Persecution of Churches in Java - A wake up call for denominational unity in Indonesia?

Martin Luther is the culprit. No doubt, he managed to bring the church into awareness on the need to reform. He succeeded. He never intended to be separated from the main Catholic church, but it happened. And alongside with it, the floodgate of denominational proliferation occurred and more so in the twentieth and twenty-first century.

Denominational disagreements with regards to fundamental issues of doctrines are understandable. The interpretation on the role of holy Spirit, how to do the holy communion, are some of the major dividing factors among the churches. However, churches are splitting and new church denominations are popping out like popcorns or unwanted pop-ups in the internet, and the reasons for the splitting can be due to petty disagreement between the leaders.

The Christianity world today, 2000 years after the Founder of Christianity came for the first time to establish His Church, divided Christianity into more than 30thousand denominations. In the country of Japan, where the number of Christians are below 1%, there are more than 120 denominations.

Let's zoom in to the church persecution in Indonesia, and more specifically, in Java. In the place, where by, the majority of the populations are embracing a different faith, namely, Islam, it is understandable that the government will put a tighter control on the number of Church buildings to be around.

Unlike Christians, Muslims are contented to have a mosque in their vicinity, to allow them a space and chance to worship. Christians claim that they cannot go to this church, because the denomination is different. They said they want a church building of their own denomination and complained that the government, local or central, disagreed to grant them permission to have a church building. And so they conducted their worship, secretly, and also openly in shop houses.

Two duties of a Christian given by its Founder is the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. To Love and to spread the love of God to others. So, to be a Christian, chances are, you will love others and cause others to follow your faith.

And so, some moslem get converted (some Christians are converted to moslem too!) along the way and this angered the defender of the faith, which is what we know as "Front Pembela Islam" and other organizations of the likes. Their primary motivations were to defend their faith, preventing Christians from proselyzing their members. Unfortunately, in carrying out their 'defence', they resorted into violence and the local law enforcers are endorsing their actions by simply ignoring the situation.

What they are doing is not right! I am not going to say that they are right or ok. However, it strikes me, whether this is a wake up call for the Christians. Do we really need a new church building in a certain area, whereby the other church down the road is still quite empty? Can we cooperate with people from the other denomination, so that we can worship together without causing too many uproars and unnecessary discomfort by wanting to build more and more churches, which to the people of the area, looks all the same?

I know, many readers will have something to say about this posting. I am not saying that what I say is right. However, could the persecution be a tool used by God to keep the Christians more united, not in fighting for Christian right in general, but also to fight their petty differences between and stay united?

To stay or not to stay

During my first year, I wanted to stay in the hostel, but was rejected (even though there were empty beds). It was a norm to spend 30-45 minutes to travel to and fro the school to my home in Ghim Moh. The struggle was that I needed to wake up at around 7 or earlier in order to make it on time for the morning 8 am classes.

And so, in the second year, I decided to move in. And this time, my request was approved.

With this decision, I hoped that:
1. I will have more sleep/rest
2. I will save on travel time and transport
3. I will save on food money
4. I will have more time to interact with my friends and study together

Unfortunately, most, if not all of the above wishes are going down the drain.
1. I ended up sleeping at 2 or 3 am in night, and have to wake up at 6.30 am to clean the toilet, mob the floor, etc.
2. The routine travel time is saved. But to travel from SBC to anywhere (church,home), especially after school is a pain, because of the peak hour traffic jam.
3. The food money in campus increased from 5 dollars a day to 7 dollars a day, and if you missed a meal, that's your problem. If you come late and there are no more food, that is also your problem. Not to mention that the food variety in SBC is pretty 'limited'
4. There are times to interact with friends and study together, but studying may not be effective. I don't even have time to sleep in the afternoon without interruption (people playing basketball, football in the court in front of my room)
5. My room is facing the afternoon sun and is still hot even at night time. Sometimes at 2-3 am, it is still hot and not to mention there are flying insects everywhere.

Last but not least, next semester, they are going to increase the rental and the food fee as well as the school fee again. Some of it maybe rumour, but others are definitely going to happen, especially since the school has just opened the new block 5.

With all these considerations, and that the church will not increase the support for me, I decided to move out from the hostel.

Yes, to stay out is a bit troublesome. But considering these points:
1. I still wake up early, but don't need to fight for toilet, don't need to clean the messiness of some inconsiderate student, don't need to do so many duties.
2. The saving of travel time, perhaps is nothing compared to the comfort that I can have studying in my room.
3. The freedom to choose food I eat, without fearing to eat some leftovers with chances to get food poisoning (there are rats, they say, in the kitchen).
4. The saving of the additional money that I have to fork out for the hostel (600 dollars or more per 6 months) will allow me to buy more books and save for the future.

