Namaste again,
Things are going well here at the Mission India campus. Carie and I are healthy and in case the story about the 50 degree heat wave worried you, fear not, our air conditioners work nicely, ha. In fact, I wake up in the middle of the night almost every night freezing! Our room temperature with the air conditioner is 25 Celsius which is about 78 degrees F. That is normally hot to me, but thats really cold to me at night.
I ended the last blog with a request that you pray for the Christians of India as they face so much persecution from the Hindus all around them. I want to add one more request to that. In the second most populated country in the world, its overwhelming to think of the number of people that do not know Christ and are trapped in a false religion. There is no question that they deserve to have the love and grace of Jesus Christ just as much as we do. Eight hundred million people in this country serve false Hindu gods and goddesses! Another 120 million are Muslim (more Muslims than any other country in the world)! Changing all the people's hearts is an impossible task. But if I (if we) could just believe what the Word says... "what is impossible with man, is possible with God"... amazing things would happen. So pray for those who are following the lies that satan is feeding them, that they would know the ONE TRUE GOD. Not just in India though. I want to believe that the missions that feel impossible in the U.S. are possible with God, too. Its difficult to say which is harder to fight... Hinduism or nominal Christianity. So let's all pray that God will amaze us with his power and use us wherever he sends us or wherever we are to do things that we never thought were possible.
Saturday, May 19th was the graduation for the summer session students. The summer session was a month-long program for anyone who wanted to participate. The actual college session starts in the beginning of June. But, the graduation was very nice. Carie and I were given seats of honor with some of the faculty up near the front. After a time of worship and a message from the Word the certificates were given out and the faculty prayed over the students that wherever they go, they would take the knowledge of Christ they had attained to represent Him to the people of the world. After the graduation we had a great time hanging out with the students before they would have to leave the next day.
Sunday, May 20th, Carie and I were asked to sing an English song for the church and we hesitated at first, cause... uh... we can't sing. And I actually told Bansal I did not want to because we were not good singers and he said, "None of us are good singers, its for glory to God." Ouch. We accepted and sang "Firm Foundation". What a lesson in humility though. All the students left after church. I will miss them. A few of them will come back to visit before Carie and I leave, but most we will not see again until that day in Heaven when we will have the AMAZING blessing of seeing all our brothers and sisters that we have had so say goodbye to. That'll be nice. What an understatement!
Monday, May 21st I met a Hindu priest... sort of. Let me just say that meeting a Hindu priest is very odd to me, but this was even stranger. The summer session of classes is over and we are waiting til June 1st for the regular college students to begin arriving (until then Carie and I are just working in the Library in the morning and afternoon, then in the Mercy Home in the evening). So, with the session over, this Hindu priest shows up at the campus and says he wants to enroll... here... at the Mission India Theologcial Seminary. What!? This guy is a Hindu priest, but he claims to have come to know Jesus THROUGH THE HINDU SCRIPTURES. He says that since he came to know this Christ-figure he has continued to live as a Hindu priest and has been pointing Hindus to the Savior. He is not a Christian yet but through his own scriptures he has come to believe in Jesus who he believes to be a Savior of some kind and he wants to enroll here to learn more about the Christian teachings about this Savior. How crazy is that? How could he come to believe in Jesus and want to know more about Him just from reading the Hindu scriptures? Another guy who works in the library with us said that he saw a book in the library a few weeks ago about things in the Hindu scriptures that might be considered allusions to Christ. However it happened that's amazing. Our God is so powerful that He can use the scriptures of the false gods to draw people to Himself... how amazing! Anyway, he stayed the night here and ate with us but had to leave until the new session begins. So I guess we'll see him again in June. I cannot wait to see what God is doing in his heart and his life.
Tuesday, May 22nd, was Samuel's birthday. Samuel is a guy that works in the library here at the Mission India campus. So, he came into the library that day with some candy for everyone. I like this custom, ha. That night we had a special treat... Carie and I got to go to an Indian wedding. It was quite exciting. The ceremony itself was quite American-ized except that everyone in the audience was in traditional Indian clothes and the bride was actually wearing a white sari instead of a white wedding dress. The reception, though, was quite unusual. There were probably 500 people in the church during the ceremony and 1500 people at the reception. There was music and lots of food. Getting the food was quite an interesting experience. There is a line, but you don't really wait in it. You just kinda shove your way through and squeeze up to the food and get all you can as fast as you can. It could be described either as stressful or fun, whichever way you want to look at it. It was outside, too, in the middle of the city of Nagpur (4 million in that city) so it was quite hot. Fortunately it was at night so it had probably dropped down to about 105 degrees. If you wanted a drink at this reception you would go over to a water table where there were about 10 metal cups... that all 1500 people were sharing, ha. And for those of you that know what gulab jamun is, you'll understand my excitement when I say that we finally got some... yes! It was so good! In case you do not know what it is, it is an Indian dessert that's kinda like little pancake balls soaked in this delicious syrup stuff. Wes Gunn thinks they taste like Church's Honeybutter biscuits. Anyway, they are good, I know that.
