Hello everyone my name is Maria Rosanti. I come from Indonesia. I have been in the US for about 12 years. The story of what I am going to tell you is not about me, it's about my mom. My mom was raised by a Muslim Mother and Catholic Father. When she was 5 years old her father was taken by the Japanese and taken to a camp during WWII. My mom was the first born child, she has 2 brothers and 1 sister. After my grandfather was taken away from the family and placed in a war camp my grandmother had a hard time taking care of the 4 children. She had to work and my mom had to take care of her younger siblings. Her sister died from malaria during this time at age 3. This heartache lead my grandmother to make the decision to place the 3 children in foster care. The children were separated from each other in multiple foster families. My mom was living with a Christian foster family and she learned about Jesus at that time. When my mother was a teenager my grandmother took all her kids out of foster families and put them in a Catholic dorm school, but males and females were separate so my mom was again separated from her brothers. In this Catholic school my mother earned her certificate and became a kindergarten teacher for Dutch children. She spoke fluent Dutch and Indonesian. She continued practicing Catholicism until she married my dad who was Muslim. In order to get married my dad became a Catholic. Mom and Dad had 9 children, 5 boys and 4 girls. As a Catholic my mom went to church every Sunday with all of us children except my dad. To my knowledge my mom was very strict Catholic and practiced all their rituals faithfully.
In 1983 I personally Jesus as my Lord and Savior, but I was not a disciple so I never grew spiritually even though I stopped going to the Catholic church and started attending the nondenominational church. In 2009 I went home to visit my family and as usual we had a fun time, but I never brought up becoming a christian and I don't even think they saw a big change in me, My life was "Christian" but I was not fully surrendered. When I became a new born Christian in 2012 I started talking about Jesus to my mom. All the time I spoke to her about Jesus and reading the Bible, she refused politely. She always told me that I have to leave her alone with her religion.
I thought after I learned about discipleship that I needed to share with her God's story. This was a good strategy, I thought, for my ministry to my family, but I was wrong. I soon found out I only needed to pray and show them my change not to preach to them. This is when I asked my friends in my small group at CCW to pray about salvation for my mom and family. Prayers continued and God supplied my way. A week before i leave to Indonesia, June 4, 2017, my mother accepted Christ into her heart and life through the working ministry by Brother Martin, who has been ministering to my mom faithfully. June 12, 2017 I boarded the plane to Indonesia to see my family for the first time in 8 years. I had no agenda of my own. I surrendered all to the moving of the Holy Spirit. What I did want to do was show them how I had changed through each of them seeing my actions and responses. I remember one day during my prayer time I talked to God that I wanted to experience my mom's baptism when I was there. That was my heart's desire, but boldly I said to God, "Your will be done and not mine." I asked God to use me as he wants me to be used.
While home in Indonesia I slept in the same room as my mom. Every morning I did my devotions and read the Bible, and invited her to join me. We did together and we prayed together every morning; she loved it. One afternoon I met Brother Martin and his wife who were visiting my mom, and they invited me and my mom to their house and attend their church. We made a plan for Friday, June 30 and stay until Sunday afternoon. They also mentioned going to the beach with their family and friends on Saturday. On June 19 early in the morning I was praying, then somehow the Holy Spirit spoke to me by giving me the idea to baptize my mom at the beach on July 1, when we had planned to go to the beach. I was so excited and said to God, it will be great if that happens! Then I asked God, "How do I talk to my mom? How do I ask her?" I felt scared and unsure how to bring this up to my mom. I thought this task was too big for me. I asked God to give me the strength and courage to talk to my mom about baptism. Later on my mom came back to the room to do the devotional with me. as usual we talk and have a conversation about anything and everything. I don't remember the conversation we had until we talk about baptism. I felt the Holy Spirit present in our conversation. He spoke the words and I don't remember what I was speaking. I spoke of my experience of being baptized. My mom's response was, "I wonder if I would have that same kind of experience." With that expression I felt the excitement in me and asked her boldly if she wanted to be baptized, and she said enthusiastically, "Yes!" I was surprised and unexpected with her response because I know her and her strict Catholic upbringing that she might say, "Let me think about that." The joy that I had, I was praising God and said, "It's happening." then I text Brother Martin the news and asked him to prepare the baptism in the ocean. On July 30, 2017 we went to Brother Martin's house and the next day we went to the beach and my mom was baptized on Saturday, July 1,2017 at age of 82.
I could see the joy in mom's life as she wants to be God's witness. She gave a testimony at Brother Martin's church and said it is never too late to give your life to God. God cares about families, family is God's design. If you are praying for family members and other people you love, God is listening and is at work setting up situations in their lives so that they can turn to Him. I hope this testimony of my mom gives everyone hope and encourages you to keep praying. Today my mom has joined the worship team by playing the harmonica at the nondenominational church my sister has been attending.
"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."1 Corinthians 15:58
"Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved- you and your household" Acts 16:31
