2. Giving and Sowing - Lessons from Bario (continued)
While in Bario, we had the privilege of hearing the testimony of Nekson Balang, a young man whom I considered a hero of faith in Hebrews 11.
Like the men listed in the roll-call of faith in Heb 11, Nekson fulfils the criteria as a singing evangelist. Called into full time at the age of 14, he gave his life to serve the Lord.
He traversed jungles, mountains and forests in Indonesia to reach the unreachable tribes in Indonesia with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Indeed it is men like him who is hastening the return of the Lord as they determined in their hearts to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth, to people living in unreachable parts of the world or in the most difficult terrain!
One of those tribes is the Suku Wana tribe in Central Sulawesi. To travel there will take 5 days and 5 nights by foot in the jungle.
Naively I thought that we could go there for missions but was informed by Nekson that the only other way there is by boat to Pala and helicopter to their villages!
We were stirred in our hearts as we heard the testimonies of this modern-day Sadhu Sundar Singh:
1. He was almost killed 3 times by the people of the Suku Wana tribe deep in the Sulawesi jungles.
The first time, they came at him with an axe (tombak) but he escaped. The second time, they threw poison darts at him but the darts landed on trees instead. The third time, they threw spears at him but he also managed to escape!
The 4th time he fell deathly sick but survived. With all these attempts to murder him coming to nothing, the tribal chief was in awe of the power of God upon him and commanded his entire tribe to listen to what this man of God had to say!
2. Little by little, the community started to experience change.
According to Nekson, this tribe is most "jahat" or wicked due to the immoral things they do. They are a lawless people who do not know the difference between right and wrong.
They go about naked, practised child marriages, incest (young girls married their fathers, young boys married their mothers) and lived on top of trees.
Nekson told us that he was their pastor, teacher and doctor. He attended as midwife to the women giving birth. He taught the children the word of God. He even put the dukun or witch doctors who practised child marriages in prison.
Today the community has stopped all their wicked practices by the grace of God!
3. He went without food for 4 months in the jungles in the Sulawesi looking for tribes that have yet to come to know Jesus.
Eating only the batang pisang or the bark of the trees, he prayed and committed his life to the Lord. He said to the Lord "If I die, I die serving you and I am prepared to die but if I live, I will also carry on serving you preaching the Gospel to the tribes who have yet to know you"
He said he became really thin like a stick and even had kutu on his head!
I was awed to be in the presence of this young man (in his 30s) who is quite unknown but quietly evangelizing the lost for Christ deep in the jungles of Sulawesi and going where others do not want to go.
These verses in Hebrews aptly describe the ministry of Nekson Balang.
Heb 11: 33-34
"who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of aliens"
Heb 11:38
"of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth"
Today he writes songs and produces CDs for sale to support himself in the ministry (he has no fixed financial support from any church).
Each time he ministers to the Suku Wana, God will give him a song to sing about them as a story to tell the whole world. Indeed because of his life which has been poured out as a love offering to the Lord, he sings under a wonderful and rich anointing of the Holy Spirit that can be felt tangibly!
When he sings, I will instantly be drawn deep into the presence of the Holy Spirit and begin to drink of the rarified air of the glory of the Lord!
I will sense a certain fullness of the spirit as though I have drank that I needed to drink of the waters of life, ate all that I needed to eat of the bread of life!
As he had no financial support from his own church, the Bario leadership decised to make a collection for him on the last night. People streamed forward to put their money on the table. Soon there was a huge pile of money on the table for Nekson's ministry!
Now this was totally unexpected as they had just collected an offering as a seed for building the prayer house in Bario!
The people in Bario are not rich being farmers and homestay owners. Yet in a matter of two days, a collection of RM5k was received two nights in a row for two different purposes!
As S and I did not have much money with us, we decided to take down Nekson's bank account to send him a love offering when we are back in KL.
Giving and sowing with the right heart attitude brings much blessings to the giver and the recipient.
Giving and sowing involves
1. Bountiful reaping
2 Cor 9:6 "But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully"
2. Joyful and hilarious giving
2 Cor 9:7 "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, or grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver"
"Cheerful" means "hilaros" - willing, good natured, joyfully ready. Spirit of enjoyment in giving that sweeps away all restraints. Hilarious giving is the appropriate English word.
3. "No sweat" meaning "No problem in giving"
2 Cor 9:8 "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work"
God is the one who will enable us to give! So why worry! Giving is no sweat at all or like the Cantonese say "MMT" or "Moh Man Tai"!
4. Increase in the fruits of righteousness
2 Cor 9:10 "Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness"
What are the "fruits of our righteousness" mentioned here?
These are the fruits of the Spirit freely flowing in our life i.e. love, joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, long suffering, self-control!
No comments:
Post a Comment