Fantastic Services!!! Welcome Back Riel!!!

The Christmas Eve and the Christmas Morning Services were AWESOME!! Brother Riel Pasaribu made it to service for the 1st time in 10 months after surviving the Garuda Airlines crash in Jogjakarta!!! The congregation surged with thanksgiving as we welcomed Reil back!! We are looking forward to giving Riel an entire service soon to share his amazing testimony!!! God's Spirit moved in such an amazing way on Christmas morning that I am still shaking my head in wonder. Thank you all for praying for our family during the service!! We are a part of a wonderful family... Joy and I have been talking much about how blessed we are to be a part of the amazing destiny that we all share!! We are looking forward to a blessed, splendid and breakthrough New Year this 2008!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! May the time that you spend with family and friends be refreshing and memorable as we focus on the greatest gift of all and the reason not only for the season but for all of life... Jesus Christ!!!

It is Christmas Eve in Jakarta and we just arrived home after a wonderful service! We will need to get to bed soon because we have another one first thing at 9am on Christmas Morning!

But I wanted to get a message out because I have been leaving you all hanging much too long and I apologize. The main reason is simply that we have been extremely busy, though it has mostly been Christmas Church related fun! The other reason is that I ate something that messed me up... hives all over my body, my face swelling up and the worst part...my tongue was about double the normal size and I couldn't breath properly. The doctor says it was an infection caused by bad or badly cooked sea-food. I never want to deal with that again! It took more than a week to truly get back on my feet. Thanks for your continued prayers because I still can't imagine eating certain things that I normally would be able to.

Hi-lights of the Christmas Season include the Christmas in Reverse production which was conducted by our youth and children on December 9. It was beautiful, powerful and not to mention downright fun!

The Little Steps School which we run on the same premises as the Church conducted a wonderful production entitled "The Stars of Christmas" which was very nicely produced. Many Children participated as every element of the production explained the true meaning of Christmas to all who attended!!!

Jevan Jal Assemblies of God Church and our ICCJ Indian Theopholus Ministry conducted a combined Festive Outreach to the Indian Community of Jakarta and it was awesome! Well over 1,000 people attended, more than half of them being "pre-Christians"... Many were touched and saved and many more brought further along in their quest of seeking truth! Amen!!!

The Women of Harvest Christmas party was a major success which is still being talked about. The food was great, the music, games and mesage were wonderful and attendance was triple of what it was last year... I think the word has gotten out that Pastor Joy knows how to throw a great party!!!

The ICCJ Staff Christmas Party held at our house was a blast and the food was fantastic... no left overs at all!

We conducted our final Wedding for the year on December 23 at 6pm... for Shelin (long time youth member and youth leader) and Neeraj at the Sunlake Hotel in Sunter. It was awesome and I am confident that this couple is going to accomplish much for God as they work together in His purpose!

All of the services here at ICCJ continue to be marked with the Presence of God as we endeavor to move forward into all that God has for us as a Church! I want to thank all of your for your support, loyalty, enthusiasm and especially prayer. 2008 is going to be even greater if we don't become weary in well-doing! Keep up the good work! Merry Christmas!!!

The Secret Series and Christmas

We have been getting incredible feed-back on how the sermons loosely inspired by "The Secret" (Rhonda Byrne) have been impacting lives! Not that I agree entirely with the book, because the Secret Things of God are entrusted to the Church.

As it turns out, the holiday season has been a wonderful time to release these sermons because Christmas can bring with it, feelings of hope and joy for some... or of pain and hopelessness for others.

One principle that we have unlocked is that feelings are important for one very large purpose. They reveal to you what you are thinking. It is impossible to feel good or positive, if you are thinking bad or negative thoughts. Conversely, it is impossible to feel bad or negative, if you are thinking good or positive thoughts. Your thoughts determine your destination which is why the Word of God encourages us to think about good things, holy things, positive things, to have faith and to trust God with our future, to worship Him in spite of our circumstances and to allow the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ to instill in us the Peace that Surpasses all Understanding... I could preach but I'll stop.

