This is going to take a LOT of prayer.....

Last Sunday, we had a Gideon guest speaker from Indonesia. His name is Yongki (rhymes with donkey) Santosa. He was here for the International Gideon Convention.

He spoke to us via a powerpoint projection with some statistics about Christianity and Indonesia.

It was all I could do to understand his broken English, but God prevailed there.

The outlook is very bleak.

• Every year, hundreds of Christian churches are burned to the ground and the number is increasing. In 2008, over 900 Christians churches were burned.
• Just in the past few months, 6 pastors have been shot to death while preaching behind the pulpit.
• Islamic schools now make up 80% of the schools in Indonesia.

Yongki has a GREAT burden for his people and covets our prayers.

I talked to him after the service and told him that while he is here for the Gideon convention to tell everyone that he can about the bleak outlook and I thanked him for bringing this to American Christian's attention.

God can move there and change things, but only God can.

He gave a prime example. He and some fellow Gideons approached the largest Islamic school in Indonesia praying that they would receive permission to place a Bible in the school library. The school has over 16,000 students! He showed us a picture. It's like a small town.

There was a mix up and the principal of the school thought that he wanted to give all of the students a Bible. The principal said, "Ok, send us about 14,000 Bibles. Send a couple for the library and one to me."

After a month or so, they got a phone call from the principal asking them to meet with him. They did and he told them, "I read this Bible. Can you tell me how to become a Christian!" He was saved and now has changed his name to Abraham and works with the Gideons.

.....he was also promptly fired from his job as principal of the Islamic school.

After I talked to Yongki, the last thing he said to me in a very burdensome voice was, "Pray for me...".

"Pray for me...."

Will you please pray for Yongki and his team and for the nation of Indonesia and for God to move there in a miraculous way?

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