Dear faithful readers and prayer warriors,
Well, we made it. Right now, we are 3 hours away from walking out the door and heading back to the airport in Chennai to begin our journey home after a life-changing 2 weeks in India. Today was a perfect way to end out our mission. We went to a village church about 2 hours away from David's condo. It was an amazing day of worship and ministry. Following the sermon, led by a 75 year old pastor who walks 10 miles to get to church, we shared in Communion with the church. It was a totally new, totally beautiful process for Communion - for those who wanted to take part, we had to line up and have our feet washed by the person in front of us. We then turned and washed the feet of the person behind us before taking our position for Communion. Then, the Pastors came by and gave us a piece of bread from a larger loaf and then we all drank REAL wine from the same cup - ALL of us. From the SAME cup. And it was beautiful.
Following Communion, we came up and led about a 30 minute program, complete with singing (Power in the Blood finished it off AND...we all learned the chorus in Tamil and were able to sing it to them and with them, in their language. And yes, you all will learn it as well - we can't wait for that! And, for the last day on mission, we busted out not one...not two...but THREE skits: David, Daniel and the new skit that John put together for us last night. Then, we shared lunch with the church and then we wrapped out by just hanging with the kids/families, making balloon animals...but the best part...all of the church members wanted our team to pray with them - and the team did - all over the place. It was an awesome God moment.
And then, after our time at the Church, we took a short 5 minute drive deeper into the village for another Church dedication. Once again, we led a few short choruses that spanned the language barrier and it was the closest thing to Heaven I think I've ever experienced - brothers and sisters across many cultures and in different languages singing, "Alleluia" and "Thank You, Jesus". So amazing. We then had a great - and very long - sendoff, saying goodbye to all of the kids, families...it was tough realizing that there's a good chance we might not see them until Heaven - but having that knowledge was a great thing.
Tonight, we just ordered some pizza in, packed up, cleaned up, and just had a good time (with a mild dance party and an impromptu singalong to "Holiday Road"). We've got just a few more hours and we're all homesick - ready to come home - but man, this was an amazing trip.
So, the blog title. If you've been paying any attention, this title was actually used to kick off the whole trip and I think it's appropriate to end with it as well. There really are a lot of comparisons. I mean, we're taking a massively long trip...on a jet plane. We left with 14 and we're coming back with 14 (Lord willing). We're even all bringing home the same luggage and sitting next to the people we rode next to on the way here.
But, not everything is the same. While we arrived here as 14 members of Faith, we're leaving here as a family. A family that saw each other at their worst - sickness, dirty, sweaty, smelly, no make-up, bad hair days - but that worked towards carrying out the mission God put in front of us. We arrived expecting to minister to the people of India, but in reality, they changed our lives and ministered to us in ways that we couldn't even compete with. All of our expectations when we left home were totally destroyed and God threw us out of our comfort zones, but in that, we gained so much spiritual perspective. We come away in the same setting...but as completely different people. Our prayer is that, through these experiences, not only will the Church in India be encouraged, but that our home church will see some ways in which we can deepen our passion for the Lord. And we ask God, the One who ordained this trip, guided and guarded our every move, and is working in all of our hearts in a massive way, to keep this fire burning that we can impact our neighborhood, our church and our world by serving Christ as His "holy fools".
I cannot express how much we appreciate each of you supporting us and praying for us on this trip. Though only 14 of us are physically here, you all have been an integral part of this mission and we could not have done this without you. We love each of you so much and can't wait to share these experiences with you. Please pray for the protection of our Father God as we head out in just a few hours - safety in travel and favor going through security and customs.
And so, with gladness and sadness, for the last time in India, good night. Thank you for making this journey with us. We'll see you guys soon.
India 2010, out...
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
The Day Before Tomorrow
Hey Team,
Second to last day in India and it was, again, wonderful. Following our devos this morning, we headed out to another village church for their worship service. We were running a few minutes late so we were only able to catch the last 3 1/2 hours of worship. Yes, you read that correctly. And I tell you what...as a testament to how strong the worship and Spirit is here, we can't understand more than a word or two of what they're saying/singing and yet, we are totally drawn into the Spirit these people possess. It's beautiful. Then, after the message and some dances performed by the church children, we led a time of worship with singing and 2 skits - we even introduced the brand new, never performed in public, David and Goliath! And it went off so well - everyone cheered when little Christian Rose "slew the giant" Lee. It was so much fun - it will definitely be included in the mission trip report (which, as far as I know, is scheduled for Sunday evening, July 11th - mark your calenders and look for updates!).
After our leading, we shared in their lunch. I don't think we've covered their "lunch" times. They are so beautiful. Acts 2, as Sara pointed out tonight. After 4+ hours of worship, the church sits down together and shares a meal. Everyone sits in their lines, gets a placemat and the servers bring around the food, which you eat with your hands. Culturally, this would seem really weird - but it's amazing. We gotta try it sometime at Faith. Then, after lunch was cleaned up, we led another rousing game of "Chicken Chicken Goat" (Duck Duck Goose). These people play CCG with so much enthusiasm. Even the adults who aren't "playing" end up getting into it. Again, something we need to try at Faith. We had a blast. We ended our time at the church today by making tons of balloon animals, hats, crosses, swords, etc. Again, in America, this wouldn't be a big deal or even "cool", but to the people in India...they absolutely love them. What an awesome (and totally unexpected) ministry tool.
Following our church service and fellowship time, we went out to another new village church for their dedication of the new building. We went in, sans shoes, and David asked us to play a song. We did "Power in The Blood" which has literally become the theme song of this entire trip. Everywhere we go we sing this and the Indian people know it. It's beautiful. Then Tim had a great idea in suggesting we sing "Holy Ground". We started off and I was strumming out on the guitar, but the sound was so beautiful, I had to stop. The voices of the 20-25 in the room went up in absolutely beautiful harmonies. Today was the first day I could actually sing (regained my voice a bit) and I'm so thankful. The room was filled with beautiful, impromptu music. Following the prayer of dedication, we went right into the chorus of "Alleluia". Again, harmonies, melodies all over the place and it was some of the most beautiful music I've heard in my entire life. I will never forget the sound of that room.
So then, thinking the night is over, we say our good-byes and load up into the van. We pull out and literally go no further than 20 feet when David sees that the music we were singing in the church brought people out of their houses/huts a little ways down the road. He stops the van and says, "There are a lot of people here. Want to sing some songs?" Next thing you know, we're unloading 20 feet from the church and begin more impromptu worship/singing for the villagers. David asked the Pastor to say a prayer. Well, he did...after delivering a Holy Spirit inspired 5 minute message to the captive audience. It was a great time of ministry that we totally weren't expecting.
Our night concluded with our longest and best time of sharing. We began with the Annual Mission Trip Awards (The "Trippies") and because we had 14 people on the team, we were able to give everyone an award. It's too much to go through all of the awards (I will put them out some day), but it's important to note who received the most prestigious awards. Congratulations to Leslie Thrasher for receiving the "Rookie of The Year" award (it was her first mission trip EVER and she was the brains behind our Daniel skit, which we performed EVERY DAY here). And the top honor - the MVP Award recipient for India 2010: Christian Rose Maude. Congrats to everyone for the achievements. After a great time of awarding, remembering, laughing....we moved into a time where each team member had to answer the question: "Why Did God Bring You On This Trip?" And the answers were beautiful. But one resounding message, across the board, was "Perspective". Through this trip, we have realized how much we need - and how much we DON'T need. And even at times our abundance (while considered a blessing) could actually be a huge hindrance to us. The other night, the church got together for a service and all they did was roll out a tarp/political banner for the Church to sit, plugged in a microphone and we had church among the cows and chickens with no lighting. And it was an amazing time of worship. Our lives have been changed by this trip and we can't wait to come back and share with you what the Lord did in our lives.
As we are less than 30 hours from jumping on our first plane, we ask for your prayers again to finish stronger than we started. Please also pray for supernatural, holy energy - everyone is on their last legs in terms of energy, but we want to go out tomorrow and go leave all we have in India. And since you may not read the final blog tomorrow before we head out (we leave at 5 a.m. Monday Chennai time which is 7:30 p.m. EST on Sunday night), please lift up the team's travels and journeys through customs. There WILL be a blog tomorrow to wrap out. Thank you guys so much for following this, for thinking of us and most importantly, for carrying us to the Father.
Tomorrow, we have one more church service like today. We'll lead a time of worship with music and skits and then we'll play some games with the church before coming home to wrap everything up. Of course, that's what the PLAN is. Then again...It's India. Pray that God would have us do what He wants us to do.
See ya tomorrow!
-Jeff
Second to last day in India and it was, again, wonderful. Following our devos this morning, we headed out to another village church for their worship service. We were running a few minutes late so we were only able to catch the last 3 1/2 hours of worship. Yes, you read that correctly. And I tell you what...as a testament to how strong the worship and Spirit is here, we can't understand more than a word or two of what they're saying/singing and yet, we are totally drawn into the Spirit these people possess. It's beautiful. Then, after the message and some dances performed by the church children, we led a time of worship with singing and 2 skits - we even introduced the brand new, never performed in public, David and Goliath! And it went off so well - everyone cheered when little Christian Rose "slew the giant" Lee. It was so much fun - it will definitely be included in the mission trip report (which, as far as I know, is scheduled for Sunday evening, July 11th - mark your calenders and look for updates!).
After our leading, we shared in their lunch. I don't think we've covered their "lunch" times. They are so beautiful. Acts 2, as Sara pointed out tonight. After 4+ hours of worship, the church sits down together and shares a meal. Everyone sits in their lines, gets a placemat and the servers bring around the food, which you eat with your hands. Culturally, this would seem really weird - but it's amazing. We gotta try it sometime at Faith. Then, after lunch was cleaned up, we led another rousing game of "Chicken Chicken Goat" (Duck Duck Goose). These people play CCG with so much enthusiasm. Even the adults who aren't "playing" end up getting into it. Again, something we need to try at Faith. We had a blast. We ended our time at the church today by making tons of balloon animals, hats, crosses, swords, etc. Again, in America, this wouldn't be a big deal or even "cool", but to the people in India...they absolutely love them. What an awesome (and totally unexpected) ministry tool.
Following our church service and fellowship time, we went out to another new village church for their dedication of the new building. We went in, sans shoes, and David asked us to play a song. We did "Power in The Blood" which has literally become the theme song of this entire trip. Everywhere we go we sing this and the Indian people know it. It's beautiful. Then Tim had a great idea in suggesting we sing "Holy Ground". We started off and I was strumming out on the guitar, but the sound was so beautiful, I had to stop. The voices of the 20-25 in the room went up in absolutely beautiful harmonies. Today was the first day I could actually sing (regained my voice a bit) and I'm so thankful. The room was filled with beautiful, impromptu music. Following the prayer of dedication, we went right into the chorus of "Alleluia". Again, harmonies, melodies all over the place and it was some of the most beautiful music I've heard in my entire life. I will never forget the sound of that room.
So then, thinking the night is over, we say our good-byes and load up into the van. We pull out and literally go no further than 20 feet when David sees that the music we were singing in the church brought people out of their houses/huts a little ways down the road. He stops the van and says, "There are a lot of people here. Want to sing some songs?" Next thing you know, we're unloading 20 feet from the church and begin more impromptu worship/singing for the villagers. David asked the Pastor to say a prayer. Well, he did...after delivering a Holy Spirit inspired 5 minute message to the captive audience. It was a great time of ministry that we totally weren't expecting.
Our night concluded with our longest and best time of sharing. We began with the Annual Mission Trip Awards (The "Trippies") and because we had 14 people on the team, we were able to give everyone an award. It's too much to go through all of the awards (I will put them out some day), but it's important to note who received the most prestigious awards. Congratulations to Leslie Thrasher for receiving the "Rookie of The Year" award (it was her first mission trip EVER and she was the brains behind our Daniel skit, which we performed EVERY DAY here). And the top honor - the MVP Award recipient for India 2010: Christian Rose Maude. Congrats to everyone for the achievements. After a great time of awarding, remembering, laughing....we moved into a time where each team member had to answer the question: "Why Did God Bring You On This Trip?" And the answers were beautiful. But one resounding message, across the board, was "Perspective". Through this trip, we have realized how much we need - and how much we DON'T need. And even at times our abundance (while considered a blessing) could actually be a huge hindrance to us. The other night, the church got together for a service and all they did was roll out a tarp/political banner for the Church to sit, plugged in a microphone and we had church among the cows and chickens with no lighting. And it was an amazing time of worship. Our lives have been changed by this trip and we can't wait to come back and share with you what the Lord did in our lives.
As we are less than 30 hours from jumping on our first plane, we ask for your prayers again to finish stronger than we started. Please also pray for supernatural, holy energy - everyone is on their last legs in terms of energy, but we want to go out tomorrow and go leave all we have in India. And since you may not read the final blog tomorrow before we head out (we leave at 5 a.m. Monday Chennai time which is 7:30 p.m. EST on Sunday night), please lift up the team's travels and journeys through customs. There WILL be a blog tomorrow to wrap out. Thank you guys so much for following this, for thinking of us and most importantly, for carrying us to the Father.
Tomorrow, we have one more church service like today. We'll lead a time of worship with music and skits and then we'll play some games with the church before coming home to wrap everything up. Of course, that's what the PLAN is. Then again...It's India. Pray that God would have us do what He wants us to do.
See ya tomorrow!
-Jeff
Friday, June 25, 2010
"Yeah, Let Him Go, 'Cuz I'm Gonna Cap Him"
And the winner of the "Best Quote of the Night" goes to...Bob Henry!! Congratulations, Bob, on your focus-shattering, hysteria inducing adlib on our new skit.
And, this just in...the award for "Most In Need Of A Belt" goes to Lee Salley. No congratulations are in order. In fact, we all lost with this award.
Hey everybody-
Hope you all had a good day today. We had a great time today. We called today a "Down Day", which makes it sound terribly un-missional. So, we have renamed today the more appropriate "Recovery Day", because that's exactly what it was - and that's definitely what we were in need of. Between heat exhaustion, dehydration, food poisoning, respiratory problems (and that's just what Christi was suffering from) we all needed some time to gear up for a big weekend.
We spent some time today doing some souvenir pickups and breaking bread together at a Vegetarian restaurant (being a vegetarian would be easy if the food tasted this good). We then came back for some rest and recovery before our evening stuff. Before and after dinner tonight, we came together as a team and worked up 3 brand new things for this weekend. One is a "David and Goliath" skit with C.R. Maude (our 10 year old trooper) playing the role of David and Lee Salley (our 50 year old park ranger) playing the role of Goliath. It is perhaps the funniest version of David and Goliath you've ever seen 14 Americans perform in India ever. In fact, I'd bet money on it. What was amazing, though, isn't so much the skit (though it is pretty good for a few practices), but the amount of fun we had as a team spending time together and working this up. The team has come a long way very quickly in the past 2 weeks and the unity among the team is really special. Thank God for this.