Friend, if you have the blues... don't take that as your que to sing the blues. Instead, sing praises to the King and allow thoughts of His goodness, greatness and love to overwhelm your feelings. Take your feelings right now and change them by focusing your attention on Jesus, the one who even though He was God, was born a human in a lowly manger so that He could experience what we experience, grow up and become the only needed sacrifice to save all who would believe in Him and receive Him!

"Christmas in Reverse" 09 Dec

Our Christmas production for this year, brought to us by the ER Youth and ICCJ Children, is titled "Christmas in Reverse." It is coming up on 09 December and will be a combined 10am service... let me put that in black and white... there is no 8:30am and no 10:30am service. Only the 10am service. Don't be overly early and don't be late :-) See you all there! This will be a great service to bring friends to!

Pastor Joy Leads Worship at JakJazz 2007

Pastor Steve Shares the Word as Evangelist Chanda Interprets into Indonesian at JakJazz 2007

Joy McKinney with Soul2Praiz at JakJazz 2007

A Season of Harvest and Blessing Jakarta

We here at ICCJ are thrilled to be in this season of Harvest and Blessing in which God has allowed us to participate with Him! Firstly, several dozen precious people received the gift of eternal life in paradise with our Creator and have joined God's family in many Churches throughout Metro Jakarta at JakJazz!

Also, the Financial Seminar was a success! Many testimonies have been submitted from attendees about how the teaching challenged their perspective and will change lives as God's Word is put into practice. The one testifimony that blows my mind is from a man who did not understand the difference between tithes and offerings. He has been giving all of his tithes to charities outside of his Church. Amazing (and sad)! Imagine having been giving big 5 figures every year (he is well to do) and to still be under a curse for not understanding and therefore not obeying God's Word! I wonder how many others there are like that?... People who feed the children and support televangelists with BIG dollars but are still living their lives from a position outside of God's blessing! I thank God that this man will now be enforcing God's blessings in his life by giving his whole tithe to the "storehouse" so that there will be "food" in God's "house" (Malachi 3... read it if you don't know it). In plain language, that means that we must give our tithe (the 1st 10% of our income) to the one Church in which we are planted, covered and from which we receive a steady and purposeful diet of God's Word in order to be blessed.

May God continue to add to His Kingdom and may we who are in His Kingdom continue to improve and be strengthened in every way... all for His glory! Thank you friends for your prayer support over these last couple of weeks. We so appreciate the CARE (Home Group) Pastors and Lay Leadership of ICCJ who are busy following up with those who have received eternal life throughout the last few weeks! Our Pastoral and Staff teams are fairly tired from the demanding schedule at the moment and we would appreciate your further prayer coverage as we take this time to recover and interact with our families during the blessed Christmas season.

Financial Seminar Saturday Dec 01

It's time to bless Jakarta again! The Financial Seminar is on Saturday and those who have enrolled are mostly not from ICCJ. The organizer is estimating attendance of 300 to 400. I cannot adequately explain how excited I am! Many will hear Spiritual Principles which are foreign topics even in Churches... many will become aware of their need for a personal relationship with Jesus and all will be blessed by hearing the Word of Truth! Could I get my "readers" to pray again? Primarily for salvation of those who are not walking with Christ? The first session is Saturday 10am-1pm and the second session (same material different group) is 2pm-5pm. Thank you so much prayer warriors!! You are a blessing!!

Pst Joy & Soul2Praiz with members of Kool & the Gang at JakJazz 2007

Saved Souls and Kool & The Gang at JakJazz!!

Hi Everyone! I want to share just a brief report about the Jakarta International Jazz Festival Gospel Concert with Salvation Message this morning. I don't have any pictures for you yet but will get some up in a few days. We have little time right now because Pastor Joy and I will be leaving on Monday for the CWS Pastors Annual Retreat (at the CWS Retreat Facility in the Hills a couple of hours out from Jakarta) which is a welcome spiritual renewal and rest time!

The morning did not go without it's hitches... we started a bit late due to sound system challenges and the clock was ticking as we had to be off of the stage at 12:30pm in order for Kool & The Gang (their most famous song which is still widely played especially around New Years time is "Celebration") to do their sound check for tonight's JakJazz main stage performance. But once we started, the sense of stress was quickly replaced with a strong awareness of the presence of God! "Joy McKinney and Soul 2 Praiz" rocked the house for His glory! I don't know what the attendance was yet, but it was solid with as many numbers of people we didn't recognize as numbers of Church members who we did.

