Dear...

We’re just two short hours away from loading up the TuckTuck/TupTup/TaTa/Taxi Truck and heading out to Chennai Airport, leaving our new family, half of our hearts, and this beautiful mission behind. Today was a pretty rough day for the Team. We actually had less to do than our typical VBS days (today’s VBS was the wrap-up/awards/goodbyes), but the emotional impact on all of us has really hit every member in a very real way. I’m happy to say that your India 2012 Team left everything on the field. We loved hard and did everything we could to give the last ounce of our energy and attention to these kids. For some, that meant sneaking off to fill up 200 water balloons. For others, that meant hanging with the kids in the main room 2 hours after VBS had ended. Still others spent their downtime heading into the village to minister to the families and communicate Christ’s love one last time. When the Taxi Truck hauled the neighboring village kids out of the Mission Center, the guys ran behind the truck in 107 degree weather, waving and screaming, “Yesu unnai nesikaraar” (Jesus loves you) and “Naan unnai nesikaraar” (I love you) until the kids were out of sight. So much love was poured out today.

But before I close out this blog and THE BLOG one last time, I want to share the experience that just about broke our team today. At the end of VBS, different kids stand up and share what VBS meant to them, what they learned and what they are taking away. This was a special time at Poonthanthalam, but today was on a totally different level. The first handful of kids that stood up began to recount, in great detail, the different Grain Game illustrations that they remember, including the application and meaning of each. Others shared their appreciation for the skits and how they had learned lessons from them as well. But then, Velu stood up and instead of recalling his favorite or most meaningful memory, he began to profess his love for individual team members. Instead of just standing at the front as others had done, he was moved to stand right in front of the team. He shared how he felt love from us and for us - how we were family. Then, one by one, kid after kid stood up and spoke directly and very personally to different team members sharing how we had impacted their lives and would never forget us. Finally, Pastor Nandekumar stood up and spoke for about 5 minutes, sharing the story of the North River Church/Mission Center’s development and how instrumental we were in getting the village to accept the Mission Center. He shared how we have helped lay a solid foundation of ministry that would impact this area. And then he said something so meaningful and yet, so entirely difficult to accept. He looked at the team and said, “No one wants you to leave. You being here has been like Heaven has come down”. So much of this statement destroys me and I don’t know how to accept it. Imagine spending a week being loved, told you were great, received backrubs, foot rubs, served in every way…and then told that it was like Heaven was among the servants. I’m still struggling how to accept this when we were so obviously the recipients of the blessing, not the other way around. It wrecked the women. Fortunately, the men didn’t cry….but the inside of my cheek is probably still bleeding from biting it to keep from totally losing it like a wussy American. The outpouring of love TOWARDS us today is something we will never forget.

And it’s important to pass this on as well: we have said from Day One this is not the effort of a 7-man team. If you gave financially, if you have prayed for this mission, if you have written cards, if you have checked in on our families, if you have sacrificed in any way and joined this mission in spirit, this blessing and victory is yours as well. But, if you have joined us in this mission, even though we’re leaving soon, this mission isn’t over for anyone. There is still work to do. Only the ground in a handful of villages have been cracked. There’s a village directly across the river from the North River Mission Center that has never heard the truth about Jesus Christ. A small river stands in the way from reaching an unreached people group. We learned this week that two-thirds of the unreached people groups in the world reside in India. There is still work to be done. Our prayer is that, as you have read this, your heart would be stirred to join, support and continue the work that God is doing here in India. This is only the beginning.

The Apostle Paul, in his letters, would conclude his communication with some specific messages to people/groups. In no way do I put myself in the Apostle Paul category, but if you’re going to try to write something meaningful, copy what the best do. So, here goes.

Dear friends and readers of this blog, thank you. Thank you for your support and encouragement during these past few weeks. We have intentionally not promoted numbers because that’s not the important measure of success on missions. However, in this instance, let me toss one out. In 2010, we had a staggering 1050 views/readers on our India 2010 blog. Before this blog is posted tonight, we’ve had over 3,200 page views for the 2012 blog. I share this to tell you that this has been such an encouragement to the team knowing that so many of you are with us in spirit. We don’t assume you’ve been praying. We know you have. We have felt your prayers for strength. For healing. For open doors. You have prayed for specific things that we have asked you to, and God has answered every single one of them. Last night, I asked you to pray for breeze for the first time (why I didn’t ask for this a week ago is so dumb). We woke up this morning, in India, in an open air facility…cold. Morganapriya shared with David this morning that her father, who every night goes to bed praying “Nagame” to his snake god, changed his prayer last night (following his talk with David) to “Oh Jesus, oh Jesus”. Also, Morganapriya’s father showed up to VBS today. And served food to the kids. You have done what we could not. You held our arms when we were tired. You share in every victory that Christ gave to us. You have been vital to the success of this mission and we love you.

Dear Faith Baptist, along with your prayer support and beautiful cards and notes of encouragement, you have financially given sacrificially. The support you gave to help us purchase resources has gone farther than any of us could’ve ever imagined. We’ve seen God at work in huge ways in the supplies! All that you have given to this specific mission has blessed the lives of all that we’ve come in contact with. Giving above and beyond in our economy is not something we jump at…but you did and God has blessed in ways that made carrying out this mission work much easier. Thank you for your generosity. But not only have you been a blessing to the India 2012 Team, David has shared on a daily basis how the ministry he carries out on a day-by-day basis is made possible because of the faithful financial support from Faith. We’re seeing your generosity first hand. God has and will continue to use you. On behalf of David and the Team, you are making this work possible.

Dear families, we love you. So often, emphasis is placed on the missionaries who leave and sacrifice. But as we are here reaping the blessings, you are at home attempting to carry on a normal life without much help. Every day you worry and pray harder for your Team, I believe, than most anyone else. Not a day goes by that we don’t, as a Team, pray for you. Your support and willingness to “share” us often goes unnoticed. But not by us. And more importantly, not by Jesus. You are with us and every spiritual blessing we receive is shared with you. You are our greatest support and (for some of us) the only reason we’re returning home. We love you and we can’t wait to see you at BWI (at 7:50 p.m. on Saturday, May 19th, Bill Bennett. Sorry…Betty Jo asked me to gently remind you).

Dear India 2012 Team, you are the best mission team I’ve ever worked with. God handpicked each one of you and you have served Him faithfully and well. You have not just sacrificed these past two weeks. You have given your weeknights, weekends…rearranged your schedules…worked on India stuff while trying to juggle work, family, school, church and life commitments. Every moment of your preparation has honored God and these past two weeks we have reaped the benefit of your preparation. You have honored God. You have loved well. You have changed lives. You have learned Tamil. You have given until it hurts. You have run the race. You began as a team, became a family and are now advocates. Finish the work. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Dear David Rajan, no words can communicate our appreciation for your hospitality, your patience, your ambulance service, your sense of humor…and most of all, your heart for India and seeing Jesus Christ raised up where no one else is trying. You are our hero and we stand with all of Heaven applauding your humility and obedience. As Hanneken stated in our debriefing last night, “We won’t change India, but David Rajan will”. This is truth. All of us - the team, our families, friends, your Faith Baptist Church - will lift you up to our Father in Heaven whom you serve with complete faithfulness. God bless you, Godfather.

Dear Jesus, we, as a church and team, are humbled by Your call to serve here. What You are accomplishing in India is a testament to how sovereign and good You are. Our desire has been to serve You faithfully and at every single step You have shown Yourself faithful to us. For Your protection, provision, strength, love, compassion, patience, peace, unity and wisdom, we give You and You alone praise. Any success has come directly from Your hand and You are glorious. In a land of darkness, You are shining the Light of Christ and waging war in the heavens for the people of India. Savior, win. Use as and keep us committed to Your mission. May we see Your glory and Jesus Christ lifted up as the Lord of these villages and communities. Hallelujah!

Thank you, everyone. We love you. This mission of Christ continues. Join Him.

And finally…

Dear India, be right back.

India 2012...

Now It's Time To Say Goodbye

Welcome to my least favorite blog I’ve ever written.

