Daniel J. Dick

Indonesians and Other Foreign Students

During my time at Fresno State as an undergraduate in Math, I made friends with many Iranian students in the Engineering Department. While working at Fresno State, I overheard some students talking and wondered what language they were speaking. At first, I thought it might be Japanese, but it turned out to be Indonesian in the Indonesian Christian Community.

Indonesian Christian Community

We had three Indonesian churches in Fresno, and I ended up going to a different church from my close friend, Sari. At first, I thought I was just visiting, but the people were so loving and sincere in their worship, and they challenged me to grow in character, so I stayed a little while–about 35 years.

I met Christopher Chan, a Malaysian student who attended Indonesian Full Gospel Fellowship and led a Bible study there. And not all of us in the Indonesian Christian Community believed in speaking in tongues.

So, when Christopher and I got into a discussion about speaking in tongues, just as I was about to pull out my set of Bible proof-texts to prove that tongues was not what he thought they were, he brought up those verses himself and left me solidly proven wrong. And yet he did it with such deep kindness, humility, and sincerity, that I was left challenged to the core of my being.

Belief Without Faithfulness

In the end, I finally believed, but I could not speak in tongues. Some try to fake it, but I couldn’t. Some people said to start making noises and just let it flow into tongues. But my conscience would not allow me to do that. It felt wrong–fake.

So, in church, while everyone else was singing and praising God with hands lifted up, and while they were singing in the spirit in tongues, I asked God why I could not do that.

Then God seemed to impress upon my mind speaking to me not in words, but just in revelation to my mind as my conscience might do in some situations. God seemed to be saying this:

God: “Dan, look around. What do you see?”

Me: “They’re singing.”

God: “What else?”

Me: “They’re lifting their hands in praise.”

God: “Dan, why aren’t you doing that?”

Me: “Lord, I don’t want to make a seen then blow it and sin and bring dishonor to Your name.”

God: “Dan, aren’t you already dishonoring me by refusing to trust and obey me? When will you start?”

Me: Now.

Surrender In the Indonesian Christian Community

I surrendered, raised my hands, prayed, and sang and it flowed into tongues. And over time I would become an intercessor being led by God what to pray for and getting answers.