It’s a hymn, yet a prayer, a poems, a solitude of heart that pray for nations.

Let’s pray also for Indonesia, here is the Lyric

“Peace in our time, O Lord; for this we pray: May every nation

know peace as the way; May no more sons be killed in battle’s

fray, May each one know the truth of peace your way.

Peace in our heart, O Lord; for this I pray: May I know calm-

ness now in every way; Help me to trust in you each urgent day,

that I may be assured of peace your peace in my way.”

“Praise Him with the sound of the TRUMPET.”

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Serangan kekerasan terhadap orang Kristen di Indonesia telah memaksa ditutupnya 20 gereja dalam beberapa bulan terakhir, pengujian keseimbangan keagamaan yang rapuh di negara yang mayoritas Islam.

Pemerintah menyangkal insiden adalah tanda intoleransi keagamaan yang sedang tumbuh, namun menyalahkan kondisi geopolitik dan pemilihan daerah.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen melaporkan dari Jawa Barat.

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]]> http://soegianto.net/christianity/mengukur-batas-toleransi-di-indonesia/feed/ 0 http://soegianto.net/article/new-post/about-faith/ http://soegianto.net/article/new-post/about-faith/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:12:02 +0000 soegianto http://soegianto.net/uncategorized/about-faith/ Several years ago I heard a story that I hope will reassure them that was often ridiculed by the phrase, “If your faith is strong you will not be …”

At that time I was listening to a woman called a priest in a radio broadcast. The priest was a wise man. Her voice was soft as if he could eliminate all fear.

The woman – who clearly heard was crying – saying,
“Pastor, I was born blind, and I was blind all my life. I do not mind being blind but there are a few of my friends say that if only my strong faith then I will be cured. ”

The priest asked him, “Do you always carry your guide stick wherever you go?”

“Yes,” replied the woman.

Then the priest began to advise, “If they mocked again with words like that, beat them using the wand then say,
If you have a strong faith, you certainly will not feel pain! ”

source: milist i-kan-pesta

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]]> http://soegianto.net/article/new-post/about-faith/feed/ 0 http://soegianto.net/article/the-hole-in-our-church/ http://soegianto.net/article/the-hole-in-our-church/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:07:43 +0000 soegianto http://soegianto.net/?p=201 Nice book to read, a forward from my friends. You can get the info about the writer below. Please take a look and read the article. Really give an inspiration and self-answered for the question which part of our Gospel is having the hole? Have a read! and May Gbu.

Prologue

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you

good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

—L U K E 2 : 1 0

Rakai, Uganda, August 1998

His name was Richard, the same as mine. I sat inside his meager thatch hut, listening to his story, told through the tears of an orphan whose parents had died of AIDS. At thirteen, Richard was trying to raise his two younger brothers by himself in this small shack with no running water, electricity, or even beds to sleep in. There were no adults in their lives—no one to care for them, feed them, love them, or teach them how to become men. There was no one to hug them either, or to tuck them in at night. Other than his siblings, Richard was alone, as no child should be. I try to picture my own children abandoned in this kind of deprivation, fending for themselves without parents to protect them, and I cannot.

I didn’t want to be there. I wasn’t supposed to be there, so far out of my comfort zone—not in that place where orphaned children live by themselves in their agony. There, poverty, disease, and squalor had eyes and faces that stared back, and I had to see and smell and touch the pain of the poor. That particular district, Rakai, is believed to be ground zero for the Ugandan AIDS pandemic.

There, the deadly virus has stalked its victims in the dark for decades. Sweat trickled down my face as I sat awkwardly with Richard and his brothers while a film crew captured every tear—mine and theirs.

