Indonesia Journal; Sunday

18 September, Sunday 9 PM:

The hotel I am staying in is called the Manado Quality Hotel. It is owned by Chinese. As you walk in the main entrance you walk past two lions, typical of all Chinese buildings. When I was in China I learned about these lions. They represent the philosophy of Communist China. The one on the right has his right paw on a ball that is slightly flattened. This represents balance and control as in someone who push down on a ball without rolling off of it. The lion on the left has his left paw on top of a small lion that is on its back. This represents domination of all of the other governments; control and domination. This is the opposite of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He sets us free from the dominion and control of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The Holy Spirit lives in us, with us, through us, as us, in the world around us inviting us to join Him in lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ.

The people who work in the hotel are Indonesian and are very friendly and nice. They know that I am a pastor and most of them have shared with me that they are Christian. I have learned the greetings, “Good morning, how are you, please, thank you…” As I greeted the hotel workers in the lobby they came back with a new greeting. I asked what it meant and they said, “Happy Sunday!” They said that Sunday is special day on this island and that it has its own greeting, “Happy Sunday!”

Pastor Ferry picked me up at 9 AM and we drove to his church, the Hope Baptist Church. It is a concrete structure on a steep incline. Everything on this island is on a steep incline. I noticed the first day that there were no bicycles but thousands of motorcycles. The CMA would have a field day here although these motorcycles are the small economy size. The Hope Baptist Church has about 100 members in attendance which are mostly young people in their 20s. the building is all concrete with a flat roof, a half wall with open windows (no windows), and four doors. Down the middle isle are concrete columns. One is right in front of the pulpit and has a small fan mounted at the top pointed down, right on the preacher. That was nice.

Before the service started it started to rain, a soft, slow, constant rain. I prayed for it to spread to Texas.  It rained like that the whole service. We started the service with a prayer chorus and prayed silently for about 10 minutes which is a long time to pray silently. Then the pastor led in a long prayer. We sang a few hymns, no instruments, and had another prayer. We read out loud Psalm 40, the men would read one verse together, then the women would read the next; responsive reading. We prayed again, and sang another hymn. They had three offering boxes on the table in front of the column in front of the pulpit, all three labeled. During the offering hymn people came up and put their offerings in one or more of the boxes. Pastor Ferry explained to me that there is a tithe offering, a “social” offering for ministries, and one for the operations of the church. Then they came around with an offering bag, which is divided up among all three.

Then they had “prayer time.” We had already spent about 20 minutes in prayer and by the time the prayer time was over we had spent about 30 minutes in prayer together. I preached from Judges 14 on Samson and how the gifts of God are given with instructions from God and about the Nazarite vow and how God’s Word addresses our spirit, mind, and body. With the interpretation is lasted about 45 minutes. Pastor Ferry said this is the length of most of his sermons. The invitation time was another prayer time. We sang, dismissed in a long prayer, and stood around and visited for about 40 minutes. Then we all went out (about half of the congregation) to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Got back to the hotel about 3 and worked on the materials for the study on the parables and Pastor Ferry picked me up about 6:30 for the evening service.

The evening service is not at the church, it is at a member’s home. About half of us were inside and half outside in folding chairs from the church. There were two men with guitars inside and we sang songs (not hymns) and prayed for about 40 minutes. Their singing in the evening is different than the morning. They clapped, sang in harmony, had prayer songs, all with the two guitars which were out of tune. You couldn’t hear them much for the loud singing. It reminded me of the church services in Mexico and along the border. The Indonesia language also sounds similar to Spanish. I felt like I was back in El Indio in the mission. We had a ladies choir, then a men’s choir, then prayer time. Pastor Ferry preached in the door way from 1 Chronicles 6:4-8. I had never heard a sermon on that passage before. Since he did not interpret it, I don’t know what it was about. The only part in English was the Scripture reference. I asked him later what his message was about and he said it was about how God knows our name and has purpose for everything He does in our lives. If you have time look that Scripture up and see what he means. Pastor Ferry preaches through books several verses at a time. At the end of the service they brought in food, all kinds of food and a whole ice chest full of rice. It reminded me of the hospitality of the Ugandan churches with several different kinds of food. Pastor Ferry was kind to point out which ones were “hot” for me to avoid. He also told me not to worry that they had not prepared snake for that night. He said the story goes that if Adam and Eve would have been Indonesian, the Garden of Eden story would have had a different outcome; they would have eaten the snake! He also said that many on his island don’t like snake but since the others do, there aren’t that many.

Got back to the hotel about 8:30. The internet is not working at the hotel and my computer is not charging like it is suppose to. Will try to post this in the morning. Thank you for your prayers. Happy Sunday!