(Photo courtesy of Crossroad Bible Institute)
Indonesia (CBI) — [EDITOR’S NOTE:This is an article written by Aaron Mueller, the managing editor in the Center for Advanced Studies at Crossroad Bible Institute. It was originally printed in the Crossroad Extra publication. Click here to learn more about how this ministry is bringing Christ to prisons around the world.]
After more than two years of work, Crossroad Bible Institute will offer lessons for men and women in Indonesian prisons in their native language, Bahasa Indonesia.
One hundred copies of the Bahasa Indonesia Great Truths of the Bible course have been shipped to Singapore, and CBI Singapore director Paul Tan will deliver the lessons to Bali, Indonesia.
Without the translation, most of the men and women would not be able to participate in the CBI program, because English is rarely spoken in the region’s prisons.
Pastor Chandra Tobing, who under Tan’s guidance is directing the efforts of the emerging CBI Indonesia campus, has a small team of instructors who will help correct the new lessons. Tobing was the translator of the project and is well equipped to guide students and instructors through the discipleship process.
CBI International Coordinator Jacob Busscher said CBI instructors and students in Southeast Asia have been anxiously awaiting the materials since approval for the translation was first given. “This has been highly anticipated, so it’s a very exciting development for our ministry in Southeast Asia,” Busscher said.
In 2013, CBI Singapore sent ministry teams to prisons in Denpasar, Tabanan, and Gianyar, where Tan shared about the CBI Bible study program. When Tan and his team visited two Indonesian prisons again in July 2015, forty students signed up for the Great Truths of the Bible course.
“We are expecting all the hard work in translating the materials to produce much fruit in impacting the lives of those imprisoned in Indonesia,” Busscher said.