I much preferred living in my bubble, the one that, until that moment, had safely contained my life, family, and career. It kept difficult things like this out, insulating me from anything too raw or upsetting. When such things intruded, as they rarely did, a channel could be changed, a newspaper page turned, or a check written to keep the poor at a safe distance. But not in

Rakai. There, “such things” had faces and names—even my name, Richard. Not sixty days earlier I had been CEO of Lenox, America’s finest tableware company, producing and selling luxury goods to those who could afford them. I lived with my wife and five children in a ten-bedroom house on five acres just outside of Philadelphia. I drove a Jaguar to work every day, and my business travel took me to places such as Paris, Tokyo, London, and Florence. I flew first-class and stayed in the best hotels. I was respected in my community, attended a venerable suburban church, and sat on the board of my kids’ Christian school. I was one of the good guys—you might say a “poster child” for the successful Christian life. I had never heard of

Rakai, the place where my bubble would burst. But in just sixty days, God turned my life inside out, and it would never be the same. Quite unexpectedly, eight months earlier, I had been contacted by World Vision, the Christian relief and development organization, during their search for a new president. Why me? It wasn’t something I had sought after. In fact, you might say I had been minding my own business when the phone rang that day. But it was a phone call that had been twenty-four years in the planning.

You see, in 1974, at the age of twenty-three, in my graduate school dormitory, I knelt down beside my bed and dedicated my life to Christ. This was no small decision for me, and it came only after months of reading, studying, conversations with friends, and the important witness of Reneé, the woman who would later become my wife. While at the time I knew very little about the implications of that decision, I knew this: nothing would ever be quite the same again, because I had made a promise to follow Christ—no matter what.

The Man Who Wouldn’t Buy China . . .

Several months after becoming a Christian, I was newly engaged to Reneé. As we were planning our wedding and our life together, she suggested that we go to a department store to register for our china, crystal, and silver. My self-righteous response was an indication of just how my newfound faith was integrating into my life: “As long as there are children starving in the world, we’re not going to own fine china, crystal, and silver.” Perhaps you can see God’s sense of irony in my becoming president of America’s premier fine tableware company a couple of decades later. So when I answered that phone call from World Vision in January 1998, I knew that God was on the other end of the line. It was His voice I heard, not the recruiter’s:

Rich, do you remember that idealistic young man in 1974 who was so passionate about starving children that he would not even fill out a wedding registry? Take a good look at yourself now. Do you see what you’ve become? But, Rich, if you still care about those children, I have a job I want you to do.

In my prayers over the weeks leading up to my appointment as World Vision’s president, I begged God to send someone else to do it, much as Moses had done.

Surely this was a mistake. I was no Mother Teresa. I remember praying that God would send me anywhere else, “but, please, God, not to the poor—not into the pain and alienation of poverty and disease, not there.” I didn’t want to go there.

Yet here I was, the new president of World Vision, sent by knowing staff to get a “baptism by fire” for my new calling, with a film crew to document every moment. Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision, once prayed, “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.” But who really wants his heart broken? Is this something to ask of God? Don’t we pray that God will not break our hearts? But as I look at the life of Jesus, I see that He was, as Isaiah described him, “a Man of sorrows . . . acquainted with grief ”(Isaiah 53:3 NKJV). Jesus’ heart was continually moved to compassion as He encountered the lame, the sick, the widow, and the orphan. I try to picture God’s broken heart as He looks today upon the broken world for which He died. Surely Richard’s story breaks His heart.

Two crude piles of stones just outside the door mark the graves of Richard’s parents. It disturbs me that he must walk past them every day. He and his brothers must have watched first their father and then their mother die slow and horrible deaths. I wondered if the boys were the ones who fed them and bathed them in their last days. Whatever the case, Richard, a child himself, is now the head of household.

Child-headed household, words never meant to be strung together. I tried to wrap my mind around this new phrase, one that describes not onlyRichard’s plight but that of tens of thousands, even millions more. I’m told that there are sixty thousand orphans just in Rakai, twelve million orphans due to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. How can this be true? Awkwardly I asked Richard what he hopes to be when he grows up, a ridiculous question to ask a child who has lost his childhood. “A doctor,” he said, “so I can help people who have the disease.”

“Do you have a Bible?” I asked. He ran to the other room and returned with his treasured book with gold-gilt pages.

“Can you read it?”

