Spotlight 12/2024: Effective and fervent

For Sunday, 3 March 2024, I would have to make other plans. I had planned on being in Myanmar, but the situation there was not safe. So I had to change my service programme. I prayed, “Lord, show me the appropriate congregation to serve.” I contacted the district rector of Magelang (Indonesia) and asked for his opinion. He suggested the congregation of Banjarwinangun in his district, to which I agreed.

After the service, the rector told me that the congregation was very happy about this visit because it had been twenty-five years since the last visit by a District Apostle. This had been in 1999 and was District Apostle Tansahtikno.

After the fellowship, I was asked if I could visit a retired Priest. He was 86 years old and sick and had not been able to attend the divine services for some time. Our Priests serve him Holy Communion regularly every two weeks. The rector told me that this Priest was not always conscious and not always able to communicate. Several ministers accompanied me to his house. As I walked in the door, he immediately recognised me and exclaimed, “I have been waiting for you.” When I asked him what I could do for him, he said, “Just one thing. I want to be worthy before God. And for this reason, I want to be served Holy Communion.” We served him and his wife Holy Communion. She is also no longer able to attend the divine services. When we said goodbye, his daughter thanked us and said, “My father told me two weeks ago already that an Apostle would be coming to our home and pray with him.” What had initially seemed impossible had suddenly become a reality!

An elderly brother from the South Kedoya congregation in the Jakarta district was seriously ill. He was admitted to a hospital in Majenang, Central Java. After several weeks, the doctor said that there was nothing more that he could do to help him. Our brother returned to his birthplace in Sidareja, Central Java, to spend his last days with his daughter. She is not New Apostolic.

When I served this sub-district, I was moved to visit this brother together with the Apostle and Bishop. He was very weak and did not recognise me, but he did recognise the Apostle. His daughter told us about her father’s situation. I asked him whether he would like us to pray with him. He answered, “Yes, please!” We asked his daughter for permission to pray. When we knelt down and were ready to pray, the lady’s cell phone rang and she spoke on the phone. The Bishop asked, “Where did the call come from?” She explained that it was her mother calling from Jakarta. The Bishop told her, “Please tell her that the District Apostle is here, visiting her husband.” The mother was surprised and very happy. Before we left, we prayed together with our brother and asked the Lord for strength so that he could keep faith and continue to trust in the Lord.

The rector of the South Kedoya congregation told us that the brother’s wife had been very happy and grateful for our visit. In fact, she had told the rector that she had been very worried about her husband in Sidareja because he was always being urged and even forced by his daughter’s family to return to the majority religion. But thanks to our visit and prayer she was sure that her husband would be able to remain strong in his faith until his end. On 20 April 2024 our brother passed away and was buried by an Evangelist from Sidareja.

There is another experience from the Philippines, where I am also active. After a divine service in Mabuhay congregation, Negros Occidental, a 76-year-old sister approached the Apostle and informed him that her mother, who was now 94 years old, was sick and bedridden. When she had been healthy, she had regularly attended the divine services. Now she could no longer go. But her soul always rejoiced. The sister asked us to pray for her mother. We told her that we would like to go and visit her mother. The sister rushed home, woke her mother who was sleeping, and told her that the Apostle was coming to see her.

Surprisingly, sister Fransisca managed to sit up in bed. She did not complain about her ailments or the problems of old age. “I am so grateful! The Lord is good,” she said. We prayed with her and asked God to care for her and give her the strength to remain faithful no matter what. The two sisters were overjoyed.