furnas ed louise 1972 indonesia

8/13/2019 Furnas Ed Louise 1972 Indonesia

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NEW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM....BRINGING LIGHT INTO DARKNESS8th Newsletter from the f i e l d(Jan. and first week of Feb.)

iMnT Bi ot.hers and S i s t e r s i n C h r i s tPraise God from whom all blessings flowl Iso, the hay we have so often mentioned, has just told us that he wants to be baptized] Praise GodI His decisioncame about, as he said, because I ve been studying the Bible. He would not asJcanyone questions, but simply read until the Spirit could ho longer be held back.Another Indonesian famly which has contact with the VJinegamers has just done thesame thing, reading God s V ord they have been convicted of their sins and^turned to Christ for forgiveness and salvation. May we always remember that i t isGod s word, not ourselves or gimmicks, which brings men to Him Vvhen we use specialmethods of evangelism, let us first examine them to see that they always emphasizeGod ,s Word. We appreciate your many prayers for Iso and request now that you continue to pray for him as he grows in the knowledge and love of his new lord.

THE PROBLEM OF DEATHDuring the past month, we ve had our first glimpses of death in Indonesia. Whena neighbor died, we first noticed the external differences of custom...casket

drapings, covering the gravesite with flour, and other ways of giving respect. Batthat evening when we visited the home to express sympathy, Moslem friends werebeginning to kneel for the first of eight ti-aditional nights of prayer to beobserved during the first year after a death. It seems that the Moslems, at leastin this area,_4ierform this pra^^ci* I itual as a supplementary e ffort to persuade Godt0 permit the decaasod to enter Heaven, just in case the person s good deeds didn tquite outweigh his evil ones. The Moslem religion teaches salvation that must beearned by works of merit, as contrasted to th e assurance of salvation we havethrough faith in Christ. Mohammed didn t rise from the dead, and Moslems theref o r e do no have th e assurance o f v i c t o r y over t h e grave.

When the infant grandchild of one of our household helpers recently died, wewere appalled at the don t care attitude that seemed to be displayed. But weknew that the Javanese are taught from childhood to suppress their emotions. I twas only after we understood that they thought the baby had gone to Hell that werealized how great their inner turmoil must be. Saddest of a l l i s the fact thatmembers of the family who have been Christians for several years s t i l l fel t compelled to participate in the Moslem funeral ri tuals and prayers. They had receivedsuch false and inadequate teaching concerning the Bible, that faith in Christ didn tgive them the comfort they should have been experiencing a t t h i s time.

We are new transporting members of this and one other family each Sunday to achurch across town where Bro. Winegarner i s working. There i s usually a t o t a lof 12-25 going each week. Later when we can speak the language well enough toteach them in their homes, we wil l , with the hope that they might establish achurch patterned after the New Testament chiirch in their village (kampung). Butfor now, we are taking them to the place where we know they will hear sound Biblicalteaching. Pray fo r th ese familie s, that as they hear God s word will clear upthe confusion created i n t h ei r minds by hearing false doctrine taught in otherp l a c e s .INVESTMENTS IN THE LORD S ^^ORK

Helping the fami l ies mentioned above get to Bible classes w i l l be much e a s i e ronce we have our own vehicle. We are ser iously shopping for one now, but i s n tas simple a t a s k as i n America. There are no used car l o t s here so you j u s t almostgo from door t o door seeking a lead o f some kind. We had considered buying a newcar , but new car prices here are 2-3 times higher than i n the S t a t e s so we f e e l w i l l be b e t t e r stewardship to buy an older car and f i x up. We have been shopping for a Volkswagen Kombi because o f i t s a l l round usefulness , but as y e t have


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nothing promising. I f we cannot obtain one, v;g viill probably go to a four wheeld rive veh ic le instead. As an example of used car costs here, a '65-66 Kombi,depending upon condition, wil l cost between >1200 and î>2000. U e are thankful tha tthrough your concern these funds are al ready a v a i l a b l e t o us

e have purchased a 12 v o l t portable f i l m s t r i p p ro je ct or f or use i n areas whereno electr icity is available (i .e. probably ^0 of the homes in Indonesia). Somet imes even staunch Moslems can be r ea d il y a t tr a c te d t o programs making use o f f i lm-s t r i p s . Bro. Ron Ritchey purchased th e p ro je cto r f o r us before he l e f t America,and it was s hi pp ed her e with his goods. The only problem was t h a t the customso f f i c i a l s here i n s i s t e d t h a t duty be paid on it so the price jumped from theo r i g i n a l cost o f v30 t o j u s t over ^'90 There was no choice but t o pay it becausewe f e e l t h at it w i l l be a very valuable , necessary t o o l f o r v i l l a g e evangelism.FAjÎLY NSV/S

