(I will start off with a quick review of the last several months since this is my first monthly update. This update can also be viewed on the "Pccf 4 Jakarta" section of our website at www.pccf4unreached.org)
In the past we had two services weekly, one on the east side of Jakarta and one on the west. In January 2007 we signed a contract for a three story storefront in Central Jakarta. We spent the next 5-6 months renovating it. We organized it to work as church facilities during service times and as a coffee shop/game room/reading room during the rest of the time. This is because it is located in one of the most infamous red-light districts of Jakarta, and we wanted it to double as a church and outreach center.
In June we started to have our services in that building. Since it has a central location we now are able to accommodate our members from the east and west parts of the city at one location. In July 2007 a 7 member team from Dallas Pccf (our home church) came to help us get the outreach center up and running. They did everything from building new walls, handing out flyers advertising the coffee shop to going on EV outreaches, putting on a leadership retreat and having special revival services. They were an invaluable help.
A few days after they left we have a month long visit from Rory Butler, also a member of the Dallas church, who is presently taking a year to go around to different missionary works that Pccf is involved with in order to support and bless the missionaries. He spent the month helping us run the outreach center and teaching and preaching in our services and Bible studies.
September 2007
That brings us roughly up to September 2007. From the time that the Dallas team left we kept the coffee shop/outreach center open 4 days a week. We handed out flyers for free membership to the reading room and game room to the "working girls" in the area. After almost 2 months of praying and waiting we decided to change strategy since the girls were not responding. So we decided, instead of trying to get the girls to come to the coffee shop and share with them while they hang out there, to do more direct outreach first and wait till we have a core group of people that are open to us before opening the coffee shop weekly.
So I put three different individuals in charge of three different target groups. I put one lady in charge of planning and leading outreaches to the hub of prostitution (massage parlors, night clubs, etc.) just up the street from us. Another young lady I gave the responsibility of organizing Bible studies and other evangelistic and discipleship related activities for the high school right down the road from us. The school has more than 1,000 students and a bad reputation for immorality and prostitution among the students. I also put one of the members of our church that comes from mainland China in charge of outreach among the Chinese speakers in the neighborhood around the church. Besides being one of the main red-light districts in Jakarta, that area is also known as the biggest "Chinatown". The last couple weeks I have just been trying to let each of these leaders pray and receive a strategy for reaching into their perspective target groups. We have been having weekly prayer meetings focusing particularly on praying for these outreach teams.
---Please join us by praying that these leaders will be given divine creativity and boldness as they seek the Lord for His strategy in our neighborhood.
We have also been trying to take advantage of the internet. In Indonesia "myspace" is not popular, but they have something very similar also hosted by Google; it is called "friendster". We have two accounts with two different focuses. One is focused on the students in high school I previously mentioned. The other is focused on Indonesian prostitutes that use "friendster" as a place to advertise their "services". We have been collecting a network of friends on each account and then writing blogs that are target specific to each group. Trying to write things that with titles to get their attention and posting them as bulletins to all of our friends. I have been focusing on issues that they will relate with. For example I just posted a blog entitled, "How to have the best sex!" (I figured that title should get their attention!), on the account focused on the prostitutes. In it I discuss the plan that God had for sex inside of marriage and the problems that come from not obeying God in this area of life. I talk about topics like the difficulties a woman faces in going through an abortion, the constant dread of catching STD's and the heart break that always results from elicit sex. Besides reaching out in this way we also use it as way to advertise the outreach center as a place that has caring people that are willing to befriend people that need real friends and good counsel to escape the snares that have entrapped them. And for that reason our account is called, "true friends". It has yet to bear much fruit but we are building a network and individuals are commenting and have positive things to say.
---So please pray for those we are speaking to on the internet that they come to Christ. And also pray for those of us that are on the frontlines of all the filth that is prevalent on the internet. We have a good system of accountability in place, but we are not ignorant of the Devil's devices and need all the prayer support we can get.
The last several months we have been having three main kinds of services during the week for the purposes of personal and corporate growth in our congregation. We of course have Sunday morning service as usual. In addition, three Sunday afternoons a month, we have a systematic Bible class. We have already finished a survey of the Old and New Testaments and have just begun a study on Biblical Prophesy focusing on the books of Revelation and Daniel. About 8-10 people have been very faithful to attend this Bible course and the discussion is always quite lively. We don't have a mid-week service, but we do have cell group/Bible studies. We presently have three, one for the east part of the city, one for the west and one for those that come from a Muslim background. I have not been attending these but have let others try their hands at leadership. It was a rocky road at first, but the leaders have found their groove and the groups are great places of discussion, accountability and prayer.
---Please pray for the cell groups that they continue to grow spiritually and numerically. Pray for the leaders and assistant leaders that God will cause them to grow personally and in their leadership abilities.
