Pccf 4 the Unreached!

Finally, an update!!!

2008-05-27T17:47:00.003+07:00

Well, folks! I have obviously been lazy in writing these updates. So even though this will be very brief I decided i better write something instead of waiting till I get around to writing a more detailed one. So here goes.

Firstly, Esther is almost four months pregnant with our third child. The baby will come into this world in mid-November. So please be praying for her throughout the pregnancy.

Our cafe outreach is up and running. We are only open on Saturdays, but it is a hopping place. the majority of the people in the church come out to serve in some form or another. We have English classes (both for children and teenagers), Chinese class, keyboard lessons and guitar lessons. Each of these are free and are used as a way to build relationships with people in the neighborhood. A few of the girls from the church go out in the evening to the area that is the hub of prostitution in the area to share with the "working girls", pray for them and befriend them.

The highschool nearby that has lots of young girls that end up dabbling in prostitution has opened the doors for me to come teach spoken English once a week. I teach in a discussion format so that the students get a chance to practice speaking. I create the discussions to bring up society and moral issues, as well as more personal things like what hopes, dreams and difficulties the students ahve and face. This is causing relationships to be formed so that the students will seek our counsel, and of course our primary advice is, "give your life to Christ". Please pray for this cafe outreach. We are still trying to come up with ideas of how to get the girls that "work" in the neighborhood will feel safe to come spend time in the cafe. They are still afraid, wondering what we are trying to get from them. They are used to being used and dont know what unconditional love is. Pray for God to give us wisdom.

I recently took a trip to Pakistan to visit the one disciple we have there. He is still trusting in Christ though he is all alone in his faith their. He has tried to share with his wife and in-laws and they have been open to his message. They received me well while I was there. Especially his mother in law. But a month after my visit she died. I hope in God that He received her faith though she was limited in her understanding. But this event has been hard for the family to deal with. Their economic situation also has been greatly affected by the last year of bombings and terrorist attacks in Pakistan. The country is crumbling to pieces and there family business has gone with it. Because of this we are presently working on a visa for Mazhar and his family to move to Jakarta. He is a highly educated man with a masters degree in philosophy and experience teaching and working as an editor of an English newspaper. We are trusting that he will be able to find a job hear so that his family can survive the economic difficulties they are facing as well as grow in their faith through the fellowship they will benefit from here. Please pray for Mazhar and his family as they face this time of grief and also that the doors for work open up here in Jakarta.

Beyond these things the church is also making the final preparations to send out a family to north west China in late August. The church has been saving money for a year and we believe the amount we need has been provided. Now it is time for the big leap of faith, both for the family and the church as a whole. Please pray for Yopi, Ina and their three children as we make the final preparations for their move. Also pray for the church to rise up and take over all the things that this couple has been doing in the church.

We hope God is blessing all of you as he is us.

Your Pccf Missionaries to Jakarata,

Chris, Esther and the boyz!!! (+ one bun in the oven)

Monthly Update - January 2008

2008-01-24T15:08:00.000+07:00

Update – January 2008

Hello family, friends and fellowship,

It has been a busy couple of months so I am just getting around to writing my monthly update. It is more like a three-monthly update! Haha!

In the middle of November I took a trip to California, Las Vegas, Chicago and Kansas City to visit our churches and my parents. The trip was 5 weeks long and I put more than 3,500 miles on the rental car! It was a great trip!

Many churches have been faithful to support us over the years. Several of them I have never been able to visit because I couldn’t get away from Asia for very long. Usually I just have time to go to World Conference and our Harvester’s in Dallas. It is hard to leave a baby church from more than a couple weeks. But praise God he is building the church here in Jakarta and I was able to leave Esther in charge for 5 weeks. I had a great time in the States visiting our covenant partners and getting to know some new friends in the fellowship. For those of you that I was able to visit, please know that I am grateful for the time of fellowship we had together and the hospitality you showed me.

Besides visiting the churches I was also able to spend Christmas with my parents and sister. This was the first time I spent Christmas in the States in 7 years, so it was a real blessing. Since I spent it in Kansas City, I even had the chance to enjoy a white Christmas! Indonesia is a tropical country so I haven’t seen snow at Christmas since we lived in NW China. Thank for the snow, Jesus!

The church in Jakarta is doing well. God is raising up leaders. While I was gone for 5 Sundays I was able to let someone different preach every week. I praise God that we have such a good core of leaders. Esther has even been trying her hand at preaching, and I have been quite impressed!!!

