It’s half past 9pm and we just got back to the Appolo. This truly was the icing on the cake. Our God is so rich in spiritual treasure, and I am truly blessed!

Even though we had to change a tire on one of our vehicles, we sill got to Tirrihanna ahead of schedule. However the sound equipment and only about half of the people were there. They switched up our schedule and Gary, Marcia and Anna took the children (250 of them) and the rest of us split up the adults into discipleship groups – for about an hour (the sound system was being setup and the rest of the Adavasi believers arrived during this time. Katie and I, since we were the closest to them when they arrived, our groups swelled (I think she may have had close to 70-80 in her group at the end.)

I talked about Jonah, how God told him to go preach, but Jonah didn’t want to obey God and tried to run away. Then, Jonah tried to commit suicide rather than obey. Finally, God put him where He wanted Jonah to go and Jonah finally, though reluctantly, delivered God’s message. Then i had them read the Great Commission and showed them that, like Jonah, God commands us to go and deliver His message to others. The I challenged them to NOT be like Jonah. That they should obey God and take His message of Good News to those around them – in their own village and to those in the villages around them.

Then I asked how many had heard the cube Gospel presentation. Only a couple in the group of 45-50 I was speaking to raised their hands. So I went over it with them, but more telling them how to share it than actually presenting it as I did to non-believers. I told them that the cube was not necessary, that I used it because I did not speak their language and the pictures helped them understand the story. I told them that they could tell the story without having a cube because they did speak the language.

Finally, I went over the final side of the cube and we talked about the things followers of Jesus were supposed to do (prayer, the Word, fellowship – including some stuff about their relationship to their local church’s leadership – and following the Great Commission.) I asked if anyone had any questions and one lady asked why God gave man the choice to eat the fruit and sin? I told her that it was part of His plan, that although I don’t fully understand the mind of God, because I am just a man, that I thought it might have something to do with God not wanting people who had to worship Him, but instead wanting those who wanted to follow Him – I didn’t use the word “robot” but Jageswar explained what I meant. Then they called the children back and we started the worship part of the celebration.

They greeted us with leis and introduced us and the other guests and leaders who were there. There was singing, and singing, and some more singing and after some more singing, Pastor Bob(e) was asked to share. He challenged them to take the gospel to the Adivasi who haven’t heard it. That we didn’t speak the language, needed interpreters and could only come to share a week or two a year. But they did speak Adivasi, and they didn’t need interpreters, and they were there all year long. Bobby’s challenge was to start new Adivasi churches in other villages. He asked how many of them wanted to see Jesus come back. Almost everyone, without delay and peer pressure raised their hands immediately as Sanjay translated Bob’s question. Bob told them that God is delaying Jesus’ return until a certain number of believers are reached (and martyred). He let them know that following Jesus might be difficult and even dangerous, but that God promised to be with them always.

Then we sang…and danced (don’t tell either TACC, or Biola, as I don’t want to be excommunicated, or fired.) After I had (sort of) learned how to dance, one of the young men told Gary that now I was Adivasi.

This day was such a blessing to me. To see the believers from several different villages come together for this great celebration and to mingle and interact with each other was a great blessing. I pray that it encourages them to come together more often to work jointly to take the Gospel to the Adivasi and villages that haven’t been reached.

The celebration wrapped up around 3:00, though there was still small groups singing and dancing and fellowshipping. We were escorted to a home a few steps away for lunch – featuring chickens that Jageswar has raised as a part of his support project. They were very tasty and he should get a good price for them at the market. After lunch we came back to the hotel, but could post (even the morning post, which then became truncated, because the Internet was turned off.

We went to LTC for a quick tour and the Peter and Moala hosted us at their house for a great dinner. It was a great time of catching up and mutual encouragement between us from TACC and Peter, Themrei, Arun, and Ben. The Kashungs are very gracious hosts!

Which brings me back to, now about 10:30pm on our last full day in India…all I can say right now is that I am greatly blessed and humbled by being able to witness the work of God in this place and in the lives of about 300 or so new seekers and believers. Please pray that those who professed faith in Christ have authentic faith and that they will follow Christ and grow strong in their faith. And pray that those who showed an interest but didn’t commit to follow Christ will seek Him and find that He is who we said He is and allow the Holy Spirit to lead them into repentance and saving faith…

I’m sorry, I didn’t post this last night, but was wiped out after another amazing day of watching the hand of our awesome God work in the lives of many who were lost in their sin.

We went to another village that I think Taft Avenue Community Church (TACC) has not visited in past years. It took a long time, on a one lane road (plants literally touching both sides of the bus, and a couple of stops with discussions – in a language I didn’t comprehend – about whether we could make it further, or have to walk, or how best to navigate the current issue on the road in front of us) but we finally arrived in what looked like a relatively small village. It appeared to be a rice, rather than tea village, but quarter of a mile or so to the south was tea plants (the north end of Merry View). This village was not laid out as orderly as some of the others we’d visited – the homes were clustered rather than in rows, and some appeared to be more wealthy – maybe because of the rice.

