Millions of non-engineered constructions in Indonesia are vulnerable to earthquake. Therefore, a simple, affordable and replicable method to strengthen the existing non-engineered construction in Indonesia is introduced. The retrofitting method described in this report is based on the principle of sandwich structures, having a masonry wall as core and covered on both sides with ferrocement layers. Numerical analysis result and shaking table test is included in this paper.

In June 2015, the authors published a paper titled “Brief Report of Shaking Table Test on Masonry Building Strengthened with Ferrocement Layers” [1]. The authors suggested in that paper to replace the traditional way of constructing masonry houses using the so called practical columns and beams (herein after called traditional masonry houses) with bandaging using ferrocement layers on both sides of the walls as skin facings and brick wall as core. Since then, many masonry houses bandaged with ferrocement layers are built in Indonesia. Apart from constructing new earthquake resistant houses, ferrocement bandaging is also used for retrofitting existing as well as damaged houses after earthquakes. In the past decades, continuous fiber mesh was introduced to replace the steel wire mesh in a cementitious matrix. Since the early 2000, textile-based composites were used in the field of strengthening and seismic retrofitting of masonry as well as concrete structures. Originally these new “textile fiber composite” materials are called “Textile Reinforced Concrete” (TRC) in Europe. However, in the USA, the term used is “Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix systems” (FRCM). Extensive research on FRCM / TRC were conducted. A wide variety of publications on the subject matter are now available worldwide. Apart from TRC, many technical studies are published addressing fiber reinforced cement and concrete composite. The term “Fiber Reinforced Cementitious” (FRC) is used and defined as concrete and/or cementitious matrix with suitable discontinuous fibers added to it for the purposes of achieving a desired level of performance in a particular property, such as modulus elasticity, tensile strength, and ductility [2]. Lately, the use of discontinuous fibers as reinforcement for concrete and cementitious matrix FRC are introduced by many practitioners and civil engineers. Adding fibers in concrete / cementitious matrix mixer simply like adding sand or admixtures, to create a homogenous, isotropic, strong, tough, durable, and moldable structural materials [2]. In this paper the authors used the terms of TRC and FRC as defined by Naaman [2, 3], namely TRC for fiber-cement with fiber-mesh and FRC for fiber-cement with discontinuous fiber. This paper provides a simplified global analysis of the overall structure strengthened with FRCM / TRC as well as strengthened with FRC.

Sakit-penyakit merupakan problema kehidupan yang seringkali  dihadapi oleh orang percaya. Berbagai cara dilakukan untuk mendapatkan kesembuhan jasmani, selain medis, juga secara spiritual dengna cara berdoa kepada Tuhan memohon kesembuhan. Doa dilakukan secara pribadi ataupun dengan dukungan doa dari pelayan jemaat. Tetapi, penyakit yang tak kunjung sembuh, seringkali berujung pada keputusasaan dan hilangnya harapan. Bahkan mungkin juga munculnya kekecewaan terhadap Tuhan karena permohonan doa untuk kesembuhan tersebut tidak dikabulkan. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan studi analisis teks Yakobus 5:14-16, dalam memahami korelasi doa dan kesembuhan ilahi bagi orang percaya. Yakobus menjelaskan bahwa kesembuhan ilahi mencakup aspek rohani dan jasmani. Teks ini menjelaskan bahwa permohonan doa iman, berkaitan dengan pengampunan dosa yang berdampak bagi kesembuhan ilahi dari sakit penyakit karena dosa yang menjerat orang percaya. Jadi dalam suratnya, Yakobus lebih memberi penekanan kepada pemulihan hubungan dengan Tuhan, sehingga doa yang dipanjatkan kepadaNya tidak terhalang. Dengan pemahaman yang benar akan teks Alkitab ini, maka orang percaya dapat berdoa dengan efektif sehingga mengalami kesembuhan ilahi dan pemulihan kehidupannya.