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!