Resurrected in Indonesia

By Andrew McChesney

Two student missionaries greeted their supervisor, Sungbae Gee, with excitement when he arrived at their jungle village on the Indonesian island of Papua.

Image © Pacific Press

“Pastor, we have a very nice story!” said Santos, a 22-year-old student missionary from Universitas Klabat, a Seventh-day Adventist university on faraway Sulawesi island. “We prayed for a dead 8-year-old girl, and she was resurrected!”

Sungbae, a South Korean missionary serving as director of the 1000 Missionary Movement in Indonesia, had flown in a small airplane and walked two days and a night to reach the village in Papua’s Samir district. He had come to coach the student missionaries at the halfway point of their one year of mission service, but first he wanted to hear about the girl.

The student missionaries said something terrible had happened a few days earlier. Upon returning from a house visit, they had found the villagers, weeping and chanting, at the one-room hut of the village chief. The villagers were mourning for the chief’s daughter, Naomi, who had died two hours earlier and was lying on the hut floor. A witchdoctor was leading the villagers in the chant.

The student missionaries began to weep. They longed for the villagers to turn away from their dead gods of trees and animals to trust in the living God of heaven. Santos and his friend sat beside Naomi’s still form. Santos gently picked her up and wrapped his arms around her. “Dear God, please show a miracle to the villagers,” he prayed. “We have given Bible studies, and they have listened. Show them that you are more powerful than trees and animals.”

The missionaries prayed for two hours, holding Naomi’s body and crying. They sang a gospel song, “Because He Lives.” The villagers were touched by the tears, the prayers, and the song. Suddenly, Naomi woke up. She turned to her astonished mother. “Mommy, I am hungry,” she said.

Her father, the chief, was shocked. With his own eyes, he had seen something more powerful than the trees and animals.

The village chief gathered the villagers for Bible studies when Sungbae arrived. All 57 adult villagers gave their hearts to Jesus.

“It was a miracle,” said Sungbae, now president of Pakistan Adventist Seminary and College. “Some people might think that resurrections only occurred 2,000 years ago, but such miracles still occur today when we put full faith in God.”

Thank you for your Sabbath School mission offerings that help spread the gospel around the world.

 
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

Print/PDF/Email