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Address to Synod by Rev Madah Biha (presented by Dr Boersema)
on behalf of the Deputies of Relation of GGRI-NTT
Friday 11th July 2003 - Synod Rockingham, Western Australia, 2003
Dear brothers in Jesus Christ the Lord our Head and Saviour.
First of all on behalf of GGRI - NTT, we as Deputies of Relations - through this written address - would like to extend our brotherly greetings. May our Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church through His Spirit and Word be with you and blesses this respected synod, and grant you all with necessary wisdom and clear conscience that all issues discussed in this forum will result in good and proper decisions for the edification of the Church on earth in accordance with the Word and doctrines that we affirm to be true namely the Three Forms of Unity.
We are also thankful for your invitation for us. However, our financial situation does not make it possible for our delegate to attend the Synod. Therefore, we requested rev. Dr. J.A. Boersema - a BBK delegate - to represent us GGRI - NTT. He is well familiar with our situation and struggle here since he was once served here for eight years and he just have visited us in May. Therefore, great is our hope that this respected synod would accept this delegate as our delegate as well. It is indeed a pity that we cannot attend this synod and meet face by face with you. It would have been a great opportunity for our relatively young and weak church to learn from you in term of organization. However, having rev. JA Boersema, as our representative is to prove our commitment to the sister relation that we already have with FRCA. We expect that through him our hopes are accommodated in this synod.
Brothers,
Tracing and learning from the history of the relation between GGRI-NTT and FRCA, we are thankful to our Lord Jesus Christ the Head of the Church because our relation as sister churches has been based on the right track, namely the firm foundation the Word and the Three Forms of Unity. The foundation on which our relation is based has to be maintained and defended in our own contexts, and synods are conscious effort of our churches for evaluation and for assisting each other to harmonize our vision, mission, and perception on various issues and calling; either issues related to internal calling or issues that concerns with external calling, in order to help and support each other as mandated by the doctrines we affirm to be true.
It is our prayer therefore that our Lord through His Spirit and Word will lead, bless, and defend FRCA that you will always be faithful and stand firm upon the biblical teachings in every aspect of calling. We all realize that standing firm upon truth in the world full of heresy and falseness obligates the church to sound her prophetic voice as the witness of the truth. It is not an easy task. But we have the sure promise of the Lord that He will be the Church (US) until the end of time. In this, we as sister churches should pray for each other and 'bear one another's burdens' as the apostle Paul advised us. Therefore, we always expect prayer support of our brothers and sisters in FRCA, that with the help of the Lord we here in Indonesia can stand firm on the truth of our faith.
As sister church we realize that FRCA does not only remember us in prayer, but also in other areas. We are thankful also for your attention and support for the caderization of human resource in the field of theology such as financing the study of brother Pila Njuka. We perceive it as the expression of the love of all brothers and sisters in FRCA for us. It is important for us and has a strategic value for the development of theological education in NTT for the future. We realize that it may be too expensive finance education in Canada. And if FRCA is still willing to help us in this field, we can propose at this time to finance one of our available cadres to study in STT PCK (Kosin), or other reformed institutions. This brother has an adequate English capability.
In terms of theological education, we are consistent with our vision to have a non-interdenominational educational institution of reformed theology. Therefore we herewith emphasize that STT SETIA Jakarta where RCN have teaching lecturers, is not recommended for students from GGRI - NTT to study, because the School is interdenominational in nature. Therefore, The Reformed Churches is not able to supervise the doctrines taught there.
As for the two students from GGRI-NTT studying in that school is just a temporary policy taken in emergency situation, and both of them have finished their studies in our Theological School in Waimarangu (East Sumba).
Worth mention here as well are the other supports for the construction of our pastory / guest house of Gereja Reformasi Kupang and financial aids from Mission Aid and from brothers and sisters from the Rochingham Congregation for evangelization posts in Sabu and Sumba. All these are proofs that you have helped us - as a relatively weak church in terms of human as well as financial resource.
