Below is the letter that I recently sent out thanking people who prayerfully and financially supported me for my January trip to SE Asia. I thought I would post it on here for y'all to read.
Friends and Family,
You may get letters like this extremely often. You may not. I’m going to try to give you a brief glimpse into the lives of the Sea Tribe people as well as what God did in my own heart. Through this, I hope you can understand how important your part was in this experience and how grateful I am for your generosity.
I’ve been home from Indonesia for 26 days now, yet sometimes it feels like it’s been 26 months. An experience that changes you feels so real and so exhilarating in the moment, and then as you look back on it, you still realize it changed you, but it was just another chapter in your life story. Then, you begin to gain perspective and understand that your life story is but a word in the eternal story that God is writing. For the three weeks that I was gone, I sometimes struggled to figure out what exactly God was doing in my life and the lives of the beautiful Muslim people with whom we came into contact.
We worked with some long term missionaries who are there to interact with Muslims on a daily basis with the purpose of building long-term relationships and sharing Jesus Christ with these people. Indonesia contains the largest Muslim population in the world. Because of this fact, I know of several people who were somewhat concerned with me going on this trip due to that fact, and I don’t blame them, but you must understand that these people are so incredibly warm, loving, and kind-hearted. We would learn this everywhere we went. They love God, their families, and they do their best to meet the needs of their neighbors. They do many things right.
We spent 3 days and 3 nights on 3 different islands. We were ethno-tourists and we were assisting a long term mission by giving the missionaries an excuse to get on the islands and get to know the people. Once on the island, relationships quickly form, and they are welcomed back as friends. Our mission was to pray constantly, be learners, ask questions, love the people, and share the truth of the gospel whenever we could. I was amazed at the openness to talk about God and living for Him.
Joe was around 40 years old and showed glimpses of the Kingdom of God in his eyes. He had a softness about him and he loved spending time talking to us and just watching us. He knew something was different in the way we behaved. One evening as we sat on the floor and ate rice, squid, and mango with our hands, Joe asked us why we spent all the money to come here and forfeit the comforts of our nice homes in the United States. He saw us sweating as we dug ditches and threw kids around. He noticed the way we just sat and really listened to him. He was aware of the fact that we weren’t just there to have fun. I think the Holy Spirit is working in Joe’s heart. This is just one glimpse of the spirit’s work amongst the Sea Tribe people.
I asked a whole lot of questions while I was gone this time. Questions like:
What is absolutely essential to the Gospel?
Why are there 1.3 billion people who seem to have a veil over their eyes?
Why has the large majority of the Christian population given up on Muslim people? If only they could meet the people I was able to meet.
How do I exhibit the same love I shared in Indonesia with the people I meet every day, here?
What am I going to do about the fact that this world has many hurting people, both right around me and on the other side of the world? I know I can’t do everything, but I must do something.
I cannot thank you enough for the support you have shown by helping send me to Indonesia for a month. Please know that your resources and prayers were not taken for granted. The prayers sustained us when things were difficult. My eyes were opened to the possibility that perhaps I may end up serving an extended amount of time overseas. I do not know when or where, but I do know that I have been blessed to see the world and God may want to use me somewhere else. But, more importantly, right now I see a world right around me, in Grant County, Indiana, that has many hurting people. Thank you so much and I look forward to sharing more with you in person sometime. I would love to hear how you are doing as well.
Kyle Lantz
kyle.lantz@gmail.com – send me an email so I can have your email address if you have time.
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