A small group of us from Christ Church spent two weeks in Indo recently, on a short-term mission. (Photos available here). Ably led by Anthony Brammall, former missionary, we headed to the island of Sulawesi, one of the major Indonesian islands. We spent the first week in the large city of Makassar, predominately at a Bible college, STT Intim. This was where Anthony served, as a lecturer for about seven years, and it was great to see him able to meet up with the students he taught and cared for while he was there.

We gave three seminars on the what and how of youth ministry – Toby Neal and Rose Rijadi did the lion’s share of the work there, and did an excellent job.

We then headed up to the rural area of Toraja, further north in Sulawesi. This is where Andrew Buchanan works in a Bible college, in the town of Rantepao. He’s involved, not only in lecturing at the college there, but also in Perkantas, the evangelical university student group and is becoming more involved in his church. He also runs a Bible study for local pastors one morning a week, which is an excellent support to their ministry.

The trip was an fantastic experience. We were able to encourage the Christians we met in Sulawesi, teach them some methods of ministry, share with them our experience as Christians in Australia, and be encouraged and challenged by them, to grow in our service of the Lord Jesus. The Indonesians we met are a friendly bunch, desiring to serve God better, and know him better. It’s always good to be united with Christians from other countries; though we have little in common in cultural terms, we have everything in common in Christ.

I’ll post some more personal reflections soon.