Wrap Up

We left Victor Samuel's in Pithapurum during the early afternoon of Friday 3-19. After 30 plus hours of travel via Vishakhaputnum, Hydrabad, Mumbai, Seoul, and Seattle We got back home in Wenatchee at about 5 PM local time Saturday 3-20. Try somehow to grasp the concept of the International Date Line - I dare you, particularly when sleep deprived.

During the course of this trip we dedicated two new churches, Tim laid the cornerstones for three new buildings, we participated in one wedding, danced with tribal villagers (well, Jordan and I did - and I'm sure that video will be seen at New Song Church sooner or later!) and worshiped with Indian believers in numerous indoor and outdoor services. We literally prayed with hundreds of individuals, both Christians and Hindus. Aside from the specific prayer requests that were communicated to us, such as for physical healing or a blessing for their school exams, we generally prayed for God's increased revelation in their lives, that He would meet the personal needs He was well aware and that He would be glorified in their lives. I have no doubt that our presence with the Indian believers during this trip provided them with encouragement and the support of knowing there are fellow believers in the United States who love them, pray for them and are unified with them in their faith in Jesus Christ.

However, Paul says in his book to the Romans that he desired to visit with the Roman believers in order that, "you and I may be mutually encouraged by each others' faith." We know, as Paul did, the encouragement the Indian believers gave us was equal to or greater, I'm sure, then the encouragement we brought to them. We get too insulated in our American Christianity and I firmly believe exposure to other Christian cultures is vital for us to understand our place and responsibility in the Christ's Church.

We in America need to pay attention to the parable Jesus told in Luke 16; the Rich Man and Lazarus. We in the United States, are the rich man, and Lazarus is at our door. We have to dismiss the mentality that we are somehow entitled to the consequences of the economic structure we were born into, the opportunities we therefore have and the fact that we can, if we so chose, prosper in a manner commensurate with our education, hard work and our cultivated abilities. The alleged "blessings" of being an American will only be blessings if they are so used for others, not to establish our own comfort and well being. If used solely for ourselves, the "blessings" we have come to take for granted will become a millstone around our necks.

Jaideep needs $2,000 to re-bore and expand his well, which during the current drought, does not currently provide enough water for his mango trees or to irrigate the property he has for rice and other crops; crops he both uses to feed his family and which provide needed income. For many years Pastor Samuel has needed a vehicle to allow him and his team to visit their large system of outlying village churches and continue their outreaches into the tribal areas of the interior. For years they've been hiring vehicles for this work; they need their own. With a concentrated effort here in our community these needs could be met and we would be participating in a valid effort for God's glory on the other side of our world.

Something else for us to consider. At the church we dedicated in Annavarum a woman was made to leave the service by her husband and then beat up when she got home, so we were told. After we left the country, in retaliation for Tim's baptism of an upper caste woman at Jaideep's campus when we first arrived, other upper cast Hindus attacked the driver of one of Jaideep's school buses, damaged the bus and later, we understand, also attacked Jaideep. We've been advised that the situation is finally under proper investigation but this incident reminds us that the price we pay for the public confession of our faith in our society is embarrassment at the most for many of us. How would we respond to outright persecution demonstrated by physical violence?
I say these things only to help us think, to consider the expression of our Christianity and to ask ourselves what we, as Christ's representatives on earth, in the social and economic culture in which we live, can do with our resources to promote the cause of the Church and to glorify God? Thanks for reading. Until the next trip . . .

Our last day of any ministry . . .

We left late this morning for a wedding - Pastor Paul, one of the pastors involved in Victor Samuel's El Shaddai Ministries, was getting married to a young woman named Kumari. Tim basically officiated with Pastor Victor Bapu (who wore an official looking white robe with a red stole-I told Tim he needed one like that!). The church was packed and the ceremony was fairly similar to our weddings with the main differences being the adorning of the bride's foot with a toe ring and the absence of the final, "you may now kiss the bride." In Indian culture, evidently, PDAs, public displays of affection, are verboten. Tim reminded me that some time ago Richard Gere got an Indian co-star from one of his movies in trouble by kissing her during a televised awards ceremony, something like that. After the wedding we, of course, briefly attended the reception.

We then made a shopping trip to Kakinada - actually a little more than that. Pratibha discovered our penchant for french fries so she had us stop at a little hotel "fast food" restaurant where we all had a plate of french fries and ketchup. After a little shopping, we headed home for a little rest prior to our last meeting.

When we got home we found Victor and his crew setting up a stage and a seating area across the stree from his house. Although the people started arriving early with the music and singing starting at about ab0ut 7:30 Victor didn't come and get us and start the service until about 9:30. There were over 400 people there, many from the Victor's neighborhood but others from a good distance away. Through Madou's translating I was able to finally speak directly to those who I'd been praying with during my morning walks. Tim preached but he followed Jordan who did an excellent job sharing the word. It was a great meeting, I think we each had about 8 garlands of flowers hung around our necks over the course of the evening. At the end we handed out food for everyone: biryani rice in a plastic bag. 500 of these were prepared and there were only 20 left over at the end of the meeting.

We then had dinner, shared some time with Victor and Pratibha and then went to bed at about 1:00 AM

Even getting to bed late, Kent and I got up early to take one last walk through the neighborhood. The boys thought I had left already and we went looking for them. I had wanted to cover all four streets in the 'hood during this last walk but one of the older boys came to tell us the younger guys (who had found us) needed to go to school so we missed a block or so.

