Northern Sumatra Mission, Indonesia
The vision of Northern Sumatra Mission (NSM) is to plant churches among the unreached people groups in northern Sumatra. A daughter ministry of Cahaya Suku, another ministry partner of Partners International, NSM grew quickly after Partners helped church planters relocate to assist in tsunami relief projects. Today NSM operates evangelistic and holistic projects with the ultimate goal of seeing Christian communities established. Partners has worked alongside NSM as an independent organization since 2008, helping the team establish their ministry outreaches in this tough area. Consistent investments in leadership training and organizational development have enabled NSM to continue to grow year by year.
The vision of Northern Sumatra Mission (NSM) is to plant churches among the unreached people groups in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. A daughter ministry of Cahaya Suku, another ministry partner of Partners International, NSM grew quickly after Partners helped church planters relocate to assist in tsunami relief projects. Today NSM operates evangelistic and holistic projects with the ultimate goal of seeing Christian communities established. Partners has worked alongside NSM as an independent organization since 2008, helping the team establish their ministry outreaches in this tough area. Consistent investments in leadership training and organizational development have enabled NSM to continue to grow year by year.
Sumatra is the largest unevangelized island in the world. Of its 52 unreached people groups, 48 have no indigenous churches and 30 of them have no known Christian workers. The Deli Malay, and Mandailing people groups are some of the most unreached groups on the island. Because there were never more than a few dozen foreign missionaries committed to reaching them, Muslims in this part of the country have had little exposure to the Gospel.
Due to a 30-year conflict between separatists and the Indonesian government, many have never met a Christian or seen a Bible. Their only reference points are sermons and teachings from their religious teachers warning that anything Christian will defile them. Conversion to Christianity is paramount to committing “cultural suicide.” Yet, since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the opening up to the outside world, some recent and encouraging progress has been made and new opportunities have opened to share the Gospel.
LEADERSHIP
Tengku
God Led Us to Them
August 2, 2019
After about a five-month absence, Daud* finally returned to our area. In a meeting with the leaders of a group of believers in January 2019, Eka* shared that his group…
Visiting in New Areas
May 21, 2019
We visited a new area to expand our ministry so that more local people would have the opportunity to hear the Good News. This area is about an hour and…
The Ripple Effect
January 28, 2019
He was just 54 years old and he died last September. The previous day his wife called us to say that her husband was sick and had just been admitted…
A Little Attention Changes the Mood
December 9, 2018
Discipleship and training with A* had stopped for about a month when he moved to another area. At first, he told us that he only wanted to visit his brother,…
Balancing Family and Ministry
October 10, 2018
In the past few months, most of my time has been devoted to caring for my wife, who has been very sick. Because of that, we have spent much less…
A Religious Divide among Brothers
July 27, 2018
At one of our ministry meetings, a local believer named Usma* told us that he had recently brought his brother Rus*, who was a new believer, to meet local people….
Yay, First Group Formed!
May 22, 2018
Pak Ahmu*, aged 61, builds houses for a living. He was baptized in July 2017 five months after he confessed to believe. The first challenge we gave after he was…
New Believers Holdout
May 1, 2018
Some new believers who had confessed belief in Jesus as Savior became doubtful after asking others from their Muslim community about Jesus. Last month, this happened with Mr. Uyu and…
Local people find the way to forgiveness of sins
March 22, 2018
The first time we met Pak Usma*, he was taking his sick father to our friend who is an acupuncturist. We church planters regularly visit our friend’s acupuncture practice looking…
God prepares husband; then wife
February 14, 2018
We first met Mr. M last August when we saw him sitting alone on the terrace of his house located on the edge of a rice field where he and…
Brian Doriot
That a church may be established among the Aceh people as envisioned, and that the Bible will be available to them in their own language to belp them grow and mature as disciples of Jesus.