Praise be to God and to our Lord Jesus Christ, that we were able to hold our 24th Overseas Mission Conference in Chicago. In this conference, God challenges us to recommit ourselves to discipleship and development. God showed us a lot of needs and opportunities to make impact in Indonesia during the business development workshop. Accomplishing any of these projects requires a strong team that is willing to sacrifice and learn new skills.
A strong team, in a non-profit world, is established through a shared vision and is built on top of a strong sense of community. This is the DNA of Christian discipleship. A disciple or follower of Jesus is marked by his/her willingness to sacrifice (take up the cross, Matthew 16:24) and by the strong communal bond (love for one another, John 13:35).
The discipleship process happens, after OMC, in the project groups. This is due to the dispersed nature of FICA membership and our individual passion to make impact in Indonesia. This project requires us to seek and rely on God and each other, and need to equip ourselves with new skills. For example to develop motorcycle refurbishing business, we need not only to rely on God’s providence for the right people; but also need to learn about all other aspects of running the business with Christian principle in Papua.
We hope and pray fervently that these group projects can make us more mature in our faith and equip us to make impact in our family, church, and community.
Conference Details
The conference was held in Chicago at 9/2 to 9/4/2017 during Labor Day weekend. This year our theme is Holistic Economic Development. We learned that any development will have no meaning if it does not proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. The two speakers provided us different model to achieve this.
Mr. Lipiyus Biniluk pointed out the importance of preaching the Gospel,
while Mr. Wolfgang Fernandez emphasized the importance of discipleship.
Both speakers were in agreement that we need to bring the Gospel to the world. This is a contrarian concept. Most churches build mega buildings to bring the world into the church to hear the Gospel.
In the effort to bring the Gospel to the world, we developed projects to attract people to the Gospel. There were more than 8 projects proposed during the workshop. The projects are: refurbishing motorcycle, airbnb in Papua, Ayokerja App, children learning center, coffee shop, hydroponic/aquaponic, kids tv program, and establishing polytechnic in Papua.
The conference allowed us to know each other better and form deeper relationship. Some of us have formed working groups to follow up the OMC.
The conference was attended by close to 60 people – almost doubling the year before. 37 attendees are students coming from 18 different universities, and over 15 are working professionals. Attendees came from 13 different states across the United States – Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, DC, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Oregon, New Mexico, and California. Attendees also represent various majors and fields, the most being business (management, accounting, or marketing), followed by engineering (industrial, biomedical, and computer) and aviation flight science. Other fields include chemistry, computer science, education, economics, sociology, IT, political science, applied maths, architecture, pharmacy, film, journalism, international relations, interdisciplinary studies, linguistics, and sustainable agriculture.
The number and diversity of students was a testimony of God’s work – God used Gideon Setiawan, Joe Budi and others to reach out to students that have not been exposed to FICA. Even though in the beginning we were worried that not enough people will come to OMC as we expected. With the limited network that we have, God connected us with Indonesians from various regions in the USA. There are a lot more Indonesian students in the US at the moment than we thought there was. Through several visits, random encounters, and phone calls throughout the summer, we found many other passionate Indonesians who are eager to join forces to bring back their gifts back to Indonesia. We were blessed to have met 15 Papuan students, 10 from Corban University in Salem, OR and 5 from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. Their presence was vital as we hear their perspectives and brainstorm together about building Papua together.
We are truly blessed that God provided $5,597 in donations. The funding was primarily used to help provide scholarship for students who attended OMC. FICA’s total expenses for the OMC 24 were $14,763.87. This year FICA gave scholarship in the amount of $2,513.93, an increase of almost $1,500. FICA incurred $2,896.87 net loss for holding OMC 24.
Trust and Obey
God wants us to trust and obey Him as we pursue our calling. This conference has been truly a journey of faith. We can see God’s fingerprints everywhere. We never knew that we will have enough money to award scholarship and help with transports. But, God amazingly provided all. We thought we have to cancel the OMC because less than 15 people registered just two weeks before the event. But, at the last minute God moved people’s heart and more than 35 people registered in 2 weeks.
Here is our prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth. We praise and honor You for a successful OMC-24. We saw the work of Your Mighty Hands in the preparation of and throughout the conference. Thank you for providing excellent speakers from Indonesia and US, comfortable lodging, and safe travels for all attendees. We were encouraged with the teachings, group projects, friendship, and fellowship that happened throughout the conference. As we embark on projects and initiatives as a result of the conference, we ask for wisdom and strength to accomplish these. We also pray that You will fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in You, so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)
Some testimony from the attendees
The number of attendees almost doubled this year. Even though the number of people from our college was less than last year’s, I am truly thankful to God that we were able to go to the conference. Our friend, who is ethnically Korean but have been living in Indonesia for 13 years, came to FICA for the first time. He is not an Indonesian Citizen but he wants to go back to Indonesia to develop the economy. Through this, we can see that our identity is not constrained by being an Indonesian. Our identity lies as the citizenship as the kingdom of God. We happen to have the same passion to develop our country. (David W. student at Calvin College, MI)
it’s been an honor for me to be a part of this great conference. Because of the conference I got a chance to spend time with all my friends from Indonesia who are studying in the U.S., I’ve learned what friendship really means, and how to come together in diversity in order to make a difference in our community. Through this experience we’ve learned more about each other, and I believe that’s the most important thing for many of us. Through knowing each other better we can be there for each other more to help us all achieve our plans for the better future. We all started sharing our contact information so we can keep in touch, and I am hoping that one day all of us can make a difference in our country, Indonesia.
Secondly, I am so happy and thankful to everyone who worked very hard to make this conference successful and beneficial for all of us. At the conference, I learned how important it is to share the values and experiences that we have with others and empower each other to be strong. I am so excited to see all my brothers and sisters who are so passionate about Papua and who have sympathy and such a great heart for the development of Papua and its great future. I do believe that it takes a smart and strong person to share their values to those who are in need and those who do not know where to start in the world.
Thirdly, we’ve learned about how to come up with plans to accomplish our goals to make us successful. I am so glad that some of our friends are starting the work already. In the group section of the meeting we all came up with great ideas and strategies that we will use and take away from this experience. I think that we are all open minded, and have a plan in mind so that we know exactly what we are going to do and we have enough preparation to make it happen.
Finally, I am looking forward to working together with everyone to make our dreams come true. On behalf of all of the Papuan students, we would like to thank our leader in the FICA organization. You have worked extremely hard to make FICA a resource available to everyone of us. FICA is now a partner and a friend to all the Papuan students and partly because of this organization what we’re doing today is only the beginning of our long journey ahead. Let us together do the job not only for us but for the glory of God’s Kingdom.
(Anis L. student at Western Michigan University, MI)
In Christ,
FICA Staff members 2017