After dinner, the guys and ladies split up. The ladies put together an interpretive dance to "Here I Am to Worship" and the guys pulled together another skit penned by our local theatrical scribe, John Kinsey. We're looking forward to putting these in front of people tomorrow. All in all, a very good night.
Tomorrow, as best we can tell, we'll be doing at least 2 new church dedications and even possibly some outreach events in the evening. Please be in prayer for this as David just told us that both the heat and humidity will be very high and where we are going, there is no electricity/air - so, tomorrow may be the most trying day we've had, weather-wise, since we've been here. With a lot of people having been battling health stuff, we really need the prayer cover to finish strong. In fact, that leads our prayer requests tonight:
1. Please pray for strength and energy to end the mission as well as we began it.
2. Pray that we would have eyes to see the needs around us and that we wouldn't miss the opportunities God gives us
3. Pray a prayer of thanks for David Rajan. He has been beyond hospitable and patient with us. He is one of the Godliest men on the planet and we all need to be thanking God for the work God is doing through him - our "Godfather"
Two more days left. Pray also for our team because earlier in the week I told them that in our sharing time/final debrief tomorrow night they had to answer this question: "Why did God bring you on this mission?". Please pray for clarity in knowing the answer and the ability to carry the lessons and experiences we've had here home.
And pray for Faith. We've already been discussing what to "bring back" with us. We've decided that our role is to give America "heart attacks". But, holy ones. The good kind - won't kill you...just make our faith stronger.
Thank you for the opportunity to represent you all and the Kingdom. Your support has been so amazing. We love you guys.
-Jeff
And, this just in...the award for "Most In Need Of A Belt" goes to Lee Salley. No congratulations are in order. In fact, we all lost with this award.
Hey everybody-
Hope you all had a good day today. We had a great time today. We called today a "Down Day", which makes it sound terribly un-missional. So, we have renamed today the more appropriate "Recovery Day", because that's exactly what it was - and that's definitely what we were in need of. Between heat exhaustion, dehydration, food poisoning, respiratory problems (and that's just what Christi was suffering from) we all needed some time to gear up for a big weekend.
We spent some time today doing some souvenir pickups and breaking bread together at a Vegetarian restaurant (being a vegetarian would be easy if the food tasted this good). We then came back for some rest and recovery before our evening stuff. Before and after dinner tonight, we came together as a team and worked up 3 brand new things for this weekend. One is a "David and Goliath" skit with C.R. Maude (our 10 year old trooper) playing the role of David and Lee Salley (our 50 year old park ranger) playing the role of Goliath. It is perhaps the funniest version of David and Goliath you've ever seen 14 Americans perform in India ever. In fact, I'd bet money on it. What was amazing, though, isn't so much the skit (though it is pretty good for a few practices), but the amount of fun we had as a team spending time together and working this up. The team has come a long way very quickly in the past 2 weeks and the unity among the team is really special. Thank God for this.
After dinner, the guys and ladies split up. The ladies put together an interpretive dance to "Here I Am to Worship" and the guys pulled together another skit penned by our local theatrical scribe, John Kinsey. We're looking forward to putting these in front of people tomorrow. All in all, a very good night.
Tomorrow, as best we can tell, we'll be doing at least 2 new church dedications and even possibly some outreach events in the evening. Please be in prayer for this as David just told us that both the heat and humidity will be very high and where we are going, there is no electricity/air - so, tomorrow may be the most trying day we've had, weather-wise, since we've been here. With a lot of people having been battling health stuff, we really need the prayer cover to finish strong. In fact, that leads our prayer requests tonight:
1. Please pray for strength and energy to end the mission as well as we began it.
2. Pray that we would have eyes to see the needs around us and that we wouldn't miss the opportunities God gives us
3. Pray a prayer of thanks for David Rajan. He has been beyond hospitable and patient with us. He is one of the Godliest men on the planet and we all need to be thanking God for the work God is doing through him - our "Godfather"
Two more days left. Pray also for our team because earlier in the week I told them that in our sharing time/final debrief tomorrow night they had to answer this question: "Why did God bring you on this mission?". Please pray for clarity in knowing the answer and the ability to carry the lessons and experiences we've had here home.
And pray for Faith. We've already been discussing what to "bring back" with us. We've decided that our role is to give America "heart attacks". But, holy ones. The good kind - won't kill you...just make our faith stronger.
Thank you for the opportunity to represent you all and the Kingdom. Your support has been so amazing. We love you guys.
-Jeff
Thursday, June 24, 2010
[Insert Witty Blog Title Here]
Hello Dear Readers,
Greetings, Prayer Warriors and Jesus family members,
(told you I'd double up on the salutations last night).
I apologize for the lack of a decent title for tonight's blog. We'll all collectively come up with something amazing for tomorrow - it will be epic! We had a great day today. This morning, following our Devos (that's Christian hipster slang for "Devotions"), David gave us an overview of the ministry that God has allowed him to lead since 1997. To see how God has used this man is completely amazing. He's helped plant (though, in his completely humble self will tell you he had nothing to do with it - but he was God's appointed instrument) 35 chuches in the last 14 years and, to God's glory, they're seeing 200+ baptisms a year and 500+ conversions a year. I speak for all of the team when I say that we feel entirely humbled that God would allow us the opportunity to see first hand the work He's doing and bless us with the chance to play a very small role in this work. We can't wait to share with all of you what God is doing here and we can't wait to bring you with us next time!
After our morning stuff, we had the opportunity to do some touring around Chennai. Our first stop, for those who were interested, was to pop into the American Embassy and see what's going on there. Report on what's going on: Nothing. It was actually pretty funny though. The process for getting into the embassy is rigid and slow. It might have something to do with not having an appointment, but I'm thinking it had more to do with the fact that when the Embassy guards asked us why we were there, our answer: "We're American tourists and just wanted to see our Embassy". Apparently, this is a new one for them. It's the equivalent of touring the DMV...just without all of the people. And fun. Once we finally got in, we met a nice Embassy employee named David - who, while excited to see some Americans, also couldn't understand why we were "touring" the embassy. All he did was hold the door open for us and then he became our accidental tour guide because we wouldn't stop asking him questions. Then, for the big finale, he took us up to the 2nd floor to see the "Library", which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a library of books on American history and culture. Good to know that even halfway across the world, Americans are nerds.
We followed that up with a visit to St. George's church (which was really cool) - the church where Shirani (David's daughter) and her husband Immanuel got married. THAT was a cool experience to see that place. Beautiful church, beautiful landscaping...very lovely. Then, some of the group went shopping, the others went to see the oldest church in Asia. I was in the former group as I owe my wife jewelry (It's coming, my love).
Our afternoon/evening took us about an hour/hour and a half out into one of the villages for a church dedication. These things are beautiful experiences. The church facilities themselves are very humble (four walls and a doorway) - but I couldn't help but compare to our church. We always talk about, "When we get the next worship center..." and have all of these grand plans (which are fine), but when you saw these people and their excitement over having a 15'x40' building to call their own...it was really moving. And you become so excited for them. Family, we are so completely blessed beyond our needs and we better start realizing this. Though, I am encouraged...if we could find a way to worship as passionately as these Indian believers do in proportion to God's provision and our blessings, we would blow the roof off our church and the Mid-Atlantic region could not contain the Holy Spirit that would be pouring out of us. Let's work on this.
After the church was dedicated, we moved outside for a 30-45 minute program (singing/skits and a message from their pastor). Oh...and get this...Tim did a NEW illusion today! He did both! It was great and he would love for you to ask him to both of them every time you see him upon our return. One of the most beautiful events of the past week or so was that following the message, the Church came forward and asked our team to pray one-on-one with them. It was a beautiful time of worship that transcended the language and cultural barriers. Our Team was the "Church" tonight. Amazing experience. We're still getting over that one.
Tomorrow is a free day/prep day. This weekend, we're ending big. 2-3 more Church dedications and events all day on Sunday. We're going to take in a few sights in the morning, pick up the last few souvenirs and then come back together to pull together some new skits and be ready for a massive weekend of ministry. Please be praying for this.
Along with your prayers, we need to ask you to up your prayers for Christi Maude. She was pretty ill last night and sat out the events of this morning, hoping it would get her rested so that she could participate tonight. Unfortunately, she needed to see a doctor and ended up being admitted into the hospital for a few hours. She was suffering from dehydration. They got her fixed up and she is back with us now resting, but she needs your prayers for healing. We don't want her to have to miss out on this weekend after all the work she's put into this. Thank you in advance.
Our prayer requests tonight:
1. Healing for Christi
2. Strength and energy for the upcoming weekend
3. Creativity in pulling together some new ministry activities
4. Mental/Spiritual energy to end strong
You guys are awesome. Thanks for coming alongside us.
-Jeff
Greetings, Prayer Warriors and Jesus family members,
(told you I'd double up on the salutations last night).
I apologize for the lack of a decent title for tonight's blog. We'll all collectively come up with something amazing for tomorrow - it will be epic! We had a great day today. This morning, following our Devos (that's Christian hipster slang for "Devotions"), David gave us an overview of the ministry that God has allowed him to lead since 1997. To see how God has used this man is completely amazing. He's helped plant (though, in his completely humble self will tell you he had nothing to do with it - but he was God's appointed instrument) 35 chuches in the last 14 years and, to God's glory, they're seeing 200+ baptisms a year and 500+ conversions a year. I speak for all of the team when I say that we feel entirely humbled that God would allow us the opportunity to see first hand the work He's doing and bless us with the chance to play a very small role in this work. We can't wait to share with all of you what God is doing here and we can't wait to bring you with us next time!
After our morning stuff, we had the opportunity to do some touring around Chennai. Our first stop, for those who were interested, was to pop into the American Embassy and see what's going on there. Report on what's going on: Nothing. It was actually pretty funny though. The process for getting into the embassy is rigid and slow. It might have something to do with not having an appointment, but I'm thinking it had more to do with the fact that when the Embassy guards asked us why we were there, our answer: "We're American tourists and just wanted to see our Embassy". Apparently, this is a new one for them. It's the equivalent of touring the DMV...just without all of the people. And fun. Once we finally got in, we met a nice Embassy employee named David - who, while excited to see some Americans, also couldn't understand why we were "touring" the embassy. All he did was hold the door open for us and then he became our accidental tour guide because we wouldn't stop asking him questions. Then, for the big finale, he took us up to the 2nd floor to see the "Library", which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a library of books on American history and culture. Good to know that even halfway across the world, Americans are nerds.
We followed that up with a visit to St. George's church (which was really cool) - the church where Shirani (David's daughter) and her husband Immanuel got married. THAT was a cool experience to see that place. Beautiful church, beautiful landscaping...very lovely. Then, some of the group went shopping, the others went to see the oldest church in Asia. I was in the former group as I owe my wife jewelry (It's coming, my love).
Our afternoon/evening took us about an hour/hour and a half out into one of the villages for a church dedication. These things are beautiful experiences. The church facilities themselves are very humble (four walls and a doorway) - but I couldn't help but compare to our church. We always talk about, "When we get the next worship center..." and have all of these grand plans (which are fine), but when you saw these people and their excitement over having a 15'x40' building to call their own...it was really moving. And you become so excited for them. Family, we are so completely blessed beyond our needs and we better start realizing this. Though, I am encouraged...if we could find a way to worship as passionately as these Indian believers do in proportion to God's provision and our blessings, we would blow the roof off our church and the Mid-Atlantic region could not contain the Holy Spirit that would be pouring out of us. Let's work on this.
After the church was dedicated, we moved outside for a 30-45 minute program (singing/skits and a message from their pastor). Oh...and get this...Tim did a NEW illusion today! He did both! It was great and he would love for you to ask him to both of them every time you see him upon our return. One of the most beautiful events of the past week or so was that following the message, the Church came forward and asked our team to pray one-on-one with them. It was a beautiful time of worship that transcended the language and cultural barriers. Our Team was the "Church" tonight. Amazing experience. We're still getting over that one.
Tomorrow is a free day/prep day. This weekend, we're ending big. 2-3 more Church dedications and events all day on Sunday. We're going to take in a few sights in the morning, pick up the last few souvenirs and then come back together to pull together some new skits and be ready for a massive weekend of ministry. Please be praying for this.
Along with your prayers, we need to ask you to up your prayers for Christi Maude. She was pretty ill last night and sat out the events of this morning, hoping it would get her rested so that she could participate tonight. Unfortunately, she needed to see a doctor and ended up being admitted into the hospital for a few hours. She was suffering from dehydration. They got her fixed up and she is back with us now resting, but she needs your prayers for healing. We don't want her to have to miss out on this weekend after all the work she's put into this. Thank you in advance.
Our prayer requests tonight:
1. Healing for Christi
2. Strength and energy for the upcoming weekend
3. Creativity in pulling together some new ministry activities
4. Mental/Spiritual energy to end strong
You guys are awesome. Thanks for coming alongside us.
-Jeff
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
It's Not The Heat That'll Kill Ya, It's The...No, Wait...It's The Heat
It's hot.
Yes, I'm aware I neglected the opening salutation, and I apologize - I will doubly up tomorrow - but it needed to be said. It is hot. Oppressively hot. Ridiculously hot.
Whew. Got that out of my system (as well as about 75 liters of sweat because...IT'S HOT!). Today was a "Down Day", which meant that we had a free day to check out some touristy things and just spend the day relaxing. It was a nice change of pace - it really was. The team has been running pretty non-stop since our arrival a week ago and today we had the opportunity to just slow down a bit. We went up to the St. Thomas Shrine on one of the mountains in India and it was breath-taking. You could literally see miles and miles in every direction - all of the surrounding cities/counties...you could see it all. We toured the Church of St. Thomas for awhile and just took in the beauty of God's creation. Then, we headed over to a nice hotel for an incredible buffet lunch. Let me just say, I fully intended to lose 10 pounds on this trip between a picky palette and the effects of Indian food - but the local cuisine has been so delicious - even the food prepared in the villages has been outstanding. But I digress.
After lunch, we said our good-byes to Gary Hanneken as he jumped back on his flight out of Chennai to head back to Maryland. He's currently in the air right now and should be home around 5 a.m. EST on Thursday - so be lifting him up as you read this. We had a great time with him. Then, we made it back to David's condo to rest up a bit and then most of us took the opportunity to do a little souvenir shopping at the same mall as yesterday. All in all, a pretty relaxing day.
