BELONG TO A FAMILY OF Seventh-day Adventists in Indonesia. My father was well-accepted in the community for his enduring faith and for upholding family values as a faithful Adventist Christian father. We grew up without TV and other sources of worldly entertainment. Reading the Bible and other books was our everyday practice.
I started studying medicine with the hope that one day I would be an Adventist medical missionary, enabling me to witness in the Muslim community and make a difference for God. My plan was changed when I was in my third year of study. I was asked to write an examination on Sabbath at the secular medical school where I was enrolled. I brought this problem home and consulted with my family. With their advice and prayer, I decided,
without hesitation, to shift my course to pastoral study and theology at Indonesian Adventist University (UNAI).
This decision also gave me the opportunity to meet my future wife, a wonderful partner in ministry. Being born in Adventist families and in an Asian context, we did not have much time to socialize with the opposite gender as it was considered somewhat improper. I was also very careful and selective in looking for my prospective life partner. I always expected her to be a God-fearing person who demonstrated His divine character. She must have an inward beauty that would last for eternity. Marrying someone was more of God’s inspiration and His guidance for me.
I met Christine Marion Mangoal when we were students at UNAI. I noticed that she was another child of God who had come from a reputable Adventist family. She demonstrated great respect and honor to her parents.
THE RIGHT START
I wanted our relationship to start right from the very beginning and with God’s blessings. So our way of getting close and intimate with each other was the writing of a journal that we have been faithfully keeping as a tradition. The content of our shared journal is not our love story and how it got started, but instead the love story of God toward His children narrated in the Bible.
I am thankful to God that Christine and I have the same belief and attach the same values to marriage and relationships. We both know that our way of living and interacting in this institution of God is very important to our spiritual journey. In the book of Genesis, we are reminded that marriage and lifetime companionship are God’s design to serve the true purpose of life as well as His mission. It is an intelligent way of our Maker to sanctify His children and mold in them a character fitted for heaven.
The preparation for receiving the eternal gift of salvation and experiencing everlasting togetherness begins right here on earth. Thus, sitting side by side and writing God’s words with our hands is our normal way of interacting with each other in a silent but purposeful way.
Our real interaction with each other began from the time we started writing Bible verses. As we frequently prayed with one another, we felt destined to spend our lives together. We received God’s impression that we were both to serve in His vineyard. I was impressed continually during our courtship that it was not only our choice to be together but also His choice for our relationship to bloom and prosper. We discussed more of our future and what we could do to serve God after marriage. The regular writing of Bible verses had allowed us to develop these spiritual bonds.
FROM THIS DAY FORWARD
Even after marriage, whenever we feel there is incompatibility and experience some challenges, we never allow self-seeking interest to get into our relationship and push us apart. God controls and guides us through His words; the inspiration we receive from reading them has been our shield and protection. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Over the years of Bible writing, we have found great joy and true happiness in making it our routine. We can testify to everyone how God’s promises in the Bible are felt and experienced endlessly in our lives. We strongly believe that it is God’s original intent that His children in all relationships, including the husband-wife relationship, will learn to develop resiliency and rise above the differences, proving that God’s unconditional love is real and effectively working in His children’s lives.
The first Bible writing in the Bahasa language took us eight years to complete. We learned so much of God’s intended plan for marriage and how we could rightly define and realize the added value God has for this institution. God intended it to be a great blessing to both of us, and we indeed feel His blessing every time we start writing.
The more we copy or write God’s words, the more we are charmed by them. His words of love, promise, strength, comfort, and empowerment etch deep into our hearts.
Both of us started writing the Bible in English in 2019. Bible writing continually opens more opportunities to connect and reconnect as a pastoral couple, to be in each other’s presence, and to read and hear from each other. This is our way of keeping our family continually experiencing God’s blessings and allowing ourselves to hear Him speaking the language of love to us directly every day. In this way we can replicate the same love to others, beginning with our very own family!
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How We Do Bible Writing
This is how my wife and I include Bible writing in our lives and our relationship, with amazingly positive results:
1. We copy Bible passages into notebooks. I write on the left side, and my wife writes on the right.
2. After we have completed writing one chapter, we check over the words. My wife or I will read the chapter aloud while the other follows along in the Bible to make sure we’ve copied it correctly.
3. At this point we have copied the Bible into eight notebooks, which we take with us when we travel to other cities or countries. We write on planes, trains, and ships.
4. We have done this for eight years and have written in more than 70 cities and 10 countries.
