Dear Friends,

Janice and I once again send you greetings from Jakarta. We trust this letter finds all going well for you folks. All is fine here. We do appreciate your faithful prayers and financial support for the work here in Jakarta, and we do want to keep you well informed as the needs of the ministry are great right now. Your prayers are so important for the ongoing welfare of this ministry at this time. Let me share a few of the things concerning the work here over the past month.

Our churches here in Jakarta and all over Indonesia are facing increased opposition from the more fanatical Islamic groups in Indonesia. As most of our churches here in Jakarta are located in strong Islamic areas, they are sensitive to the will of the community and carefully avoid actions that would offend the majority of the people in the community. For their part, most of the people in the communities surrounding our churches here in Jakarta have in the past been tolerant toward our churches. However, over the past several years, groups of radical teachers have continually agitated within the local communities suggesting that all church activity needs to be stopped. Little by little their efforts are leading to less tolerance toward our churches. The bottom line is that humanly speaking we are losing the battle in these communities. Pray for our churches that they will not develop a siege mentality, but will continue to look to the Lord, and continue to actively take the gospel to these communities.

A good example is Pastor Raso and the folks at the Cileduk church who are located in an area where the fanatics have been very active. This last month, the church has seen over 20 people profess faith in Christ, baptized 10 believers and are starting a new church. Pray that all our pastors will have that kind of vision. This is not a time to give up, but a time to faithfully do the work God has called us to do.

Please continue to remember these pastors and their works as they are not doing well. Pastor Hadir, his family and the Sunter Jaya church; Pastor Munjait and the Pelumpang church; Pastor Yusuf, his family and the Cibubur church as they are in a building project. So you won't just pray for the negative, remember Pastor Andar and his work in Batam, that the church will continue to grow and that the Lord will call some of the young people from his work into the ministry.

Speaking of young people, the Bible school is nearing the end of the semester. Truthfully, it has not been one of my better semesters as I have had much of my attention diverted to the ministry in Nias. However, we do have a great group of students and several will be graduating and heading off to start new ministries. Although, I will continue to concentrate on the ministry in Nias over the next few months, the Bible school will continue to be our core ministry here in Jakarta.

The ministry in Nias has done well over the past month. A new church was started in Gunung Sitoli with 20 adults being baptized to begin the work. Recently, the folks there told me that there are 30 more people that want to present themselves for believers baptism. This church was a direct result of the relief efforts we have been involved with on Nias island. Our relief efforts to the folks in Nias will continue over the next few months. Brother Jan Milton with Operation Renewed Hope (Cornerstone Baptist Church – Fayetteville, NC) has asked us to help with a building team and also a medical team that plan to visit Nias in November 2005. Over the next few months, Brother Milton will be contacting churches seeking financial and human support for these teams.

Several of you folks have given offerings toward helping the folks on Nias island. If you would like to give an offering to help in the Nias project, please mark your offering as Nias aid.The last of June, I will be returning to Nias to help with the new church in Gunung Sitoli and also begin making preparations for the teams that will be coming in November. I do appreciate your prayers as we continue the ministry on Nias island.

Personally we are doing fine. After my last visit to Nias, I returned home with some kind of bug. Finally after three weeks of eating rice porridge and papaya leaves, I am beginning to feel healthy again. Janice returned safely from a month trip to the States to be with our daughter Jennifer, whose daughter had been very ill. Alexandra, Jennifer's daughter is doing much better. Thank you for your prayers on our behalf during this past month.

We truly appreciate your faithfulness in supporting the ministry here in Jakarta.

In Christ,