Indonesia (MNN) — Church planters in Muslim-majority Indonesia sometimes face social oppression and even violence. Yet, they say they can deal with these challenges.
“They’re willing to endure the social ostracization and outright persecution. What gets really tough is when they’re starving,” says Bruce Allen with FMI.
“One pastor told me that he was fasting, he and his family and he had a two-year-old daughter at the time. [They] were fasting four days a week, ‘not because we’re super spiritual, but because we have no food.’
FMI-supported church planter in Indonesia. (Photo courtesy of FMI)
“He was seriously looking at leaving this remote village in a rainforest to go to a big city on the island where he might be able to find employment, not in vocational ministry.”
FMI began financially supporting this pastor, allowing him to continue ministry. His church is the only one in that rural area and continued to grow over the next year.
“Even the local witch doctor had become a follower of Jesus Christ and one of the elders in the church now!” says Allen.
“So I just think, ‘What would happen to these areas if the pastors didn’t stay?’ Ministries like FMI really play a vital part in sustaining and helping local churches in challenging areas to thrive.”
You can support an FMI church planter making a difference for Christ in rural Indonesia! Learn more at FMI’s website.
Then, Allen asks, “Pray for people who would like to partner with FMI, that God would raise up people to help support the work of so many churches in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.”
Pray also for church planters in rural Indonesia, for their spiritual encouragement, creativity, and endurance to proclaim the Gospel in remote areas.
Header photo courtesy of FMI.
