This article was shared during Transformation Connection Indonesia,
which was held in Surabaya, Indonesia on 28 October - 1 November 2008
Recorded by Dr. Sharon Ayabe from Kauai
Lim Eng Hoe - Disaster, Relief, and Community Development
29 October, 2008 – TCI Surabaya
Let’s begin in John 5:20. Jesus said the Son can do nothing by Himself but only what He sees the Father doing.
Jesus was totally dependent upon His father. Whatever He said, whatever He did was what the Father was doing. “My words are not own, it’s what the Father gives Me to speak.” And, all His actions, His whole schedule, and where He went were all orchestrated by God’s divine plans.
What is happening in the world? This is a graph in the increase of disasters from 1900-2004. You can see a tremendous increase in disasters from the 1970s to the present. Mathematicians will call this an exponential increase. Where are these disasters happening? Now, you know what has been happening in Indonesia over the last 10 years. There is perhaps no other nation on the planet that is being struck by disasters more than Indonesia.
Amos 3:6 says, “When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?”
Matthew 10:29, “Not one sparrow falls to the ground without the will of My Father.”
This tells us that everything is in the sovereign will and purposes of God.
Now, where are the disasters concentrated? This map shows that most of it is in this area. This is a map of the disasters in 1988. It is an old map. But every year the UN produces a new map. But every year it looks almost the same as this. The circles represent how many millions of people are affected.
This map shows where the poorest people are. These are the same areas which are high in child mortality. For example, look at the red areas where the child mortality is 10x higher than the white areas. The yellow areas are 5x greater. Indonesia, what color are you? Red. It’s the same places where all the conflicts are occurring in the world. Interestingly, it’s the areas of the most religious.
When you look at these maps, you see they all coincide. What comes to your mind? Why are they all happening in the same places where you have the least reached people groups in the world? What’s going on? My earlier question is what is happening and what is God doing? God is in control and allowing these things to happen.
All of us with great passion and burden for missions know this verse: Matthew 24:14. We can all recite it when we’re sleeping. Jesus said, “The Gospel of this Kingdom will be preached to all nations as a witness and then the end shall come.”
We must remember that this was prophesied by Jesus in the whole context of Matthew 24. Jesus began Matthew 24 by saying, “This is what’s going to happen…war, famines, earthquakes,…” This is what is going to happen. And, then in the midst of all this the Gospel of His Kingdom will come. I believe that Matthew 24:14 must be read and understood in the whole context of Matthew 24. I believe that when God allows the crisis and its hitting different parts of the world it is shaking the foundation of mankind to wake people up.
Now, there was a prophecy at a church growth conference many years ago. It had nothing to do with disasters. And during a tea break, while we’re all walking out, one of the speakers came to the front and took the mike, and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, I have something important to tell you.” And he was weeping while he was talking. “God, I think just spoke to me and I have to deliver this message. The Lord told me that this is the end time ministry of the church. And this end time ministry will be characterized by four things. A ministry of crisis. A ministry to the poor. A ministry of signs and wonders. The church will work together and no one will take the glory.”
1 Chronicles 12:32 – the Sons of Issachar understood the times and knew what Israel should do. There were 200 chiefs leading all of the tribes of Israel. All of their brothers were under their command. And, at that time the sons of Issachar understood the reign of Saul was over and God was going to bring a new king in, David.
Now, we need to understand the times. What God is doing and what God is saying. Jesus said the Son of Man can do nothing on His own. How can we work in tandem, in partnership, as Paul said as co-laborers with the Lord?
Every community has its own social, economic, political, cultural and religious structures. They are also the foundations upon which the community builds and thrives without God. In so far as they function well, these structures are also barriers to the Gospel. Who needs God when we can order our own world and lead ourselves? We have become our own gods. I believe one of the simplest and most profound prayers we can pray, is “You are God and we are not.”
What happens when there is a disaster? I believe every crisis is God’s “Kairos” intervention into a community.
In an earthquake, the most hardened atheist is on his knees crying out to God.
I believe God’s wrath is also His mercy. When God intervenes, there is an opportunity for them to know His love.
Aceh is a classic example. Two years ago, God spoke to me that there would be a terrible disaster in Aceh and through that earthquake, God would open the doors for the Gospel. Then, it happened. And we can see that because of that tsunami the doors have opened in the Aceh. If disasters are God’s kairos intervention for the community, it’s also the kairos for the church to show its love.
