News Articles by Elaine Gaston

INDONESIA (BP) -- Indonesians must declare which of the seven state-sanctioned religions they follow, but there appears to be a big difference between what they say and what they do. While more Muslims live in Indonesia than in any other country in the world, it isn't an Islamic state. Its 1945 constitution guarantees freedom of religion; however, Indonesians are required to declare which one of the state-recognized religions they follow so that it can be stated on their national ID card.

INDONESIA (BP) -- Few signs point the way to the village where Carter Bissey* is heading. Well into the three-hour drive across the Indonesian island, somewhere along a paved road that crumbled into a teeth-jarring pitted track, he pulls over and cranks down his window to ask a stranger for directions. Cashew and banana trees, coconut palms and some rice fields line the way. Carter navigates off of the understanding of the island's geography that he's gained in seven years of living here, directions he gleans from passersby and a heap of grace.

INDONESIA (BP) -- It wasn't tropical tourism that first brought Rosemary Brackey* to Indonesia more than a decade ago. It was her desire to offer healing hands to the country after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed an estimated 170,000 Indonesians alone. At the time, Rosemary was a telemetry nurse, monitoring patients' vital signs for Liberty Hospital in a Kansas City, Mo., suburb. She and her husband Howard* had felt called to global missions but were waiting for the Lord's timing.

INDONESIA (BP) -- A light breeze carries the scent of cloves in through the open windows. To live on an island that smells this good could seem like a dream. Add to that Bali's startling beauty and color: lush rice fields rimmed with coconut palms, waterfalls plunging down mountainsides and volcanic lakes with deep, clear waters. It sounds like paradise but obscures a deeper darkness. "It is a blessing to live in a beautiful place," International Mission Board worker Amy Kreisky* said.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (BP) -- Mike McAfee took his daughter Karis to work with him on a Tuesday morning in the Ivory Coast capital of Abidjan. His work that day happened to be visiting a Muslim friend, Seidou, to talk more about Jesus. Karis, 11 at the time, was going to play with Seidou's niece Sadia. Her hopes were dashed, however, when they arrived and Sadia wasn't there. Her uncle told Karis that she was now an apprentice in a tailor's shop.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (BP) -- Heather McAfee and Viviane Kassou don't look anything like each other, but friends call them "the twins." Outwardly the women have little in common other than the colorful ankle-length African dresses they both wear as they walk, arm in arm, through Abobo, a working-class suburb in northern Abidjan.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (BP) -- Rain hits the metal church roof as a visiting team of volunteers watches and learns. "I would like to tell you a story," begins Mike McAfee, an International Mission Board urban church planter in Abidjan. Next to him, Bakary Bamba, a former Muslim, translates sentence-by-sentence into the rich tones of West African French. "The story is true," McAfee says. "We know this story is true because it comes from God's Word. The story starts with God. In the beginning, there was nothing but God."

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (BP) -- International Mission Board missionary Heather McAfee told a story about a woman who came to her for prayer. The woman was worried about a snake in her house. McAfee asked if the snake was poisonous. "No," the woman answered. McAfee asked if it was still in the house. "No," the woman repeated. McAfee didn't understand exactly what the problem was until later when an Ivorian friend explained that a snake in the house represents "serious evil." The woman feared someone had cursed her.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (BP) -- Mike McAfee weaves the truck through traffic until it finally rolls to a standstill. It looks like bedlam, but it's just a typical morning in Abidjan. The roads are wet from recent rains with standing water in many places. Along the roadside are street sellers hawking goods from tables piled high with mangoes, avocados, bananas and small pineapples. Other vendors wave goods outside the truck windows. At a newsstand, several men read the headlines of newspapers tacked up on a wooden board.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (BP) -- Like churches in southern towns in the United States, mosques seem to be on every street corner in Abidjan, says missionary Mike McAfee. The Muslim worship centers are easy to spot during the holy month of Ramadan, when, at the close of the fasting day, men gather to pray. As dusk comes on and the crowds gather at the neighborhood mosque, men spill out onto the sidewalk, sometimes filling as much as a city block. They kneel and bow -- always facing Mecca to the northeast -- as they perform their ritual prayers.