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WHAT’S UP
TEENS!
Kita selalu diperhadapkan dengan pilihan antara “biasa” dengan “luar biasa”/”spesial”/”istimewa”. Ketika mau beli nasi goreng, martabak, bakmie, atau pizza, kita bisa pilih antara mau yang biasa atau yang spesial. Bagaimana dengan diri kita sebagai murid Kristus? Pastinya kita ga mau jadi muridNya yang biasa aja, kan? Keinginan jadi murid yang extraordinary sih ada, bukan begitu? Tapi sering kali kita ga ngerti caranya. Kalau kalian mau cari tau caranya, baca Nafiri Teen edisi kali ini yang bertema “Extraordinary Disciples”. Di sini kalian bisa nemuin banyak hal tentang “Extraordinary Disciples” dan mulai belajar menjadi murid Tuhan Yesus yang luar biasa. Selamat membaca dan Tuhan memberkati!
THE TEAM EDITORS
Arina Palilingan Nico Tanles Tjhin
DESIGN
Arina Palilingan, Christina Citrayani, Glory Amadea, Kezia Rusli
CONTRIBUTORS
Nehemia Riggruben, Sarah Amanda Palilingan, Agung Wijaya, Christopher Pranoto, Billy Liando, Emma Miriam, Genesaret Tsujila, Tatiana Justin, Natasha Handoko
Salam, Nico Tanles Tjhin Redaksi
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Kalau karya-karya kamu ingin diterbitkan di sini, ayo kirim email ke nicotjhin@gmail.com dengan subject NAFIRI TEEN - (Judul Karya Kamu) !
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M E CORNER ME
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P H O T O G R A P CORNER HY
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Being a
E L P I C S I D ’ JESUS
e n r u o b l e M n i
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Maleakhi Agung Wijaya
Background Hello guys, my name is Maleakhi also known as Kiki. I am a secondyear student at The University of Melbourne majoring in computer science and mathematics. The reason I take those majors is because I want to be a machine learning engineer. For those who don’t know Machine Learning, it is a field of study that incorporate computer science and mathematics (probability & statistic). One of the coolest thing about Machine Learning is that you can create an AI (Artificial Intelligence) using some advance comp-sci, probability, and statistic algorithms. Basically, these AI can predict patterns and become smarter just by having more user interacted with it.
Life in Melbourne When I’m studying in Melbourne, I live in a student accommodation near my university. Just like other people, there are times that I feel homesick. Luckily, those feelings don’t usually show up since my parents contacts me daily. Moreover, last semester my sister moved to Melbourne to study at RMIT University. Besides family, I am lucky because lots of my friends live on the same apartment, so that we can hangout and study together. When moving to a new country or places, I think it is crucial to join some communities, especially Christian Community. In Melbourne, I join a church which has youth community called ICC (Indonesian
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Christian Church). I find that ICC always encourage and reminds me to stay close to God and rely on Him. In addition, by joining ICC, I’ve seen that God gives me numerous opportunities to serve Him. For example, by joining the music team as guitarist, coordinates schedule, as well as becoming a welcoming day committee. In addition to those services, recently God also gives me a big responsibility to be a KK (youth bible study community) leader. In addition to church community, I think it is also important to join secular communities which allow me to know people from different background and meet new friends with same hobby. In Melbourne University, I join MUMS (mathematics club) and CISSA (IT club). Recently I also join PPIA (Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia Australia) as Webmaster, which I am grateful as I can meet new Indonesian friends and learn to manage websites which I don’t get on my majors.
Hardship Living and adapting in new country sometimes can be a hard task. I find that lots of my friends have atheistic point of view. What’s more, due to freedom of speech in Australia, I find that there are lots of people on the streets who promote heresy such as Mormon or Scientology. Not only differs in religious point of view, they also have different lifestyle. For instance, local people there often think that free sex, alcohol is just some part of daily activities. Facing these issues, I find the more need for us to pray, read Bible, as well as having good relationship with God.
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Transformation Apart from hardship that I’ve got in the past 2 years. I’ve found that gradually God transforms me to be a better person. One of the thing that I find it noticeable is my study behaviour. Before I study in Melbourne, I always find that studying is some sort of burden that I want to go through. However, lately I find joy in studying and working, especially things related with my majors. I realized that talents are gifts from God and regardless of what our talents are, we can use it to glorify God’s name. For instance, during these past years studying in Melbourne, God has given me opportunity to spread His word in a way that I haven’t think before. As an example, when I tutor my friends about mathematics and programming, I can talk with them about my belief and share my experience with God. Based on this experience, I want to remind us, that serving God doesn’t mean that we need to preach. I’ve come to believe that God gives us different roles and all of it is to glorify His name. I encourage us to pray and ask God what He wants for our life. I believe that on the right time, God will guide us and give passion about stuff that we are meant to do.
