Sari Tjokro of Australia

My name is Sari Tjokro and I was born in Indonesia, but now I live in Melbourne, Australia. I came to Australia in late 2007 as an English student and Australia has been my home since then. I completed my Bachelor of Computer Science and Software Engineering in 2010 and I graduated from Master of Multimedia Technology in 2013. I mostly involve in the student ministry and serve in multimedia department in the church. I was born and being brought up in Christian family, but I did not believe in Jesus and His word. Even during those times, I considered the Bible as the most boring book that had ever been created. I did not really love the idea being Christian because of the misconception and misunderstanding of the way my parent introduced me to Christianity.

However everything started to changes when I began to study abroad. I have experienced miracles and wonders throughout that process. He gives me dream as one of His tools to communicate with me. Although, I experienced all of that, I still didn’t believe that God is there all the time looking after me. Even so, a week before I flew to Australia, I was so determine that I will not go to church in Australia and I refused to be a Christian back then.

Obviously, God have His own ways and He understands and He loves us uniquely. He knows how to win our heart in the specific ways. I flew to Australia with my parent and they just stayed for two weeks. During those weeks, God used it in mighty way. I was forced to look for a church. I went to the church where my cousin went to. During the service, there were a lot of questions about the existence of God and why I have to be in the Christian community. I was asking God (in my heart) what makes Christians so different than other religions? Surprisingly, the worship leader answered that question publicly.

Since then I surrendered my live to Jesus Christ.

I am not quite sure yet about my dream in ministry, but I know that I always have a dream to have and be in multicultural community. I don’t know, somehow I love the idea of diversity, especially when they believe in the same God as I do. It gives me the feeling that God is not bound by time, space or geographic area. I guess I love to call myself as evangelist and I believe that every one of us who called themselves a Christian, they are evangelists too. I think because I know how bad I was before Jesus saved me, John 3:16 become a Rhema in my life. I am not comfortable talking with people as I am introverted, but somehow when I see multitudes of unbeliever especially from different nations, I feel compelled to build relationship with them and share about Jesus and what He has done in my life.

Our comfort zone is the biggest challenge in our ministry in Australia. Australia is such a good place to live, with all the comfort and luxury facilities that we got, sometime it hinders us to do ministry because that is outside our comfort zone. My local church has been a great place to support me physically and spiritually. One of the examples is our student ministry in campus that we called MSF. MSF stands for Multicultural Student Fellowship. This club exists in 3 different universities across Melbourne. It has been a great tool for me to know a lot of people from many nations and share Jesus to their lives.

A scholarship with CLI is essential because I want to equip myself with theological education to support my ministry, but currently I am jobless and I am not able to afford any course if I had to pay for it.
I never pictured myself to be able to live overseas. I am still looking for the specific calling and life direction upon my life. As I am still fighting to get my permanent residency in Australia, I would like to request a prayer of guidance in my life, wisdom and understanding as I study the word and dwell in the word, God can reveal Himself and His secret plan in my life even more, and use my life testimony to bring more people to Christ. Pray for my spiritual growth, character growth and strength to obey God at any costs.