All Saints Outreach

Perkantas

Intervarsity Christian Fellowship & Graduates Christian Fellowship

Perkantas was born in Jakarta in June 1971. It had its roots in Overseas Christian Fellowship (OCF) meetings in Melbourne, Australia which were attended by Jonathan Parapak, a student at the University of Tasmania and Soen Siregar from Adelaide University. They met at OCF in Australia on December 1963 and at that time they were praying together to form a Christian Fellowship like OCF in Indonesia. Their prayer was answered on June 29, 1971, when Perkantas was established.

As a new small organisation it was hard to survive based on donations because at that time they had not yet built a reputation, and weren’t known in society or by the churches. Their work was not for nothing, their existence is proof that “God is taking care of his children”. They have not only survived in the one of the biggest Muslim countries but have also become an established Christian organisation.

After more than 35 years, Perkantas keeps maturing as an organisation with hundreds of staff in more than 40 cities in Indonesia. They have become acknowledged by the Indonesian Community, the Churches and have been able to expand their services.

Even though the initiative to form Perkantas was to serve Christian students at Universities, they have now expanded their services to a wider fellowship to fulfil their vision and mission: “to develop mature Christian alumni who will make their own contribution for their church, community and the nation”. So they are serving junior and senior students, as well as university students, alumni, family, and since May 2006 they are serving a wider audience through Radio Pelita Kasih every Friday from 20h-21h on 96.30FM

Their activities include ministering to Christian students (through small groups), alumni, family fellowship and sharing Jesus’ love to the community through Perkantas National Medical Services. They are not only raising Christian faith through Christian fellowship, seminars or retreats but also through publications, radio and medical training and services. By these means they also share Jesus love and fellowship with others. One example of their social activities is Free Medical Services for the flood victims a couple of months ago. Perkantas also helps Gerhati (supported by All Saints Church) to provide Medical Services for their clients and the community resident at Teluk Buyung, Bekasi.

As Indonesia has lots of students in its wide area, and Perkantas only reaches a small number of students and schools in Indonesia, please pray for them so that they can reach more souls in more cities, having enough resources (workers and financial) and can get more and more support to produce mature Christian alumni. Let’s hope that Perkantas can continue the snow ball effects that started from OCF, trigger and form other Christian fellowships, leaders and organisations which will build and strengthen the Christian community in Indonesia or even overseas.

If you want to give any contribution, ideas, hands to support Perkantas I would be happy to hand on and introduce you to Perkantas. Thank you for all of your support for our Outreach programmes.

Leo

Want to have a share?

Members of All Saints are encouraged to give directly to our Outreach Projects. You can use the church giving envelopes where you can specify which project you want to give to. Or you can deposit money directly into our bank account.

Donations may be channelled to specific projects or to general Outreach funds, in which case the Outreach Committee will disburse the funds according to the guidelines and individual project needs.

Please contact us if you would like more information.