\:e are happy to t e l l a l l of you that_ our^-second^-ba^y^-i-9-eR~^y;i6. way. Accordingto the doctor and Louise's calculat ions, he_ wil l be due to arrive the l a s t week inLgiisti, V.e had been somewhat concerned about med ical c are here for Louise, but

we've found a hospital with both good f a c i l i t i e s and s t a f f . P le as e p ray for Louiset h a t she w i l l continue i n good health during t h i s t ime. Because of t h i s development, we will be staying in Bandung at least until Jan. 1973 (6 months longer thanplanned). ^Louise and I are rapidly learning the meaning of th e yiefas rubberAlthough we now expect everything to be a t le as t h alf an hour, l a t e ...It-rcaTT still

be f r u s t r a t i n g sometimes. For instance, Louise came home from the post office afew days ago fuming because she had had t o spend over 35 minutes j u s t waiting t obuy stamps. The reason it took so long i s simple. Everyone who i s i n a hurryj u s t shoves h i s way to the window, Louise j u s t h a s n t developthe r ubbe r t imeconcept of shoving yet especially when it i s a big military mani Hal As ftu-me, I have my problems, too. I have an appointment with a man t h i s morning tosee h i s car . He said he would come a t 8 A.M. I t i s now 11 A.M. I^ybe he w i l lcome tomurrow u'/on tJiroo days fi-om now. It s all m b b o r t ime

Ma^ GodTblesând^keep e ^ h one o f ^ o u- Ed, Louise and Kni-uiiDjl. Tjiwulan 30Ban


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NEW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM BRINGING LIGHT INTO DARKNESS

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Îve have decided that the lord s blessings must come in bunches . Receiv ingsome long awaited blessings these past two months has caused us to reflect also uponmany other blessings for which we often fai l to give thanks, simply because they are

so c ommo n i .

March 20 we received news that our shipment ofsupplies had finally been sent from the U.S.I The iHip arrived April and ourthings are now in the process of being cleared ty T^hF DeptT~S Cdnn5g2*câTid Customs.Because of the l ate a rr ival of our goods (they are supposed to enter within sixmonths after a person s visa is granted) we'have encountered a few problems withcertain offices these past few weeks. However, we re s t i l l confident that throughprayer difficulties can be overcome, and that the long wait for our things is almostover. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement concerning this situation. You'vebeen a tremendous help to usiOur second big bless ing came in the fomonths of car hunting, we purchasedcondition (only needed an estimated ^SbQL-r^spairsTând the price was fully ^1000 belowthe average price here for that yeail^ li^nd Rover. Vehicles are expensive here becauseof the high import tax, but we feel we found a bargin. Since neither of us hasdriven since we left the State s 14 months ago, a good sturdy jeep-type vehicle maybe just what we needI The car will not only be a tremendous time-saver, but also willenable us to move around much more freely in outlying areas.

RICE CHRISTIANS - AN EVER PRESENT D/iNGERv;e have been brought face to face in a very disappointing way with a concept ôften spoken of in our missions classes. That concept is of the rice Christianl , -

the person who becomes or remains a Christian primarily for.the,.matgHil benefits hecan often thus receive by association with the missionary.In our last newsletter (two months ago) we rejoiced with you becaus^^soâd justtold us of his decision to be baptized. For months we had all been prayi^g^getherabout Iso s search for a meaningful faith. But shortly after our last letter to youwe became more and more troubled. I f Iso was finally convinced that Christianity wasthe answer, why did he continue to avoid church attendance? V hy did he put off beingbaptized? He said he f i rs t wanted some new clothes for the baptismal service. Butwhen I talked to him about this, trying to explain that the Lord wanted him just ashe was right now, without any delays, Iso even admitted that he already had nicerclothes than mar^r folks. Before long we began to realize that he wanted us to give

him new clothes for this occasion. Certainly we would have, but then we would simplyhave been paying him to comply with our desires for his l i fe The result would havebeen a rice Christian . For a few weeks we continued to talk with him about Christ,but never offered the clothing. Then he quit working here, and our contact with himnow i s primarily through his older brother.Vie feel so disappointed, and somewhat confused. What could we have said or donedifferently? Maybe i f we hadn t given material help other times, he wouldn't haveejected i t now. But whereas before we could see a real need, this time i t seemedlike a mere bribe. e hope you will continue to pray that Iso will s t i l l see thereal reason for accepting Christ s love and that we ll have wisdom and insight incombating this problem as we see i t developing in the lives of others we contact.