Now, I've got to turn the computer over to Kent who wants to transfer some pictures and music for Victor, and I'll wrap this blog up later.

God bless ya big time!

Wednesday

This morning at about 5:30 or so the power went off; so we sweltered for awhile, about an hour and a half, I think. Then they played the electrical version of "let's mess with their minds;" the power would go on for about five minutes and then go off again. This happened about 4 times. It's been on now for about 15 minutes and I have HOPE!! (uh oh, spoke too soon - it's off again!)It's hot and humid enough so that when the overhead fans stop, you wake up and your sheets and pillow get even more sweat soaked. Oh yeah, the rooster with the weird crow also kicked in about the same time and the unknown woman who does laundry every morning was back at work ("doing laundry" involves slapping your wet, soapy clothes against a stone - right out side our window it seems). We'll, we didn't come here to sleep.
We started late on Wednesday, yesterday, but did quite a bit. Due to getting in so late the morning was spent catching up on rest. We had an INCREDIBLE lunch featuring crab, biryani and mutton stuffed chicken legs. We left for a village with a name I can't remember (and there's no one around to ask) at about 3 PM where Tim, for the third time this trip, set the cornerstone of a new church building. This involved him descending into a chin-deep hole dug for a support pillar and cementing 9 bricks in place. Tim's turning into quite the brick layer. The folks at this church were great; huge smiles, very welcoming and they sincerely seemed to not want us to leave. Our departure, tho', caused our team's first presonality clash (although this was totally one sided) when Jordan had an attack of jealosy when the girls gave me more flowers than they gave him. As much as it pained me to do so, I had to report this failure of Christian charity to Pastor Tim. As Jordan is Tim and Don's intern, I hold them totally responsible.
We then went to Victor Babu's church where we, New Song, sponsored a medical clinic. Numerous medications were purchased and a doctor vounteered to diagnose and prescribe. I think the number of folks who received medical attention was over 400 during the course of the day.
While the clinic was going on Philip, Madou and Anil drove Kent and I about 45 minutes away to take a look at a 135 foot concrete statue of Hunaman, a Hindu diety whom I call "Monkey Boy" (having a hard time with respect for idols this morning). I had seen this statue from the waist down three years ago as we drove by to a jungle church and Victor was kind enough to arrange for us to get a look at the whole thing this time. I read on the internet that this is the tallest statue of this particular Hindu personality - an interesting local sight. Hunaman is popular is this area of India, you see more statues of him around than the other dieties, although Ganesh, the elephant, is also a local fav. There are also numerous statues of famous Indians in most villages and in this area, Ambedkar statues outnumber Gandhi's. Gandhi, I believe, was more active in northern India. Our area also has a large number of the "former" untouchable caste, which was Ambedkar's caste. Ambedkar, or Babu Sahib as he is affectionatly known, was one of the first untouchables to recieve an advanced education, was trained as an attorney in England (as was Gandhi, Nehru and a number of other prominent Indians, later became independant India's first Minster of Law and was the father of the Indian constitution. Interesting man, he and Gandhi didn't see eye to eye.
After the medical clinic we went to Victor Babu's house / church, the place where Tim was ordained a bishop three years ago. As they always do when we have time prior to a service, our hosts gave us a room to ourselves where we could relax and then have dinner; their hospitality is certainly a model for us to emulate. The following church service was really good; I'm just amazed at the warmth and friendliness of these folks.
Today, we'll be attending a wedding where Tim will participate in the officiating. A local pastor is getting married. Later tonight we'll be attending one more open air meeting, our last service here in Andra Pradesh.
I took my morning walk a fdw minutes ago with some of the boys 'cause due to the sleep interruption I couldn't rouse Kent out of bed. As always, folks just eagerly greet me with huge smiles and many want prayer, either for themselves or for their children. One woman came running up, calling for me to stop (at least I think that's what she was saying), came up and hugged me and went on for quite some time in Telegu about something I know God understood; I sure didn't! She seemed pretty happy so I don't think she was having physical issues but after praying with her she went on again for some time, fairly ecstatically about something or other. Who knows?
One last thing - you need to pray for Kent. He is losing it, becoming almost neurotically attached to his, "lungee," or however it's spelled - the loincloth popular with many Indian men. He insists on wearing it here at "home" and is threatening (I can use no other word for it) to wear it to church. Trust me, that is NOT what anyone wants to happen!

Tuesday - A Loooong Day!!

I may ramble a little bit - we got in at about 2:30 AM this morning and as usual, I can't sleep past the time my body thinks it's time to get up, which was 7 AM. It was a very long but rewarding day yesterday.

We traveled to Satyavaram to one of Pastor Bnejamin's churches to dedicate their new building. The smaller, village streets were packed as yesterday was the Hindu new year. I had a few tense moments when, just before we got to where we were going, we encountered a "religious" festival in the middle of this village. As usual, the drivers here seem to think (as oppossed to the U.S. -note the sarcasm!) that once they're behind the wheel of a car they assume something similar to the divine right of kings. We're in this large Tata van, similar to a Dodge/Chevy type van, trying to literally inch our way through this crowd of humanity with a blasting horn, aggressive hand gestures on the part of the driver and his verbal "encouragement" for people to get out of our way. All I could think of was what would happen if he torked someone off, or worse, hit soemebody, which seemed very likely, and having the whole crowd find us jointly responsible. However, thank God, we passed through unscathed.

