Ucu presently teaches each week at a Christian school, and has become a mentor to the students. In the last several months, he’s slowly been teaching them through the translation of Paul Washer’s Gospel workbook. For many people, the workbook is too heavy theologically, which only shows the famine of biblical understanding that so many Christians have in this Southeast Asian country. The content in the book, though, has had a profound impact on these students, even though most come from a nominal Christian background. They’ve come to realize that they really have no personal faith in Christ, but are only Christian in name. This was even something that they openly shared with Ucu. This is also a common reality in Indonesia where many tribes consider themselves to be “Christian.” But, there is little to no reality in the faith they profess; they have the outward form of religion but deny its power. Pray that God would continue to use his word in the life of these students and that they would be brought to saving faith.

Ucu comes from a Muslim background and has faced intense persecution in the past from his own family when he first came to faith in the Lord Jesus. However, in the last several years he’s been able to rebuild his relationship with his family, and has become a light in the midst of the darkness all around them. Each week Ucu travels back to his family’s village and he continues to have opportunities to share God’s word with his family and those in the community. In the past, Ucu’s mother was ashamed of her own son, but as she’s witnessed how God has transformed him, and has even seen tangible expressions of Christ’s power in his life, she has grown much more open. Please pray that God would bring Ucu’s family to saving faith in Christ; pray that God would give Ucu boldness to open his mouth and proclaim the good news.

In the last five weeks, Ucu has also started teaching at an evangelistic post in the same area as his home village. He has been teaching two families about the most basic doctrines of the Christian faith: the fall, man’s need of a Savior, God’s provision of the Savior, and the necessary responses of repentance and faith. It is through this type of basic and elementary teaching that God begins to work, and Christ begins to build his church. Please pray for these two families would be the beginning of the church in this area of Ucu’s island where there are no churches, and Islamic fundamentalism is the water that people drink. 

Ucu was also recently married. Like most people, this was something that he had spoken about and hoped for several years. He married a young woman from North Sumatra and the wedding ceremony was held there two weeks ago. Please pray for this young couple as they begin their life together; pray that their marriage would be a shining light and would reflect the relationship between Christ and his beloved bride, the church.