Written by Suzette Hattingh Thursday, 07 July 2011 10:29
THE FOLLOWING IS A REPORT ON THE SORONG, PAPUA OUTREACH FOR JULY 2011, WE ARE EXCITED TO SEE THE WONDERFUL THINGS GOD IS DOING IN INDONESIA!
UPDATE FROM SUZETTE
JULY 21 2011 UPDATED! 25/07
Our dear friends and supporters,
Here is something lovely to look at, our reception at the airport in Sorong.
The dancers in the traditional red Papua wear are our inland pastors that we sponsored. When they heard that we will be arriving at the airport, they insisted on meeting us in their traditional clothing.
I found it so touching, please have a look and enjoy it with us.
Blessings,
Suzette
ARRIVING AT SORONG AIRPORT, PAPUA, INDONESIA
TRAVELLING WITH THE HIGHLAND PASTORS
ARRIVAL AT THE HOTEL
ARRIVAL AT THE PRAYER CONCERT
DANCING IN THE RAIN
MEETING WITH HIGHLAND PASTORS
HEALINGS # 1
HEALINGS # 2
HEALINGS # 3
HEALINGS # 4
SORONG OUTREACH PICTURE GALLERY
JULY 07 -09 2011
UPDATE
JULY 13 2011
When people called this city the “East Gate of Indonesia”, I could never have dreamt that it would also open many “gates” for Voice in the City Indonesia. What an amazing time we had. We spent thirteen days ministering in this city and impacted approximately 60,000 people in a city of 120,000 inhabitants. This crusade was the third city with “the ring system” that we brought in and can truly say that it was indeed the best with the most impact.
OTHER CITIES AND TRIBES
Word got out in Papua about our outreaches and people came from many other cities to attend this Gospel outreach, even travelling from Fak-fak, Nabiri, Whamena, Yaya-Pura, Manokwari and other areas. Needless to say, that doors have opened wide for us in these cities, but what excited me the most was the way that God opened the door for us to the tribes (the indigenous people of Papua). Representatives and leaders of six tribes travelled far and wide to attend this outreach, which is something that has never happened before in this nation. They stood before me with tears in their eyes and said, “No foreigner has ever asked for us, so when we heard you ask for us we decided to come”. I now plan to fly to them in September, to visit them in their local tribal areas and preach the gospel to their people.
THE FINAL GOSPEL MEETING
As we drove up to the campaign grounds, the worship could be heard from afar. The dancers were singing and a festive atmosphere was hanging over the place. Soon, people streamed in, and by the time that I was preaching, somewhere between 25-30 thousand people from all different types of faith stood listening attentively to the wonderful message of salvation. Life will never be the same for the 16-year-old youth, who instantly received his hearing in the one deaf ear. One young woman just threw her arms around me and wept as she told me, under her tears, how the lump in her breast had disappeared. Cancer seemed to be the sickness that God healed here, as many testified about their sudden healing. Of course, we told them to go back to their doctor and have it medically confirmed. Even the Mayor of the city came and danced with us, and then sat and listened to the gospel of Jesus being preached.
THE ANOINTING MEETING
The hall was hot; temperatures soared to about 34 degrees Celsius (~93oF) but people kept coming for the final anointing meeting. Soon the hall was filled with 1,700 people, who were mainly church leaders. Praying for them individually is quite a task, but it is something that they deeply appreciate. Amongst the people was a Moslem lady, who stood in the prayer line, and held out her little boy for prayer. I prayed for his legs, and at the end of the meeting, she came forward crying, and showing us how God had healed him. He can now stand on his own two legs! All of this Jesus did whilst touching and blessing His people.
CHARACTER CAMPS
Like before, we had the women’s and men’s camps for building character. This event is especially for leaders, and is held at the end of our outreaches. Today I had the privilege of being part of the closing ceremony. Wow, it is hard to believe that we had spent only thirteen days in this city. The impact is amazing – from payer in the early morning hours, to the three-day prayer and worship meetings, the Gospel outreach itself, the morning seminars and the character camps. On top of that, we had special meetings with the local market women, held by Vero and supported by me. This is indeed a VIC program but Vero has the burden to teach them how to be more effective business ladies and it was received with great joy.
PRAYER TOWER
Tomorrow morning, before I fly out of Sorong to Manokwari, I will have the honour of officially opening the new building for the prayer tower, which we helped to establish here in Sorong, all of which happened behind the scenes. Then, as a team, we fly to Manokwari to visit the leaders and pray-ers in the prayer tower that we established during out outreach there. At the same time, we also want to begin the ground work for the upcoming Prayer School that we want to conduct in October in Manokwari for all of Papua.
Then it is on to Yaya-Pura to speak to the leaders to see what can be done to ignite the passion and fire of their prayer tower, which has been dying down. My goal and passion is to build six such 24/7 towers in the cities to change the atmosphere over Papua.