This driver was on an Indian scale of manical drivers about a 6-8 out of 10. On the smaller roads he didn't seem to want to ever shift out of the acceleration opportunities offered by second gear and on the way back from the beach where Tim did some baptisms, he made Benjamin, Philip's little boy, car sick. Lots of fun.

But, when we got to Satyavaram the church folks were waiting for us outside their new brick, wood and thatch church building. The pic above was taken from inside the church. Check out Kent's FB site, I'm sure he'll upload more pictures. Tim prayed a dedication, cut the ribbon and we all entered for a brief service.

During the service, tho', some guy stuck his head under the thatch roof and said something to a woman and made her leave. I was watching him - he didn't look supportive. Another woman said something to him that appeared to be, "Get lost pal," (in Christian sort of way of course) and he left. I tried to watch him but couldn't see where he went. We were later told he objected to his wife being in church and made her go home where he beat her up. I share this because of the example of the dedication some of these folks demonstrate in their committment to their Christianity. I know this kind of stuff happens in the U.S. as well, but it's frustrating and very upsetting but at home, I can do something about it.

Less tragic but also revealing is the Indian's willingness to be baptized-they just don't like the water. We went to the Indian Ocean where the sand was clean, the water bath-warm and where Tim and Pastor Bnejamin baptized 8 new Christians. This beach was gorgeous, the day was beautiful and no one but us was there. The Indians don't seem to view water as a recreational opportunity as a general rule and Tim said even Pastor Benjamin was worried about being a little more than waist deep in the waves. But Tim said it was the best place to baptize he's ever experienced here. He did mention as he usually does that for the Indians to get in the water and submit to baptism, being afraid to be in water in the first place, is real evidence of their comittment. After doing so, we did what everyone does at the beach - enjoyed it. Kent and Jordan started a sand castle and as we were getting ready to leave this edifice faced the fate of all sand castles, the rising tide.

We then returned to the second of Pastor Benjamin's churches (many of these pastors have the responsibility of more than one congregation). The four of us had a chance to rest for a little while, Tim was able to wash and change into clean clothes and we then had a large, outdoor service. Kent and I both shared a little bit, and Tim did the main message. Pastor Victor had mercy on us; he asked those who wanted prayer to kneel and wait for us rather than coming up front. I hate to say it but it did make praying for everyone go a little faster, otherwise we might still be there. Why would that be bad, I ask?

Thankfully there is A LOT less traffic on these little streets coming back at night then heading out, so the trip home didn't seem that long. I know we don't have anything on today until sometime this afternoon so maybe I'll get a nap.

Nah, don't think so . . .

Monday

Monday morning again saw activity outside our door: our front "porch" was again a food prep area and a cooking tent was being set up across the "street." A pastor's training conference was the event: about 60 pastors were scheduled to meet and worship together, be trained by Tim in "Goal Setting" and "Finishing Strong" (sessions 10-13 in his 13 leadership development series for pastors). These sessions started in the morning and finished later in the afternoon. At one point, Tim was talking about being unable to come to India for the past 2 1/2 years and his desire to come more often and the pastors broke out in spontaneous cheers and applause. After the training was finished, Tim ordained 5 new Bishops, about 10 Pastors and a few dozen men as Reverends in El Shaddai Ministries, Pastor Victor Samuel's organization. In this organization a Reverend is in charge of one church, a Pastor serves three churches and a Bishop supervises a number of Pastors.

Pratibha has been making a few jokes at our expense, which is fun 'cause she's evidently loosening up around us. I told her we were making her into American woman and it was clear she didn't want THAT happening. She doesn't have her new clothes washer hooked up yet; I think they're waiting for a plumber and an electrician.

After dinner, after 9 PM, we left for Pastor Solomon's church, in a small viallge not too far away. I taught on the historical significance of Christ's blood and we were home at about 11 PM, early for us. I think Victor, Pratibha and the other Indians were also happy about the early night; they had had a big day with the conference.

The four of us, frankly, have been getting along too well. We've been laughing way too much for being on a (serious) mission trip. Tim and Jordan go at it so bad at times I tell them they need to be seperated. We're going to be pretty hard to bear when we get home with the plethora of private jokes we're going to impose on you.

Tuesday the plan is to spend that day, startying with travel at about 11 AM, at a church cornerstone laying service, some baptisms and an evening service, being back here after midnight.

Sunday - and this morning

I just got back from my morning "prayer walk." The last time I was here I went for a walk with the boys (the orphans who live at Victor's home) and what I thought would be a little excercise turned into a prayer crusade. Lots of the folks, Christian and otherwise, evidently felt that the white guy (me) should pray for them so they'd come out to the street or invite me into their homes and ask for prayer. Initially this was embarassing - but I realized that I was only Jesus' representative and if He were here, He'd certainly pray for them (He'd do A LOT more than that I'm sure) so I did what they asked-offered prayer. Sometimes the folks would be able to indicate what they needed; moms would ask for prayer for their children, they'd indicate a physical issue or some of the younger ones would let you know they had pending exams. Today was only the second time I've been able to go during this trip, Some nights we've been getting home so late by the time I wake up, it's too late to go. Victor won't let me go unless some of the boys are with me and after about 7 AM or so, they have other things to do Victor almost nixed this morning 'cause the boys all had chores but he let one of them go with me. Pretty cool; I do love praying for the babies and the little ones.

