On Wednesday, 3 August 2023, the Indonesian Bible Society (LAI) welcomed a visit from ministry partners from the LENTERA Partnership, led by Rev. Dr Christian Gossweiller. His name is, in fact, no stranger to the wider LAI family. For over a decade, Rev. Christian dedicated himself to the major project of revising the New Translation of the Bible. He was a member of the team responsible for revising the Old Testament of the New Translation. Around the start of 2020, three years before the second edition of the New Translation Bible was published, he was asked by his sending church and mission organisation to return to Germany to serve the congregation in his homeland. As a missionary, Rev. Christian has always been faithful to every task entrusted to him. However, a part of his heart has never been able to fully detach itself from Indonesia, his second home.
During a meeting with LAI, LENTERA Partnership explained how the organisation was first established and the vision and mission it upholds to continue the ministry work pioneered by the mission organisation Neukirchener Mission (NM) in Java and several other parts of Indonesia over the past few decades.
The LENTERA Partnership (Eng. “lentera”) is an acronym for “Gospel Ministry from Neukirchen for the Light of the Archipelago” (Gospel ministry originating from Neukirchen to bring light to the Indonesian archipelago). As the Neukirchen Mission (NM) is no longer continuing its ministry and partnership work in Java, LENTERA—comprising people who were previously involved in mission work or supported mission ministry in Indonesia—feels called to continue the work and expand the mission in Indonesia.
Previously, NM had long collaborated with the North Central Java Christian Church (GKJTU), the Kalimantan Evangelical Church (GKE), the Indonesian Bible Society (LAI), and Dutch partners the Reformed Missionary Association (GZB) and Salatiga Mission. Rev. Christian Gossweiller and his wife arrived in Salatiga around 1995 and served as NM missionaries at the GKJTU; however, his work was not limited to that church, as he also taught the Bible at the Abdiel Theological College (STT) in Ungaran, Central Java. In the years that followed, cooperation developed with LAI and also GKE in the Kalimantan region.
In 2020, NM decided to join a larger Mission Alliance. The regions of Java and Indonesia were not included within the scope of this new alliance’s ministry. However, many former missionaries and volunteers were unwilling to relinquish the valuable partnership and long-standing cooperation between German and Indonesian Christians in the archipelago, which had been in place for over 130 years. Therefore, following extensive discussions, it was decided to establish a new non-profit association that would continue to promote various mission projects and new partnerships, even extending beyond the island of Java. Thus, “LENTERA Partnership” was launched on 10 July 2021.
LAI warmly welcomes the partnership with LENTERA Partnership, particularly in the mission to spread the Good News to the ends of the earth and to ensure that God’s Word is not only disseminated but also understood and serves as an inspiration in everyone’s lives. LAI’s General Secretary, Sigit Triyono, outlined to LENTERA the vision, mission and six service mandates of LAI, as well as potential programmes that could form the basis of a partnership between the two organisations.
On this occasion, LAI symbolically presented the New Translation of the Bible, 2nd Edition (TB-2) to LENTERA, represented by its CEO, Rev. Dr Christian Gossweiller, who is a member of the Bible revision team. The partnerships formed with various organisations, both domestic and international, are evidence of how God helps and sustains LAI’s ministry by bringing together ministry partners to realise the vision of making the Bible available to everyone.
