We woke to the smell of fresh coffee, prepared by Josh’s mother, Magi. Every morning, she faithfully prepares a pot of coffee and spreads a breakfast on the counter for us to enjoy. She is such blessing to our team, and we appreciate her hard work.
Bill found the way to the ocean during a jog on our first morning here, so he, Bryan, and I have been getting our daily exercise by running every morning. We had not ventured out too far along the ocean until today, and we won’t be doing that again. The people living alongside the ocean use the beach as a toilet, so you literally have to dodge land mines the entire time. We only made it about 100 yards down the beach before I turned around. The streets are a much safer bet.
We kicked off ministry for the day by going into a gypsy camp near Josh’s home. We visited this same place last year, and have been supporting ongoing efforts to reach these people. So it was good to be back and bring some more of the love of God to them. If I showed up at your door with a plastic bag of rice, you probably wouldn’t bee too impressed, but these people are so appreciative of a bag of food. We brought rice it not he village and gave bags of rice to each home. Some would receive a second bag, depending on the size of the family.
By the time we used up the rice in the cart, we were about 3/4 of the way through the village, and when Josh left with the cart to go back to the vehicle for more rice, the people thought he was leaving for good and started arguing with the village head about it. Those who had not yet received any rice were shouting and the situation was escalating rapidly. We were caught in the middle as people on all sides of us were shouting back and forth. Finally, Josh came back with some more rice and we gave some to the rest of the families.
The children were excited to see us, just as they were last year, and took every opportunity for a photo. One little girl even did some henna on Linda’s arm.
I can see that the people are truly happy that we come to see them, and I hope that these simple gestures eventually open them up to hear and receive the gospel. The gypsies have a very strong culture, which makes them a difficult people group to reach with the message of the gospel. Please pray for the doors to open up for us to be able to lead them to Christ.
Friday evening is our first crusade in Chengalpettu. We held crusades here 2 years ago, and had a great response. Pastor Joel is extremely passionate about impacting this area with the gospel. There was a setback to our crusades a last week when a local government official was murdered on the streets here. Apparently, some of the decisions he was making rubbed some people the wrong way, so he was killed and lacked to pieces in broad daylight. After that, the police imposed a 9:00 curfew on the whole city. So, we have to wrap things up by 9:00 each night here.
On the first night, Bill Garrity opened up with a short greeting before I preached the gospel. I had just taken the time to explain to them how God created them individually, knows them intimately, and how each of us has sinned against Him. Then I was speaking about the judgment to come and read to them about Judgment Day, when the power went out. Suddenly the entire crusade grounds were enveloped in blackness. That’s the first time thats happened to me before. It took about 5 minutes to get the generator fired back up, so the people had all that time to let those thoughts sink in. When power was restored, I was relieved to see that no one had left. So I continued the message and shared with them about the love of God in sending His own Son to bear the burden for our sins, and how He offers eternal life freely to all those who repent and trust Him. At the altar call, scores of people responded and prayed for forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ.
The altar was packed out when we asked them to come forward for individual prayer. There are so many people struggling with various issues here, and they take full advantage of the opportunity to receive prayer for their needs. We are happy and blessed to oblige them and take the time to lay hands on them and pray over each and every one of them.
We have two more meetings here, and we expect the next two nights to hold larger crowds. We will see what happens and keep you updated. Sorry for the lack of photos this time. The internet connection is really slow today and I can’t upload them very well.
Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to faithfully remember us!