Yesterday we worshiped first at Philip's chruch right next door. The pic above is from that meeting. Then we went to the nearby village of Chitrada where Victor has the church he pastors. After that service, Victor and I went to Kakinada in a motor rickshaw ((my first ride in one) to buy groceries, while the others rested. We then went to another open, air, in-the-street meeting at a village about 12 klicks away. This church is in the process of building a new building; some of the pillars and re-bar are in place and we prayed for the blessing of this project.

We all, of course, introduce ourselves and bring greetings at every meeting. Tim introduced me one day as "Maddog" and after our translator, Victor Babu thought for a moment, we learned that the Telagu translation for this sobriquet is (phonetically anyway) "pitchy-koka." I've started hearing this phrase working it's way into Victor's intros as well. Like I told Tim, any publicity is good publicity!

Tim preached at all three meetings on Isaiah 6, Isaiah's encounter with God and how this compares to our coming into God's presence. I know that Kent has been uploading his pictures on FAcebook, so check out his page for visual record of what's been going on.

Today, I'm not sure what the plan is but they are erecting a tent across the street so obviously some sort of meeting is planned. I did hear Victor tell Tim that he was going to ordain the pastor of the church we visited last night so I assume this will happen here. More later, love ya big time!

Saturday

Our evening schedules here in Pithapurum: we eat late, usually around 8 PM. We then leave for a meeting around 8:30 - 9:00 PM or later. Tim said the villagers work all day and don't get home until 7 or so; hence the late meeting start time. We've been getting home about 12:30 - 1:00 PM and although I get in bed right away, the others usually take a little longer. In any event, we're pretty wired and no one gets to sleep right away. The heat and the mugginess also make for some difficulty in falling asleep.

On Saturday, yesterday, there was a youth meeting that started at about 11 AM. The area right outside our front door was used as a food prep area so we were pretty much restricted inside. We went over to the meeting at about noon: it was held in the church right next door to Victor and Pratibha's home. I'm going to guess there were 150 kids from kindergarten to high school age; as usual sitting cross-legged, Indian style shoulder to shoulder. I don't know how to explain their welcome when we walked in without sounding like a pompous, self centered egoist: but what can I say? They were excited to see us, warm and exuberant. Tim gave a message and then I spoke; the second sermon, right before lunch. I'll let you figure out for yourself how that went. However, our two messages went well together; Tim talked about David and I talked about Jonathon, both of us giving a different view on knowing and doing what God wants us to do. After lunch I spoke again on Micah 6.8; the difference between living by faith and by the law and that seemed to go better. Jordan also spoke - it's funny to see the younger girls start to giggle when he gets up and introduces himself. But the kids like him, that's evident.

After lunch Tim, Kent and Victor took off to drive back to Rejurla for Jaideep's "Annual Day" at his school. The parents of the kids show up(and remember, his school has 450 students) and they have a time of speeches and activities - I'll have to wait until they get up to let me know how it went. I have no idea what time they got back. They left at 2:30 PM and Rejurla is a 3-4 hour drive.

Jordan, Pratibha, Philip and Maudo (SP? - Victor's brother in law) and I went to a village meeting where they were dedicating a new church building. I spoke on the historical significance of Christ's blood and Maudo, who translated, told me later, "I'll report to Pastor Samuel that it was good, solid teaching." That's me, good and solid. We then cut the ribbon and enetered their beautiful new building, another New Song Community Church in Andra Pradesh, India.

And of course and as usual, after the service a good number of folks came forward for prayer. Sometimes they indicate a physical issue they'd like prayer for or somoene will get it across to us that a young person wants prayer for their pending educational examinations (these exams are important as their result determines whether or not they go on to university). I've developed a pretty standard prayer - I don't mean to sound like it's a rote process, believe me, it's not, but as I want to pray God's will for them and having this indecipherable language barrier I generally pray that: 1. God will continue to reveal Himself to them (I figure this works for the Christians as well as the non-Christians who do, I understand, sometimes attend these meetings and come forward for prayer) 2. That they would be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and 3. that their lives would glorify God. As you can see, I'm trying to cover a lot of bases here but always in the back of my mind is that God is fully aware of each of their needs and can springboard off my prayer in the direction He needs to go. But right before we were leaving I took a faith hit - they brought a woman to me who they said was "barren," she was unable to have kids. Immediatly numerous thought came to mind; do theyknow her falure to conceive is her issue, or have they checked hubby as well? What other issues could be involved here; stress, diet, water problems, that could be effecting this? And besides, praying that for the "opening of a womb" struck me as a heavier, more serious issue than the others we've prayed for but I sucked up my faith and prayed just that; that God would open her womb; and let Him handle the details. That will be my continuing prayer for a long time; that this unknown woman in a little village in India that I couldn't find again if mylife depended on it would have a child.

More later on Tim and Kent's trip after the wake up. I'm going to see if any of the boys want to go for a walk.

We went to a little village none of us know the name of yesterday morning - we left at about 10:30 AM and seemed to drive in circles, getting there in about an hour. I recognized the village tho' once we arrived - it's a village where New Song church provided a well after my visit there 3 years ago. There's a communal "pond" there where the village was getting it's water and the wish for the church was that they'd have a well on the church property and today, there it was! Pretty cool. We participated in a rather long service, Tim gave a message from Luke 15 about God's joy over finding the lost, and he then cemented together 9 bricks as the cornerstone for their hopes for a new church building. We then drove to another area (I'm not sure why - possibly because the pond adjacent to the church was the village's drinking water supply) where Tim baptized 8 people. We found out later the government had to allow the water to be pumped into this area becasue they are in the middle of a pretty bad drought. Jaideep mentioned this: his mango trees aren't yielding and the water level for his irrigation well has dropped so low he needs to re-bore it and expand the casing (we're talking about $2,000). He has some fields he'd cultivate for food for his campus and for income but - not enough water. The Pithapuraum area is the same, water levels are very low. Victor Samuel has even had to remove the well at his house for the same reason - the water table has dropped considerably.
After getting back Kent and I drove into Kakinada with Victor for some errands. While waiting for Victor at one point we got a glimpse of Kakinada "night life": two apparently amourous representatives of the "sacred cow" population giving some thought to the propogation of the species. Nothing actually occurred but the mood was evidently there.
Later yesterday evening we drove to Pastor Anil's village where an outdoor meeting was in progress - they covered one of the village streets with rice (and other) bags sewn together and we met right in the street of the village. I'd guess there were 300 or so people there. There was lots of music, actually very good music (they had a professional recording couple and their band there - the electronic drummer and keyboardist were awesome!). Jordan and I gave brief introductions and Kent and Tim gave messages. About 16 people came forward at the end to indicate their being ready to commit to being baptized. It appears that due to the desire of the pastors to be sure people are ready for the consequences of their choice to become Christians they postpone baptism for a little bit after folks decide to accept Jesus (He was there too, by the way - He says hi!) to give them time to prepare for their public committment of baptism. The kids got a big kick out of throwing flower petals at us, I mean on us, and it was difficult for us to drive out to leave due to the people wanting to say good bye and shake hands, etc.
Right now it's about 8 AM our time - everyone else is sleeping as we got in after midnight. I don't know what the plan for today is but as Pratibha just got a new clothes washing machine, I hope it's laundry. I'm sure you'll appreciate my sparing you a description of the clean (or lack thereof) undergarment situation.
Love ya!!

Last night . . .

So much for my faith - let's get my numbers right. There are 150 pastors of churches whom Tim has ordained. Some of these men, so I understand, pastor more than one church. But, of the men who have attended Tim's training seminars who are pastoring churches: there are over 2,000 of them, from this area in Andra Pradesh, to south to the Chennai area. Let's hope I have it right this time!

Last night we drove about a half hour to a small village church where, as usual, the service was in progess when we arrived. The picture above gives you a feel for the size of the church and those worshipers attending. We were told that this church is primarily of Indians from the perviously higher castes and interestingly enough, the pastor is from a lower caste who felt nonetheless that God called him to this village where he is obviously doing a very impressive work. As always, we all introuduced ourselves, I spoke briefly from the Gospel of John re: Jesus' emphasizing love for each other and unity and Tim preached his message on God's provision for us to live the Christian life. At the end of the service we prayed for about 7 of those present who, we were told, responded to Victor Samuel's invitation to become Christians. We thenm prayed for those who requested prayer and Tim paryed for two woman who were HIV infected; HIV being something that we understand can be a real issue here as well as in our part of the world. We found out something interesting as we were leaving; evidently there had been a death in the village earlier that day but the Hindu folks did not ask the Christians to cancel their/our meeting as sometimes is the case. A generous gesture on their part, much appreaciated by us.

Yesterday afternoon we attended a service dedicating the start of a new chruch building where Tim laid the cornerstone. It was pretty pleasant ceremony as the temperture had dropped and there was a nice breeze. Today we have a baptismal service and an open air meeting later tonight, so more later! God bless ya big time!

Off and running

Well, last night, ministry wise, we kicked in big time since being in Pithapurum. We've been doing some small stuff, but last evening we travelled for about an hour to Pratibha's home village, Annavaran, for an outdoor meeting. I'm going to say there were 200 people there. We had the traditional greeting of lots of stares, smiles and flower pedals thrown on us vbefore we were sequestered into the home of our hosts, which was adjacent to the area where the service was being held. I think this gives us some time for our hosts to offer us something to drink and then we were led to the platform where the service was already in progress, and had been for more than an hour prior to our arrival. Kent, Jordan and I gave words of greeting and it was evident the young ladies in the "pews" (actually, almost everyone sits Indian style on the floor) thought Jordan was cute; there were lots of giggles and smiles. We had some more music; Prathiba sang a really beautiful song that Kent recorded, Tim preached, again from I Peter. We then had a "birthday party" for Pastor Victor Samuel, who turned 33 yesterday. They had this incredible "candle" on the cake that seemed a cross from a birthday candle and a 4th of July exhibit; it flamed, sparkled and played Happy Birthday. Weird, but cool.
We ate dinner there at midnight and then drove home. About an hour after getting into bed the power went off and it was stiffling. Kent, Tim and Victor sat oustide and gabbed until about 3, when the power came back on and we were able to get some sleep.
This morning we drove to Chitrada, a nearby village where Pastor Victor's church is and we participated in a memnorial service for a Christian gal who died a year ago at the age of 46 of a heart attack.
And I need to cut this off, it's time for lunch and then we're off to another meeting. And by the way, we got the true scoop on the number of churches in Victor Samuel's minsitry. There are 26 that El Shaddai supports, but about 150 that are a result of the pastoral training that Tim has done. I had mentioned earlier that we were tld there were 1,500 churches: I'm happy to correct that, that first number seemed a little unrealistic.
Love you all, more later. Keep checking Kent Getzin's Facebook page for extra stuff; he says he has his journal up to date.

Sorry I have to do this . . .

