I want to share a couple of excerpts from my personal journal with you.
Feb. 8th
"Today was confusing . . . We woke up and did some evangelism with our supervisor to kill some time. Our anticipation was geared towards the promised reunion with the 6 boys from the slum who want to know Jesus. We went home and waited to go to the slum. We never went. This was our shot! Our sign from God had come in the form of these 6 guys, right? Surely God isn't closing that door. Why would He have has us meet them? What was the purpose? If there is some lesson we are supposed to be learning from this, I don't see it. This is too important to concede just to teach me. Am I too selfish? Is my focus wrong? Was it my fault? I could be. Any percentage, no matter how small it may be, leaves a door open that has me believing that to be the reason. I need to hear God on this. Holy Spirit speak to me now and block out and lies or condemnation. Give me patience."
Feb. 11th
" . . . As I read on (in Genesis), I see Abram in Egypt during a famine. God has sent him to Negeb and his aim is to get there. Why stop and go to Egypt? I first thought this to be disobedience. He also lies to Pharaoh and calls Sarai his sister. Why hide the truth? Is this God's will? Is Abram a coward? God answers me. No. Abram is wise. He received two promises: 1) He will be blessed. 2) He will have numerous offspring. Neither of those had seen fruition yet. He was not wealthy and Sarai was barren. A famine came which meant death for anyone in the Bethel hill country. He had to go to Egypt survive and Pariah would had he known of his marriage to Sarai. This decision to leave and lie not only saved his life (and his line) but it fulfills God's promise to bless him. Abram, having curried favor with Pharaoh in lying, receives livestock and possessions. He then leaves with his wife a wealthy man still able to birth a nation. What foresight! God give me eyes to preserve myself in wisdom that I too may reproduce Christ. I am barren in India and must be cautious so that I can procreate Jesus in another before I leave. Do not let me leave India without spiritual offspring!"
The first entry comes one week after we met the slum guys who wanted Jesus. This was the night they stood us up and the last time we'd be in a setting with them where we could share with a translator. God opened that door with those 6 guys on January 31st like I said in the last post. I believe God opened it for a reason. There had been no action from the family or from our pastor since that last post that would indicate the two parties would ever work together. At one point, I painted a negative picture of the family to you. That was wrong of me. They stood in the way of that purpose. The purpose being: reaching the youth of Bangalore for Christ. This was not limited to the educated youth of Bangalore. We desired for those guys to know Jesus too! Back then, I read in my journals that they were the people God brought me here for.
The second entry is just as important. It came days later and you'll see me analyzing what appears to be Genesis 12. God was speaking to me through it. He wanted me to know that His desire is for me to have Christ reproduced in others as Abram was promised offspring and blessing. I hit a point on this trip where I didn't believe either of those entries would see happy endings. I accepted that God wanted to teach me something about moral victories and learning ambiguous, cliche lessons from seemingly disappointing ministry circumstances. What a fool I am for thinking God wanted to settle for less!
The faithful readers of this blog have followed the story through all the highs and lows. We've had difficulty finding people who want Jesus. Then there was the ongoing struggle of having slum guys thrown in our path only to have them ripped away. We've had aimless trips to a village that sidelined us from evangelism in the city. We've had confusion concerning our purpose here and the church we will work and associate with. And, most recently, we've had fruitless labor in the evangelism aspect of our ministry. We fought so stubbornly for the right to share with youth and ironically enough, no one was interested. We've felt powerless and hopeless more times than I care to admit here in India. What else could we do? We've had the parable of the sower beaten to death for us. People constantly encouraged us that sometimes the seed falls on bad soil but you never know when that good soil is just around the corner. In either case, God is pleased that we are working. It is helpful! But I know God had more in store than a pat on the back for being bold enough to share. Like I've said before, that isn't hard for me. Apparently trusting Him is. He taught me that instead. The lessons are not as opaque as they were a month ago.
