DMM: Suffering in the lives of the lost

Eternal Longings

Ecclesiastes 3:11 

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”

Ina lay calmly perched on her wooden house front porch. Stubborn as a mule, cantankerous as a goat, were the first thoughts which brushed over my mind in this encounter. 

A dark presence seemed to be quite content in this particular Sk village. Folk Islam strongly embraces the animistic spirits of a given territory. 

“There is a strong Jin (spirit) in our area. That spirit is the one whom we trust to guide us in our Islamic devotion,” confided a relative of the elderly woman. 

In our initial time in their village, there seemed to be this blanket-like covering over their hearts and minds. In subsequent visits, the elderly woman, though most likely a revered shaman (witch doctor), actually was not to be the one whom God was stirring with Holy Spirit drawing power. 

As is sometimes the case, the actual Person of Peace (Luke 10, Matthew 10), is the one on the edge of the group. In this case, though the elderly woman resisted any and every effort to share Shema statements, listen to her process, care for her physical needs, offer to pray for healing from the trauma, it was to be a bystander whom God was preparing.

One of her adult sons and his family are the ones whom we are pursuing. They are now discovering the reality of God and His Word as they continue to meet as a family and be coached by one of our national partners in a Discovery Group using 8 simple Discovery Bible Study questions. Profoundly simple is how Jesus desires our hearts to trust His leading, yet to be highly dependent upon listening to the Holy Spirit to lead us to whom he is stoking with the fires of need.

At present, after 3,000 initial contacts post-earthquake, we have 90 potential persons of peace and their households who are moving into DBS on OT prophets and Jesus stories. There are presently 30 formed and consistently meeting DGs thus far which meet about every two to three days.  Several from these Discovery Groups have made decisions to follow Jesus. 

Ask the Lord for 4 solid streams of reproducing Discovery Groups (DGs) who come to follow Jesus as they multiply out to 4^thgeneration among the SaSumBi.  

DMM: Suffering, in the Light of the Cross

DMM: Suffering, in the Light of the Cross

The recent earthquakes on our island of Lmbk, were not the first rodeo of suffering for our key DMM 

Catalyst local partner and his wife.

Muharis made a new friend the night of the first intense crisis he faced as a labourer among the Bmnese 
M*slims. The new friend? Suffering in the name of the leading of the Father, to the hard places, for the 
launch of movements to Christ, at all costs. The event of 2017...The doctor held their baby up to Muharis, 
while his wife lay sedated from the emergency C-section. The next few minutes are still a faint blur as 
Muharis recalls the events which followed. 

Ani gave birth. The doctor pronounces all is good. Ani is whisked away to recovery in the city hospital of Bma. 
A few minutes pass in what was to a period of brief elation. Then, emergency calls go out to Muharis. 
The doctor and staff run to move Ani back to surgery. Muharis had seen a constant flow of blood oozing 
out of his wife's suture. He called the doctor, who in turn ordered her back into surgery. Enroute to prep, 
the doctor stated, "If I can save your wife, it is a 50-50 shot." He turned to see his newborn next to him, 
as he fell to the floor in shock. Immediately, he cried out to the Father then called my husband. Our entire 
network interceded.

Ani survived. The doctor removed her womb. Unnecessary, most likely. Skilled doctors in the hard places, 
not likely. The cost? A new acquaintance named suffering for the privilege of bearing the name of Jesus 
among the Unreached Peoples.

July 29-August 12th, 2018-L*mbok, Ind*nesia

In a short span of time, our island experienced four large magnitude earthquakes: 6.4, 7.0, 6.2, 7.0. 
The damage? A sea of rubble. The opportunity? A vast ocean of privilege to express and demonstrate 
the power of the Risen One. Muharis and his wife found themselves driven out of Bma by M*slim radicals 
as of November 2017. As we had them come to L*mbok, we spent hours of time to debrief their experienced threats, as well as time spent in listening prayer. 

Through great leading of the Father, Muharis and his wife relocated to our neighbourhood in L*mbok. 
We began to trust God for the formation of a new team to focus upon the Ssk, ones who would be purely committed to DMM approach as well as daily mutually accountable, along with us.

Eight months had passed in the formation of the new Indonesian partners team, the implementation of 
DMM together, the beginnings of several new Discovery Groups among the Ssk. Then, the next level of 
suffering. The earthquakes. 

After the first of the most intense earthquakes, we all gathered to sleep under tarps and tents in our yard. 
We worshiped. We debriefed to see the Lord touch and heal our team. We listened to the Father in prayer. 
He gave a strategy which was to not "move the goalposts" of the End Vision of trusting God for the launch of a Disciple Making Movement among the Ssk. 

Suffering, in multiple facets, really does the opportunity to excise out that which is not essential in order to 
re-align with that which is eternal perspective imperative. 

Muharis and his wife, along with 6 other national partners, meet with us each morning to drill down on 
Discovery Bible Study which pours into them as individuals. We have spent time evaluating the 3,000+ 
contacts which we connected with during the initial response phase of medical help, trauma debrief, 
overcoming trauma DBS set, offering healing prayer in the name of Isa Al Masih. As the next phase of 
disaster response, we have been engaged in everything which answers the question, "Lord, what needs 
to be done?"

Temporary houses, toilets, physical needs relief, were part of our response, but that is never the End Vision. Then, from the initial 3,000+ contacts in multiple villages, we narrowed down to 90+ potential households of peace. Through daily follow up, we have already seen 34 Discovery Groups begun. There are a few of these 
DGs which have already begun 2nd generation Discovery Groups, as our team equips the local lost leader to facilitate with the simple 8 DBS questions. 

To put our hands to the plow and to not look back, really is a process for each of us. For those whom we have known of and have coached, it is the ones who choose to press into the Father, no matter the cost, who truly 
do become transformed through the suffering.

Pray for Muharis and his wife, as we continue to coach them, that they would be fashioned into those whom 
the Father is pleased to use for His glory among the Ssk.