04/03/2022 Indonesia (International Christian Concern) – In the middle of 2021, Malaki Aritonang and his wife founded the ministry Garis Depan in the town of Gunang Tua, a rural village located about 10 hours away from the nearest large city in North Sumatra.
The name Garis Depan is Indonesian, and it translates to “Front Line” in English. Malaki and his family are on the front lines nurturing and supporting rural believers.
The people who live in the area are primarily workers on a local oil palm plantation. Due to the rural location of the village and the fact that it is in a predominantly Muslim area, it is challenging for the small population of Christians there to access Bibles in their language.
Malaki estimates that there are about 60 Christians in the area without access to Bibles, and he decided to connect with International Christian Concern (ICC) through ICC’s representative in Indonesia to request Bibles for these Christians.
Now, Malaki and his ministry, Garis Depan, have received 60 Bibles that ICC provided, and he has been able to distribute them to local Christians and the local church.
Malaki told ICC, “Shalom, ICC. We are very grateful for the prayer and support from the ICC team in procuring Bibles for the PALUTA area, North Sumatra. We are very thankful for this assistance because the people here have Bibles now. We believe that the people who have received these Bibles can now grow in the knowledge of God and the Truth so that they can become disciples of Christ. May God bless ICC even more in conveying the great message of Jesus Christ.”
Additionally, one of the recipients of the Bible also expressed their thankfulness for ICC’s assistance, saying in a video sent to ICC, “My name is Martin Dermawan Hulu. Thank you, ICC, for the Bibles you gave to us. I speak for the young people in our church and say thank you. We did not have any Bibles before, but now we can read the word of God because ICC gave it to us. Thank you, ICC.”
For interviews, please contact press@persecution.org.
