Conduit Aug 22- Indonesian Conduit

As a people group probably the only thing more embarrassing than being colonized by another nation for spices would be if you were conquered and colonized by the Dutch. It would seem before the Netherlands became preoccupied with building dikes and windmills they had aspirations of world domination and spicy foods.

While other nations were being conquered by exciting and powerful nations like Great Britain and Spain, Indonesia was colonized by The Netherlands. Other nations were being invaded for things like lumber and gold, Indonesia was dominated for nutmeg.

Indonesia is what is known as an archipelagic country. That’s fancy geographical talk for a bunch of islands that constitute a nation. It’s kind of like a nationalized grand version of Hawaii without the grass skirts. There are technically 17,500 islands that make up Indonesia, only 6,000 of which are inhabited. It’s highly likely that Gilligan and the Skipper as well as the cast of Lose were stranded on one of the other 10,000.

In one day this nation lost 200,000 people when the tsunami hit 5 years ago. It’s a nation that has been wrecked by war, natural disasters, and terrorism. It’s a nation that needs Jesus.

It’s probably just my American arrogance that I know so little about the 4th largest nation on the earth. 237 Million people make up this country that is 86% Muslim. And it’s just like the Lord to provide an opportunity to take me well outside of my comfort zone.

Tomorrow I’ll join my good friends Kevin and Julie Young and Stephanie Waldrop of Compassion International as we journey to the other side of the world. Kevin and Julie have been sponsoring a boy through Compassion for the past few years. They’ll meet this young man face to face this week. What a great expression of God’s ultimate love than a trip around the world for a hug.

It never occurred to me to go to Indonesia. But God is full of surprises. The book of Acts is rife with examples of God telling someone to go somewhere that they had never been, somewhere they maybe hadn’t even thought about, somewhere that God had a specific assignment.
I can’t wait to find out what He has for us there.

There won’t be Conduit on Monday night, please spread the word. If God is moving on your heart at all to be part of feeding our kids in Haiti or finishing the home that we are building there, remember you can do that at www.conduitmission.org.

Philip Peters tells me that we have another trip to Haiti coming up in November. If you’re interested in being part of that trip, email me.

If you should pray for me this week, pray that I can communicate the gospel clearly. Pray that I can be a witness with my life. Pray for my family who is giving up daddy and husband for another week.

Blessings,
Darren