Bible Society Responds to Social Crises (Indonesia)
When the Comfort of Christ Takes on New Meaning (West Timor)
Bibles for Victims of Violence (Indonesia)
Carrying on Korea’s Biblical Tradition (Korea/USA)
New Experience for Young Blind Leaders (Philippines)
Gospel for Every Nepali (Nepal)
Snippets from Amity Press (PR China)

“Only months prior to the elections several regions had experienced inter-ethnic and religious strife which was, in some cases, accompanied by horrible acts of violence against humanity,” Drs Supardan said.

LAI responded to this by producing and distributing several Portions in line with human needs-related Scriptures as agreed at the last World Assembly in Mississauga, Canada, 1996. The Portions aimed to respond to the anxieties many people were experiencing due to the wave of unrest sweeping the country. They dealt with themes such as the meaning of political power, the role of people’s representatives in parliament, national reconciliation, and the need for conversion.

Some 100,000 Portions dealing with these themes were distributed by people from non-government and evangelistic organisations, by Christian members of Parliament and by individuals keen to distribute God’s Word in their own work or home environments.

This was a social phenomenon that created a major opportunity for LAI. The second phenomenon was the dramatic flow of refugees from East Timor as a result of violence following the referendum on independence held there on August 30. This political event held bitter consequences for the economic, social and spiritual life of East Timor society.

In response to these LAI sent a two-man team consisting of Distribution Manager, the Rev EP Sembiring, and LAI board member Drs FX Tiardja Indrapraja went to West Timor and made contact with church leaders in the refugee camps and with churches offering aid to the refugees.

They left Scriptures for distribution in camps in Kupang, Soe, Kefa Menanu, and Atambua: more than 2,500 Bible Comics, 21,000 Portions from The Prophet series, 1,500 Portions entitled Jesus, a True Friend, 300 Portions entitled Jesus the Saviour and 6,000 Bibles, some with deuterocanon.

“Their experience visiting these camps was a truly moving one,” said Mr Supardan. “Watching this human tragedy moved Mr Indrapraja to tears, and both men said that what amazed them was that in the middle of their sufferings, the refugees were still eager for the Word of God.” This emergency project was carried out with the co-operation of the Evangelical Church of Timor, and LAI had help from the Indonesian Air Force and commercial freight lines in shipping the Scriptures to Timor.

Many of these refugees had left without having the chance to gather their belongings including their Bibles, and many would find their belongings and homes destroyed when they returned to the capital, Dili. One woman, a pastor and a housewife, told Mr Sembiring that she experienced what she called “heart exercise” on a daily basis in the camp: almost every hour she and her companions heard gunshots from different directions. Many people were afraid and felt insecure in the camps. (WR 348/16 - 02.00) [PHOTOS]

“We have given out all the Bibles you left us, but there were not enough to go round,” said one of the pastors in the camp at Atambua. “Please do what you can to send us more.”

These requests have not fallen on deaf ears. The Rev E P Sembiring, Distribution Manager of LAI, was immediately planning how best LAI could respond to these needs and forecast an additional distribution in 2000. “We will consider all these requests back at Bible House in Jakarta and see how best we can meet the needs of the Timorese refugees,” he said.

The West Timorese authorities as well as the UN and non-government aid organisations are doing what they can to make life tolerable for these homeless people, but four months of living in temporary shelters with communal washing and other facilities are taking their toll on many of the families.

The faces of the children look up at you with a curious mixture of doubt and hope. Some seem to be distant, thinking of their homes and a time when things were better. The older ones gather round wanting to know what the visitors are doing here, trying out the few words of English they have learnt.

Some of the adults are suspicious, even abrasive; but most are open, curious about the strangers in their midst. Gradually, they gather around and stay – they have nowhere to go and nothing more pressing to do. The visit of a group of outsiders is the day’s attraction, a distraction from the routine of the camp.

When they know we represent the Bible Societies they become more relaxed: some are smiling, welcoming. Here is a kinship because many of these refugees are Protestant. Most of the Roman Catholic refugees have been successfully repatriated.

Everywhere around the camp there is a feeling of dirt and squalor – the washing facilities are basic: just a water tap at the side of the blue tank provided by the aid agencies. All around the water tap and elsewhere in patches because of the heavy rains there are mires of deep mud. The camp has drainage ditches full of stinking, stagnant water, a breeding ground for the malarial mosquito.