Since last Wednesday, God has answered our prayers and gave us that coffee shop worker and the Buddhist monk's brother. You know this because I posted it the other day. We met again with the worker again and will do so twice a week to search the scriptures deeply. He is understanding his purpose, Jesus' commission and the joy of salvation. He is different. I don't see the same guy at all. He is no longer drinking or smoking either. God is working tirelessly in his life! This is pleasing to me and is a clear sign from Hid that He is blessing this city. I could come home satisfied. God provided the offspring as promised. He keeps His promises! But what about those slum guys? What happened to them?
We have the translator now! We just have no opportunities to meet with them. It just so happened that Sunday, March 17th, God orchestrated a masterpiece right before us. We had left church in a great mood. The study with our new disciple went well and he understands our work with him will end soon and the pastor will take over. We were going to call it a day and rest. God had a different plan. The father of the house called us down and said he wanted us to meet with the slum guys in the old church. We asked who would translate and he offered his fifteen year old son. We accepted the invitation and began thinking about how we would handle this meeting. This was our big chance. These are the guys we were ready to go all in for! We called our pastor.
One thing lead to another, and after a series of nerve-racking events, we were in a room with 16 guys from the slum who have not accepted Jesus but were curious. The pastor was on his way. They started to get antsy. I couldn't say anything to them because they didn't understand me. Boredom and confusion set in and it was obvious that everyone in that room was uncomfortable. I just started praying. Jesus needed to work and provide us with something. Why answer our prayers to get us with these guys and have us blow this opportunity? Just then our pastor walked through the door and a silence fell over the room. All eyes on him. Everyone leaned in with grins eagerly anticipating his first words. He sat down and proceeded to usher in the Spirit in a way I hadn't seen in a long time. For an hour and a half, he spoke and prayed. He got to know them and joked with them for a bit to break the tension. He made them laugh. He then made them think. Most of them don't think critically. They haven't examined their lives or worldview. He challenged them and shed new light on Jesus. He shared what Christ has done in his life and the radical change he experienced. They were touched by it and completely zoned in. They hung on his every word. We laid hands on every one of them and he began prophesying and declaring the peace and salvation in their lives that only Jesus can provide. They surrendered to Jesus their idols and their lives. We have the pile of idols that they gave up sitting in our room now. I didn't understand a single word that was spoken in that room. It was all in Tamil. We sat there speechless. God used us to put those 16 guys in a room with our pastor.
14 guys came to accept Jesus as their Savior that night. You math geniuses out there see that two of them did not. One of them left. He had an evil spirit in him and he refused to give up his idols. He wasn't willing to go all the way to the cross. This actually comforted me all the more about the others. It showed their sincerity. He walked out of the room. My heart broke. But the others stood strong. Another one stayed and received prayer but wasn't ready to accept yet. That's fine! I respect that. But I will pray that he thinks on that night this week. I say that because we are meeting them again next Sunday. They can't wait to come back. They all talked amongst themselves about how they will tell everyone they know about what Jesus has done. It's not our pastor they worshiped either. They understand that his power comes from Jesus. They left changed and wanting to follow up. God moved in a powerful way. For those who have seen Father of Lights, Furious Love, and Finger of God, it was kind of like that. We couldn't believe it. We asked and God provided and came through in ways we didn't think possible. Our plan back when I wrote that journal entry up top was pretty shoddy. We couldn't envision what God was seeing. We didn't have any of this in mind. His timing and work is greater than ours.
So we have no loose ends. There are no stones left unturned. God brought us the guys. God brought us hard times in the village. He made us desperate and dependent on that mountain. He made us wait. He made us pray and fail for a season. Then He brought a terrestrial downpour of blessing that was completely out of our control. At no point on this trip could we take credit for anything. God brought us all the people and gave us all the tools to glorify Him. I've learned that much this semester. He'll get His glory. One way or another, He'll get it.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Thursday, March 7, 2013
The Victor
We are halfway there. Your dedication in prayer has touched God's heart. I believe the last thing I mentioned was the meeting with the father of this family. We needed to discuss our church situation and see how open-minded he was to letting us try other fellowships. I'm going to save you from enduring an incredibly long and frustrating story and just say we are free to choose our own church. We talked with the father Wednesday night and he understands where we are coming from.
