On June 10th 2017, in the middle of the night, 3 days before Jess will leave Yogyakarta. Jess and Sim witnessed a miracle. The miracle of salvation.
In the morning, Jess was waiting for Jeff and Hector to get ready for the day with Sim and Ebet at Malioboro. As Sim and Jess waited for the boys to get ready, Sim experienced a spiritual attack from an anonymous text containing a Javanese message about demons. Sim felt a fear so she texted Jess and asked for prayer because it was stealing her joy and patience. Jess, Jeff, Hector, Ebet, and Sim met together at Malioboro, but Sim was still feeling uneasy. Sim went home and the rest of them went to eat. Meanwhile, Sim asked God to release her from this feeling. But still, the fear was lingering. Then, Sim felt anger towards the negative spirits around her, so she started worshiping and praying the lyrics of the song “Give Me Jesus.” As she worshiped, God reminded her that He is more powerful than anything, so she stood up and rebuked the enemy and was able to feel God’s presence again. He reminded her of His great power and faithfulness and gave her the ability to worship freely again. Sim found the movie “God’s Not Dead,” and God directly spoke to her within the first 45 minutes about faith. She was able to declare her faith in Jesus again. At the same time, Jess was really worried about Sim. Jess saw there was something wrong inside Sim and after Sim left, Jess kept wondering why Sim wasn’t acting like herself. After lunch, Jess, Ebet, Hector and Jeff went to go buy a painting. The store was at the top of a set of stairs that led to a room full of colorful paintings. As they walk inside, they were greeted by a man that spoke about the artist. He explained their business and showed Jess, Hector, Ebet and Jeff the painting. While the man explain the technique, Jess and Jeff went to look closer at the painting. Jeff told Jess he couldn’t explain why he liked the painting and that he couldn’t stop looking at it. Jeff negotiated with the man for the price that he wanted. It was just an ordinary painting but for some reason Jeff was really drawn to it. After Jeff bought the painting, Jeff, Jess, and Hec went home.
Jeff, Hec, Jess, Ebet, and Sim met again that night at a game night that the team from California team was hosting. As soon as Sim walked into the community center, Jess could tell that she was already different. There was something different about Sim, and anyone could tell that she had her joy back. After the game night, a group of about 15 students went out to eat. Before leaving the restaurant, everyone took about 5 minutes to pray for Renta because she was leaving for 2 months for an internship and then Jess closed the prayer. Jess, Sim, Hec, Jeff, Ebet, and Vidi were there. After eating, Jess, Sim, Hec and Ebet wanted to visit an abandoned building. Hec noticed this building since the first week that they got to Jogja. As they made plans to visit the building, Jeff didn’t want to go, so Vidi asked if he could join the group after dropping off Jeff. As Jess, Sim, Hec amd Ebet got to the building, they walked around trying to figure out how to get inside. When they were looking, they noticed that there were already a few homeless people sleeping inside. Because of this, Sim suggested that they all pray together over the building because she and Jess had heavy hearts from being near the building. As they all prayed together, Vidi texted Jess asking if he could still join. Jess responded saying that he was more than welcome to join them in prayer. Jess didn’t think Vidi would come, but a few minutes later, Vidi drove up to the building. Still with heavy hearts the four kept praying. Sim prayed that God would give them a vision about the building. As they waited to hear from God, Hec spoke up and shared his dream:
Hec was on the other side of the road looking at the building. Suddenly, a great thunderstorm came over the building. A large purple lightning bolt struck the building and destroyed it. Hec explained that God told him that the building represented the heart of the world because it was not clean, not cared for, and abandoned representing the world’s rebellion against God. Therefore, the penalty of that sin was death and destruction.
Then Jess spoke up and shared what she prayed during the time of waiting on God’s vision:
Jess prayed that Jesus’ light would shine on the building and that any evil or negative spirits dwelling in that place would leave. She also prayed that God would do anything He needed to do so that there would be justice in the building.