We thank you for your payer and support, and we give thanks unto the Lord for what He has done here and will continue to do. We fell in love with the city and know that we have done as the Lord told us to do – for His Glory and by His grace.
Blessings,
Suzette
SORONG PRAYER CONCERT PHOTOS
SORONG EARLY MORNING PRAYER PHOTOS
UPDATE FROM GAYLE
JULY 09 – 12 2011
Dear Friends and Partners,
The outreach in Sorong is now over and at the final meeting there were over 20 000 people in attendance. There was a wonderful break through here. Suzette was dancing with the Mayor of Sorong in a time of celebration of what God has done in this city. The talk of the town is that they have never seen anything like this!
At the last morning seminar Suzette prayed personally for 1700 people one by one with oil and anointed them to carry on with the work of God in Sorong.
Today the team are travelling to an island for a short well deserved break and then soon after that will travel to one of the remote areas to plan the outreaches for next year.
Thank you for standing with us.
Together the harvest is coming in.
Gayle
UPDATE FROM GAYLE!
JULY 08 2011
Dear Friends and Partners,
I just came off the phone with Suzette and here is the latest news from Indonesia.
The meeting last night was amazing! Over 10,000 people attended and these are mostly from other faiths. The weather was wonderful. The first night poured with rain but still many thousands stayed to hear the preaching of the Gospel!
The morning seminars are going very well and Suzette has got some very good speakers in. There is great impact there with over 60 pastors from the interior. Well over 1,000 attended the morning meetings. We have started a new project in Sorong, ministering and helping marketplace women, this is an outreach to the market and this is going very well.
Suzette has said that she feels that this crusade has had the greatest impact until now into the city. People are coming from miles by foot because they have heard what is happening.
Sorong has and is being changed with the glory of God.
Please continue to pray especially for Suzette at this time.
As you may know, communication is almost impossible and emails just not possible. I have managed to catch Suzette at times when she has been somewhere where she has had a mobile signal. But health wise all are well and the team is working very well together.
Thank you for your support and love! Thank you for standing with us!
Suzette sends her love to you all.
Halleluja, the harvest is being brought in!
Together for His Kingdom,
Gayle
PRAYER, PASTORS, MEGAVOICE & MARKET WOMEN
JULY 03 2011
This morning, when we arrived at the campaign site at 4:45, the lights were on, music was playing, flags were waving and some people were already worshipping God. What a welcoming sight to see. I have been so deeply blessed by the commitment of these people. Morning after morning, they arrive by taxi, trucks, motorbikes or on foot just to come and pray until we are at up to 300 strong and all worshipping and praying together. It is like a family coming together in order to restore the prayer altar of the city.
The building in which we held the prayer concert seats 3,000 people, and on Sunday night, it was absolutely packed. It seemed as though the “Holiness of God” descended upon us, so much so that I stopped all photos, cameras and everything in order that there would be no distractions. Thousands just worshipped and prayed in the beauty of holiness. Suddenly, the fire of God reignited their passions – tears flowed, some cried, others just prayed and others simply stood still with their hands lifted unto the Lord. This was a time of prayer and dedication unto Him who longed for their fellowship – the Lord Jesus Christ.
On my right, sixty pastors and leaders from six tribes were praying and dancing together for the first time in their history without fighting. I could not help myself, I just burst out in tears when these old men and women looked into my eyes and called me “their mother”. They are simple (in the correct meaning of that word) and do not have the understanding of many others, but they love Jesus and told me, “No other speaker ever asked for us from the highlands (the interior). So when we heard that you had called for us we said, ‘We want to go and meet sister Suzette and team’”. I could not stop crying! They had walked for up to six days in order to get to a meeting point from where they caught a ship for another few days journey, to be in Sorong – the oldest amongst them is 87 years old!
Yesterday, we went, as a team, to hold a “special meeting” with them and also to give them the Mega Voices. Had you been there you would have cried with me. Their eyes shone like little lights – then they came singly to me and the team just to make sure that their ‘Mega Voice’ worked. Once they heard for themselves that it worked, they smiled and put it, like a wonderful treasure, in their pockets. It was a most moving meeting; this is what the gospel to all “tribes and nations” (Rev 5:9) is all about. If we want to change Papua, we must not simply change the cities, we must also change the original people from the highlands – and that is what we are doing here.
One day, I would love to fly out to them in their own land – that would be so wonderful!
In Manokwari, we started a prayer tower that is now running very well indeed. But here in Sorong, although I had found a functioning prayer tower, it was not as ‘interdenominational’ as it should be. I took a step in faith, called the pastors together and explained to them to stand up and keep the spirit realm open over their city. I told them that now was not the time to be arguing and divisive, but to stand united for their land. Although I spoke lovingly, I spoke hard, and called them to be watchmen on the wall. We had so many different denominations present that I wondered how they would respond. They stood up and made a commitment – over twenty pastors agreed to make this their passion, to build a 24-hour prayer tower. A bank manager walked in and gave the third floor of his bank to be the house of prayer for the city – interdenominational and neutral! Wow, what an answer to prayer! I walked out of that meeting deeply thankful unto the Lord as I watched Psalm 133 going into action.