Wednesday, May 23rd was an interesting day. The power went out early in the day around 11am and stayed off until 415pm, so it was HOT during that time. Also, we were unable to enter books in the computer in the library. So we both took naps and I tried to learn some Hindi. Well, at about 6pm some of us were going to go to a vegatable market nearby when suddenly we realized that since the summer students left on Sunday no one has watered any of the plants. So I helped the faculty that remains on campus carry buckets of water to all the plants. There were a lot of them to water. They have such a servant mindset here that they do not want their guests doing manual labor at all (also I think they know that Americans can't do much manual labor here without a trip to the hospital, ha) and you have to convince them to let you help sometimes. (Sidenote: I realized in the last couple days that I should try to just deal with the fact that they want to serve me cause that really is the way they show love and service is not seen as a burden in the least bit... instead they see it as a blessing that they get to show love in this way. So, its been hard to be served so much, but I'm trying to get over that and accept their acts of love) Anyway, they were trying to only fill my buckets half full so i didn't have to work as hard... there were 18 year old girls in sari's carrying full buckets and they are giving me half buckets, ha. I eventually was able to graduate to full buckets too. That was really fun, though. Then came the really interesting experience...
After cleaning off the mud I learned that some of the faculty were still going to the market. So I walked over to the gate and Thomson was there on his motorcycle. My mother will not like this part of the story, but he invited me to go to the city with him and of course I accepted. Riding on the back of a motorcycle in Indian traffic, dodging bicycles, cars, buses, other motorcycles, cows pulling carts, cows roaming free, and people is an experience I don't think I'll be able to forget! Thomson's not-quite 3-year-old daughter rode with us, too. But she got really tired halfway to the city so we turned around to take her back. Because she was falling asleep, he handed her to me and we rode back to campus with Thomson driving, me holding tightly to him, and his daughter squished in between us. It was hilarious. If you are reading this Nathan Capps, it reminded me of that picture on your computer of the two people on the motorcycle with the little kid squished in between. She was asleep immediately. Anyway, after we dropped her off at the campus, we drove the the city. In the city we went to a few shops, got some coke (different brand called Thumbs Up), bought a live chicken, watched them kill it, cook it and bag it up for us, drank some sugar cane juice stuff (very strange) from a vendor on the street, and rode back to campus. VERY interesting experience.
In the trip to the city and back I was able to observe more of the Hinduism that rules this country. Each shop had a little mini shrine to some god or goddess with incense or candles burning. As we rode back to campus I saw some of the worst poverty I've ever seen with people living in terrible conditions. But right next to their communities would be these nicely built buildings that served as shrines to Hindu deities. I asked Thomson who builds these shrines and he (former Hindu himself) told me the people in those communities build them. They are living in indescribable poverty and they spend their money to build temples to false gods. Its so sad because they are worshiping these gods, begging them to free them of poverty or heal their diseases or just to end their suffering. Unfortunately, unless the devil answers their prayers just to pull them deeper into the lies he's feeding them, no answers come from these prayers. God please draw them to You somehow.
Words cannot completely say how much I love Thomson and his family. He, his wife, and his daughter are such a great family and they are so kind to us. They have both faced a lot of suffering in their lives. Thomson comes from a Hindu background and his wife a Christian one. His father died when he was 2 and his mother was too sick to care for him. Thomson's wife grew up in a Christian home but both her mother and father died when she was young. They, like most of the couples in India, had an arranged marriage but it was arranged by friends since they did not have parents to do it for them. They are so happy that God brought them together. We'll share more of their story with you later.
