Asian Flame Newsletter, October 2020, Vol 8

Update to Covid-19 Indonesia

To download a printable .pdf version of the newsletter click here.

As of Oct. 1, Indonesia has 303,348 cases of Covid-19 with 11,151 deaths and 228,453 recoveries out of a population of 268 million people. They are doing better when compared to the United States, with a current population of 328 million where we have currently 7.5 million infected and 209,000 deaths with 4,840,000 recoveries.

In West Kalimantan where the seminary is located there has been an increase from 267 active cases, 4 deaths in March to 1,042 active cases, with 176 deaths. West Kalimantan is still under quarantine. The seminary currently has 110 students enrolled and only 7 new students for the fall semester. The new students are on campus, the rest of the students are working remotely by computer. 23 students are doing field training so they are in various villages doing ministry.

Church Planting at STK

Even during this pandemic, the seminary is very committed to church planting. The current church planters that are supported through the seminary are spread across Indonesia. These families are willing to put their lives on the line for the Gospel of Christ. The red stars on the map below show where they are located. May the Lord raise up the Church in Indonesia! Please Pray for these courageous Church Planting Families.

Community Development Project at Karraker Vocational Training Center

The Board of API voted to begin two community development projects at KVTC. It has always been the dream to make KVTC an income producing to support the seminary. We also wanted it to be a place where pastors who were going to undeveloped areas could learn how to create projects that could help sustain the ministry and enhance the economy of the village in which they were ministering. Ferry Tanuwijaya, one of our board members along with Herry Korengkeng one of the leaders at STK are in the process of developing two projects that will produce income for the workers at KVTC and STK. The first project is to buy 500 day-old chicks (DOCs) and raise them to broiler size which takes approximately 48 days. The broilers are then sold and replaced by the same number of DOCs. The market for chickens in Indonesia has increased dramatically over the past several years. The second project is buying 8-10 piglets and raising them to market-weight which would take about 6 months.

A Board member has provided some startup funds. However, if you want to help with this project, you could buy 20 chicks for $25.00 or $20.00 for a piglet. Click here to donate online, or you can make a Check to API and put Chicks or Piglet in the memo section. Thank you for your help!

Accreditation Progress

Accreditation from the government continues to be a major issue for STTK. Here is the latest update from our president Sperry Terok.

“The documents for the Christian Education Program are to be finished by September 21 and then sent to the government office in Jakarta. The documents for the Sarjana in Theology were sent and received on July 16.”

The problem has been the slow process by the government in approving the documents. The previous documents that were sent last year never got processed and therefore they had to be done all over again. This kind of delay has put great pressure on Christian schools. Schools are not able to give diplomas unless they are accredited or they face fines and possible jail. Please continue to pray for the staff and faculty at STTK to get all the documents finished.