We (the remnant of my Life Group) just spent half an hour on Skype with Bill. He’s doing well and has great reports of the work God is doing. He said that sending someone ahead of the rest of the group was a profitable decision.

He’s got three meetings with ministry leaders in the next two days and looking forward to what God might have in store (or not) for our ministry efforts and possible connections in the Siliguri area.

He’s also looking forward to the rest of the team arriving in a couple of days.

It rains most every morning but usually stops by the time we get to the villages. Themrei picked me up and we went to Rakhamjote first. This was a village that the June team evangelized and it is one of Sanjay’s villages so we picked him up along the way. Here are some of the events of the day.

I shared the Gospel with a young woman that wasn’t home when our team came to her home in June. She had heard the story from her family and was anxious to hear it from me. She listened intently and then prayed to accept Jesus as her personal savior. We invited her to attend the training next week and she committed to being there.

We went to the home of a family that have been Christians for many years. A young girl (20 years old) married a Hindi man four years ago and they haven’t had any children yet. Her husband and in-laws blame the inability to conceive on her and her relationship with Jesus Christ. I asked her if she believed that God was in control of all things and she said yes. So I reminded her that based on that, she would have children when God decides the timing is right. Hard as it is, we need to pray and wait for His answer to our prayers.

Themrei then took us to the home of Ramu and Zanza. TACC had been there before and she was ready to accept Jesus, but he wanted to talk with his family first. His mother said that she had conceived, birthed and raised him and she didn’t want him to convert from Hindi while she was still alive. I asked if I could share the Gospel story with them and they consented. I could see that they were really paying attention to every panel on the cube, but when I asked if they were ready to pray – she was – he was not.

I asked him if he had known of any friends that died before their parents died. He answered yes. Then I asked if he were to die before his mother would he want to go to heaven or hell. He wanted to go to heaven and I told him that he wouldn’t go there without accepting Jesus. He then asked me to pray for him and his wife to have Jesus as Lord of their lives. They said that they would come to the discipleship training next week.

We went to many other homes and invited them to next week’s training. These have been incredible experiences and opportunities to lead families to Christ. Two more villages tomorrow and then we pick up the rest of the team on Saturday !!!

First Day in the Villages

Today I had the opportunity to go to some of the villages the team will visit next week with discipleship training and the free medical camp. While the purpose of our visit today was primarily to invite believers to the training next week, I also had the opportunity to share the Gospel with two women. They prayed to accept Christ and said they will attend the discipleship training next week in Lohaghar.

Motey has been a follower of Christ for four years. Before that he lived in the jungle because he had mental problems and would have violent fits of anger. When he accepted the free gift of God and became a Christian – the fits subsided and he was able to move back home with his family. He asked me to pray for continued health and permanent relief from the mental problems. He will be coming next week and I asked him to share his testimony with the group.

There was a woman that was sick in bed and unable to speak. Her five year old son was scared and crying as the woman was thrashing in bed. Sanjay and I were asked to pray for her. I placed my hand on her, and her son, and we prayed. You could feel a calmness come over the household as we prayed and Sanjay started singing. When we left the woman was sitting up and saying “Halleluiah Amen – Halleluiah Amen”.

Ranjeet has been a believer for six years. He will be attending the discipleship training and asked us to pray about a girl he wants to marry. She is Hindi and her parents want nothing to do with Christians. Themrei and Sanjay spent a lot of time explaining the problems of being unequally yoked. I told Ranjeet that I knew it was hard to hear these words and asked him what he felt God wanted him to do. He paused for quite awhile before admitting that he knew the marriage would not be a good thing for him or the girl.

Today was a preview of what the team will experience next week and it looks like God will be giving us many opportunities to share His love with the villagers. Tomorrow I will be with Themrei and Ruben as we visit other villages.

It was a particular blessing to hear from Doug Keller that there will be teams at home praying for the team in India. Thank you to all that are praying for us and the villagers.

The weather was not too bad today. It rained really hard between 1am and 4am, but most everything was dry by sun up and the temperature stayed in the eighties. Today I met with three leaders from LTC and five of our pastor/translators. There were two items on the agenda.

First – Document our total work in the villages – I had prepared a spreadsheet of 45 villages and during the meeting we went through the list and started filling in the missing information. The results are as follows:

We discovered that eleven villages were not on my list – now 56 villages

We have done door to door evangelizing in 38 villages.

There are a total of twelve villages that have church buildings.

Nearly all the villages we have visited have small house churches.

I expect to gather additional information during the next three days as I go to about eight villages. My purpose is to find believers and invite them to attend discipleship training in their village next week.

Second – Review the first year of the cows, sows and chicks project. LTC/SAS leadership call this the TACC project. I explained to them that this was their project and that LTC brought the proposal to us. Our expectations are based on what they told us they would be able to do.

Last October we left them money to buy five cows and 54 pigs. By January they had purchased four cows, 54 piglets and 100 chicks. I will have an exact accounting by the time I return, but based on what I was told today the project is doing well. The chicks are sold every 45 days with profit being reinvested. The cows are being milked and they sell a daily average of seven litres per cow. Nine pigs died and the remaining 45 average 100 pounds and will be sold in October.

So that’s a wrap up of my first full day in Siliguri. Overall, I would say that I received a very encouraging report.

I left Dubai at 10pm on Sunday night and arrived in Delhi three hours later, but with the time change it was 2:45 am. When I went to check in for my 6:40am flight to Calcutta, I was told that it had been cancelled and that I would need to take the 9:40am flight. The problem was that there is only one flight a day from Calcutta to Bagdogra and the 9:40am flight wouldn’t get me there in time.

This is when your prayers really kicked in – I get a full refund on the cancelled flight and found another flight that goes direct from Delhi to Bagdogra. However, because this flight is with a local carrier . . . my two checked bags were overweight. This is where my prayers joined with your prayers…the ticket agent looked at me, did a head nod and said “no problem.”

Also, it was really handy to have an Indian cell phone with me. I was able to call Themrei and let him know I would be arriving on a different airline one hour later. While I was in the airport, I also confirmed our hotel reservation for the trip home. I had a bad experience with Delhi once and I don’t want to have it happen again.

Okay–everything went well in the final flight and it is now about 6:30pm and I am ready for a good night’s sleep. My meetings with LTC and SAS leadership and pastors will take most of Tuesday and then I will be out in the villages on Wednesday through Friday, inviting believers to next week’s discipleship training.

Thank you for praying.

The check-in and security lines were very short so it didn’t take long for me to get to the gate and find a comfortable seat to wait for my 4:45pm flight. The plane wasn’t crowded so there were some empty seats around me.

The flight was uneventful and really wasn’t all that hard. I just got on the plane, took my seat, and then 15+ hours later I got out of my seat, off the plane and shazaam . . . I am in Dubai!! Now it’s just a hop, skip and a jump and I will be there.

I have a couple of hours here and then go to Delhi, Calcutta and finally Bagdogra. I will arrive at the Hotel Appolo in Siliguri at about 2pm on Monday. (That will be 1:30am Monday for you.)