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The Star
God Provides Travel Guides for Seekers Bintang didefinisikan sebagai benda langit yang memancarkan cahayanya sendiri. Karena cahayanya yang terang, bintang biasanya digunakan sebagai petunjuk arah dan sumber penerangan pada malam hari. Bahkan dalam Matius 2:9, dikatakan bahwa Allah menyediakan bintang yang sangat terang untuk menuntun orang majus dalam menemukan keberadaan Maria, Yusuf, dan Yesus. Orang – orang majus menyadari bahwa tanpa bintang yang disediakan Allah, mereka mungkin saja tidak bisa menemukan bayi Yesus.
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Billy Liando Lalu apa kaitan bintang dengan hidup Kekristenan kita? Seperti orang – orang majus, Tuhan juga telah menyediakan orang – orang sebagai bintang yang menuntun kita kepada Kristus. Orang – orang yang sinarnya begitu terang, yang cintanya begitu besar, maupun orang yang imannya begitu kuat sehingga kita dapat merasakan keberadaan Tuhan melalui kehidupan mereka yang membuat kita mau menerima Tuhan Yesus dan menuntun kita untuk hidup menurut kehendak-Nya. Bagaimana dengan hidup kita saat ini? Apakah kita sudah menemukan “bintang” tersebut ataukah kita termasuk orang – orang yang masih mencari? Jika kita sudah menemukan “bintang” dalam hidup kita, apakah kita sudah memutuskan untuk menjadikan mereka sebagai pembimbing dalam hidup kita? Belum menemukan bintangmu? Jangan khawatir. Mungkin ada
sebagian diantara kita yang walaupun sudah mengenal Tuhan, rajin ke Gereja, dan rajin berdoa tapi masih merasa imannya tidak bertumbuh, hidupnya hampa, tanpa arah, dan belum memahami tujuan hidup yang telah ditetapkan Tuhan dalam hidup kita. Atau bahkan ada diantara kita yang belum percaya Tuhan sepenuhnya? Percayalah bahwa Tuhan telah menempatkan bintang di suatu tempat dalam hidupmu. Jika kalian mau mencari lebih teliti dan mengingat lebih dalam akan hubungan yang pernah kamu lakukan dalam hidupmu, besar kemungkinan bahwa kamu akan menemukan seseorang yang melalui kehidupan rohaninya bersinar sangat terang, yang cintanya begitu nyata dan imannya begitu besar sehingga menarik perhatianmu lebih dari sekali. Carilah orang itu, tanyakan hal – hal yang menjadi keraguanmu dan ungkapkan segala
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pergumulanmu, karena dialah bintang yang telah disediakan Tuhan untuk menjadi petunjuk hidupmu padaNya. Mereka akan membantu kita dalam mengerti Tuhan dan firman, dan kita akan memahaminya bukan karena kemampuan atau logika kita, tetapi karena Tuhan telah menyatakan diri-Nya dalam hidup kita (Matius 11:27, Yohanes 1:18) I think I found that star but I’m still not sure if I would follow, then what should I do? Jika kamu merasa bahwa kamu sudah menemukan bintangmu namun kamu masih belum yakin, jangan lari, jangan menyerah, dan jangan menutup hatimu. Bertanyalah pada dirimu sendiri karena pada saat itu sebenarnya sudah ada Roh Kudus dalam hatimu dan kamu belum menyadarinya. Biarlah Roh Kudus yang menyatakan Tuhan dalam hidupmu dan meyakinkanmu untuk memperkenankan
bintangmu dalam menuntunmu kepada Kristus. Seperti tertulis dalam Yohanes 16:12 – 15, “Masih banyak hal yang harus kukatakan kepadamu, tetapi sekarang kamu belum dapat menanggungnya. Tetapi apabila Ia dating, yaitu Roh Kebenaran, Ia akan memimpin kamu ke dalam seluruh kebenaran; sebab Ia tidak akan berkata – kata dari diri-Nya sendiri, tetapi segala sesuatu yang didengar-Nya itulah yang akan dikatakan-Nya dan Ia akan memberitakan kepadamu hal – hal yang akan datang. Ia akan memuliakan Aku, sebab Ia akan memberitakan kepadamu hal – hal yang akan datang. Ia akan memuliakan Aku, sebab Ia akan memberitakan kepadamu apa yang diterima-Nya dari padaKu. Segala sesuatu yang Bapa punya, adalah Aku punya; sebab itu Aku berkata: Ia akan memberitakan kepadamu apa yang diterma-Nya daripadaKu.”