Why’s that? Thank you for asking. It’s because in just about 30 hours from now, Lord willing, our flight home will take off for Heathrow. I’m trying to think of something meaningful to say, but all that I’m thinking about is how lame it’s gonna be to say “Goodbye” to these kids. These kids are the most amazing kids I’ve ever met in my entire life. We spent the afternoon learning Tamil from them and playing a type of “Simon Says”, where they gave commands in Tamil and our team would have to obey. THEN, WE would give the commands in Tamil and we didn’t totally mess everything up! We’ve also learned some Scripture in Tamil and have teaching a verse to the kids - in their language - for them to memorize. We’ve been busting out “Power In The Blood” in Tamil, and over the past 2 weeks, we’ve learned one of their worship songs. And EVERYWHERE we go with them, it’s being sung. Even to day, this incredible 5-6 year old (guessing) little girl, Savitha (Suh-VEETH-uh) was standing in the middle of the field next to the Mission Center - completely by herself - singing the song over and over again. There was no audience except for Jesus- and she wouldn’t stop singing. She then saw a few of us watching her from on top of the 3rd story roof, and then we kept singing together. Ask someone to see the video. She’s remarkable. Whenever we say “Goodbye” for the day, there really isn’t a “Goodbye” to speak of. We say two things: “Yesu unaai nesikaraar” - “Jesus loves you”. Also, “Naan unnai nesikaran” - “I love you”. Again, this is not something that we say to make these kids feel good - out hearts are exploding with love. Every day, we get to experience complex “high five” handshake/fist bump combos. A new one is going around now. You slap hands sideways, slap the backs of the hands on the return and then fist bump. But on the first slap, you say, “Friend”. On the first bump, you say, “Brother”. That is the perfect picture of the relational climate here. These kids are not cute camp kids who we love for a week. These people genuinely feel like family. For the past few nights, the village kids have been sleeping in the Mission Center instead of their own homes. They don’t want this to end and they want to be near their “Aunts” and “Uncles”. It honestly hurts knowing that there’s a significant chance we won’t see them again this side of Jesus. But knowing that, in Jesus, we WILL see them some day is such a joy. We are so thankful for this Hope.

I hope this paints a picture for you about how close we’ve gotten to these people. When you see us at home and we share stories, videos, pictures of these kids, know that behind our smiles and, possibly, tears is a deep longing to be with our Indian family again. There are times when we think, “Man, I wish you could come to America with us”…but we don’t really say that… because we know that, while they may appear needy and underprivileged, they have more joy in the Holy Spirit and they love with the absolutely purest love…and we would never want to spoil that. But, man, these kids are going to be missed so much - and you should be proud of your India 2012 Team. They have loved SO hard and at great cost to themselves. When you see them, tell them “Thank you” for being the on-the-ground carriers of the love of Christ that we as a church and as THE Church want these kids to experience. It is life changing and it is laying so much groundwork for Christ to work in their lives. On this trip, we’ve really been blessed to have Justin Hanneken join the team. With his expertise in Missions, he’s been so helpful in putting things in proper perspective. Tonight as we talked, he shared how David Rajan, these Mission Centers and our partnership with them is so critical to these kids because they are experiencing something their parents never did: a Christian influence and message. It’s no wonder that the villagers are heavily Hindu - they’ve never been told different. As Justin said today, everyone sees kids as the keys to getting the parents. But what we fail to realize is that getting the kids in love with Jesus affects THEIR kids’ generations. These children didn’t have Christ as a part of their development - but the next generation will because of the work going on here now. This is why it is so vitally important that we partner and support David and this ministry. Groundwork for a lasting Christian influence is being set up daily and it is so exciting to see Light shine in the darkness. Remember Morganapriya from an earlier blog? Her family was the one with the gigantic snake pit - she’s the 16 year old….lone Christian in her family? David had the opportunity to talk with her father today for a long time outside the Mission Center. He even stated to David that he might actually show up to see what all of this VBS stuff with the White Americans is about. This is a Hindu man who acknowledges that the large snake in his snake pit has been following him around for 45 years. God is moving! Pray with boldness tonight that Morganapriya’s father shows up tomorrow and that he would be so convicted of his need for Christ that we would see Christ break through!
Speaking of God is moving, we had a great day today. And naturally, as soon as I said yesterday that we have this VBS thing figured out, we had another audible thrown at us. Normally, one(ish) hour in the morning and one(ish) hour in the afternoon. Lately, it’s been TWO hours in the morning, one in the p.m. Today, David tossed us the mic at 10:07 a.m. Lunch is at 1. We’re up to 3 hours in the morning. We had planned for 3 hours total between both morning/afternoon sessions…not solely for the morning session. We kept the Hidden Bouncy Ball game in our back pocket for the afternoon and the India 2012 Team TOTALLY rallied and covered almost 3 hours…only to find out at lunch that we would not need to cover another hour after lunch. But all of the preparation for this trip allowed the Team to totally move in the Spirit, spend time learning with the students and we still had more we could’ve done.

But here’s one of the best stories of the day. For the two VBS programs, we purchased materials for a total of 300 salvation bracelets. 150 at Poonthanthalam and 150 at North River. No sweat. Until you have 250 kids show up at Poonthanthalam. And, while that was awesome, we felt bad about not having anything for the North River kids. So, around 2 p.m., the ladies did inventory on the remaining bracelet supplies and discovered that we only had 53 bracelets remaining. We have discovered that, in India, you cannot give something to just one kid - you have to give something to EVERY kid…and usually twice. So, I was sent to do a headcount. We knew there were about 35 boys, so it wasn’t looking good. I went down and head counted. Guess how many kids.

53.

I counted AGAIN just to be sure.

53.

So, I go back to the ladies working on putting together the bracelets and I begin to count. I counted 5 times. I counted 5 times because every time I counted, I made a mistake. So, after all of the bracelets were completed, 3 of us sat down and counted. 53 exactly. Hallelujah.

But wait - there’s more. There’s always more.

I was bummed because we literally did not have a single extra salvation bracelet and some of the adults in the village seem to like them. After teaching on the bracelet colors and their meanings, Pastor Nandekumar did a great skit and memory aid to help the kids remember what they were wearing. We don’t speak the same language, but the Holy Spirit was clearly speaking through Him and He completely got it. The kids all line up to get a bracelet as they exited. We had two extra and everybody who wanted one - adults included - got one. There were 53 bracelets. It was counted repeatedly. The bodies/heads were counted repeatedly. We had extras. Loaves and fishes.

As they made their exit, they were instructed to run around the MC to the other side of the building…where the guys were waiting to hit them with water balloons. From the roof. It was amazing. We had so many water balloons and the kids were so excited to get drenched. Probably because the temperature was 108 degrees today. And I can hear you already - what was the teaching behind the water balloon game? It’s a very simple answer: the teaching is that water balloons are really fun to play with and American men will turn into little boys when given a water balloon to throw. They’re just fun. That’s all it was. We are planning on doing the same thing tomorrow, too. The issue is, we only have 475 water balloons left - will that be enough? Also, could we be done filling them up before June? The second question is the real hurdle. Following the VBS session, David offered to take anyone on the team out boating on the river. Jen, you will be happy to know, I kept my promise and got nowhere near the water today. Still no crocodile attacks on my life.

I need to bring this blog to a close - not because I couldn’t find something else to say, but because I just fell asleep typing mid-sentence and the page was filled with ‘L’’s and ‘K’’s. That’s code for, “Go to bed, dummy - everyone will be up at 5:30 a.m.” So, it’s that time again. Time to hunker down, pray for breeze and have God’s Spirit just pour over us for one more great day tomorrow. Please pray fervently for Morganapriya’s father. I would LOVE to testify tomorrow that he showed up. As we’ve playing outside, Betty Jo noted tonight that the villagers are always watching us out with the kids when they drive by - they’re so interested to see what’s going on. David even shared tonight that at the first mission center, Poonthanthalam, it took them 2-3 years to really get ingrained and develop relationships with their community. In 6 months, the North River Mission Center has grown a reputation in the village as the place to turn for help. God is blessing North River’s presence here and it is positioned in such a way that it could reach whole villages for Chris - please pray for this!

Please pray for rest tonight!
Please pray for breeze. It was crazy hot today and without a breeze (which there is none right now), we’ve got nothing.
Please pray for Morganapriya’s father. Pray that tomorrow would be the start of a village-wide revival. Pray that the snake following him for 45 years is killed. Pray that the snake pit worship site is destroyed.
Pray that the India 2012 Team would hold nothing back tomorrow and that we would love the kids with everything we have in us.
Pray that the kids would know that they are valued and precious to Jesus and that He wants a relationship with them.
Lastly, please pray for the Team and the kids as tomorrow is probably going to be a pretty emotional day of “Goodbyes”.

One more day. That’s it. Thank you for your support. We couldn’t do this without you.

The Godfather

I don’t how to start this blog.

That worked.