We also started something new by teaching the women of the market how “to handle money”. This is really Vero’s doing, and I am fully supporting her. This is indeed wonderful news! I always say, “Women can talk”, but market-women can talk even more – even during the meetings. It sounds like the ‘market’ all the time, jabber, jabber, jabber. She is teaching them simple principles on to be successful in business. This is something new that VIC is doing, but really Vero is doing it. We are also going to provide them with a banking scheme that can help them get out of debt. This is amazing and very rewarding seeing how we can help these people in simple but effective ways. VIC Indonesia will open a bank account to help these women here in Sorong. It is quite involved, but we will be supported by the born-again bank manager (the one who gave his third floor as a prayer tower), and he is willing to help these market-women to break free from the high interest rates charged by the private financiers from whom these women borrow money.
The Gospel campaign site is now a beehive of activity. Lighting system are being erected, the stage is under construction, multi-media systems are in place – it is all going ahead most wonderfully. We have 400 counsellors ready for the outreach, all of whom have been trained by Chris (a wonderful man who is so helpful to the team and me personally).
Please pray for the outreach, which starts tomorrow, that we have good, dry weather, and a packed Gospel site.
God bless you, with lots of love from the mission field of Papua,
Suzette
ARRIVAL IN SORONG, EARLY MORNING PRAYER & PRAYER CONCERT
JUNE 29 – JULY 02 2011
When 300 people arrive at 5 a.m. in the morning on the Gospel campaign grounds for early morning prayer, and 2,300 people pour into a building for the nightly prayer concert, it must mean that something is about to happen in the city. This is what we have experienced in Sorong, the third of our three cities in Papua, to which we are reaching out during these months.
“Prayer has been flowing in the city since January”, I was told by one of the pastors. “At the start of this year, eighty people began a twenty-four hour prayer tower for the outreach and for the city itself”, he told me with pride in his voice. Yes, the people started praying and seeking God for something new, and we are in full agreement with that prayer and believe God with them for something new.
At first, the building that we are now using for the night meetings had been rejected by most people as a very dirty, dark and awful place. It was indeed a place neglected and filthy, with heaps of garbage filling the floors and horrible slogans and graffiti covering the walls. However, it was the only neutral building in the city that we could use, and that was capable of holding a capacity crowd of 3,000 people.
The committee were the first to tackle the problem, and even the pastors from the ‘highlands’ lent a hand. Soon, the floors were washed with the strongest antiseptic fluid they could find. People worked until the early hours of the morning in order to paint over the graffiti and make the whole place presentable. For the first time in years, the wooden benches were scrubbed clean and washed down, and suddenly, that which had been rejected became a tool and a clean venue for the glory of the Lord.
Keeping in mind that our Lord Himself arrived in a stable, we gave thanks unto the Lord for giving us such a place in which to hold the prayer concert nights as well as the seminars. Soon, the lighting and sound systems were in place, the stage was beautifully decorated, and we were ready to start the meetings.
Arriving at the airport was quite a sight. Over fifty highland pastors, dressed in their original costumes with swords, or bows and arrows in their hands, danced the traditional dance to welcome us to their land in their own cultural way. All the most expensive cars and the red carpets in the world could never have made us feel more welcome and in a more stately manner than the way that these traditional men, in their historic style, had done. Little children, dressed and painted the Papuan manner, met us with flowers. A large bowl was set before us to step into, which is symbolic of their hospitality. Yes, I was back in my beloved Papua amongst the Papuan people, and my heart was singing with joy. I could have easily forgotten that there was a whole series of welcome arrangements to go through, which had been prepared by the committee. Oh to have been able to spend some time with these dear people from the Inland tribes in their traditional costumes and with their endearing ways!
The next morning, we started with early prayer on the Gospel campaign site and by the second day, the presence of the Lord was so strong during the 4.30 a.m. prayer time that His presence was tangible. We could identify with David as he said the Psalms: “I awake the dawn”. It is moving to see how these people hunger after God. They arrive on their little motorbikes or on foot, some having walked considerable distances, for a ninety minute prayer meeting, because they believe and trust Almighty God for the city and their loved ones.
Although our building has no air conditioning, and the seats are wooden benches or plastic chairs that fill the floor, no one seems to mind. The worship flows to the glory of the Lord and the Word of God deeply touches the hearts of the people. In the midst of Sorong, we are building an altar of prayer for our God. Sorong is also known as the ‘East Gate of Indonesia’, and we are determined to make it an “East Gate for God”, so that His presence will always be welcome in the nation.
Tonight is the last night for the prayer concert, and as strongly as the Lord broke the chains and strongholds in and over many people’s lives last night, tonight we expect Him to fill them with His fire and passion.
Thank you for praying with us, and we know that He is able to do more than what we can think or ask. Blessed be His holy name.
Together for the lost,