“I love to read the book of John, because it says that Jesus loves the children.”

This overwhelmed me, and my tears started to flow.

Forgive me, Lord, forgive me. I didn’t know.

But I did know. I knew about poverty and suffering in the world. I was aware that children die daily from starvation and lack of clean water. I also knew about AIDS and the orphans it leaves behind, but I kept these things outside of my insulating bubble and looked the other way.

Yet this was to be the moment that would ever after define me. Rakai was what God wanted me to see. My sadness that day was replaced by repentance. Despite what the Bible had told me so clearly, I had turned a blind eye to the poor. Now my heart was filled with anger, first at myself, and then toward the world. Why wasn’t Richard’s story being told? The media overflowed with celebrity dramas, stock market updates, and Bill Clinton’s impending impeachment hearings. But where were the headlines and magazine covers about Africa? Twelve million orphans, and no one noticed? But what sickened me most was this question: where was the

Church? Indeed, where were the followers of Jesus Christ in the midst of perhaps the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time? Surely the Church should have been caring for these “orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Shouldn’t the pulpits across America have flamed with exhortations to rush to the front lines of compassion? Shouldn’t they be flaming today? Shouldn’t churches be reaching out to care for children in such desperate need? How could the great tragedy of these orphans get drowned out by choruses of praise music in hundreds of thousands of churches across our country? Sitting in a hut in Rakai, I remember thinking,

How have we missed it so tragically, when even rock stars and Hollywood actors seem to understand?

Ten years later I know. Something fundamental has been missing inour understanding of the gospel.The word gospel literally means “good news.” Jesus declared that He had come to “preach good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18). But what good news, what gospel, did the Church have for Richard and his brothers in Rakai? What “good news” have God’s people brought to the world’s three billion poor?

What “gospel” have millions of Africa’s AIDS orphans seen?4

What gospel have most of us embraced in the twenty-first century?

The answer is found in the title of this book: a gospel with a hole in it

http://www.theholeinourgospel.com/

2009 by World Vision, Inc. – Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

————

President, World Vision United States
Richard E. Stearns is president of World Vision, one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the United States. After a quarter-century business career, he joined World Vision in 1998, guiding the Christian relief and development organization to unprecedented growth and calling on the American Church to respond to the global AIDS pandemic.World Vision has more than 1,300 staff in the United States and partners with U.S. corporations, government agencies, foundations, churches and more than a million individual donors to help children and their communities reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. It is the largest member of the global World Vision Partnership, which last year touched the lives of an estimated 100 million people internationally Since joining World Vision, Stearns has built a strong leadership team focused on bringing corporate best practices to the non-profit sector and inspiring a culture of outcome-focused management at all levels of the organization. Donations have tripled from $358 million in 1998 to over $1 billion in 2008, and overhead has been reduced by almost one-third.		As one of his first initiatives as World Vision’s president, Stearns empowered World Vision’s senior leadership to increase awareness and funding for AIDS programs. This came at a time when the organization’s own research found that donors had little interest in helping to stop the spread of the disease; donors actually were less interested in helping children orphaned by AIDS than other disadvantaged children. Stearns chronicles his journey from corporate CEO to advocate for those affected by poverty and injustice in his book, “The Hole in Our Gospel,” due to be published in March 2009 by Thomas Nelson. The book challenges readers to view the gospel as more than a private transaction between God and us.Follow Rich on his blog.

—-

Disclaimer

soegianto.net is not related to World Vision. This writing is not belong to soegianto.net.  We just want to share his writing on “the Hole in Our Gospel” because we believe it can help us on answering GOD calling. We take the article from a mailing list which we believe that can be shared among the readers.

