Imagine a church service with no music. It’s possible, sure, but there’s something about music that moves the heart to praise God. Many of our partner churches in Asia have no musical instruments with which to worship. But with the generosity of Harvest of Hope donors like you, churches through our partner ministry Indonesian Church Growth Network are being provided with instruments for worship!

Not only do our partners use these instruments in worship to benefit the people of God, but they also present the Gospel message to non-believers through performances using traditional bamboo instruments. Read this report from our partner:

“We have already had several opportunities to make use of these instruments at various events, some for public audiences and some for church audiences. This past June we performed at a wedding for a Christian family. Among the wedding guests were numerous non-believing relatives and neighbors.  [We were] able to present the Gospel message clearly through the worship songs accompanied by the instruments. Everyone seemed to genuinely enjoy listening to the Christian songs as well as watching the processional wedding parade we performed. It is our prayer that those who heard these songs will continue to meditate upon the salvation truth they were exposed to. We believe the Holy Spirit will perform this work in many of their hearts.

"At the end of June, [we] participated in the opening ceremonies of an annual retreat for the Sundanese. For this festive event we had the opportunity to work together with the planning committee, various Christian performers as well as a local Christian junior high and high school. The adults and teenagers performed this opening ceremony by playing various traditional Sundanese instruments including “calung” (the bamboo instruments), “reog” (the drum set), and “gamelan” (the full traditional set). We also performed a traditional peacock dance as well as “rampak kendang,” another unique drum performance. This opening ceremony provided a truly Sundanese atmosphere which set the tone for the whole retreat and created a sense of pride in the hearts of the audience as they saw how their traditional performing arts could be so beautifully used to glorify the Lord.

Thank you so much for being such a blessing by your gift for these instruments!

"Praise the Lord with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes!
Praise him with a clash of cymbals...let everything that has breath sing praises to the Lord!"

Psalm 150:4-6

An amazing number of houses for families in Bangladesh were given by people like you through Harvest of Hope this past season--20! What a blessing these new homes will be to families facing otherwise desperate futures.

Because Bangladesh is located where several of South Asia's major rivers come together, it experiences flooding every year. Poor infrastructure and lack of natural resources mean that most of the population lives in poverty, doing labor for low wages. When floods sweep away a family's home, they usually have no hope of restoring their lives to normalcy. Through Koinonia, the relief arm of ministry partner National Christian Fellowship of Bangladesh, we are able to provide sturdy homes to families who need them, giving hope into an otherwise bleak future.

The homes are 12 feet by 16 feet, with woven bamboo mats for walls and corrugated iron sheeting for roofs.

Here's one story of a family that was impacted by your gifts:

Zahura Khatun lives in Gabura village in Bangladesh. She is 45 years old and lives with her husband Shafi and their three children. The only earning member of the family is Zahura’s husband who is a day laborer. Before Cyclone Aila, Shafi worked on a shrimp farm where he earned enough money to care for his family and small house. But when Cyclone Aila hit the coastal areas of Bangladesh, Gabura was badly affected. Like many other families, Zahura and Shafi lost everything. Their house was destroyed and washed away, and they lost all of their household items. After this, the family struggled to survive, especially for shelter and food. They were forced to live in a very small hut made of leaves and plastic sheeting (right). Because of your gifts, our partners were able to provide a new house (below) for Zahura and Shafi and their family. “We didn’t know if we would be able to make our home again,” said Zahura, “as we were still struggling to get food two times per day. We are very happy that now we are living in a good house, our children have shelter now, and they are safe. We are very thankful for your support to build our house. May God give you more strength and capability to help the helpless and homeless people affected by the cyclone."