possible for generators, water filtration systems, solar-powered chargers, and over $50,000 worth of critical medicine to be delivered to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico.

Haedo says, “I called my local church in Puerto Rico and they have all banded together and the first thing locally was can we develop a census of highest-need people in the family of Christ? So the elderly, the single mom, the sick. They have all banded together developing a list of highest-need people.”

The generators were the most immediately needed, and they’re being distributed in sort of a domino effect system. One person or family gets a generator to use on loan until they get power back. Then that generator is passed to the next person who still doesn’t have power, and the next, and so on.

“When the emergency abates,” explains Haedo, “we will store them so we have a ready inventory of materials for the next hit.”

The water filtration systems are another strategic resource, he says. “Sending water bottles is exceedingly expensive, very heavy, and it doesn’t really take you very far because you create garbage and there’s no garbage being picked up with all the plastic bottles. So we think the osmosis water filtration systems are good.”

They’re working with local churches as relief centers for aid distribution. Haedo explains, “That’s the only way we want to do it because we can be more effective by getting to the highest need people in the community. They don’t have to be part of the local church, but local churches are a wonderful distribution network because they’re part of the community.”

Relief in Puerto Rico is going to be an ongoing effort spanning several months — maybe even years. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said it may take until the end of this month for even 25 percent of the power grid to be back online. And the American citizens there need our help.

You can give to this outreach ministry through Christian Aid Mission at their website here. You can also call them at 1-800-577-5650 to donate.

In addition, Haedo says, “I really don’t want people to forget St Thomas with about 50,000 people, St Croix with about 40,000 people, and St John with about 10,000 people also got hammered…. Our plan is to load [the boat] up and go to the outer islands and deliver again through local churches and getting to the highest need.”

Please pray for safety as these hurricane relief efforts continue. And pray that the people affected by this disaster would find comfort in our Heavenly Father.

The small island of La Gonave is off the coast of Haiti.

Haiti (MNN) — What do you expect to hear from an organization that’s just four years old? Do you expect to hear that communities are being completely transformed? Would you expect such an organization to make major changes in education, physical and spiritual health?

That’s exactly what’s happening at StarFysh, an organization that exists to demonstrate Christian love and compassion through alleviating physical suffering and addressing social injustice on the island of La Gonave, Haiti.

How? Starfysh is bringing people together to use their skills, energies, and resources to show compassion to those in need. Starfysh is dedicated to “staying the course” and seeing compassion result in physical and spiritual transformation.

As 2014 unfolds, the ministry hopes to:

• Open and build more schools.
• See entire villages have 100% latrine use, a statistic virtually unheard of in Haiti.
• See entire villages equipped with clean water.
• Complete their medical/dental unit and continue sending doctors and dentists to the most remote parts of the island.
• Create a multi-site agriculture research and teaching farm.
• Help budding entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
• Write and publish Creole children’s books.
• Establish a permanent base-of-operations up in the geographic center of the island.

These goals might seem ambitious, but Starfysh says hundreds of people are investing in the vision. The story that’s yet to unfold is one of transformation. Although donations, volunteer efforts, and new programs are tools God uses to accomplish spiritual change, true transformation will only take place with time and prayer.

Pray that God’s power and Truth will be made evident through Starfysh on the island of La Gonave.

As a husband, farmer, and father of two children, Sreekanth is the sole provider for his family. In 2009, the floods had no mercy on his one-acre property on a river island in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Sreekanth’s fields were ruined, covered with salt water and mud. Rising waters wiped out whole villages, and nine children were killed by this unfortunate disaster.

These annual monsoon floods continue to endanger lives, homes, and animals. They harm the precious land this agricultural community depends on for food and income. But donor support can help control the ill-effects of flooding.

Now working with the islanders, joint teams from India Partners and Engineering Ministries International (eMi2) developed a flood mitigation system for the island. They drafted a cost-effective plan using readily available materials to control erosion, and protect people and their homes.

Vetiver grass is a native Indian plant that grows quickly. It has strong roots that penetrate deep into the soil to prevent future erosion. Terraces of vetiver grass will be created over eroding areas to save the people’s farmland from washing away.

In addition, engineers have designed small homes, built out of brick and cement, which will be placed on stilts. People will be able to move their belongings and animals to higher ground to escape the rising waters.

The vetiver grass is a sustainable solution that will not only save this island from erosion, but also help surrounding islands facing similar erosion problems. The islanders can grow and sell their own vetiver to help their neighbors.

During the big flood in 2009, Sreenu, a villager of the island, witnessed the floodwaters submerge all the mud and thatched-roof houses. “You could not see a single roof,” she said. Many families fled their homes and some found shelter in trees.

Sreenu and other islanders, however, found refuge in the only two-storied cement building on the island: the church built by donors through India Partners. As the church provided physical shelter, India Partners and churches with whom they work seek to give spiritual hope through the hope of the Gospel.

Kaytie Fiedler with India Partners says, "We do this because we want to reach out with the tangible love of God and show them that we are putting our hands and feet to their issues, and we care about this community."

Since 2009 over 60 families have relocated off the island. Many of the people who moved made homes from tarps and lived on the side of the road. They commute to the island every day to work on their fields because it’s their livelihood, and the land has been in their families for generations. With soil that’s so rich and fertile, their crops flourish. For many of these families, their ultimate hope is to return to their homeland, and live in a safe home.

13,000 feet of vetiver grass needs to be planted in order to prevent erosion, and 5,000 bricks are needed to build a house for a family to be safe.

$25 protects 200 feet of the island’s farmland from erosion using vetiver grass. $100 buys 1,000 bricks to build a home for a family.

To support this ministry, click here and select Island Erosion Project on the drop-down menu.

15 of the 23 languages and dialects spoken there still don’t even have a translation of the New Testament.

Wycliffe Associates is currently supporting translation teams at the New Ireland Translation Institute that are working to complete Bible translations in the last 15 languages of the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea.

It normally takes an average of 15 to 25 years to translate the New Testament into a complex language. With the help and support of Wycliffe Associates, the Bible translators in New Ireland hope to complete the New Testament translations in all 15 languages within 8 years.

“National translators from all over the New Ireland Province regularly trek from their village homes–sometimes sailing across the perilous open sea–to the New Ireland Translation Institute for the work of Bible translation,” says Bruce Smith, president and CEO of Wycliffe Associates. “These national Bible translators rely heavily on our support for everything, from food during training to the computers and pens they use to write their translations.”

It costs $18,000 to fund an entire language’s Bible translation work for a full year, with a yearly total of $270,000 for all 15 languages in New Ireland.

A donor has established a matching challenge for the organization’s constituents, doubling every dollar given to Wycliffe Associates in support of Bible translation in the New Ireland Province.

One translator, commenting on how having the Bible in her language has impacted her life, says, “Now I can understand the Bible more clearly. Now I can eat and sleep good and recognize that it is very true that God is good. I think forward, for what is in front of me is eternal life.”

Through a growing global network, Wycliffe Associates is striving to begin the translation of God’s Word in every remaining language that needs it by 2025.

Click here to support Wycliffe Associates’ translation of the New Testament into the last 15 languages spoken in New Ireland.