Hey errybody! Great day at North River. We’ve figured out how VBS works at North River - it’s on “India Time” and once we realized this, we were able to adjust and really get the most out of our experience today. Originally, the structure was to follow Poonthanthalam’s, where we led for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. That’s how we planned for Monday - but then Monday ended up being kind of chaotic with getting all of the kids in and situated…so we ended up taking an extra hour we weren’t planning on. Then, yesterday the kids were supposed to break into classes for their lessons…but with less than half returning, that got scrapped, so we had to cover another extra hour. The team totally rallied, but we were desperately running around behind the scenes trying to figure out how to fill. But then this morning, we said, “You know what…the plan is to break out into classes today. Let’s plan an extra hour”. And wouldn’t you know it…we had to cover an extra hour. But this time, the team busted it out! The group from Monday was able to return so we had a full house of 100 kids. We performed the “Fiery Furnace (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego)” skit and did five Grain Game illustrations today. We brought back Leon’s “Dawn and Pepper” (Christ’s blood taking power over sin) and Betty Jo’s “Lavente’s Candle” (Christ’s sacrifice allows all men to draw near to God), the “Human Pyramid”, and Betty Jo’s “Stars” illustration/handout. The problem was, though, that we had so many kids at Poonthanthalam, that we didn’t have enough stars left to hand out here. But the Lord provided and we ended up finding another 150 or so glow bracelets that we didn’t know we had (Miracle). So she was able to adapt her presentation and use glow bracelets to show how, as followers of Jesus, we are to shine His light in the darkness.

There was a fifth Grain Game illustration that we actually just developed this morning. I don’t know if I can technically call it a “Grain Game” illustration because it’s not technically sanctioned officially by “The Grain Game” geniuses, but it maintains a similar spirit, and after almost two full weeks of Grain Gaming, we’re feeling pretty good in our ability to use some creativity to illustrate some teaching. We were sitting around before VBS today trying to figure out what to do during the anticipated extra hour. We were staring at the balloons/pumps for balloon animals and someone got a genius idea to use them to talk about how God breathes life into us, molds us and shapes us and has a plan for us. Finally, my almost useless ability to fashion balloons into balloons slightly resembling some identifiable shapes was going to pay off! We played a game with the kids. I would pump up a balloon and before twisting it around into its final shape, they all had to guess what it was going to be. Naturally, no one was able to guess just by looking at a single balloon. I made a bee, an elephant, a sword, a flower, a parrot and a cross. The point was, at the end, that the balloons were mine, the pump was mine and the idea for what the balloon would be was mine and I was responsible for making it what it was. We taught out of Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 29:11 illustrating that God knows us so well because He formed us and has given us a special purpose. It was a really special time - super glad we were able to work that out.

Since you guys are familiar with the programs and the Grain Game illustrations, I want to share something very special and it might be the most important thing I write in these blogs. Tonight, I want to introduce you to David Rajan. All of you have heard of David - either in church, through a personal connection or simply by hearing his name in this blog. But not many of us really KNOW David Rajan. I want you to know David Rajan. Right out of the gate let me say this: I apologize to David in advance for any misquote or flubbed detail. I sincerely hope it doesn’t happen, but my tiny mind is incapable of containing every ounce of his greatness. I also freely acknowledge that I am entirely inadequate when it comes to communicating all that God is doing in and through David, but I will try tonight because I think it’s so important for you to know who he is. So, here goes.

David is a natural-born Indian citizen who also holds permanent resident status in America, which requires him to spend at least 6 months in America. However, his mission work here has called him to spend more and more time in India. When I asked him if he’s in danger of losing his permanent resident status, his response: “I’m ok with that. I can’t do evangelism if I have to go back and forth”. His focus, above every single thing in his life, is doing the work God has called him to. David came to America in 1984 for the purpose of trying to make a living for his family. But here’s the thing: this was a huge sacrifice because, in India, he belongs in the highest caste system. He’s a big deal (or at least, could be if he wanted to). But instead, he chose to try to make a life for his family here. So, leaving his wife, Ranee, and daughter, Shirani, in India, David came to America and, basically, lived out of Greyhound buses because they had a $120 monthly pass that would allow him to travel all over the country as much as he wanted. So, working as a traveling salesman loaded with wallets and other leather goods that Ranee was sending to him from India, David traveled all over selling his leather goods. One day, on a bus trip from Detroit to Baltimore, his luggage was lost. Long story short (yeah, right), the peace he showed in that instance resulted in all of his leather goods being sold and he walked away with $700 in a matter of hours, was offered a room to rent for $200 a month off of Marley Neck Boulevard and he called Ranee and said, “God has made a way. Come”. That was December 3rd, 1986. December 7th, Ranee and Shirani were in America with David. Three weeks later, they were attending Christmas worship as Faith Baptist Church. They developed relationships with people at Faith, including Terry Hart who would later become instrumental to David’s ministry. In 1994, David felt God pressing on him to return to his homeland and begin his own mission work. He returned and began supporting village pastors and God has continually opened doors for him to reach the lost in India.

Here’s where things really start to get nuts (as if they haven’t already been miraculous enough). David established the Poonthanthalam Mission Center in 2000. A few years later, Terry Hart, who had been supporting David personally, spoke to Faith Baptist and advocated for David and the ministry God has given to him. Since then, much support has rolled in to help accomplish the mission. Since 2000, David shared tonight that he has helped start 33 new churches, including 3 Mission Centers all over and around Chennai. All 33 churches have held their annual VBS these past two weeks. Just this past week, just at the Poonthanthalam Mission Center, over 1500 children were fed lunch throughout the week. Each Mission Center provides lunch after every Sunday worship service. Each church ministers to 3 surrounding villages. Meaning, that in just over 10 years, God has used David to reach over 90 villages with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as an earlier blog mentioned, this is not an area that welcomes Jesus - if anything, there is much hostility. God is blessing every step David is taking because David is striving to boldly move in obedience to the work God has called him to. When I asked him what I could pass along in terms of prayer needs, his response: “Pray that we can reach more villages. Pray that there would not be hostility and that we could combat the demonic spirits in them”. Most people would hold up 90 villages as a badge of honor. David’s response: “We can do better”. On average, David is helping to oversee 3 new church plants a year. That’s at least 9 new villages every year. They are witnessing over 400 baptisms a year and they would be seeing double that if it were not for the persecution that is threatened for those who convert to following Jesus. In a spiritual climate that is so closed to Jesus Christ, one man with a passion for following Jesus is being used all over his homeland to reach the people no one else is aiming for.

Yet, if there was a word that describes Rajan, it’s “humility”. He doesn’t ever lord his “high caste” status over anyone. We jokingly refer to him as “The Godfather” because everyone seems to know him and he’s the “shot caller”. But instead of holding up his class or the success of the ministry God has given to him, he’s so quick to point out that it isn’t him, but a whole team of people working to reach India. This afternoon, while we were crashing on our cots trying to recover from a massive VBS effort, we found David in the bathrooms cleaning the toilets. Unreal. When I attempted a verbal pat on the back this evening, he responded: “I’m an unremarkable man serving a remarkable God”. If Rajan is unremarkable, I’m a worm. How are you doing? But this blog is not intended to lift up Rajan - it’s intended to lift up Jesus by pointing out how great He is and how faithful He is to us. David is adamant that he cannot take credit for any of this - it is the faithful God he serves that is giving him the privilege of serving.

I wanted to share this tonight because the man behind the mission is amazing and needs your support. This mission is incredible and joining it only ends in blessing for the partners. First, please pray for David. Along with the prayers for reaching new villages and having open doors, David asks that you pray for good health for him. He’s a diabetic and he has a couple of health issues that concern him. He just wants to be used by God to reach more of his people for the glory of God. Pray for David daily.

Then, if you can, support him somehow. He will be coming home for 2 months in June-July. Take him out to lunch (to Long John Silver’s - his favorite restaurant of all time, no lie) and listen to his whole story. I can’t communicate all of it here, but he shared so much tonight and to see exactly how God has orchestrated his paths to where he is now is so incredible. Spend some time with him and encourage him when you see him. Friend him on Facebook! You’ll get weekly updates of pictures and stories of what God is doing and you can join the mission that way. If you can, support him financially. Your support goes to help provide food and aid, as well as scholarships, personnel, etc. At the Poonthanthalam MC, they run a full school with about 50 kids - and these kids are SMART and, because of their instruction, are moving on to Universities. We got to serve with them last week. They are incredible. Lastly, literally join David here on the mission field. Don’t wait for a church to sanction a trip. Come here. Fall in love with these people like we have (it’ll be the easiest thing you ever do. Falling in love with the people, that is - the mission itself is challenging) . Come see how God is at work. Come experience the mission God has given to David - to all of us now. You will never, ever be the same. And pray. Pray that we as the Church would know how to best support David and be a part of the victory Christ is winning here.

I’m leaving a bunch of stuff out, I know - but my heart is overflowing with appreciation for David and his ministry and I want you to jump on this and embrace it, too. God is blowing stuff up here in India - and David is the last person who will ever brag about this. This is so big and joining this mission is for YOUR good, I promise.

Oh…David also loves country/western music and his is a champion ping pong player. Get to know him.

Before I roll out…I have to share three quick stories from this evening that are fairly ridiculously awesome/hysterical. Tonight, David took us into Pooneri, the neighboring “big city”, to have dinner and do a bit of souvenir shopping. He drove his Cadillac (the original one from 1924) and the women rode in that while the guys jumped in the back of this back truck that is used to pick up kids/adults for VBS/Church. Our ride was awesome. It was like the most insane roller coaster you’ve ever been on, only bumpier. But we got to enjoy nature’s air conditioning. But that’s beside the point. On the way back to the Mission Center, we split up as the Taxi Truck (I think it’s called a “Tuck Tuck”, but others have pronounced it “TupTup” and on the back is written, “Tata”. I call it Taxi Truck.) had to take Pastor Nandekumar home. After dropping the pastor off, our driver turned back onto the main drag right where we had just had dinner and this homey starts running after the truck. Then, he jumps in the back of the truck. Hello there, Homey McHop-On. We have no idea who he was or why he was in our truck. None whatsoever. All we know is that when we were dropped off at the Mission Center, Hopalong was still in the truck. That might qualify for the “Most Indian Thing That Has Happened To Us” Award.

Upon our arrival at the Mission Center, we find out the second ridiculous thing that happened tonight. Remember the original Caddy that David still drives? It decided to have both of its headlights go out tonight. Suffice it to say, Indian village roads don’t have the best street lighting known to man. Also, they have no street lighting. So, David and Debbie were resigned to hanging out of their sides of the car, holding out flashlights trying to navigate through the villages. Fortunately, they avoided causing an international incident by just barely dodging cows at the last second.

I’m not sure which story is the craziest…but I’d like to submit this one. As I said, David took us shopping. Fortunately, one of the ladies who has been taking care of us, Rade (RAH-dee) and her 16-year-old “going places/prodigy” daughter Shamalee (SHA-muh-lee) went with us to help us navigate this experience. At one store, I was trying to determine if a necklace I wanted to get for my wife (surprise, honey) had a long enough chain (Indian jewelry chains are cut very, very short - something I learned in 2010, which cost me a lot of money). I turned to Shamalee, because she was standing right there and tried to see if it had a long chain or short chain. Rade was right behind her and flipped out. She grabbed it out of my hands, probably threw a stream of Tamil insults at me, handed the necklace back to the cashier and everyone walked off. At dinner, I told this story to David and asked if I had done something wrong. I had. Apparently, when you want to marry someone, you don’t give them a ring. A guy puts a necklace on a girl. Tonight, I was mere inches away from a second wife. That would be super tough to explain on Mission Trip Report Night.

Oh! Ridiculous thing #4! Both Justin and Leon got haircuts from a barber right on the main drag. It cost them a total of $4 for the both of them. Leon also got his Mohawk strip died some shade of red. I was about to get a haircut, but the barber looked like he wanted to do a number on my ‘do and I love my Mohawk and would hate the idea of looking ridiculous (no comments).

Anyway, guys. Thanks for reading. I hope you see how great of a time we’re having, but also how incredibly blessed this trip is - especially the opportunity to partner with David. We love you guys.

The Word of Our Testimony

Greetings from the sunny North River Mission Center in the village of Auripakkam near the town of Pooneri in the great state of Tamil Nadu in the greatest country in the world, India. I told David Rajan last night that when I left India in 2010 I left 1/4 of my heart here. This year, I anticipate doing the same. So, by my 4th visit, I’ve decided that I will just be here permanently because home is where your heart is. Also, I plan to run for political office, so I’m trying to get familiar with my surroundings. I’m learning lots of phrases and words. No one will ever know I’m not a natural born citizen.

Day 2 of the North River Mission Center VBS is in the books. Today, though, we had less than half the kids we had yesterday. Apparently some of the villages were having festivals or programs…others were just too far away to return. But thankful, numbers don’t matter when the goal is sharing the joy of the Holy Spirit and His truth. We were able to minister to about 50-60 kids today who had so much joy in them. Their joy and enthusiasm is so refreshing and it just gives us the push we need to keep moving forward. Today we were in a similar boat as we were yesterday - very little access to a translator in the morning, but we were blessed to have David show up with Betty Jo and Leon sooner than we anticipated and he was vital to helping us communicate. Also, because he’s worked so closely with Chip Riley and knows the Grain Games inside and out, he pretty much doesn’t need us. David is a one-man show, but we’re so grateful that he lets us participate. We did not lead 100 songs today…but it sure felt like we did. We also busted out the Noah skit and half of the kids got to be our “animals”. We brought back “Remove The Dot”, “Beach Balls” and Leslie’s “Divine Nature” Grain Games. If you need a refresher on them, please check out the other blogs and get an idea of how much fun we’re having with them. We also did a new Grain Game called “Seal and Deposit”. In this one, we teach out of Ephesians 1:13-14 that talks about how the Holy Spirit is placed in us as a deposit and promise of our future inheritance. We teach that, while other gods require good deeds to keep them happy (and you can’t step out of line), the Holy Spirit is a permanent guarantee of our salvation. To illustrate this, we duct taped a kid to the wall…while the kid (Ajit) was standing on the chair. As we presented, we taped him to the wall and then, once the teaching was done, we removed the chair - and Ajit held to the wall (sorta)! We teach that if something as simple as duct tape can hold Ajit to a wall, how much stronger is the Spirit of the One True God to hold us and keep His promises. Tons of fun.

Since this blog has already laid out the different “tools” and how they work, I want to go a little bit of a different direction with this offering. One of the most powerful things we are experiencing here are the testimonies of the Church here. At every turn, David, Pastor Nandekumar, Pastor Gnanam and others are sharing testimonies of how things have happened that can only be attributed to Jesus Christ. On Sunday, testimonies were shared about how God had brought healing to a woman diagnosed with cancer and given one month to live. She was a Hindu follower and came to the North River Church and cried at Pastor Nandekumar’s feet. His response, “Don’t cry to my feet - I can’t do anything to heal you. Cry at the feet of the only One who can bring healing to you”. She came to understand that Jesus was the only true God, put her trust in Him and is cancer free. Another woman, who has been preparing our meals this week, shared how she was in line for a government job. She filled out all of the necessary paperwork and when the time came for a home visit, her case worker saw the crosses in her house and told her she was ineligible for the position and she was passed over. She was encouraged by everyone to stop being so public in her faith so that she could get a job - and she refused. The rest of the story is that this case worker who was making the final decisions was out for one day. The replacement case worker called her, explained that the case worker was out for one day and she had only a few hours to resubmit all of her paperwork. She jumped through the hoops and, you see where this is going, she got the job. Another testimony was of a woman stricken with cancer. Her daughter prayed, “God, give me my mom”. They were in church together on Sunday. Another testimony floored us. There was a new family in church on Sunday. Pastor Nandekumar brought him to the front to share the story. Over the weekend, there was a festival and his nephews who live over 70 miles were in attendance. This man was actually working at the North River MC to put the doors on the rooms for the India 2012 team’s arrival. While working, he got a call that his two nephews had gotten lost in the crowd and no one could find them. Broken, this man came to Pastor Nandekumar and shared with him the news, but also felt that he needed to finish the work of hanging the doors. Pastor told him, “I will pray, and when you get home, your nephews will already be found”. In response, the man said, “If they are, we will be at your church on Sunday”. That morning, the man, who lives 10 miles away, was there with his whole family…and his two nephews.

Today, David continues to share with us about those in the village who have been possessed by evil spirits. He shared how there was one magician who used to charge people to have demons removed. But when they would come to him to have a demon removed, he would remove it and replace it with a stronger demon, with the instruction (to the demon) to not torment the person for three months. Then, the person would return for demon removal and the magician would repeat the process. This story was told at a village revival meeting where the man turned his life over to Christ. That man is now a pastor and he has gone into meetings with magicians, preached to them the message the only Christ is the one who can deliver and called them out over their sin.

This week we have had the joy of meeting two boys, Vellu (VAY-loo) and Ajit (ah-JEET). These boys are so loving and helpful - we have fallen in love with these bold followers of Jesus so quickly. And only in the last 24 hours have we made this incredible connection. Their mother, Sarah, has been serving us here all week. We had the joy of meeting their father, Abraham, as well on Sunday - two people passionate about Jesus who have passed on their faith to their two sons. When we heard the names of the parents, we immediately knew: when Faith came here in 2010, we were a part of the North River Church dedication (the church sponsored by Chip Riley’s church - the guy who passed the Grain Game on to us). During that church dedication, former Faith pastor Tim Byer baptized…you guessed it…Abraham and Sarah. After just two short years, we are now being served and helping to disciple the children of Hindu converts. Our partnership with David is allowing us to see the fruits of the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives. They are living bold lives for Christ in their dark community.

