Hello. Hello.
Thank you for having us. Welcome to Songs of Spirit and Truth, God at Work in the Philippines and Indonesia. Hi, I'm John. And that frying noise is coming from our new friend, Banu, who's creating a fresh batch of Payek for his customers.
Hi, I'm Joseph. Payek is a simple flour and nut treat famous in Indonesia. Banu and his wife Nellie fry it up and tie it in bags from morning to afternoon. At just about seven cents per package, it doesn't give them a lot to live on.
They try to make sales and deliveries before the sun sets. Oh, wow. Is that stuff good?
I mean, I wish we would have left with a lot more of it. But it is one of the ways that we saw God provide for people who didn't have very much in the villages of Southeast Asia. Our guide in Indonesia was Gede, who you'll hear translate our conversations with Banu and Nellie. We traveled to Southeast Asia where we met many people that are growing in their walk with Christ through the InTouch Messenger. The Messenger contains the Bible and Dr. Stanley's teaching in local languages.
It's particularly useful for those with difficulty reading or seeing. Banu and Nellie have tremendous faith. Not only do they joyfully and courageously share Jesus in their non-Christian culture, but they both suffer from debilitating physical issues. Years ago, Banu had a wreck on his motorbike. He lost consciousness on a train track, and the locomotive approached at full speed and crushed him.
Miraculously, he didn't die, but he did lose a leg and part of one of his arms. Nellie, meanwhile, his wife, she suffers from polio. It is an agonizing condition that we in the West often have little experience with. She grew up with this terrible condition, and now she can't stand upright.
Nellie has to move around low to the ground, rather crab-like, while her husband hops on a crutch. Our host and translator, Gede, explained for us how they've struggled to make a reliable income. The first time they start a business with a handicraft, several of their workers are normal people, so they're the books of the time. Her workers are ten normal people, because of the pandemic, so handicraft tourism stopped.
So many of our normal people during the pandemic, they give up, but they are not. They start a new business. Banu and Nellie are industrious people. Previously, they made crafts and sold them, but the pandemic came and wiped out their business in 2020. Then, while other able-bodied people started to lose hope, this couple pressed on.
That's how their payek business was born. Today, they employ ten, as they call them, normal people. Their neighbors are profoundly impressed. Gede told us that people are always asking Nellie, how come you can have this disability and still smile?
We almost feel like giving up, but you're happy and you have a good job. Well, this really serves as a witness to what God is doing in their lives. Banu and Nellie, they became disabled before they ever met one another. Their parents, Joseph, were opposed to them getting married and demanded to know, how are you going to support yourselves? And to give Banu and Nellie a tough reality check, their parents even stopped supporting them, but they got married anyway. And they have such a testimony to give to their customers every day as they sell them their payek.
So, she told them, don't be like that. There is God that can help you. If not, you can follow my God, because He's the one who makes my life better. So, she just said to the friend, you see my wife, that's because of God that provides everything for us, even we are in the disability.
But if you want really a joyful life like us, not following me, but following my God, my God is the one who makes my life better. And it begs the question, if God provides for a couple up against such long odds, won't He also provide for you? There's nothing God can't do to shepherd us through our deepest need. Banu and Nellie know the Lord takes care of them in every way. In humility, they worship Him as they see God's strength overcome their own weaknesses. Not only does God provide for us financially, but He provides the care and support and community that we need. And God's Word gives us living and active wisdom, reproof, and correction, which is why so many people in Southeast Asia value the messenger.
It was a very full day for us in the Philippines when we visited our fourth village of the day. Pastor Alex led us to a vibrant church in a small village, just as the skies darkened and the crickets came to life. A small crowd had gathered, having heard that Pastor Alex would be coming to preach. As he stood before the congregation, he introduced us to each other, even as he switched between the two languages. God unite us in spite of our ethnic backgrounds. Amen? And with us is Brother Joseph from INTAS, and Brother John. They will eat anything, they will travel anything, they will endure anything just to be here. And maybe it's culturally shocking for them to see the Philippines first time.
In our short time together, we enjoyed seeing the sight of Alex making jokes and engaging the crowd. And then he shared with us the great labor that Univer, the local pastor, invested in building this church, both physically and in spirit. By hand, with no tractor or heavy equipment, he and this congregation put up a beautiful building, carved into the side of a mountain. It took them eight years. Eighteen years ago, this church has been started, and the Lord helped them to grow through the Messenger Bible.
