Over the past couple weeks I've been sharing some pastor letters I received, and today I have one from Indonesia. These pastor letters give us a wonderful glimpse into the life and community of the people the local church is serving. Compassion works through the local church, and in these letters, the pastors explain how the ministry of Compassion is impacting their community.
Dear sponsor,
We send greetings from your sponsored child Jerry.
I am Feiby Pekeng, STh as the pastor of GMIST Sesawi Kaluwatu church and also in charge of Project Sesawi. Our project is located in Kaluwatu village, North Sulawes Province, Indonesia.
I am thankful because you are sponsoring Jerry in the project.
The people in Kaluwatu are mostly traditional fisherman and farmers. The presence of Project Sesawi is helpful to parents to help their children enjoy and savor advance education in shaping the lives of good children, so that the children can be molded and groomed into persons who are useful for the family, the church, the community and especially to God.
The presence of Project Sesawi in our area helps to answer what the community needs. The church is still struggling with the society still stuck with liquor, gambling, underage marriages, that goes for most people.
Besides, most of the islands in eastern Indonesia region are still very backward with the flow of information and education. This backward setting can be very influential on the growth of children because it would be an example of behavior of society and their future generations just being cheerleaders only. In fact it would be a serious threat to the generation of the future church.
We are grateful for the Project opening a glimmer of hope for the church to strengthen and prepare the next generation in fulfilling the responsibilities of godly faith. Some things we can see are, the children that we serve from day to day show a significant improvement which is seen from the progress to appear in front of many people and ability to interact with peers. It is so different from when we first recruited them. Most children were very shy and did not want to appear when requested.
In terms of their spirituality, there are some who have become leaders of prayer, and a caregiver peer. Attendance rate of children in Sunday school also increased.
Likewise, for the church staff, by the presence of Project Sesawi, they are more equipped to understand about financial and administrative offices, teaching about children's services, not only in the Project but also in the church and society.
Project service is a very significant impact on the lives of our children. They come to know God, receive a holistic education, nutritious meals, and medical check-ups. They also become familiar with and implement personal love, joy, peace, gentleness, weakness, patience and others.
We are determined to encourage the church to care more and be the center of the change in service, especially children, to prepare them to become agents of change who will be leaders in the church, state, society and have a servant's heart.
We therefore set out to create a generation of church-tested who have a mature faith. They will grow in the knowledge of God. This generation will be doers of the truth so as to be witnesses of God the days to come. These children will bring and show positive results for families, churches and communities.
This year, we have received 256 sponsor letters. Positive impact that we felt contributed to the child and the sponsor relationship is where we see the children are more motivated to learn when the sponsor gives advice through letters, gifts and prayer support.
Through their sponsorship, sponsors are also giving their children attention, being a motivator for their lives, and even setting an example in the release of their poverty. For those, the sponsor is the most beautiful gift they can have. God has sent angels to help them and even give them love that might have been forgotten. So far, we have never received a visit from the sponsor, but there is every child's longing to see and meet with their sponsor one day.
Please pray for Jerry and the other children so that they can grow in the truth of God's Word, become more intelligent, and in reaching goals for the future which is always blessed by God.
Finally, I thank you for reading my letter and for sponsoring Jerry. I pray for God's help and blessing to accompany your life.
Pastor Feiby Pekeng, S.Th
I currently have two child packets for children in Indonesia. Although they attend a different Compassion project than the one described in the letter, they are receiving very similar benefits.
Sweet little Santa has been waiting longer than 6 months for a sponsor. Might she be waiting for you?
And sweet little Perlia just turned 10 years old this month. Might you make her 10th year of life extra special by becoming her sponsor?
To sponsor either one of these girls, simply leave me a comment or email me at fiddlejill(at)yahoo(dot)com.