ACTIVITIES HEREAbout three weeks ago, I made a two day trip with a Bandung minister to Tjirebon,a city on the north coast of Java, to look into the possibility of some weekly Bibleclasses or even the opening of a new church there. V;e did manage to talk to a few

~W.Y2 41972March - April Newsletter

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people, but not the ones who could give us the most needed information. Another tripis planned in about another week with better possibilities of contact ing leaders ofe x i s t i n g churches t h e r e .

Vihile I was in Tjirebon, our language teacher s father became very i l l so ourteacher suspended lessons indefinitely in order to go to his family in Sumatra. Although our daily vocabulary i s now sufficient to allow us fairly good comnunication,my knees s t i l l knock at the prospect of preaching in Indonesian. I t s fairly commonfor foreigners here to pick up the basic elements of the language, but i t s anentirely different matter to become proficient enough to preach a ful l sermon withoutdistracting the hearers from the content of your message ty your linguistic errors.Therefore, I m studying portions of Indonesian scripture to increase my religiousvocabulary and know that soon I must make th e big step of using Bahasa Indonesia informal s it ua ti on s t o communicate the Gospel.CLOSING THOUGHTS

So many of you are praying for us, helping us f inancially, writ ing, and evensending special gifts , that we can t begin to mention everyone by name. However, wefeel there i s one group we must mention just now. The women's group from the MarioriChurch of Christ (Louise s home church) has been unusually thoughtful about sendingletters, cards and gifts . However, only one of the nine boxes of gifts and suppliessent recently ever arr ived. V e learned t h a t the others had been thrown i n the oceanalong with the rest of the ship s cargo during a severe s torm. Although disappointed,we nevertheless appreciate the thoughtfulness of you ladies in Marion, and of each oneo f you who has shown concern f o r our work h e r e

Yours i n C h r i s t

Ed, Louise and Karen PumasD j l Tjiwulan 30Bandung, Java, Indonesia

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I s l e s o f t h e P a c i f i c Q i r i s t i a n M i s s i o nMr, a n d J ^ s . H a r o l d EasthamForwarding AgentsBox 3Vermilion, I l l i n o i s 61955

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U. S. PostageNon-Profit Org.POSTAGE PAID

Vermilion, 111.61955Permit 1

9 4 1972


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NEW TESTAMENT EVANGELISM....BRINGING LIGHT INTO DARKNESS

Dear Chris t ian Friends,The l a s t few months have been busy, happy ones for us^ Ive hope you*ve beenaware of God's blessings in your lives recently also. IVe look forward to yourletters of daily news, problems, and joys. Thank you for corresponding, faringand p ra yin g w ith u sI

GENERAL SÔne of our happiest,moments recently was _Arrived while we were eating breakfast , and for tHe

May and June NewsletterAUS 7

L o u i j A t r u c kirst~1iime i h over 14 months

we saw those beautiful ba.rrels f u l l of bopks. supplies, and^personal, goods^Karen pr^ptiy dema^^ her horsie from the driver, and it was ai3r~ we c^25 doto wait for our favorite items tooi Despite the many stories we had heard aboutroUgh handling and theft, all our goods arrived in excellent condition. _ And ourprayers concerning the possibSe'^^^tJ/^^Sôrt dut^êre'âribwered vEerT^bustoms dear-ice was granted after a charge of only ^12.501 Hasn't God been wonderful to us?l

Ive were just about all settled in when June arrived, and many of our missionarieswere just beginning their moving activities. Carl^JEl,sh and family returned toAmerica for an eleven month furlou^ They wi^Fbe raising funds for a newprinting press and also recruiting new workers for Indonesia, Then the l-ey Cass^ d Bob Sigafoose faimilies moved to Salat iga, in Central Java. Init ial ly tneywill 'working^with existing congregations, but they have plans also to do newchurch evangelism. Our prayers go with these ttiree families as they continuet h e i r work f o r t h e L o r d