Today, Friday, May 25th, was another day plagued by "load-shedding" from the power industry. You may know what that was, but I didn't so in case you are like me, I'll explain. In the Indian state of Maharashtra (the state where we are working) the power companies, in an effort to save money, shut off the power for about 3 hours per day. The first week and a half that we were here they did not do it, but now it has become an everyday thing. And of course they decide to shut it off somewhere between 11am and 3pm... the hottest time of the day. So we have been sweating even more than usual, ha. It is more than just inconvenient, though, because the load-shedding has caused the computer system in the library to lose about 2 months worth of data (about 3000 books entered). So now we are trying to have all the books entered so the students will be able to have access to the materials as they begin their Biblical studies. So they are trying to find a sponsor to pay for two more data entry stations so that five people can work at the same time on this project. Anyway, the students for the regular session will be arriving on campus in one week. There will be about 200-250 students at that time.
Thank you for your continued prayers. We are praying for you as well.
2 Corinthians 4:7
Friday, May 25, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Namaste (hello) everyone,
Sorry it has taken so long to post for the first time, but the situation here is a lot different that we thought it would be. It is good, though. You can probably expect me or Carie to post about once a week, instead of twice (like i think i told some of you). In fact, we will be typing stuff up throughout the week and carrying it to the internet cafe on a thumb drive once a week to save time. So, if Carie and I post blogs that say much the same things, that is why.
After 35 hours of traveling we made it to the city of Nagpur, India in the province of Maharashtra. It is quite an overwhelming place. We landed in Nagpur at 8:45am on May 12th and stepped out of the plane into 109 degree heat... 8:45am! We did not understand exactly how hot this would be before we came. And one might normally want a breeze in weather like that, but the wind doesn't help, its like a heat wave, ha. It feels like you are standing in front of a space heater. We have an air conditioner in each of our rooms so we can escape the heat if necessary, but I cannot imagine what all the people here that cannot have air conditioner do. I was told that once a heat wave came through that was 50 degrees Celsius (thats 123 F) and killed 1000 people in one day. It has been about 46 or 47 Celsius during the day each day since we've been here. I'm drinking right at 2 liters of water a day and if the supply were unlimited, i'd be drinking a lot more than that.
The people here are so interesting. On the way here we had about 8 hours to kill in the Mumbai (used to be Bombay) airport. So we spent a long time with a Muslim girl from Saudi Arabia named Mahavesh (I may have spelled that wrong, Carie knows how to spell it right). She was completely covered by her burka... all we could see was her eyes. She started showing us some Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic by writing it in Carie's journal and while she was doing that, she began to read Carie's journal out loud. She was reading things about God and His plan for us in India. We wondered what she thought about this as she read. Perhaps a seed was planted of some kind.
Manohar James (the principal at the RIMI campus where we are staying), along with some others, picked us up from the airport. They took us to the Mission India office for a tour and then to the RIMI campus. As we were driving, we were blown away by the traffic in India. I thought Honduras was bad about that. There are so many cars, trucks, bicycles, and motorcyles fighting for a place on the road. Cows are constantly seen on the sides of the road. Lanes mean absolutely nothing to the drivers. Manohar summarized the driving situation by saying, "Whoever has courage goes, everyone else just waits forever." Ha. It's very easy to spot an idol on the streets as well.
We learned a little bit more about how much persecution Christians face here in India. They are such a small minority and many of these Christians have suffered so much for their faith in Christ. Their faith is so encouraging. One way they minister is by offering technical classes here at the Bible college. Secular students come to learn some skill and come in contact with the story of Christ.
I have been very humbled already. It was a fight to stay motivated the first few days because it is SO hot and SO difficult to eat and stay healthy. Things are getting much better as I am learning, once again, to rely on God. Pray for our health and our motivation to serve God any way we can.
Sunday, May 13th was actually my 21st birthday. It was very exciting to spend my 21st in India. Even better... it was Sunday so I was able to worship with the Indian people on my birthday. After many songs and prayers, Carie and I were able to speak to the church for about 5 min to tell about ourselves. I told them that their brothers and sisters in America were praying for them. Then Manohar James gave a lesson. Then Manohar called me to the front and they all sang Happy Birthday to me and prayed for me. Then I handed out candy... apparently, when you celebrate your birthday in India, you are supposed to give everyone candy. So Manohar told be to be prepared for that the night before.
Monday, May 14th began our normal schedule... sort of. We will be working in the library here for much of the day and then in the Mercy Home in the evening. This week, though, we were teaching in the summer classes. Carie taught on Christian Family and I taught Missionary Biographies. It went very well. I have really enjoyed my time with the summer students. They are so kind to me. They are real servants. Much of that is the culture and how a host is supposed to act in India. Like, they will not let me get my own food, or wash my plate.