Once again, as the bus pulled into the village, even before we got out (into a steady, heavier rain) the curious started to peak their heads out of doors and windows. Then they formed small groups here and there, as they likely were discussing the bus, even more so, as they discovered the riders on the bus were different.

The rain had cooled things down considerably, one of our translators was even shivering as we climbed out of the bus (my guess was that it was in the mid to upper 60s.) It was raining fairly steady and the breeze was light and there were puddles everywhere, some ankle/calf deep – Katie found one that was knee deep.

Anyway, enough “flavour”, on to the important stuff. Again, the team met with mixed results. The first home I visited had about 7 people, only one was a child – I’m not sure if they were all in the same, or extended family or if some were neighbors/friends. But all listened very intently and it seemed they got the story all through, anticipating the next piece. They all made professions of faith and we handed out three Bibles.

The next house Jageswar and I visited had half a dozen ladies who politely told us they didn’t have time to listen to us – maybe they were on a break – they were cooking on their porch. We moved to the next home (as we left this next home we saw Gary and this village pastor’s wife sharing with the ladies that turned us away.) Jageswar and I then shared the gospel with a young man, his wife and young child and probably his mother, maybe aunt or even grandmother (it’s not always easy to tell.)

The wife had to leave halfway through my story to tend to her baby, I think to lay him in bed as he had fallen asleep, but she never came back. The young man professed “Jesus is Lord” although I don’t know how to type it in his language. His matronly elder did not, but I found out she was hard of hearing and likely didn’t get the whole story. We gave him a Bible, told him about the church in his village and challenged him to share the gospel, first with the rest of his family and then with his friends and neighbors and then with everyone else he could.

Jageswar had to leave to take care of some family business and he took me to Andrew, who had a spare interpreter. This was a good thing, as Andrew wasn’t feeling really well and asked me to wrap up in this house (he had shared the good news and asked them to make their choices) we could tell that it had taken root – and they told us they were already believers, so I went through the last side of the cube which talks about the life of a believer and encouraged them that not only the other believers in their own village and the nearby villages, but in our village in America would be praying for them and welcomed their prayers for us. One was not feeling well and we prayed for her recovery.

We went back to the village center and did a program. We were set up under the porch roof of one building and them under the next (only a couple of feet apart.) Then we said goodbye and ate lunch on the bus as we drove to the next stop, about a kilometer away. Here, Gary, Anna and Marcia did a program for the kids while the rest went door to door. I had a new interpreter and had an interesting experience. A young mother with two teenage daughters – listened intently and liked the story. The mother was not interested in making a profession. She was a Hindu and believed that God loved her and because of her faith in Him, when she died, she would go to heaven. Her daughters, I sensed (Holy Spirit, not spidey-senses) were more than just curious, and I think were drawn by the Gospel. We gave the daughters Bibles and I challenged them to earnestly seek the truth – reading those Bibles and asking God to reveal His truth to them. I prayed (through the gospel again) and that Satan, who created the false gods (Hindu included) to deceive men and pull them away from the one true God, would be revealed as the Liar he is and that the Holy Spirit would reveal the true Truth and give them faith to believe in it and follow Jesus. This was a tough home for me and I wished I had more time to talk with this lady. I had never encountered such a close counterfeit false belief system before-which, in a way was good, because I had to trust in the work of the Holy Spirit in this family’s hearts and not come away thinking my great apologetic skills had win the day. Pray for this family, fervently!!

I gotta wrap this up. Today (Saturday) all but Bob are sabbathing with a drive to Darjeeling. Bob wants to work on his sermon for tomorrow. Pray that he prepares well and the Holy Spirit makes it abundantly clear what He wants Bob to share. Pray also for our safety as tourists today and that God is preparing hearts for tomorrow, and will bring many Adivasi to our big meeting, then give them understanding of the gospel and faith to believe it.

And Bill Petersen said I wouldn’t be able to write the blog on the bus ride back to the hotel…apparently he didn’t know there would be a two hour delay today (one way, guided through traffic at the section where all the permanent potholes are.)

Today we went to two new villages TACC has never been to. Reuben, their pastor, lived in the one and its sister village was just on the other side of the creek. I REALLY liked this village. There were already a few believers there and one of them, took Jageswar and I to the homes of people who were her friends, and apparently ripe for the Gospel. Every home i went to today either had someone who had never heard the Good News but very glad I brought it to them; or someone who had a friend or relative who was a believer and became one too; or used to go to church but hadn’t for a long time, and as I shared about the life of a believer, wanted to follow Jesus. These villages were not very big in size, but their hearts seemed to be open to the Holy Spirit.