To stay or not to stay? ... the answer is... to stay..!! yes.. stay at home :)

Sunday School Kids Comments

LOT 'S WIFE

The Sunday School teacher was describing how Lot 's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt, when little Jason interrupted, 'My Mommy looked back once while she was driving,' he announced triumphantly, 'and she turned into a telephone pole!'

GOOD SAMARITAN
A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan. She asked the class, 'If you saw a person lying on the roadside, all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?'

A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence, 'I think I'd throw up.'

DID NOAH FISH?
A Sunday school teacher asked, 'Johnny, do you think Noah did a lot of fishing when he was on the Ark ?'

'No,' replied Johnny. 'How could he, with just two worms.'

HIGHER POWER
A Sunday school teacher said to her children, 'We have been learning how powerful kings and queens were in Bible times. But, there is a Higher Power. Can anybody tell me what it is?'

One child blurted out, 'Aces!'

MOSES AND THE RED SEA
Nine-year-old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday School.

'Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses on a mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt . When he got to the Red Sea , he had his army build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely. Then he radioed headquarters for reinforcements. They sent bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.'

'Now, Joey, is that really what your teacher taught you?' his mother asked

'Well, no, Mom. But, if I told it the way the teacher did, you'd never believe it!'

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD
A Sunday School teacher decided to have her young class memorize one of the most quoted passages in the Bible - Psalm 23. She gave the youngsters a month to learn the chapter. Little Rick was excited about the task - but he just couldn't remember the Psalm. After much practice, he could barely get past the first line.

On the day that the kids were scheduled to recite Psalm 23 in front of the congregation, Ricky was so nervous. When it was his turn, he stepped up to the microphone and said proudly, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, and that's all I need to know.'

UNANSWERED PRAYER
The preacher's 5 year-old daughter noticed that her father always paused and bowed his head for a moment before starting his sermon. One day, she asked him why.

'Well, Honey,' he began, proud that his daughter was so observant of his messages, 'I'm asking the Lord to help me preach a good sermon.'

'How come He doesn't answer it?' she asked.

BEING THANKFUL
A Rabbi said to a precocious six-year-old boy, 'So your mother says your prayers for you each night? That's very commendable. What does she say?'

The little boy replied, 'Thank God he's in bed!'

UNTIMELY ANSWERED PRAYER
During the minister's prayer one Sunday, there was a loud whistle from one of the back pews. Tommy's mother was horrified. She pinched him into silence and, after church, asked, 'Tommy, whatever made you do such a thing?'

Tommy answered, soberly, 'I asked God to teach me to whistle, and He did!'

TIME TO PRAY
A pastor asked a little boy if he said his prayers every night.

'Yes, sir,' the boy replied.

'And, do you always say them in the morning, too?' the pastor asked.

'No sir,' the boy replied. 'I ain't scared in the daytime.'

ALL MEN / ALL GIRLS
When my daughter, Kelli, said her bedtime prayers, she would bless every family member, every friend, and every animal (current and past).

For several weeks, after we had finished the nightly prayer, Kelli would say, 'And all girls.'

This soon became part of her nightly routine, to include this closing. My curiosity got the best of me and I asked her, 'Kelli, why do you always add the part about all girls?'

Her response, 'Because everybody always finish their prayers by saying 'All Men'!'

SAY A PRAYER
Little Johnny and his family were having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother' s house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When Little Johnny received his plate, he started eating right away.

'Johnny! Please wait until we say our prayer.' said his mother.

'I don't need to,' the boy replied.

'Of course, you do,' his mother insisted. 'We always say a prayer before eating at our house.'

'That's at our house,' Johnny explained, 'but this is Grandma's house and she knows how to cook!'

Hebrew Quiz havoc

As usual, we had a Hebrew Quiz today. The previous lesson that we covered was on 'waw conversive' in chapter 17 of the text book, and so I have studied the details in the text book, as well as the assignments. And yes, we have to memorize 30 vocabs (that is the 280th vocabs in this semester so far)

The quiz turned out to be something quite unexpected. Yes, the questions were taken from the homeworks given, but the specific details being asked was not confined to the 'waw conversive' chapter, but including many of the previous chapters as well, including pronominal suffix, directional ending, plural nouns, adjectives, etc.

