How are you?

It's been a while! :D
Writing again today just to check whether this blog is still working. :p
Since I graduated from TTC I have been in full-time ministry. As the congregation I am currently serving are using Bahasa Indonesia, I do most writings in Bahasa.
I'm afraid my English is becoming rusty :(

I have been hearing positive feedback about my sermons, so I was thinking of sharing all my sermons online. Then... I was reminded that I have a blog! So here I am... checking whether this blog is still usable. And it is!
But I won't be posting my sermons here. They are in Bahasa, while I want to keep this blog in English.
So... I will just put one of the assignments from my Preaching class.
The instruction was to come out with a 4-minute devotional.
So I imagined myself delivering this devotional to secondary school students in Christian schools during their morning devotion time :)
Please share this if you think that any secondary school students will be blessed by this! :)

I grew up as an obese child. When I was in secondary school, I reached 75 kg. It was painful to grow u
p as an obese kid. I remember when I was 6 years old, my brother’s friend came to my brother and asked him, “Where is your sister? I want to see.” My brother then pointed at me. His friend suddenly shouted, “Wow, your sister looks like sh*t!”
Or when my mom fetched me at school, on the way home she would say things like, “Look at your friends. They are slim, very pretty. Don’t you want to be like them?”
All these things really hurt my self-esteem. I grew up to be a very shy person.

Until I reached my teenage year, I met this one youth pastor. Knowing my issue, he always reminded me of this sentence in 1 Samuel 16 verse 7 “For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."

This youth pastor asked me to always remember this verse when I felt dissatisfied with how I look. He told me that God examines my heart, not my appearance. It is my heart that matters. When my heart is directed towards God, when I obey God, God is delighted. And that is what really matters in life. “Be like David”, he said, “a person that is after God’s own heart.”

Times when I looked at the mirror can be very tricky. A lot of thought can come to my mind. “Eugh, look at that fat.” “Why do I have to have flat nose?” Or “Why is my hair so thin?”

Then I would be alerted and started to remind myself, “Ita, stop it! Stop! God doesn’t look at those things. God looks at your heart!”

After that I would try hard to shift my focus. Instead of complaining about how I look, I tried to do other things like: listening to my favorite hymn, or remembering some people in prayer. Those 5-10 minutes spent listening to hymn or praying is more worth it than spending it in front of the mirror complaining about how I look. It helps my mind and my heart to focus back on God.
It is very difficult for us to be fully satisfied with how we look. We are prone to think: “My skin is very dark!” or “I hate being short” or “My face got a lot of pimples!” or “I don’t like my hair!”

Then, friends, you are not alone. We are in this journey together. A journey where we need to keep reminding ourselves that God sees our heart much more than our appearance.

So, instead of spending hours lamenting on how we look, we can use those times to do better things that would delight God more, like thinking about our friends who might need help or prayer support and start praying for them, or listen to our favorite Christian band, or read good books. I believe that God will be satisfied when we do those things.

Looking back, I remember that we sometimes joke with this youth pastor about him gaining weight and getting bald. I realized that my youth pastor must have been encouraged by 1 Sam 16 verse 7 and therefore encouraged me with this truth. I, today, would like to do the same thing. I would like to remind you once again, that “…man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” Amen.

Theological Reflection on the Use of Social Media in Teens Ministry

Here is another reflection, initially written as a requirement for my Field Education Placement. The title above explains it all. Hope it helps those who are in the similar ministry.

A little bit of context: I'm doing ministry among Indonesian students (age 14-19) resides in Singapore. And I wrote this reflection on April 2013.

REFLECTION:

Write a brief description of an important, difficult, rewarding or unique event or personal encounter.

Since this teen ministry started, I have been using more variety of social media. First, the teen ministry started a Facebook group. Later, I activated my Twitter account. Then, one of my co-worker initiated a Whatsapp group. 

Then reflect on the event or encounter described 

My theological understanding has become a solid foundation that encourages me to pursue relationship with others in the language most understandable to them. Our God is Trinity, and relationship in love is God’s character. God the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit have co-existed with one another in love since eternity. God wants a relationship with sinful human, so God reveals Himself and saves mankind through the incarnation of the Son. God became human. God uses the culture and the language of mankind so that we may know Him. Furthermore, as Christians we are called as people of God, a community. 

