Sunday was the last day of ministry for me there. I worshiped with the students first. The men sit on one side and the girls on the other. Someone shared a devotional thought. Another person spoke on communion. We sang hymns, celebrated communion and then sang some praise choruses. I shared a message on devoting our lives to the Word of God. I couldn’t keep from getting a little emotional saying “good-bye” and telling them how privileged I felt to sow into their lives, knowing that they were going back to their communities to proclaim the Gospel and that would mean finding true hope in Jesus for so many.

From there I ran over to the other service and shared an abbreviated form of the same message there (devotion to the word). After the service, everyone shared a meal together. Yes, rice and curry.

Ministry was done.  I just needed to share some small financial gifts with some of the staff. Their needs are so great and they get by on so little. I gave a little gift for Thomas the cook who always greeted me with, “Praise the Lord!”. He sent me home with a bag of homegrown peppercorn. His son is doing well in college and will have a very different life.

I packed one suitcase of damp dirty clothes inside the empty one and got ready to go the next morning. Now I could relax and read and just enjoy the people I had come to know there. We were a little late getting off to the airport. My mosquito net went to a family that had just moved near a place that was heavily infested and already had a son down with a high fever.

The ride to the airport was another miracle. Brakes squealed a number of times as we missed other vehicles by inches. These guys should drive in the Indy! I had to pry my hand off the handhold when we got to the airport.

From Cochin to Bombay, from Bombay to Newark. As I said in the first blog, God was so gracious to have them bump me up to Business Class. The only reason I can think of is God knew how I was feeling physically. The Bombay Neward flight was 15 hours, then a two hour layover and another 4 hour flight to Phoenix.  Finished the books I brought, What’s So Great About Christianity and Meet the Rabbis. Caught a shuttle to where I parked. Tire was almost flat but I had put a pump in the car. It was a wonderful 92 degrees in Phoenix and nice and dry that morning.  I couldn’t get over how comfortable I felt to be dry and not sweating. A two hour drive and I was back at home sweet home.

I thank the Lord for your support and pray that the ministry, books, vitamins, pens, financial gifts and prayer continues to be a blessing to the people I met. Pray for the many ministers who really live on next to nothing and have families to feed. Many of them really do give their all day after day to see people come into the Kingdom and find a living hope! Please continue to pray for the staff at IEM and the students both presently studying and graduates out in the field. Pray for Dr. Mathai and his family and the board. Thanks again for making the trip and the gifts to the ministry possible.

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On Saturday the mission called the workers in the area to come for a Christian workers conference. This is a chance for the people in the field to come in and get some training. Some of the people that are ministering have had very little training and only very basic Bible knowledge.

After praying about what to share, I decided on the attributes of God. I hadn’t preached on it in 8 years but knew I had the files and was able to print off four sermons. In the end I decided on 3, The Sovereignty of God, The Holiness of God, and the Love of God.  Because of translation time you have to double the time it would normally take.

A couple of the attendees had recently been beaten for their faith by the predominant religious group in the area.  As they came out of their Bible study, the mob beat them so severely that one of them was coughing blood and the other was hospitalized for a months. They were very attentive and very eager to get the book I had brought. The mission helped the ones that lived the furthest away with traveling expenses as the cost is a real sacrifice for most of them.

Some of them were from a mountainous area where tea is grown. One man that wasn’t able to come had planted 5 churches. He travels between each by bicycle, and some are a great distance. He has five children, the youngest is 5 years old, severely handicapped, deaf, mute, and without legs. This evangelist is one of the ones on the waiting list for a scooter to help him get to his places of ministry.

The workers conference swelled the numbers at the mission for lunch so a caterer was brought in to serve everyone. The students enjoy this as they get a little variety from the usual meals.

Also at the conference were the family that our church sponsors, Binu and his wife Brighty and their baby boy, a gorgeous family.  Binu recently moved as he wasn’t having much success where he was and a family invited him to begin a work in a new area. After moving there he decided to do a crusade (still an acceptable word in India) so he fasted and prayed for 19 days and then fasted the additional three days of the conference.  Three families came to Christ and are part of the new church. I was able to give Binu most of the funds he needed to get a refrigerator.  It was a little short of the total funds as we wanted him to earn or raise the balance. A neighbor took him in their vehicle to shop for one, and that neighbor made up the difference in the price. They were so excited.  Imagine being a family with a baby in a hot muggy climate and not having the smallest of refrigerators!

