Asian Flame Newsletter, March 2020, Vol 6

Accreditation Crisis

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The Indonesian Department of Education has canceled our accreditation application and therefore we are not able to hold graduation or provide diplomas for our students in the Sarjana (Bachelor’s) program. When we were in Singapore last July the leadership team of STK shared with us they had begun the application for accreditation under the new system. They had submitted all the documents that had been required and were waiting for a response from the Department of Education.

In November we received word that the Dept. of Education needed some additional documents and other documents needed to be corrected to meet the accreditation standards. These changes and documents were submitted and the administration of STK were waiting for a response from the government. We just received word that the application process had expired and the seminary will need to begin the whole process over again. This is a great disappointment!!

This means that the current students who are scheduled to graduate in June may not be able to receive their diplomas and that graduation may have to put on hold until we get accreditation approval from the government. Some other schools have faced similar situations and have gone ahead and graduated their students and the government has arrested the leadership of those schools for violating the government standards.

Sperry Terok, the president of STK has hired two men from Jakarta to help the seminary fast track our application for accreditation. We are hopeful that by having two people who are dedicated to work on and follow up on communication with the government that we might be able to have our accreditation before graduation time. Please join us in urgent prayer that this process is completed quickly and that students will be able to graduate.

We are facing the same situation with our Master’s level program. The government is now requiring that we have five faculty with doctorates in order to be re-accredited in the Master’s degree. We currently have three faculty with doctorates. We have two other faculty that are in the process of earning their doctorates. Also, we have a person who has their doctorate who would like to transfer from the school where she is currently teaching, to teach at STK. Please pray for wisdom for this process as well.

In our previous newsletter I had shared that several major shifts were happening in Indonesia. One was the movement of all Christian schools from under the Religion Department in the government to the Education Department. This allowed the government to raise the standards for all Christian schools. As a result, many Christian schools cannot meet these new standards. Therefore, a good number of Christian schools have either closed or lost their accreditation and therefore are not able to graduate their students until the new standards are met. This is a crisis for Christian Schools and the development of Christian leadership for Indonesia!

Pray for Easter Outreach

Easter is one of the greatest harvest times for the Gospel of Christ in Indonesia!

Last year we saw hundreds of men and women, boys and girls get baptized as a result of placing their faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. The faculty and students will go out again this year during the Easter season to share Christ with hundreds of unsaved individuals. Please pray that we will see a greater harvest this year than last.

Baptism in the Indonesian culture: There are a variety of consequences for Indonesians who are baptized. If the person is the rural area when Islam is not a major factor then baptism is seen as a break from the Shamanistic practices of the tribe or local setting. This act may have some severe consequences such as being ostracized from the tribe or family. Where Islam is more prevalent then baptism has far greater consequences. I knew that the significance of baptism is not lost on the Muslim world.

“A person can read the Bible without arousing too much hostility. But the sacrament of baptism is a different matter. To the Muslim this is the one unmistakable sign that a convert has renounced his Islamic faith to become a Christian. To the Muslim, baptism is apostasy.[1] Sheikh and R Schneider 1987, p.61

The sharia is very clear that the apostate of Islam must be executed. As the Prophet of the Muslims himself said, “Whoever changes his religion, slay him.” The penalty is not always carried out, but it is orthodox, traditional Islam. Killing the apostate is not radical or extremist.

Pray that many converts will choose baptism this Easter to demonstrate their break from their past life and declare their allegiance to Christ in living their New Life.