JodohKristen.net – Finding Your Love through Online Dating?

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ALSO AVAILABLE IN: Indonesian
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The following article below is a testimony and interview with the owner of an Indonesian Christian dating site, JodohKristen.net, Fenty Puspasari.

With the development of technology and also the internet, the cyber world has been swarmed with all kinds of dating sites in every possible niche you can imagine. There are dating sites based on ethnicity (Asian-Caucasian, Caucasian-African, African-Asian and so on) or on religion or faith (Muslim, Jewish or Christian dating sites) and also even dating sites based on blood type such as DateByType.com.

How should our attitude as Christians be, regarding those dating sites? Should we jump in the wagon and try and find love through online dating sites such as these? Shouldn’t we believe that our God is the One who will provide us with the right lifelong partner  and therefore not take this matter into our own hands and make it happen our way? The owner of the relatively new dating site, JodohKristen.net, believes that while God’s will should still be sought after, we should not stay idle and do nothing.

Fenty Puspasari, the owner of JodohKristen.net, quotes a verse in the Bible,

Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. (Mat 7:7)

She adds, “We should still try and find our lifelong partner and love but not without the guidance of GOD, closely involving Him in our relationship with other members of the Christian dating site.”

As JodohKristen.net is the first and biggest Christian site in Indonesia, Puspasari realizes that there are still a lot of Christians in Indonesia that hesitate using an online dating site to find love. However, whether anybody’s quest would eventually turn out to become good or bad really depends on the motivation of each users and also the management of the sites.

“At JodohKristen.net we have great enthusiasm to serve our GOD and also our fellow Christian singles. We make sure that every member that joins our site are truly a believer in Christ as we review each of the profiles one by one. We strive to offer a safe and Christian online environment for our members,” says Fenty Puspasari. She also made a remark how God has been using her dating site to introduce people to one another which ended up in marriage, “You can read testimonies like these that were submitted by couples that met each other at JodohKristen.net, how God worked from the first meeting all through their relationship.”

Until November 2011, as far as the management knows, there have been at least 43 couples that got married, 32 couples that are going to be married and 45 couples that are currently in a serious relationship with one another. Moreover, Puspasari points out that joining a reliable and trustworthy Christian dating site and giving it a try is of course much better than settling down with somebody who does not even share the same faith. However, marrying somebody of different faith has been the most popular option which eventually puts their personal relationship with God in jeopardy.

“We realize that managing JodohKristen.net requires us (the staff) to live and work in a Christlike manner in terms of integrity and prayers, and that is what we suggest our members do,” said Puspasari. “Even though we offer the tools to meet new people of the same faith and potentially finding love there, we still suggest our members to stay in prayers with the Lord and let Him guide you to find your love!”

I tried signing up at their website to see how things work there and I must say that I was impressed of how they at least try to filter the members by their faith and conviction. Before having your account activated, members are asked to give a testimony of their relationship with Jesus Christ and from this note, the staff will determine how genuine somebody would sound in their essay.

In my own personal opinion, I believe that God works in different ways for different people. God has used different kinds of method, from arranged marriage as it happened between Isaac and Rebeca to coincidentally finding love at work (like with Boas and Ruth), to introduce the couples that would eventually be the ancestors of the Messiah. As there are no strict rules to how anybody should meet their lifelong partner, Christians should be open minded enough to not limit God’s work by eliminating the option of using a dating site.

Enjoy your quest of true love!

Elisheva Wiriaatmadja studied Architecture at the University of Indonesia. Although she maintained her Architectural freelance career, she has done other things in between projects such as English as Second Language, Internet Marketing and writing. All of the experiences combined brought her to the mission to change the world of Media and Entertainment in order to turn it around for the glory of the God she believes in, YHVH Elohim Adonai. To get in touch with her, simply connect with her on Facebook: Elisheva Wiriaatmdja

Elisheva Wiriaatmadja

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Posted by Elisheva Wiriaatmadja on December 6, 2011. Filed under Ev. Elisheva Wiriaatmadja, Featured, News, Writers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry