Indonesia (MNN) — At first glance, a retirement community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania may not have much in common with a church in Indonesia. But what they do share transcends their differences — they are believers linked through prayer.
In Indonesia, Global Disciples trains churches to make disciples and reach the unreached with the Gospel. The harvest is ripe; 62 percent of Indonesia’s population is considered unreached according to The Joshua Project.
(Photo courtesy of Global Disciples)
The stakes for the Gospel are high. Indonesian Christians are in the minority and new converts are often targeted or isolated by their friends and family.
Global Disciples’ Wendy Nagle says they recently heard of a 19-year-old girl named Damaris who attends one of their church partners’ discipleship trainings. Damaris was raised in an animist tradition and recently accepted Jesus as her Savior.
Nagle says their prayer leader in Indonesia asked for prayer for Damaris. “She joined the training really understanding that her parents were opposed to her being there…. But Damaris knew that if she was going to serve Jesus, she needed to understand how she could talk to other people about Christ, and she looked forward to this opportunity for training.”
Specifically, the prayer leader asked Global Disciples to ask the Lord to “cover Damaris in the training session and really touch her heart and give her ways that she could honor her family by sharing the love of Jesus.”
(Photo courtesy of Global Disciples)
Global Disciples has several prayer teams around the world. Nagle took this prayer request for Damaris and presented it to a special team of prayer warriors in a Lancaster retirement community.
“They began covering Damaris in their prayers,” Nagle says. “It was an interesting time as they wrestled with, what is it like to be a first-generation Christian and have to go against the wishes of your parents just to learn more about Jesus?
“Now, even months after that initial sharing, each and every month our prayer team is asking questions about Damaris and how she is and her family. I have the ongoing joy of reporting back to our prayer leader that Damaris continues to be covered in prayer. So the excitement is shared 12 time zones away — both in Indonesia and back here in Lancaster.”
Meanwhile, Damaris’s discipleship training through the local church is growing a Gospel impact. The remote island she lives on is known for criminal activity, and one particular village acts as a collection spot for stolen goods.
Nagle says the church “had a vision for going to that village and paying for or redeeming some of the stolen items and returning those items.”
(Photo courtesy of Global Disciples)
That simple but costly act of redeeming stolen goods served as a launch point for Damaris and other church members to share the Gospel.
“[They] really began to understand that power of [a] redemption story that they could then share with their friends and family — not only redemption of stolen items, but the price that Christ paid on the cross and His redemption of their sins.”
Please join Global Disciples and their prayer teams by covering Damaris and Indonesian Christians in prayer. Ask the Lord to use Damaris’s faithful example to lead her family to Jesus. Pray for believers in Indonesia to have wisdom and courage as they share the Gospel.
Nagle says you can also get involved “by going to globaldisciples.org and signing up and joining us to receive the prayer newsletter, but also by contacting us and letting us know that you’re interested in becoming an intercessor for Global Disciples.”
To contact Global Disciples and ask about becoming a prayer intercessor, click here!
Header image courtesy of Global Disciples.
