MISSION TO INDONESIA
Batam, Indonesia - PO Box 514
Winston Bolt, Missionary wlbolt@indosat.net.id
June 2004

A TIME OF PREPARATION

Dear Fellow Workers in the Kingdom of Christ,

This last month and one half has been the time of preparation, meaning that we have to prepare before we can climb the mountain of success. The previous months saw great things take place in Indonesia because of the previous preparation. Jesus prepared his apostles for three and one half years but they were far from ready when the time came for them to go out into the world to proclaim the gospel. Thankfully God knew what they needed so he sent them a helper which was the Holy Spirit of promise. (John 14:26). This resulted in the New Testament being written so that we can now prepare others to go forth to proclaim the gospel of Christ, to plant churches, to develop and mature them.

BATAM CHURCH OF CHRIST
The church has embarked on preparing the members of the congregation to become evangelists. We have translated a course and adapted it for Asia , specifically Indonesia . The leaders and their wives are learning the course week by week so that they in turn can teach it to the small groups that they lead.   This has resulted in the baptism of four souls into the body of Christ. This is in preparation for the new church building that we want to build later this year. The land has been purchased, building committee selected, blue prints have been drawn, and contractor selected. Now we are raising the funds to build the building. The cost of the building is approximately $50,000 and will seat around 250. Up to this point we have raised around $20,000 and are looking for help to finish this project this year. We want to thank the churches of Christ at Moulmein Road and Northwest in Singapore and the church of Christ in Penang , Malaysia for their contributions to this project.

The church has moved their morning worship service to the new school facilities last month. This showed me just how much the need for a proper church building was. The culture here just does not recognize churches that worship in commercial facilities like we have done for over ten years. If we want to grow and expand with influence into the community at large we have to have a building that is recognized as a proper place of worship in the eyes of the community.

1) four ladies confessing Jesus as Lord before the church before being baptised. 2) four ladies after baptism with mission team of Hery and Jannes with church in background 3) Batam Bible College 4) Winston Bolt - Ed Wharton and present class of 2004 5) the baptism of four souls into the body of Christ

BATAM BIBLE COLLEGE
We have been blessed by Brother Ed Wharton coming from Sunset International Bible Institute to teach Christian Evidences and the book of Galatians. The evidences class truly showed the students how they can use the scriptures to show the Islamic community the reality of Christ and the Father. This prepares them to speak to the community that consists of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and people of animistic beliefs.

We were blessed by being able to make the final payment to the contractor. Now we only have to pay back the funds that we borrowed to make that possible. I will be returning to America this coming August to raise funds to pay off the building debt. We also need to find further funding to pay for scholarships for those who are attending classes through the month of July. I truly need to meet new congregations who would be interested in participating in this work. Please ask your friends in other churches if they might be interested and let me know how to contact them. Thank you.

There is so much that we can do as we continue to prepare and develop men to serve in the kingdom of Christ.  I continue to hear the words of Paul after he taught in Ephesus for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.  I don't have Paul's gifts but he did give us his methods and message so that we can duplicate this same result.  I truly believe that all of Indonesia can not only hear the word of the Lord but can have the church in every provience and major city.  We are preparing the men and have the program to do plant and nuture and to bring the church to maturity but we need your help to finish the course.  Please join with us in taking the gospel to the 220,000,000 people of Indonesia.

MISSION TEAMS
Duri Mission Team - I was able to make a quick trip to visit the mission team in Duri, Sumatra this last month. They are preparing the land to build a new church building as the open air structure that they started with just was not suitable. We are thankful for the Golf Course church of Christ for their contribution to this project.

While there we were able to baptize four older women into the body of Christ. Many of the men were unable to attend as they are working in locations to far away to return on the weekends. However they have already begun training in leading in the worship service. The congregation in Batam is planning to send over an evangelist in August to lead the men through a leadership course which teaches biblical leadership.

The team was able to find housing closer to the congregation and this should help them in their outreach to the area surrounding the church building.

Solo Mission Team - The mission team to Solo has been busy traveling between cities preparing the men in the churches that they established last month to lead in worship. They have baptized a number of new members among the five churches that have been established there since we began the mission team there in 2002.

The men from Solo who have been sent to the Batam Bible College are already talking about forming other mission teams to go to the areas surrounding Solo and other providences. They are now preparing to go forth and proclaim the gospel through out all of Indonesia .

We thank all of you for your faithful participation in this work. God Bless You All.

Your servant in Christ,

Winston Bolt