Though the concert was in English, I used an awesome interpreter (Sister Chanda) for the message. I utilised a "layered response approach" when appealing to the people for salvation. The prayer of salvation came first, a showing of hands second and then an invitation to come to the front third. I estimate around 70 hands that were raised for salvation and a couple of dozen who braved coming to the front. Praise the Lord!!! The bottom line is that many people were saved and touched who had not previously even stepped foot in our Church! We truly must use this as our Que to keep on reaching out... out of the facility and normality of what we usually do.

I want to thank the membership of ICCJ for your support of this event! I know that many of you sacrificed to become workers and it wasn't very convenient for us to cancel our Services in the regular venue... but you pulled together and the Kingdom of God has been enlarged! You are awesome!!

From reports I have received this afternoon, many were not able to reach the venue for the Concert due to terrible traffic jam. For those of you who made the effort and were not able to attend, I apologize that you missed the concert and I want to thank you for your support! May the Lord bless you richly! You are awesome too and we love you!

Now to close with a little more about Kool & The Gang... We did end about 15 minutes over time with the permission of Brother Ireng Maulana, the founder and owner of JakJazz who is thrilled with what God did this morning. Because of lateness, members of Kool & The Gang caught the message and the closing songs and they made comments... "Awesome Sermon!" "Incredible Worship!" These are among my High School days music heroes... I never thought I would meet them but they ended up in the service! Pastor Joy and some of our other folks were able to hook up with them some more and had a "Kool" time. God is so good!!

JakJazz Prayer Request & Web-site

Hi Friends of ICCJ! Please pray for a great harvest at JakJazz this Sunday morning! We are believing that God will bring many people to Himself through this great event! Please also pray for protection and favor from the Lord in every way.

Even though we are conducting an official Special Program of the Jakarta International Jazz Festival this year, this is JakJazz's first time to incorporate a Sunday morning Christian "event." In the nation that we are in, this can be a sensitive step to take and there must be great care in how the service is promoted in order not to end up with a religious firestorm. And so there is not allot of promotion on the part of the JakJazz coordinators themselves but we applaud them for the courageousness in making this event happen. They have listed the the service as a special event on their web-site at www.jakjazz.com, click on "Line-up & Programme" and then click on "Special Programme" and you will see us there for Sunday Morning listed as "A New Sound Is Coming." We as a Church and some other Friends have been busy inviting people and 4,000 tickets have been released. We have none left... The event has been mentioned on radio and media, posters and ads have been placed in a variety of key places throughout the city and our phones have been ringing off the hook as a result. We have no idea how many will come but we do know that God will draw just the right ones and that He will be glorified! We are EXCITED!!!

Thank you everyone for your prayers! I'm looking forward to informing you of the results soon!

Eternal Connections

Most of you know that our Church Slogan is "Real People, Real Answers, Good Connections"... Recently I have been thinking more about what Good Connections really are and I believe the best way to describe them is Eternal Connections!

Our vision is to provide opportunities to make the ultimate connection with the Son of God, Jesus Christ. This connection is the only relationship which will give you entrance to heaven... into eternal life with God. We further want to provide opportunities to connect with people... all kinds of people who have the Jesus Connection in common. These connections which we share in the Church will last beyond this temporary life! We are making connections... making friendships which will last for eternity! Wow! What a great thing the Church is and what an awesome privelege that we have been granted by our Father!

Thank You Alex and Ria!!!

For the last 3 Sundays, the owners of the Epicure Patisserie, a new Restaurant in the Bellagio have provided Pastries for our membership after the 10:30am service. I don't think there were any left-overs! Wow! The quality of their pastries and desserts is amazing! There is no better dessert in Jakarta! And Pastor Joy and I had a chance to eat in this Patisserie and their food is equally amazing! It is on the UG level, unit 02. The menu completely changes every couple of weeks and there is nothing offered that is not of the finest quality! The prices for what you are getting are very fair. (get the Paella) The restaurant is cozy and the staff is knowledgeable. Perfect for a romantic occasion with your spouse or for a business meeting.