Please pray for Jageswar’s oldest daughter. She has a worm in her brain that they are treating medically – surgery is not an option. She is two years through a three treatment plan they hope will kill the parasite.

-just an interesting thought that’s been nagging on me…if cows are really deity to the Hindu, why do they put them to work in the fields? I’m gonna start calling them “god on a leash”

Andrew gave a really good synopsis of our day yesterday and I added some photos that I had that related to the things he mentioned. All in all, it was a great day yesterday. In the first village, we ran into a bunch of children who were vey curious about the bus and the people who got off of it. Instead of walking up to a house, I introduced myself and told them the story (gospel eCube) that the one true God had sent me to come from a very far place to share with them. Three girls denounced the Hindu gods and believed in Christ and committed to follow Him alone.

They took us to a house where we shared with a lady (who was nursing her baby) and about 4-6 more kids, mostly boys. Another lady joined us and after the nursing mom and rest of the children (most of the boys had run off before I could take their picture (the elephants were too much of a draw, as you could tell by their screams of delight.)

The less young lady who had joined us at this house told us to go to her neighbor’s house. We did and spent some time with an elder man who liked the story but didn’t see the need. He thought that when he died, he would go to heaven, by thinking himself there. Please pray for him (his name is Mangra), that The Holy Spirit would open his eyes to the truth of the gospel and see his current belief as lies from the pit of hell. His wife was already a believer and I told her to not give up on praying for her husband, and now she had all of us joining with her in prayer.

I’m not totally sure what our plans are today, every time I post what our schedule is, the details change. I’m pretty sure we are going to two more villages with the gospel today and I THINK we are checking on the cow project at one of the pastor’s homes on the way home.

Today is starting out like yesterday, weather wise. It’s been raining through most of the night and still this morning. I sort of hope it continues longer in the day today than it did yesterday. Once the sun came out yesterday it got really hot and sticky.

Update on Gary…his fever broke in the middle of the night and though he’s still queezy, he’s feeling a lot better. I think I have him convinced to stop eating the over easy eggs for breakfast. Pray for his continued recovery and continence.

Hello friends back home!

This is Andrew with your 4th of July India team entry. We are just wrapping up the festivities here while back home things are just getting started. The team definitely wishes they could be home celebrating but we had a nice celebration of our own with good old American KFC buckets.

Today was we went to 4 villages. The first 2 villages we spent most of our time going door to door. The first village, Ashapur, had not yet been visited by anyone from our team. We were able to cover most of the homes there and we moved on to the second village, Rakhamjote. Pastor Sanjay had been through before and we were able to cover all of the homes in the village (as far as we could tell).

Ashapur has a Roman Catholic church in it that meets regularly. Several team members, including myself, spoke with members of that church. In the past, most Catholics we meet in the village do not want to talk to us but these people were friendly and were excited to hear about new churches being planted.

Rakhamjote was very different. It was only about 2 miles down the road but the people had a very different attitude. Many people did not want to talk. Jarrod was getting frustrated because many people villagers seemed apathetic and did not want to listen when he shared the Gospel with them. I spoke with a young man there who became more and more interested in the story as I shared the cube with him. He asked good questions and it was obvious to me the Spirit was working in him. I wish we could have spent more time with him but he had to go to work. Fortunately, Sanjay lives only 10 minutes walk from his house and he invited the young man to come over and they could discuss his questions there. We finished out that village with a mini village program. About 60 villagers were present and we were able to introduce them to Pastor Sanjay publicly.

Although both of those villages were difficult, the people that did listen took the message seriously. People who did not choose to follow Jesus today expressed genuine interest but were not ready to change their whole world just yet. but, many seeds were planted today, Sanjay will water, and the Lord will cause them to grow.

On the way back to the hotel we visited 2 villages (don’t remember the names) where the “Cows and Sows” project is in motion. It was encouraging to see that the pastors are working hard at home as well as in the mission field and to see God provide for them.

Please pray for Gary he was not feeling well today and has a bit of a fever. Please keep the whole team in your prayers; that we would be encouraged and filled with love and compassion for the lost. We are still coming across a lot of people who have never heard of Jesus before and we have a great task before us!

Oh, everyone else saw people riding elephants through the village today. Hopefully we can get those pictures up soon, Marcia got some good ones.

Adios amigos.

I Preached the Gospel to a big group of kids!

In the second village we visited today my translator and I finished a little early. We kept coming up to the same houses that others had already been at or were at now and we ended up back at the bus. But we found that a group of kids was starting to gather waiting for Gary’s magic show, and our songs and stories. So Raphael and I gathered all the kids together and I started going through the cube. It was great! Many of the kids showed interest and we gave out about 20 bibles. And they all hung around for he rest of the program. These kids heard a clear presentation of the Gospel several times today. We have planted the seed and done our part. Now it is the Holy Spirit’s turn. Marcia Lichte