However...IT WAS HOT!! Since we don't really have any ministry reports today, it would be a good time to give you some interesting bits of info that we experience that don't really make the cut for this blog. For our transportation, we have a 15 passenger van. And 16 people riding in it (unless dreamy Johnathon drives and he takes 3 lucky contestants with him). We have the same bus driver every day and he doesn't speak a word of English. But he's a really nice Muslim gentleman...and I tell you...homeboy is the best driver on the road. But before we get off the transportation issue, the conditions in the van are like a sauna lately. The A/C has started to go out and I am not exaggerating when I say that arriving at our destinations has been incredible as the conditions outside the van (in the middle of the day in India) are typically better than inside the van. And when you sit in the very back, you are actually sitting underneath the vent which is pushing the air forward, so you get absolutely ZERO air. Today was actually the worst day. No matter where you were sitting, you were sweating - usually pretty good, too. But praise the Lord, it seems like it's getting better. We're really not complaining either - we're all so grateful to get to have these opportunities to minister - but it has taken its toll on some of our team members. Please, please, please continue to lift up Christi Maude. It seems like she's got some heat exhaustion and has been laid up in bed all night with some stomach issues. Others have been taking a physical hit as well from the heat and we could use the prayer for strength!
While we're on the topic of transportation, I want to let you know about an element of India that I absolutely cannot believe has not made it into this blog yet. The traffic. The driving conditions. Unfortunately, my poor descriptions here will do nothing to do justice to the insanity that is driving in India. There is nothing in America that even compares to these conditions. First, while there is a single line often down the middle of the road to indicate lanes...this doesn't matter. At all. I'm not kidding. At any given moment, if there are 2-3 motorcycles hogging the lane, it is perfectly normal for another driver to charge oncoming traffic...and NOT move out of the way. There are no rules. Every car has some sort of dent, scrape and if someone is in your way, you lay on the horn. Always. There is never a moment when a horn is not honking. No one looks out their rear view mirrors - the honking is just to let you know you want someone to more or you're next to them so they shouldn't get over. And the "Autos" (taxis), vans, cars, motorcyles and buses are all fighting for the same space - and when I say "fighting", it is every man for himself and the first person who can push the others out of the way wins. The first few days, we all were on edge thinking either we were going to get killed or we were going to witness someone getting killed. Surprisingly, neither has happened - and we've all gotten used to the craziness and the mid-road u-turns and vehicular games of "Chicken" that take place every day.
Another thing...motorcycles. They're EVERYWHERE. And everyone drives one...but not like America. For starters, helmets are optional. I can count on my left hand and right foot the number of helmets we have seen on someone's head (they're usually tied around someone's waist - I don't think they get the concept). Further, children are always on motorcycles with their parents, either being sandwiched between the driver and the handlebars or hanging on by themselves to the driver on the way to school...No helmet. We've seen two guys on a single motorcycle, hauling two huge moving boxes tied to the bike. We've seen two riders with a goat sitting between them. And the worst...a driver and his passenger sitting side-saddle...holding a baby. No helmet. The driving conditions in India are completely unreal. You just have to be here to check it out. It is frightening and exhilarating all at the same time.
Anyway. Between the heat and the traffic, there's really not a lot that we haven't covered in this blog thing. But those are two things that really are significant in our India experiences. Oh, and the guy who walks the block every night around this time (mid-nightish our time) hitting a big stick on the ground and blowing a whistle every ten seconds to scare off robbers. Crazy! He's doing it now! That's Neighborhood watch right there!
Tomorrow, we're expecting pretty big heat, so our ministry events will be aimed more towards the later parts of the day. We'll be heading out tomorrow afternoon for a new Church dedication in a village followed by some village outreach/ministry. We're also really excited because tomorrow, during our devotion time, David is going to be giving us a presentation on his mission work here in India, what he has done, what is going on and where his vision for this mission and ministry are. Can't wait for that!
We've made it over a week doing ministry now and we owe so much to you all for your diligently prayers. Today/Tonight, please pray:
1. For Christi's healing - and the overall health of the team
2. Travelling mercies for Gary Hanneken
3. Evangelistic opportunities tomorrow evening
4. Discernment from the Holy Spirit to see those who we can minister to here around the community.
Thank you guys so much. Talk to you tomorrow!
-Jeff
Yes, I'm aware I neglected the opening salutation, and I apologize - I will doubly up tomorrow - but it needed to be said. It is hot. Oppressively hot. Ridiculously hot.
Whew. Got that out of my system (as well as about 75 liters of sweat because...IT'S HOT!). Today was a "Down Day", which meant that we had a free day to check out some touristy things and just spend the day relaxing. It was a nice change of pace - it really was. The team has been running pretty non-stop since our arrival a week ago and today we had the opportunity to just slow down a bit. We went up to the St. Thomas Shrine on one of the mountains in India and it was breath-taking. You could literally see miles and miles in every direction - all of the surrounding cities/counties...you could see it all. We toured the Church of St. Thomas for awhile and just took in the beauty of God's creation. Then, we headed over to a nice hotel for an incredible buffet lunch. Let me just say, I fully intended to lose 10 pounds on this trip between a picky palette and the effects of Indian food - but the local cuisine has been so delicious - even the food prepared in the villages has been outstanding. But I digress.
After lunch, we said our good-byes to Gary Hanneken as he jumped back on his flight out of Chennai to head back to Maryland. He's currently in the air right now and should be home around 5 a.m. EST on Thursday - so be lifting him up as you read this. We had a great time with him. Then, we made it back to David's condo to rest up a bit and then most of us took the opportunity to do a little souvenir shopping at the same mall as yesterday. All in all, a pretty relaxing day.
However...IT WAS HOT!! Since we don't really have any ministry reports today, it would be a good time to give you some interesting bits of info that we experience that don't really make the cut for this blog. For our transportation, we have a 15 passenger van. And 16 people riding in it (unless dreamy Johnathon drives and he takes 3 lucky contestants with him). We have the same bus driver every day and he doesn't speak a word of English. But he's a really nice Muslim gentleman...and I tell you...homeboy is the best driver on the road. But before we get off the transportation issue, the conditions in the van are like a sauna lately. The A/C has started to go out and I am not exaggerating when I say that arriving at our destinations has been incredible as the conditions outside the van (in the middle of the day in India) are typically better than inside the van. And when you sit in the very back, you are actually sitting underneath the vent which is pushing the air forward, so you get absolutely ZERO air. Today was actually the worst day. No matter where you were sitting, you were sweating - usually pretty good, too. But praise the Lord, it seems like it's getting better. We're really not complaining either - we're all so grateful to get to have these opportunities to minister - but it has taken its toll on some of our team members. Please, please, please continue to lift up Christi Maude. It seems like she's got some heat exhaustion and has been laid up in bed all night with some stomach issues. Others have been taking a physical hit as well from the heat and we could use the prayer for strength!
While we're on the topic of transportation, I want to let you know about an element of India that I absolutely cannot believe has not made it into this blog yet. The traffic. The driving conditions. Unfortunately, my poor descriptions here will do nothing to do justice to the insanity that is driving in India. There is nothing in America that even compares to these conditions. First, while there is a single line often down the middle of the road to indicate lanes...this doesn't matter. At all. I'm not kidding. At any given moment, if there are 2-3 motorcycles hogging the lane, it is perfectly normal for another driver to charge oncoming traffic...and NOT move out of the way. There are no rules. Every car has some sort of dent, scrape and if someone is in your way, you lay on the horn. Always. There is never a moment when a horn is not honking. No one looks out their rear view mirrors - the honking is just to let you know you want someone to more or you're next to them so they shouldn't get over. And the "Autos" (taxis), vans, cars, motorcyles and buses are all fighting for the same space - and when I say "fighting", it is every man for himself and the first person who can push the others out of the way wins. The first few days, we all were on edge thinking either we were going to get killed or we were going to witness someone getting killed. Surprisingly, neither has happened - and we've all gotten used to the craziness and the mid-road u-turns and vehicular games of "Chicken" that take place every day.
Another thing...motorcycles. They're EVERYWHERE. And everyone drives one...but not like America. For starters, helmets are optional. I can count on my left hand and right foot the number of helmets we have seen on someone's head (they're usually tied around someone's waist - I don't think they get the concept). Further, children are always on motorcycles with their parents, either being sandwiched between the driver and the handlebars or hanging on by themselves to the driver on the way to school...No helmet. We've seen two guys on a single motorcycle, hauling two huge moving boxes tied to the bike. We've seen two riders with a goat sitting between them. And the worst...a driver and his passenger sitting side-saddle...holding a baby. No helmet. The driving conditions in India are completely unreal. You just have to be here to check it out. It is frightening and exhilarating all at the same time.
Anyway. Between the heat and the traffic, there's really not a lot that we haven't covered in this blog thing. But those are two things that really are significant in our India experiences. Oh, and the guy who walks the block every night around this time (mid-nightish our time) hitting a big stick on the ground and blowing a whistle every ten seconds to scare off robbers. Crazy! He's doing it now! That's Neighborhood watch right there!
Tomorrow, we're expecting pretty big heat, so our ministry events will be aimed more towards the later parts of the day. We'll be heading out tomorrow afternoon for a new Church dedication in a village followed by some village outreach/ministry. We're also really excited because tomorrow, during our devotion time, David is going to be giving us a presentation on his mission work here in India, what he has done, what is going on and where his vision for this mission and ministry are. Can't wait for that!
We've made it over a week doing ministry now and we owe so much to you all for your diligently prayers. Today/Tonight, please pray:
1. For Christi's healing - and the overall health of the team
2. Travelling mercies for Gary Hanneken
3. Evangelistic opportunities tomorrow evening
4. Discernment from the Holy Spirit to see those who we can minister to here around the community.
Thank you guys so much. Talk to you tomorrow!
-Jeff
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Video links from last night
Hey everybody. This is Tim. Jeff is still exercising his practice of Beauty Rest. As we know, he needs much more of it than I do. This affords me the ability to hijack the blog momentarily as Jeff still races to finish his daily quotient of sleep.
In the previous entry, we shared about David and Jonathan leading us in worship and singing some of their favorite songs with the Spirit's leading. I want to share with you those times via YouTube.
Listen carefully to the words. Let God speak to you through the song. As Jeff shared, it may not be your favorite style of music, but the message and the spirit of the song transcends. Please enjoy:
May God bless you all as you continue to serve Him in your everyday lives. We look forward to being with you again and sharing in person all that God has done with us and through us. Not a day has gone by where we have not experienced a massive dose of God's glory here in Chennai.
-Tim
In the previous entry, we shared about David and Jonathan leading us in worship and singing some of their favorite songs with the Spirit's leading. I want to share with you those times via YouTube.
Listen carefully to the words. Let God speak to you through the song. As Jeff shared, it may not be your favorite style of music, but the message and the spirit of the song transcends. Please enjoy:
May God bless you all as you continue to serve Him in your everyday lives. We look forward to being with you again and sharing in person all that God has done with us and through us. Not a day has gone by where we have not experienced a massive dose of God's glory here in Chennai.
-Tim
The Godfather Sang
Oh man, I can't wait to explain the title of this entry. All in good time.
Well, yesterday I said that today was shaping up to be a huge day for us. Ends up, not terribly huge. But amazing. We had three items on our agenda (2 school programs and a village church dedication), but due to some fighting in the area, David felt that we should stay out of the area where the church dedication would be held. We were sad to have missed that opportunity, but again, God, in His provision, knew what we would experience today and what we would need.
We arrived at our first school today - the Jesse Moses School - which is a primarily all-girls Volleyball school. These girls are highly educated and so Father Abraham was a bit beneath them. Because of this, we had to change almost all of our music to more of a worship setting - but your INDIA 2010 Team killed it! We added some songs we hadn't done yet and Christi even had the opportunity (finally...after almost a week of waiting) to sing Thy Word as a solo and the team all joined in at the end. It was great. We had a great time at the school.
After some lunch at the world's most confusing mall, we headed out to our second appointment at the St. George's school nearby. Pretty much everything that the Jesse-Moses School was (orderly, reserved, well-behaved), St. George's school WASN'T. They were insane and hyper and it was awesome. The stage they had was actually the biggest one we've been on and the entire school surrounded the rectangular stage (almost like Theater in the Round...or, Rectangle). This was so much fun because the team got to spread out and lead songs to all the different sides. These kids were screaming, dancing - we had a ball. We did our usual routine (with a couple of adjustments) and it was so much fun. However, it was at 2:30 p.m. In INDIA. We learned a very important lesson today. When you dance and jump around during the massive heat of the day in India...your clothes will be soaking wet. Just to give some perspective, by the time we finished up our hour program, we had to wipe down the guitar I was playing because my sweat was dripping off of the guitar...I mean, it was literally soaked.
But in spite of all of this, your team made you proud. And just because the program was over, ministry didn't stop. John Kinsey went and ministered to about 20-30 older teen guys who surrounded him as he gave his testimony and shared what God had done in his life. Tim got together with a group of students and showed his illusion again. Christi sat on the steps, surrounded by kids, and gave the gospel presentation using her "Salvation Glove". When she was done, four children prayed to receive Christ. Amazing. Absolutely amazing ministry taking place even when everyone was so incredibly drained.
Then, a handful wanted some of the poisoned popsicles the kids had (made with the "no no" water). Fortunately, no one is sick from them. That's what you get for eating popsicles.
With the Church dedication being cancelled, the rest of the evening was free. As a result, we experienced what to me has been my favorite part of the trip to this point. We rested up and spent some time recharging, then around dinner time, everyone started convening downstairs and we got to spend the evening just hanging out with David. He gave us the long version of his testimony (which is absolutely incredible), we had dinner together, had our sharing time and then...The Godfather Sang.
Ok, you've been patient. Time for the explanation. Over the past week plus, we have noticed a trend wherever David Rajan goes. First, he's always the best dressed person everywhere. Second, no matter what the setting, he always has a chair that people get him. He's hardly ever on stage, and instead sits off to the side or in the back just watching everything going on. Yet, if you look around, you get the sense David runs everything, no matter where he goes. For instance, today, we were in a store buying some authentic, home-made shirts from India. We head to the cash register and David walks over, grabs the employee "swivel seat" and makes himself at home like he owns the place (which, in fact, he just might). So, because of this, he has earned the nickname "The Godfather", because we legitimately believe he is the "Godfather" of India. He's done nothing to downplay this distinction either, as evidenced by his posing for "Godfather" pictures while we were meeting with the Headmaster of St. George's (a time for seriousness). But what does David care? Who's the Headmaster to him when he's The Godfather? By the way, for any of you who only know David as the humble missionary servant of God who is responsible for planting 35+ churches in India, know this: David Rajan is one of the funniest people you'll ever meet - get him "at home" and he is off the charts hysterical.