Ministry is about relationship with God and with one another in a community. And building a community needs communication. There are means of communication. The reason that I try to keep up with the latest social media development is because I want to build relationship, to communicate with the teens. I realized that phone call or sending short-message-service (sms) is no longer effective in reaching them, because to receive a call and reply to an sms the teens need to spend money top up, which most of them cannot afford. While social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp are free because the school and hostels provides free wi-fi. Another reason is that phone call, for teens in this era, has been perceived more or less as quite intrusive. They do not call unless there is something very serious (usually negative) or very urgent to talk about. 

       There are many other varieties of social media now, but I found that Facebook group, Twitter, and Whatsapp group are the better ways to communicate with teens as a community. It is the most used media by the teens I our church to express themselves and communicate with each other. However, Facebook nowadays are becoming less popular among teens. They respond more when I message them through Twitter. But the most effective way of communicating now is through Whatsapp. Whatsapp group make it very easy to share prayer requests, bible verses, quotes, pictures, articles to read, links to video, and other resources. We send birthday wishes, congratulates each other for our achievements, invites each other to our important events (eg. concerts). I see discipleship as journeying with them. In Jesus’ time, disciples travel together with their teacher. They observe the whole life of their teacher. They shares lives with each other.

Having thought about your reflection, what would you do differently if you could do it all over again?

I need to constantly remind myself that social media cannot replace face-to-face encounter, so I still need to make efforts to see them and talk to them in person. I also need to be aware of the temptation, and therefore to restraint myself, of indulging in social media – being too obsessed with wanting to know how they are doing every day (updates). It can really absorb my time. 

Teens Ministry (Feb '13)

Where am I now?

I thank God for my Field Education Placement Coordinator (FEPC). Since our church started this ministry to Indonesian secondary school and Junior College (JC) students in Singapore, my FEPC has been with me, monitoring the development of this ministry from a distance. As student, I am asked to submit reflection papers twice a year. My FEPC will the return the reflection paper with useful critiques, comments, and questions, those  that prompted me to evaluate further what I have been doing and what I should do next.

End of last year, she suggested me to start training some of them to be leaders. I pondered on her advise and came to agree with her. There are a couple of reasons. First, this ministry has been going on for 1.5 years. We have had more people and several potential leaders now. Secondly, I'm graduating this May and not sure what will happen to me. There's possibility that I will go back to Bandung. It's high time to pass the baton!

So now, I'm trying to equip two volunteers and eleven students to be leaders. I have been enjoying the process: looking up some resources (books, websites, articles), meeting with them and mentoring them in a small group or one-on-one, delegates LOTS and LOTS of responsibility to them (which is the best part! Haha...). 

I want them to stop needing me. Hopefully that is the case, especially when the time comes for me to leave Singapore.

Teens Ministry IEC Singapore (Feb '12)

I've always talked about our teen ministry but never showed pictures. We took a group photo last month but I just got it today. Super excited! :)
HERE WE ARE!!! It's me with some of the youths who are serving altogether with me, and the teens themselves.

"...Jesus said to Simon Peter,“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” 
He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” 
He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 
He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” 
He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” 
He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 
He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” 
Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” 
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) 
And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
-John 21:15-19 (ESV)-


Later Peter wrote...
"So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory."
-1 Peter 5:1-4 (ESV)-


Lastly, Ita, remember that Peter died as a martyr... 


To pastor is to follow Jesus... to suffer... and be rewarded with glory...


I tremble...

The Blessings of Teen Ministry (part 2)

The church's teen ministry is growing in numbers. We started with 11 people on April last year and starting this February the average weekly attendance is 35 people. We realized that as the number grows we have to change the system. And we did. It was smooth and manageable, but it doesn’t come easily, at least for me. 

Since there are more people, there are more responsibilities and demands, and it started to take lots of my time and energy. I realized that I need to start delegating some major responsibilities to others. For me, it is not easy. There were many times I was hit by doubt. I was thinking, “Should I let them do this? Will they be able to do it? Can I trust them?” I was struggling. It is not just a matter of changing a system, but it is about trust. I was struggling to trust others. I’m afraid something will go wrong and I will be held responsible for what others do. 