I tell you this for one purpose: so that you would know that God is real. He is doing things that are beyond us. Lives are changing all over this place. The people of Auripakkam, Chennai, North River, Pooneri, Poonthanthalam, Tamil Nadu…India…are seeing the hand of God working in ways that we aren’ t always aware of. Maybe it’s the distractions at home. Maybe it’s the comforts. Whatever it is, many of us never come across God working in this way so clearly and powerfully. But He is working and bringing salvation to the darkness. He is breaking through the darkness and He is winning spiritual battles all over. Many of you reading go to church every Sunday without any awareness of the Spirit of God moving. Even as Christians, do we live in the knowledge that the Creator of the universe is waging an intense spiritual battle over the lost…or are we more consumed with things that aren’t really that meaningful and simply offer a distraction from what’s really going on? We must change. God, convict us and win the spiritual battle for us over our “stuff” that just distracts us from what You are doing. You are awesome.

But it would be totally foolish of me to assume that every follower of this blog is a follower of Jesus who just needs a kick in the pants (like I do). First, I want to thank you so much for sharing this experience with us. We are so honored that you would care enough about your coworkers, friends, family - maybe even strangers you just stumbled across because you clicked on someone’s shared Facebook link. However you got here, we love you and are so appreciative of your support. But (you knew a but was coming), if after a dozen or so blogs all you come away with are some updates and making sure your family is safe or you have a passing interest in humanitarian work, then this opportunity would be wasted. Please, if you remember nothing else from any of these trifles of writing, please know this. Everything we have shared with you is a result of God working in us and through us. We do not take credit for any of this - we just want to share with you how awesome and powerful the God we serve is. We have left our homes, our comforts, our families and loved ones for exactly one purpose: Jesus Christ is alive, He’s at work and we are so convinced of His love for every single purpose - you included - that we have no other choice but to move on this. The same God in India is the same God wherever you are right now and He is strong enough to forgive anything you’ve ever done - He’s powerful enough to help you in addiction, hurt, depression - and He brings His peace and joy into our lives. He is the only God. He is the only hope we have. Please do not miss this because we love you and we want you to know and believe in Jesus because, as hopefully you’ve seen through the testimonies and the blog updates, something is happening here that cannot be attributed to any man. It is God alone. Our prayer for you is that you understand why we’re doing what we’re doing and that you would want to know Jesus, too.

I just have to share this because this is the way God works. Whenever we are in the room, we have someone’s iPod running. While putting this blog together, we’ve been enjoying the newest album by New Life Worship. And just now, this is what God put through our speakers:

“Dry bones up, dry bones rise, dry bones stand up and come out to life”

This is not coincidental. God is in the business of breathing life into dead things. He is famous for taking what is useless and hopeless and giving it a purpose (case in point: your India 2012 team). Our God is strong and good and He reigns.

Be blessed this evening. Here are a few things we’d like to ask you to pray for:

1) Travel mercies for Leslie who will be flying out super early tomorrow morning for him to attend her son’s graduation. Also, please pray a prayer of thanks for Leslie. She was so vital to this team and she worked so incredibly hard. She will be missed in a huge way.

2) Strength for the team. We’re just about on the homestretch and a lot of our team’s energy is gone. The weather is hot. Even the drinking water is warm. It’s really difficult to find much relief and it’s taking a toll on some of us. Please pray that we would finish strong.

3) Please pray for anyone who reads this blog. Pray that the testimonies and truth of Jesus would convict all of us and that we would pursue a greater awareness of the movement of God’s Spirit.

We’re almost there, Team. Thank you so much.

Meet Me Halfway Across The Sky

I hope you now have this blog title’s tune stuck in your head for a good few hours. This song has been stuck in ours for DAYS thanks to Justin Hanneken’s over-the-top love for the movie, “Over The Top”. But it’s also appropriate because this blog wraps up our halfway point. Five days of VBS last week - five days of VBS this week. We kicked off our VBS at 9 a.m. because it’s scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and nothing happens according to schedule in India. Nothing. Not ever. Therefore, if you ever want to go to India, you will have to omit the phrase, “What time…(fill in the blank)” from your vocabulary. For Americans this can be really difficult to deal with. We are so accustomed to everything starting and stopping exactly on schedule and when it doesn’t, we feel a loss of control. But turns out, the Indian people have it right. There is a real sense of freedom and fellowship when you’re not watching the clock. But I digress.

So we start up and are waiting our turn. The working assumption was that it would follow the same structure as the Poonthanthalam Mission Center: 1 hour of program in the a.m., hanging with the kids in classes and then leading some active Grain Game things in the p.m. We was WRONGO. That WILL be the schedule (we have been told, but it’s India and it’s totally up for changing), but today we had to lead pretty much all of the VBS - and your India 2012 Team knocked it out of the park. The team hung together, filled in for each other when one was down, took care of each other and served so well today. What potentially could have been a train wreck, the Team had no trouble - and we give every bit of credit to Jesus for His faithfulness to us and His answering the prayers that we actively feel throughout the day. Please don’t let up. There’s still so much work to do.

So, update from yesterday. I’m glad to report that Betty Jo is feeling much better this evening. However, this morning she was still not feeling 100%, so we felt getting into the Medical Clinic for an evaluation and some fluids would help her out. We’re pretty sure it’s heat related vs. food related, so she’s spending the evening in David’s condo to get some relief. Also, Leon was sent to the Medical Clinic as well. As we were in our morning devos (that’s hipster talk for “devotions”), he ended up getting really sick. He’s currently on about 6 different meds to help him out and it seems like he’s doing much better…but he’ll also be having a night of cool rest in David’s condo. We can’t wait to have them back at full strength.

Like I said, today went really smoothly for how chaotic it was. Here’s something that you’ll find interesting (I hope): at the end of the day today I was going over my notes and I found the daily breakdown of last week’s mission experience…and, no lie at all, last Monday’s line-up was EXACTLY identical to what the Lord let us to do today. We see God at work in so many places. Tonight I was Skyping with my lovely wife when I was called down to what I THOUGHT was dinner. Instead, Pastor Nandekumar and some of the village ladies wanted our team to pray with a woman who, as best we understand, has either been delivered of an evil spirit or it will be done on Sunday. I love India. One minute you’re video chatting with a loved one, next you’re casting out demons. There is absolutely nothing like it. As far as our program went today, we went with some old faithfuls (like I said, go read last Monday’s and you’ll have it all laid out for you): Pillow fights, One (Hula Hoops), Bubbles and the Cup demonstration we did in church yesterday. But the greatest joy we’re having is getting to share and love on these kids - they are filled with so much joy and love and it’s amazing. We can’t wait to hit it tomorrow.

After VBS, the remaining five team members took some time to rest. Then, Justin Hanneken had the worst idea of all time: “Let’s take a walk”. I had the worst response of all time: “Ok”. It actually wasn’t bad at all - great weather, great breeze and Vella, a young 15 year old Christian who has been helping out at VBS, took the walk with us. On our walk, we walked past some Hindu shrines/temples and the stuff on it and around it was so eerie. We certainly need your prayers, but if we could ask you to lift up the children in the village who are following Christ, that would be super awesome. These young Christians are persecuted in their village, yet they walk around professing Christ and wearing huge crosses and things to identify themselves as followers of Jesus. We can’t share Christ with a co-worker, family or friend that we’re close to. If these kids do, they could be homeless and kicked out of their family. Pray for these children. Pray that the Light of Christ will break through the darkness and there would be a receptivity to the message of Jesus. Jesus is the only One who can fix these issues. I forgot to mention this yesterday, but Pastor Nandekumar led a beautiful time of testifying to the provision and goodness of God. So many came forward to share the miracles that Christ had done in their lives: cancers/tumors removed, restored relationships, job success and lost children being found. We can’t share every single story, but there is such an intense awareness in these people that God is in their midst and hard at work.

I’m going to keep this thing mildly short tonight - I can barely see straight, half of these lines I don’t remember composing and I know there’s gotta be a grammatical error in here (I blame the computer). So exhausted. But we want you to know how faithful God has been to us and to share our sincere love and appreciation for your faithful and continual prayers. You are all the best.

For tonight, we ask you to join us in prayer for these things:
1) Continued healing for Betty Jo and Leon
2) Rest and renewed strength for the whole Team
3) Jesus to have victory in this village
4) Continued boldness to proclaim the Name of Jesus in the enemy's territory

We love you guys so much. We can’t wait to see you, but we also can’t wait for you to come join the Mission God has given to us.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Two blogs in one day?! Something must be up.

There is. Some things, actually. Some pretty serious things.

First, please take a moment and lift Betty Jo up in prayer. She’s been vomiting all night. We’re not sure if it’s a reaction to food…a reaction to the heat…but she’s in need of healing tonight - and rest. Please lift her up right now. Pray that the sickness has ended and now she can start rebuilding her strength. I can’t wait for tomorrow to report that God has heard our prayers and has brought healing. But we need you to help with this, please.