One more day of ministry – two more sermons and I’ll be heading back. The things I brought for the children, vitamins and pens will be distributed after I go.  The camera I borrowed for the trip has unique connection. so I have wait for the owner to come by before I download the pictures. Hopefully soon. This AM my granddaughter has been up since 2:30 so I’m trying to watch her and do this at the same time. 2 year olds are such a joy and such a pain all at the same time.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the final chapter on the trip.

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After ministering to Meni, the flight was ready to board. Why am I still amazed that God is sovereign over all the details of life? I think we should expect it. We landed in Cochin and the mission driver and vehicle was there to pick us up. Having a driver sounds like a luxury, but actually, it not only gives someone a job to feed his family, but traffic is indescribable.  Every imaginable mode of transportation is vying to get there before everyone else and that is going on in both directions. Just one highlight to help you get an idea. We were passing a gas tanker, a motorcycle is on the other side of him, coming at us is a bus and it is being overtaken by another bus. Instead of slowing down, you speed up and somehow the side of the car misses the tanker and the bus as both passing vehicles miraculously slide past one another in front of the vehicles they were overtaking. It should be a video game. At least that way you wouldn’t die when you made a slight miscalculation. Add to that the fact that the roads have no names or signs and you see the need for a driver.

At the mission, it was drier than expected. This is monsoon season and there are puddles on the ground everywhere, but it rained only one night and part of one day the whole time I was there. The mission has some very nice buildings, but still, forget about hot water, (you wouldn’t want it anyway) and put a mosquito net over your bed. Meals for everyone are cooked with rubber tree wood. All 200 meals three times a day are cooked by one man, Thomas.

The cook for the house where the director and I stayed was away as her mother was in the hospital. Pray for her. That means the first three days were rice and curry or japate and curry – every meal. Not bad – for awhile. Then my intestinal track began a rebellion. ugh! Good thing I brought my own TP – it is not used in most of India. Don’t shake with the left hand!

I taught classes at 9am, 2pm, and 7pm. I could tell there were some very sharp students with English skills and some of the first year students that had only arrived the week before that couldn’t understand almost anything I was saying.  Everyone got a book.  This year there were only 8 girls as the girls from the North were afraid to travel on the trains due to the recent terrorist bombings. There were about 50 boys. The guitars we brought before were still in use but very worn.  Between classes I would prepare for the next class or visit the children. Before I forget, the education standard at the mission is so good that it has been recognized in the US qualifying a graduate for post graduate work.

There were around 100 children, more boys than girls. The boys have a “warden” named Immanuel. I had him in some classes three years ago, a very dear brother. He makes sure the boys study, bathe, wash their clothes, get to the school bus, learn to sing praise songs, prays with them individually and in a group, and looks after any that are sick among other things.

The “warden” for the girls is an older woman who was with the girls on my previous 2 visits. Things are very strict. No talking with the boys.  Saris must be a certain length. Modesty is highly valued. They go to school at 9am and return at 5pm. Saturday and Sunday afternoon they get to play in the park at the mission. They all want their picture taken and to shake your hand. They call older men “uncle” so when I would be near them they would always call out, “Uncle, uncle, take a photo!”  They love to see themselves in the camera.

For the most part they all seem happy. One little boy fell and scraped his face. One new girl 12 years of age cried wanting to see her mother. Her story was the norm. Husbands leave their wife. Either alcoholism or wanting to keep the money they make, or just the bad example of the stories of their promiscuous gods, but it is common. The wife then can’t get a job as a domestic if she has children to watch, so they leave them at a children’s home to be raised until they make enough money to take them back. Sometimes they never come back.

Classes went well and I was able to get through the main points of the book, John’s Rabbi, a book I had prepared for them on the background of John’s Gospel. Some of the men had great questions. While chopping wood for the kitchen he asked, “If Jesus is equal to God, why did he say, ‘The father is greater than I’?”  Another good one, “Why did Matthew record Jesus saying he would be in the heart of the earth 3 days and 3 nights if he died on Friday and rose Sunday morning?”  They rarely had a question on the topic I was teaching though I was able to show a connection.

Tomorrow, the one day Christian workers conference, a persecution story, and hopefully some pictures.

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