Despite all of the drama, we are offering ourselves to serve in the slums all the more! We enjoy that ministry and, due to family travels, we haven't been in over two weeks. We want to go. We like what we do there. The family's hectic village schedule has inhibited us from being there. Our role in their church is to work hard in the slums. We told them, "If you want to win the slum, win those six guys." Some of you may remember an emotional and powerful night where we met six men in the slums who wanted Jesus. For those of you keeping score at home, it's been over 35 days since we have seen them. We can't call them because we don't have their numbers or speak Tamil. We pushed the family to arrange opportunities to share and nothing ever opened up. They need to get these influential young men to grow in faith and labor in that slum with the family. We leave in two months. They'll be here. Things started piecing together. The family now realizes what we are and why we are here. Praise God!
So we are done with the family church. Where to now? If you read the last post, you'll also remember a haven we found in Bangalore. I can't say the name of the church it the name or the pastor. Those who Skype and FaceTime me know a lot about this man and his ministry. I want to go all in with it. We have probably five days a week where we are working with this church at some capacity and fulfilling our mission here. He is a man with big dreams but he doesn't spread himself thin. He understands that discipleship will change this nation; not another concert or crusade. Urban India has money and resources. Giving them more resources from our country isn't going to help them eternally. The richest man and the poorest man are headed for the same place if they don't have Christ. Spiritually they are dying. This pastor understands this and is set out to make a difference. And he is!
We will stem the flow of work with the Indian evangelism group. They have more laborers and discipleship groups than I could have ever imagined at first. Weird as it sounds, they can't make use of us like we thought. Our role there is to encourage who they have right now and teach them to share and disciple. That is without a doubt an important task! But this pastor has a good ministry going but needs a couple of young, fearless guys to come in hungry and work with him. Two came into his life a week ago. He has a ministry with African students which are coming in large numbers to Bangalore. They learn English and get degrees with cheaper tuition so they can go back home and work. Bangalore has as many residents from Africa, Northern Asia, the Middle East and Europe as it does natives to India. We need to reach these foreigners while their here as well as reach the Indian people. Allowing them to go home and let God change their communities. That is one aspect of his vision.
He also, as expected, has a tremendous heart for the city and his fellow countrymen. He leads many discipleship groups and evangelism teams through the unreached parts of the city. It's so tempting for us to stay in the pockets of town where there are believers to lean on. He's taking us into the heart of darkness and wants to fight where the odds seem against him. He just wants people to know Jesus. He's a lot like me and my teammate.
So as we remember the six guys from the slums, we remember the language barrier is the issue. We also don't have a consistent leader to arrange the meeting. My partner was struck with an epiphany last night that our new pastor speaks two languages: English and Tamil. Why not have him interpret for us and then disciple them after we leave? We knew God would bring it all together. He wasn't going to provide such a clear opportunity and rip it from us. He has provided a way. This man and those boys are linked through us. We were meant to come here and meet them so that they could meet each other. It's beautiful.
It's going to be a good relationship that we hope carries on after we leave. He fully expects us to come back every now and again for varying spans of time to continue our work. He's laboring till the end. And when it's all said and done, he wants to be fishing for men alongside us.
We are now looking at slum work, the church, Bible study, African ministry, Indian evangelism groups, and college work with our actual supervisor. Our calendar is filled all the way until we leave this city. We are having to turn down opportunities that we would have killed for a month ago. We are busy. We aren't complaining. This is exactly what we wanted and are thrilled to be doing it. Pray that it has a lasting impact.
Despite all of the drama, we are offering ourselves to serve in the slums all the more! We enjoy that ministry and, due to family travels, we haven't been in over two weeks. We want to go. We like what we do there. The family's hectic village schedule has inhibited us from being there. Our role in their church is to work hard in the slums. We told them, "If you want to win the slum, win those six guys." Some of you may remember an emotional and powerful night where we met six men in the slums who wanted Jesus. For those of you keeping score at home, it's been over 35 days since we have seen them. We can't call them because we don't have their numbers or speak Tamil. We pushed the family to arrange opportunities to share and nothing ever opened up. They need to get these influential young men to grow in faith and labor in that slum with the family. We leave in two months. They'll be here. Things started piecing together. The family now realizes what we are and why we are here. Praise God!
