Pastor Paul Tan and Pastor Him Djuhana with Pak Harry and Ibu Hana Ananda
On July 19, 2011 Â there was an interfaith mass wedding in Indonesia
that was attended by different religious groups in Istora Senayan,
Jakarta.
This event was made possible by the collaborative efforts of Yayasan
Pondok Kasih, as the partner of City Blessing Church in Los Angeles, B
Channel TV and the DKI Jaya Provincial Government.
For the past 13 years City Blessing Church has responded to the dire
needs in Indonesia for the economic and political turmoil of 1998, Â by
Pastor Him with YPK board member Ir. Kuncoro posing with the MURI certificate
helping the poor and the needy through the Indonesian Relief Fund.
Working with our partner, Yayasan Pondok Kasih, under the leadership
Ibu Hana posing with the couples
of Ibu Hana Ananda, we have shipped over 700 containers of aid since
then.
But our efforts are not limited to physical aid, but also
involved in bringing people out of poverty through job creation,
micro-finance, providing free medical services.
The first mass wedding event involved 98 couples, conducted on
February 2001 in Surabaya. Seeing the positive impact of the mass
wedding, YPK continued to hold mass wedding events until the most
recent event held in November in 2010 involving 192 couples.
Couple with MURI certificate
The mass wedding in 2011 was the largest collaboration involving 4541
couples. Ibu Hana received the British-based Royal World Record for
sponsoring the world’s largest interfaith mass wedding.
The couples included 3,112 Muslims, 1,248 Christians, 96 Catholics and 85
Buddhists-Hindus- Confucius from the poor neighborhoods in the Capital
of Indonesia, Jakarta.
This event benefited the less fortunate families that were helplessly
trapped in a cycle of poverty. The poor could not afford to get the
legal paperwork nor overcome the legal hurdles to obtain their
marriage certificates.
Without a government-sanctioned union, their
children had been denied birth certificates and government
Pastor Paul Tan (Los Angeles City Blessing Church) and Ibu Hana (Yayasan Pondok Kasih)
identification cards. Subsequently, they had been barred from national
health care, public education, legal rights, and gainful employment.
By providing this service free of charge, these couples were blessed
by receiving legal birth certificates, national IDs and marriage
certificates.
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