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