In times like this, God really taught me to trust and to let go. I started to change the system, which means giving greater responsibilities to the teens. I realized that trusting others can also means trusting that God will work through them, that He will enable them. Change can be worrisome, but I learn to let go and to accept responsibilities should things go wrong. 

While I learn to trust others, I also learn that trusting others also comes with wisdom. I am grateful for the past 10 months that the church gave me to be with the teens. They released me from other responsibilities that would clash with teen ministry. I got to spend a lot of time with the teens and it enabled me to know them personally. Knowing them well helps me in making decisions about who to trust and when to start letting them take the responsibility. I really believe that God is with me throughout the whole process. 

There are times when some of them did not take it well, but God has assured me to be patient and be with them in times of failure until one day they are fit for the responsibilities. But most of the times I was actually at peace, knowing that most of them are taking the responsibilities very well, even beyond my expectation. Some of them take initiatives to provide feedback, ask for counsel, and even do an extra mile. I thank God that He gave me the courage to trust them. 

When I see some of them taking the major responsibilities very well, I sometimes wonder, “Maybe I should let them take the responsibilities much earlier!” I think I need to be more courageous in letting go and trusting others :)

The Cry of Children and Youth

Just came back from Sunday School training organized by my homechurch. The trainers are from Scripture Union Singapore. They are amazing people with great passion for the work of God in young people's lives. We had fun and learned a lot. I'm grateful that I was there. It was such an encouragement for me to press on in the ministry to young people.



And it's a song that one of the trainer introduced to us.


I can't wait to listen to more children singing this song earnestly from their heart. I think one of the joy of ministering to young people is when I will know that 10, 20, 30 years from now they still love God and serve God faithfully.

The Blessings of Teen Ministry

The church assigned me to be in charge of Teen Ministry which targets secondary school students. Our initial move is to start a Teen Service, which is scheduled every Sunday at 11am (concurrent with the Main Service II). Since April, I always attend the Main Service I (9-10.30am), followed by supervising the Teen Service. I am involved in this ministry in several ways: taking attendance and reporting it to the Worship Service Division, leading worship, supervising music rehearsals, arranging ministry schedule (WL, musicians, ushers), and updating prayer requests (Teen Ministry supervisors try to pray for the teens regularly).

 

It has been five months since we started our Teen Service. Thank God the ministry is growing in quality and quantity. When I sit down and prepare for this reflection, I was once again amazed by how God works in my life through this Teen Ministry. I was involved in this ministry with the expectation of being able to change people’s lives, but I came to realize now that I have also changed. As the ministry grows, all the people involved also grow: the teens and all supervisors, including me. Here how I have grown:

·   Grow in knowledge

“… Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (I Peter 3:15)

Some of the teens are trying hard to find answers to their questions about God. They would ask me questions like, “If God is good, how come there is suffering and natural disasters?,” “The Bible was written by human, how can we be sure of its validity as the source of truth, as Word of God?,” etc. They told me that they got this kind of questions from their non-believer friends and they couldn’t provide answers.

            When they came to me for the first time with these questions, I also sometimes could not answer it.  Then I became keener in reading on those topics. I would go to book store to buy books and other types of resources to be able to answer them in a way that is easily understood. I think I am now more prepared to give reasons to my faith, not just to the teens, but to everyone who would ask me, and I must thank the teens. It is because of them, their questions, that I was encouraged to be better equipped.

·    Grow in patience

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:1-3)

Teens are still teens. A few of them still sometimes skip church or arrived in church very late with “unacceptable” excuses like: “I slept very late and I found it difficult to get up in the morning”, “I had CCA and after that went out with my friends yesterday. I feel very tired so I don’t go to church.” I honestly sometimes was irked with these kinds of answers. I felt like sarcastically answered them, “Use your alarm”, “Ask you friend to wake you up,”, “Don’t stay up until late”, “The service is at 11! It’s not THAT early”. But, of course, I restrained myself from saying that. I would normally tell them to learn from the mistake and not to repeat it later. But sometimes they just don’t learn their lesson and they will do it again next time.