I thank God, that I remembered most of the previous lessons and managed to answer most of the questions. The result for this quiz should not be that bad.

The second havoc happened at the evening, when I received the previous quiz's result. I got 85.5, not exactly a bad result, but I felt so down afterwards. Why is that so? There is one section where I got it entirely wrong and lost 10 marks. The problem is, I actually know the correct answer, but due to a careless mistake, I put the sufformative endings of a paradigm in the wrong order, and as a result, all is wrong. Now, I understand, you may not understand what I am talking about, just imagine this:

The correct sufformative order is: 1,2,3,4,5 but I write: 2,3,4,5,6 and because of that, not one of them is correct.

Apart from that, there are other careless mistakes here and there.

Well, I think that the reason why I did rather badly in this particular quiz, was because I was very tired that day, and lacking of sleep.

Nevertheless, I felt quite sad and down. Partly because I know that I should be able to perform well, but I was careless, secondly, because I used to do better than my two friends, but now they are better than I am. I realized that maybe I have been building my own confidence on my superiority over them, and not on God. Something I think God is trying to tell me through this lesson.

Now that I recall, there were many times when I scored above 90, but my friends are in their 60s or 70s. I couldn't conceal my smiling face, but their hearts must be really hurt and down when they knew my result. I am feeling the pain that they may felt previously.

I thank God for the lessons that He has given me today, and I pray that I will be more sensitive and ready to help my friends when they are in need.

Very Tired....

"You always looked very tired", a friend commented.

He is not joking. For nowadays, regardless of whether it is morning, afternoon, or evening, I always feel tired, sleepy. And why is that so?

Normally, I will sleep around 2 am and wake up at 6.30 am. If there are quizzes or assignments to be completed, I may end up sleeping at 3 am, or even not sleeping at all. And that happens through out the weekdays.

Only in the weekends, I can have proper rest of more than 5 or 6 hours.

And why is it that I have to study until so late?
1. I am a slow learner
2. There are just way too many assignments
3. The time is adequate, it is just that I am not efficient in my works

I tends to think that my problem is the third one. I can't really sit down to study properly, or do something, unless the urgency is there. I am more of a pressure-driven person, which is not entirely good, if I want to work as a pastor or missionary.

So, for starter, I think it is good if I can get organized in my studies and plan out my work schedules accordingly. Easier said than done of course. Let's see what do I have now:

1. OT 2: Presentation: Friday, 10 Oktober, (volunteer work, no grade). Group presentation on the book of Proverbs
2. Teaching Learning Process: Wednesday 15 Oktober. Reflection paper due (3 pages)
3. NT Exegesis: Luke-Acts: 30 October. Reading Summary due (8 articles x 300 words each)
4. OT 2: 31 October: Reading summary due (Job, Psalms, Proverbs)
5. NT Exegesis: Luke-Acts: 13 November: Exegetical Paper Due ( 10-12 pages)
6. Teaching Learning Process: 14 November: Group Project assignment due
7. NT Theology: Luke-Acts: Reading Summary due for 20 articles. Deadline - unknown
8. NT Theology: Luke-Acts: Theological Paper. Due date on 14th or 15th week

Lastly: OT2, Biblical Hebrew: 11 November : Exam

Yeah, those are the big 'targets' awaiting in the weeks to come, not forgetting that each week there are small 'targets' like NT exegesis quiz every thursday, and Hebrew quizzes every tuesday and friday.

I do hope that everything will turn out fine. I want to serve God with a cheerful heart. If I am always too tired, I have no capacity to bless others, and worse still, I end up hurting others who are close to me. May God help me.

Quiet Moments... for not so quiet life

How do you describe about living in Singapore?

I cannot read your mind and write your thought below, but one thing for sure, the life in Singapore will never be a quiet one.

There are always things to do, people to meet, backlogs to clear, deadlines to meet, and the list goes on. Those things are always on our mind, and keep us running from sunrise to sunset.

Do we ever have time to pause and ponder upon what we are doing? Or, is the to do list the first thing on our mind, the moment we wake up in the morning? Do we take time to reflect on what happened on the day before we close our eyes and rest for the day?

Today is a wonderful day that God has given to me and my gf. I just bought a new devotional book for couple and we went through the first devotional together. It was talking about quiet time as a couple. In the midst of the busyness of our daily walks, do we find time to be still and listen to God? the answer is, rarely.

We were both ashamed and yet glad that God has reminded us. No matter how busy we are, we should always put God as the first priority.

