To all members of Church…

Even my English is not really good, I try to start this email by saying, “Praise the Lord, for Loving us”.

I’m an Adventist who betrayed church for several years. Never go to church, open the Bible, and never even take a prayer since i was graduated from Adventist High School in North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

On the 1st January, 2000, I got a lesson, that I believe it was from God. At that time, I was taking a ship named “KM Lambelu” together with my friend named Andreas Kaemor, from north Sulawesy, to Jakarta. The journey itself taking five days by ship. In the first day, in the evening, the ship were arrived to and island named “Ternate”. The majority religion of the people there were “Moslem”. At that time, most of them were fight against Christian. Poor people, coz they use the religion as the reason to fight. Unluckily, the ship that I took, arrived when the situation was really bad.

When the ship was already in the port of Ternate, hundreds of people were coming aboard. They all bring knifes, swords, and even guns. I don’t now where they got that guns because, the law of our country doesn’t allow people to have that.

After they all inside the ship, they asked all the people inside, whether

Christian or Moslem. If Moslem, they will check the ID of the person. But if Christian, they kill the person at the moment. Six Christians is die for their faith in the ship. None of them died nicely, all of them were died by hundreds knifes, and swords. There was two victims were headless, the heads were cut, and taken around the city, become an entertaining to other people who not taking part in the ship.

As I told before, I was betraying God, never go to church and even pray, smoking, since I was graduated in high school in 1996. But, at the horrible situation, God reminds me to look upon Him. I remember, I was praying at that time, and for me, for my whole life, it was the most desperate pray I’ve ever do. And, at that pray, I was promise, God, if you save me, I will go to church….

Several minutes after taking the pray, some people with swords come to our place. They ask my friend who sat right beside me. A very nice man named “Andreas Kaemor”. He is a Christian. When they asked his religion, maybe because he ‘s so scared, he said that he is a Moslem, and they check his ID, when they found that he lied, they slay him in to pieces…………right beside me. I was shocked, and can’t even scream, and inside my heart I was praying, the most short pray I’ve ever take, “God, help me….!”.

After several minutes, they take the body of Andreas Kaemor, out of the ship, to be slayed by other people down there in the port. And, i was so curious that they don’t even take any attention to my existence. They just looked at me in an empty sight.

I couldn’t say a word at that time, I was bow down to my knees, wet of my friend’s blood and flesh, and the first word spoken is “God, I’m yours”.

The Indonesian Troops were coming, and let the ship go, leaving the six bodies lying in the port. When i arrived in Jakarta, I touch the land with my hand, and I whispered, “God, thank you for taking me here….”.

The first Sabbath, I went to church, pray with all my heart…thankful to God. Since that horrible day, I live my life normally, but I felt there is something incomplete, and I found, God want me to spread this to others, so people could see how God Loved Us.

I share this story to all my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, with hope, that this could be a lesson to us, not to forget God, in good, or in bad times. Always walking with him, and He shall guide our way to the proper land.

I’ll end this story, by begging you all, brothers and sisters, to pray for Indonesia, for all the people here…so we all could live in peace, under the wings of God. There’s nothing could fight the Satan works in here, except the pray of all God’s children from Seventh Day Adventist from all over the world.

To all the members of the church…please, if you have stories to be shared with me, send to my email address. James_cyrus@mailcity.com

May the mercy of God stay upon us.

Thank you very much

James Cyrus Kumajas james_cyrus@lycos.com (Received on Friday September 1, 2000)