I enjoy working in the library. I am entering books into their computer catalog. This library will be a great resource for the students at this campus. In addition to secular books it will have a lot of Christian literature (which of course is not incredibly common in India). I cannot wait each day for afternoon tea time in the library. The tea is amazing! Indescribable even. Why did that custom not last in America? We came from England, too. Ha
I started playing this really fun board game with the students called CAREM. It is kind of like pool. There is a giant square board with baby-power-like stuff on it to make it slick and then there are these checkers-looking things on the board (black and brown). There is also a striker (red checker thing) and you try to use it to get the other checkers into the pockets in the corners of the board. Its just like playing pool but you flick the striker at the chips instead of using a pool stick. It's very fun. They also told me about another game that I have not played yet, ha. It is called "White House". In this game, one person is George Bush and everyone else acts like evil foreign leaders and George Bush has to kill them. Then, another person plays the part of Osama Bin Laden and George Bush has to kill him too. HAHA, I laughed SO SO hard when they were telling me this. That was hilarious.
Wednesday, May 16th I finished my Missionary Biographies class. The students seemed to really enjoy learning about William Carey, David Livingstone, Robert Moffat, Hudson Taylor, and David Brainerd. I am so excited that I can now begin collecting the testimonies of the Christians here. I haven't had much time to do that while preparing for classes. But now I do and I am excited cause they have some amazing stories. I will share some of those shortly. The students are younger than I thought. There are some adult students, but most of them are about 16 years old. Maybe that is because this is the summer session. When the regular session begins on June 1st, perhaps the students will be older. I don't know. But I have really enjoyed the company of the students that have been here since we arrived.
Last night (Friday, May 18th) Carie and I spent several hours over at the mercy home. We played with the kids and then Carie sat around a little fire thing and helped the girls make chapati (unleavened wheat bread made over open flame - thank you hindi dictionary). When I came in an sat down to watch, they all got up and put a plate between Carie and myself and started putting food on it. Then they gave us glasses of water... yeah, regular water, not bottled water. Oh well, God will keep us healthy, ha. Anyway we started to eat chapati and lots of rice with daal (cooked lentils with spices) and some kind of curry stuff. It was really good, but they kept putting it on the plate. And they would offer more and we would say we were full but they would say "just a little more?" and we would accept. We kinda had to cause we don't really speak Hindi and they don't really speak any English. So the food kept coming. And they just stood there and watched us eat. We were eating then but everyone else was going to eat about an hour later. We ate so much before we convinced them we had had enough. It was good though Then they would not let us clean our plates. They treat us so well and we tried to thank them as best as we could and they said "You are our guests... and that means God." They really believe in showing love for God by showing love for fellow Christians. Then we were able to join the children for the devotional. We prayed and sang some Hindi songs. There was one point when they were singing this slow Hindi song and we looked around and all the little children had their eyes closed and they were singing with all their hearts. I felt so blessed to be there with them and I just prayed for God to bless them so much and to keep them from facing so much of the suffering that is in this country.
Let me just tell you a little bit of one of the stories I heard the other day to finish this blog off. My new friend Narendra Bansal works in the library here. And those of you who know Ben Blanchard should know that Bansal looks just like him. Ha. I will be sure to show you pictures when I get back. Anyway, I asked him to tell me his story the other day and it really humbled me. It would take a long time to tell the whole story and since you are probably tired of reading this blog by now I'll tell a short piece of it. He told me that he grew up in a Hindu family, worshiping the gods and goddesses. He also told me that his brother suffered from a brain tumor and they began to pray to the gods and goddesses, crying, begging for help for the boy. One day they went to the temple, to see the Hindu priest. Bansal told me that the priest heated up an iron rod to the point that it was glowing red and began to beat the boy, attempting to use some of his magic to heal him. Bansal said that after 3 or 4 days of this the boy died and Bansal lost all belief in Hinduism. Then months later, a traveling minister came to his town and told him about the one true God. Bansal did not believe at first. Then, the traveling minister showed him a film about Jesus and that was the beginning of the road to Christ for Bansal. He said that when he saw the film, he remembers thinking, "He had no fault and yet he's dying for us, the Son of God, he's sinless and he's dying for us." Well, the rest of the story is long and I will share that later, but just know that Bansal inspires me. I saw an intense passion in his eyes as he told me that he wanted to share Christ with as many people in India as possible. It seemed like he was almost in tears. That's ok, I was almost in tears. Then he humbled me... after talking about all the suffering in his life and his passion for serving the Lord, he told me he was going to fast and pray that God would use me as a servant for Him my entire life. I almost wept.
Well, I hope I haven't bored you too bad. Feel free to leave comments, and PLEASE pray that GOD GETS 100% of the glory in all we do here and that he would be able to use our weak efforts in mighty ways. And please pray for the Christians of India who are so severely persecuted by their Hindu neighbors. Specifically pray for Bansal.
We love you all.
Sorry it has taken so long to post for the first time, but the situation here is a lot different that we thought it would be. It is good, though. You can probably expect me or Carie to post about once a week, instead of twice (like i think i told some of you). In fact, we will be typing stuff up throughout the week and carrying it to the internet cafe on a thumb drive once a week to save time. So, if Carie and I post blogs that say much the same things, that is why.
After 35 hours of traveling we made it to the city of Nagpur, India in the province of Maharashtra. It is quite an overwhelming place. We landed in Nagpur at 8:45am on May 12th and stepped out of the plane into 109 degree heat... 8:45am! We did not understand exactly how hot this would be before we came. And one might normally want a breeze in weather like that, but the wind doesn't help, its like a heat wave, ha. It feels like you are standing in front of a space heater. We have an air conditioner in each of our rooms so we can escape the heat if necessary, but I cannot imagine what all the people here that cannot have air conditioner do. I was told that once a heat wave came through that was 50 degrees Celsius (thats 123 F) and killed 1000 people in one day. It has been about 46 or 47 Celsius during the day each day since we've been here. I'm drinking right at 2 liters of water a day and if the supply were unlimited, i'd be drinking a lot more than that.
The people here are so interesting. On the way here we had about 8 hours to kill in the Mumbai (used to be Bombay) airport. So we spent a long time with a Muslim girl from Saudi Arabia named Mahavesh (I may have spelled that wrong, Carie knows how to spell it right). She was completely covered by her burka... all we could see was her eyes. She started showing us some Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic by writing it in Carie's journal and while she was doing that, she began to read Carie's journal out loud. She was reading things about God and His plan for us in India. We wondered what she thought about this as she read. Perhaps a seed was planted of some kind.
Manohar James (the principal at the RIMI campus where we are staying), along with some others, picked us up from the airport. They took us to the Mission India office for a tour and then to the RIMI campus. As we were driving, we were blown away by the traffic in India. I thought Honduras was bad about that. There are so many cars, trucks, bicycles, and motorcyles fighting for a place on the road. Cows are constantly seen on the sides of the road. Lanes mean absolutely nothing to the drivers. Manohar summarized the driving situation by saying, "Whoever has courage goes, everyone else just waits forever." Ha. It's very easy to spot an idol on the streets as well.
We learned a little bit more about how much persecution Christians face here in India. They are such a small minority and many of these Christians have suffered so much for their faith in Christ. Their faith is so encouraging. One way they minister is by offering technical classes here at the Bible college. Secular students come to learn some skill and come in contact with the story of Christ.
I have been very humbled already. It was a fight to stay motivated the first few days because it is SO hot and SO difficult to eat and stay healthy. Things are getting much better as I am learning, once again, to rely on God. Pray for our health and our motivation to serve God any way we can.
Sunday, May 13th was actually my 21st birthday. It was very exciting to spend my 21st in India. Even better... it was Sunday so I was able to worship with the Indian people on my birthday. After many songs and prayers, Carie and I were able to speak to the church for about 5 min to tell about ourselves. I told them that their brothers and sisters in America were praying for them. Then Manohar James gave a lesson. Then Manohar called me to the front and they all sang Happy Birthday to me and prayed for me. Then I handed out candy... apparently, when you celebrate your birthday in India, you are supposed to give everyone candy. So Manohar told be to be prepared for that the night before.
Monday, May 14th began our normal schedule... sort of. We will be working in the library here for much of the day and then in the Mercy Home in the evening. This week, though, we were teaching in the summer classes. Carie taught on Christian Family and I taught Missionary Biographies. It went very well. I have really enjoyed my time with the summer students. They are so kind to me. They are real servants. Much of that is the culture and how a host is supposed to act in India. Like, they will not let me get my own food, or wash my plate.