This is the only decent picture of Kent in his "lungee," (or however it's spelled) that I can post. Frankly, I didn't want to post it all all as this kind of thing just encourages him. He thinks he's rather studly and no amount of logic has changed his mind. Victor Samuel actually bought Kent and Jordan Indian outfits today, as is their tradition with newcomers and maybe I'll get a picture of these to post later.
We went to Kakinada this morning: I thought we were going to the bank but Victor Samuel knew we wanted to do some shopping, so this was why we went. We've been eating a great dish called biryani and we bought some stuff to try to make it at home. We're going to the village where Pratibha is from tonight (I just can't get my brain or tongue wrapped around some of these Indian names yet) for a church service and we're all kind of resting now. Sleep was kind of tough last night due to the heat but we'll adjust pretty quick I think. Victor told me the boys (some of his orphans) were waiting to walk with me at about 6 AM this morning and were disappointed that I wasn't up earlier. Three years ago we did a lot of walking in this area, greeting folks, etc. and I'm flattered they've remembered. Tomorrow for sure. Kent said he wants to go too; as long as he's properly dressed!

Pithapurum

We are in Pithapurum, arrived about 90 minutes ago. There was a HUGE crowd waiting for us: firecrackers, flowers and different characters in costume, including Santa Claus - well, the Indian version of Santa Claus anyway. The also had our individual pictures blown up on vinyl with our names underneath, that was pretty cool. My picture even had a do-rag; I liked that a lot. A good number of folks I remembered from the last time I was here 3 years ago were on hand, including some of the boys who evidently are still living here. And I'm operating off my own computer so once I get them loaded, maybe I'll get some pictures up.
We left Rejurla this morning after going to a woman's house who Tim baptized when we first arrived. She's kind of the family matriarch and the only believer in the family. We prayed for them all and when we got back Victor, his brother Philip, Victor Babu (our translator) and Madau were waiting with a large, air conditioned van, so the trip here (about 4 hours) was pretty comfy.
We're resting tonight and tomorrow we'll go to Kakinada for a little business and I think a service after that, we'll see.
More tomorrow, love ya!

Last night

Last night we drove about 25 Kilometers (Indian kilos!) to a village that is very close to Jaideep's heart. We split into two prayer teams, Kent and I and Tim and Jordan, we went though the village praying in the Christian (and some non believing) homes. Sweating? Let's just say I showered from the inside out! This is the a village where Tim laid the cornerstone of the church some years ago, a building that is now pretty impressive and Tim also provided the pastor, Pastor Joseph with the funds needed to build a home. We're discovering some interesting bits and pieces about our Pastor's committment to this mnistry - we should be VERY proud and humbled that we have him. As Tim said, he couldn't not do something after seing the conditions in which Joseph and his family were living. We soon saw for our selves.
Some of the homes for four or more people were nothing more than small yurts; some had concrete walls, others wood or thatch but most had low, thatch roofs. Some, even the Indians couldn't stand up straight in. There were a good number of widows, happily there was also a new crop of infants and pregnancies since the last time Tim was here (there has been a common difficulty in this village for pregnancies - some women had been trying and praying for 9 years to have a child). But for the most part the homes were clean and orderly and the overwhelming issue was the lack of so many things we of course find essential. I'm not going to harp on this - we've all heard it before but we somehow have to get over this entitelment attitude we Americans have and change that into a sense of responsibillty for others, both at home and in places like this. We can't cure all the ills of the world and I don't necessarily think we need to provide these villagers with microwave ovens. But, we could easily raise $2,000 bucks so Jaideep could refurbish his well - there's a drought here, he hasn't the water to grow his mangoes and other crops which he uses to feed his family and provide necessary income. We could do something like that and not even feel it.

Enough of that - you all need to pray for Kent, he's going native. He bought this Indian loin cloth type thing called a a lingee (sp?). It;s an attractive garment on the Indians and I don't for a minute believe it's to be worn in the semi transparent manner in which Kent finds so amusing and the rest of us consider just cause for beating him senseless. Better yet, I think we're going to strangle him with it. He also tood delivery of his new, tailor made shirts and he is thinking he's some sort of sartorial example for the rest of us. It's clear he's lost it, and has forgotten who he's travelling with.
It's a little after 8 AM here and Victor Samuel is picking us up at about 10 or so, so with luck and manuvering, i"ll post from Pithapurum tonight.

Love ya big time!

Our last day in Rejurla

It is hot. Hot and humid. Whenever I'm outside I'm literally soaked with sweat. The phrase "Maddogs and Englishmen" keeps coming to mind (they're the only ones who'll venture out into the tropical noonday sun). Even the locals are commenting on how hot it is. Right now Tim, Jordan and Kent are sleeping. Later this evening we're going to split into two teams and go to homes and pray for them. Jaideep wants us in teams to be able to cover more families as I think he's let a number of folks know we were going to be here.
Last night we drove to one of the tribal areas and attended a church service. The "building" was a palapa-like structure with a thatch roof, dirt floor and a balky PA system that decided to quit halfway through my message on Micah 6.8. That wasn't a problem though, the 80 or so folks there were sitting close enough that being heard wasn't really an issue. Prior to the service and afterwards three of the women, in traditional tribal dress, did a dance for us. The difference pre and post service was that Jordan and I danced with them after the service. I'm sure Kent will have the video on his Facebook page soon, if not already. Fools for Jesus, that's us, Jordan and I anyway!
:Earlier today Jordan and I went with Jaideep to a local pastor's home and church. Pastor Job, his wife and two children live in a concrete block room attached to the church that is about 14 X 8 feet. A woman was outside doing laundry; sloshing clothing in a bucket of soapy water, beating and scrubbing it on a rock and then rinsing and hanging in the air to dry.
If we ever doubt we live in a paradise in the US, forget it - we do. I told Jaideep the other day of my conviction that we in the US are the rich man , in the parable Jesus told about the wealthy man who had the begger Lazarus at his door. Not to criticize us but to remind us of of our responsibilities to others.
Enough preaching - tomorrow Victor Samuel will come for us at about 10:00 AM and we'll make the trip to Pithapuram; I've heard it will take 4 to 8 hours depending on traffic, which believe me, in India means something totally different than what we think of.
Please pray for health - there's some gippy tummy going around and other intestinal issues I'll leave to your imagination. Yours truly, though, is somewhat of a barabarian - I feel pretty good!
Love ya!

