Developing an effective health ministry strategy in reaching out to the Tionghoa in Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract

Chinese Indonesians are courteously called Tionghoa, an upper-class and urbanized community in Indonesia where the majority are engaged in the economic sector (Indonesia, 2010). Recently their population has gone up to about 10 million (Suryadinata, Arifin, & Ananti, 2003). Religiously, they respect all deities, worship the ancestors, and believe in life after death (Ro & Albrect, 1988; Thompson, 1979). In 2017, a health ministry called Klub Hidup Sehat Bandung (KHSB) was established (KHSB, 2017, p. 1). The aim of this ministry was to reach the Tionghoa in Bandung. Although Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) missions have been operating in Bandung since 1916, only 2 Tionghoa SDA Churches were established with a meager membership of approximately 150 people (Hua An SDA Church, 2016; Sinaga, Yonathan, & Reinaldi, 2016).

To address this challenge, this study aims to describe the health ministry of Elisha to Naaman and the writings of Ellen G. White regarding health ministry in order to explore how to evangelize the affluent society. It also seeks to define the context of the Tionghoa, investigate the effectiveness of the KHSB in reaching out to the Tionghoa, and recommend effective principles in evangelizing them. Based on the outcomes of this research, there are 6 major factors that effectively contributed to the KHSB ministry. These are healthy grocery shops, Saturday completely healthy lifestyle program, health seminar, health check-up, cooking class, and health expo. The result is about 1000 Tionghoas attended the program, and in 2019 there are 15 of them attended Sabbath worship program.