I enjoy working in the library. I am entering books into their computer catalog. This library will be a great resource for the students at this campus. In addition to secular books it will have a lot of Christian literature (which of course is not incredibly common in India). I cannot wait each day for afternoon tea time in the library. The tea is amazing! Indescribable even. Why did that custom not last in America? We came from England, too. Ha
I started playing this really fun board game with the students called CAREM. It is kind of like pool. There is a giant square board with baby-power-like stuff on it to make it slick and then there are these checkers-looking things on the board (black and brown). There is also a striker (red checker thing) and you try to use it to get the other checkers into the pockets in the corners of the board. Its just like playing pool but you flick the striker at the chips instead of using a pool stick. It's very fun. They also told me about another game that I have not played yet, ha. It is called "White House". In this game, one person is George Bush and everyone else acts like evil foreign leaders and George Bush has to kill them. Then, another person plays the part of Osama Bin Laden and George Bush has to kill him too. HAHA, I laughed SO SO hard when they were telling me this. That was hilarious.
Wednesday, May 16th I finished my Missionary Biographies class. The students seemed to really enjoy learning about William Carey, David Livingstone, Robert Moffat, Hudson Taylor, and David Brainerd. I am so excited that I can now begin collecting the testimonies of the Christians here. I haven't had much time to do that while preparing for classes. But now I do and I am excited cause they have some amazing stories. I will share some of those shortly. The students are younger than I thought. There are some adult students, but most of them are about 16 years old. Maybe that is because this is the summer session. When the regular session begins on June 1st, perhaps the students will be older. I don't know. But I have really enjoyed the company of the students that have been here since we arrived.
Last night (Friday, May 18th) Carie and I spent several hours over at the mercy home. We played with the kids and then Carie sat around a little fire thing and helped the girls make chapati (unleavened wheat bread made over open flame - thank you hindi dictionary). When I came in an sat down to watch, they all got up and put a plate between Carie and myself and started putting food on it. Then they gave us glasses of water... yeah, regular water, not bottled water. Oh well, God will keep us healthy, ha. Anyway we started to eat chapati and lots of rice with daal (cooked lentils with spices) and some kind of curry stuff. It was really good, but they kept putting it on the plate. And they would offer more and we would say we were full but they would say "just a little more?" and we would accept. We kinda had to cause we don't really speak Hindi and they don't really speak any English. So the food kept coming. And they just stood there and watched us eat. We were eating then but everyone else was going to eat about an hour later. We ate so much before we convinced them we had had enough. It was good though Then they would not let us clean our plates. They treat us so well and we tried to thank them as best as we could and they said "You are our guests... and that means God." They really believe in showing love for God by showing love for fellow Christians. Then we were able to join the children for the devotional. We prayed and sang some Hindi songs. There was one point when they were singing this slow Hindi song and we looked around and all the little children had their eyes closed and they were singing with all their hearts. I felt so blessed to be there with them and I just prayed for God to bless them so much and to keep them from facing so much of the suffering that is in this country.
Let me just tell you a little bit of one of the stories I heard the other day to finish this blog off. My new friend Narendra Bansal works in the library here. And those of you who know Ben Blanchard should know that Bansal looks just like him. Ha. I will be sure to show you pictures when I get back. Anyway, I asked him to tell me his story the other day and it really humbled me. It would take a long time to tell the whole story and since you are probably tired of reading this blog by now I'll tell a short piece of it. He told me that he grew up in a Hindu family, worshiping the gods and goddesses. He also told me that his brother suffered from a brain tumor and they began to pray to the gods and goddesses, crying, begging for help for the boy. One day they went to the temple, to see the Hindu priest. Bansal told me that the priest heated up an iron rod to the point that it was glowing red and began to beat the boy, attempting to use some of his magic to heal him. Bansal said that after 3 or 4 days of this the boy died and Bansal lost all belief in Hinduism. Then months later, a traveling minister came to his town and told him about the one true God. Bansal did not believe at first. Then, the traveling minister showed him a film about Jesus and that was the beginning of the road to Christ for Bansal. He said that when he saw the film, he remembers thinking, "He had no fault and yet he's dying for us, the Son of God, he's sinless and he's dying for us." Well, the rest of the story is long and I will share that later, but just know that Bansal inspires me. I saw an intense passion in his eyes as he told me that he wanted to share Christ with as many people in India as possible. It seemed like he was almost in tears. That's ok, I was almost in tears. Then he humbled me... after talking about all the suffering in his life and his passion for serving the Lord, he told me he was going to fast and pray that God would use me as a servant for Him my entire life. I almost wept.
