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What an awesome weekend we had here in Indonesia! As I was giving more thought to it, I realized that this was the first Easter we celebrated outside of Ann Arbor in 14 years. It just felt different – in a good way.
Last week, we were busy getting ready for Good Friday and Easter weekend. But in the midst of all the busy preparations, one thing we realized that we could not neglect was prayer. We knew that God had to be the one that would reveal Himself to the people that we would be bringing to church. Those of us who were serving in the celebration also knew that God had to anoint us in order for our presentations to be Spirit-filled. Therefore, it was good to spend time in prayer in our LIFE Groups and even in our own personal times with the Lord before the weekend.
We had a full day with a packed Sunday Celebration and then an Easter lunch that followed. After the food and fellowship time with one another, we had our baptism service. As I was hearing the testimonies, I was reminded that God is truly alive and He desires to work in the lives of His people. When I looked around, I saw so many of the baptism candidates’ families and friends who came out to witness this important moment. I was just privileged to participate in baptizing the candidates. This was our first baptism here in Indonesia and God blessed it tremendously. We were humbled.
Now, we are in the process of filtering through all the response cards that we received after the message on Sunday. Already there are some awesome testimonies of people responding to the Gospel message. We are praying that many of the newcomers will join our small group ministry so that they can get plugged in to our community.
One thing that we (those of us who are here) cannot deny is God’s faithfulness. We realized that God loves His people more than we ever could and that God uses weak people like us to present the message of Easter. It is simply another demonstration of God’s grace and His power at work. How can we not praise Him?