So, after sharing time tonight, everyone pressures David to sing us a song or two. David grabs the guitar, handsome Indian heartthrob Johnathon grabs the other one, and they lead us in a few songs. But here's the thing I NEVER expected....David is well versed in the style of old-time country gospel. Yes, Country-Western gospel is David's style of choice. I will give you a minute to wrap your minds around this.
Ok, so, we're sitting around his living room as he performs a mini-concert for us singing old-time country gospel songs (my favorite: "On My Mother's Side") and it was my favorite moment of the trip and most likely will not lose that distinction to anything else that could possibly come up between now and the time we leave. First, David has an incredibly gorgeous voice. Second, the song itself was amazing (and I'm not a fan of the country-western - but this song moved me to tears). The "concert" went on for a few more worship songs but as it was getting late, we had to wind things down. But knowing that The Godfather was so talented and time with him is so much fun, I can't wait for the next concert. Fortunately, Tim grabbed a few of the songs on his phone and we are working on getting them uploaded onto YouTube. Links will be made available as soon as we get it up.
As far as tomorrow, things have had to change. Hey, like we've learned to say, "It's India". Ends up, the government has shut everything down from tomorrow through Friday. This means all of the events we had planned are kind of out the window. But every time God changed our plans by removing a scheduled event, He always had a reason - and we can't wait to see what it is. So, it looks like tomorrow will be a "Down Day". We have plans tomorrow to do some sightseeing with David, maybe a little shopping....and see where the Lord leads. Tomorrow night, we're planning on hearing from David all about the churches he's worked on and planted in India. It's going to be a great time of fellowship and celebration.
So, even though tomorrow is a "down day", we need your prayers:
1. For continued health of the team - please keep Lee Salley in your prayers as he turned his ankle pretty good heading down the stairs - it hasn't affected his ability to participate, but he sure is hurting.
2. For divine appointments/opportunities that we can't even begin to anticipate
3. Praising God for His work at the schools and the lives that were changed for Jesus.
Thanks guys. I'm going to go sign off now. Lee is snoring like...well, something that snores a lot...and Tim is about to go do something to punish him for continuing to keep us all from getting a goodnight's sleep. Gotta grab the camera phone....see ya tomorrow!
-Jeff
Well, yesterday I said that today was shaping up to be a huge day for us. Ends up, not terribly huge. But amazing. We had three items on our agenda (2 school programs and a village church dedication), but due to some fighting in the area, David felt that we should stay out of the area where the church dedication would be held. We were sad to have missed that opportunity, but again, God, in His provision, knew what we would experience today and what we would need.
We arrived at our first school today - the Jesse Moses School - which is a primarily all-girls Volleyball school. These girls are highly educated and so Father Abraham was a bit beneath them. Because of this, we had to change almost all of our music to more of a worship setting - but your INDIA 2010 Team killed it! We added some songs we hadn't done yet and Christi even had the opportunity (finally...after almost a week of waiting) to sing Thy Word as a solo and the team all joined in at the end. It was great. We had a great time at the school.
After some lunch at the world's most confusing mall, we headed out to our second appointment at the St. George's school nearby. Pretty much everything that the Jesse-Moses School was (orderly, reserved, well-behaved), St. George's school WASN'T. They were insane and hyper and it was awesome. The stage they had was actually the biggest one we've been on and the entire school surrounded the rectangular stage (almost like Theater in the Round...or, Rectangle). This was so much fun because the team got to spread out and lead songs to all the different sides. These kids were screaming, dancing - we had a ball. We did our usual routine (with a couple of adjustments) and it was so much fun. However, it was at 2:30 p.m. In INDIA. We learned a very important lesson today. When you dance and jump around during the massive heat of the day in India...your clothes will be soaking wet. Just to give some perspective, by the time we finished up our hour program, we had to wipe down the guitar I was playing because my sweat was dripping off of the guitar...I mean, it was literally soaked.
But in spite of all of this, your team made you proud. And just because the program was over, ministry didn't stop. John Kinsey went and ministered to about 20-30 older teen guys who surrounded him as he gave his testimony and shared what God had done in his life. Tim got together with a group of students and showed his illusion again. Christi sat on the steps, surrounded by kids, and gave the gospel presentation using her "Salvation Glove". When she was done, four children prayed to receive Christ. Amazing. Absolutely amazing ministry taking place even when everyone was so incredibly drained.
Then, a handful wanted some of the poisoned popsicles the kids had (made with the "no no" water). Fortunately, no one is sick from them. That's what you get for eating popsicles.
With the Church dedication being cancelled, the rest of the evening was free. As a result, we experienced what to me has been my favorite part of the trip to this point. We rested up and spent some time recharging, then around dinner time, everyone started convening downstairs and we got to spend the evening just hanging out with David. He gave us the long version of his testimony (which is absolutely incredible), we had dinner together, had our sharing time and then...The Godfather Sang.
Ok, you've been patient. Time for the explanation. Over the past week plus, we have noticed a trend wherever David Rajan goes. First, he's always the best dressed person everywhere. Second, no matter what the setting, he always has a chair that people get him. He's hardly ever on stage, and instead sits off to the side or in the back just watching everything going on. Yet, if you look around, you get the sense David runs everything, no matter where he goes. For instance, today, we were in a store buying some authentic, home-made shirts from India. We head to the cash register and David walks over, grabs the employee "swivel seat" and makes himself at home like he owns the place (which, in fact, he just might). So, because of this, he has earned the nickname "The Godfather", because we legitimately believe he is the "Godfather" of India. He's done nothing to downplay this distinction either, as evidenced by his posing for "Godfather" pictures while we were meeting with the Headmaster of St. George's (a time for seriousness). But what does David care? Who's the Headmaster to him when he's The Godfather? By the way, for any of you who only know David as the humble missionary servant of God who is responsible for planting 35+ churches in India, know this: David Rajan is one of the funniest people you'll ever meet - get him "at home" and he is off the charts hysterical.
So, after sharing time tonight, everyone pressures David to sing us a song or two. David grabs the guitar, handsome Indian heartthrob Johnathon grabs the other one, and they lead us in a few songs. But here's the thing I NEVER expected....David is well versed in the style of old-time country gospel. Yes, Country-Western gospel is David's style of choice. I will give you a minute to wrap your minds around this.
Ok, so, we're sitting around his living room as he performs a mini-concert for us singing old-time country gospel songs (my favorite: "On My Mother's Side") and it was my favorite moment of the trip and most likely will not lose that distinction to anything else that could possibly come up between now and the time we leave. First, David has an incredibly gorgeous voice. Second, the song itself was amazing (and I'm not a fan of the country-western - but this song moved me to tears). The "concert" went on for a few more worship songs but as it was getting late, we had to wind things down. But knowing that The Godfather was so talented and time with him is so much fun, I can't wait for the next concert. Fortunately, Tim grabbed a few of the songs on his phone and we are working on getting them uploaded onto YouTube. Links will be made available as soon as we get it up.
As far as tomorrow, things have had to change. Hey, like we've learned to say, "It's India". Ends up, the government has shut everything down from tomorrow through Friday. This means all of the events we had planned are kind of out the window. But every time God changed our plans by removing a scheduled event, He always had a reason - and we can't wait to see what it is. So, it looks like tomorrow will be a "Down Day". We have plans tomorrow to do some sightseeing with David, maybe a little shopping....and see where the Lord leads. Tomorrow night, we're planning on hearing from David all about the churches he's worked on and planted in India. It's going to be a great time of fellowship and celebration.
So, even though tomorrow is a "down day", we need your prayers:
1. For continued health of the team - please keep Lee Salley in your prayers as he turned his ankle pretty good heading down the stairs - it hasn't affected his ability to participate, but he sure is hurting.
2. For divine appointments/opportunities that we can't even begin to anticipate
3. Praising God for His work at the schools and the lives that were changed for Jesus.
Thanks guys. I'm going to go sign off now. Lee is snoring like...well, something that snores a lot...and Tim is about to go do something to punish him for continuing to keep us all from getting a goodnight's sleep. Gotta grab the camera phone....see ya tomorrow!
-Jeff
Monday, June 21, 2010
Power? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Power
Hello dear readers, followers, prayer-warriors and friends of friends just checking us out,
On paper, today would've been considered a "light" day and while the ratio of minutes off to minutes on seemed to be leaning towards "minutes off", today was extraordinarily eventful. We began the day at another school (the Spartan school) - and this one was amazing. We led a program for over 1500 students, all ages/grades, and it was so much fun. This was an English speaking school and we were able to lead and have them join with us in all of our singing. We did the Daniel skit again, (classic...we're ready to take it on the road. Wait...), John gave the message, Tim did his illusion (I'm telling you folks, it's the Christian equivalent of sawing a woman in half - he really does a fantastic job with it and the kids are awed every time) and this school had a band! Like, a real rock band. Guitars, drums, bass...I felt pretty inadequate getting up there with a single acoustic guitar, but halfway through Father Abraham, I hear a low, rhythmic rumbling sound. I look over and there is Johnathon slamming away on bass.
I should probably take a second and introduce Johnathon since none of you know who he is and he's been David's right-hand man in this whole mission. David has known Johnathon since he was a boy (John, that is - Johnathon is 33), Indian, speaks great English, a brilliant musician/singer and is up on all the worship songs, old and new. He's like me, only Indian. With talent. And better hair. The team loves him and we can't wait to get him over to the states. I personally have become a huge fan of him and we've really had a ball worshiping together. But I digress.
So, Johnathon jumps in and we start rocking Father Abraham. Father Abraham has never rocked so hard. Then, this 4 year old prodigy (ok, maybe he was 10-12) jumps on the drums and starts banging out some rock licks. It wasn't The 8:30 Band, but man, it was so much fun. The team has really gotten great at these things. Pros.
After the program at the school, we headed out for a little break - grabbed an early morning dessert (yes, it is worth it to fly all the way to India for Black Forest cake) and swung by a grocery store for "lots of things" (that's the polite way of saying we bought up all of the toilet paper in the store). We also picked up the Indian version of the Moon-Pie. Tastes just like ours. All ten of them. We checked. Then it was back to David's condo for some lunch and some rest.
The rest time really was by God's provision. Tomorrow is shaping up to be a huge day, so we had a few hours off to nap/rest, thinking it would be helpful for the events of tomorrow. However, we found out, in God's perfect plan, that the rest we got today...we needed for today.
We spent the evening at a new church dedication and we actually arrived early (who knew it was possible to do this in India?) so we headed out to a street corner to drum up attention by taking the guitar and just singing some songs together. We pulled together a huge group, it was blessed. But here was the problem, it was hot and humid - really draining on the team. We are kind of used to this at this point, but the difference was the issue of water. Here in India, you can't drink anything but bottled water if you're not from here. David so graciously picked us up 100+ HUGE bottles of water. He did not realize, however, that Americans are greedy camels who will drink 3-4 bottles a day. Needless to say, we depleted that stock without much effort. So, David ordered some to be delivered yesterday. They were not delivered yesterday. In fact, they were not delivered until this evening - AFTER we had left for the night. So, we had about 2-3 bottles of water to share amongst the group. This ended up resulting in a few of the ladies getting pretty ill on the way home. Heat exhaustion/dehydration = no fun. Fortunately, they seem to be feeling a little better and we're hoping a good night's sleep will revive them. Please keep Katie and Christi in your prayers tonight.
While the conditions were a little rough, it was an awesome evening. We helped dedicate the new church space and then participated in their worship. It is always a beautiful thing to worship with our brothers and sisters, even across the language barriers. Just like Heaven. Pastor Shuresh (he was the pastor who we introduced yesterday on the Skype feed at church) got up to preach and, we may not speak a lick of Tamil, but homeboy can really preach. It's amazing how God works though...first, there were sound issues - and the Lord was good and Shuresh kept preaching through it until it was fixed. Then, as is normal in India, the power goes out. Completely. What's remarkable is that the lights go out, the sound shuts off and without missing a beat, Pastor Shuresh just keeps continuing on. And I am 100% convinced that his voice actually got louder AFTER the power went out. It was amazing. It just goes to show how all of the trappings of "Church", when they're taken away, God's Word still goes out, convicts and changes lives. It was awesome to be witness to that.
While we had plenty of experiences tonight, not all of them were great...or even good. This last experience should give you insight into the area, culture and persecution that the India Church faces. As Katie Salley was walking back to the van, two girls came up and grabbed her hands to walk with her. All of the sudden, another woman comes and attacks one of the girls, punching her in the head and face. Katie tried to intervene and the pastor's wife had to come over to deal with the issue. Turns out, the woman who attacked was the victim's mother. She was mad that her daughter 1) danced to Father Abraham and 2) was holding hands with a white woman. I don't think I included this in yesterday's blog (an oversight), but yesterday, we also witnessed some persecution. After worship on Sunday, a Muslim man was hanging outside the church walls, leaning over and trying to get us to talk to him. David indicated to us that this guy was a habitual trouble maker for the church (vandalism, harassment) and that, when the time came to leave, we needed to do so quickly. Our bus driver pulled up close to the wall, just enough to open the door so we could get in. Lee was our frontline and stood between the door and the wall to block the man who was trying to enter our van. Once we were all on, the man would not let go of the door and kept insisting that he get on. The Lord was good to us and we were able to get out of that situation, but our hearts have been breaking over the fact that, while we were able to get out of that situation, that type of persecution is a daily reality for the Christians in India. No pun at all intended, but this is completely foreign to us as Americans. We have zero idea what persecution really is. Which leads me to the prayer requests, which may be a little different tonight:
1. Please offer a praise to God for the arrival of the water. This may seem small, but we are so dependent upon this.
2. Please ask God for healing and strength for the team. Each day, the exhaustion increases.
3. Please ask God to bless the three events of tomorrow (2 school programs and a church dedication)
4. Please pray for the persecuted Church in India.
5. Please pray for the girl who was beat up by her mother that she would find healing and peace.
6. Please pray for her mother that she would receive conviction and accept Christ.
I'm sorry to end tonight's blog on a bit of a downer, but that was the reality of what's going on here in India. But we know that God is still good and that He is able to do incredible, incredible things. Thanks again for your support and your prayers. We feel them. Don't let up.
