Last night the power was out until 2:00. That means we had no air conditioning. It is so hot and humid here that it is not even possible for us to sleep without AC. The air is just too thick. Kumar has a small generator that will power a couple of lights and a couple of fans. One light and fan in the girls room, and one light and fan in the living room, which we sat under in misery until the power finally came on. The air conditioner makes it possible for us to breath and sleep.
Since it was such a late night, it was also a late start in the morning for us. We left the house around 10:00 to go to the mission hospital, where Kumar diagnosed and treated several patients and allowed us to pray for them. Then he gave a tour of the building. The hospital used to be a busy place, with three floors in full operation, but now the funding is very low, so they don’t have the resources to do as much. They have also lost a lot of funding for the orphanage, so now the orphans are living in the hospital. Since they are not using all the floors for medical purposes, they are now using two floors to house to orphans.
We had a tent set up on the roof where we visited the children. We prayed for them, taught them some Bible stories through a couple of skits, shared our love for them, and played games with them before passing out candy. Yasab shared her testimony with them about how she used to view the nice foreigners who came to the orphanage she lived at in Ethiopia, and how she never thought that she would become one of them. She gave words of encouragement and identified with the children in ways that none of the rest of us could.
It’s always hard to leave those beautiful little faces, but we had to get going to our evening meeting place. It was in an area about an hour’s drive from Rajahmundry. We conducted a small medical camp about a block away for the crusade area, and treated about 100 people. Most of them are just suffering from vitamin or mineral deficiencies, so simple shots usually give them a lot of help. We prayed for every person who came to be examined.
The crusade was at an intersection of a couple of streets. We had chairs and a table (which served as a pulpit) set up in the intersection, and the people sat on mats and blankets in the streets going in both directions on our right and left. The pastors said there were 300 people present. Kyle gave an encouraging word before Billy preached the gospel. About 50 people responded to the call to salvation, and we rejoiced together with the angels in heaven as they confessed their faith in Jesus. Then we laid hands on every person who came forward for prayer and asked for the Lord’s blessing on their lives.
It was another fruitful day of ministry and we are all still excited to see what is in store for tomorrow.
Thank you for faithfully praying for us and for the work God is doing in India.
Until tomorrow, may God richly bless you.