Ai Yao

I had my last session this school year with two Chinese teachers. One became a Christian while still in China, and was well tutored by a foreign missionary. The other received Christ during a school retreat. This second one, Ai Yao, will return to China. My mission has been to prepare her to return to a family and community that does not know Christ. She says she knows of no Christian or church in her place!

So when Dennis Balcombe. who been missionary in Hong Kong for nearly 40 years, quite well known for his ministry in mainland China since as soon as China opened to foreigners again, came to Surabaya, I was keen to get her connected to him and the China church through him.

This happened this past week with meetings with Dennis on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I was privileged to have several meals with Dennis and pick his brain on many topics. I was pleased to find that he is a down-to-earth guy.

Ai Yao will be returning to China this week, and now has contacts. I have been feeding her in weekly Bible studies whenever I am in Surabaya, and Mary, the other Chinese teacher, has also been having Bible studies with her. I am excited about the prospects of miracles following Ai Yao as she prays for people and God demonstrates His power, and her being able to have home Bible studies that will turn into churches.

STRUCK BY LIGHTENING

Rev 3:19-20 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Hebrews 12:11 says that the Lord’s chastening is not pleasant while we experience it but it will yield its fruit in time. So the Lord standing at our door and knocking, after we have shut him out, perhaps gets more and more uncomfortable as he must knock harder and harder to get our attention. I have heard many jokes about being struck by lightening by the Lord, but while waiting for my plane from Manila in April it was my first time to meet someone who had been struck by lightening three times, in the same place, and still did not pay attention to the Lord. Finally, he said, there was an accident where a large piece of equipment fell on him, broke his neck and left him paraplegic. Slowly, he had been regaining use of his limbs. Now only some minor functioning of the fingers was deficient, but the pain in his neck was an ever present reminder, and he walked with difficulty because of this pain.

He had been in Davao, Mindinao, to visit his wife. There, they had started works to provide employment and food for the poor. He had met his wife on the internet (I’m meeting many recently, who met like this and are now enjoying healthy, happy relationships, a surprise to me with my prejudice against the principle!). We talked about the wonder of the Lord and the work He calls us to, about how slowly we are to respond, and the variety of methods He employs to call us. He acknowledged that he did believe the three lightening strikes, and the accidents, were indeed all attempts by the Lord to get our attention. He agrees with my understanding that if we don’t repent, as Rev 3:19 clearly says we are called to do, then the knocking gets harder, and more uncomfortable, even painful, until finally we do repent, and pay attention.

This word repent merely means stop going the direction we are going, turn around and go the other direction. In this case the direction toward the Lord and His will and work.

Conclusion: Sheep are really dumb, and slow to understand or respond to the Lord knocking, slow to learn from experience!

Has the Lord been knocking on your door lately?

REBELLIOUS SHEEP

In the past month, I have been ministering in several places, and have come upon a few ‘hard cases,’ people who hear and acknowledge the truth, but still want to go their own way.

One young man asked for prayer for a job. He got his job within two days. I suggested to him that there was a hindrance to his prayers being answered, for his dreams being realized. He acknowledged that he still liked sex with young men. He said he would like to change, but couldn’t. We worked with him for some time, and finally he came to the realization that he had but to choose to stop, and he could. He thought for a few moments, then asked "If I stop, what will God give me?"

He had received a job when he asked. He had received friends when he asked. I asked him what more he wanted from God. God had already given life, His own life upon the cross. God had already given all!

The young man said he wanted his dreams to be realized. I asked how old he was, and he refused, saying it had no relevance. I reminded him Joseph waited some 16 years, Abraham had waited 25. He acknowledged he had waited much less than one year.

He was bargaining with God, when God had already given all, and was offering the dream at the price of obedience. The young man could not, would not, give up his vice!

Another was a woman who was having severe difficulties for more than two years. She was hanging around Christians, but rejected a God who allowed suffering such as she was seeing. She is a race car driver, one of the tops! Some years ago, she had a death experience, with the black tunnel and bright light at the end and all. But her experience was a bit different. About halfway there, a figure stood before her. She could see only the shadow, because of the light behind. The man caused her to turn around and return.

