India, Day 4, 5

Well, our fourth day of ministry in Rajahmundry was pretty much the same as the day before. Kumar had rented the grounds and all the equipment for two days, so our pastor's conferences and crusades were held at the same place.
To get there, it is about an hour and a half drive from Kumar's house. We would leave after breakfast and do pastor's training until about 1:00-2:00, then head back to his home and rest for a while before heading straight back to conduct the crusades. While we were gone, the pastors and their wives were busy setting up chairs, lights, sound, etc. for the crusade. By the time we returned, they were already set up, worshiping and preparing the crowd for the message. We offered to stay and help, but Kumar did not want us wandering around for safety's sake.

The hindu man who was having fits the night before was quieted down by the police. In fact, the police even had a few officers present later that night at the crusade to protect us in case anything else might come up. So, despite the disapproval of some, we had our second day of pastor’s training, and Trevor wrapped up Habakkuk with a very good encouragement. Rick went on from the outlining method and got into teaching them how to keep their people living in the basics in their Christian walk

One cool thing we got to do is celebrate Dr Kumar’s 40^th birthday. We got to pray for him and have some cake. Then, all the pastors and their wives came forward and we laid hands on them and prayed for their ministries. This was a really incredible blessing for all of us.

The second night of crusades in this place was very powerful. We had over 3,000 people at the meeting and it seemed like pretty much everyone came forward for prayer after the altar call. When I made the call to repentance, every person there got up and called upon the name of the Lord. Its almost surreal to be used in such a powerful way. It hasn’t really set in yet.

It is a real honor to be able to lay hands on people and pray for them, but I have to be honest, there were moments when I looked up and couldn’t believe we had barely made a dent in the crowd as they pressed in, reaching out for a touch from God. There are so many people who are desperately looking for hope. You will be able to see these things on the video at the end of this blog.

Day 5 Friday, March 12

Today we woke up and headed out to the medical camp. This place is about two hours away from Rajahmundry. The medical camp is a place where local villagers can come to get free examinations and medical care. We pulled in, and there were about 20 of teh village people gathered under the shade of a mango tree. Before they began the exams, Dr Kumar asked us to speak to them and give them the gospel. I kind of put Rick on the spot, but he did very well and spoke clearly and plainly to them about Jesus Christ. At the end of his message, most of the people repented and gave their lives to Christ. Kumar was very excited about this because apparently the people in this village are extremely hardcore Hindus and usually won’t even listen to anything about Jesus, even though he has been reaching out to them with the medical camps for a long time.

Also, while we were there, Kumar showed us the foundation that was the beginning of a cancer treatment center. They had put it in about 5 years ago, but when the economy began to fall in the US, the support also went with it. However, they do have a teak-wood plantation that is about half-way mature that they intend to harvest and use to complete the building. They should make several hundred thousand USD when the time comes, and will finish the construction of the cancer treatment center.

Another thing he showed us was a well that they had dug on the property. They tried two times before to find water there, but were unsuccessful, but the donor told them that she was sure that Jesus told her they would find water on the property, and to try one more time in a certain corner. They were laughed at by the geologist for trying, as they had been told they would not find any water on that property, but they went ahead and had them dig one last time. They found water at 60’. Now there is a water supply on the property. Praise God!

We left the medical clinic and took a scenic route along the Bay of Bengal coastline back to Kumar’s home to take some rest before the crusade. There are a lot of people suffering and living in conditions we can hardly even imagine.

At the crusade, it was Trevor’s big night to preach. The meeting place was in front of a church, right across the street from a hindu temple. In the background, there was a noisy, jealous pastor who was causing a disturbance. He was upset because he was cut out of Kumar’s network for misusing funds and also because his wife was immoral. He had rented his own PA system and was apparently trying to compete with us. His rantings did not hinder our ministry, though, and many people responded to Trevor’s message. We also prayed over people again. It was a very busy day, and we saw many people come into the kingdom of God!

So ends another fruitful day of ministry. God has totally been filling our cups, and causing them to run over. We can take no credit or accolade for anything that has been happening. All we can do is share what the Lord has done and you can praise Him together with us for His wonderful works! If you would like to watch a highlight video of the entire trip, you can see some of the things we have talked about so far, and a lot of what is still to come! Watch this touching video on the following link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VzTPJI3upc

India, Day 3

Day 3 Wed, March 10

Today is the first of our two day pastor’s conference, and also the first of our two big crusades in Rajahmundry. They are being held in a rented field. The organizing churches have built a stage, a tented area for the seminars, and set up rows of lights for the evening crusades. Kumar has all of our meetings so very far away. Even though I am riding in the front seat, I am still getting motion sickness by the time we arrive at our destination. I'm thinking this is partially due to the bizarre driving habits here. I don’t know how many near head-on collisions we have narrowly escaped.

At the pastor’s conference, Trevor and Rick both got into their messages. Trevor’s study for the two days was a verse by verse examination of the book of Habakkuk. He tied in the struggles Habakkuk was facing with the struggles the Indian church is going through, and encouraged them to stand their ground no matter what the circumstances.

Rick did a teaching on how to outline a Bible passage. According to Kumar, this was very good for the pastors because very few of them have any education. They know how to preach the gospel and encourage their members, but doing an in depth study on a particular passage is not something they have been trained to do. So the pastor’s conferences were very good and encouraging for those who attended. There were something like 200 pastors there.

This was also our first night of big crusades. We held the crusades at the same place as the pastor’s conference. During the worship, there was a hindu man who was getting loud, causing a disturbance and demanding that we stop the meeting, but the security quickly dealt with him and we moved on.