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]]> http://soegianto.net/article/the-hole-in-our-church/feed/ 0 http://soegianto.net/article/seperti_untuk_tuhan/ http://soegianto.net/article/seperti_untuk_tuhan/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:04:06 +0000 soegianto http://soegianto.net/?p=179 Sebuah kiriman email dari seorang rekan… pertama kali membaca saya hampir tidak percaya (well, memang pada dasarnya kurang beriman kali) terhadap pelayanan yang diberikan oleh mbak Dhayu… benar-benar excellent dan mencerminkan sikap yang luar biasa… pantas dia disanjung-sanjung dalam email ini karena dia berjiwa sebagai seorang pelayan yang melayani dengan sepenuh hati…

Jadi teringat sebuah ayat

“Hai hamba-hamba, taatilah tuanmu yang di dunia ini dalam segala hal, jangan hanya di hadapan mereka saja untuk menyenangkan mereka, melainkan dengan tulus hati karena takut akan Tuhan. Apapun juga yang kamu perbuat, perbuatlah dengan segenap hatimu seperti untuk Tuhan dan bukan untuk manusia. Kamu tahu, bahwa dari Tuhanlah kamu akan menerima bagian yang ditentukan bagimu sebagai upah. Kristus adalah tuan dan kamu hamba-Nya. ”
(Col 3:22-24 ITB)

Bayangkan ketika kita melayani TUHAN dengan hati yang sungguh dengan iman yang sungguh… Pasti TUHAN juga tidak segan-segan memuji kita, seperti pujian Kristus kepada seorang kepala prajurit..

….Lalu Yesus pergi bersama-sama dengan mereka. Ketika Ia tidak jauh lagi dari rumah perwira itu, perwira itu menyuruh sahabat-sahabatnya untuk mengatakan kepada-Nya: “Tuan, janganlah bersusah-susah, sebab aku tidak layak menerima Tuan di dalam rumahku; sebab itu aku juga menganggap diriku tidak layak untuk datang kepada-Mu. Tetapi katakan saja sepatah kata, maka hambaku itu akan sembuh. Sebab aku sendiri seorang bawahan, dan di bawahku ada pula prajurit. Jika aku berkata kepada salah seorang prajurit itu: Pergi!, maka ia pergi, dan kepada seorang lagi: Datang!, maka ia datang, ataupun kepada hambaku: Kerjakanlah ini!, maka ia mengerjakannya.” Setelah Yesus mendengar perkataan itu, Ia heran akan dia, dan sambil berpaling kepada orang banyak yang mengikuti Dia, Ia berkata: “Aku berkata kepadamu, iman sebesar ini tidak pernah Aku jumpai, sekalipun di antara orang Israel!”
(Luk 7:6-9 ITB)

Hati terenyuh, kala memandang kegagalan-kegagalan dalam pelayanan saat seringkali bekerja bukan seperti untuk TUHAN.

Semoga artikel dibawah ini tentang mbak Dhayu bisa jadi sumber inspirasi kita

———————————

Dear All,

klo kirim email tuh kayak gini, jangan Cuma yang complain aja tapi yang bagus juga di milis in biar semua orang tau masih banyak orang yang tulus J

Semoga hal ini bisa menginspirasi semuanya J

Ini Namanya Pelay ana n Luarrrrrr Biasa!!!!!
Kalo lo mau beli sepatu di toko, dan sepatu yang lo pilih nggak tersedia ukurannya, apa yang biasanya dilakukan penjaga tokonya?
Kalo dia sekedar bilang, “Maaf, ukurannya nggak ada” mungkin lo akan maklum.
Kalo dia bilang “Maaf, ukurannya nggak ada. Berminat dengan model yang ini, barangkali?” lo mungkin akan sedikit terkesan dengan upaya si penjaga toko untuk membantu.

