Medan

We spent six days in Medan for sharing the message of the Gospel at Celebration Bible School. For the first time, we have night session at different location from the morning session, which was attended by the members from a Chinese congregation. When we arrived in Medan, we were told by Susan that the Headmaster of the Bible School, Mr. Gola Tiruneh, would be marrying on Friday and the students were a bit disappointed for they won't be able to attend Gola's wedding ceremony at the town called Berastagi, about 2 hours drive from Medan.

So graciously, we all agreed to squeezed the five days lessons into 4 days, so that everybody could go to Berastagi to attend Gola's wedding. Oh... everyone of us were happy!

Celebration Bible School is majoring in mission and the students are from different congregations in Medan. So by nature, they are more work orientated.  As we shared the Gospel of Grace with the students, we found that we were actually killing their sacred cow.  The "aftermath" was, we were getting the same reaction from some of the students as described by Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans. The question of "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" automatically came out from their mouth... Wow... what a Gospel! What a Good News! We are actually preaching the message that Apostle Paul preached!

View From Danau Toba Internation Hotel

Tree planted at the Medan Mall where the School is located

Students in Celebration Bible School

Praise & worship Before Class Started

This Gospel of Grace has waken up some but made some confused. The awaken one began to see light and received revelation by themselves. The confused one still wondering how could it be! This message is too good to be true and there must be something leave for them to do... Ya, grace message is too good to be true. Remember the famous formula frequently quoted by the founder of the Celebration Bible School, Pastor Peter Youngren? i.e. Jesus + something = nothing. Jesus + nothing = everything!

My New Friend In Medan - Pak Yong An

Yong An is my new found friend in Medan. He is a business man and he attends the morning session Bible School. He is one of the awaken one and the most attentive person in class. During our week long stay in Medan, he took time off  to bring us around in Medan. When we were fellowshipping during our meals, I was often jabbed by some of his revelations on grace. Can you see the way he smile? He is an interesting person...

Students From the Night Class

Pak Alex, a friend I knew through Facebook

The night class was make up of believers from one of the Chinese congregation in Medan. They would only have a week class in each month when the invited speaker is available. Alex, a friend I knew through Facebook was attending the night class. Indeed, I am honored to meet him in person. Well, how often can you meet a friend that you know through Facebook? Mind you, this is my second time!

When Friday came, we were all up in the mountain to a town called Berastagi to attend Gola's wedding. Gola is an Ethiopian migrated to Canada and he is a missionary from Pastor Peter Youngren Missionary team. His wife is an Indonesian Chinese, a leader in the local church. That is why the folks in Berastagi called this wedding "the Wedding of the Century". This wedding was witnessed by people from Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, friends and relatives from different parts of Indonesia.

Gola's Wedding

We meet again in Berastagi

Batak way of eating in Berastagi

As the altitude of Berastagi is approximately 1300m, the weather is cooler as compared to Medan. We could see beautiful flowers all around. The famous market in the street of Berastagi is full of all kinds of colourful fruits ranging from strawberry to avocado...

According to Susan, many teachers would wish to visit Berastagi but they did not have the change to do so. We ware the fortunate one and not only so, we are blessed to witnessed the "Wedding of the Century" in Berastagi.

Famous Street and Market in Berasgati 

Beautiful flowers and fresh fruits sold in Berastagi market

We felt so bless to have this honor to share the message of Grace with the Bible School. As what we have been experiencing before, whenever we have a change to share the Good News, we are sure to receive new revelation after we have poured out ourselves. This is what I used to call the "Tithing Principle"!

We are looking forwards to return to Medan for more oppertunity to share this wonder good news to the people there... 

An e mail From Gola

Our first night started with only a few people on the field. There was a lot of tension because of the threats coming our way. The police were there to keep the peace. I decided to go ahead and preach even though I had no permit to speak. Then I prayed for the sick and called all who were healed to the stage. We interviews four healed people from the stage before Daniel ran up on stage and told me that the police want me to stop. Later they apologized for stopping me. They were concerned that the Muslims will get more agitated. They also asked Daniel if I have the permit from the capital yet. We still did not have it. The chief of police then told Daniel that even though we don’t have the permit I can still preach but no one can know we have his permission. Yet another miracle that saved this festival from being shut down. And he did not stop there, he said baring no major reaction from Muslims (remember he himself is Muslim) we can do it again the next night but no more testimonies on stage.

When we came to the field the second night, I was called over by the chief of police again. He seamed a little different than the day before. I started to pray again. He said the intelligence office is a bit concerned about what I am doing but since there has been no reaction from Muslims, he has decided to give me 1 hour to preach and pray for people. We had another night of miracles. But instead of having people come up on stage, I asked all the healed people to stand up and wave their hands as everyone else sat down.

After our second night, the soundman called Daniel over and said if we don’t pay for sound in full by noon the next day, he will tare up the sound and leave and report us to the police. By this time Daniel and I have both emptied our bank accounts and had no money. We had to produce $4,167CAN in 12 hours. We sent out a quick letter to sponsors asking for help. Most of you probably got that letter.

The next day we went to check our bank accounts and it still showed zero. It was only 15mins before the dead line, when we got someone to lend us $1,000US. We quickly called sound, and they decided to leave everything on the field. We promised that we will have all the money in before we leave town. Daniel handed in his national ID card as a guarantee. We are still in the city waiting for money to come in so we can pay all our bills. We trust God will provide for us. He never leaves us or forsakes us.

Our last night was by far the best night. The field was almost all covered by people. I preached the Gospel story starting with creation, the fall, Jesus’ redemption and building a relationship with God. I asked everyone on the field to stand up, raise their hands and gave them 1 minute of silence so they can pray to start building a relationship with God. That was wisdom from God.

We had many more healing in the last night. Many blind eyes were opened. I really desired to share the testimonies with the crowd. So instead of calling the healed people on stage, I went off the stage into the crowd and had a camera follow me. Everyone saw on the big screen and heard the testimonies. Praise Jesus! Afterwards, I even got to lay my hands and pray for the chief of intelligence and another police officer so that they can receive healings. They asked for it. They were the only 2 people I laid my hands on in prayer during the festival. I was told not to lay my hands on anyone by the same intelligence chief! We also handed thousands of salvation books the last night of the festival.

Here is another interesting thing that happened and people are talking about after the festival. We had great weather the first 2 nights. The last night, it started to rain just before I got into the car to go to the field. But there was no rain on the field. In fact we were told, it was raining everywhere except inside a 100 meter radius around the soccer field! Then all rain stopped before we started. The first day after the festival, and we just got heavy rains. So much so water was starting to come into the house. I believe this is a sign and wonder God is granting to the people. All glory to Jesus and none for us!

We want to say a special thank you to...

Irwan Alexander, Fandy from Indonesia Idol and Lembah Pujian band for coming and ministering in this event.

Also a huge thank you and God bless you to our youth committee and our 25 year old chairman brother Anis Rudy in Pati.

We are planning our next Gospel festival in Indonesia on the 1st week of March, 2010. Please keep us in your prayers.

Your co-workers in the great harvest,

Gola Tiruneh, Daniel Sugiarto and Olivia Nidya