I asked her if she had ever considered just who it was that had the power to send her back, or send her onward, who had met her in the tunnel. She said she had never given it a thought. She still did not want to explore this question, it seemed irrelevant to her. I told her I thought maybe whoever it was that sent her back had a reason, and perhaps she should consider thinking about who sent her back, and why. I suggested that God sometimes had to get our attention, and the Bible sometimes causes problems in our lives to accomplish this (Hebrews 12:6,11). If we aren’t corrected, he must resort to something stronger.

She did not seem to want to consider this possibility. Yet she continues to experience increasing pain and difficulty in her life, refusing to seek God or His will or purpose for her life. I am fairly certain that as soon as she seeks who it was that sent her back, and why, that these problems will cease.

We all are like these two in some ways in our lives, just not to the extent perhaps of these two. We have ‘blind’ areas of our lives, little habits or addictions we think are not too bad that we refuse to give up. Jesus gave all, so that we could have all. Yet we must exchange our bad habits in order to acquire the good habits that will allow us to live the abundant life he offers. We are all a bit rebellious and stupid this way!

VILLAGE LIFE

One place we went was to this village where we prayed for a woman partially paralyzed by a stroke. We traveled an hour and a half each way to get to this Muslim stronghold. After we prayed for her and had polite conversation, the women began to talk, and we men went outside to look around. An old toothless man came hurrying along and stopped with a big smile to greet me. I asked him what he had in the bucket on his shoulder and he lowered it and showed me the clothes inside. He was on his way to wash clothes. We followed him across the rice paddies to the pool created by a nearby spring where he went down and joined a woman who was already washing her clothes. Village life is very simple, and this is but one example of how. It was very poetic and beautiful, but I thought I would not trade my washing machine for a half kilometer trek across the rice paddies to wash clothes in a pool! I supposed it isn’t always sunny and nice.

I

I noticed some school girls gathered down the gravel main street of this village, and went to investigate. Turns out they were fifth graders on recess from the nearby school. The younger kids all ran away but one brave girl spoke out in English "What is your name." This was an opening for me to get them to practice their English, and I got all their names and ages. Just when they were about to sing for me, they were called back to school. Three girls, not in uniform stayed. I asked why they were not in school, and they replied they were sixth graders, already out of school. I sat and talked with them for some time. One wants to be a doctor, one a teacher (sixth grade) and one wants to be used by her nation. I thought this latter was an unusual but very noble and high desire. They sang several songs for me, including one which names all the Asian countries.

It was a very precious visit for me, from the humble dirt floor home we visited to the visits with the children and the old man, giving me a peek into the very simple and very hard life of village farmers in Indonesia.

--HWK--

SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP - NORTH CEMETERY

North Cemetery is a vast city in itself. Many of the tombs are bigger and better ‘homes’ than any of the thousands (millions?) of poor in Manila. And many of these poor take up residency in the tombs. Owners pay up to $6 a month for a family to take up residency. This provides a roof and area to sleep in exchange for making sure no objects (iron fences, photos, etc) are destroyed or stolen. Some of the owners also provide a drinking water supply for their ‘tenants.’

It is in this place that we had our second annual healing crusade. It is reported to me that our particular area is for sale, the bones have been removed and take to Europe somewhere. There are three crypts, two adult and one child, but a fairly spacious floor area some 6-8 square meters under the roof, which is crumbling cement. Our hosts have the key to the iron fence gate.

Most of our group is very young children and their mothers, with a contingent of teenagers hanging around outside, sometimes moving in and out. We have several lively songs, and I preach a message about Christ, his love, his healing power. A woman experiences relief from the usual back pain and fatigue, and with this, others come forward. One woman is quite fearful, for breast cancer has caused pus to be flowing from her breast. I didn’t get details, I have difficulty enough getting the basic information with the language! After prayer, she said all pain had disappeared. I had her go into the back with one of the ladies on our team to check it out. They came back and reported that the pus flow had nearly stopped. We prayed again, they checked again and reported just a pinpoint of pus remained. Relief and joy flooded her face!

Then some of the teens started coming in. I am not sure of the stories, but the change in faces, and the fact that others came in for prayer told me that something was taking place when I prayed for them.