The other issue is really very serious. Last night during the usual blogging session, I heard continual drums and even saw some fireworks over in the distance. After talking with David this morning, he told us that this entire month a Hindu festival is taking place in the nearest city. As I type this blog, I can hear the festival music - and it’s not pretty. Standing on the roof of this Mission Center this morning, he pointed out that the nearest building is a shrine to a Hindu god. During our walk this afternoon into the village, some of our team went into the hut of Morganapriya - a 16 year old girl from the church who is the only Christian in her family. She wants to be baptized but in this culture, that would mean rejection from her family. Outside her house, her family had a large shrine with holes all over it where every night snakes come out and are worshiped as gods. I thank God that I was too busy with balloon animals to even know what was going on - but those who did experience said you just feel a complete sense of darkness and evil.

And tonight, David shared with us a story about an event that has been going on in this village. The instruction in the village is for men to not go outside at all after midnight because a She-demon moves throughout the village, enticing the men and taking them away. Initially we scoffed at a seemingly silly idea, until David shared that indeed men had gone missing and when they were all eventually found together, they had no recollection of how they had gotten to where they were. Their minds had been messed with and they were in a type of hypnotic trance. David also shared that Pastor Nandekumar is very familiar and practiced in confronting evil spirits.

I tell you this for this purpose: we are in a different place than where we were last week, and I’m not talking about geographically. We are positioned right in the middle of Satan’s playground, surrounded by spiritual darkness. The work being done this week is not some cutesy “Let’s have camp and ya’ll get saved” mission - there is an intense spiritual battle taking place right now as I type this. It’s existed long before we got here and it will be present after we leave. I know this is asking for prayer in a direction and on a level that most of us don’t engage in, but we are asking for deep prayer for spiritual protection in this place. We are asking you to bang on the doors of Heaven and intercede for these people who are SO incredibly lost. We are asking that you pray that God would reveal Himself in a way that is so obvious in this village that there would no doubt that there is only one true God. We ask that you pray for boldness to speak the Name of Jesus without fear. We ask that you just seek God for this village. For eyes to be open. For miracles to take place. For God to win in this village. That Satan would lose his stronghold here.

Week 1 was such a blessing and we saw so much love of Christ poured out and received in life-changing ways. Now, we enter a mission field that absolutely wants us gone. Tomorrow we go to war. Please go with us.

Short(er) and Sweet and Sour

I’m trying something different today. It’s 4:30 p.m. here in India and I’m going to try and do my blog wrap-up now. When the evening comes around, everyone is so whipped that all we want to do is go to bed. Staying up until 1 a.m. doesn’t make the list of “Smart Things To Do In India”, so since we have a bit of downtime and most of our planned experiences are behind us, let’s do this thing!

Today was a total change of pace for us and a great experience all around. We didn’t have to be anywhere until 9 a.m.! So, naturally, Debbie C. woke up all of the guys at 5:30. We’re super glad she’s feeling better and has rejoined the team (kidding…we are seriously glad she’s back with us). She reminded the guys that today was Mother’s Day and that we should make homemade cards for all of the women. She was right to call us out and remind us…but in our defense, it was 5:30 in the A.M. Maybe we were going to bake a cake or something! Give us a chance to fail first. We really poured ourselves into the cards, too. We made Top Ten lists, drew pretty (by dude standards) pictures, wrote poetry, composed crossroad puzzles, printed whole chapters of scripture in them…I can’t say for certain, but I’m pretty sure it’s the best Mother’s Day they’ve ever had. You’re welcome, ladies. By the way, Happy Mother’s Day everybody…especially our moms and wives who we can’t be with today. If you see our moms or wives today, please hug them for us and let them know how crazy we are about them.

Onto the update. After Art Class we gathered together for breakfast and devotions - but we were also treated to some friendly faces. Last Monday, villagers from around the North River Mission Center where we are for this week traveled a REALLY LONG WAY to visit the Poonthanthalam Mission Center, which they had never seen. Remember Monday’s blog when I shared how Leon and Justin had ridden in the back of that truck to the Mission Center on Monday morning with all of the kids? They were here first thing this morning to wake us up. We’re still all kinda reeling from having to bid adieu to our new family at Poonthanthalam - and it’s still really sad to think about - but seeing this kids today was a gift from God. We headed over to the church (which is about two feet to the left - the Church is attached to the Mission Center) and “God O”’d all over the place. We led in some songs and we did FOUR Grain Game illustrations for the church. Leslie shared her Giode presentation, Justin presented his newly crafted Gospel story using the PinWidget, Debbie C showed off her superior cutting skills with the Impossible Journey and I did a NEW Grain Game about Christ being our only hope. The GG requires only three plastic cups and a thumbtack. One cup has one hole in it, one cup has about 20 holes in it and a final cup has no holes. In this spiritual battlefield, the teaching is really needed. So many imperfect gods requiring good works to save is contrasted to Christ. Using a volunteer, you pour water into a cup with one hole in the bottom over his/her head. Naturally, the water falls onto the kids and everyone gets a good laugh. You point out how just one hole ruins the cup (one sin ruins our chances at God’s perfect standard) and then the water is poured into the cup with many holes (also above the kid’s head - a beautiful marriage of liquid and hair) to show the reality of how much sin is in our lives. Finally, the “many holes” cup is placed inside the cup without any holes to show how an imperfect creation, placed inside a perfect creation can be made whole and effective again. A great teaching…and you get a kid messy. My kind of church service.

Naturally, being with our Indian brothers and sisters in worship, we took the opportunity to sing “Power in The Blood”…and the look on their faces was priceless when, after a few verses and choruses, this team of “White people” (their favorite thing to call us) busted out the chorus of “Power In The Blood” in Tamil. And we nailed it. They loved it and than as THE CHURCH we joined our voices together, in their language, to declare the victory we have in Christ. This is one of the best experiences I have ever had. Next India trip, you need to go with us if only to experience this one event. Also, the rice. We eat rice at EVERY MEAL. HUGE portions of rice. With our hands. Pretty sure India is Heaven (not just because of the rice…but it’s a factor). Following our time of worship, we joined the church for lunch (RICE!). Then, some of the village children asked us to visit their neighboring village and the whole team went to visit. And since we didn’t use any of the balloon animals at Poonthanthalam, I took a pack of balloons and three pumps - and apparently the whole village will turn out for balloon animals. It was a great time. Also, super hot. But it is amazing how far balloon animals will go towards building a relationship. Seriously, it falls in the Top Three best ministry skills I’ve ever seen. Figure out how to do balloon animals and you’ll always have a friend. Also, as Hanneken just mentioned, it gives a whole new meaning to being “pressed about on every side”.

Well, we’re about to head out to dinner. We have lined up a special Chinese buffet dinner in honor of all of the ladies on our team. Chinese food in India. Let that sink in for a second. But before we roll out, I want you to know what we’re facing this week and where we stand. David said that, unlike Poonthanthalam, the children in this village are not as “civilized” or “educated”. We’ve already seen a little bit of this. We were spoiled in Poonthanthalam as most of the kids at least understand a tiny bit of English. Some were even proficient (as they are former students of the schooling that Mission Center provides). Here…nope. Even the question, “How old are you?” or “Age? Years?” is met with a confused look. We definitely have our work cut out for us. Even Pastor Nandekumar is not as proficient in English as Pastor Gnanam was…which will make tomorrow REALLY interesting. David has some things he needs to take care of down near his condo, which means, for the better part of tomorrow, we’ll be on our own…leading VBS for children who don’t speak our language and an interpreter that may have difficulty understanding us. Pray for this. However…from our experience today, we have already seen one thing: we may not be able to connect verbally with these kids, but on the way to the village, every child was holding the hand of a team member. They are just as eager to learn our names as we are to learn theirs (and they have just as much difficulty!) In just the few short hours we’ve spent with them, we love these kids already. Pray that we will continue to be able to cultivate these relationships across increased cultural barriers. But, we know that Jesus transcends all of that, so we’re not worried a bit. We can’t wait.

For today, please lift up these things in prayer:

1) Pray for the ability to communicate and cultivate relationships with these new kids.
2) New strength and energy
3) A renewed commitment and fresh passion for this mission.

Happy Mother’s Day, everybody (well, mostly moms, but everyone can be included). We’re praying for you and your worship experiences today. Love you guys so much.

