Divine Providence

 

At the end of last November, Heng Kee, seven students and I went to Dumai. Dumai is a town on the east coast of Sumatra, opposite Malacca. From Dumai we traveled overland for another two hours to the fishing port of Bagan Siapi-api.

 

There were struggles in my heart before we left for Dumai. I was worried about my lack of proficiency in the Malay language as we would have to share the Good News in Indonesian, which is similar to Malay. Secondly I was worried for our safety as we would be traveling by boat most of the time.

 

In Bagan Siapi-api, we met up with Pastor Hong of the local Methodist church. She also ministers to the inhabitants of four islands. The church in this town has started a school, so we had the opportunity to share the Gospel with more than 1,000 primary and secondary school students at an evangelistic meeting.

 

I could see the love of Jesus in the lady pastor. She makes numerous trips to the islands because of her love for the people and her concern for their salvation. From her, I learnt to be persistent in prayer. One of the islands that we visited was Pani-pahan, where a majority of the people are Chinese. There is only one Christian family on the island. About seven years ago Pastor Hong came up with the idea of building a school off the coast of Bagan Siapi-api. Her vision was that the islanders would send their children to the school and get to hear about Jesus.

 

It wasn't easy building a school in the sea; each pillar could only be built at low tide. The construction cost was higher than building on land. Although the church members could have got other churches to help financially, they prayed for God to provide. God answered their prayer in an amazing way. After the Easter day service a few years ago, a flock of swifts flew into a building belonging to the church and made it their home. The members collected the bird nests and sold them, using the proceeds to fund the construction of the school building.

 

God is at work everywhere. Let us pray for Him to use us as His co-workers.

 

by Wee Bee Yee