Tapi yang gue dan Ida alami kemarin bener-bener jauh melebihi ekspektasi kami atas pelay ana n toko sepatu m ana pun yang pernah kami kunjungi.
Ceritanya, kemarin gue dan Ida jalan-jalan ke Grand Indonesia, refreshing dikit mumpung kerjaan lagi libur. Niat awalnya sih cuma mau cuci
mata, tapi akhirnya jadi ngiler waktu liat tulisan “discount” tergantung-gantung di toko Planet Sports. Ida lantas inget pernah ngincer
sepatu merk Skechers beberapa waktu yang lalu.
Kamipun mampir. Pilih punya pilih, Ida akhirnya naksir sepasang sepatu tipe casual, dan minta dibawain nomor 37 kepada Mbak Pramuniaga. Si Mbak Pramuniaga yang belakangan kami tau bernama Mbak Dhayu kemudian membawakan – bukan cuma satu – tapi 3 (tiga) kotak sepatu bernomor 37 berlainan model. Maksudnya, biar pembeli bisa lebih leluasa milih sepatu yang dirasa paling cocok. Di sini Ida udah mulai terkesan dengan semangat proaktif Mbak Dhayu.

Dari ketiga model yang disodorkan, Ida memilih sepatu warna krem bermotif bunga-bunga kecil. Tapi… “Lho, mbak, ini kok ada noda di ujungnya, ada yang masih baru nggak?” tanya Ida. “Wah sayangnya model ini tinggal satu-satunya. .. Sebentar ya Bu, saya coba bersihin dulu di belakang,” katanya. Abis ngomong gitu dia pergi ke belakang menenteng sepatu pilihan Ida. Beberapa menit kemudian dia balik
dengan tampang menyesal,
“Bu, saya udah coba bersihin, tapi nodanya nggak mau hilang…maaf ya Bu… Ibu mau model lainnya?”
“Nggak mau, maunya yang itu aja… di toko lain ada nggak?”
“Sebentar ya Bu, saya coba telepon ke toko kami yang lain di Plaza Indonesia ya, siapa tau mereka masih punya stok sepatu ini.” Mbak Dhayu mencoba menelepon, tapi ternyata di cabang s ana sepatu itu juga udah nggak tersedia.
“Ibu, mohon maaf sekali… ternyata di cabang lainnya juga nggak ada…” kata Mbak Dhayu.
“Yaaah….”
“Iya, sayang sekali ya Bu…”
“Tapi… hmmm… ya udah deh kalo gitu, saya beli yang ini aja,” kata Ida.

Mbak Dhayu yang lagi sibuk membereskan kotak-kotak sepatu ternganga kaget.
“Hah? Ibu mau? Tapi kan … sepatunya kotor gini, Bu… nggak papa?”
“Nggak papa deh, abis saya maunya yang ini. Lagian nodanya juga nggak terlalu keliatan kok.”
“Mohon maaf sekali ya bu, soalnya ini tinggal satu-satunya. ..”
“Iya, nggak papa,” kata Ida.

Di titik ini gue udah amat sangat terkesan dengan kesungguhan Mbak Dhayu melayani pembeli. Dia udah berusaha ngebersihin noda, nyariin ke toko lain, dan nampak bersungguh-sungguh ingin memberikan yang terbaik buat pembeli. Gue bisik-bisik ke Ida, “Luar biasa nih servisnya, oke banget…  kasih tip gih…”
Ida juga terkesan banget, tapi dia ngerasa sungkan dan serba salah untuk
ngasih tip. “Gim ana ngasihnya, ntar diliat temen-temennya malah nggak enak lho..”
“Ya udah ntar abis bayar kita belaga liat-liat sepatu lainnya, nunggu sepi trus kasih tip ke dia… kan bisa.”
Tapi ternyata waktu mau bayar di kasir, kejutan lainnya menanti.
Kasirnya bilang, “Ibu, ini Dhayu merasa bersalah sekali karena sepatu yang ibu beli ada cacatnya, oleh karena itu ibu mendapat discount khusus sebesar sekian persen, yang diambil dari jatah discount karyawan milik Dhayu…”
Jadi rupanya para pegawai toko Planet Sports punya jatah discount khusus untuk karyawan. Setau gue, discount ini hanya bisa digunakan secara terbatas. Wajar aja kalo dibatasi, sebab kalo nggak ntar para pegawainya pada rame-rame jual sepatu di rumahnya masing-masing, kan? Toh dengan fasilitas discount yang sebenarnya terbatas itu, Mbak Dhayu merelakannya untuk digunakan oleh pembeli, yang bukan siapa-siapanya, bukan saudara, bukan temen, hanya karena dia mau memberikan pelay ana n terbaik!
Dan fakta  bahwa ada noda nempel di sepatu itu kan sama sekali bukan kesalahan dia,lho.
Orang dia bawa sepatu dari gudang, masih dalam kotak, tau-tau setelah dibuka ada nodanya.