Today is Sunday - Our first baptism and church service in India

Today is Sunday, March something or other. Two days ago we boarded a train in Cochin for a 24 hour trip to Vijaywada. Initially it was a very fun, interesting trip. The train was pretty empty, coffee or chai tea cost only 8 rupees and Kent, Jordan and I had a great time doing something our wives and mothers would have yelled at us for and made us stop doing: we stood in the open train doorways and watched the landscape pass by at about 45-50 mph, maybe faster. The train started filling up and we had dinner, biyani (sp? - rice and chicken and other assorted delights) sitting on our bunks. Our poor Indian compartment mate, a telephone company exec, was forced to sit across the aisle until we were done. Tim and I hit our bunks about an hour or so prior to pulling into the Chennai station where the train filled up completely. Indian snoring sounds the same as in the US, trust me. I slept pretty well, and we disembarked at Vijay pretty much on time. However, a 24 hour train ride is about 8-12 hours too long.
At Vijay a driver picked up up and the ride to Rejurla was about as thrilling as a roller coaster and three times as dangerous. No, that's an understatment - our driver felt honor bound to pass EVERYTHING on the road. We witnessed what appeared to be a near killing between a speeding car and a motorcyle with only two people on it. Jiadeep said it was the bike's fault; the cop in me didn't agree and called it a felony hit and run; the car being the faulted vehilce.
Yesterday Kent and I went into town with Jaideep where we viewed a nearby coal strip mine )pretty awesome sized hole) and Kent ordered 5 tailor made shirts for about $38 (not at the strip mine, at a store in town); pretty incredible deal. Why didn't I get any? Come on, tailor made shirts? This is me we're talking about!
Today, Tim baptised a new believer behind Jaideep's house. It's hard for us to fathom what this committment means to these folks who are basically going against their families and their culture to commit to being a Christian. Tim later preached from I Peter 1.2-3, where God has given us everything we need, including overflowing hope. He has an incredible touch with these folks who as usual, all lined up to have him anoint and pray for them afterwards.
Tuesday we'll be headed for Pithapuram where hopefully, I'll be able to connect with my own computer and upload a pic or two. Jiadeep's campus is still on dial up and I just don't have the patience to wait. Actually I don't think Kent can post anything on FB either due to the lack of any connectivity here.
And personal note to my lovely and long sufferning wife, Rosie: forget about me losing weight, Jaideep's wife Sylvia is an amazing cook.
More in a day or so; love ya!

Today - I think it's March 3rd, but who knows?

Still sopeep deprived - I'll probably be adjusted on march 18th or so! This trip has been different so far, all we've done is so far is sightsee. I think Jaideep wanted to give us some time prior to getting into doing any "mission trip" stuff. We went to a government elephant training facility today and just got back. We leave for Rejurla, where Jaideep's school is, tomorrow at 7 AM, 24 hours by train. We're all pretty pumped about the train trip. I'm still not able to work off my own computer so I can't upload any new pics, but check Kent Getzin's FB page, he's been sending some stuff from his phone. Also, as we'll be on the train and then kind of in the sticks, I don't know how much internet access we'll have so there might not be too much posted for a couple of days. But I think Pastor Victor's e-mail is more than just dial up like it was 3 years ago so we should be able to post reguarly from there. But enough for now: we drove in the car today for along time, looked at elephants and some other animals, ate at a Muslim restaurant (6 of us- the five of us and our driver, for less than $20) and then drove in the car for another long time. Actually, two cool things - we passed a couple of rubber plantations and saw how they collect raw rubber (yeah, yeah, I know, big yawn, but I thought it was interesting) and there was a school across the street and all the kids were waving to us so I went over and had some major "kid time." THAT"S COOL! I'll tell Kent to post the pticture if he can. Sorry this is boring but I'll have more next time. Love ya!

Finally - Some Computer time

Computer time, internet access and free time to get online, has been unavailable until now - March 4 at 5:20 AM, (your time about March 3 -3:50 PM) I've been trying to keep up in Word but the blog site won;t let me cut-and-paste and right now I'm not even on my own computer, for some reason the hotel clerk wouldn't give me the code to log on but put me at the biz center computer, but let me try to catch up. Right now we're in Cochin (Fort Kochi) on the south east coast. This is an old Portuguese-Dutch community and Jaideep brought us here the other day for some sightseeing prior to going to his school in Rejurla, where we'll head tomorrow.

