The coastlands will wait expectantly for His law
Report on the History of Redemption Series Seminars (May 2012)



Last April, we were able to hold the History of Redemption seminars in Papua and Pekanbaru through the official invitation given by Indonesian ministers. As were in previous seminars in different parts of Indonesia, special blessings were with us also in these seminars. We were able to witness firsthand the fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah, “And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law” (Isa 42:4) and “The coastlands will wait for Me, And for My arm they will wait expectantly” (Isa 51:5). In fact, Indonesia has the largest number of islands in the world (over 16,900), and the people of these numerous islands were yearning for the Word.

Papua: a province of Indonesia

Papua is another name for the island of New Guinea and is the second largest island in the world. Geographically, Papua belongs to Oceania. At 141º east longitude, the eastern part is Papua New Guinea, and the western part is a province of Indonesia. (Wikipedia)

The population of Papua, Indonesia is six million. Two million of them are natives and there are about 300 tribes in total.
The rest are from overseas. In the past, the natives were mostly Christians as they were evangelized by the western missionaries. As of 1964, only 6.5% were Muslims and the rest were Christians. However, the Indonesian government has made it a policy to move people from other parts of the country, most of whom were Muslims, into this island. As a result, the percentage of the Muslims in Papua has increased to 23% in 2004; and now the number has reached to as high as 50%. The people who have moved to Papua from other regions were more “modernized” culturally but were mostly Muslims in religion. As the number of Muslims has grown, the Christians in Papua ended up being severely persecuted. The natives who attended the seminar said with tears of gratitude, “We are so grateful that Rev. Abraham Park has reconnected the faith of the missionaries that had halted for a while now. He has saved Papua with the Word of God. He also gave us new strength, hope and courage.”
We flew for seven hours from Seoul to Jakarta, then from Jakarta to Papua it took another seven hours. There, the History of Redemption seminar was held in the auditorium of the University of Cendrawasih. We had about 2,000 people gathered. They said it was the first time in Papua that Koreans hosted a seminar that taught about a Korean book.
Rev. Herman Saud, president of the Evangelical Churches Association in Papua said, “I used to overlook the genealogies of the Bible, but when I realized that there are amazing secrets, I was astonished.” Dr. Jerry, a professor in Hebrew at a local theological seminary said, “After receiving Rev. Abraham Park’s book, I was in tears as I read it through the night until dawn.” He also emphatically stated, “This Word that is being proclaimed through Rev. Abraham Park is the very Word that can save Papua.”
Dr. Daniel Shukan, president of Indonesia University Students Missionary Association (LPMI) said in excitement, “As I read Genesis chapter 15, I could not understand the true meaning of the passage, so I prayed to God. When I read the second book of the History of Redemption series, I finally received the answer to the prayer.” After the seminar, he hugged us for quite a long while and did not let us go. The attendees purchased over 12,400 copies of the History of Redemption series books and maps that had been translated into the Indonesian language. Afterwards, we flew for seven hours to Jakarta and another three hours to Pekanbaru for another seminar.



Pekanbaru
Pekanbaru is the capital of Riau, in the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Riau is a very rich province and produces great amount of oil. Among the population of 5.5 million, 88% are Muslims, 5% Catholics, 6% Buddhists, and 1% Christians.
In Pekanbaru, persecution against Christians is very severe. However, the Christians there were very fervent in receiving the Word. We have realized that the more severe the persecution, the believers had greater love for the Word of God.
Prior to the seminar, a certain Korean minister had attempted to prevent the people from attending the seminar. Despite such interference, more than 1,000 local church leaders attended the seminar. One local minister said, “I started to look into The Genesis Genealogies to see what kind of book it was, and ended up reading it five times. I have come to the conclusion that this book could not have been written by a human being, but by the help of the Holy Spirit.” After reaching this conclusion, he started to call other ministers he knew and told them, “If you miss this seminar, our city will be cursed,” and took a leading role in promoting the History of Redemption series. After being blessed through this seminar, the ministers unanimously said, “We must banish from Indonesia that Korean minister who tried to stop the seminar.”
Rev. Arzzi gave a testimony before many people saying, “I prayed to God asking whether the Word of the History of Redemption series was the Word of God. God then showed me the face of the author in a vision during the prayer.”
Then, Rev. Arzzi willingly offered to become a branch of the author’s church. He even changed the name of his church to “Pekanbaru Mt.Zion Church,” thus taking on the name of our branch church in Jakarta.
The World Prayer Association is a large organization, which has branches in 300 cities and in 250 countries. The president of this association, Rev. Mukhlis said, “I was astonished to see that such secrets were hidden in the genealogies,”
adding, “I will introduce the Word of the redemptive history to the World Prayer Association so that they will be able to teach it from now on.” The attendees said, “We have never heard anything like this,” and scrambled to buy the books, maps, and CDs. There were also ministers who had come from other cities, leaving for the seminar at 1 am. They said, “We are so pleased to have come,” and asked us to come to their cities as well to share the Word of redemptive history. The History of Redemption series is truly the living water from heaven to save the souls that are thirsting for God’s Word.

Rev. Phillip Lee, Rev. Yoon Doo-Hee, Rev. Andrew Pak