No Bibles, No Believers, No Churches

A story of how one trip can change everything!

First let me clarify… Indonesia is NOT a nation without Bibles, Believers, or Churches. In fact, it has mega churches and thousands upon thousands of believers. So, why the title?

What I found in Indonesia was different from what I have experienced in other parts of the world in a couple important ways. First, while there is freedom of religion from the top down, there is NOT freedom to evangelize. Believers in Indonesia face pressure from all corners to keep their faith private. One of the nations 5 founding principles is unity among diversity. This principle compels it’s citizens to respect and allow each others diversity, specifically religious diversity. The result is that many followers of Jesus do not participate in evangelism. This is the first time I have been to a place where this was the case.

The second thing that made this trip different for me was the nature of persecution in Indonesia. I found that the Indonesian church is persecuted quite heavily. This may sound surprising since they have mega churches millions of Christians. I know I was truly surprised at the degree of their persecution. Their persecution stems largely from that ‘unity in diversity’ guiding principle I shared above. If anyone comes into a Muslim village and tries to plant a church, villagers who convert and are baptized face immense pressure to denounce their faith in Jesus and revert back to Islam. They are often cast out of their families and can even face physical persecution.

From left to right: Shane and Susan, Jim, Sydney, Debra, and Patrick in Shane's home in the village

Our host while we were in the country (let’s call him Shane) was called in 2013 to serve in a specific village. He and his wife (let’s call her Susan), who are Indonesian, left their life and bought land and began building a home in the village (which we visited). They built a school building there as well as a beautiful home and began to build a coffee business as they built relationships with the intention of planting a church. After several years of ministry as their 2 children were growing older and Susan was teaching in the school they had established themselves in village. They had several families who had made commitments to follow Jesus and had been baptized and they were meeting together in their home as a house church. Shane had gained the respect of the villagers and everyone loved he and his family. Everyone except for the local leaders of the mosque. They were threatened by the local Mosque to cease and desist or risk the consequences. The leaders threatened to burn down their home and the school if they did not stop meeting together. Additionally, their two kids were being bullied daily in their school for being Christians. Shane was called into the Mosque to face the charges and was asked to defend himself. So, just like Stephen in the book of Acts, our friend began to walk them through the Old Testament in his defense. He finally got to the story of Jesus before they realized what he was doing. So the 200+ who were gathered in the Mosque to see and hear his defense all heard the telling of the Biblical story.

This is a picture of the village where Shane and Susan settled back in 2013

What happened next was amazing…. The 120+ village farmers who had been working for and with ‘Shane’ along with all of their families began to speak out against the leaders of the mosque and in Shane’s defense. So, because of the pressure of the crowd, Shanep property was spared. They did, however, make the difficult decision to leave the village and move to the city where they and their kids would have more freedom to openly practice their faith without the risk of persecution. Shane and Susan kept their home in the village and still maintain the coffee business and the relationships they have there. We had the opportunity to spend two days in their home and we met many of the families, including the village ‘Mayor’ who defended them in the Mosque. Many of these families continue to privately follow Jesus, but are kept from gathering together (even in homes) due to the immense persecution.

Now let’s get to the ‘No Bibles, No Believers, and No Churches’… until about 5 years ago! There is a tribal people group deep in the Indonesian jungle called the Baduy. It has an estimated 65 to 70,000 people living among it. The people live very primitive lives with no written language, electricity, or running water. They are primarily farmers. We stepped back in time 100-200 years when we visited them. Outsiders are only allowed to visit them on a very limited basis.

Dining in the village leaders home… me on the left, Martha in the foreground and Susan and Charles to the right

In fact, if you are not from Indonesia, you are not permitted into their ‘inner’ tribes at all. Crossover Global has a retired Indonesian couple who were called about 6 years ago to reach these people. Again, remember… these people have never had ANY access to the Gospel. They were previously completely unreached and unengaged… ie No Bibles, No Believer, and No Churches. This couple purchased land and built a home in a neighboring, predominantly muslim community. For the past five years they have been making the one hour drive followed by a 3 mile trek by foot through the jungle to the outer villages several times a week to begin sharing Jesus with the Baduy people.

At the ages 53 and 57, Charles and Martha (names changed) are true modern heroes of our faith! After five years of faithful service they have now established 7 house churches.

From Top to Bottom: Martha, Jim, Sydney, Charles, Patrick, and Debra

On our trip, we had the opportunity to hike up to the village and spend the night there. We were the first foreigners to ever do so. We got to hang out among the local Baduy people and enjoy dining with them and sleeping in their leaders home. It was something I never imagined in my lifetime I would have the opportunity to do. What a GREAT joy and honor to be among such spiritual giants as Pa Chappe and his beautiful wife Maria.

This trip to Indonesia was what we at Crossover Global call an ‘Access’ trip. We take these trips with people interested in learning more about who we are and what we do. They are intentionally designed to be very different from most short-term trips. Most trips are designed for ministry and involve participants serving in ministry in some capacity. While we may do some ministry (see the picture of me preaching) this is not the primary focus of the trip. We take these trips so people can experience what it looks and feels like to do ministry in a place with little or no access to the Gospel. We want you to see and feel what church planting looks like in these contexts. So, on this trip we were travelling with a young couple from Lexington, SC who was in that place… They wanted to learn more about who we are and what we do, so we planned this trip so they could experience No Access…. We have a saying, ‘One trip changes everything’ and I am confident Sydney and Patrick who travelled with me to Indonesia would affirm the truth of that statement! I know one trip changed everything for me. In fact, it seems that every trip I take seems to change everything. If you are interested in travelling with us please reach out to me and let’s see if we can make it happen!