It took us about 36 hours total travel time to get to Chennai (via Seoul and Mumbai) where we met Jaideep and another pastor, Solomon. We met them at the airport at about 7 AM; we had train tickets out at 9:30 PM that night. We'd all had about 2-3 hours of sleep on the plane so it was a LONG day, trust me. On the Korean Air flight from Seoul to Mumbai the flight attendant offered us a snack - it looked like a triangular brownie so I got one for Jordan and I. It was actually the Korean equivalent of sushi (the brown exterior that caused the brownie deception was sea weed); needless to say I didn't eat it (needless for ME anyway!). At Mumbai we had our first Indian food, a snack of Wada, a potato like, fried roll containing chutney; not too bad. After Jaideep picked us up at the airport we did some sightseeing (we went to the cave where St. Thomas-"Doubting Thomas" was martyred-so they say) and some shopping, mainly to kill time until train time and frankly, I don't remember too much about that day as we were so beat. I actually fell asleep sitting on the floor of the Chennai train station surrounded by thousands of chattering Indians, booming, indecipherable loudspeakers and other train station noises, something I wouldn't' have ordinarily thought possible. It was great to be able to lay down on the train bunk in an air-conditioned car and prone out - and finally get some sleep. It was very cool waking up and watching the country side go by. Kent almost got left behind at one station, he got out to take some pictures and before he got to where he was going, luckily, he turned around 'cause his camera battery was going dead and saw the train starting to move. Ha, that would have been interesting, Kent stuck in India on his own. I would have thought it was funny!
Yesterday we did a lot of sightseeing in Cochin, a town on the south eastern coast, and old Portuguese - Dutch settlement where the first Christian church in India was built, where the Portuguese explorer Vasca de Gama was initially entombed (we saw the place in the church and otehr grave stones dating back about 400-450 years) prior to his remains being removed back to Portugal. This morning the plan was to go see an elephant sanctuary at 7 AM, but evidently this plan has changed - Tim was awake early, too and said Jaideep ahd for some reason changed his mind; we're not going to leave until 9 AM, who knows why? Tomorrow morning we're scheduled to take the train (at 7 AM I think) to Rejurla, Jaideep's school. I also think I heard talk of a 2 hour car ride but hopefully I was hallucinating from lack to sleep re: that bit of info.

Hopefuly once we get to Victor Samuel's in Pithapurum I'll have both more regular 'net access and time to post, some pics as well. Kent has been able to post stuff via his phone so check his Facebook sight as well.

Love from India, more later . . .

We are in Seoul!

Landed here in Inchon - Seoul airport about an hour ago (it's about 8:30 PM local time) and will fly out in a few more hours. We get to Mumbai at about 2:20 AM local and depart there for Chennai at about 6 AM. All thumbs up for Korean Air; comfy seats, lots of food and a HUGE entertainment section. But as it will be some time before I see a bed I'm going to take advantage of this nice, no restrictive arm rest seats and go prone for awhile. Love ya, next post from INDIA!

We leave this morning: Tim, Kent Jordan and I depart Seattle at 1 PM, and via Seoul, Korea, arrive in Mumbai, India about 23 hours later. From there, travel is in the hands of our first Inidan host, Jaideep.
I do have a little apprehension; I'm not an expert on India but I have read some. The Indian's are warm and friendly and are capable of tremendous passion. Like the rest of humanity some take their religious beliefs pretty seriously and this in a country where less than 3% of the population is Christian, they don't issue "missionary" visas and it is illegal for foreigners to prosyletize. For the most part, none of that is a very big deal but Tim has had at least one situation where the authorites have cancelled a planned gathering for Indian Christian pastors. Hinduism, I believe, accepts Christianity as one of the potential paths of enlightenment on might take (my understanding on this may be incorrect but I find Hinduism kind of difficult to get my Western mind around anyway). Islam, however, of which India has a large minority, is pretty clear on the subject; Christianity falls short of total, final truth. And, India is a country where statues of their gods, temples and shrines are very evident. Possibly to an Indian our proliferation of church buildings is similar; don't know. But it's weird for this American boy, taught the 10 Commandments in Sunday School, to look upon "idols" without a sense of unease. Statues of Ganesh, the elephant god and Hanuman, the monkey god, are popular in Andra Pradesh, the state of India where we will be for the majority of the time we are there. Three years ago, when we travelled pretty late at night to a church in what Pastor Victor Samuel told us was in the "tribal area" we passed a statue of Hanuman that seemed to be make of sparkling white concrete, that must have been 100 feet tall. We drove past pretty quickly and I never did get to see anything from the waist up from my seat in the car. As an American, you want to take pictures of these things and get a good look at them, just for curiosity sake, and Tim told me the Indian Christians understand this; but I'm not sure if we offend them or not by our interest.
Okay, enough for now. I'm going to spend a little time with Rosie before getting ready to leave.

Prior to leaving . . .

I'm heading to India with my pastor, Tim Wilbur, of New Song Community Church, East Wenatchee WA. Tim and I, as well as our buddies Kent Getzin and Kent's son Jordan, will leave Sunday Feb. 28. We'll be there 3 weeks and I thought this time, my second trip, I'll blog my way through.
This will be Pastor Tim's 10th trip. His primary ministry there has been to train Indian pastors, seeing as how there is little or no available leadership development for Indian Christian leaders in a country where less the 3 % of the population is Christian. Due to Tim's work, they name every new church after New Song. When I went with Tim 3 years ago, there were 70 of these churches. I'm told, and Tim confirms that he has been given this number as well, that there are now 1,500 churches named after New Song in the region of Andra Pradesh, where we'll be going. Pretty incredible.
My plan is to support Tim, help him where he needs it whether he likes it or not (>: and give this blog daily updates. We'll so how it goes . . .