Nobody in his position was supposed to make it. He was supposed to disappear into the void, like so many have before him. But something happened to his life, something perhaps beyond mortal understanding. 

Samuel Saputra believed in the possibility of redemption and the audacity of hope, simply because his own life was a triumph of faith over circumstance. An educator, youth minister, loving husband and spiritual father to many, his death due to COVID-19 complications on July 2 has left a gaping hole in the lives of those he left behind.

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“I felt as though God had fulfilled all the promises he made years ago,” his wife, Ina Boediono, said recently. “Samuel had ministered from Sabang to Merauke. He had travelled the world and spoken to crowds of thousands. He enjoyed his life. But, I suppose, God moves at his own pace.”

From humble beginnings

When Samuel first declared his love for Ina almost three decades ago, he gave her a short, curt warning. “He told me, ‘This is my life. This is where I came from,’” Ina recalled. “‘It’s very different from yours. Will you still take me?’”

Ina was a pious woman from an educated, middle class family. Samuel was on the right track. When they met in 1991, he was an up-and-coming minister, soon to depart for the United States to study theology. The path to his vocation, though, was a rather scenic one.

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