The church is still putting money aside every month in order to send out one of our families to North West China in August 2008. The couple is excited about what God is going to do in China, and so are we. They are a great couple with three wonderful children. Though we are all excited I am getting nervous about letting them go. They are our assistant pastors and it will be hard to fill their shoes. But we trust that God will fill in the gap if we are faithful to send our best. Please be praying for them. Their names are Yopi and Ina. And if you have a heart for this Indonesian family or for the Muslims of NW China please join in by supporting them financially. We are giving a certain amount of our support monthly to the “China fund”, so if you support us through Mission Global Harvest, you will be supporting them. Please consider joining the team!!!

As you know, we moved the church to one of the red light districts of Jakarta about a year ago. We have opened up the three story storefront to double as a coffee shop/community center during the days it is not being used for church activities. We felt this is the best way to reach out in the neighborhood. For the first couple month we tried to reach into the prostitute community but have not had much response. So we shut down to re-think our strategy for a while. When I visited Paul Neville in Rancho he told me about “Nitty Gritty”. They have been letting secular bands come play concerts at the church in order to draw in unsaved people for almost a year now. They have seen many come to Christ. He encouraged me to try it in Jakarta. So we are going for it!!! We have been advertising it on “Friendster” (Asian equivalent of Myspace) and by putting up flyers around the local high schools, malls and clubs. We have already had a couple responses by bands that want to put on concerts at our place and we are praying for many more. We provide them with the sound equipment and a place to perform, and they supply our community center with lost sheep that need the Gospel! It is a win, win situation. Please keep us in prayer. We don’t have any idea how to reach this area of Jakarta, so we are just following Jesus step by step. We wouldn’t have it any other way!

In February I will be taking my regular trip to NW China to visit the disciples we left there when we moved to Indonesia. Please continue to pray for them. I will also finally have a chance to visit our disciple in Pakistan after many years. He came to the Lord in 2002 while we were in China. Because of financial limitations I have not gotten to visit him for quite some time. But praise God we have enough money this month, so I bought a ticket. Both he and I are very excited. I am trusting that I will be able to take regular trips there as I have been with China in order to build him up in the faith as well as reach those Pakistanis around him that are open to the Gospel. Pakistan is not the safest place on the planet for Americans, especially those laboring for the Lord, so I would appreciate all the prayer support I can get. And it will cost me about $700 every 3 months to take a trip there, so if anyone is willing we could use the extra help financially.

As for our family, we are doing well. Omid (our second son) turned 1 year old on Jan. 9th. A few days before he started to walk, now he is at a fast trot, and we know he will soon be running along with his big bro!!! Iman is doing well in school (home school). He can already do basic addition, knows his numbers into the thousands, can read simple words, not to mention speaking English and Indonesian fluently, and all this before his 5th birthday that is coming up soon. He amazes me! But I am pretty sure it has a lot to do with his teacher (my lovely bride). She wears many hats as a mother, wife and pastor, and I am quite proud of her. As for me I am just trying to keep up! I spend most of my time working on teaching materials for our theological training, sermon preparation, Bible studies with unbelievers and new believers as well as various things that need to be done to organize the community center and church. And you can tell I have been letting the website and blogs go by the wayside, but I’m working on it!

Well, I hope you are all blessed. Please keep in touch. My email address is chris@pccf4unreached.org and our Myspace is Myspace.com/pccfjakarta. Our website is www.pccf4unreached.org

GBU (God bless U)
Chris, Esther and the Boyz!!!

Pccf Jakarta Monthly Update - October 2007

2007-10-30T22:18:00.000+07:00

(This update can also be viewed on the "Pccf 4 Jakarta" section of our website at http://www.pccf4unreached.org/)

This has been quite a month, as usual. A lot of good and bad has happened and unless I had jotted down notes periodically over the last month I would have forgotten some of the things I am about to share.

We presently have three cell groups weekly, one on the east side of town, one on the west and one specifically for believers from a Muslim background. We have changed the format of the two based on location. Before Esther was leading one of them and Yopi and Ina would lead the other. They would have a discussion Bible study over the previous Sunday’s sermon on Wednesday nights. We are still doing that but have slightly changed the format. Now they only do that every other week. On alternating weeks I lead a Bible study at the respective locations.

I have designed a basic discipleship class. Of course we all know that a class cannot fully disciple someone, but I believe at least part of discipleship has to do with a growth in knowledge. So over the last month I have started going through these practical materials. The first section is based on 1 John 5:11-12. We go through the verse phrase by phrase discussing some of the basic issues regarding the nature of the Bible, the nature of eternal life and the ways by which we can experience it and be assured that we have it. We have gone over 3 lessons so far and will cover the final 2 lessons at a retreat we have at the beginning of November. The entire course will take us through 10 verses that will cover 5 basic promises that God gives us as well as the 4 basic practices of the Christian life (prayer, the Word, fellowship and evangelism). So far the class has gone well and I believe some of the gaps in people’s knowledge about the basics of following Christ are slowly being filled in with the practical truth of God’s Word.

As I previously mentioned in our last update we have also have a Bible study on Sunday afternoons that is more theological in nature. It is designed for those that desire to go into the five-fold ministry or that just have a hunger for the scriptures. This month we have been going through the prophesies of scripture about the “last days”. It has been quite exciting to wrestle through the Word of God, and people have been quite intrigued to find out that God is the God that “tells the end from the beginning”.

For quite some time now we have been preparing to announce that we are sending one of our couples to Northwest China. During our visit from Pastor Ernest Reynosa a couple months ago we had a chance to share in detail our plan to sending Yopi and Ina out. On his return to the States he shared our plan with Pastor Larry Neville. After getting the go ahead from both of them we announced it to our church.

The plan is to send them out August of 2008. They will be living in the same city Esther and I were in for 3 years. It is about a 9 hour flight from Jakarta. They have 3 children and it will cost about $5,000 to relocate them. That cost includes plane tickets, a years rent for an apartment (which has to be paid up front) and 5 months of tuition that they will have to pay for in order study the language and will also provide them with a visa to live in the country. Because of this we have started to raise that money monthly. Between the church in Jakarta, Yopi and Ina and us, we will be putting about $500 away each month. This should give us the needed money for their relocation.

After they are there it will take about $500 a month to support them. We believe the church will be able to give about $200-300 a month. In order to supplement that amount we will also be giving to them out of our monthly support. Since Yopi and Ina are not able to take regular trips to the States to raise money, as missionaries usually do, we will be funneling some of our support to them. So in the future those that want to support the work in Northwest China will be able to send that money to Mission Global Harvest via “the Chapmans in Indonesia”. But we will give more info about that as the time approaches. For now we are just excited about what God is doing in, and through, the congregation in Jakarta. Yopi and Ina are a wonderful couple and we are so glad that God has connected them with Praise Chapel Jakarta.

The week after we made the announcement one of their sons was diagnosed with Dinggi Fever. It is a sickness that is similar to Malaria. He was in the hospital for more than a week with a fever that kept going up and down. At its highest, it was higher than 106 degrees. I don’t need tell you that it was a very tense week. But praise God, their son made it through and we are all very grateful for His faithfulness.

A couple weeks after that trial their family and the church faced another difficult time. They have a young live in nanny that used to be Muslim before she got saved a couple years ago. She went home to visit family on one of the biggest holidays here Indonesia. While home she told her family that she was a believer. Her mother was very upset ad locked her in her room and had a neighbor watch her. Then the mother went to gather the relatives and religious leaders of the village. They tried to get her to return to Islam. Her mother became so enraged she began to beat her and finally started trying to choke her. The neighbors had to pull her off the girl. Through all of this Annie (the young girl) stayed calm. This was a great testimony to all that knew her before she got saved because she was well know to have a very bad temper. Anyway after a few days her mom calmed down and Annie was free to leave the house. We thank God and those of you that prayed for her, for carrying her through this time of persecution.

Please continue to pray for her. She has decided to move back to the village. Pray that she attends the small church there and continues to grow in her faith. She has a couple friends that know Christ as well but gave into the pressure of their parents to return to Islam. They still believe but secretly. Pray that they will follow her example and confess their Savior once again.

I will be taking a trip to California in the middle of November. I will be visiting some of the Praise Chapel churches there for about a month. Then I will go spend Christmas with my parents and sister. I have not spent Christmas in the States for more than 6 years, so I am really looking forward to being with my family. On the other hand I will be away from Esther and the boys for about 5 weeks. I am not looking forward to that. So please pray for me, Esther and the boys. Especially pray for Esther as she will be running the church while I am gone

God Bless,
Chris, Esther and the Boyz!!!

Pccf Jakarta Monthly Update – September 2007

2007-10-12T21:13:00.000+07:00

(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.

Almost!!!

2007-10-08T17:48:00.000+07:00

Well this is our new blog. You either found it through our website pccf4unreached.org or our myspace-pccfjakarta. We are just about through with contructing the website, but we are not quite there. We hope you will put our webstie on your favorites list and keep checking on our progress. I am still writing some of the first articles for the site and it should be worth browsing through by the month of November.

See you online soon!

God bless,
Chris, Esther and the Boyz!!!