Home Breeze Home

Well, greetings from an entirely new place with entirely new circumstances. I apologize for a lack of a blog yesterday, but the interweb was super spotty at the Poonthanthalam Mission Center. And, admittedly, your resident Blogist was super beat last night falling asleep at dinner. David - The Godfather - told me to go to bed. You listen to the Godfather. And just as an aside, I realize “Blogist” is not the right word and that “Blogger” is what the kids are calling it these days, but “Blogger” reminds me too much of that video game, “Frogger”, and after the whole episode with the frog in my guitar, I just want to avoid frogs altogether. It occurs to me, after skillfully composing that last sentence, that due to a lack of updates on Wednesday, you missed the resolution to the “Frog in my guitar” story. As you may have remembered, on Tuesday evening, we found a frog in my guitar. We thought that was “The End”, but apparently, was not. Fast forward to late Wednesday morning. Jonathon arrives with the guitar cable and new set of strings he’d been promising me for days. We sit down to change the strings…hello, Frog. Frog is still in the guitar. Then it dawns on us…Frog was in the guitar during our entire morning program…meaning, Frog endured “Father Abraham” inside the guitar…and I’m super aggressive at “Father Abraham”. The next ten minutes consists of us doing everything short of smashing the guitar to get Frog out. Finally, after removing almost all of the strings, a very substantial shake from myself freed Frog from his acoustically-pleasing home. However, Frog jumped around in circles for a good long while. Lesson: camping out inside a guitar is never a good idea and could lead to brain damage. Congratulations. You just read the worse paragraph in the India 2012 blog yet! I’m really not sure where that came from. Apologies all around.

So much to update you on. Yesterday was our last official FULL day of VBS - and it was a great day. We did our “3 Parables of Jesus” skit - but only pulled off 2 of them due to time constraints and personnel. Leslie shared her “Giode” Grain Game as well. Leslie is a pro at her “Giode” illustration. She shares that she has practiced that illustration so many times on her dog that she’s pretty sure her dog is now saved. The Giode is an awesome picture of Jesus Christ. A giode is a rock that has been cut in half. Outwardly, it looks like your average large rock, but when you turn it around, you see the beauty and crystal looking things (scientific term) found within the rock. In the same way, Christ came and had no appearance that we would look on Him - yet once He was crushed, broken and crucified, was the full glory of God revealed. Leslie knows this presentation inside and out and it’s absolutely beautiful. Following our opening activity, we broke into the classes and the team went to each class to help make salvation bracelets. These bracelets are awesome tangible ways that kids can visualize the process of a relationship with Christ and wear it once it’s completed. Overall, we probably helped make 200-250 salvation bracelets. Also, yesterday we performed “God O” a record 4 times: twice in our morning session, once in our afternoon session and once outside, totally impromptu. I don’t advise doing an extremely active dance song in 103 degree weather in the middle of the afternoon…but if you are going to do one, make it “God O”. I’m not sure if I’ve filled you in on what “God O” is…but it’s a song that Leon introduced us to in our prep meetings - and I will go on record and say that it is absolutely the best camp/kids/VBS song I’ve ever encountered. It’s so simple, so much fun and by the end of the week, Indian kids who barely know English are singing this song to us. On our report night, rest assured we WILL be leading that song and you MUST participate. Seriously - it’s insanely good.

At the end our VBS yesterday, the Team was called up front and we were asked to give a brief testimony. The words from your Team were beautiful. We shared our love for them and how we are all family because of Jesus Christ. That may seem like small business to us, but to these Indian kids, that’s really special. Also, it’s 100% true. We have such a love for these children it kills us, especially when we had to say “Good-bye” to them officially today. So sad. Everyone on the Team really hated to leave the Mission Center. However, we know that God has called us to the next area of service and that’s where we get our strength. Tonight on our way to the next Mission Center, David told us that he had spoken to Pastor Gnanam back at the Poonthanthalam Mission Center. Gnanam had received a call from one of the village children crying because they were sad to see us leave and VBS come to an end. The children at this Mission Center are some of the best people I’ve ever met in my entire life. If you ever get a chance to participate in a mission trip to India, do not hesitate. In my End-of-VBS testimony yesterday, I opened with this comment: “My name is Jeff and this is my second time to India and Poonthanthalam Mission Center is my favorite place in the whole world. And no part of that statement is an exaggeration or lie. The work going on there is so remarkable. Please keep them in your prayers!

Debbie’s laptop is telling me I have 28 minutes left before it dies, so I have to hit the high points pretty quick. Today was a tough day. We had to say “Goodbye” officially and drive away from the relationships we’ve cultivated with these children. Our drive to the North River Mission was a long 3-hour drive and we arrived just around dinner time. Our first order of business was to dedicate a portion of the Mission Center in the memory of Jay Nichols, son of former Faith pastor, Dr. James Nichols. It was a very beautiful, intimate time together. A time of prayer, remembrance and sharing about Jay’s life. David shared that this Mission Center will be a place of life-change for years and years to come - and having just experienced the 10-year old Poonthathalam Mission Center, we know this is completely accurate. Also, a fun little story...as of today, our very own India 2012 PinWidget extraordinaire, Justin Hanneken, is a college grad! Well, he's been a college grad before...but never one with a Master's degree! He's worked hard and we are very proud of him...and his being with us on this trip meant that he missed his own graduation ceremony. So, naturally, we threw him one in the North River MC. When he came down for dinner, we all sang "Pomp and Circumstance", standing in his honor. We kicked off the regal ceremony with a rousing, harmonized, "Old McDonald" led by Chennai rock star and former-mullet-having musical prodigy, Jonathon Matthews. Then, our commencement speaker, the gifted Mrs. Betty Jo Bennett spoke kind words (and told jokes) to honor the boy. Then, The Godfather himself, David Rajan, presented Justin with his diploma, written in red marker on a roll of paper towels. Apparently, Justin graduated with a M.A. in "Awesomeness". He was also awarded a Pepsi and a pack of crackers for graduating at the top of his class (of those who were also present in Chennai right now). I'm pretty sure it wasn't as noble as his official graduation, but I'll bet it was more memorable.

Speaking of the North River Mission Center, let me introduce it to you. North River MC is the newest Mission Center David Rajan has built. And when I say “newest”, I mean, “the paint is still drying”. We are so excited and honored to be the very first group to live in the Mission Center. It’s located right on the river and there is a great sea breeze that often comes whipping through. We’re really looking forward to this added benefit! But along with that, we need your prayer support in a big way right now. Maybe it’s because we’re crashing from the past week’s work…maybe we’re just all old and decrepit…but whatever it is, we are all really feeling the physical strain now. Some are struggling with sickness…others allergies…heat exhaustion…upset stomach…at this point, I don’t think anyone isn’t physically struggling. Put on top of that the sadness over leaving our new friends, missing our family and friends back home, and facing what appears to be a more challenging 7 days than the previous 7...we just desperately plead for your prayers. David has been so generous to us and the work he has gotten accomplished to give us a place to lodge has been way more than anyone would have expected and way more than he should have done. Still, as Americans unfamiliar with this climate, we’re struggling pretty good over here. However, we know that God is faithful and that He gives us His strength. We knew before we ever got here that this mission and work was beyond our abilities. We just need to be reminded of that again. Your prayers do work - you encourage us so much and we ask you to think of us and this mission throughout your day. If you aren’t a “prayer person” and are just reading this to keep up with what your friend or family member is up to, would you join us in prayer, too? Be a part of the work God is doing and I promise that you will see that He is real. We are entirely certain of that. There is no way we would’ve left our home, our families, our comforts if we didn’t believe that to be true with every single cell over our bodies.

Depending on how you count, we are somewhere right around the halfway point. Pray that we will finish strong. Pray that we will put the energy into loving these new kids as much as the kids at Poonthanthhalam. Pray for sleep. Pray for restored strength. Pray for healing. Pray for Sharon Nichols as she flies home in 7 hours. Pray for David. Pray for Pastor Gnanam and all of the wonderful people at the Mission Center. Pray for Pastor Nandekumar (Non-day-COO-mar), pastor at North River Church/Mission Center. Pray that God would speak through them as the bring the Word of God tomorrow. Pray for team unity. Pray that each of us would be encouraged and not lose heart. Pray that we would be receptive to the Holy Spirit. Pray that we would see God’s glory. Pray for the children who will be attending North River VBS. Pray. Please pray. We are counting on each of you. Words cannot describe how much we appreciate you and your support.

Just pray.

Crazy Love

Hey everybody! If you’re following closely, you may have noticed a lack of blog yesterday. There’s a very good reason for this (well, bad one, actually) and I will do my best to get you caught up on ALL of the events of the past 48 hours. First, thank you for your prayers - we have had a few health situations come up and already we have seen God at work in them. Please continue to lift up the team and the Mission. We have had two really great days at Vacation Bible School and it’s really painful to think that tomorrow will be our last day of VBS with the kids. On Saturday we will have a 2-hour closing ceremony with the children and their families, but the relationships we’ve formed with the children and their teachers has been amazing. We’re actually learning a lot of phrases, songs, and Bible verses in Tamil. Today, I was talking with a few of the teachers who are College-age and they taught me the phrase, “Mamu matchi” - which, as they described to me, means “Non-blood related family”, “friend as close as a brother”. This completely sums up the depth of relationships that have formed over the past 4 days of VBS.