Learning that FRCA dan RCN (Lib) put their brotherly attention to us, herewith we would also suggest both sister church to coordinate with each other. We have addressed this issue in our proposal titled "A Concept for The Reorganization Of Relations Between Gereja-Gereja Reformasi Indonesia-Ntt (GGRI-NTT) And Both Reformed Churches In The Netherlands And The Free Reformed Churches Of Australia (FRCA)". Through that proposal we expect both churches to have unity of Vision and Mission in assisting GGRI-NTT. Two areas where we think we are in need - since we are still weak in terms of human as well as financial resources of help - are Theological Education and Evangelization. GGRI - NTT has determined to establish a quality educational institution in theology, and therefore in our synod we have decided to upgrade the status of the current school in Waimarang into an Academy and to move its location to Kupang. Since this project is of strategic value and requires a large sum of money, we do expect the coordination of involvement of RCN and FRCA. We are of the opinion that there need to be an agreement for 'three-parties' cooperation. The same is true for evangelization. Sumba Island is like a ripening field and ready for harvest. However, the harvester is not ready because of human and financial resource problem. Therefore an integrated policy is needed from sister churches interested in assisting in order to improve the quality of pastors and evangelists through trainings and courses in evangelization. We hope that East Sumba where most of the population is still the adherents of old religion of Marapu can get greater attention from FRCA dan RCN by assisting GGRI-NTT in the areas of evangelization. What we mean is a well programmed and arranged assistance through the deputies. Therefore, it is not just an assistance of local shurches or persons as we already receive now.
Brothers in the Lord,
At the concluding part of this speech let us as your brothers address one question that has been our concern. It is your decision of FRCA to withdraw from ecumenical forum of the Reformed Churches namely ICRC. As the member of ICRC we would like to plea for you to reevaluate your decision of withdrawal from ICRC. We appreciate your policy, but we are of the opinion that critics of the development in ICRC can only be heard if FRCA remains in the forum. How can we testify the truth we perceive if we close ourselves? Are not the main sponsors of ICRC like RCN, PCK (Kosin) CanRC etc. are sister churches of FRCA?! Of course we do not mean to teach you on this issue. It is just as your sister church we are concerned to set forth this matter in order to be pondered by the servants of God who are entrusted to make policies in FRCA.
Finally, in this beautiful opportunity we also would like to inform you that our 9th Synod would be held, the Lord willing, in August or beginning of September 2003 in East Sumba. It is our hope and desire that you would send a delegate to attend our Synod.
Before concluding our speech, let us point out several issues from our side that we suggest you to discuss in this respected synod:
1). Help financing the study of our cadre Maddi Mina Djara in Seminary of PCK (Kosin). He almost finishes his study in university now. He has interest in learning theology and he is called to serve the Lord. In our local church he is active in youth service. He is also fluent on English because he was once in Canada for three month in a youth exchange program. Br. John Bosveld has personally known brother Maddi well.
Our reason for choosing the Seminary of PCK (Kosin) beside the lower cost compared to Canada or Netherlands, is because PCK is the sister church of FRCA and FRCA and both chruches also support the seminary. Therefore we do not doubt the seminary in terms of doctrinal matters. Besides, we also see that the seminary has a quality and missionary program and has more experience in an Asian context Missiologi.
2). The development of theological education in NTT.
We propose that RCN and FRCA to discuss the development of theological education and to make it as a project to be jointly helped by both church. We also both church can; the portion of both churches in this project also needs to be clarified either in terms of man power or in terms of financial.
3). Sumba Timur and Sabu as 'Mission Field' for FRCA.
In this regard, we suggest FRCA and RCN (Lib) to discuss and make a joint policy on how to assist GGRI-NTT in the field of evangelization to the heathen. We realize that GGRI-NTT is still very weak in terms of human or financial resources.
May this synod proceed well and may through the decisions taken the churches be edified, the ecclesiastical relations be strengthened and the Name of Triune God be glorified. The Lord blesses us.
Thank you and Immanuel.
Kupang, June 2003
Deputies of Relations of GGRI-NTT,
Rev. Madah Biha
Chairman
last updated 22 Jul 2003
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