The first night, with about 2,500 in attendance, I preached a basic message about who God is, what he requires of us, and the gospel. You have to put yourself in the shoes of those you intend to reach. Many of the people I was speaking to knew nothing about the Bible at all, so I was starting form scratch. I began in Psalm 139, showing them that God knows each of them personally and actually created them for a purpose, then moved on to Acts 17, explaining that God put them exactly where they are at this time in history, using all the circumstances of their life to bring them to a place where they might seek him and find him. From here, I used to Scriptures to identify the attributes of God, his holiness, righteousness, majesty, dominion and glory. Then I moved on to bring out the fact that God has placed a conscience within each of us, so that we would know the difference between right and wrong without having to be told, and used the law to bring the knowledge of sin to them. Then we read form Revelation 20, about the great white throne judgment, to bring understanding that there is a day that God has set aside to judge every man woman and child, and if left to our sins, we would have to answer for them to Him. This sets up the message of the cross perfectly. The fact that God loves us enough that he would be willing to become one of us in order to pay the penalty for the sins we committed against him is overwhelming to those who know nothing of a personal God. They were eager to embrace Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of eternal life. I asked anyone who wanted to receive Christ to stand and pray with me, and almost the entire place got out of their seats. When you read about the day of Pentecost, sometimes you can wonder how the gospel can make such a huge impact in one setting, and then you come to a place where the gospel is being heard for the first time and you see men and women ready to surrender completely to Him, and suddenly those passages that seemed so incredible become not only possible, but probable and real.

When you see such large numbers responding to the gospel, automatically there is a tendency to question the sincerity or the motives of what is going on. But another important thing you must keep in mind about the Indian culture is that the cast system still dominates much of society. For any one of these people to come forward in this setting it is almost guaranteed that they will suffer for it in their family, in their workplace, and in their community. When they come forward to receive Christ and begin a new life in Him, they are counting the cost in a way that neither you nor I have ever experienced, and for that, I think we have to be humbled and encouraged.

The altar was packed when we had them come forward for prayer. Wow! What a blessing! The crowd was pressing in upon each other, trying to get to the front for prayer. Everyone wants you to lay you hands on them and pray for the blessing of God in their lives. The guys are really jazzed about being able to pray for so many people.

Here is the video from the pastor's seminar and the crusade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgTc8zrTQ98

The next day of ministry in Rajahmundry is coming soon....

See you on the streets!!

India, Day 2

We woke early to get to our 8:00 flight. At the airport, I was having flashbacks from our last trip as they were asking us to change airlines and take a different flight. On the last mission trip, the airline moved the flight schedule up about 4 hours, and we showed up 4 hours late for boarding, and ended up missing a big crusade of about 4,000 people. Thank God for Josh’s brother-in-law, who works at the airport and made sure we did not get bumped off our airline. One easy connection in Hyderabad, and we were in Rajahmundry.
Dr Kumar met us at the airport with his family, greeting us with flowers. We traveled to his home, which is about a half-hour drive. I had not told the team about how much different Rajahmundry is than Chennai, because I wanted them to be a bit shell-shocked by the conditions here. The difference is immediately evident from the moment you leave the airport and begin the drive through town.
Kumar has a different home now than before, which is a bit nicer and more spacious. He needs more room because he is hosting teams on a more regular basis. We were welcomed with our new favorite meal. You guessed it, diced carrots, diced potatoes, chicken curry, spicy chicken legs, and rice, … and to wash it down, you guessed it again, Sprite. This is our meal every single day of our time here. If you can’t hack it, you go hungry. Poor Rick couldn’t take it and lost nearly 15 lbs in the first week of the trip.
So, Tuesday night was our first night of crusades. This particular crusade was held in a remote village area that is controlled by the Naxallites, a rebel, guerilla terrorist group. The Naxallites are not especially interested in persecuting Christians, however, and Dr Kumar's medical work in the region has earned him a certain amount of good favor with them.
I set up a speaking schedule for the team and tonight was Rick’s night to deliver the message. We had two guys give a 5 min encouragement, then one bring a 15 min word, and the last would be a longer, 45 min-1hour message. I began by giving an introduction and a word of encouragement, then Richard, Trevor, and finally Rick.
One of the things that was really special about this meeting is that this village had a major shortage of clean drinking water. The villagers would have to walk about 6 kilometers every day for water, and then, once the ponds dried up in the summer heat, they would have to sneak water from a well 6 kilometers away belonging to a higher cast, risking beatings and even death. Kumar had told me about this situation, and a dear couple from Calvary Chapel offered to sponsor a well for $500. By the time we arrived, the well was almost completed. They placed it right in front of the local church so that every day, when they came to get water, they would know who it was who provided it for them. Think of it, a basic necessity of life, being provided to an entire village of 3000 people for a one-time gift of $500. This created an open door for us to speak to the village people about the love of Christ. About 700-1000 gathered for the evening crusades, and an untold number responded to the invitation and came forward for prayer. Here's a 5 minute clip of the altar call. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-0LQapDOEQ You should be able to copy and paste that into your browser and it'll take you to my youtube channel.
Even as we held our meeting, there were some Hindus trying to disrupt the meeting by demonstrating about 300 yards from our crusade grounds, but their actions did not stop the ministry of the Holy Spirit! The altar call was jammed and we laid hands on and prayed for hundreds of people!
One of the other highlights of the night was the fact that the team was broken in on the driving habits in India. The village we went to was way out in the boonies and we had a very bumpy and curvy road to get us there, but apparently no one informed the driver. He was taking 25 mph corners at 60. Ha ha. Everyone had white knuckles for the entire drive to and from the meeting place. We all thought we had eaten something that disturbed our stomachs, but I think it was the driving that tied us up in knots. Ha ha.
Unfortunately, I am having some difficulty adding pictures to the blog today, but I hope you have enjoyed seeing some actual footage of people being saved. There is much, much more to come as we continue through the trip, so stay tuned!
See you on the streets!