Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Call to Ministry

Crazy for Jesus: Virgo Handojo’s Call Story

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by Virgo Handojo

My childhood was filled with the traditions and rites of Chinese culture, which are still deeply rooted in my heart. Unfortunately, those beautiful memories did not last long. Changes in political policy in Indonesia at that time prohibited the development of Chinese traditions. Even so, Chinese teachings and traditions still leave an imprint on my mind. 

Junior high is the second place where I learned of God. I was educated in a Catholic school. Here I learned that attending mass at church is more important than knowing God or learning from the Bible. When I was in junior high school, I attended catechism for one year to be baptized as a Catholic. 

Monday afternoon, March 5, 1979, was an extraordinary day in my life. God touched my life. Tiong Gie, my hometown friend and childhood friend, invited me to a prayer meeting where I experienced a new birth. It is difficult to describe in words, but I have felt the touch of the Divine hand. Since then, I have started to learn to hear and obey God’s voice and live with Him. 

Virgo Handojo speaking at JKI Anugerah. Photo provided by Virgo Handojo.

Meanwhile God began to expand my ministry and relationships with other Christians. Through the Sangkakala family led by Mr. Adi Sutanto with a prayer meeting in Semarang, God began to train my life, together with young people my age. We took turns preaching, becoming traveling evangelists to other villages and cities. Through a network of families, jobs, schools, and the services of the Sangakakala foundation, this spiritual movement and its prayer groups have spread to other cities.  

Through these services I grew both spiritually and in ministry experience. At that time, we also started to plant churches, both in villages and cities, at home and abroad. Through this youth movement, many mission foundations, synods, and new churches have sprung up, both at home and abroad. 

I was involved in the pioneering of the Indonesian Christian Congregation Synod (JKI Synod), which is theologically affiliated with the Charismatic Anabaptist movement. In 1986 I was ordained and served at the Maranatha Indonesian Christian Congregation church, Ungaran. Together with the JKI synod, we started the Maranatha Bible School, which became the seed of Sangkakala High School, Salatiga. 

In 1987, with just $65, I landed in Los Angeles to study at Fuller Theological Seminary. By God’s grace, I managed to complete three master’s degrees in the fields of Intercultural Studies, Theology, and Leadership, and in 2000 a Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Studies from the School of Psychology. In 1989 God brought me and my wife to Mrs. Dina Boon from the city of Sierra Madre, CA. We were asked to clean Mrs. Dina Boon’s house from dark powers.  

Through this ministry, the International House Fellowship was born in Dina Boon’s house. At the end of 1990 this family association grew to 30-50 people from 10-13 different nationalities. Through this partnership, the Anugerah Indonesian Christian Congregation (JKIA) was born on September 19, 1992, at the Free Methodist Church, Pasadena. The first services began on Sunday, September 20, 1992. A few months later the church moved to Sierra Madre Congregational Church in Sierra Madre, CA. 

At the San Jose Mennonite General Assembly (July 4, 2007), JKIA, along with two Indonesian Mennonite churches in Los Angeles and the Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC), established the Indonesian Mennonite Association (IMA). Today IMA is a member of the Racial Ethnic Council of the Mennonite Church USA. Truly, God exists, is miraculous, and really loves us all. Amen. 

My Narrative of Inadequacy, Flipped Upside Down

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by Gary Alloway

Growing up, I was a kid who was a good at everything but never excelled at any one thing. I was a committed athlete, but never a star. I was a good student, but there were always a few students above me. I had friends, but others were more charismatic. Since I never had my own “thing,” I always saw this as a weakness in myself.  

When I was 16, God got a hold of my life, and I chose to follow Jesus. At age 18, in a moment of doubt and desperation, I heard God speak the words, “Serve me.” I consider those two moments to be my points of calling. I gave my life to serving God and helping broken people find Jesus.

And yet, for much of my young adulthood, I wandered. I wandered intellectually, trying to find how my beliefs held together. I wandered theologically, exploring everything from evangelicalism to Orthodoxy. I wandered between non-profit ministry and pursuing an academic career, and somewhere in the midst of this, I got a business degree.

At age 24, I was in seminary and not sure what I was doing with my life. I still felt like I was good at a little bit of everything but was not excelling at any one thing.  

One day, God turned this narrative on its head. I was talking with an old friend, and a light came on. Jesus took the narrative of inadequacy and said to me, “You are exactly who I need you to be.”  

Suddenly, I looked again at pastoral ministry and realized that this is a job that requires being good at a little bit of everything rather than being good at one particular thing, especially in the local church. What other job requires public speaking, counseling, budgeting, and knowing the basics of building repair? What other job changes so drastically from day to day … I may be planning a liturgy at one moment and planning a community meal in the next. What other job provides new challenges in every season, often ones that I could never foresee?  

I attended an academic seminary. I remember a professor, who had served the church for many years, say, “If you really want to use your brain, go into pastoral ministry, not academics.” He was right. For someone whose brain likes to wander in a million directions, pastoral ministry never runs out of things to think about. For someone who gets bored easily, pastoral ministry provides something new in every season. For someone who is good at a little bit of everything, but fails to have a specialty, pastoral ministry is a perfect fit.  

I often get exhausted by the ever-changing, never-settled state of the local church. But if church work ever gets boring, then I will probably be ready to move on. So, today I celebrate the local church, with all its chaos and challenges, and am thankful God made me just as I am. 

Gary Alloway

Gary Alloway is a pastor and church planter of Redemption Church of Bristol (PA), which is a Mosaic Partner in Ministry and was founded in 2009.  Gary serves with his wife, Susan, and his children, Augie (9) and Rosey (7), who deeply love pretzel dogs from the Bristol Amish Market.  Gary has a passion for Philadelphia sports, crossword puzzles, and for seeing broken people connect to the amazing love of God.