One of the interesting facets of North Cemetery is the ‘Condominiums.’ I noticed some last year, now there are many more. These are high rise 2x2x6' square tubes piled upon one another, crypts awaiting sale and occupancy of dead bodies. In the meantime, many become places of refuge for the squatter community.

Surely our small gathering is not even a sampling of the lives in this strange community in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world!
--HK--

SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP - A Testimony

Erike and Wirahade
"Mie Gili" Restaurant Owner

Just before leaving Surabaya, I ministered in a church in a suburb, Sidoaradjo. I ministered there just a year ago, when I prayed for the pastor and his wife to have a child - they were many years (I think 6) childless. Now they have a three month old child. You can do the math.

After church, I was taken to a restaurant to eat, where the owners told me the following story, which I requested my interpreter to put into English and forward to me by email. This is their story. -HK-

In the early 2006 I and my husband got a prophecy from rev. Hugh Kaiser (USA), He spoke that God will give to my husband a job that is even greater than what he has before and still open our restaurant in the city of Sidoarjo . Yet our restaurant selling at that time was decreasing, plus it was near to the end of contract (rent) period in early 2007.

Still in that kind of situation I kept the word of God (prophecy) in the deepest of my heart. In June 2006 the city government set up a median on the road in front of our restaurant caused our restaurant even difficult to be accessed. It cost even more lost and the selling drop to 60% and it wasn’t stop at that point, the property owner asked for 90% raise for the renting price. We try to negotiate but the owner will not move.

During the months of Oct-Nov 2006 we experienced a heavy distress. Every day we circled the city of \Sidoarjo in order to find a new location for our restaurant that fit our financial budget/capability. It seems impossible!!! To find a strategic location always means high cost renting price. Finally, we decide to stop/closed down our restaurant business and planed to go abroad for a job.

At that time I talked to a friend of mine (the person that I was talked to when I got the prophecy), she immediately warned and remind me to the prophecy, I was like waking up from a sleep and back to the track believing if God wants He will arrange everything and open the way. Suddenly I feel peace and surrender everything to Jesus. Not to long from that time we got a new location for our restaurant in the city center as we dream for a long time. Something that we amazed about The Lord Jesus, we got it a lot cheaper compare to the old location. God provide us with the financial. When we talked with the property owner at the time of signing contract, he said that actually many other person have been interested to this location and they are agree to pay even higher. More over, the property owner gave us permission to uninstall the fence in front of that property (that will hinder the face of our restaurant), no one has ever been permitted to.PRAISE THE LORD JESUS, He never late to help us, he makes everything beautiful in His time. He open the way that make us amazed and wonder to His Power, the timing is precisely (Just a month away from the last renting period). No use if we hope to a man help, Jesus is awesome!!!!!!!

Thank You for the chance you have given to us to witness. Hope this testimony can help others more depending to Jesus…….Amen

God Bless You,
Erike and Wirahade

For Lovers Only TESTIMONIES

These are translations from testimonies voiced during our meeting in Jakarta Thursday, March 22.

Ria : After the retreat – family restored, blessings flowed beyond their imagination. She realized that they should invest the blessing they received and not keep it for themselves. She also realized that they should serve God better than before.

Tri : He wanted to run away the first day of the retreat, a mixed feeling of inferiority, incapability, and other negative feelings gripped him. But as time progressed he felt changes took place in him, a newness and freshness of mind and heart. He has a cell group at his house and asked for our prayers that God will enable him and guide him to minister to his cell group members who are all having marital problems.

Kim : Her dreams come true, for a long long time she wanted to have a spiritual father for both of them especially for her husband Tri. God answered her prayer in sending HK. Through the teaching that she got at the retreat i.e. to show respect to your husband, made her aware of her shortcoming in this area. She did some soul searching and apply self correction. Before the retreat their relationship was stiff/rigid but now a change takes place. They can express their love more freely. Their marital relationship has been restored.

John : This meeting is very important! His wife has cancelled a meeting in order to come to this meeting. Result of retreat: husband & wife relationship has been restored. Now he only sees his wife’s goodness while before that he only sees her shortcomings/weaknesses. Before he cannot take a correction, but now he realized that as a pastor and a husband he has to live a righteous life. Now he didn’t want to minister to the Word of God unless with a clean heart. How can he stand before the congregation if there is no unity in his family.