Last week God called home a friend in ministry, Marojahan Sijabat. After ministry in Batu, Malang, he experienced acute abdominal pain; so, he was taken to a hospital in Malang, which subsequently sent him to a hospital in Surabaya.  The doctors found abdominal blockage but before they could perform surgery, he suffered blood clot in his lungs. Within hours, he passed away.  It all happened so quickly and so unexpectedly because despite the not-so-young age of 58, he’s in good health.  God had another plan for him: to rest.

It's from Pastor Marojahan Sijabat that I learned about faith, about trusting God to provide for our needs.  Years ago, when he informed the church that he was serving of his intention to quit, the deacons of the church did not take it too kindly.  I am not a judge, so I’m not here to decide who’s right and who’s wrong; none of us is perfect.  But there was something that happened, then, that I stored in my heart as a guiding principle.  In short, the deacons told him that he’d have a bleak future in ministry.  In response he told them that it was God, not men, who would take care of him and meet all his needs.  He left the church, without knowing where to go next. But he’s right because till the day he died, God was faithful to him and his family.  God provided for him and blessed his ministry beyond measure.

Early on in her ministry, Corrie ten Boom learned to trust God to provide for her personal and ministry’s needs.  Instead of asking for money, she sometimes gave money.  Whenever she felt called to go to a certain place, she’d ask the Lord to provide. She never asked for remuneration or even travel expenses.  She always remembered the words of her sister Betsie while they were in Nazi’s concentration camp, “Corrie, we should never worry about money.  God is willing to supply our every need.”  And supply, He did!  God calls, God leads and God supplies.  That’s the story of every child of God, isn’t it?

Pastor Paul