Pray with Indonesia, May 29, 2022

Lectionary Selection: Acts 16:16-34

Prayers for Indonesia

To our Gracious and Loving Creator,

We praise Your Name above all other names. In the midst of the chaos of this world, keep us ever mindful that You alone are our strength and shield.

Today we come before you to express our gratitude for the ongoing ministry of the Evangelical Church of West Timor [“GMIT”]. We thank you for their dedicated leader, the Rev. Dr. Mery Kolimon, and the remarkable ministry to the most vulnerable of West Timor, including the women, the trafficked children, and the many migrants and overseas laborers. We ask that you shine your grace and guidance on them in the many challenges they face.

We pray for many members of GMIT (pastors, church elders and deacons, Sunday school teachers, youth ministry leaders, and regular church members), who continue to faithfully proclaim your love as they reach out their hands to their neighbors in need.

As a region beset by disaster and poverty, the people of West Timor deserve our deepest concern and support. We are grateful for the role that GMIT plays in serving these, the least of our brothers and sisters, as we are called to do by our Savior. For in serving them, we are serving Him and bringing glory to your name.

All of this we pray in Jesus’ name, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Mission Stewardship Moment from Indonesia

If you want to see the smiling face of the Republic of Indonesia, visit the border town of Taloi on the southeast island of Timor, directly adjacent to the Democratic Republic of Timor Lesté.

The journey here is quite challenging, but with amazing panoramas along the way: green hills, cattle grazing in the savannah, eucalyptus forests that are hundreds of years old, and rice fields being tended by farmers who can teach us about the meaning of simplicity and gratitude. Taloi village is known as one of the best places for honey in Indonesia. The ampupu tree in the nearby forest area is a friendly and reliable home for millions of bees. The people graciously invite you to come taste for yourself the sweetness of Timor honey at its peak in May or June each year.

For the Easter celebration of 2022, Dr. Mery Kolimon, head of GMIT, traveled to this faraway border town, which was also the town where she grew up. The people were delighted that their leader had come to grace them with her presence for the Easter festivities. Upon her arrival after a long trip over long and bumpy roads, she was greeted with a treat of cool fresh coconut water and boiled cassava. Young church members danced around Dr. Kolimon and wrapped a beautiful woven scarf around her neck.

After the small welcoming ceremony, the group traveled on to the actual border with Timor Lesté, where they met with government officials and border personnel, to talk about the issue of migration and how to welcome those who arrive at the border due to persecution or suffering in their home countries. GMIT seeks to do its best to reach out and welcome the stranger in their midst, as we have been called to do since the time of our ancestor, Abraham.

Thanks be to God for the remarkable work of the people of GMIT under the leadership of Dr. Kolimon, grounded in their faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Prayer and Mission Moment by Rebecca Young

Mission Partners in Indonesia

More about Indonesia

Global Ministries Mission Co-worker in Indonesia
Rebecca teaches at the Graduate School of the Faculty of Theology of Artha Wacana University (GMIT) in Indonesia. Her appointment is made possible by gifts to the Disciples Mission Fund, Our Church’s Wider Mission, and your special gifts.