India 2012 Day 8

India 2012 Day 8

6:00 in the morning comes pretty early when its on the heels of a day of ministry, travel, and a late night getting settled into a new place. But rise we did when the time came, because there were a lot of exciting things on the plate for the day.  Josh’s place is very accommodating for a big team like ours.  The girls all shared a room with an attached bathroom, while Billy and Steve shared a smaller room next door which also had its own bathroom and shower.  Kyle, Ryan, Zach and Bryan all shared a small flat on the bottom floor of the building.  Although it is kind of awkward sharing a bed with the pastor, I was glad to be on the top floor because this is where the wi-fi is.  Not only that, but I only need to compete with one person for the bathroom.

We left early because where was a lot of ground to cover in a short time.  We arrived at a leper colony around 8:00 and began making our way down the street, giving love and attention to the suffering people there.  They invited us into their homes and asked us to pray for them. I was impressed to see members of the team boldly and fearlessly shaking hands, hugging, and laying hands on bodies that were infected with the deadly disease.  This is a separate colony from the one we were working in over that last few years, so all of the faces were new to me, but still we gave them love and attention, as well as tangible things like food and other supplies that they can use.

After spending some time with them individually, the villagers came together at a meeting hall to hear the word of God from us.  As we entered, they greeted us with fresh coconuts with straws poked into them.  This was very refreshing for those who were brave enough to drink it.  Jackie Gillette spoke for a few moments and shared the gospel clearly with them, and about half the crowd of about 40 prayed to receive forgiveness of their sins and to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  This was the same Jackie who told me several times that she did not want to speak because she didn’t do well in front of crowds.  Praise the Lord!

From there, we met pastor Joel at his mother’s house which vas very close by to the leper colony, where the team freshened up and got into some clean clothes for the pastor’s conference.  We had a small meal and made our way over to the meeting hall and enjoyed some dynamic worship.  Before the worship started, I leaned over and whispered to one of the team members, “We’re about to blow the roof off this place.” The Indian people are extremely animated when worshiping the Lord.  They get very involved and give everything they have when praising the Lord.  Some people have their own convictions on what worship should look like, but as you stand with them and clap your hands, you can’t help but be drawn into the worship yourself as the Spirit of God fills the room.

Before Steve took over the microphone for the teaching, we dismissed the rest of the team and sent them off to the other leper colony, where they would spend time ministering to the lepers as Steve and I stayed back at the pastor’s meeting.  The 100 or so pastors at the meeting were very attentive during the message and we had great feedback from them afterwards.  Many left the conference insisting that this was the best one they have been to.  It made me glad to have such a valuable resource on the team in our senior pastor.

The rest of the team went to the leper colony that we put in the water tanks for.  They did basically the same things as we did in the morning.  We provided 6 150 lb bags of rice for them, loved them, and spoke to about 100 of them who had gathered in the meeting hall.  Kayla Pratt stood and shared the good news of the gospel with them and everyone present sought God’s forgiveness as she gave an invitation to come to Him.

They came back to pick us up from the meeting place and began the hour and a half drive back to Josh’s place, where we would have about an hour to freshen up again before rolling out to a crusade in the slums.  On the way, we stopped at a store so the girls could purchase some Punjabi clothing.  Josh thought we would be received better if they showed some respect for the culture and dressed accordingly, and the girls did not complain about the prospect of shopping, as you can imagine.  To their credit, they only spent about an hour there before each of them had a couple of changes of Punjabi garb.

The crusade at the slums was in the middle of a street section.  There were about 50 people gathered when we arrived, but soon that number swelled to about 150.  Billy K preached the gospel, expounding on the teachings of Jesus from Luke 18, and half the crowd stood boldly to their feet at the altar call and called upon the name of the Lord.  This is a very strong hindu neighborhood, so most of the crowd were not Christians.  Now most of that crowd are Christians!  We laid hands on and prayed for many sick people, for many young people asking for wisdom for their exams coming up, for many people struggling with addictions to drugs and alcohol, and much more.  We are eagerly anticipating hearing testimonies about how the Lord is doing miracles for them.

Once we got the team back home, some of us went out for a quick dinner and enjoyed good fellowship and reflection on another fruitful day in the Lord’s work.  Tomorrow is yet another huge day with lots of exciting things happening, so stay tuned in and be encouraged by what God is doing in India!

Thanks again for your dedicated prayers for us.  We are drawing strength and anointing from them.  God bless you!!