This week by the grace of God, the Love Papua Centre (LPC) has impacted the life of 308 young people of Papua. There were 175 youth who were trained in LPC Manokwari and 133 youth in LPC Subsay. We used every milimeter of space available.
Myself, Pak Tandi and the rest of Love Papua Centre team were quite shocked when we heard that many of the youth from the inland were very interested to join the training. Pak Tandi had given a limit of 70 participants from the inland and 50 from the city. That is the maximum amount of people that we can accomodate. But as you know, when they heard the news they were excited. Their parents had been so impacted by our Training Centre that they didn’t want to be left behind. So on that Monday afternoon, we received the news from our contacts in Subsay, Indabri, Nggmou, and Minyambouw, that more than 250 youth would attend the training and that did not yet include the city people.
We had a short meeting to discuss what we should do. I was also concerned about our kitchen staff. How in the world could 4 staff cook and prepare food for more than 300 people? As a team, we prayed together, asking God for wisdom in this situation. After Pak Tandi had also consulted with Ibu Suzette, we decided to rent a small hall nearby to be used for the training and then use all the space available in the centre to accomodate the participants. We also had a need to organize other training in Subsay from Wednesday to Friday so that people from Subsay didn’t have to go to Manokwari so we would send a teacher to teach there.
I saw a generation who are hungry for God, hungry to be trained by the truth of God. They sang, they danced, they even said,”Please, let’s do this again”. In the morning, they were sometimes singing and praising the Lord from 3am, although the prayer time was actually due to start at 5am. Even at the dedication night, they didn’t want to stop praising and jumping to express their joy. We told them that the training was finished, “You all can go back to your houses”. But they didn’t want to; they kept on singing, while packing their stuff and went back.
But more than that, I saw a generation who gave their lives afresh to Jesus. They believe that God loves them and He has a plan for their life. They started to see themselves from God’s point of view. During a session they wrote down their sins and bad habits on a piece of paper and they went to the altar and truly repented. Together, we burned those papers as a symbol that we want to leave our old life and live afresh for Jesus.
I also saw something that blessed me so much; 80% of our participants were from the inland and I really feel that we as city people need to learn from them.They sit there in the class one hour before the training starts every morning. They organize their own worship; some just going forward to lead the worship, just like that. When I asked them, “Do you guys know each other from before?” They answered, “No,we didn’t know each other, we met here, and we made friends”. Wow!
The chairs were arranged when they left the building, leaving no mess and rearranged again. So when I looked, it seemed like the room had never been used… still clean.
They would write down every word from everything taught and after the sessions they would discuss it with each other. Unbelieveable; they listened, they took it and they applied it.
These are some of the testimonies that I received from them:
“I have been a Christian for a long time, but I speak bad words, don’t obey my parents, and also smoke and drink. Today, I give myself to Jesus and I want to repent. I want to stop doing those things”.
“Before, I didn’t know that I am valuable. But today I learned that although I am a zero, Jesus has made me valuable if I trust him and make him no1 in my life”.
“Now I know that bad companions will destroy my good habit. I ask God to help me to be able to choose good friends”.
“I found out that there are many strongholds in my life, but now I know how to pull down those strongholds”.
“I am studying in Sumatra at the moment. I went back for a holiday and attended this training. There in Sumatra, many people say bad words against us, the Papuan. They say we are stupid, not good enough, cannot do anything. It hurts us a lot. But now, I have learnt the truth. I know who I am in Christ and God has a plan for me. Thank you Ibu Suzette and LPC team. Please also pray for us so we can be God’s witness for Papua”.
God is moving among the youth. We pray that this next generation will be prepared by God to bring revival to this land. Amen.