After a very long flight we arrived with Arjan and Efi Knevel in Jakarta. We were warmly welcomed by the TRIN's Indonesian team and spent the night in Jakarta. It was already dark and still around 28 degrees Celsius when  we left the airport and our overwhelming first impression was one of extreme poverty. As we saw a family with two babies sitting on a box under a bridge, Rebekah was deeply moved by their plight and we felt God's heart for these special people. I have had the privilege of visiting Indonesia several times in the past and I have fallen in love with the country. God has opened many unbelievable doors for us there ...but I shall come back to this subject later. The TRIN team in Indonesia is doing exceptionally well and has grown in size.

The TRIN House is regularly filled with outreach teams and the amount of office work to be done increases daily.

The outreaches done after 10 o'clock at night to transvestites,  prostitutes and drug abusers were of great interest to us. The team reaches out to these people in a loving, caring way. The work with street children, the outreaches in underprivileged areas, the English lessons in the very poorest areas and the Firenights are all doing extremely well and we are  very happy about the progress our people in Indonesia are making. They are loving and passionate people  who really love God.

Semarang

The following day we flew to Semarung with Guruda Airways. Samarung is a large city in Java where  a great revival broke out 30 years ago and through which IFGF GISI (www.ifgfgisi-jakarta.org) and World Harvest (www.worldharvest.cc)were started under the leadership of Jimmy Oentoro(www.jimmyoentoro.com) and a large apostolic team. At the moment they oversee  hundreds of churches and various works in 35 countries and are literally reaching hundreds of thousands of people with the Gospel. I have seen and witnessed, from close up, many networks in my life, but this has to be the greatest one of all!

They come very close to what is described in the book of Acts, Chapter 2, and have an enormous influence on the communities where they live. They don't talk about revival and transformation because they are already living in it. It is a movement affecting every level of the population, even into the highest  political circles and then further afield. The communities in Jakarta come together in huge shopping malls guarded by members of their own community.

They have churches in the very poorest of the underprivileged areas and they reach a huge amount of Moslems.

They also do a lot to reduce poverty levels and to help widows and orphans. They do job and life skills training, they run Bible Schools, outreaches, crusades and missions. Once every 3 years they have a special leadership conference for their apostolic leaders from all 35 countries where they work. In 2008 they invited me to speak this year. At first I thought it was a joke, or maybe it was for a Youth Conference.

It was only after several months of discussions that I realised that I was going to be the main speaker at the conference and that all my flights and other expenses would be paid for by this organisation. Arjan and Efi Knevel were asked to attend the conference to provide the music. When we arrived, the way we were welcomed is almost indescribable as was the respect, appreciation and enormous amount of love we received.

There were huge posters hung all over Samarang featuring photos of both myself and Jimmy Oentoro. As I entered the hotel there was a long line of people waiting for me to sign their copy my book Dare to Dream. The book has been translated into the local Indonesian language and all the profits go to help support TRIN Indonesia.

The conference facility was festively decorated and looked like there was about to be a wedding! It seated 1500 people. That Saturday night it was completely filled with people wearing their national costume and the welcome we received was quite overwhelming. Jimmy and I  both spoke that night and there was a presentation from GISI, which means touch, reach and impact the nations in the local Indonesian language. The evening was filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

It was a tightly planned schedule with many TV camera's, and I had until exactly 21.00 to say what I had to say. But the power of the Holy Spirit came so powerfully, and so many leaders were so touched by Jesus, that the meeting went on until 22.30.

In total I spoke 3 times and every time the experience as wonderful. The three different messages were 'God as Father', 'Revival and Transformation', and 'God's heart for the widows and orphans' and all were received with open hands and hearts and with it came many more invitations for me to visit China, Taiwan, Nepal...

Palembang, Sumatra

After the outstanding World Conference 2009 we flew to Jakarta and then on to Palembang, a large place on the island of Sumatra. There we had a large conference for the youth, parents and pastors. Our contacts there were Robert from the GISI community, and Peter Rondeel, the ex director of Open Doors in Indonesia. It was wonderful to see them again and they told me that Sumatra has a very large unreached people group. There are more than 50 tribes there that have never heard the Gospel. More than  100 pastors attended the first meeting which Arjan and I did together. To our great surprise, the grand daughter of ex president Soekarno and niece of Minister Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Perhaps you remember that she attended the Fire Conference in Jakarta in 2008 and was powerfully touched by Jesus. She converted to Christianity and was filled with the Holy Spirit. After that she asked Arjan, Efi and I if we would pray for her husband who is a Moslem and one of the highest ranking generals in the Sumatran Army.

To our great surprise she attended this year's meeting with her husband Mustafa. At the meeting he was mightily touched by our Lord Jesus and radically saved. That evening he was filled with the Holy Spirit in a wonderful and radical way.

The days that followed were really heaven on earth with many teenagers and young people coming to the Lord and being  touched by the Holy Spirit. Again there were many doors opened for us.

One church had a bowling alley, 49 billiard tables, massage available, coffee corners and a travel bureau. We could hardly believe what we were seeing! What a vision this church has!

Later that night, whilst having supper at a restaurant, Rebekah and Arjan were able to lead a young man to the Lord. What a truly blessed evening!

Jakarta

The last two days we spent at TRIN house in Jakarta and, with the TRIN team, we had several different meetings with Jimmy Oentoro at his head office. We have never seen such an impressive  head office with TV studio's, book shops and a chapel which seats 2000 people. Again, people with a great vision. We were invited to take part in several  adventurous projects and to be part of a vision to see one million souls come to the Lord in Indonesia.

It was great to see the studio where the program Arjan and I had taken part in, being spliced and under titled for the Indonesian audience. At the moment the program is seen by about 4 million people a week when it is sent out on a Sunday and repeated on a Monday. Through these programs many people are being touched by the Lord and are becoming Christians.

Altogether this has been a trip we will always remember amongst people that have captured our hearts.

We want to thank our dear Partners that made all this possible, and our dear friends Arjan and Efi Kneval with whom we laughed, cried and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with.

Mattheus and Rebecca van der Steen