There’s a lot of misunderstanding of crisis intervention because the newspapers and t.v. show us the dramatic aspects of rescue response. And when I go and talk to the church they misunderstand that we’re talking about rescue. No, I’m talking about relief. Let the experts do the rescue. But I believe no one can better do relief and rehabilitation than the church.
4 R’s of Crisis Response.
· - Rescue
· - Relief
· - Rehabilitation
· - Reconciliation
These are some of the things the church can get involved in. It simply means being a friend to people in need.
There’s another misconception. We always think we need a lot of money to do relief. I want to tell you about a friend named Pak Gannis from Papua. When the tsunami happened, he and a few Papuans went to Aceh. When he arrived there he had no connections with international agencies. He had no tents, he had no vehicle or truck, he had no supplies, he had no money. Just 3 or 4 of them. They looked at each other and said, “What can we do?”
They looked around them and saw thousands and thousands of dead bodies. They looked at each other and said, “God has given us hands and feet. Let’s go and help bury the dead.”
Pak Gannis personally carried and buried 380 dead bodies. He did that for the first 2 weeks. The 2nd week as he was carrying dead bodies, limbs were falling off the bodies as he carried them.
When that phase was over, they looked at themselves and said, “What else can we do?”
You know, they have all the NGOS staying in hotels, tents, and big houses, with trucks and supplies. But these guys, just like the survivors had to queue up for lunch and dinner. They had no place to stay so at night they stayed with the survivors in the tents. When the phase of removing bodies were over they used their hands and feet to clean up. They cleaned up schools, the mosques, houses, and they were so outstanding in the work the local Aceh leaders appointed him the head of their cleanup team. And, you know Jesus, said a city set on a hill, its light cannot be hidden. He didn’t get any pay but was just given a designation.
When that phase was over, they asked themselves, “Now what can we do? We still have hands and feet. Let’s go and give people a massage, especially the people who are still traumatized and stressed.”
And so that’s what they did. That’s a very personal thing and people started sharing about their problems and so they started praying for people on their knees and miracles started happening. There were healing miracles. One or two dramatic ones. Many of them were headaches that were instantly healed.
So, the news went around, “If you have problems see Pak Gannis.”
Gannis became an amazing figure in the midst of the disaster. Without money, supplies, trucks. He was looking at what the organizations and churches had. He had none of that.
Then the news came that his wife had passed away and he had to go back to Papua. He was away from Aceh for 8 months. After 8 months, he wanted to return, but he didn’t have any funds.
So, I was in contact with him and said I will arrange that. Let’s go back to Aceh together and you can take me to the families that you said are very close to the Kingdom of God. So, we landed in Aceh together and got a van. He took me from house to house.
I have never seen anything like this in all my years of disaster relief. When we got out of the van and he went to knock on the door, we went unannounced. The door opened. An Acehese woman stood there, she looked at Pak Gannis and immediately started weeping. “Pak Gannis, Pak Gannis, you’ve come back.” And she ran and hugged Pak Gannis. And the husband and the rest of the family came out and hugged him.
What would Jesus do? When I saw Pak Gannis. I said, “That’s what Jesus would do.” Jesus came with nothing. We know that. Born in a stable, son of a carpenter.
One of the things that really disturbs me is that we pass out things and take photos. What would Jesus do? I don’t think he would bring his cameraman. If we were recipients of the aid how would we view that? As we’re receiving a sack of rice people are taking photos.
I like Bob Moffit’s title of his book, If Jesus were Mayor. If Jesus were a crisis response work like you and me, what would He do?
I just want to say there are millions of starving children like this in Indonesia. You know the statistics of poverty in Indonesia? More than 79.4 million are under the poverty line.
These people will not be coming to our churches. This is the church and this is the other world. This is one world. Every Sunday, we go to this building for 1-2 hours, get in our cars, and go home.
What happens in the slums? There are so many slums that are right next door to the churches. What happens in the slums? We all know what happens, the next Sunday, the same thing. The next Sunday the same thing. Two different worlds. We continue in our world, they continue in their world.
Unfortunately, the word intercession in Indonesia has been only interpreted as prayer. But the word “intercede” means “to come into the gap”. There was a gap between God and man. Jesus came to be the intercessor. He bridged the gap. He came to take on the form of a man and to die in our place. To bridge that gap. That is what it means to intercede.
Jesus said this: As the Father has sent Me, so I send you. He left His world to enter into our world. He had to leave His world in order to enter into our world. Now He sends us to leave our world to enter into His world.
With what? Projects. With the good news? Remember what Bob was speaking about this morning. With what? We have to be the gospel. We have to be the gospel.