-Jeff
On paper, today would've been considered a "light" day and while the ratio of minutes off to minutes on seemed to be leaning towards "minutes off", today was extraordinarily eventful. We began the day at another school (the Spartan school) - and this one was amazing. We led a program for over 1500 students, all ages/grades, and it was so much fun. This was an English speaking school and we were able to lead and have them join with us in all of our singing. We did the Daniel skit again, (classic...we're ready to take it on the road. Wait...), John gave the message, Tim did his illusion (I'm telling you folks, it's the Christian equivalent of sawing a woman in half - he really does a fantastic job with it and the kids are awed every time) and this school had a band! Like, a real rock band. Guitars, drums, bass...I felt pretty inadequate getting up there with a single acoustic guitar, but halfway through Father Abraham, I hear a low, rhythmic rumbling sound. I look over and there is Johnathon slamming away on bass.
I should probably take a second and introduce Johnathon since none of you know who he is and he's been David's right-hand man in this whole mission. David has known Johnathon since he was a boy (John, that is - Johnathon is 33), Indian, speaks great English, a brilliant musician/singer and is up on all the worship songs, old and new. He's like me, only Indian. With talent. And better hair. The team loves him and we can't wait to get him over to the states. I personally have become a huge fan of him and we've really had a ball worshiping together. But I digress.
So, Johnathon jumps in and we start rocking Father Abraham. Father Abraham has never rocked so hard. Then, this 4 year old prodigy (ok, maybe he was 10-12) jumps on the drums and starts banging out some rock licks. It wasn't The 8:30 Band, but man, it was so much fun. The team has really gotten great at these things. Pros.
After the program at the school, we headed out for a little break - grabbed an early morning dessert (yes, it is worth it to fly all the way to India for Black Forest cake) and swung by a grocery store for "lots of things" (that's the polite way of saying we bought up all of the toilet paper in the store). We also picked up the Indian version of the Moon-Pie. Tastes just like ours. All ten of them. We checked. Then it was back to David's condo for some lunch and some rest.
The rest time really was by God's provision. Tomorrow is shaping up to be a huge day, so we had a few hours off to nap/rest, thinking it would be helpful for the events of tomorrow. However, we found out, in God's perfect plan, that the rest we got today...we needed for today.
We spent the evening at a new church dedication and we actually arrived early (who knew it was possible to do this in India?) so we headed out to a street corner to drum up attention by taking the guitar and just singing some songs together. We pulled together a huge group, it was blessed. But here was the problem, it was hot and humid - really draining on the team. We are kind of used to this at this point, but the difference was the issue of water. Here in India, you can't drink anything but bottled water if you're not from here. David so graciously picked us up 100+ HUGE bottles of water. He did not realize, however, that Americans are greedy camels who will drink 3-4 bottles a day. Needless to say, we depleted that stock without much effort. So, David ordered some to be delivered yesterday. They were not delivered yesterday. In fact, they were not delivered until this evening - AFTER we had left for the night. So, we had about 2-3 bottles of water to share amongst the group. This ended up resulting in a few of the ladies getting pretty ill on the way home. Heat exhaustion/dehydration = no fun. Fortunately, they seem to be feeling a little better and we're hoping a good night's sleep will revive them. Please keep Katie and Christi in your prayers tonight.
While the conditions were a little rough, it was an awesome evening. We helped dedicate the new church space and then participated in their worship. It is always a beautiful thing to worship with our brothers and sisters, even across the language barriers. Just like Heaven. Pastor Shuresh (he was the pastor who we introduced yesterday on the Skype feed at church) got up to preach and, we may not speak a lick of Tamil, but homeboy can really preach. It's amazing how God works though...first, there were sound issues - and the Lord was good and Shuresh kept preaching through it until it was fixed. Then, as is normal in India, the power goes out. Completely. What's remarkable is that the lights go out, the sound shuts off and without missing a beat, Pastor Shuresh just keeps continuing on. And I am 100% convinced that his voice actually got louder AFTER the power went out. It was amazing. It just goes to show how all of the trappings of "Church", when they're taken away, God's Word still goes out, convicts and changes lives. It was awesome to be witness to that.
While we had plenty of experiences tonight, not all of them were great...or even good. This last experience should give you insight into the area, culture and persecution that the India Church faces. As Katie Salley was walking back to the van, two girls came up and grabbed her hands to walk with her. All of the sudden, another woman comes and attacks one of the girls, punching her in the head and face. Katie tried to intervene and the pastor's wife had to come over to deal with the issue. Turns out, the woman who attacked was the victim's mother. She was mad that her daughter 1) danced to Father Abraham and 2) was holding hands with a white woman. I don't think I included this in yesterday's blog (an oversight), but yesterday, we also witnessed some persecution. After worship on Sunday, a Muslim man was hanging outside the church walls, leaning over and trying to get us to talk to him. David indicated to us that this guy was a habitual trouble maker for the church (vandalism, harassment) and that, when the time came to leave, we needed to do so quickly. Our bus driver pulled up close to the wall, just enough to open the door so we could get in. Lee was our frontline and stood between the door and the wall to block the man who was trying to enter our van. Once we were all on, the man would not let go of the door and kept insisting that he get on. The Lord was good to us and we were able to get out of that situation, but our hearts have been breaking over the fact that, while we were able to get out of that situation, that type of persecution is a daily reality for the Christians in India. No pun at all intended, but this is completely foreign to us as Americans. We have zero idea what persecution really is. Which leads me to the prayer requests, which may be a little different tonight:
1. Please offer a praise to God for the arrival of the water. This may seem small, but we are so dependent upon this.
2. Please ask God for healing and strength for the team. Each day, the exhaustion increases.
3. Please ask God to bless the three events of tomorrow (2 school programs and a church dedication)
4. Please pray for the persecuted Church in India.
5. Please pray for the girl who was beat up by her mother that she would find healing and peace.
6. Please pray for her mother that she would receive conviction and accept Christ.
I'm sorry to end tonight's blog on a bit of a downer, but that was the reality of what's going on here in India. But we know that God is still good and that He is able to do incredible, incredible things. Thanks again for your support and your prayers. We feel them. Don't let up.
-Jeff
Sunday, June 20, 2010
It's Been One Week Since You Looked At Me
Hey Gang-
So, if you were fortunate enough to be in the 11 a.m. service today, you know that you got a surprise visit from...YOUR INDIA 2010 TEAM...courtesy of Skype. Isn't technology wonderful (except when it will eventually become smarter than us and take over the world)? We are now at the halfway point - one week down, one more week to go. Today was a beautiful day of worship. And God's provision was all around us. First, while technology is indeed wonderful, the ladies have not yet mastered the skills necessary to work an alarm clock. Our "call time" (time that is set for the team to get together first thing for devotions) was 8:15. Due to "faulty alarm clocks" (wink wink) the ladies didn't rouse from their slumber until 8 a.m. (men, on the other hand, up at 6:30) - however, David told us that due to some unforeseen circumstances, our departure time was pushed back an hour - score one for God.
I know that I tend towards the dramatic/embellishments, but I'm not sure how to more clearly communicate he fact that nothing in India...and I mean, NOTHING...goes according to plan. But the spontaneity and the skill of flexibility have produced some of the most meaningful times on our trip. As I've noted previously, Sandra has been feeling pretty ill. We felt that seeing a doctor might be a good idea, but we didn't want to wait until the afternoon to have her see a doctor. So, with 5 minutes to go before departure, David takes Sandra to the doctor a few blocks away. It is amazing how God works this out. First, to His glory, Sandra is feeling much better and has been able to participate in the events again - thank you for your prayers for her healing. Then, as we all sat around basically missing our worship service, the remaining team members broke out into a spontaneous time of worship that lasted the entire time we were waiting - it was beautiful and holy and just what the team needed.
David and Sandra returned and we were all able to head out to the worship service in a village church. We arrived towards the end and were able to lead the church in some songs, skits, prayer and scripture. While we missed participating in the full time of worship, it was a blessing from God that all of it worked out the way it did. It was extraordinarily hot in the church and a few team members had some moments that caused concern in terms of really feeling pretty ill. So, while we were able to participate, we also made it through together and were able to experience our own time of worship. God is so good.
In our sharing time tonight, we all recounted what we witnessed at that church. First, the church had no A/C. Now, I know Faith was without A/C for one Sunday. Now, imagine being without A/C in India. In the middle of the day. In June. Every. Single. Week. And here's the kicker...we got there for the last hour and almost had some heat strokes (no exaggeration) - yet these believers had been there for 3.5 hours worshiping in that church BEFORE we ever showed up. And they sang and danced and praised as if they were just getting started. It was so beautiful and humbling. Seeing these things have really given a new perspective to some of the way we "do Church". This has been a very eye-opening trip - not just to what God is doing on mission in India, but what God is doing in the lives of His Church through the Holy Spirit in India. Our lives are being changed whether we like it or not. But, we like it. It's incredible.
Our night ended at a vegetarian restaurant - that's right, vegetarian, as in...not even chicken. But...it was absolutely amazing food and hands down the COLDEST building in Chennai currently open for business. It was like a meat locker, which is ironic considering the fact that it was vegetarian - but man, did it feel amazing. AMAZING. And then, to close out, we got to spend a few minutes Skyping with our church family. What a blessing it was to share with you guys for a few minutes and touch base with you. We know you love us - we love you guys so much and can't wait to be back with you.
Tomorrow, we have an early day again - heading out by 8 a.m. to go do a school program for an English speaking school and then we will be participating in the evening in one of the four New Church Dedications we will be involved in this week - we are so excited about this. Please keep us in your prayers for:
1. The arrival of the 11 cases of water (this may sound trivial, but we are completely out of bottled water and today's delivery has not shown up yet - this is a huge request and we covet your prayers on this)
2. Opportunities for Evangelistic conversations
3. Help processing all of the lessons we're learning and how we can bring home all that we are learning and seeing and applying it to our lives
4. Health for the team - more and more of the team members are having some health issues - nothing serious, but the heat is really starting to take its toll.
Thank you guys, again, so much for your encouragement as we journey together through this. But, I would just like to clarify, for those who attended the 11 a.m. worship...Pops said that I called him at 7 a.m. to talk about Skype and that I did not wish him a Happy Father's Day. For the record, I called him on the 20th - OUR CHENNAI 20th to wish him a Happy Father's Day and I told him I loved him in front of the whole team. It was sick. So, I did indeed wish him a Happy Father's Day. However, I'm taking it back for throwing me under the bus like that.
Love you guys,
-Jeff
So, if you were fortunate enough to be in the 11 a.m. service today, you know that you got a surprise visit from...YOUR INDIA 2010 TEAM...courtesy of Skype. Isn't technology wonderful (except when it will eventually become smarter than us and take over the world)? We are now at the halfway point - one week down, one more week to go. Today was a beautiful day of worship. And God's provision was all around us. First, while technology is indeed wonderful, the ladies have not yet mastered the skills necessary to work an alarm clock. Our "call time" (time that is set for the team to get together first thing for devotions) was 8:15. Due to "faulty alarm clocks" (wink wink) the ladies didn't rouse from their slumber until 8 a.m. (men, on the other hand, up at 6:30) - however, David told us that due to some unforeseen circumstances, our departure time was pushed back an hour - score one for God.
I know that I tend towards the dramatic/embellishments, but I'm not sure how to more clearly communicate he fact that nothing in India...and I mean, NOTHING...goes according to plan. But the spontaneity and the skill of flexibility have produced some of the most meaningful times on our trip. As I've noted previously, Sandra has been feeling pretty ill. We felt that seeing a doctor might be a good idea, but we didn't want to wait until the afternoon to have her see a doctor. So, with 5 minutes to go before departure, David takes Sandra to the doctor a few blocks away. It is amazing how God works this out. First, to His glory, Sandra is feeling much better and has been able to participate in the events again - thank you for your prayers for her healing. Then, as we all sat around basically missing our worship service, the remaining team members broke out into a spontaneous time of worship that lasted the entire time we were waiting - it was beautiful and holy and just what the team needed.
David and Sandra returned and we were all able to head out to the worship service in a village church. We arrived towards the end and were able to lead the church in some songs, skits, prayer and scripture. While we missed participating in the full time of worship, it was a blessing from God that all of it worked out the way it did. It was extraordinarily hot in the church and a few team members had some moments that caused concern in terms of really feeling pretty ill. So, while we were able to participate, we also made it through together and were able to experience our own time of worship. God is so good.
In our sharing time tonight, we all recounted what we witnessed at that church. First, the church had no A/C. Now, I know Faith was without A/C for one Sunday. Now, imagine being without A/C in India. In the middle of the day. In June. Every. Single. Week. And here's the kicker...we got there for the last hour and almost had some heat strokes (no exaggeration) - yet these believers had been there for 3.5 hours worshiping in that church BEFORE we ever showed up. And they sang and danced and praised as if they were just getting started. It was so beautiful and humbling. Seeing these things have really given a new perspective to some of the way we "do Church". This has been a very eye-opening trip - not just to what God is doing on mission in India, but what God is doing in the lives of His Church through the Holy Spirit in India. Our lives are being changed whether we like it or not. But, we like it. It's incredible.
Our night ended at a vegetarian restaurant - that's right, vegetarian, as in...not even chicken. But...it was absolutely amazing food and hands down the COLDEST building in Chennai currently open for business. It was like a meat locker, which is ironic considering the fact that it was vegetarian - but man, did it feel amazing. AMAZING. And then, to close out, we got to spend a few minutes Skyping with our church family. What a blessing it was to share with you guys for a few minutes and touch base with you. We know you love us - we love you guys so much and can't wait to be back with you.
Tomorrow, we have an early day again - heading out by 8 a.m. to go do a school program for an English speaking school and then we will be participating in the evening in one of the four New Church Dedications we will be involved in this week - we are so excited about this. Please keep us in your prayers for:
1. The arrival of the 11 cases of water (this may sound trivial, but we are completely out of bottled water and today's delivery has not shown up yet - this is a huge request and we covet your prayers on this)
2. Opportunities for Evangelistic conversations
3. Help processing all of the lessons we're learning and how we can bring home all that we are learning and seeing and applying it to our lives
4. Health for the team - more and more of the team members are having some health issues - nothing serious, but the heat is really starting to take its toll.
Thank you guys, again, so much for your encouragement as we journey together through this. But, I would just like to clarify, for those who attended the 11 a.m. worship...Pops said that I called him at 7 a.m. to talk about Skype and that I did not wish him a Happy Father's Day. For the record, I called him on the 20th - OUR CHENNAI 20th to wish him a Happy Father's Day and I told him I loved him in front of the whole team. It was sick. So, I did indeed wish him a Happy Father's Day. However, I'm taking it back for throwing me under the bus like that.
Love you guys,
-Jeff
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Riddle of the Day: What does a briarpatch, toilet frogs, and the "No kissing..." slogan have in common?
Answer: They all have something to do with Betty Jo's India bathroom adventures....
....and there is no way I'm about to explain that here. You'll have to ask her personally. It will be very rewarding, I promise.