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hal yang telah diajarkan Tuhan pada kita. Setiap orang juga telah dianugerahkan bakat dan talenta masing – masing. Gunakanlah bakat dan talenta tersebut sebagai alat untuk mendukung usahamu menjadi bintang bagi orang lain. Mintalah pertolongan Roh Kudus untuk membantu kita dalam mengembangkan bakat dan kemampuan tersebut (1 Korintus 12:7 – 11) dan menolong dalam segala kelemahanmu (Roma 8:26 – 27). Mari kita bersama – sama bertumbuh dalam iman supaya dapat menjadi bintang yang semakin terang dengan menyertakan Roh Kudus sebagai pembimbing dalam hidup kita. Seperti perintah Tuhan pada setiap umat-Nya, “Karena itu pergilah, jadikan semua bangsa murid-Ku dan baptislah mereka dalam nama Bapa dan Anak dan Roh Kudus” (Matius 28:19), jadilah bintang yang terangnya dapat menuntun banyak orang kepada Kristus.
Bagi kita yang sudah menemukan bintang kita dan telah dituntun kepada Kristus, cobalah untuk mengingat orang – orang tersebut dan berdoalah bagi mereka supaya dapat bersinar semakin terang, memiliki cinta semakin besar dan iman yang semakin kuat untuk menuntun semakin banyak orang kepada Kristus. Namun jika kita sudah percaya dan hidup untuk Tuhan, bukan berarti hidup Kekristenan kita berhenti sampai disini. Jika Tuhan telah menyediakan orang – orang sebagai bintang dalam hidup kita, maka Tuhan juga telah mempersiapkan hidup kita sebagai bintang untuk orang lain. Dalam mencapai tujuan ini, Tuhan tidak membiarkan kita sendiri. Tuhan telah memperlengkapi kita dengan Roh Kudus yang merupakan Roh Tuhan sendiri sebagai Roh pembimbing kita. Seperti tertulis dalam Yohanes 14:15 – 17 dan ayat 26, Roh Kudus tinggal dalam hati kita dan yang akan mengajar kita dan membantu kita mengingat semua
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A Single
Music Note
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Tatiana Justin
I love music so much. Why? Even though it consists of many variable notes, it can create a beautiful masterpiece, a song. Songs can also be categorized in different genres. There are about billion genres of music approximately. Since many songs may be categorized not only in one genre, the number of genres in music increases as the time goes by. Music has always been a blessing for me. I would say that, without music, I think I might be somehow “dead”. It drives my curiosity of learning about it more and more. One time, I was walking down the street in Melbourne with my friends and some of their parents. It was about evening when I was very amazed for the street music (because I’ve never seen any like that in Indonesia). In front of me, there was a guy playing jazz with his saxophone; a few meters beside me, there was a guy playing insane beats with his “DIY” drum kit; a few meters beside the drum guy, there were a girl with her guitar and a guy with a bass playing blues; and besides those two there was another musician and so on. So, I told my friends that I was enjoying that moment and the musicians a lot.
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But I got different reactions from them. There were those who agreed, those who felt usual with the street music, and those who didn’t like it. It came to my realization, that how much you don’t like music, you still can’t escape from sound, in other word, you are surrounded by it and you just have to live with it. For me, a single Christian is a single music note. Our goal is to be a blessing and God’s tool the best that we can be. Some Christians are gifted by various talents, some are not. Some have less, some have more. When we embrace those talents with other Christians who have similar talents in a ministry service community (ex. pelayan mimbar), that particular ministry service community becomes a song. Then, when a different Christians with another different talents do the same thing (embracing their talents in another different ministry service community (ex. pengurus)), they become another song. The problem nowadays is, some Christians who have less talents are genuinely become less confident. They feel that they are not good enough to serve the Lord. Instead, God says that no one is good enough to serve Him but He wants us to give our best. Other problem might be rejection or disapproval from their surroundings. Example, a person is gifted with only one talent and that talent is rare among people. Automatically, the surroundings have little/no interest with that particular person, or it can be said as people who doesn’t like to listen to some songs. But a Church is genre. It consists of musical notes and songs. Those two things build and strengthens up a church. No church can’t run without the disciples and the ministry service communities. The most important thing to know about is God is the composer. He composes everything just perfect as what it is meant to be. When He placed you
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where you are now, you are being a part of His wonderful piece of music. When He gave you things, whether you realized it or not, He is fulfilling your needs. We can be an extraordinary disciple by contributing and giving with our best in whatever we are doing for the glory of God. By doing that, we can be a single note that blesses other people through our unity. But the question is, what is the music? By the time the people around us start to feel blessed by the songs they are listening to, and realize that they have to function and contribute wholly, the same unity will apply to their church. And after all, the unity among these churches will make a music that consists of the whole world and even the non-Believers. Amen!
“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the
Lord, and not unto men. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.� Colossians 3: 23-24
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