Hanny Setiawan

21 February, 2001.  My mom passed away.  Salvatore Chisari , an Italian American, who is a father figure for me, said to me I will never say good by to your mom.  I will just say "Arriverdeci" (Sampai ketemu lagi, Till See You Again). 

Sampai Ketemu Lagi
By: The beloved son of Rossetti Ging, Hanny Setiawan

  Tiap langkah dalam hidupmu
  Nyata kasihNya
  Tiap hati yang kau layani
  Tahu artinya Cinta Kasih Bapa

  Walau waktumu t’lah berlalu
  Kekal c’ritamu
  Kepergianmu Mami
  Bukti kasihNya abadi

  Reff:
       Berat nian tuk melepaskan
       Pahlawan Iman
       Tapi Tuhan tahu jalan manusia
            Trima kasih tuk segalanya
            Mami tercinta
            Sampai ketemu lagi

  Literal Transalation:

  In every step of your life
  His love’s shinning
  Every heart that you serve
  Know the meaning of His love
     Even though your time was passed
     Your story is everlasting
     Your dead, Mom
     is the evidence of God’s love

  Reff:
      It’s hard to let go
      Such a faith warrior
      But God knows human ways
          Thank you for everyhing
          Beloved Mommy
          Till see you again (arrivederci mom) (yhs)

21 February 2001, My mom passed away.  I’d like to share the fact about her departure that I shared 5 years ago.  It strengthens my faith, and hope that will encourage you as well.

—————————————————————————————-
Dear Friends,

I’d like to abundantly thank you for all the support
through prayers, calls, emails, letters, and others
for me, Henry and my family so that we can pass one of
our hardest time biblically and joyfully.

A friend in need is a friend indeed.  Glad to know
that I have so many caring Friends that are ready to
help when I’m in need.  Especially, I’d like to say
thank you so much for:
- CPC (Christian Pentecosal Church), ICF
Boston(Indonesian Christian Fellowship), IFGF Boston
(Indonesian Full Gospel Fellowship), KMK Boston
(Keluarga Mahasiswa Katholik), and other fellowships
that have given me special encouragement. Thank you
especially for Pastor John, Pastor Zulfy, and Benjamin
Intan.
- My pals Sal & Tina, Glory, Ronald & Erlin, Nathan
and Hendi that have supported me more than I need.
Thank guys, you’re the best!
- All of you! :).  I’m sorry if I can’t reply your
emails, calls, and letters individually.  I only can
keep you all in my daily prayers, may you know God
more and more.

My mom’s death, even though it was very painful, it’s
been such a blessing for my family.  God’s shown us
that a death of a righteous has to be a blessing.

* Her Last Words
After shaking my brother’s hands and two of her
brother’s hand, hugging my dad, and holding the hands
of her two daughter in laws.  She "passed" away.
However, my oldest brother yelled, "mom…mom"
(mi…mami) and amazingly she got up again for the
last time, and said with her painless smile, "What’s
wrong with you?….I’m okay!" (Kowe iki ngopo…aku
iki ora opo-opo).  And then she went home to her real
home, the heaven.

* Her Last Wish
And until the last minute, her last wish was only she
wanted her brother to know Jesus Christ.  And now
through her death, my uncle started to know Him, it’s
still very early faith, but the seed has been planted.
  In fact, for the first time, he prayed to God for his
beloved sister, because he saw everytime somebody was
praying, my mom was peacefull.  And she was so happy
everytime she saw he prayed.

* My aunty’s vision.
A week before my mom passed away.  In Cirebon,
mile-miles away from Solo, my aunty was walking when
suddenly she felt her stomach was in pain and she saw
my mom wearing a wedding gown and a crown waving her
hand to her on the sky.  This happened during a day
time.  She kept this story in her heart and right away
she went to Solo to visit my mom.  And she told me the
story in person after my mom’s funeral.

After reading my mom’s testimony which she wrote
couple years ago, we found out that my aunty is the
person who brought my mom to church for the first
time. And then my mom brought the whole family to
Christ, and then my dad became a pastor and then the
church has brought hundreds of people become
believers.

I realise this story is very supernatural, but I
believe that the vision is from God.  That’s one of
the ways that God has used to encourage my family, my
church and friends that she left. Indeed, she’s in
better place.

In addition to other stories that are very encouraging
especially for me and my family, I’d like to encourage
all of you to take our faith seriously.  Christian
faith is not an empty faith.  It’s real!
Soon or later, believe it or not, we will face the
fact that we have to leave this world. What have we
done? And are we ready? And what will our last words
be?

Lastly, if you still have parents, children, family or
friends who don’t know Jesus Christ.  Out of love, I’d
like to to encourage you to let them know the good
news.  God is good! Don’t keep the news for ourselves,
they need Jesus.  They need to be saved.  And they
need us to introduce Jesus to them.  Please let them
know!

God bless you all,
Hanny Setiawan
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Godly Advise: Finding God’s Will (1)

Advise is very influential in shaping our view of how
to make godly decisions - to find God’s will.
Unfortunately, not many of us are aware that not all
advise is biblical.  Ungodly advise is very
subjective.  To make thing worse, since usually we
‘listen’ to this type of advise from our ‘inner
circle’- people who are close to us -, we tend to
blindly accept their advise.  Ironically, if the
advisors are also ‘believers’, we tend to assume that
they are always right.  On the other hand, if they are
not in the same faith, their advise cannot be
trustworthy; they are always wrong. Is that the right
practice? How should we treat advise anyhow?

There is no doubt that we should listen to godly
people carefully.  They are placed by God in our life
to help us grow in faith.  Bible shows us many
examples such as Moses-Joshua, Elijah-Elisha,
Samuel-David, Paul-Timothy, and many others.  However,
the concern here is that sometimes because these godly
people "care" us so much that they sometimes become
subjective.  Let’s read what happened with Jesus &
Peter.