....and there is no way I'm about to explain that here. You'll have to ask her personally. It will be very rewarding, I promise.
Current Indian Nephew Count: 100
Greetings from the most exhausting day thus far on the trip - and will definitely be in the running at the end of the week for Overall Most Exhausting Day. However, apparently, on mission in India, their is a direct correlation between exhaustion and exhilaration. Today was amazing. Absolutely the best time ever.
Today we had only one event - one 12-hour event (including travel...which was an "event"). We had the awesome opportunity to go out to David's Mission Center/School - a 2-hour drive (left at 8:30) way out in a remote village. Upon arrival, we were met at the gate by all of the students, former students, parents, teachers and pastors who were lined up with roses for each of us. As we made our way down the line, we were so touched by the hospitality of the people of India. As Americans, we have a whole lot to learn - I mean...a WHOLE lot. We prayed outside together and raised the Christian flag up the pole and then moved into the absolutely beautiful Mission Center for a time of worship and celebration. They sang and danced for us and then we sang and did "hand motions" (ie: Baptist dancing) and some of our skits. Tim did his illusion again (I'm telling you, he loves this illusion and really wants to do it for you, so please ask) and I'm starting to figure out how he does it. The kids certainly love it. One of the best things that happened today...David asked us, on the fly, to present the "Evangecube" to the whole group. I have mentioned the Evangecube before, but it has occurred to me you may not know what this is. The Evangecube is one of the coolest, easiest and most engaging ways of presenting the Gospel message - it's a literal cube that folds out into 7 "panels", each one depicting an element of the Gospel (Our separation from God, God's judgment, Jesus' payment on the Cross, His resurrection, His bridging the gap between us and God, the promise of Heaven/eternal life and what we must do as we accept Christ to be our Savior). It's a beautiful picture. Just so happens, we put together the "Big Cube" yesterday and brought it along today. So, when David asked, I looked at the team and said, "Anyone want to take this?" Katie Salley jumped up, grabbed the 'Cube and headed to the front and presented the Gospel message (which was translated by Pastor Yaman into Tamil) to the entire group. It was awesome.
The program was followed by lunch (again, incredible) and then we had "free time" to just hang out with the kids, which was one of the best experiences on the trip. We all took off, found some kids and then just ministered. We've come to realize that one of our primary ministries here in India is the encouragement of our Brothers and Sisters in Christ here - and at the same time, we always feel that we come away far more blessed than any blessing we passed on. But that doesn't mean we haven't had the opportunity for evangelism. Today, during the free session, Sandra had the opportunity to use the Big 'Cube to share Christ with two men. They were not at a place of making a decision, but she was faithful in presenting the Gospel and it was a beautiful thing. In the meantime, after we played a rousing game of "Chicken Chicken Goat" (= "Duck Duck Goose" in India...at least, it does now) in which every conceivable "DDG" or "CCG" rule was broken, we spent time making balloon animals (interestingly, most requested item: a Cross), sharing the Gospel with the regular size Kid 'Cubes and making Salvation bracelets. Today, the Gospel of Christ was presented at least 2-3 times per person and His love was communicated through fellowship and encouragement.
An interesting story I just have to share: when I went out for free time, a handful of the older teen boys got around me and started stabbing me with their balloon swords and asking me if I watch WWF on TV and screaming "JOHN CENA! JOHN CENA" (Professional wrestler/terrible actor). Totally honest...I thought I was going to get beat up. But then one of the boys saw my tattoo and asked what it meant. I said, "Worshipper". So beautiful...they all started repeating "Worshipper...worshipper" (they spoke about 5% English, if that). Then one of the boys stepped forward, took a pen from his brother, and proceeded to take my left hand and in extremely artistic block letters - and in absolutely perfect English lettering wrote, "JESUS" and then drew an artistic cross through the center of it. It was absolutely beautiful. I went to show off what Ya. Ms. B. did (that's what he told me to call him because apparently I would get his full name wrong...so, we stuck to initials). Everyone I took him to, he repeated the beautiful act. So amazing how God works through and across the cultural differences - Jesus transcends everything.
It is impossible to communicate all our team has been experiencing and processing these days. We have seen Christians in utter poverty shouting for joy because of God's provision - yet their worship seems so much more passionate than ours and we have the benefits of excessive blessings. We have been humbled by the hospitality and the sheer desire to serve our every need. Just walking to the car today, the boys ripped our gear out of our hands to carry it for us - even though the car was 10 feet away. To be honest, it's really been tough to process what we're to do with this new appreciation and awareness of the blessings of God. We talked tonight in our sharing time how the people of India really prioritize passion over perfection - they don't care how they sound, all they care about is how passionately (and how loudly) they can sing it. Yet, so often, as American Christians, we focus on getting everything exactly right - everything has to look and sound perfect...but perfection doesn't mask the absence of passion. I'm starting to ramble (and I think you can make the connection), but our passions are being stirred here and we wish you could all be with us to experience this - though, we might have to rent another bus if you were ALL to be here with us, but we would certainly love that.
Tomorrow seems like it should be a bit more restful - I say "seems" because, while that is the plan, we have learned that in India, there are no such things as concrete plans. There are reasonable ideas of what can happen and what will happen and you just have to learn to improvise and think on your feet. But, even that has been a blessing as our most spontaneous moments have been the best memories so far. However, the only thing on the books is worship with a village church tomorrow. We will be out there for a few hours sharing in their worship time and then once they have finished, we will do about a 45 minute program (music/skits). I do think David has kept our evening clear tomorrow so we can have a special Father's Day dinner. David has really been the absolute greatest, most generous host and we're so thankful for him. Speaking of Father's Day...ignoring the fact that most of the team are not fathers, we all love our families very much and the whole team misses you guys.
Thank you for your prayers. We have felt them and see them at work all around us. We have been in the middle of India, in the middle of the day, and the weather has not only been bearable, it has been beautiful. A few weeks ago, record heat. But this week, so far, God has been generous with the good weather. Thank you for your faithful prayers. Please continue to be in prayer for:
1. Holy energy for the team (exhaustion mixed with the heat is hitting us hard)
2. A great day of worship and rest tomorrow
3. More opportunities to share the Gospel of Christ
4. The men who were witnessed to today, that God would convict them of their need for Him
Also, please be in prayer specifically for Sandra Kelley. She has now been running a fever for 3 days and while she doesn't seem to think more attention beyond rest is required, she has spoken to someone in the medical field regarding the possibility of getting evaluated. Please, please, please pray for her healing that God would work a miracle and make it so no other attention is needed and that she would be able to participate in the work of the Lord. She has proven to be a vital member of the team and her heart for evangelism is so encouraging. Also, thanks for your prayers regarding my voice. I'm still really hoarse (can't talk much about a whisper), but I can feel it improving - please lift that up as well. Thank you so much.
In our sharing time tonight, please know that we discussed that you all are in our thoughts and prayers as you prepare to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even though we'll be doing it about 9.5 hours ahead of you, halfway across the world, know that we are worshiping alongside you. God bless you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.
-Jeff
P.S. Upon completion of this blog, I realized I never explained the title of this blog. Apparently, in India, once children feel comfortable with you, they start referring to you as "Uncle" (which is convenient for them as they then don't have to learn your names...we don't have that luxury). So, now, my current Indian Nephew count is up to 100. We'll keep a tally throughout the week.
-Uncle Jeff
Today we had only one event - one 12-hour event (including travel...which was an "event"). We had the awesome opportunity to go out to David's Mission Center/School - a 2-hour drive (left at 8:30) way out in a remote village. Upon arrival, we were met at the gate by all of the students, former students, parents, teachers and pastors who were lined up with roses for each of us. As we made our way down the line, we were so touched by the hospitality of the people of India. As Americans, we have a whole lot to learn - I mean...a WHOLE lot. We prayed outside together and raised the Christian flag up the pole and then moved into the absolutely beautiful Mission Center for a time of worship and celebration. They sang and danced for us and then we sang and did "hand motions" (ie: Baptist dancing) and some of our skits. Tim did his illusion again (I'm telling you, he loves this illusion and really wants to do it for you, so please ask) and I'm starting to figure out how he does it. The kids certainly love it. One of the best things that happened today...David asked us, on the fly, to present the "Evangecube" to the whole group. I have mentioned the Evangecube before, but it has occurred to me you may not know what this is. The Evangecube is one of the coolest, easiest and most engaging ways of presenting the Gospel message - it's a literal cube that folds out into 7 "panels", each one depicting an element of the Gospel (Our separation from God, God's judgment, Jesus' payment on the Cross, His resurrection, His bridging the gap between us and God, the promise of Heaven/eternal life and what we must do as we accept Christ to be our Savior). It's a beautiful picture. Just so happens, we put together the "Big Cube" yesterday and brought it along today. So, when David asked, I looked at the team and said, "Anyone want to take this?" Katie Salley jumped up, grabbed the 'Cube and headed to the front and presented the Gospel message (which was translated by Pastor Yaman into Tamil) to the entire group. It was awesome.
The program was followed by lunch (again, incredible) and then we had "free time" to just hang out with the kids, which was one of the best experiences on the trip. We all took off, found some kids and then just ministered. We've come to realize that one of our primary ministries here in India is the encouragement of our Brothers and Sisters in Christ here - and at the same time, we always feel that we come away far more blessed than any blessing we passed on. But that doesn't mean we haven't had the opportunity for evangelism. Today, during the free session, Sandra had the opportunity to use the Big 'Cube to share Christ with two men. They were not at a place of making a decision, but she was faithful in presenting the Gospel and it was a beautiful thing. In the meantime, after we played a rousing game of "Chicken Chicken Goat" (= "Duck Duck Goose" in India...at least, it does now) in which every conceivable "DDG" or "CCG" rule was broken, we spent time making balloon animals (interestingly, most requested item: a Cross), sharing the Gospel with the regular size Kid 'Cubes and making Salvation bracelets. Today, the Gospel of Christ was presented at least 2-3 times per person and His love was communicated through fellowship and encouragement.
An interesting story I just have to share: when I went out for free time, a handful of the older teen boys got around me and started stabbing me with their balloon swords and asking me if I watch WWF on TV and screaming "JOHN CENA! JOHN CENA" (Professional wrestler/terrible actor). Totally honest...I thought I was going to get beat up. But then one of the boys saw my tattoo and asked what it meant. I said, "Worshipper". So beautiful...they all started repeating "Worshipper...worshipper" (they spoke about 5% English, if that). Then one of the boys stepped forward, took a pen from his brother, and proceeded to take my left hand and in extremely artistic block letters - and in absolutely perfect English lettering wrote, "JESUS" and then drew an artistic cross through the center of it. It was absolutely beautiful. I went to show off what Ya. Ms. B. did (that's what he told me to call him because apparently I would get his full name wrong...so, we stuck to initials). Everyone I took him to, he repeated the beautiful act. So amazing how God works through and across the cultural differences - Jesus transcends everything.
It is impossible to communicate all our team has been experiencing and processing these days. We have seen Christians in utter poverty shouting for joy because of God's provision - yet their worship seems so much more passionate than ours and we have the benefits of excessive blessings. We have been humbled by the hospitality and the sheer desire to serve our every need. Just walking to the car today, the boys ripped our gear out of our hands to carry it for us - even though the car was 10 feet away. To be honest, it's really been tough to process what we're to do with this new appreciation and awareness of the blessings of God. We talked tonight in our sharing time how the people of India really prioritize passion over perfection - they don't care how they sound, all they care about is how passionately (and how loudly) they can sing it. Yet, so often, as American Christians, we focus on getting everything exactly right - everything has to look and sound perfect...but perfection doesn't mask the absence of passion. I'm starting to ramble (and I think you can make the connection), but our passions are being stirred here and we wish you could all be with us to experience this - though, we might have to rent another bus if you were ALL to be here with us, but we would certainly love that.
Tomorrow seems like it should be a bit more restful - I say "seems" because, while that is the plan, we have learned that in India, there are no such things as concrete plans. There are reasonable ideas of what can happen and what will happen and you just have to learn to improvise and think on your feet. But, even that has been a blessing as our most spontaneous moments have been the best memories so far. However, the only thing on the books is worship with a village church tomorrow. We will be out there for a few hours sharing in their worship time and then once they have finished, we will do about a 45 minute program (music/skits). I do think David has kept our evening clear tomorrow so we can have a special Father's Day dinner. David has really been the absolute greatest, most generous host and we're so thankful for him. Speaking of Father's Day...ignoring the fact that most of the team are not fathers, we all love our families very much and the whole team misses you guys.
Thank you for your prayers. We have felt them and see them at work all around us. We have been in the middle of India, in the middle of the day, and the weather has not only been bearable, it has been beautiful. A few weeks ago, record heat. But this week, so far, God has been generous with the good weather. Thank you for your faithful prayers. Please continue to be in prayer for:
1. Holy energy for the team (exhaustion mixed with the heat is hitting us hard)
2. A great day of worship and rest tomorrow
3. More opportunities to share the Gospel of Christ
4. The men who were witnessed to today, that God would convict them of their need for Him
Also, please be in prayer specifically for Sandra Kelley. She has now been running a fever for 3 days and while she doesn't seem to think more attention beyond rest is required, she has spoken to someone in the medical field regarding the possibility of getting evaluated. Please, please, please pray for her healing that God would work a miracle and make it so no other attention is needed and that she would be able to participate in the work of the Lord. She has proven to be a vital member of the team and her heart for evangelism is so encouraging. Also, thanks for your prayers regarding my voice. I'm still really hoarse (can't talk much about a whisper), but I can feel it improving - please lift that up as well. Thank you so much.
In our sharing time tonight, please know that we discussed that you all are in our thoughts and prayers as you prepare to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even though we'll be doing it about 9.5 hours ahead of you, halfway across the world, know that we are worshiping alongside you. God bless you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.
-Jeff
P.S. Upon completion of this blog, I realized I never explained the title of this blog. Apparently, in India, once children feel comfortable with you, they start referring to you as "Uncle" (which is convenient for them as they then don't have to learn your names...we don't have that luxury). So, now, my current Indian Nephew count is up to 100. We'll keep a tally throughout the week.
-Uncle Jeff
Friday, June 18, 2010
We All Have Fevers
Ok, before you send out a mass prayer chain email/phone call to pray for our team's healing...we are all ok. In fact, none of us (well, one does, which I will get to) have fevers. Instead, this is a reference to pretty much the funniest thing that has happened to us on this trip so far. Today was a "late" day, meaning we got to sleep in until 7 a.m., met for devotions and headed out to another school for an hour-long program. This school was unlike any of the other experiences we've had so far - it was a solid Christian school consisting of 1st-5th graders. Oh yeah...and the room in which we met with them was open-air. 10:30 a.m. In India. Just thinking about it is making me start to sweat.