Well, I hope I haven't bored you too bad. Feel free to leave comments, and PLEASE pray that GOD GETS 100% of the glory in all we do here and that he would be able to use our weak efforts in mighty ways. And please pray for the Christians of India who are so severely persecuted by their Hindu neighbors. Specifically pray for Bansal.
We love you all.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
I'm excited... and a lot of other emotions too
So Carie McDonough and I leave for the country of India on May 10th. But why would we go to India? Why would we want to spend 2 months in temperatures above 118 degrees during monsoon season? Why? Because India is a nation of more than a billion people, and 800 million of these people are Hindus! Also, there are also more than 100 million muslims in India, making it the country with the highest muslim population in the world. Only about 2% of the people in India are blessed to know Jesus as we do. That's why we are going to India.
For several months we have been studying the culture, the religion, and the language (most people speak English but Hindi is another main language in India so we have studied some basics in that language), but I know we are nowhere near prepared enough to do anything on our own. Our prayer is that our feeble efforts will be turned into amazing results by the Almighty God we serve. We cling to the passage in 2 Corinthians that tells us God's power is made perfect in our weakness.
So what exactly will we be doing? I'm glad you asked because I actually found out today myself. We are working with a missions organization that is completely run by Indian people. So, during our two month stay, we may be the only Americans working with that organization. This organization plants countless churches, builds numerous children's homes, and trains Indian preachers to be able to spread the Gospel in India. Carie and I will be working at the main campus in Nagpur, India (dead center of the country). This part we already knew, but new information came today.
I received a call from the founder of this missions organization today about a special project. His name is Saji Lukos, and Brother Lukos today asked Carie and I to help him produce two more books as fund-raising literature for the ministry there in India. While in India, Carie will be collecting 50 stories about children in the Indian children's homes and I will be collecting 50 stories about the lives of Indian missionaries I will interview. Each of these two projects will result in a book that will be produced and sold to raise money for the missions organization and to raise awareness about the ministry in India. I look forward to being able to help in this way. We are going to hear some amazing stories about how these missionaries came to know Christ, and many times gave up everything to follow Him. The interviews alone will have immeasurable influence on our lives. Beyond that, I am thrilled to know that our efforts will both provide funds for future mission work and spark interest in the ministry in India for other people that might read these books.
Well, we are overwhelmed, excited, nervous, humbled, and ready to see what God's plan for us in India is. We beg you to pray for us and pray that God will reach the lost of India through whatever means necessary.
For several months we have been studying the culture, the religion, and the language (most people speak English but Hindi is another main language in India so we have studied some basics in that language), but I know we are nowhere near prepared enough to do anything on our own. Our prayer is that our feeble efforts will be turned into amazing results by the Almighty God we serve. We cling to the passage in 2 Corinthians that tells us God's power is made perfect in our weakness.
So what exactly will we be doing? I'm glad you asked because I actually found out today myself. We are working with a missions organization that is completely run by Indian people. So, during our two month stay, we may be the only Americans working with that organization. This organization plants countless churches, builds numerous children's homes, and trains Indian preachers to be able to spread the Gospel in India. Carie and I will be working at the main campus in Nagpur, India (dead center of the country). This part we already knew, but new information came today.
I received a call from the founder of this missions organization today about a special project. His name is Saji Lukos, and Brother Lukos today asked Carie and I to help him produce two more books as fund-raising literature for the ministry there in India. While in India, Carie will be collecting 50 stories about children in the Indian children's homes and I will be collecting 50 stories about the lives of Indian missionaries I will interview. Each of these two projects will result in a book that will be produced and sold to raise money for the missions organization and to raise awareness about the ministry in India. I look forward to being able to help in this way. We are going to hear some amazing stories about how these missionaries came to know Christ, and many times gave up everything to follow Him. The interviews alone will have immeasurable influence on our lives. Beyond that, I am thrilled to know that our efforts will both provide funds for future mission work and spark interest in the ministry in India for other people that might read these books.
Well, we are overwhelmed, excited, nervous, humbled, and ready to see what God's plan for us in India is. We beg you to pray for us and pray that God will reach the lost of India through whatever means necessary.
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