So we are done with the family church. Where to now? If you read the last post, you'll also remember a haven we found in Bangalore. I can't say the name of the church it the name or the pastor. Those who Skype and FaceTime me know a lot about this man and his ministry. I want to go all in with it. We have probably five days a week where we are working with this church at some capacity and fulfilling our mission here. He is a man with big dreams but he doesn't spread himself thin. He understands that discipleship will change this nation; not another concert or crusade. Urban India has money and resources. Giving them more resources from our country isn't going to help them eternally. The richest man and the poorest man are headed for the same place if they don't have Christ. Spiritually they are dying. This pastor understands this and is set out to make a difference. And he is!
We will stem the flow of work with the Indian evangelism group. They have more laborers and discipleship groups than I could have ever imagined at first. Weird as it sounds, they can't make use of us like we thought. Our role there is to encourage who they have right now and teach them to share and disciple. That is without a doubt an important task! But this pastor has a good ministry going but needs a couple of young, fearless guys to come in hungry and work with him. Two came into his life a week ago. He has a ministry with African students which are coming in large numbers to Bangalore. They learn English and get degrees with cheaper tuition so they can go back home and work. Bangalore has as many residents from Africa, Northern Asia, the Middle East and Europe as it does natives to India. We need to reach these foreigners while their here as well as reach the Indian people. Allowing them to go home and let God change their communities. That is one aspect of his vision.
He also, as expected, has a tremendous heart for the city and his fellow countrymen. He leads many discipleship groups and evangelism teams through the unreached parts of the city. It's so tempting for us to stay in the pockets of town where there are believers to lean on. He's taking us into the heart of darkness and wants to fight where the odds seem against him. He just wants people to know Jesus. He's a lot like me and my teammate.
So as we remember the six guys from the slums, we remember the language barrier is the issue. We also don't have a consistent leader to arrange the meeting. My partner was struck with an epiphany last night that our new pastor speaks two languages: English and Tamil. Why not have him interpret for us and then disciple them after we leave? We knew God would bring it all together. He wasn't going to provide such a clear opportunity and rip it from us. He has provided a way. This man and those boys are linked through us. We were meant to come here and meet them so that they could meet each other. It's beautiful.
It's going to be a good relationship that we hope carries on after we leave. He fully expects us to come back every now and again for varying spans of time to continue our work. He's laboring till the end. And when it's all said and done, he wants to be fishing for men alongside us.
We are now looking at slum work, the church, Bible study, African ministry, Indian evangelism groups, and college work with our actual supervisor. Our calendar is filled all the way until we leave this city. We are having to turn down opportunities that we would have killed for a month ago. We are busy. We aren't complaining. This is exactly what we wanted and are thrilled to be doing it. Pray that it has a lasting impact.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Fresh Start
My dad used to joke with me saying that I've never met a stranger. My uncle (his brother) is the same way. If you are sitting next to me on a plane, in a restaurant, or at a ball game, get ready to listen. I have, over time, developed an eye for those situations where the person isn't in the mood to chat. However, my love for sharing my life and learning about the lives of others shines forth. My friends can attest to this. I sat next to a middle aged man on the way to the Dominican Republic once. I had him in tears 15 minutes in as he was telling me about his mother who just died and how he doesn't know what he's going to do without her. We talked it out and I helped him through it. My friends, Matt and Alex laughed and thought, "Oh, of course. He's always talking to someone!"
If you cross my path, you aren't a stranger. You're a friend. You're family. This has translated well in the evangelistic setting.
If you remember the last post, you'll remember that we were scheduled for another short village trip that had no purpose. We met with our supervisor and have already got the ball rolling with changes we need to make. We also did exactly what I said we would do. My teammate and I had to make up for lost time by working twice as hard. We met about a dozen students last week and shared with all of them.