Some of them are non-readers, but the younger generations now are beginning to learn and go to school, and they're able to read and write. And with the Messenger Bible, they were able to read. Pastor Alex told us how this area had once been a place of fierce tribal wars. People constantly stole livestock, even land from one another.
No one would dare come to this village for fear of violence. But then the Gospel took root. Conversation after conversation, we continued to hear how the In Touch Messenger Bible gives people access to the Word of God.
As Alex called people forward to share their stories, John slipped out to a nearby home to interview a few of the people from this church. With our translator, Lovie, he got to hear a bit of Maria Teresa's story. Before she received the Messenger Bible, she had a sick, and she doesn't even believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So after receiving that Messenger Bible through Pastor Universe, and that time she started to listen to it, and then she was so amazed on what is inside of that Messenger Bible about the Word of God, and then she started to worship, she started to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and even her father has a sick too. So basically, Teresa was sick for two years with appendicitis and gallstones.
Very painful. She had an operation, but as her problems persisted, she decided to rely on prayer instead of further surgery. As she grew in a relationship with Christ, she believed that God could heal her.
And when he did? Well, she told her father about the God of the Bible, and of course about the Messenger, so that he might be healed as well. That was just before we arrived, so we didn't get to hear what happened with her dad. But aren't you encouraged that he's now hearing about Jesus Christ?
Praise God for that. One of the days we were in Indonesia, Joseph and I and the team we were with walked into a small, open-air cafe across the street from a hospital. Our host, Gede, wanted us to meet a woman named Rahel. She grew up culturally Muslim, and yet had become deeply involved in the practice of witchcraft. At the age of nine, imagine this. Rahel's mother kicked her out of the house, saying, You look for God. Then after you meet God, you come back to the house.
Now what do you do with that as a nine-year-old? Rahel began attending a boarding school for Muslim children, but she told us she didn't find God there. Years later, she got married and gave up the search for God. But when her husband abused her, Rahel left. In the midst of that trial, she remembered her childhood longing, so she prayed, Give me the way. Her desire was renewed.
She wanted to know the true God, to live for Him. In time, Rahel married again, this time to a shaman. Things were okay for a while, but they couldn't stop quarreling with each other.
There was just no peace. Rahel asked her husband to leave, yet in turn she became homeless. Now through Gede, she told us her story.
Listen carefully, and you can hear her voice explaining things as Gede translates for us. And after that, I became homeless in this area. And then there was a church.
And that church is quite unique because it was open for 24 hours. And then I was looking for God in that church. Then I was really angry with my own life.
I didn't know how to sleep. Just either they came to me, but why? Then to the pastor, the minister came to me, and then I received God. And then from that point, I really looked for God.
So that is the end of it. Rahel was going through these things. Unbeknownst to her, her husband was having an encounter with God in an entirely different area of Indonesia. Though he was a witch doctor, his heart was softening for Christ. He searched for Rahel, and when he found her, she told him, It's better that you're not living with me anymore, because I'm now a follower of Christ. But what he said next to her gave her quite a shock.
He said, Please, show me the way also. Now talk about God providing. He made a way to reunite this couple in his own timing for his glory. In fact, Rahel told us, when she was baptized, she prayed, God, don't let me become an ordinary Christian. And she most certainly is not. Today, she serves the church boldly. Many are coming to Christ through her ministry, including the dozens of sick and injured people she prays for in the hospital across the street. In the evenings, Rahel opens her shop to serve the unhoused and those dealing with spiritual oppression. Mind you, this work is not humanly possible. Only someone empowered with God's strength, transformed by Christ, protected and led by the Holy Spirit, could work in this hostile arena and see fruit. But God provides. Rahel serves Christ with people who were just like her. It makes you wonder, Well, who's just like me?
What could I do to serve them? Next time on Songs of Spirit and Truth, we'll meet Rahel's bodyguard, a man of violence who became one of the most feared gangsters in the region. Working as a debt collector, he shot many people in callous fashion. Now he's a person of peace. With Jesus in his life, his heart swells with song. He's a person of peace. With Jesus in his life, his heart swells with song. Join us for the final episode in our limited series next time. Join us in prayer for the new friends we met in Southeast Asia. For your free copy of our Songs of Spirit and Truth prayer cards, visit us at intouch.org slash songs.
