January 30, 2007 Poso, Indonesia …. [Gay Tuballes/Adventist News Dispatch/ANN Staff]
The morning of January 13 started out as a rather typical Saturday when Seventh-day Adventists in Poso, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia headed to the Adventist church to worship until a bomb, wrapped in a plastic bag, was discovered by one of the church members under some bushes at the main entrance. With this discovery church members quickly alerted the police who sent a bomb specialist to deactivate the bomb.
According to the police, the bomb was active and could have been detonated by a cellular phone. Police also say that so far leads point to involvement of Muslim extremists.
The Poso Adventist Church has a membership of 100, a number that shrunk from around 200 original members when the feud between Muslims and Christians flared up six years ago.
Prior to the discovery of this bomb, the previous Poso Adventist church was among four other Adventist churches in the area burned down by extremists in the past few years. Church leaders in the area say that the attacks do not specifically target Adventist churches, but Christian churches in general.
“Members of that church are again on red alert. It is not safe and easy now worshipping God in any place,” said Pastor Erents Sahensolar, president of the Adventist church in Central Sulawesi.
“This [isn't] the only bomb incident that happened [in that area],” said Moldy Mambu, associate treasurer at the Adventist church headquarters in the Southern Asia-Pacific region.
He told ANN that five years ago at the turn of the New Year, a bomb exploded at midnight near the Poso Adventist Church. It was timed to strike Adventists at the very height of the New Year's celebration. Little did the alleged terrorists know that the Adventist believers had already observed the New Year at sunset, the Biblical mark of a new day.
The police have sent security forces to survey and secure the area surrounding the church. Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country with a Christian presence only eight percent. There are nearly 6,500 Adventists worshipping in 41 churches in the Central Sulawesi area.
Copyright (c) 2007 by Adventist News Network.