——————————————————-
Matthew 16:21-23:

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his
disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many
things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and
teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on
the third day be raised to life.

Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!
You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in
mind the things of God, but the things of men."
——————————————————-

Peter’s advise to Jesus was out of love and care.  But
it’s wrong!!  God’s will for Christ is to die at
Calvary to redeem the world.  Peter didn’t know God’s
will for his teacher.  He should not have given such
advise.  This case happens a lot in modern world.  Our
godly friends sometimes become unwise in giving us
advise because they care about us. They become
subjective and emotional.  Let’s face the fact, which
one is easier to let somebody know that he (or she)
will not get what he desires or to let he knows that
God will fulfill his dream?  It is very hard to advise
a person to redirect his path to do the right thing,
especially if the right path is not the pleasant one.
It’s a lot easier to please somebody by giving him a
pleasing advise.  But again that’s wrong.  Godly
advise is able to help a person grow in faith so that
he can see clearer his purpose on life regardless of
his feeling and emotion. It’s NOT what we think is
right, but what God thinks is right.

Therefore, we should not blindly accept what our godly
friends suggest us to do.  We need to treat their
advises as second opinions and run them through the
truth.  In other words, advises from bro and sis in
Christ (even our spiritual leaders) are not the final
words, but The word of God is (yhs)

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By: Hanny Setiawan

After leaving home for 7 years, now I have been back for couple years.  And these last couple years are quite a journey indeed.  Tough is the right word to describe the challenge I face and the character I become.  Life has become financially challenging, emotionally demanding, and physically exhausting.  When God gave the revelation, and my pastor confirmed through his preaching some years back that only the Call will be able to sustain me, I knew that it would be tough. But I didn’t know that would be this tough.  No kidding!

But I can’t complain.  The toughness is very rewarding.  Through tears I sow, I have reaped boundless joy.  Every time God touches a life through mine, no word could describe how sweet it is.  At least, I know for sure I am here for a purpose.  I will not change this life with anything else.  This is mine given by God for His glory.  And this very life I have given it up for sacrifice. No complaint!

I haven’t reached the comfort zone yet.  But, I have seen the finish line.  He is there waiting with the trophy.  And the beauty of all of this is that He was there in my past, and in fact he is with me in every battle as well.  He is all over me.  This is all His.  And this strengthens my faith, hope, and love toward Him.  The struggle is the way to the beauty; the beautiful future He already has prepared for me.  No doubt!

Life continues.  Through times I watch God’s hand is restoring lives, reviving a community, and building an army.  An army aimed to turn this nation upside down.  It’s a vision not just a dream.  Vision becomes a mission.  Mission becomes a task.  Task is a work to do.  When I am in struggle, about to complain, and doubt is hovering, the work has called me to wake up.  Yes! I have the “unfinished business” to complete.  Complete the task, and finish the race. No comment! (yhs)

Power Resources To Sucess

As the underlying force of success, power existence is mandatory.  The lack of power will change the journey.  Therefore, it is crucial to know where to obtain power.  What the sources are to emerge this power is the next logical question for people that long for success.

There are 5 power resources that I believe are true across faith, social, educational and cultural background.  Peope draw their power from one of these sources or more. 

1. Passion (Power of Love).
2. Adversity (Power of Cross).
3. Knowledge (Power of Word).
4. Networking (Power of Community)
5. Spirituality (Power of Spirit)

We can pick any success story and we can tell where their power come from.  For instance, Bill Gates, one of the richest person in this planet, is no doubt very well-informed in the industry where he’s in and the information become his powerful knowledge to change the course of information technology history.  In other words, Bill, at least, draws his power to success from knowledge.  And I even dare to say that I believe this person is very passionate with what he’s doing.  The "rumor" says that he’s still actively invloved with the design of the latest microsoft technology, the .NET!  And was it possible for "sane somebody" to leave one of the mosty prestigous school in the world, Harvard, for something that he or she did not love that much? Bill Gates loves technology. These two strength alone, his passion and knowledge, become unlimited sources to make Bill Gates one of the most successfull man that we know (yhs).

Godly character develops success.
Solid competency maintains it.
Divine power makes it happen. (yhs)

Power To Success (I)

Success motivators such as Anthony Robbins, Napoleon Hill, Dr. Norman Peale, Robert Schuller, Andrie Wongso and many others believe that all success starts from dreams, visions, postive thoughts or many other words that basically describe some type of visualization of the desired output.  Then they also believe in the power of faith to make the dreams come true.  And if we act on what we believe, success is the result.  If I could summarize into a small equation, success is the sum of dream, faith, and action.  Mathematically it can be pictured like this:

Success = Dream + Faith + Action

I don’t argue with these gurus.  In fact, I totaly agree with them.  However, I strongly believe that there is another variable needed to be added.  I call it POWER! People can have all the dream and belief and working on them, but if they stop and give in, success can’t be reached.  Power is required ingredient of success.

History has proved that Christians will not be able to survive if they didn’t have the power (dunamis).  And my life journey has shown the same idea.  We need power to success.  If I could add to the equation, the math will look like this:

Success = (Dream + Faith + Action) * Power

If power is zero, success won’t have any value.  All of the dreams, faiths, and even persistency of action will not result the desired output.  This thought brings to the conclusion that dependecy toward higher power determines the degree of success.  The ultimate power will bring the ultimate success.  And the ultimate success cannot be found in other things rather than Jesus Christ.  The book of Hebrew has vividly described, that He is more powerful than any powers that world know. 

In short, the more we are dependent on Jesus Christ, the ultimate power, the higher degree of success is guaranteed.  In fact, He will bring us to the ultimate success (yhs).