We are now in April, the clocks have gone forward and the nights are lighter. The joy of Easter continues as we go on into Spring, anticipating the warmth of summer! Our readings now will be concerned with the actions of the apostles after the resurrection of Jesus. They still had doubts about this, even when they heard that he had risen from the dead. They were still afraid to openly show their faith, hiding in locked rooms, as so many Christians have to do around the world even today. Eventually, though, after Pentecost, they lost their fear and their joy burst out of them, preaching to and baptising thousands of people. Why are we, then, so afraid to speak about our faith in the risen Lord? We in this country have no reason to hide away for fear of persecution. Yet the numbers in our churches bear witness to a different situation, when we hide in our churches on a Sunday morning and do not go out with joy in our hearts to speak about our faith to all we meet or show by our example what our faith means to us. Take some time this month to reflect on this and what you personally could do to bring others to Christ. They do not necessarily have to come to church every Sunday but can contribute like all of us in other ways to witness to the risen Lord

Retreat in Bielefeld,

 Germany. During the recent Easter I went for a retreat in Bielefeld, Germany organised by Rose of Sharon Church( ROSC) in Europe and the speaker of the retreat was my regional Pastor Adrian Sarwono. Rose Of Sharon Church is extended church in Europe and the main branch is in Indonesia, Gereja Mawar Sharon, GMS( in Indonesia language ) runs by Senior Pastor Philip Mantofa who is currently overseeing more than 200 churches all over the world and has more than 100,000 members. There were 125 people attended this retreat from multiple countries like Germany, Netherlands, France, UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and as far as Qatar. I was pleased to meet up with many friends for the first time in person because I normally see them through zoom meetings. In this retreat I learned the importance of being a disciple of Jesus as Jesus had commissioned his disciples to make disciples of all nations to the ends of the earth in His last will on earth. Through being a disciple we learn about God and how to serve people as Jesus came on earth not to be served but to serve people. I learnt many people were let down while serving thus they quit church. They forgot it is the God that they serve not man. Through serving we will be refined to be more like Jesus because it is through serving we learn to forgive and to be self control and kind and love one another. In this retreat God's manifestation of His presence was great that many were healed and ministered. A few people received physical healing like shoulder pain and hand that could not be raised up was healed. Knee that could not be squat for years was healed and many received emotional healings and delivered from bitterness they hold their hearts for a long time. They were many weeping and wailing as Holy Spirit ministered to them. There were also a few people received speaking in tongues and one of them was as young as 7-year boy. We asked him how did he know he received speaking in tongues. He said while he was worshipping God suddenly his lips moved and started to speak in tongues. I also witnessed 11 people baptised on Easter day. Surely the angels in heaven were rejoicing that 11 souls committed to follow Jesus. I thank God for working during the retreat and many lives were touched and transformed. Praise and glory to our Almighty God. I had a great time fellowshipping and getting to know one another and by the time I was enjoying their companies it was time to leave. Hope what I learnt I am able to put that in the practice. Pastor Philip Mantofa, the senior Pastor of Rose of Sharon has brought many souls to Christ and I am one of them and his passion is to see nations encounter and experience the love of Christ and he has the heart for the whole world to be saved and therefore he sent Ps Adrian to be in charged of Europe region and to build ROSE of Sharon Church (ROSC) in Europe and to reach out more people so that Europe will be saved. Amen!