The living quarters are the blue or khaki tents provided by the UN. Some families are more fortunate and are housed in the buildings that were originally offices, classrooms, or sheds. The camps vary: a bus station, a school, or just open fields. But all the living quarters become almost intolerable in the afternoon heat, stifling and dark. The visitors are invited in and spend a little time talking with the families, sharing with them in their desperate plight.

Most of the East Timorese refugees are returning to their homeland, now in the hands of the international peace-keeping force which guarantees their safety. The luckier ones, especially from the rural areas, return to find their homes are still there, their cattle still alive. But Dili, the capital, has been almost completely destroyed, and even the new administrators will have to clear up and find furniture before they can set up an office.

“The country’s administration will be rebuilt by UN-appointed administrators, and it will be under the mandate of the UN for a period of two years after which there will be proper elections,” he said.

“Many of the refugees were reluctant to return,” he said. “So, on one occasion, we took a group of representatives from the camps back to East Timor to show them that all is now peaceful. I accompanied this group as liaison officer for the UNHCR. One of the women in the group found that her house was intact, her fields ripening, and her cattle still alive and well.
 

If they can find encouragement in the Bible at this time they may find the courage to return to rebuild their homes and their lives.

“But she was reluctant to return because she had not supported independence. Her family is Protestant. She fears she will be rejected by the pro-independence Timorese. Maybe there was a member of the Milicie (Militia) in her family.”

“But before we condemn the members of the Milicie outright, we must consider that they acted under duress. I believe that they were told their families would be killed if they did not do what the soldiers told them to,” said one churchman who had been closely involved with the situation.

Everywhere the UBS-LAI team went there was an obvious eagerness to receive Scriptures in different formats, and the Bible Comics in Indonesian were especially appreciated.

Comfort in the Christ child and hope in God’s love and care for humankind is perhaps felt more keenly in these people’s pitiable circumstances than in the glittering malls or where the many expensive gifts are unwrapped on Christmas morning.

Attempts have been made to bring about peace including a major peace rally last May. A torch bearing a flame of hope and peace was paraded onto a city field. Thousands of Muslims and Christians gathered to repent of the bitter conflict and committed themselves to reconciliation and to rebuild the community.

In early December the President, Abdurrahman Wahid and his Deputy, Megawati Sukarnoputri, visited Ambon for talks with the local leaders. It was hoped that these talks would encourage a peaceful reconciliation. However, extremists have since stepped up their activities causing widespread destruction, and the number of people killed in the violence has risen dramatically in the last few weeks.

Violence was stirred up between the two major religious groups, Muslims and Christians, in January last year, with extremists from both sides fanning the flames of hatred.

Newsroom website, a Christian reporting agency, said that about 1,300 people have died in the last year in the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku, whose hundreds of islands (known as the Moluccas) in eastern Indonesia constituted the Spice Islands during Dutch colonial rule.

John Barr of the Uniting Church of Australia said that 1,000 Christians fled to Ambon from the island of Buru the day after Christmas. “On Buru, 89 people were killed in violence in the last few days of December,” he reported.

Silo Church, the main Protestant Church in Ambon, was destroyed by fire on December 26. “The church came under attack at around 7pm while a worship service was taking place,” Mr Barr said. “A further attack took place around 11pm. In the violence that followed, 39 Christians were shot.”

Mr Barr noted that thousands of Christians had either fled Ambon or were preparing to flee into the jungle for protection. With the destruction of homes and shops there was a real threat of starvation and disease for the many homeless people.

By the first week of 2000 the violence was being called the worst religious conflict since the Indonesian archipelago achieved independence half a century ago. Indonesian military reports confirmed more than 400 dead and 270 people injured in the recent riots.

In November, a team of church lawyers representing Roman Catholics and Protestants in Ambon called on the United Nations to intervene to stop the increasing violence in Maluku Province. They urged the UN to send investigating teams to evaluate the situation. They argued that commercial and residential areas operated or occupied by Christians were deliberately being targeted.

The area, the lawyers maintained, had become “a testing ground to see if the Christian community can be paralysed by killings, persecution, torture, and looting.”

While the world’s attention was focused on the unrest in East Timor, more Christians were being killed on the island of Ambon. In joint letters of protest to the government and armed forces, Catholic and Protestant church leaders accused factions in the military and police of supporting the attack on the Christian community by extremists.