In addition to moving in and seeing the others off, we spent several days catching up on injections and tests, all of which went well. Then one day was spent inclearing up a bad cas.^jof lTf*-fl,ôr both Louise and Karen. Wc were embarrassedto admit it at first, ^ t now realize i t s a regular event for missionaries withchildren, who get lice from Indonesian playmates and then pass i t on to Mom and Dad.I t s a l l in a day s excitement. .but we re glad to bo rid of our bugs. Ha

Then Ed needed to spend several more days fi l l ing in and fi l ing the fonns foroy yearly, renewal ofjvisas. Ii/e ôt the renewals- only after several weeks ofprocessing, due to the usual disor^Hi2ed^ Condition of the government offices.TEACHING IN INDONESIAN;

As of June we had been ig Indonesia a full year, so Ed kept his committmentto begin teaching without an int^^KS^when our first anniversary arrived. He'spositive his knees were knocking more during his i i r s t testimony id.thout aninterpreter than they were when he preached his first sermon (almost ten yearsago at the North Terre Haute Christian Church).

Shortly afterwards came the opportunity to teach at the small Madjalengka BibleCollege, about two hours drive from here. For the past two months EkjLJms--t.au^jAMLjadvancfid-Jbgy^ clajss, replacing Bob Sigafoose. Botbîls^nd^jp ,Rj4;.cliggs4aavebeen teachin'''^'' to^rof 8-10 hours per month of K.ble doctrine classes (formerlytaught by Lew Cass), and English, using the gospel of John as a text. Both lecturejtJ rqm-^n.^d


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they've never been taught the necessity of stewardship.Certainly the curricJulum a t this Bible College i s much different from tha t towhich we are accustomed* No t ex t books other than the Bible are avai lable So a l lteaching concerning the Bible i s received through Classroom lectures, most of whichare delivered by Pentecostal preachers who were themselves educated in the samemanner for two years or less. Daily chores, coil^jliance with various religiousdisciplines prescribed by Ifr. Tan, and partibipaiion in prayer meetings completethe learning activities* Sundays are devoted to evangelism in various kampungs,(villages).Frequently classroom discussion and motivation for independent thought or reasoning among the s tudent s seems a t a standst i l l . Then i t *s helpful for our fellowsto think back over the educational system here. Prom the ear l iest grades Indon


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FROM A NEIV MOTHER -V/e re going to jump over our mission news for August just now to share ourfamily s excitement over the birth of Jeanne Dawn. V. eighing 7 lbs. 9i oz., she wasborn the evening of August 25. The three of us already love her dearly, and we knowyou sha re our thanks to God fo r he r sa fe a r r i v a l .Although labor lasted 24 hours, only the last 25 minutes were difficult for me,because the delivery procedures used were so different from what I had anticipated.But Ed was a tremendous help to me, interpreting, explaining why things were done,and even assisting with the delivery. iU l this made her birth a very specialexperience for us. How can you describe the tenderness and miracle of sharing inth is most precious of God's creat ion?

hospital stay was comical at times. Take the meals for instance. The, nurseswere convinced that foreigners subsist on potatoes or bread just as they do on r ice.So my breakfasts and suppers consisted of 5 - 6 huge slices of bread, an egg, lunchmeatj and tea. For lunch, I got 1 - Ig pounds of potatoes, and about One-fourth ournormal serving of meat and vegetables, l-lilk and fnii t were almost nil. Nurses, andoccasionally other visi tors , congregated around my bed dxaring many a meal just tosee how the white lady ate and to giggle a t whatever she said. But sometimes we hadinteresting conversations also. Then there was the big homecoming, when the nursesinsis ted on dress ing the baby after I had declined their offer to teach me how to doi t . \'Je discovered her plastic pants had been put on top of her outfit, and thediaper was wrapped around her like a blanket. As the saying goes, Inilah Indonesial {This is Indonesial ) ^

Jeanne was named af ter two friends who have been special blessings to us,especially during our time here. One of these, Jeanie Eastham, is known to most ofyou through a l l the correspondence she and Harold take care of on our behalf . Wepray we will raise our Jeanne to be as willing to serve the lord as th ey a re , togive Him a l l the p ra is e fo r the joy wo a l l have in Jesus.

Tg~t?gdr^be^h^]^lory~fgrc7 er7Ed aVid Lou i s e Fu r na s

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I s l e s o f t h e P ac if ic Chr is t i an Miss ionMr. and i i r s . Harold EasthamForwarding AgentsBox 3Vermilion, I l l inois 61955

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U. S. PostageNon-profit Crg.

POSTAGE PAIDVermi li on , 111 .

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furnas ed louise 1972 indonesia

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