And so, we decided to always spend a few minutes in the morning, to stay focus that the day is a God-given day, and give thanks to God. We will have our quiet times regularly. At night, we will reflect on what happened and give thanks for all the blessings and lessons learned. We will put all this in a journal, for it is no good just to put this on our mind.

If you are reading this, I encourage you to use the next few moments to pause and just be still before our God. He is waiting for you to draw near. Are you ready to quieten down and listen to Him?

"Where do you want to go?"

Saturday - 4th October 2008

"Where do you want to go?" that is the question I asked an elderly gentleman this Saturday.

I was carrying a big backpack, and a handbag containing my dirty laundry for 1-week from school hostel. As I get off from the MRT at the designated stop, I walked to the entrance of the tunnel leading to my HDB block.

There they are, an elderly gentleman in his 70s, holding a cane in his right hand, and he was talking to another gentleman in his 40s or 50s. "How to go to Ghim Moh market?", he asked.

From a distance of 3 meters away, I can see that there was a hint of anxiety on his face, and his hand was a bit shaky as he asked that question.

The younger gentleman tried to point the direction using his hand, but rather impatiently I would say. As I approached them and asked "Where do you want to go?", he felt so relieved and quickly went on his way.

"I want to go to block 1 at Ghim Moh" the elderly man said. Using my left hand to carry my handbag, I used my right hand and hold his hand firmly to lead him through the tunnel.

"why do you want to go to block 1?"

"that's where I live, but I forgot the way"

"where have you been? why are you alone?"

"I wanted to go and buy a spectacle, so I went to queenstown. I couldn't find the spectacle shop there, so I took a train and stopped here to get home. But I don't know how to. I am unfamiliar with this place. Do you know where is the bus stop? I need to take bus 100 or 111 to get home"

Bus 100 and 111 are the two buses that stopped at Ghim Moh. The terminal, which is the final stop, is just 250 metres away from where I live. The block 1 which the elderly man wanted to go was further down from the terminal.

"why not I sent you home instead?" I asked, gently.

"I just want to go to the bus stop, and take a bus from there"

"but the bus stop is quite a distance away, and your house is also a distance away, why don't we walk?"

"I shouldn't have stopped here, I should just stopped at Commonwealth and took the bus from there."

I realized his reluctance to walk, and finally noticed that he was a bit tired.

"Are you very tired? your legs tired?"

"Yes, I am tired of walking."

We reached the void deck of my block. I told him that why don't he sit down and rest for a while here, and let me put down my luggage. I will come down again to show him the way. He agreed.

Quickly, I took the lift up to my floor. I put my luggage and went to the lift again, but it was gone. In order not to let the already-anxious old man wait, I rushed down by the staircase. He's already walking around the lift as he saw me running down. Maybe he thought I would not come down for him again.

I hold his hand, and lead him out of the void deck into the car park.

"who do you live with uncle? are you staying alone?"

"No, there are two of us. I stay with my wife"

His wife is probably as old as him and wouldn't help much. I was wondering where his children are, but I did not ask.

"don't worry, uncle. People forget about things, next time you will remember the road"

"I don't dare to do this again. It is such a painful experience"

"If you want to do spectacle, there is a spectacle shop here, and also at the market. You don't need to go that far to queenstown, here at block 21 across, there are a few shop"

"oh.. block 21 is it?

"there is a bus stop just across the road, you can take the 100 and 111 from there"

He was so glad to hear that. We were about to cross the road, and he did not want me to lead him to cross. I insisted, after all, there were many cars, and the old man could not walk fast. We crossed the road, slowly but steadily. The uncle finally sat down on the bus stop seat.

"Thankyou", he said.

"you're welcome" I said. I smiled at him, and crossed the road.

I thought of sending him all the way to his home, but was afraid that I might overdo. Afterall, we live in Singapore, where everyone is so individualistic. My act of kindness may be interpreted by others differently. Do I have an ulterior motive? Might I be the next robber that targets elderly at home?

The uncle assured me that he knew his way from the next bus stop. He trusted me to lead him thus far, and so I must trust his words that he knew his way. I think he was relieved, both because he found his way, and because he managed to shake me off :)

hmm..
I begin to wonder. If I were that old and helpless, where would my child be? will I get the attention and help from unknown strangers? will my heart be strong enough to venture into uncharted or forgotten waters? I reflect on the lack of kindness in this society where I am living. If I were the gentleman in his 40s-50s, will I do the same thing and ignored the old man, forgetting the fact that I am not that far from his condition? Will I be able to educate my children to respect and be kind to elderly?

"where do I want to go from here?"