Hi all,

We have been feeling for several weeks now a need to connect with you all regarding a question that may (or may not) have passed through your mind at some point, “What are the Ullums up to in Indonesia?”  We feel a great burden to keep you in the loop of what we are doing with the time God has given us here in Indonesia.  That is motivated partly by a desire to have you praying knowledgably for us but also it is motivated by a desire for integrity with you our sending team.  The end goal of this partnership cannot simply be to, “support a missionary” there must be an overarching goal that is bigger than simply meeting your or our needs.  There needs to be a vision that we both have in our hearts that keeps us together in partnership and for which we are equally passionate about and committed to.  So what is that, “overarching goal” that motivated us to come together in partnership?

We ran across some old pictures the other day from the summer of ‘02.  Andrea and I were living in Jacksonville FL making all our final preparations for leaving to go to Indonesia.  A major part of that was spending time with other (many of you) like minded people, sharing with them where we were going and what it was we hoped to accomplish.  The bottom line was that we believed the good news of Jesus Christ was for all peoples and that he wanted to use His body (the Church) to herald that message.  Also close to our hearts was the burden of those with less access to the gospel.  That is why we chose to come to Indonesia, because there remain groups of people here that either because of linguistic, cultural, or geographical reasons remains outside the reach of the gospel.  That still remains the “overarching goal” that keeps us here in Indonesia.  It’s our hope that you too still have in view the opportunity to impact (least reached) peoples with the gospel message.

The leadership team has asked us to serve several church planting teams here in Borneo through providing consultant help directly as we are able, or through coordinating others to come in and help these teams.  Two of these teams are just getting off the ground and so by God’s grace we are able to “consult” them through drawing from the experiences we have had in the Jelai river area.  Another area we have been asked to oversee is the ongoing need to investigate and gather data related to the people groups here in Borneo.  We call that PGA or people group assessment, and it helps us to keep in focus why we are here in Indonesia.  There are huge needs of every shape and size that we could invest resources in but we want to keep as the target of our investment, those who have the least opportunity to hear the, “good news of great joy…for all peoples”.  We are also hopeful that God will raise up others to partner with us in the Jelai river area.

It’s a great privilege and a burden for us to be here doing what we are doing as a member of the body of Christ.  A privilege because there is nothing more glorious and eternal than turning the hearts of people to the heart of their heavenly Father. A burden because in our flesh we falter and are plagued with weakness.  God’s Word gives us every reason to hope that He is at work and is able to use us in spite of our weakness.

After His Glory,

Tim & Andrea Ullum

Description of pictures:

Three of a kind – Learning from mom

Commissioning service at Christian Family Chapel 10/02

Language groups in West Kalimantan

Family retreat to Kucing Malaysa