Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Our Labors Continue to Bear Fruit

On January 24 we held a seminar in Duri, Sumatra. Duri, Sumatra is where the Batam Church of Christ sent their mission team to plant the church. The mission team consists of two men, brother Heryanto Sinaga and Jannes Banjarnahor, who are graduates of the Batam Bible College. The church sent them out last August and in a relative short time they have planted a church in the city of Duri, Sumatra. However this church planting was not the result of just two men working but the total effort of the Lord’s church through out the world. The families of Bubba Warren, Bobby Hulett, Charles Dubois, and Mike Walker have contributed greatly to this work. The men from the Batam congregation who have traveled to Duri to encourage and give direction to the team there contributed a great deal. After riding a ferry for ten hours in rough seas I can appreciate the effort that it takes to visit those in the field. It took us longer to get from Batam to Duri than it did to go from Chicago, USA to Tokyo, Japan.

Duri Mission team. Left to right are Mail Banjarnahor, Crisanna and Bobby Hulett, Herbin Simanjuntak, Heryanto Sinaga, and Jannes Banjarnahor.

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We had forty-eight guests for the seminar, which started at 9:00am and finished up around 5:00pm. We taught on the Distinctive Nature of the Church and the lessons were well received. We held worship the following morning and gave an invitation. This resulted in twenty-one coming forward, confessing Christ as Lord and being baptized into the body of Christ, thus the church of Christ was planted in Duri, Sumatra. After lunch we all went out to the location where they have been worshiping and held a small ceremony to recognize them as the church of Christ.

1. Attendance of seminar. 2. Worship service 3. Confessing Christ				C L I C K
4. Prayer for those to be baptized 5. Being baptized 6. The Duri church of Christ.

Duri is now the second area outside of Batam Island where the church has been planted as a direct result of the work of those who have been converted in Batam and then trained in the Batam Bible College and then sent out to preach the gospel of Christ.

The Batam Bible College facility is rapidly becoming a reality. We had hoped it would be finished by now but with the rains and many holidays we are looking at a completion date of around the middle of March. The last major structural work to be done is the second floor library, which you can see from the pictures is well underway. The ceramic tiles are being laid and the garden chapel is shaping up nicely. This is an area for the students to pray and meditate and it will be used for chapel services in the mornings and for worship on Sundays.

The Pictures show the front view of building with 2nd story library and Garden chapel area.

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Right now I am under a lot of stress trying to find the remaining funds to pay for the building. The original cost of the facility was $175,000. We have raised a total of $155,000 of that amount. With the weakness of the US dollar and a few extras that we had not figured in the beginning we still lack $25,000 to make the final payment. Please send in this amount or any part of it to complete what is lacking to the Madigan Avenue church of Christ – 463 Madigan Avenue – Morgantown, WV 25501. Thank you.

The school is now starting with the fourth class of students. We have graduated three previous classes and 70% of them are working full-time for the church through-out all of Indonesia. This new class is composed of men and women from all over Indonesia. They have come from Papua (formally Irian Jaya), Central and South Sulawesi, Cental Java, and Medan, Sumatra. We have seventeen students ranging in age from 20 to 60 years old. They are being taught at this time by Mail Banjarnahor, Herbin Simanjuntak, John Massie, and Winston Bolt. See picture. You can support a student for only $100 per month by contributing to the scholarship fund for 24 months. Your contributions can be sent to Madigan Avenue church of Christ – 463 Madigan Avenue – Morgantown, WV 25501. Thank you.

The students and the teachers are Mail Banjarnahor, Herbin Simanjuntak, John Massie and Winston Bolt

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All of this has taken place simply by following the pattern that the Lord gave us in Matthew 28:18-20. We are to go into the entire world and call them to be followers of Jesus, then baptizing them or establish the church, and then we need to teach them how they can follow and duplicate the pattern that produced them to be children of God. We are succeeding in following this pattern but to continue to do so we need your participation and support of this work. Please pray and carefully consider how you or your church may be part of this expanding work in Indonesia.

Your servant in Christ
Winston Bolt