Mexican Food at the Bellagio is Coming!

Since food is an important subject for most of us, I want to update those of you who are following the ministry of ICCJ from a distance about the food situation here at our facility... the Bellagio. Amigo's Restaurant is coming! Yes... Mexican food will be available in the building. For those of you who don't know... one of the things that American expats miss the most from the USA is Mexican food (almost every neighborhood has a Mexican restaurant). Most of the people that I know in the USA have a once a week or more Mexican Restaurant habit. Pst Joy and I are excited! Ron, if you are reading this... thank you for putting a branch in our building!!! I know that it will be a success because... well... because we plan on eating there quite a bit! (-:

BTW, there are many wonderful restaurants at the Bellagio, all of which we and most of our members enjoy regularly. The building is filling up nicely and we are very happy to be a part of the Bellagio Community.

JakJazz Festival Sunday Morning Service Nov 25

ICCJ is honored to be conducting the Sunday Morning Service for the Jakarta Jazz Festival this year! It is a Christian service which is being promoted in a variety of ways including print, radio and on school campuses.

Our Church is going to hold it's regular Sunday service at the festival instead of conducting our 2 regular services at the Bellagio facility. And so there is one service at 10am on November 25. Please come at 9:30am and join us in prayer and ready to kick off right at 10am so that we have optimal time for the Live Recording Worship Experience! Amen! We are excited to bring the Church to the people rather than the usual method of bringing the people to the Church for this special event that will bless the city of Jakarta!

The tickets are available at the Church (free of charge) and will also be available at the door. Please contact Sassha at (0811-138-870) or Donna at (021-30019980). There will be a "free-will (no-pressure)" opportunity to make a donatation.

The venue is the Istora Senayan. Please come and join us in this event which will unify and bless the City of Jakarta and give glory to God!

Steve & Joy at Trisno & Indah's Reception

Service this past Sunday

What a service we had this past Sunday! In both services the presence and power of God overwhelmed us and I did not preach my message. The worship was awesome and the waves of glory kept coming. One of the testimonies is that a visitor who had not experienced any type of a charismatic service in the past received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit spontaneously during a time of corporate prayer. Another visitor was so consumed that even in the visitors greeting area, she could not stop jumping up and down because she was filled with so much excitement and happiness from the touch which Jesus blessed her with. Wow!!! Keep pressing in guys! God is full of surprises and He has more for us all!

Intercession --- a different approach

Often times in intercession we visualize standing in a gap of a wall, birthing, or some other picture of what we are doing as we pray. The Lord spoke to me a little while back that we are entering a strategic time in our Church and to encourage our congregation to pray in this way:

• Pray like we are giving "cover fire"... this is different than a covering prayer which is like a shelter or a blanket. This is like we are shooting over the heads of our own troops as they advance. It is warfare and advancement prayer which offers a more aggressive type of covering which is literally an assault on the enemy.
• Pray like we are shedding our skin. I hesitated with this one because I never want to be looking at things from a perspective that we are being like a snake because snakes shed their skin. But this is what God told me to do and I am learning to do it. We need to pray until we are changed, transformed, renewed, revived and regenerated... like we have changed our skin. Awesome!
• Pray like we are hibernating... literally not leaving our prayer "cave" until the season has changed and "rest" in the Lord has been acheived.

Leaders of all ministries including Care Groups... please lead that people in forceful and productive prayer in a purposeful manner at this time. People of God, please don't miss the Thursday night prayer meeting if you can at all make it. This Thursday it will again be held in the main sanctuary. God bless you!

Welcome Kate! Alvin & Shelly's new arrival...

Pst Joy and I stopped by the hospital earlier this evening and were thrilled to meet Alvin Lim and Shelly Antonio's new baby girl Kate, born Saturday. She is healthy, beautiful and has plenty of hair! God is sooo good! Welcome Kate and congrats Alvin & Shelly!

