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Morgan Jackson: Audio Bibles in Bali
On his way back from visiting listening groups across Bali, Indonesia, Morgan Jackson shares from the heart about some of his experiences during the amazing trip.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
“Well, Mary and I are in the airport in Hong Kong. Our flights didn’t connect and so we had to spend the night here on our way back from Bali. We took about 26 people from Hong Kong and Singapore and Malaysia – donors – to see the projects in Bali, Indonesia. It was wonderful! It was amazing to sit, actually, in a hotel on the beach and then travel out hours into the forest areas and to see how the Audio Bible in Balinese was being used to reach primarily Hindus.
Now, we think of Indonesia as a primarily Muslim or Islamic country, which it is, but Bali is primarily Hindu. And so everywhere you go, there are these little offerings set out to all the different gods. And that was one of the things we learned very quickly was, that when you bring the Gospel to Balinese or to the Hindus, they already have 55 gods. And so the Faith Comes By Hearing program, normally, we start with Matthew because the genealogy for half the world is the most important part of the Scriptures. But with Hindus, it’s actually John. It’s establishing that Jesus is the only God and that He is the creator of Heaven and Earth. So John 1 is right where they begin and they just camp there for awhile.
And so we were able to go to all these communities where field workers are using the Audio Bible as a way to disciple, evangelize, and reach people. Now, what’s amazing is, many of ‘em go to the sickest people, because sickness is generally spiritual, and it’s always connected with one of the gods or curses. Jealousy and envy seem to be filled in the culture, and so if you do better than somebody else – your neighbor – they’ll go put a curse on you. And the people seem to know the difference between sickness that is something you can go to the doctor for, and something that is spiritual.
And so there’s just a lot of fear – there’s a lot of the money that people make go to provide the offerings, which is to keep them safe. And so as we were going into these communities, they were talking to us about hearing Scripture and how God had healed them, how God had delivered them. You could see the hope and peace in their eyes. Many of them had suffered.
Coming from a Hindu background, if they accept Christ, no problem, as long as it’s the 56th god. But the moment of baptism, then they will come in, burn the house, take the property, steal everything you have, and you’re ejected from the community, often. And so we actually met with communities of Christians who had been rejected from areas, and that had come then to a central area.
But then, other people we met were actually Hindu priests. They came to Christ through the listening of the Scripture and now were playing the Proclaimer, actually, in the temple for people to hear. And they were telling people, “This is not about religion. This is about the way to heaven.” And the comment they made is, “Our gods make no promises, but Jesus promises eternal life.”
And isn’t that true? Jesus Christ came, gave. They’re offering sacrifices. He gave Himself as a living sacrifice for us, so that we might have eternal life and be with Him. So it’s amazing to see. Very difficult work, very secretive, but we were very, very impressed with what God’s doing through Faith Comes By Hearing in Indonesia.
May the Lord bless you and keep you in his grace and mercy.”