            I once thought of offering a morning call, but I buried that idea. I do not want to nag at them all the times as I believe it will not be effective. I decided to be patience with them because I realize that spiritual growth does not come in an instant. It must come from their understanding of the importance of worship and on how eager they are willing to grow in their relationship with God. And who can help with this matter? The Holy Spirit. I decided to pray more that God will bring them to His presence. So every Sunday morning on the way to church in the bus I always pray for each of them a simple prayer to God, “God, please get them up early in the morning and draw them to worship you today.”

·    Grow in willingness to serve

One thing that impressed and encouraged me a lot is their willingness to serve the LORD. Many of them are really talented and quite experienced in worship leading or serving as musician. Quite often when I assigned one person to become musician for the following Teen Service, another person would come to me and ask me to include him/her to be additional musician. So, instead of having one, we have two musicians. Or when I assigned someone to be worship leader but he can’t make it the following week, it is easy to find a replacement. They accepted this responsibility with excitement. I was encouraged to know that they long to serve God, and it prompted me to look at myself. Am I that excited in accepting a ministry? Not really. I think I still need to learn from them on this matter. I thank God for making them a reminder to me.

What would I do differently?

-T - The tough questions they asked me was expressed only when I was talking one-to-one with them or in a very small group. They do not really have the courage to ask question in front of everyone. So I think it is important to hang out with them more often or form a small group for those who are interested to pursue this matter further.

- People who serve in performance-based ministry (such as WL, musicians, multimedia) could  get easily fall into the “pride” trap. They want others to see them instead of God. I will need to remind them the danger of pride, the importance of humility, and the need to constantly checking their motivation in serving God. Is it because they want to show their abilities? Or is it an act of gratitude that God has given them those abilities?

Prayer in Teen Ministry

It's another reflection done as a requirement for Field Education.
4.1 Reflect on event or encounter described

Background information: Our church started Teen Sunday Service since 3 Apr and it is for secondary 1 to secondary 4 students. Before Teen Sunday Service started, sec 1 & 2 students were in Sunday School and sec 3&4 students were in Sunday Service. Three people are in-charge of Teen Ministry: one as advisor (Mr. Pet, a father of two teens) and two as coordinators (Fen and me).

Reflection: In our church monthly meeting on (Sunday, 10 Apr), my senior pastor advised all advisor and coordinators of Teen Ministry to come out with a list of names of all the teens and to pray for them regularly. We think it is a great idea and we decided to pray for them every day. I am in charge of sending Mr. Pet and Fen the prayer lists every morning through emails. We currently have 16 names in our list, so we would pray for 2-3 of them each day from Monday to Saturday, while every Sunday morning we would pray especially for Teen Sunday Service.

This idea of praying for them (and for us coordinators) every day turns out to be very enriching and beneficial because:

It cultivates a heart of gratitude

When I send e-mail to Mr. Pet and Fen, I would include a word of thanksgiving. There are many things to be thankful for: for newcomers (we started with 11 people and now we have 16), for the better fellowship among them and between us and them, for every opportunity to share to them, for the gifts that God gave them and their enthusiasm to use them in ministry, and for many other things. Sometimes Mr. Pet and Fen would also reply with their words of thanksgiving.

It cultivates a heart of dependence to God

Prayers truly humble us. We are made realized that it is God who starts and who nurtures. We are just tools in His hands. Before we started Teen Sunday Service, one of my classmate shared to me about her youth ministry experience in other church. There was once when she lead worship, none of the youth sang or responded to what she said or asked. As a result of hearing that story, I always ask Mr. Pet and Fen to pray in our preparation of Teen Sunday Service and to pray for the teens so that they would gladly sing for the Lord and eagerly listen to Word of God. We humans definitely have lots of limitations. Our words alone will not be able to drive them to worship God. It is the Holy Spirit. Thank God in every Service most of them sings and listens carefully to the sermon, some of them even take note.

 It cultivates a heart of caring

When we started to pray for them every day, we would start to think what to pray for them. This encourages us to approach them every Sunday to talk to them, asking them about school life or family (in Singapore or Indonesia). Sometimes we would call/sms/send message through Facebook to follow-up with them during weekdays.