Regarding to the trip that we were supposed to take to the village, it was important that we didn't go. We had leads and contacts coming our way that were too good to pass up this weekend and we needed to be in Bangalore. The problem was we had no alibi and no place to stay for the weekend (we are not allowed to stay in the family's house alone). We prayed for something to come up and rescue us from another three day stint in the village. God provided there too. In "Blind Faith", I described a group to you that is made up of Indian evangelists. Because of our trips we have been forced to cancel days of evangelism with them. They already had a wavering trust in us to begin with. Us being unavailable for two weeks didn't help our situation. We were supposed to meet with one of their staff on Wednesday night to share on a campus with him. We were excited but nervous. Would he be angry with us? Will he show up? We prayed that God would mend our relationship with them. We had no idea how powerfully He would answer that prayer.
We were waiting on our friend at the university and shared with a guy in the meantime. Our friend showed up halfway through and smiled when he saw us working ahead of him. We finished up and shook his hand apologizing over and over again for letting him down. He forgave and was gracious to us assuring us there was no problem. He brought two guys our age who also work for their organization and we hung out for a while. They went on to tell us that there are "camps" that they do. These are what we would think of as weekend retreats that campus ministries back home would do. They do three or four a year. One of them was last weekend. The exact days we needed plans and it also includes lodging and food. We couldn't believe how perfect this was. It seemed too good to be true. It is for new believers and seekers to come and learn more about Jesus. Three days of teaching and worship with fellowship in between. They want us to come and help lead it. I could hardly sit still I was so excited. We accepted.
We went and the retreat was held at a small Bible college on the outskirts of town. About 25 students came to learn more about being disciples. We felt like this was a good opportunity to help these young believers get their feet under them as they go back out to school. Our role for the weekend was never made clear but we took the opportunity to talk to all the guys we could and offer help to them in their universities. They were all very moved over the weekend and want to live more radically for Christ. Most new Christians are very timid. They are terrified to share with their friends because it might ruin the relationship and rejection terrifies them. They come from Christian families for the most part which helps quite a bit. But they tend to stay in a very tight circle of believers that rarely grows. One of them really connected with us over in small group time and during breaks. We learned he was the reason we came that weekend as he really wanted to have us meet some of his atheist friends and talk to them. We were thrilled to help any of them out in any way we could teaching them about following Jesus and making disciples themselves! God wants us to reproduce Christ in another and they now know that your faith is not meant to be locked inside of you but to be shared with others.
We are also going to a church that meets in a coffee shop and is mostly people our age. This is beneficial because it gives us a place to direct seekers to if they want to know Christ. We are also getting filled. For the first two months, we went to church every week in a place where the message was in Tamil and we were put in another room to watch the kids as they colored. We must be fed. God was gracious for the first half of the trip by teaching us through His Word and through the Spirit alone. We actually went quite a while just learning under Him as Father and being filled daily from a having good relationship with Him. I've never had a season of life where I didn't have an older man pouring into me since I came to faith at the age of sixteen. This was new for me. God took the reigns for a time and did it Himself. The Spirit was my guide and the Father was my teacher. But it is crucial that we find another place and we have! We left the retreat Sunday morning and took the bus back to our end of town where this fellowship meets. The pastor/worship leader is incredible and really understand us. He speaks perfect English and has a fairly good American accent. The worship is modern and powerful. It reminded me a lot of home in some ways but was completely different in others. The prayer time before the sermon was very open-ended, the people were terrific, the teaching was solid, the vision matches ours, it was the most refreshing thing we've done here. People from Africa, Engalnd, India and America come to fellowship here and there are families as well as college students. It's a perfect fit. The pastor and his wife took us out to lunch afterwards and got to know us. They're great. They also have good ministry opportunities for us throughout the week as well as Bible studies. This is an answered prayer.
So things are going well. We are meeting a lot of people and a lot of good things are happening. We still need to convey the importance of this to the family. They don't really understand what is happening and we feel a tension in the house. They aren't happy. A talk is coming that none of us are looking forward to. Pray for them and for us. But also pray for the work that is happening and praise God for it! We have seen a tremendous amount of change and are doing well.
If you cross my path, you aren't a stranger. You're a friend. You're family. This has translated well in the evangelistic setting.
If you remember the last post, you'll remember that we were scheduled for another short village trip that had no purpose. We met with our supervisor and have already got the ball rolling with changes we need to make. We also did exactly what I said we would do. My teammate and I had to make up for lost time by working twice as hard. We met about a dozen students last week and shared with all of them.
