Outreach week 7:
Singaraja, Bali

Hello from the Bali Five in Singaraja! We have been living in an orphanage called Jewel of The Nation for the past week. Our duties have included, team time, sweeping, mopping, doing dishes, playing with kids, beach evangelism, and lots of sports evangelism. The food is delicious here and the people are fantastic. We have been much more successful in sharing the gospel with the locals as well, which is exciting. We think it is easier here because there are fewer tourists and the pace of life is slower, so people are content to just talk. Yesterday the eighteenth of May, was so good! We went to Lovina Beach for the second time after praying about where we should go and reconnected with a Hindu woman who Ronnie and Nick had prayed for and shared the gospel with two days earlier. They had prayed specifically for her business to pick up and as soon as they walked away, someone came up to buy some bananas, and then a coconut, pretty soon all of her supplies were sold out and since Ronnie and Nick weren’t there so she thanked Jesus! When she told us this on the eighteenth Ronnie prayed with her again, she prayed for herself and asked Jesus to be with her all the time and to protect her family and heal her husband. Praise God!
On Monday we will drive back down to Kuta where we will spend the night and on Tuesday we fly to Kupang, West Timor from there will will drive to the village of Soe for our final leg of outreach.

God bless you!
~The Bali Five
(Bo, Oddvar, Nick, Ronnie and Cassey)

P.S.  Feel free to comment after you have read this, I love hearing from you. :)

Outreach week 6:
Pomogan, Bali (Team Indonesia)

 Zack and Faith (our school leaders) headed home this past week, so Bo is now our team leader.  These past two weeks have been very eventful: lots of ministry time focused on the church in Kuta, sharing what God has been speaking to us over the past four months ( we have led three mini dts teachings at the church) also letting the Spirit lead the time here.  The church meet about five times a week and we are usually in charge of those meetings.  God is definately doing new things here in the church and we are blessed to be a part of it.  We have also had the oppertunity to visit three villages within a three hour radiase.  They are homes of members of our church whose families are practicing Hindus.  It's eye opening to see where these people grew up and in some cases where they are no longer welcome because of their decision to follow Christ.

We appreciate your prayers, keep them coming!  God bless,  Team Indo

Please pray for the church here, there is a Hindu young man very close to giving his life completely to Christ and that could start a whirlwind of events.  This young man is looked up to by many of the Hindu boys in the community and he comes from a very influential family.  Please pray for his family as well.

Maria's Village

Last week our team took a two hour drive to a village called Almapura.  It was the original home of one of the women who is now helping with the church ministry here in Bali.  Her name is Maria and I would like to tell you her story...
    Maria's home is tucked away in the trees, a short walk from the nearest road.  In a clearing, sits three houses that belong to her family.  Alongside the houses is a temple (about the size of a house).  I don't know all the details about when Maria became a Christian, but I do know that it involved a dream and when her family found out she wanted to give her life to Jesus they drug her to the temple by her hair and beat her until her ear started bleeding.  Somehow Pastor Fien (who we live with here) found out about Maria and came and offered her a home with the church and her family accepted.  Maria's story might seem dramatic and unusual to me, but in Hindu families this is what happens when a family member give their life to Christ.  In Maria's case, because she was under the age of sixteen when this occured, not only does she not have a family, but she doesn't have an identity card either.
    So according to her family, Maria may come and visit  and maybe stay over night but she is no longer a part of their family and in the eyes of the Indonesian government she has no identity.  But for Maria, she holds no hard feelings against her family and even though she would like to have an identity card with her name on it, she know that she found her true identity the day she gave her life to Jesus!