God's Presence at a Wedding

For those of you who were contacted by E-mail and prayed for the name of Jesus to be clearly declared and for the presence of God to be made manifest at the wedding of Trisno and Indah yesterday, THANK YOU! It was an awesome wedding! Tommy Barnett (one of my heroes) often says that if you want to experience God's presence and anointing, then go to where non-believers are. In this wedding, I personally experienced the presence of God in an amazing way, I believe largely because the number of believers were far less than then the number of believers possibly 10 to 1. People of all faiths joined in prayer to Jesus Christ, many with eyes wet from tears. I believe that seeds were planted and watered and that God is continuing to draw all people to Himself! I want to encourage you that when you find yourself in a situation in which you are outnumbered, to recognize that God is moving in a powerful way... maybe even more so then what you sometimes experience in Church. This so that God can use you to make Himself known to the lost and dying which you and I are surrounded with on a daily basis. It is at those times that He will strengthen you and will put words in your mouth which will melt hearts and touch lives both now and for eternity!

MISSION to AMBON

Our Pastor of Counseling, Sammy Roslim and I went to Ambon for a ministry trip this last Friday and arrived back this Monday. It was an awesome time of ministry in several Churches and venues! Every service in which either one of us ministered uniquely accomplished each God appointed mission. The primary Church which invited us was Kuda Mati GSJA (A/G)… a Church which has experienced incredible growth over the last couple of years in direct correlation to their Missions Emphasis. They have been maintaining a pledge campaign every 6 months for two years. Though the monetary figures which they are giving to missions cannot compare to a big city Church, for Ambon and for their size, 140 people, they are off the charts in their giving… truly sacrificial! They are sponsoring Bible School Students, supporting Church planting efforts, buying chairs for Churches which have none and much more! I am so excited to see yet another Church that “Get’s It…” When our focus is outward and when we honor God’s plan for missions, He is moved to bless and increase our inward work in a mighty way!

It was good to catch up with AGWM Missionary and friend Donna Brown who coordinated much of the additional ministry. God has opened a door for her and lavished her with incredible favor to advance God’s Kingdom and also to work towards greater cooperation and unity in the Ambon Churches. It was also wonderful to work with Eka Tupamahu (from APTS background and working at SATI in Malang currently... his blog is www.tupamahu.blogspot.com) who did all of my interpretation and added so much to what God was doing!...as usual!!

I and Pst Sammy have developed a heart for Ambon! The many Pastors and people whom we met have touched us! It is a needy area which was in the world press quite often many years ago because of a conflict which claimed thousands of lives and ripped the infrastructure of the Island to shreds… and the residue (hatred, distrust, hopelessness, etc) of this conflict still remains even though the world has mostly forgotten. But God does not forget and we at ICCJ are committed to Ambon. Pst Sammy will undoubtedly be assisting the region with counseling, I am certain that our Missions Pastor, Rishi Anandani will be involved along with myself to possibly assist in the planting of an English speaking Church… talks are underway but it must be God’s way, of course, and we are planning with our Creative Arts Ministry already, a large evangelistic and unification concert sponsored by several Ambon Churches in the summer of 2008! It has been confirmed through some of our intercessors who prayed for us while we were there that we will be also be involved in some “healing events.” This we will definitely be considering further in prayer and discussion.

Friends, please pray for Ambon! The Lord strongly impressed me that as Ambon heals and progresses in unity, that He will use Ambonese people in a powerful way to not only to be a shining example to the rest of Indonesia and beyond, but He will send these wonderful people throughout this nation to make a tremendous impact towards what is to come as God turns this nation into a lighthouse for the gospel to the world! Let us enforce God’s plan with purposeful prayer!

2 Weddings in 1 Day

Pst Joy and I were involved in 2 Wedding Rehearsals today in preparation for 2 Weddings on Saturday! A new marker for me... but I don't want to try 3 in a day! Arya and Tiwik will be married at the Bellagio in the morning and Sunny and Mansha will be married at the Hotel Manhatten in the evening. These two awesome couples launch into this new phase of life with the full support of our ICCJ Family and I would like to ask you to pray for both of these couples and for good fruit from both of these weddings which are designed to minister to many from other faiths as they "rub shoulders" with us during these blessed events! Thank you for praying!

