December 30, 2002


The Sunda tribe of West Java, Indonesia, is the largest unreached people group in the entire world according to Johnstone’s Operation World. The Sundanese number about 43,000,000 according to latest figures, and are considered by many in Indonesia to be the most gospel-resistant tribe in this fourth-largest country in the world.

In the city of Bandung, the capital of West Java, we began a spiritual offensive to reach these tribe for Jesus Christ. First we had a Healing Encounter to train those servants of the Lord who had a burden to reach the Sundanese how to heal the sick to confirm the gospel to them. Attending the Encounter were several Sundanese believers who had just recently come to Christ. After the two-day Encounter, we held an Evangelistic Healing Service on the campus of Maranatha University, a Christian college in Bandung. See the photo below.

 

After an elaborate tribal ceremony traditionally reserved for royalty in which Sundanese dancers welcomed host pastor Davy Hermanus and me into the auditorium, I preached the gospel. Quoting from John 14:6, I shared that Jesus is the only way to the Father, which of course the Sundanese totally reject. Reading on to verse 11, I quoted Jesus as saying to Philip that if he wouldn’t believe His words, he should at least believe He and the Father were one because of the MIRACULOUS WORKS that He had done. I told the people that Jesus had done mighty miraculous healings to prove that He indeed was the Son of God, and that He still did them today. How would He do these miracles today? I read from verse 12 where Jesus said that THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN HIM would do the miraculous works that He did. I announced that we would ask Jesus to use His believers to perform miraculous healings that evening to prove that He was the only way to the Father.

The believers I had trained came forward, and after an initial mass healing in which some people stepped forward to testify of their healings, began to lay hands on and minister to the sick. As we entered into warfare against the infirmities, we could feel the resistance from the strong principalities that prevail over the Sundanese people. They did want any more miracles to take place. But eventually the persevering believers broke through the resistance and miracles began to occur. People began to come to the platform to testify of their healings. One notable miracle involved a man with severe kidney disease who had come to the meeting in a wheelchair and unable to walk. One of the newly-saved (for three months) and newly-trained Sundanese believers ministered to him over and over, and he was able to get out of the wheelchair and walk. He came up to the platform to testify that he was healed! See the photo below.

 

 
 

Because of the miracles, about one-half of the severely-gospel-resistant Sundanese people at the meeting made the decision to accept Christ!

In view of this very encouraging result, we will be back in West Java this October. Host Pastor Davy Hermanus is inviting us back to launch a more comprehensive spiritual invasion of this largest unreached people group on the planet. With nearly 10 months to prepare, he will enlist the support of all the churches and organizations in Bandung, the capital of West Java. Previous outreaches to the Sunda people had been fruitless. But with the powerful results from the limited outreach where about one-half of the Sundanese present received the Lord, Pastor Davy is emboldened to mobilize the whole Church in West Java to reach out to the Sunda people once again, the difference this time being the miraculous healings to confirm the gospel. In October we will begin with a Healing Encounter for the servants of the Lord in Bandung, followed by evangelistic healing crusades in various densely-populated Sunda districts, where less than one percent are followers of Jesus Christ. As the Lord miraculously heals the sick in these Crusades through the trained believers, we will witness the kingdom of God come with power to what will formerly be the world’s largest unreached people group.