Posted: 01/24/2006 at 2:34pm | IP Logged

A Message from The Ends of the Earth

My new Indonesian friend, Pastor Lucky, asked me to pass along a special request.

By J. Lee Grady

I met a spiritual giant this week during a 12-day visit to Indonesia. But this giant is only 4 feet 2 inches tall.

His name is Pastor Lucky, and he lives on Papua, the westernmost region of this huge island nation. Many Indonesians refer to Papua as the end of the world because it is so remote. Missiologists know Papua has one of the highest concentrations of unreached tribes in the world.

I met Pastor Lucky during a conference in Jakarta. After hearing me speak he slipped a wrinkled, handwritten note into my hand. It said in broken English: “Plese pray for Papua.” It listed 14 isolated people groups who live in the jungles of Papua.

Most of these tribes live in trees and do not wear clothes. All of them are violent and cannibalistic. They don’t have a written language and have no access to the Bible. They have no technology.

But they do have Pastor Lucky.

I was drawn to this man partly because his short stature and slight frame made me feel an urge to protect him. He explained to me that he had an accident when he was 11 months old that left him crippled. His parents didn’t realize his back had been broken. They were able to correct the problems only partially through surgery three years later.

Lucky’s father, who was a backslidden Christian, rejected his son because of his physical impairment and even tried to strangle him when he was 9. “I grew up very timid, feeling unworthy and useless,” Lucky told me through a translator. “But my mother prayed for me and offered me to the Lord.”

Lucky became a Christian at age 12 and immediately began to share Christ with his friends. He started youth ministries while a teenager and eventually became a church planter. Today, at age 32, he pastors a church in Papua.

But his ultimate goal is to penetrate the jungle. This is what he lives for. Because of the mistreatment he suffered as a child, he carries an overwhelming concern for the underdog. “When I see people mistreated,” Lucky says, “it breaks my heart.”
As Lucky told me of his plans to take the gospel to these hostile tribes, I couldn’t help but think of the five American missionaries who ventured to Ecuador 50 years ago to reach the Waodani tribe. Those men—including Jim Elliot and Nate Saint—became martyrs in 1956.

I wondered if Pastor Lucky might join them.

I rarely see the kind of compassion that I saw in Pastor Lucky’s boyish face last week. I seldom come in contact with that kind of love when I am around American Christians. Our love has been chilled by our smug sophistication. I saw in this tiny man a raw, genuine faith that shook me to the core.

In the note Pastor Lucky handed me, he asked if I would pray for the 14 tribes in Papua that need to be touched by the gospel. I’m including his request here:

1. Tabu
2. Tavanama
3. Auria
4. Pakia
5. Yepta
6. Armati
7. Sesawa Paco
8. Sesawa
9. Tabutasmeso
10. Kawerawejo
11. Birarameso
12. Kapeso
13. Bobo
14. Baudi Bira

When I return from Jakarta this week I plan to frame Pastor Lucky’s request and keep it visible so that I can regularly agree for a spiritual breakthrough in eastern Indonesia. If you join me by printing out this list and praying over it regularly, I know this brave man and his team will make missionary history.

And as you pray, please ask the Lord to send this same kind of selfless love and missionary zeal to our side of the world.

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma and an award-winning journalist. He invites Charisma readers to see the new movie End of the Spear, which celebrates the life of the missionary team who died in Ecuador in 1956. The film opened in theatres nationwide on Jan. 20.

Posted: 01/26/2006 at 7:04am | IP Logged

Thank you for sharing this...it pierces the heart!  The piercing thought of ` What in the world have we and are we doing, church in the West?'

Have we become so calloused by pursuit of knowledge(Greeks seeking after wisdom)..I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing..that we are blinded to our own nakedness in His sight?

What I find to be what I can only describe as an irritation in my spirit, is that we in the Western church seem to be looking for God to `do something' a `happening' or `occurence' that will finally catypult us into the world in demonstration of power/authority. Indeed, we have had to be stripped of our religious mindsets...as it is a Phariseeical spirit that has such a stronghold ..not one to be cast out or off so easily..definitley puts up a fight.

But here is this one man...and as is what I believe all He is looking for...one, who will say,` here I am send me.'  Are we looking for or awaiting a `mass exoding' into the world, evangelizing..when He is looking( His eyes seeking to and fro) or awaiting for `one' or the `two by two' who will simply obey being moved by the compassionate heart of Father.

Open our eyes to see and remove the veil of religion that had blinded us from `it begins with me.' May we apply the eyesalve of Holy Spirit and the coal of fire touch our lips and move with His compassion in the world.....the River of His blood, flows in tears down His cheek...

 My prayers are with this precious brother and his request for the 14 tribes.

                                Love in Christ, Kathy

Posted: 01/26/2006 at 8:48am | IP Logged

It's hard to believe that there are people who live like that today (cannibalistic and violent).

I, too, am for the underdog, hating to see people mistreated. Perhaps that stems from all the abuse I personally have suffered.

I recall that once while living in Oakland, California, I looked out the window to see two men kicking a man who was in the street. I didn't give it much thought, but called 911 for the police. They had me stay on the phone (and away from the window) until they arrived and then thanked me for guiding them through it.

I can't understand why so many others don't get involved. Perhaps they're too afraid for their life.

I will pray for Pastor Lucky.

Ann

Posted: 01/27/2006 at 7:50pm | IP Logged

Another wonderful Indonesian evangelist!

Today there are about 40 million Christians in Indonesia. Many of the areas throughout Indonesia were opened up by Indonesians like Pastor Lucky. One day the story will be told of so many, unknown but faithful, compassionate and brave men and women who have gone into the jungles, braved dangers, laid down their lives, that others may hear the gospel and enter the kingdom.

We too will pray for Pastor Lucky.

Posted: 01/27/2006 at 9:04pm | IP Logged

Father,  thank you for this touching account of Pastor Lucky's love and compassion for these tribes for whom Christ died, even though they don't know Him yet.  We pray for the 14 unreached tribes in Papua, that the Holy Spirit will draw them to know Jesus in His saving grace, and that You will send the laborers whom You have called into this harvest field to reap your harvest of souls.  We hold up the hands of Pastor Lucky in this spiritual battle, and we ask for continued strength, resources, compassion, and most of all, for Your Presence to go with him. In Jesus' Name.  Amen.