In fact, almost every report on the violence speaks of the involvement of the military in the rioting, suggesting that there are many more people dying from army bullets than from mob violence. Even the instigators are said to be clothed in military uniforms.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Post recently reported that the Army had sent more than 400 reinforcements to Maluku to try to stem the bloodshed. An estimated 8,000 troops have been deployed since violence first erupted last year. (WR 348/18 - 02.00)

“This is like a national treasure,” he says, pointing to the Gospel of John in Korean. The document dates from 1882 and for decades was stored in the library of the American Bible Society in New York.

The missionary effort was spearheaded by foreigners such as the Scottish Presbyterian missionary John Ross, and also by local people, including Sang Ryun Soh, Mr Soh’s great-grandfather. He translated the Scriptures into Korean from Chinese and smuggled them into his village in the far north of Korea from Manchuria.

In 1882, when Sang Ryun Soh’s efforts began, “there were no Christians in Korea,” notes his great-grandson. A year later, however, a Presbyterian Korean congregation was established.

At that time distributing the Scriptures was not a simple task. The Korean government had formally closed the country to Christianity, shutting the people away from what it considered to be a dangerous foreign influence. But the Gospel got through in any case, thanks to the efforts of Sang Ryun Soh and others, who built on the evangelisation efforts of the American Bible Society and the Bible Societies of England and Scotland.
Same work
Mr Soh’s family includes two brothers who are Presbyterian pastors. He now serves the Bible cause as secretary for fundraising and public relations for the Korean Bible Society. “After 110 years, I am doing the same work as my great-grandfather,” he says proudly. Adapted from an article which appeared in the American Bible Society Record, February/March 1999. (WR 348/19 - 02.00) [PHOTOS]

Resources for the Blind organised the conference which included visits to all the major government and non-government agencies providing services for blind people. A special effort was made to include those agencies where there were blind people on the staff.

Another purpose was to introduce the students to independent living skills, and they were encouraged to prepare their own meals and to prepare food for market. Doing their own cleaning and laundry also featured on the schedule, and for some of the students, this was a big step in learning how to cope on their own.

Each morning there was a time of devotion during which the foundations of the Christian faith and its practices were considered in the light of the Bible’s teachings. One of the visits the students made was to the Philippine Bible Society where materials have been prepared for blind and poorly-sighted people. The students were able to assess for themselves the Braille Scripture texts and the Scriptures on audio cassettes.

The Philippine Bible Society works hand in hand with Resources for the Blind in providing Braille and audio Scriptures for use among the blind in many areas of the Philippines. (WR 348/20 - 02.00) [PHOTOS]

There are Christian believers in almost every district in Nepal, says Nabin Sunuwar, the NBS Executive Secretary. The 75 districts constitute 14 zones which go to making up Nepal’s five regions. “We want to use the believers and the churches to reach all of the 4,000 village development committees and the 58 municipalities with the message of Jesus Christ as Saviour,” he said.

The aim is that every Nepali should have the opportunity to read a Gospel or hear the message. As there are more than 100 languages in this mountainous state much planning and prayer is needed to fulfil this mission.

“There are hundreds and thousands of people who are waiting for the Word of God; in fact they are not only hungry and thirsty for food and drink, but also hungry and thirsty for spiritual answers and would love to feed on God’s Word,” he added.

To buy a complete Bible in Nepal takes the average villager’s wages for four days or if he is working in the city, two day’s wages. Which is why when they finally obtain a copy of the Bible they are so happy, it is a feeling “like getting new life on that day,” according to Mr Sunuwar.

“Mrs Maya is one such example. When she received her first complete Bible she was overjoyed. We have many pastors and church leaders in Putalisadak Church, Kathmandu, waiting to receive their first copies of the locally-printed Nepali Bible.

“The people love to read the Word of God, which explains why Mrs Maya laughed when she held her first Bible,” added Mr Sunuwar. Everybody knows that the Bible can bring about a life-changing experience. They see what effect the Bible can have on other Christians around them.

There is a great challenge facing the churches and organisations like the Bible Society, according to Mr Sunuwar. A door is open for the Gospel; for how long nobody can tell. But everyone should be called in to help with the harvest. “Please pray that we can reach all of the people in Nepal,” he said. (WR 348/21 - 02.00)

Mother hen for a Bible

Half a million calendars

Calligraphy Bible

Award