We stepped out of the van and immediately were drenched, head to toe, in our own glorious perspiration. But God gave us the ability to work in spite of our grossness and we had the kids up and dancing, clapping, learning new songs in English (they were primarily Tamil speaking), Tim did a brief talk that was translated into their language, we did a skit and then had the opportunity to hang out with the children for almost an hour afterwards, just sitting and sharing the love of Christ with them. But here's the thing. It was, like, 200 degrees outside, we were dancing, performing - we've not sweated this much since we've gotten here. But the kids? Dry as could be. And they were wearing uniforms. Not a single one broke a sweat. So, and here's the hysterical part, more than one kid approached some of our team members to ask, "You're sweating - do you have a fever?" Maybe you had to be there (probably not, though) but the difference between us and them, perspiration wise, was ridiculously funny.
Following this time with the kids, we visited the home of Pastor Sharesh, who is a good friend of David Rajan's and is the pastor of the school we worked at today. We walked through some pretty dirty alleyways and into this very small one room apartment that had a refrigerator, stove, a tv and a single bed - all in this one very small room. And the reaction of Sharesh and his family? Gratitude that we would come and visit them. We have been so moved by the humility of these people, their generosity, their love...I'm being extremely serious when I say that the people of India have already ministered more to us than we'll ever be able to do for them.. To
On our way home, we stopped off at the local mall for some authentic Indian cuisine from Pizza Hut (I swear we really have eaten some Indian food...David is just trying to introduce it slowly to our tame American stomachs). This was not a shopping trip, yet somehow Betty Jo was able to come away with a new shirt that would be helpful in the heat. She can get away with that because she's Betty Jo.
But the big story tonight was the final event of the day. We loaded up into our bus and traveled about an hour/hour-and-a-half to a new village church that has just been recently planted. David shared that, when he plants churches, they are given tents/huts for one year to see if they can become established before building a new, permanent facility. We went there, as instructed, with a plan for about an hour-long program, yet as we are daily finding out...nothing...NOTHING will ever go as we've planned on mission in India. But this is a good thing because all that God is doing that is blowing our minds wasn't even in our "plans". We step off the bus expecting to do some songs, some skits and a brief message, only to find out that there were two new converts of Hinduism (Immanuel and Sarah - their new "Christian" names they took on upon conversion) who wanted to be baptized at the river where we were. David asked Tim to do the baptisms and Tim had the honor of taking these two new brothers and sisters into the water and we watched them share in the baptism of Jesus together. It was beautiful.
So then, thinking we were going to move into the program, David informs us that not only is this church brand new, but it hadn't even been dedicated yet and we were there to take part in that dedication. With everyone gathered around this brand new hut/tent, Bob and Lee had the privilege of blessing and dedicating the new church in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Totally unplanned. Totally unexpected. A totally beautiful night. And THEN we got to a few songs and a skit. It was an amazing night of fellowship, celebration and ministry.
So, we're back at David's condo, all about ready to crash. But we wanted to share with you, our partners in this, the ministry doors that God is opening. We are so excited about tomorrow. Tomorrow, for the first time, we will be heading into the villages to spend an extended amount of time with the village churches and the villagers themselves. We will also be spending some time in the Ministry Center that David runs and we're looking forward to that as well. Tomorrow, along with some of our regular "program" routine, we'll be having one-on-one/group time with some village children and their families. David said the spiritual makeup is about 50/50 - so we are praying for many evangelistic contacts. We'll be making use of the Evange-cubes and salvation bracelets - resources completely sponsored by the financial gifts you've given to this mission. Again, thank you.
Before wrapping out with the prayer needs, I have two specific requests that we need you to join with us in prayer about. First, and most importantly, Sandra Kelley has been running a bit of a fever since we've gotten into Chennai, but it hasn't stopped her from giving her very best and being used by God. However, tonight, she was not able to participate because she's not been able to shake this thing that's causing her pain. Would you please take a moment (or more) and lift up some prayers for healing? Along those lines, I ask that you would pray for me in a similar way. I had been fighting congestion since our departure on Monday, but it has now rendered me entirely voice-less. I can hardly whisper enough to communicate. I appreciate God 1) providing other people who can cover for my lack of singing and leading the singing and 2) allowing me to still participate in worship by playing the guitar. But, while this may sound like Heaven to most of you (me not speaking), it really has been pretty frustrating/heart-breaking for me today as I tried to interact with the children. So many came up today to ask my name or begin a conversation and had to whisper my answer as loud as could, which resulted in a number of "Weirdo" looks followed by the kids walking away. So, if you don't mind, please lift up this request. Currently I'm in no pain at all - I just have this stupid junk on my throat and I can't talk at all. I appreciate your encouragement and support so much and I look forward to God allowing this to be gone.
With that, onto the prayer requests. Please pray with us:
1. A prayer of praise for the amazing opportunities He's giving to us
2. For continued energy and enthusiasm. The long days and oppressive heat/humidity is draining all of us, and we're only heading into Day Four of Twelve.
3. For sensitivity to know who needs a personal touch tomorrow in the villages and who needs to hear the Gospel of Christ
4. BOLDLY for some lives to be changed by Jesus tomorrow.
We miss all of you and again, thank you so much for your support. Looking forward to another day of God's blessings! See you tomorrow, Bloggiverse.
Not sweating it,
-Jeff
We stepped out of the van and immediately were drenched, head to toe, in our own glorious perspiration. But God gave us the ability to work in spite of our grossness and we had the kids up and dancing, clapping, learning new songs in English (they were primarily Tamil speaking), Tim did a brief talk that was translated into their language, we did a skit and then had the opportunity to hang out with the children for almost an hour afterwards, just sitting and sharing the love of Christ with them. But here's the thing. It was, like, 200 degrees outside, we were dancing, performing - we've not sweated this much since we've gotten here. But the kids? Dry as could be. And they were wearing uniforms. Not a single one broke a sweat. So, and here's the hysterical part, more than one kid approached some of our team members to ask, "You're sweating - do you have a fever?" Maybe you had to be there (probably not, though) but the difference between us and them, perspiration wise, was ridiculously funny.
Following this time with the kids, we visited the home of Pastor Sharesh, who is a good friend of David Rajan's and is the pastor of the school we worked at today. We walked through some pretty dirty alleyways and into this very small one room apartment that had a refrigerator, stove, a tv and a single bed - all in this one very small room. And the reaction of Sharesh and his family? Gratitude that we would come and visit them. We have been so moved by the humility of these people, their generosity, their love...I'm being extremely serious when I say that the people of India have already ministered more to us than we'll ever be able to do for them.. To
On our way home, we stopped off at the local mall for some authentic Indian cuisine from Pizza Hut (I swear we really have eaten some Indian food...David is just trying to introduce it slowly to our tame American stomachs). This was not a shopping trip, yet somehow Betty Jo was able to come away with a new shirt that would be helpful in the heat. She can get away with that because she's Betty Jo.
But the big story tonight was the final event of the day. We loaded up into our bus and traveled about an hour/hour-and-a-half to a new village church that has just been recently planted. David shared that, when he plants churches, they are given tents/huts for one year to see if they can become established before building a new, permanent facility. We went there, as instructed, with a plan for about an hour-long program, yet as we are daily finding out...nothing...NOTHING will ever go as we've planned on mission in India. But this is a good thing because all that God is doing that is blowing our minds wasn't even in our "plans". We step off the bus expecting to do some songs, some skits and a brief message, only to find out that there were two new converts of Hinduism (Immanuel and Sarah - their new "Christian" names they took on upon conversion) who wanted to be baptized at the river where we were. David asked Tim to do the baptisms and Tim had the honor of taking these two new brothers and sisters into the water and we watched them share in the baptism of Jesus together. It was beautiful.
So then, thinking we were going to move into the program, David informs us that not only is this church brand new, but it hadn't even been dedicated yet and we were there to take part in that dedication. With everyone gathered around this brand new hut/tent, Bob and Lee had the privilege of blessing and dedicating the new church in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Totally unplanned. Totally unexpected. A totally beautiful night. And THEN we got to a few songs and a skit. It was an amazing night of fellowship, celebration and ministry.
So, we're back at David's condo, all about ready to crash. But we wanted to share with you, our partners in this, the ministry doors that God is opening. We are so excited about tomorrow. Tomorrow, for the first time, we will be heading into the villages to spend an extended amount of time with the village churches and the villagers themselves. We will also be spending some time in the Ministry Center that David runs and we're looking forward to that as well. Tomorrow, along with some of our regular "program" routine, we'll be having one-on-one/group time with some village children and their families. David said the spiritual makeup is about 50/50 - so we are praying for many evangelistic contacts. We'll be making use of the Evange-cubes and salvation bracelets - resources completely sponsored by the financial gifts you've given to this mission. Again, thank you.
Before wrapping out with the prayer needs, I have two specific requests that we need you to join with us in prayer about. First, and most importantly, Sandra Kelley has been running a bit of a fever since we've gotten into Chennai, but it hasn't stopped her from giving her very best and being used by God. However, tonight, she was not able to participate because she's not been able to shake this thing that's causing her pain. Would you please take a moment (or more) and lift up some prayers for healing? Along those lines, I ask that you would pray for me in a similar way. I had been fighting congestion since our departure on Monday, but it has now rendered me entirely voice-less. I can hardly whisper enough to communicate. I appreciate God 1) providing other people who can cover for my lack of singing and leading the singing and 2) allowing me to still participate in worship by playing the guitar. But, while this may sound like Heaven to most of you (me not speaking), it really has been pretty frustrating/heart-breaking for me today as I tried to interact with the children. So many came up today to ask my name or begin a conversation and had to whisper my answer as loud as could, which resulted in a number of "Weirdo" looks followed by the kids walking away. So, if you don't mind, please lift up this request. Currently I'm in no pain at all - I just have this stupid junk on my throat and I can't talk at all. I appreciate your encouragement and support so much and I look forward to God allowing this to be gone.
With that, onto the prayer requests. Please pray with us:
1. A prayer of praise for the amazing opportunities He's giving to us
2. For continued energy and enthusiasm. The long days and oppressive heat/humidity is draining all of us, and we're only heading into Day Four of Twelve.
3. For sensitivity to know who needs a personal touch tomorrow in the villages and who needs to hear the Gospel of Christ
4. BOLDLY for some lives to be changed by Jesus tomorrow.
We miss all of you and again, thank you so much for your support. Looking forward to another day of God's blessings! See you tomorrow, Bloggiverse.
Not sweating it,
-Jeff
Thursday, June 17, 2010
SlumChurch Millionaires
I'll explain the title in a second, but Day Two was amazing: amazingly long, amazingly busy and amazingly holy. This update is actually being done at the start of Day Three because, at least for the guys, Day Two started around 5:00 a.m. and ended around 12:30 a.m.this morning. That's like, a lot of hours of being awake. But God has blessed us with supernatural, holy energy that has kept us going in spite of utter exhaustion and jetlag - but even more, He has given us so many incredible opportunities.
Day Two started with an hour-long program at St. Matthias school where we did an outdoor rally/assembly for hundreds of Indian children from 1st grade to 12th grade. We led some songs (and the kids sang so loud, it was incredible), the team danced around like crazy, holy fools, we performed our Daniel and the Lion's Den skit and Tim gave a great message about living our life with Christ. He even performed an "illusion" that the kids really loved. Tim also really loves that illusion and he has requested that every time you see him, please ask to do the "red ball" illusion.
Following a snack at a local Indian deli called "McDonalds" and lunch back at David's condo, we went to another school, all-boys this time, for a similar hour-long program with music, skits and Tim's message. What is amazing, though, is that these children were SO thrilled to get to hang out with us. As soon as the programs ended, we were mobbed by the kids wanting handshakes, hugs and even autographs. The autograph requests were really strange at first, but we were able to use those opportunities as we were writing "Jesus Loves You" messages to just share the love of Christ with the kids. And Lee Salley was a huge hit with the boys following his portrayal of "Satan" in one of our skits - they thought The Incredible Lee was the strongest man on the planet. Oh, and the kids were such an encouragement to me as so many came up and told me they like the mohawk and all wanted to touch it. Though, they could've been making fun...and it earned the nickname "Rooster Boy".
Our evening concluded with a 2-hour worship service at a Slum Church and going into it, we had no idea what to expect, so consider our surprise when we walked inbetween two buildings and came across a table, chairs and a PA System just sitting in the middle of this tiny alley. But we found out, apparently the Holy Spirit hangs out in alleys in India. As soon as we got there, these beautiful children sang and danced to some of their worship songs which prompted our team to jump into the circle and teach them some of our children's worship songs. It was beautiful to see and hear these children sing along to "Jesus Loves Me" and "I've Got the Joy" in English within minutes of our arrival.
Then, the church service kicked in. On a side note, I'm happy to report that apparently the Holy Spirit likes it REALLY loud (and we were BEHIND the speakers), so The 8:30 Band is good to go. The two pastors led songs, prayers and gave an impassioned message on Psalm 32. We could understand about 3 words (Alleluia, Jesus and Psalm 32), but the Spirit in that tiny little alley was moving in force. Every team member was blown away by the deep level of worship these incredibly poor Christians were engaged in - so much so that we all recognized so many of our inadequacies in how, despite our blessings and wealth (far beyond what these Indian believers have), we rarely experience the level of joy and worship that they do. It was a life-changing moment that we will never forget.
We're about to head down to the Common room for a time of prayer and devotion and then it's off to another school this morning. This evening, a whole new experience waits for us - we will be heading into a village to be with a church for worship. While our experiences in town have been amazing, we have all been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to be in the villages and share the love of Christ there. More than any other experience we've had so far, we will be up against a huge language barrier - but our prayer is that we will be able to communicate the love of Christ beyond this. To that end, we need our prayers.
Today, please be in prayer for:
1. Renewed strength and energy following a very tiring Day Two
2. Opportunities to share the love of Christ with the children in the school
3. Leading of the Holy Spirit to know how to prepare for the ministries ahead that we don't know about yet
4. The ability to transcend the language hurdle with the love of Christ
5. Evangelistic opportunities and guidance by the Holy Spirit to know who and how to speak
I really cannot express to you all enough how much your prayers and encouragement mean to us. Knowing that you're there reading this, lifting us up in prayer and following God's working in India means so much to us. Thank you for being a blessing to us. We can't wait to update this thing with a great report from tonight.