Gue dan Ida sampe speechless mendapat pelay ana n seperti itu. “Mbak, nggak usah begitu, istri saya juga nggak keberatan kok dengan noda
itu, toh nggak terlalu kelihatan juga. Ntar kalo Mbak sendiri mau beli Sepatu di sini gim ana dong, jatah discountnya udah kita pake?”
“Nggak papa Pak, soalnya saya nggak enak banget, sepatu yang Ibu beli ada cacatnya…”
Seumur-umur belum pernah gue nemuin tingkat pelay ana n setinggi ini di toko sepatu m ana pun. Yang lebih luar biasa lagi, ini dilakukan atas inisiatif seorang pegawai biasa, bukan supervisor apalagi owner.

Pulang dari toko itu, gue dan Ida nggak bisa berhenti ngomongin soal betapa luar biasanya pelay ana n yang diberikan Mbak Dhayu. “Kalo begini urusannya, mending dibuatin kue aja deh, DCC Special! Besok pagi kita ke sini lagi ya suami, anterin kue!”

Tadi pagi, gue, Ida dan Eriq yang seperti biasa selalu ngintil kem ana pun kami pergi, dateng lagi ke Grand Indonesia dengan membawa sekotak DCC Special buat Mbak Dhayu. Di toko yang masih sepi pengunjung itu kami bertiga berbaris masuk. Kotak kue di tangan Ida, kamera siap di tangan gue dan Eriq. Kami langsung menemukan Mbak Dhayu lagi bertugas di bagian sepatu wanita.
Ida langsung menyodorkan kue sambil bilang, “Mbak Dhayu, saya sangat terkesan dengan bantuan Mbak Dhayu kemarin… jadi, ini saya bawakan kue untuk Mbak, terima kasih ya Mbak…”

Sekarang giliran Mbak Dhayu yang speechless. “Waduh ibu, nggak papa bu, itu kan barangnya udah reject sekali… saya… juga terkesan sekali ini…dapat kue begini…”
Eriq langsung mulai beraksi menjepretkan kamera, tapi karena umumnya di dalam toko kita nggak bisa seenaknya motret, maka buru-buru gue ajak Mbak Dhayu untuk berfoto bareng di depan toko. Jepret-jepret- jepret… beres,  dan sebelum dia sepenuhnya sadar apa yang telah terjadi, kami langsung pamit pulang

Buat para boss di PT.Mitra Adi Perkasa, pemilik jaringan Planet Sports, gue berharap ada apreasiasi lebih buat orang-orang seperti Mbak Dhayu. Dia membuktikan bahwa apapun pekerjaan kita, kalo dikerjakan dengan sepenuh hati dan nggak males berbuat lebih, maka efeknya juga akan sangat luar biasa. Saat memberikan pelay ana n ke Ida, gue yakin Mbak Dhayu nggak akan menyangka perbuatannya akan diketahui oleh ratusan orang lewat tulisan ini. Mudah-mudahan bisa menginspirasi rekan-rekannya di Planet Sports, atau para pekerja di m ana pun, untuk nggak tanggung-tanggung saat bekerja.  Lucunya, saat kita main ‘hitung-hitungan’ di pekerjaan, maka yang kita
terima biasanya jauh di bawah hitungan. Tapi sebaliknya, saat kita berhenti berhitung dan rela berbuat lebih, biasanya yang kita dapet malah  jauh melebihi harapan!

Semoga Mbak Dhayu makin sukses, dan buat kalian yang berenc ana beli sepatu dalam waktu dekat, gue rekomendasikan beli di Planet Sports Grand Indonesia dan jangan lupa cari Mbak Dhayu ya


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