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“… but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isa 40:31)

The 2011 Indonesia United Conference was held from September 1-4 at Cipanas. The title of the conference was “Those Who Hope in the Lord,” and a total of 135 attended (Cawang-9, Salemba-21, Depok-105).

The conference was held during Indonesia’s biggest holiday, Lebaran. Lebaran is a week of vacation that follows right after Ramadan, the month of fasting. So during Lebaran, most restaurants and markets are closed and it is hard to buy food. Many students wander around without knowing what to do during this time. This is why we usually plan for the conference during Lebaran to help wandering students with God’s word.

This conference was a united conference with the Depok, Cawang, and Salemba chapters, and it was held at a place 2 hours from Jakarta. However, there was a severe traffic jam due to Lebaran and it took about 6 hours to get there, yet everyone endured it with joy.

For this conference, we had a prayer meeting three times a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 7:30 pm. Especially, during Ramadan, we prayed for brothers and sisters who were struggling to obtain salvation through fasting and prayed for the rescue of their souls. We also prayed for our leaders and co-workers, who had been having uphill struggles to keep up their life of faith in this secular world, to receive much grace and strength to overcome the world and live like soaring eagles in this generation.    

God accepted our sincere prayers and blessed our conference abundantly with an overflow of his life-giving words through 9 Indonesian messengers. Vernandes served the opening message with the title, “Those Who Hope in the Lord,” based on Isaiah 40:27-41. In the evening of the first day, Donald also delivered a message titled, “Sanctification and Eternal Life,” and in the morning of the second day, Agus from Cawang also served a message with the title, “Go into Deep Water,” based on Luke 5:1-11.  The first main message was served by Kefas with the title, “Jesus, the Living Water,” and in the morning of the second day, Sudarman served a message with the title, “Do you want to get well?” based on John 5:1-9. In the morning of the third day, Wisma H. spoke on John 8:31-36 with the title, “The Truth Will Set You Free,” and in the evening, “It is finished,” based on John 19, was spoken by Iman. In the evening, Abe J. delivered, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” based on John 20:19-24. The final main message of this conference was served by Yusuf A. based on Luke 19 with the title, “Work until I Come Back.” The Holy Spirit worked mightily through God’s words, helping many of us to receive much grace and strength through this conference.

God raised 3 life testimony sharers and 12 testimony sharers and blessed each of them to reveal his grace that had performed great things in their life and had helped them make decisions of faith to live as disciples of Jesus. God also blessed all our other programs, such as the sing along, duo-drama, dance, and worship & praise, which we all prepared for a month wholeheartedly to help us to meditate on God’s deep grace.

God also gave us cool weather during the conference. Typically, Indonesia has a subtropical climate, which is hot with high humidity. However, during the conference, the weather was like that of late autumn in Korea, cool and fresh, so that we could enjoy nature and the conference. We also enjoyed ample food and fellowship in sports and in testimony sharing. We praise and thank God who showed his mercy and love in preparing such a wonderful conference for both our body and spirit.      

In fact, I worried a lot over how to prepare this conference due to my busy working schedule. It was the first time that I had to prepare a conference while working at the same time, and it gave me much stress and burdens. Especially, before the conference, I had a lot of business trips, and it made me anxious about how to serve the prayer meetings due to the irregular closing hours of my work. Moreover, during summer, many of our co-workers had gone to Korea, so I could not rely on them either. God helped me to repent of my dependent spirit on co-workers rather than God and helped me to have a clear attitude to depend on him only. Then God blessed my decision of faith. God helped the Abraham team to serve and prepare the conference with stewardship.        

Before the conference, we also ran into several difficulties in our chapter. One sister got into a motorcycle accident. Another sister’s father passed away right before the conference. In addition, Iman, who was preparing an important message, became severely sick with a high fever along with his son, and they were both hospitalized the day before the conference. We all desperately prayed to God with one heart and spirit. God had mercy on us to begin the conference and finish it successfully.  Through it, we experienced God’s victory, learning faith and praising God with thanksgiving for blessing us to live like soaring eagles with power and strength.  

We are praying for God’s word and discipleship ministry in Indonesia. Since earlier this year, almost for 25 weeks, we have been studying the book of Hebrews. Please pray for the continuation of our Hebrews Bible study.

Thanks,

Peter L. from Depok