Shocked by what he had just witnessed, Vidi slowly leaned in and asked them how any of this was possible. He asked how Hec was able to receive a vision from God. Sim explained that when someone draws near to God and asks for more of Him, He gives them more. Then, Vidi responds saying that God wouldn’t want to use him because he was too much of a sinner and did too many bad things to be that close to God. This got the group really interested in talking more about Vidi’s perspective on God, so they moved to the side of the building farther from traffic so that it would be a little quieter. They started talking about how everyone is a sinner, but when they let God transform their hearts, He can use anyone. Vidi started asking really good questions about how to be so in love with God and how to have a relationship with God even with the past that he had. Vidi started opening up to them about the hurt and betrayal that he experienced throughout his life and how he felt abandoned by God in his greatest time of need. He even confessed that Jess, Sim, Hec, and Ebet were the first ones that he has ever opened up to about these feelings. God was using Ebet, Hec, Sim, and Jess to poke at Vidi’s heart and share their testimonies of all of the things that God delivered them from. Vidi’s eyes were being opened to the possibility of having the joy that the four of them had. He mentioned that he found it interesting that we all prayed for Renta in the middle of the entrance to a restaurant and out loud. He really wanted to know how they could be so joyful all the time. An example that he used was of the story of Job that he had heard the night before. He told them that if the same thing that happened to Job would happen to him, he would be angry at God. They explained to him that the one and only way anything in their lives was possible is because of Jesus and what He did for us on the cross. They explained to Him that nothing that they did was in their own power. It is because God is good that they could be good. It is because of God’s mercy and grace that they could be so joyful. Ebet offered for the four of them to pray for Vidi. Vidi gladly accepted the offer, and as they all laid hands on Vidi, Hec and Ebet began to pray. As Ebet prayed, the four of them could hear Vidi begin to break. He started sobbing and Ebet continued praying that the Lord would not stop changing and transforming his heart. As the prayer ended, Sim asked Vidi to pray with her if he wanted to declare Jesus as his Lord and Savior, repent, and forgive everyone who had hurt him in the past. Hec shared that God had finished the rest of the vision while they were praying for Vidi.
Hec explained that after the building was destroyed, he saw a flower appear. This flower then turned into a beautiful tree that reached the sky. God explained to him that the building symbolized Vidi’s heart. The heart of stone and rebellion were broken down, and the seeds that were planted in Vidi sprouted a beautiful flower and then a tree. He showed Hec that Vidi’s life would now be rooted in Christ and that he was a NEW CREATION.
That night, Vidi surrendered his life to Jesus. After praying, Vidi told the group that he had felt the presence of God there with him. Speechless, he sat and tried to comprehend what had just happened. He explained that he felt a peace come over him and a weight lifted off of his shouders.
When they met again on Sunday night after English worship, Vidi explained to them that last night was the first night that he was able to sleep without the help of any pills.
[In this portion, Jess and Sim will make connections to how God prepared His witness and worked everything together to create a powerful testimony.]
When we try to remember what happened on June 10th, we found so many interesting facts that God just put. If Jess didn’t pray for Renta, if Sim had no joy, if Hec didn’t suggest to go to that building, if we had gone to the building before that day, if Jeff didn’t have deep conversations at XA, if God didn’t prepare Sim for the spiritual warfare through prayer, if God didn’t give us a heavy heart at the building to pray, if Vidi saw the text from Jess about praying and didn’t want to come, if the Holy Spirit didn’t put a curiosity in Vidi’s heart, if we didn’t have a desire to witness God save someone, then none of this would ever have happened.
Another connection is Jeff’s feeling towards the painting. It is kind of like how our hearts were at the building. We knew that we wanted to go, but we didn’t really have a reason or purpose besides being in each other’s company. Jeff didn’t know why he loved that painting so much, but he knew that he wanted to buy it.
Thank you, Jesus for allowing us to witness this miracle! Pray with us as we ask God to continue to mold and shape Vidi’s future and his new life with Jesus. Pray that he stays connected in strong fellowship and has a fire in his heart that never burns out. We have been so blessed by everything that we experienced, and it strengthened our faith to believe that the Holy Spirit really does move and transform hearts. The Lord also displayed for us that everything happens for a reason. We were so encouraged to continue to step out in faith and be intentional with everyone that we meet. We can’t wait for the next seeds that the Lord will allow us to scatter in Indonesia and in America. See ya soooon!