In conclusion, prayers grow my relationship with God and with others (Mr. Pet, Fen, the teens)

4.2 What would you do differently if you could do it all over again?

No regrets in starting this daily prayer list. We have been given an exhortation to pray without ceasing, and yes, we would surely do.

P.U.S.H! Pray Until Something Happen

Teens

Today is the first day my home church starts Teens Ministry/Sunday Service (for Secondary 1 to Secondary 4 students). We have been praying for it as we long to see them growing spiritually since their young age and we would like them to be strong in Christ in the midst of challenges they face while studying here.

Here I just wanna share (meaning: copy & paste. hehe..) my reflection. This reflection is a requirement of the Field Education Placement (which I do in my home church). I decided to put it in as it is related to Teen Ministry that we just started. Enjoy reading!

1.    Write a brief description of an important, difficult, or rewarding event or personal encounter:

During one of the preparation meetings to start Teens Ministry, when we are trying to find out what are teens struggle with nowadays, Mr. PJ (a father of 2 teens) shared the concern of her daughter (YJ) who is studying in one of the public secondary school in Singapore. When the daughter went to Malaysia for a competition, she shared a room with another student. There’s one occasion where after YJ prayed, the roommate asked her whether she is a Christian. YJ answered yes. Then the roommate started to ask questions about Christian faith, such as why she believes in Jesus, who is Jesus, why she believes that Jesus is Lord, why she believes in what the Bible says. YJ couldn’t answer some of the questions and when she went home, he started to ask the same questions to her dad, Mr. PJ. During the meeting, we conclude that we would later have some sessions on apologetics with the teens.

Reflect on event or encounter described:

Mr. PJ’s sharing reminded me of the most common issues faced by some Indonesian Christian students who study in public secondary school here. Before they came to Singapore, most of them studied in Christian school, so generally their friends are all Christians. In Indonesia, it is compulsory for all citizens to subscribe to any of the official religion, so generally people believe in God, evil, heaven and hell. It is a different case for them in Singapore, particularly in public schools.  There are very few Christians. Almost all of their friends are either from other religion or atheists, free thinkers, and skeptics. Some of their friends do not believe that God exists and some others just do not care about faith or any spiritual matter.

            I was then remembered that last semester I shared about this issue with an Indonesian Ph.D. candidate in TTC who is a father of two teens studying in a public school. His teen children had the same issue and he recommended them some books to read. A couple of days later, I went to a Christian bookstore. I bought “The Case for Christ (Youth Edition)” and “The Case for Faith (Student Edition)” by Lee Strobel. I read it myself and after that I gave those books to Mr. PJ with the hope of helping his teen daughter to respond to questions on Christian faith or how to defend it.

What would you do differently if you could do it all over again?

During my reflection for this particular question, I realized that my previous reflection and my respond to the situation were, in a sense, not so theological or spiritual. I had this notion that defending Christian faith is all about successfully answering all the questions that people ask.

            I was reminded to my own experience in dealing with my skeptic elder brother. During his teenage years, he stopped going to church. From 2000 (my conversion) to 2006  I would try to talk to him to believe in Jesus. In 2006 I came to Singapore to work and, being far from him made me realized that I couldn’t do anything much. I realized that all I had done before was more relying on my wisdom and my words, not God’s power. Since I was in Singapore, I started to pray a lot for him, pray that God’s power through the Holy Spirit would open his eyes to the truth (1 Cor 2:4-5, 10-11). Praise the Lord, he finally received Christ in 2009 when his boss shared the gospel to him.

            So, what would I do differently? In this case, what will I do next? I will emphasize to the teens that besides reading books and answering to their friends’ questions, they must pray for their friends, because it is God who changes heart, not our words. Besides praying, it is also important to live a Christlike life. People see our lives. Though we can successfully answer their questions about Christian faith, they won’t be convinced if we do not live it.


*Response from Field Education Coordinator at TTC (and definitely food for thought and for follow up):
Are there '2nd generation Christian' born-again? Have they experienced Christ's salvation and cleansing? That is, have they experienced God in a real way for them to testify Christ?