| · Jakarta: population about 12 million
| · Indonesia: population about 245 million
Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia. It is also the national political and economic centre, with 75 per cent of the national economy located in its vicinity. Almost every ethnic group in the country has a presence there, including the 127 largest unreached people groups.
The Betawi People of Jakarta
The Betawi people (population 500,000) are considered the original inhabitants of Jakarta. They came from the mixture of peoples who arrived in Batavia (Jakarta's historical name) from the 15th century onwards from elsewhere in Indonesia and from other countries, including Portugal. Most Betawi have at least one Portuguese among their ancestors. The authentic Betawi people can be found in the outlying areas of Jakarta, such as Pasar Minggu in south Jakarta, Condet in east Jakarta, and Bekasi. The Betawi speak a Malay dialect. While most are Muslims, they are still deeply involved in the occult. They believe in the presence of spirits in places such as trees, bridges, and graves (this includes ancestor worship). About 100 Betawi have become Christians; a few are actively involved in spreading the gospel among their fellow Betawi.
Many Betawi order their daily personal and communal lives according to Islam. The Betawi have special cultural activities, including a folk theatre (lenong), a giant puppet parade (ondel-ondel), traditional brass music (tanjidor), masks (topeng) and puppet theatre (wayang golek). They also have special clothing, which they wear at wedding celebrations and other special occasions. Two Betawi foundations are working hard to preserve the Betawi culture and identity among the amazing mixture of peoples and cultures in this large city.
Bible Translation and Evangelisation
Their dialect has no Bible translation, Jesus film or radio evangelisation, but they all know Bahasa Indonesian, the main language of Indonesia, at least to primary-school level. There are many resources in the Bahasa Indonesian language, such as Bibles, cassettes, CDs, films, and books.
Jakarta is the key city in the evangelisation of Indonesia. Jakarta has a Christian population of over 13 per cent, and there are over 1,000 registered churches. Some churches are very small, most are medium-sized, but others are very large, with tens of thousands of members along with thousands of cell groups. Most of Jakarta's Christians are Chinese or belong to the Batak, Minahasa, Moluccan and Timor peoples, who are mainly Christian and have moved from their region to the capital. There are often big evangelistic campaigns. The theological schools in Jakarta prepare their students for pastoral ministry in the churches. However, at least one of the schools is concentrating on preparing workers for ministry among the unreached peoples; perhaps others will join it in the future.
Flag of Indonesia
Map of Indonesia
Prayer guide for Jakarta, Indonesia:
* Pray blessing on the city of Jakarta (Jer 29:1-7). It is facing huge challenges economically, socially, and politically. The city officials and inhabitants are struggling with problems linked to sewage, drinking water, trash disposal and pollution.
* Pray for the evangelisation and discipleship of the Betawi people.
* Pray that the resources of the churches will be especially used for church-planting among the unevangelised and unreached Muslim peoples.
* Pray that the Christians realise the potential for outreach in their own neighbourhoods and increase their evangelistic efforts.
* Pray for good Christian programmes on TV, so that non-Christians will also be reached with the gospel.
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Pray for jakatara:
* pray for the evanglization of the Muslim populations
* pray for the youth of the city
* pray for revival in Jakatra that will affact all Indonesia
* pray for viable solutions to the many problems of Jaktara
Even tough, there are christian program on TV we will not turn christian, we belief that our religion is right. So we don't care what you do. Besides you people only judge, we muslim by it's cover. You just know from the media but never talk to us or ask what is right to us and what is not. You think that all of is terrorist, but the truth is not. Most of us think that the terrorist is not islam because islam didn't teach us to take revenge and kill others. But what about you guys? You keep killing muslim like in Palestine even though their children that didn't do anything. You think that was right? You don't have any humanity and your not a human being if you think that's alright.