Regarding to the trip that we were supposed to take to the village, it was important that we didn't go. We had leads and contacts coming our way that were too good to pass up this weekend and we needed to be in Bangalore. The problem was we had no alibi and no place to stay for the weekend (we are not allowed to stay in the family's house alone). We prayed for something to come up and rescue us from another three day stint in the village. God provided there too. In "Blind Faith", I described a group to you that is made up of Indian evangelists. Because of our trips we have been forced to cancel days of evangelism with them. They already had a wavering trust in us to begin with. Us being unavailable for two weeks didn't help our situation. We were supposed to meet with one of their staff on Wednesday night to share on a campus with him. We were excited but nervous. Would he be angry with us? Will he show up? We prayed that God would mend our relationship with them. We had no idea how powerfully He would answer that prayer.
We were waiting on our friend at the university and shared with a guy in the meantime. Our friend showed up halfway through and smiled when he saw us working ahead of him. We finished up and shook his hand apologizing over and over again for letting him down. He forgave and was gracious to us assuring us there was no problem. He brought two guys our age who also work for their organization and we hung out for a while. They went on to tell us that there are "camps" that they do. These are what we would think of as weekend retreats that campus ministries back home would do. They do three or four a year. One of them was last weekend. The exact days we needed plans and it also includes lodging and food. We couldn't believe how perfect this was. It seemed too good to be true. It is for new believers and seekers to come and learn more about Jesus. Three days of teaching and worship with fellowship in between. They want us to come and help lead it. I could hardly sit still I was so excited. We accepted.
We went and the retreat was held at a small Bible college on the outskirts of town. About 25 students came to learn more about being disciples. We felt like this was a good opportunity to help these young believers get their feet under them as they go back out to school. Our role for the weekend was never made clear but we took the opportunity to talk to all the guys we could and offer help to them in their universities. They were all very moved over the weekend and want to live more radically for Christ. Most new Christians are very timid. They are terrified to share with their friends because it might ruin the relationship and rejection terrifies them. They come from Christian families for the most part which helps quite a bit. But they tend to stay in a very tight circle of believers that rarely grows. One of them really connected with us over in small group time and during breaks. We learned he was the reason we came that weekend as he really wanted to have us meet some of his atheist friends and talk to them. We were thrilled to help any of them out in any way we could teaching them about following Jesus and making disciples themselves! God wants us to reproduce Christ in another and they now know that your faith is not meant to be locked inside of you but to be shared with others.
We are also going to a church that meets in a coffee shop and is mostly people our age. This is beneficial because it gives us a place to direct seekers to if they want to know Christ. We are also getting filled. For the first two months, we went to church every week in a place where the message was in Tamil and we were put in another room to watch the kids as they colored. We must be fed. God was gracious for the first half of the trip by teaching us through His Word and through the Spirit alone. We actually went quite a while just learning under Him as Father and being filled daily from a having good relationship with Him. I've never had a season of life where I didn't have an older man pouring into me since I came to faith at the age of sixteen. This was new for me. God took the reigns for a time and did it Himself. The Spirit was my guide and the Father was my teacher. But it is crucial that we find another place and we have! We left the retreat Sunday morning and took the bus back to our end of town where this fellowship meets. The pastor/worship leader is incredible and really understand us. He speaks perfect English and has a fairly good American accent. The worship is modern and powerful. It reminded me a lot of home in some ways but was completely different in others. The prayer time before the sermon was very open-ended, the people were terrific, the teaching was solid, the vision matches ours, it was the most refreshing thing we've done here. People from Africa, Engalnd, India and America come to fellowship here and there are families as well as college students. It's a perfect fit. The pastor and his wife took us out to lunch afterwards and got to know us. They're great. They also have good ministry opportunities for us throughout the week as well as Bible studies. This is an answered prayer.
So things are going well. We are meeting a lot of people and a lot of good things are happening. We still need to convey the importance of this to the family. They don't really understand what is happening and we feel a tension in the house. They aren't happy. A talk is coming that none of us are looking forward to. Pray for them and for us. But also pray for the work that is happening and praise God for it! We have seen a tremendous amount of change and are doing well.
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