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Indonesia Church Spotlight: IES Kelapa Gading

mission-event-donationBasic Facts:
Church Name: IES Kelapa Gading
Location: North Jakarta
Launch Date: February, 2013
Pastor: Mario Tahitoe
Website: www.ieskelapagading.org

Pastor’s Story:
“My home church, IES (Jakarta), commissioned me to plant this church two years ago. I really enjoy being here because I was born and raised 10 minutes away from the church.”

Challenges:
“Just the same challenges everyone faces planting a church: attendance, budget, raising up volunteers, planting more small groups, and planning outreach/mission programs. I should add that the unique problem for me is that I’m a local guy planting an international church – an English speaking church. People come to an English speaking international church expecting an American pastor. Some of these people come and stay but there are some who move on to another church. Oh well!

Successes:
“I am the only paid staff of the church and yet we manage to be a mature church. We have our own music teams. We do our own mission/outreach programs. We have great teens and kids churches. We have a growing small groups environment. And they have all been overseen by lay people in the church from the very beginning.”

Church Make-up:
“We have many expatriates from Northern Asia, India, and Africa in our church. And that is a representative of our community. But the majority of our church are Indonesians who have been educated for more than a year overseas – just like me and my wife.

Prayer:
“Just pray that we can reach more people in Kelapa Gading. Official data in 2010 shows that there are more than 150,000 people in our part of the city living in barely 6.3 square mile. That’s a lot of people living in a relatively small area. We have more people than Tallahassee, Florida, and Springfield, Missouri and yet we live in a space smaller than Redondo Beach, California. Let’s just say it’s a happening place. And most of them do not know Jesus. We have a lot of workers from countries that are listed as unreached people groups. So please pray for wisdom and diligence for my team. We need Jesus to pour out his Spirit so that we can be equipped to reach this city for him. “

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