New Sound System Offering Next Sunday

Thank you all for your exuberant response in preparation for next weeks offering for the new speakers and sound equipment! The system that we are planning to purchase (which we are already using) will serve our needs for years to come. It is important that most every member of ICCJ shows a "vote of confidence" since we are a community and we work together in every area. The number of people who give towards the sound system is equally important to the amount collected. I am looking to see at least 200 envelopes submitted from small to large amounts... remember the slogan of the campaign that raised the funds for the facility we all enjoy now... "equal sacrifice, not equal giving." Giving what you can... even what you feel might be a small amount adds up and is powerful! Thank you for your generous and sacrificial effort! You are blessed and you are a blessing! Amen!

My Birthday --- Thank You ICCJ!!!

I want to thank all of you for giving me such a wonderful surprise birthday celebration at the 2nd service today. Pst Joy and I are blessed to be connected with all of you and we are grateful to God that He has allowed us to be your Pastors! This time also marks my 1 year and 1 month mark as the Sr Pastor of ICCJ. As I reflect on what we have accomplished together, I am amazed... but I expect even greater things this year! Thank you for your support, loyalty and dedication to the Kingdom of God!

Looking back at a 2004 Fave Foto of Ethan and Mommy

Steve & Joy Christmas Foto

ICCJ Staff Christmas Foto 2007

What an awesome year for missions!!!

It was just a year ago when the ICCJ Family pledged just over 1 Billion Rupiah for missions. Of course you all experienced God's blessing as you excercised your faith and more then met that pledge... but then this year! We went for a goal of 1.5 Billion Rupiah but we surpassed the 2 Billion mark!!! (for those of you following the ministry from beyond Indonesia, that is approximately US$220,000) With the amount that we also put into missions from our Church general fund, we will undoubtedly invest more than US$300,000 this year into God's Kingdom beyond ourselves! What surprises me is that though the commitment doubled, the congregation has not... yes, we have grown a significant amount, maybe more than 30%, but that does not translate into double missions giving. Rather, I believe that you the ICCJ Family are deepening in your commitment to the Kingdom, you are experiencing blessing from God and you also believe in the Mission Program and the awesome leadership of Pst Rishi as he spearheads this wonderful endeavor for the glory of God! Amen! ICCJ... I am so proud to be your Pastor and I am expecting great reports in the near future! You are awesome!!!

Upcoming Events

Hi Everyone! I am very excited about our upcoming events! Please attend and be inspired!

• Dr. Tan Khian Seng from S'pore is our special speaker on Sunday 21 October. He has a prophetic and intercession ministry and has experienced among many miracles, supernatural debt cancellation both in his own life and in the lives of others he has ministered to. He is a particular blessing to business people and is a consultant to many well known companies.
• Secret Success series on 11 November and 18 November! I introduced this topic this last Sunday and we have never received so many requests for copies of the service and I have also not received so very many sms's of people saying how blessed they were. This series is based on my own experiences in the world of success teachings from my days as a business person and is additionally inspired by two recent books: The Secret by Rhonda Byrne which has caused a worldwide stir and The Secret Things of God by Dr. Henry Cloud which is not just a Christian response to The Secret but takes it to another level... obviously, since the Bible is the greatest book ever written about success. You will not want to miss inviting your friends from all backgrounds to this series. They will learn a great deal and will be blessed as they discover the secret to true success in this life and for eternity!
• JAKJAZZ!!! ICCJ is conducting the Christian Service on 25 November at 9:30am at the JakJazz Festival. We will not have services at the Bellagio on this day. This is an exciting opportunity to bring your friends to Church without bringing them to Church! A definite OUTREACH chance that you want to fully pursue!

Ethan and Mommy enjoy a moment between services

Steve & Joy Poolside at Bellagio, on the same Floor as the Sanctuary

Welcome to My Blog

I want to welcome you to My Blog. I am the Pastor of the International Connection Center in Jakarta (ICCJ) Indonesia. The main reason for starting this Blog is that I am way behind keeping my family and friends up to date (I'm sorry guys). And so it's practical really...to write my thoughts and experiences in one place rather than sending countless E-mails. Thank you for checking in with me, my family and this incredible Church that we have a privilege to be a part of. God bless you!