-Jeff
Day Two started with an hour-long program at St. Matthias school where we did an outdoor rally/assembly for hundreds of Indian children from 1st grade to 12th grade. We led some songs (and the kids sang so loud, it was incredible), the team danced around like crazy, holy fools, we performed our Daniel and the Lion's Den skit and Tim gave a great message about living our life with Christ. He even performed an "illusion" that the kids really loved. Tim also really loves that illusion and he has requested that every time you see him, please ask to do the "red ball" illusion.
Following a snack at a local Indian deli called "McDonalds" and lunch back at David's condo, we went to another school, all-boys this time, for a similar hour-long program with music, skits and Tim's message. What is amazing, though, is that these children were SO thrilled to get to hang out with us. As soon as the programs ended, we were mobbed by the kids wanting handshakes, hugs and even autographs. The autograph requests were really strange at first, but we were able to use those opportunities as we were writing "Jesus Loves You" messages to just share the love of Christ with the kids. And Lee Salley was a huge hit with the boys following his portrayal of "Satan" in one of our skits - they thought The Incredible Lee was the strongest man on the planet. Oh, and the kids were such an encouragement to me as so many came up and told me they like the mohawk and all wanted to touch it. Though, they could've been making fun...and it earned the nickname "Rooster Boy".
Our evening concluded with a 2-hour worship service at a Slum Church and going into it, we had no idea what to expect, so consider our surprise when we walked inbetween two buildings and came across a table, chairs and a PA System just sitting in the middle of this tiny alley. But we found out, apparently the Holy Spirit hangs out in alleys in India. As soon as we got there, these beautiful children sang and danced to some of their worship songs which prompted our team to jump into the circle and teach them some of our children's worship songs. It was beautiful to see and hear these children sing along to "Jesus Loves Me" and "I've Got the Joy" in English within minutes of our arrival.
Then, the church service kicked in. On a side note, I'm happy to report that apparently the Holy Spirit likes it REALLY loud (and we were BEHIND the speakers), so The 8:30 Band is good to go. The two pastors led songs, prayers and gave an impassioned message on Psalm 32. We could understand about 3 words (Alleluia, Jesus and Psalm 32), but the Spirit in that tiny little alley was moving in force. Every team member was blown away by the deep level of worship these incredibly poor Christians were engaged in - so much so that we all recognized so many of our inadequacies in how, despite our blessings and wealth (far beyond what these Indian believers have), we rarely experience the level of joy and worship that they do. It was a life-changing moment that we will never forget.
We're about to head down to the Common room for a time of prayer and devotion and then it's off to another school this morning. This evening, a whole new experience waits for us - we will be heading into a village to be with a church for worship. While our experiences in town have been amazing, we have all been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to be in the villages and share the love of Christ there. More than any other experience we've had so far, we will be up against a huge language barrier - but our prayer is that we will be able to communicate the love of Christ beyond this. To that end, we need our prayers.
Today, please be in prayer for:
1. Renewed strength and energy following a very tiring Day Two
2. Opportunities to share the love of Christ with the children in the school
3. Leading of the Holy Spirit to know how to prepare for the ministries ahead that we don't know about yet
4. The ability to transcend the language hurdle with the love of Christ
5. Evangelistic opportunities and guidance by the Holy Spirit to know who and how to speak
I really cannot express to you all enough how much your prayers and encouragement mean to us. Knowing that you're there reading this, lifting us up in prayer and following God's working in India means so much to us. Thank you for being a blessing to us. We can't wait to update this thing with a great report from tonight.
-Jeff
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
We're All Gonna Get Super Fat
Day 1 in Chennai is in the history books - and what an incredible day it was.
Once we all returned from the walk around David's community and taste some cultural treats (fried bananas, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake, sweet Indian fudge), we took the opportunity to rest up before lunch, which consisted of dumplings, noodles, rice, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and a whole bunch of other stuff (I told you we are all gonna get super fat). If you haven't guessed yet, the food is incredible.
We had an opportunity today to go out and gather some ministry supplies. Final purchases: 2 guitars, a guitar/keyboard/vocal amp, mics, cables, power strips...and all for less than half the price of what you would pay in America. Ridiculously awesome. And little did we anticipate how wonderful those purchases would be immediately.
Tonight was one of those awesome God moments that only the Holy Spirit could've come up with. The plan was to have dinner with 6 village pastors (and their wives) - and we did - but we did so much more than that. After meeting in the new living space upstairs, we had the opportunity to hear from David and the pastors about their testimonies and then we shared ours as well, followed by the team's rendition of "Daniel and the Lion's Den" (now a comedy). Then, beauty happened. The village pastors blessed us with one of their praise songs in Tamil. I have no idea what they were saying, but "Hallelujah" was repeated...and it was beautiful. David then asked us to share a song as well. Your India 2010 Team belted out a beautiful version of "How Great is Our God", accompanied by the two new guitars. Once we finished that, David asked if we knew "There is Power in the Blood" - which we did - and we started playing and singing in English. Then, David motioned for us to stop singing (we weren't THAT bad) but to continue playing and the pastors and their families took over singing the same song in their language. I think you can see where this is going...at one point, we all started singing "There is Power in the Blood" in our own language at the same time. It was beautiful and holy and LOUD. Amazing. That pretty much kicked off a spontaneous time of worship that included, "Amazing Grace", "How Great Thou Art", "Jesus Name Above All Names", "Blessed Assurance" and "He Reigns" (and about 20 others). Both churches had a worship leader who passed off leading songs from the two guitars. Both churches, together, two different languages, worshiping our One God. And forget 14 + 6 pastors - there were at least 45-50 people in that room.
It was a great moment of fellowship and worship to kick off this great week of missions and ministry. We wish all of you could've been with us.
Tomorrow, we have an early morning as we will be leading an hour-long program at a public school for 500+ kids, and it will include some skits, some lively songs and a message from Pastor Tim. We'll follow up with another program, at a different school, in the afternoon. Our evening will conclude with a program and an evangelistic ministry opportunity at a slum church.
With all of this, we need prayer. Please pray:
1. For strength and energy for the team
2. An ability to communicate with the children in a way that will be fun and meaningful for them
3. Creativity in preparing these different ministry outreaches
4. The Slum Church outreach - that many will come to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior
Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement. Fun fact: If you want to know what time it is here in Chennai, take your local time (as long as it's Eastern Standard), subtract 2.5 hours and then change the a.m. to p.m. (or p.m. to a.m.). Love you guys - check in with you tomorrow.
-Jeff
Once we all returned from the walk around David's community and taste some cultural treats (fried bananas, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake, sweet Indian fudge), we took the opportunity to rest up before lunch, which consisted of dumplings, noodles, rice, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and a whole bunch of other stuff (I told you we are all gonna get super fat). If you haven't guessed yet, the food is incredible.
We had an opportunity today to go out and gather some ministry supplies. Final purchases: 2 guitars, a guitar/keyboard/vocal amp, mics, cables, power strips...and all for less than half the price of what you would pay in America. Ridiculously awesome. And little did we anticipate how wonderful those purchases would be immediately.
Tonight was one of those awesome God moments that only the Holy Spirit could've come up with. The plan was to have dinner with 6 village pastors (and their wives) - and we did - but we did so much more than that. After meeting in the new living space upstairs, we had the opportunity to hear from David and the pastors about their testimonies and then we shared ours as well, followed by the team's rendition of "Daniel and the Lion's Den" (now a comedy). Then, beauty happened. The village pastors blessed us with one of their praise songs in Tamil. I have no idea what they were saying, but "Hallelujah" was repeated...and it was beautiful. David then asked us to share a song as well. Your India 2010 Team belted out a beautiful version of "How Great is Our God", accompanied by the two new guitars. Once we finished that, David asked if we knew "There is Power in the Blood" - which we did - and we started playing and singing in English. Then, David motioned for us to stop singing (we weren't THAT bad) but to continue playing and the pastors and their families took over singing the same song in their language. I think you can see where this is going...at one point, we all started singing "There is Power in the Blood" in our own language at the same time. It was beautiful and holy and LOUD. Amazing. That pretty much kicked off a spontaneous time of worship that included, "Amazing Grace", "How Great Thou Art", "Jesus Name Above All Names", "Blessed Assurance" and "He Reigns" (and about 20 others). Both churches had a worship leader who passed off leading songs from the two guitars. Both churches, together, two different languages, worshiping our One God. And forget 14 + 6 pastors - there were at least 45-50 people in that room.
It was a great moment of fellowship and worship to kick off this great week of missions and ministry. We wish all of you could've been with us.
Tomorrow, we have an early morning as we will be leading an hour-long program at a public school for 500+ kids, and it will include some skits, some lively songs and a message from Pastor Tim. We'll follow up with another program, at a different school, in the afternoon. Our evening will conclude with a program and an evangelistic ministry opportunity at a slum church.
With all of this, we need prayer. Please pray:
1. For strength and energy for the team
2. An ability to communicate with the children in a way that will be fun and meaningful for them
3. Creativity in preparing these different ministry outreaches
4. The Slum Church outreach - that many will come to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior
Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement. Fun fact: If you want to know what time it is here in Chennai, take your local time (as long as it's Eastern Standard), subtract 2.5 hours and then change the a.m. to p.m. (or p.m. to a.m.). Love you guys - check in with you tomorrow.
-Jeff
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Eagle Has Landed
Greetings from Chennai!
We just want to lift up a thanks to you all - and most importantly, our Lord and Savior Jesus - who blessed every step of the way of our journey so far. In His provision (and despite our needless worry), God opened up every door and blessed us with His favor as we went through security and customs. Not a single hitch! Even when Katie Salley decided to try and run away, God wouldn't let her (don't worry, Carla, she didn't really try to run away...though she did get lost in Heathrow...all Lee's fault). The biggest "complaint" we could have had was that we spent so much time sitting around because there were no blocks in our way at all.
Today, we're spending time getting caught up on rest and trying to recoup from some pretty wild jetlag (Betty Jo Bennett and Leslie Thrasher have it the worst - they spent the entire trip keeping the entire plane awake with their shenanigans and teen-girls-at-a-sleepover laughter). Tonight, we'll be sharing dinner with 6 pastors and their wives - we're really looking forward to this.
We absolutely must share this with our church family...the financial gifts you have given have already blessed in a HUGE way. Just a few weeks ago, David Rajan's "upstairs" room was an open-air/un-air-conditioned rooftop/living space which had been relegated for the men. However, part of your gifts went to help offset some of the costs for David's renovations. Now, that open-air living space is an enclosed, beautifully air-conditioned room with 7 beds, a Sanctuary, 2 baths and a kitchen. It is amazing and we are so blessed by you guys.
Gotta cut this short - we're all headed for a walk with David. Taking Chennai by storm!
Please pray for strength and rest today. We'll update later on tonight.
India 2010, out.
We just want to lift up a thanks to you all - and most importantly, our Lord and Savior Jesus - who blessed every step of the way of our journey so far. In His provision (and despite our needless worry), God opened up every door and blessed us with His favor as we went through security and customs. Not a single hitch! Even when Katie Salley decided to try and run away, God wouldn't let her (don't worry, Carla, she didn't really try to run away...though she did get lost in Heathrow...all Lee's fault). The biggest "complaint" we could have had was that we spent so much time sitting around because there were no blocks in our way at all.
Today, we're spending time getting caught up on rest and trying to recoup from some pretty wild jetlag (Betty Jo Bennett and Leslie Thrasher have it the worst - they spent the entire trip keeping the entire plane awake with their shenanigans and teen-girls-at-a-sleepover laughter). Tonight, we'll be sharing dinner with 6 pastors and their wives - we're really looking forward to this.
We absolutely must share this with our church family...the financial gifts you have given have already blessed in a HUGE way. Just a few weeks ago, David Rajan's "upstairs" room was an open-air/un-air-conditioned rooftop/living space which had been relegated for the men. However, part of your gifts went to help offset some of the costs for David's renovations. Now, that open-air living space is an enclosed, beautifully air-conditioned room with 7 beds, a Sanctuary, 2 baths and a kitchen. It is amazing and we are so blessed by you guys.
Gotta cut this short - we're all headed for a walk with David. Taking Chennai by storm!
Please pray for strength and rest today. We'll update later on tonight.
India 2010, out.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Leaving on a Jet Plane
In less than 24 hours, the I:10 Team (that's India 2010 for all you non-hipsters - though we're open to suggestions for a better "name" ) will be departing BWI (9:05 p.m.) for a 7-hour flight to London Heathrow(arriving 9:25 a.m.,Tuesday, June 15th) and picking up a 10-hour connection flight into Chennai (arriving 4:00 a.m., Wednesday, June 16th). At this point, we're all checked in, our seats booked and we will be meeting at 6 p.m. tomorrow (the 14th).
We will do our best each day of the trip to update this blog with a recap of the day's events and include a look forward into the next day's mission events. We will also be including specific prayer requests and we ask that you be in prayer with us and for us as we serve in Jesus' Name. Check back daily for the most recent updates and please feel free to respond and add your comments!
On behalf of the whole I:10 Team (still waiting for that awesome name), thank you so much for your prayer support. We cannot do this without you and you have encouraged us so much already with your promises for prayer. Please keep them because we certainly need them.
Today's prayer requests:
1. Please pray for safety as we travel
2. Please pray (BOLDLY) that we will make it through customs without any problems as we are carrying over many evangelistic resources.
3. Please pray for our families as we say "Adios" for two weeks
4. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to not only protect us as we travel, but open our eyes to those we come in contact with before we even reach India who need to hear about the Love of Christ.
5. As we begin these weeks of mission, let's join together to pray that God just shows off in a way that we cannot even begin to expect.
Thank you, again, for your support and for journeying with us.
-Jeff (or, J-I:10. Come on, we REALLY need another name for the team)
We will do our best each day of the trip to update this blog with a recap of the day's events and include a look forward into the next day's mission events. We will also be including specific prayer requests and we ask that you be in prayer with us and for us as we serve in Jesus' Name. Check back daily for the most recent updates and please feel free to respond and add your comments!
On behalf of the whole I:10 Team (still waiting for that awesome name), thank you so much for your prayer support. We cannot do this without you and you have encouraged us so much already with your promises for prayer. Please keep them because we certainly need them.
Today's prayer requests:
1. Please pray for safety as we travel
2. Please pray (BOLDLY) that we will make it through customs without any problems as we are carrying over many evangelistic resources.
3. Please pray for our families as we say "Adios" for two weeks
4. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to not only protect us as we travel, but open our eyes to those we come in contact with before we even reach India who need to hear about the Love of Christ.
5. As we begin these weeks of mission, let's join together to pray that God just shows off in a way that we cannot even begin to expect.
Thank you, again, for your support and for journeying with us.
-Jeff (or, J-I:10. Come on, we REALLY need another name for the team)
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