Instead of trying to recap the past 2 days completely (because at 11:30 p.m. I honestly am really struggling to remember what we did yesterday), I will hit the highlights. Today was a great day - as we talked about in debriefing tonight, everything seems to be flowing like a “well-oiled machine”. That does not at all omit the Holy Spirit from the Mission at all - it’s just our way of saying that God has brought all of this together through preparation, team unity, flexibility and His leading. Everyday your India 2012 Team goes out and gives everything they have and there is so much satisfaction in teaching and loving these beautiful people.

Yesterday during our debriefing time, we all acknowledged that as the days have progressed - and the attendance has grown - it seems like the kids, particularly the boys, have been getting more…unruly. That’s the wrong word. But in the final hour of our VBS, the attention span is pretty much shot and the kids will often behave a little more aggressively to the point that any kind of significant teaching is out the window. So, we decided that the best course of action would be to do most of our deeper teaching in the morning session and more active Grain Game illustrations/teachings in the afternoon. With that in mind, we planned to do Leon’s “Dawn and Pepper” demonstration which teaches about the power Christ’s blood has over sin (a container of clean water has pepper poured into it to show the effect sin has on the world and one drop of Dawn liquid soap - “Christ’s blood” - pushes the pepper away) and a new Grain Game illustration that Justin developed using the Pin Widget. In the afternoon, our only line of attack we planned was the “Hidden Bouncy Ball” demonstration that I’ll detail in a minute. We did Leon’s demonstration in the morning - and it went over really well - but because of time restrictions, we cut Justin’s PinWidget illustration. Fast forward to the final hour and we’re getting ready to start the session and Justin gets prepared to present the Pin Widget. I was a little surprised as I thought we just would skip it given the fact that the Pin Widget is one of the least active Grain Game demonstrations we have in our Toolbox and, as history had shown, I figured he would have a tough time engaging the kids. But because he has a commitment tomorrow morning (Friday), he wouldn’t have another time to present it. So he gets up with the PinWidget and goes to work - and the Holy Spirit of God moved. Yesterday, Hanneken came up with this illustration totally on his own. It’s not something we had in the Toolbox when we arrived - he was just messing around with the Pin Widget on Wednesday afternoon and developed this. It was a clear Gospel presentation using the PinWidget to lay out the story of Christ’s death and resurrection - and every single kid was totally tuned into what he was saying. That in itself was a miracle.

After that great presentation, we got to do the Grain Game demo that, I think, is the most fun one we’ve done so far. It’s the “Hidden Bouncy Ball” game. The teaching is based around how, in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam and Eve a clear choice: to be obedient or to disobey. God does not make this choice hard - He lays it out completely and clearly. Then, we play a game to show how the world doesn’t offer us good, clear choices like this and that the Truth of God’s Word is clear and presents us with a clear choice, and a clear promise. But the game is all about guessing (to show how unfair that is). “Little Debbie” was the “Cup girl” and her job was to shake a paper ball in two cups and then slam them down on the table. The volunteer, who I was standing behind covering their eyes, would then have to pick which cup they thought the ball was in. If they picked the cup with the ball, I would hand them a lollipop. If they picked the cup without the ball, I would not hand them a lollipop. Also, I would slam a plate of shaving cream in their face. Needless to say, this game was a huge hit. We had about 40 kids come up and play - and even Pastor Gnanam played (and he got the pie in the face…mostly because we removed the ball and both cups were empty) and then the Pastor called on ALL of the VBS teachers to come up. They were reluctant…but they played along. And most of them got pie’d in the face. I am happy to report, though, that I was extremely kind and gentle with the girls because their clothing is so stinking pretty and they do their hair so nicely. It pained me to put shaving cream in a little girl’s face…but I do what the Mission calls for (I would barely put it on their nose). The boys, however, are still cleaning themselves off. Also, happy to report that after 50 or so people participating, Betty Jo was the last to go…and she picked the cup with the ball in it. Then proceeded to shove the plate in my face (fortunately, I had filled the plate up super high in the hopes that Betty Jo would have to get creamed - so I’M still cleaning myself off). As you can see, lots of great teaching is taking place, but it’s coupled with so much fun.

But, back to yesterday’s time of debriefing when we were talking about the kids and how their “spiritedness” seems to be progressing each day. While we were figuring out how to work within that context, Joy - Jonathon’s sister who is staying with us at the Mission Center until Saturday - gave us insight into why this is happening. She said it’s very uncommon for kids in this culture to act in ways that are so hyper. Certainly they are kids, but this is a culture that is very composed and exhibits lots of self-control. She indicated the reason this is happening is because of the relationships we are building with them. These kids don’t get the kind of intimate affection (hugs, kisses, high-fives, etc.) that we have shared with them. As a result, they are experiencing a type of freedom that allows them to express themselves and bask in that security that they are loved - they are reacting to what we have been doing. As we talked we realized…they are reacting to the love of Christ and are experiencing freedom…which is what we intended to do all along. It’s amazing how something that was becoming a challenge ended up being confirmation that the love of Christ is real and they are tasting and seeing that God is good. No other god makes them feel this way. No other god brings freedom and joy. Tonight, as we drove to dinner, we saw a long strip of roadside stands that were carving and crafting the many “gods” worshipped in India. I mean, these stands seemed to go on for a mile, no lie. Huge mounds of stone were waiting to be fashioned into “gods”. As we drove by, I was thankful for the truth that not ONE of those “gods” would ever, ever, ever make one of these children taste freedom. Taste unconditional love. Experience joy. Know the truth that they can be forgiven and that their salvation isn’t based on whether or not they can out-work their sin. Not a single one. Ever. It fills me with so much joy to know that this week, amidst the heat, the sickness, the utter exhaustion, the love of Christ has been communicated and it has been received. And if the love of Christ makes the kids go crazy…yeah. We’re cool with that. Your prayers are a major part of this happening. But this Mission isn’t even half over yet. There is still so much work to be done and a completely new Mission Center to start over with next week.

Along with the idea of crazy love, I need to update you on some developments within the team that require your immediate prayer. Yet, even in the midst of the trials I’m about to report, I hope that you are able to see God orchestrating a plan for His glory the way we are. First, yesterday Debbie Chiodo woke up with her ankle feeling much better and having greater mobility. Still not completely healed, but much improvement from the previous night. However, you can’t keep a good woman down. Debbie was a wild woman. She was back out with the kids, walking around, in and out, up and down stairs…in the midst of her pain, she was showing Christ’s love. However, by the end of the day, her ankle had radically swollen to the point that we felt she needed to confirm her injury was nothing more than a twisted ankle. So, Debbie C. left with David and Jonathon back to Chennai where she received insanely fast medical treatment. Actually, insanely fast doesn’t even scratch the surface. Before David had finished signing her in, she was on the X-ray table. Praise God it’s only soft tissue damage and nothing more, but she has been confined to staying off her feet for a few days. We were hoping she would be able to make it back today (selfishly, because we love her and she’s a vital part of the team), however, God had different plans. The reason there was no blog last night was because the computer used to blog is Debbie’s. So, she had it with her last night.

This morning we were made aware of the news that Sharon Nichols had been up throughout the night vomiting and she was showing pretty obvious symptoms of dehydration. After some TLC from Nurse Leslie and Auntie Betty, Sharon really didn’t show any improvement. We decided she needed medical attention, too. However, David was still in Chennai (nowhere near the Mission Center) - so a taxi was arranged to take Sharon back to Chennai where David would meet her and get her the necessary treatment. Fortunately for us, Joy was still with us. We knew a lady had to go with Sharon with the understanding that there was a good possibility they would not be coming back for a few days. Joy JUST joined us last night but was so kind enough to go with Sharon, at the potential cost of missing out on the mission. Within two hours, David called to confirm that Sharon had eaten something that had not agreed with her, resulting in vomiting…resulting in dehydration. And the doc said she needed to stay out of the heat for a day or two…meaning she’s staying at David’s condo until Saturday when she’ll join us at the church dedication in honor of her brother, Jay. We knew someone had to stay with Sharon…and sadly, we realized that the best person for that…was Debbie C. Since Debbie was instructed to stay off the foot and rest it up, it made the most sense to have her stay at thee condo so she could be in top shape to join us next week instead of pushing her to get out here and potentially cause more damage. That phone call to Debbie broke my heart because it meant that Debbie would not be returning to the Poonthanthalam Mission Center at all - meaning she wouldn’t be able to say “Goodbye” to the kids here. All of the team, including Debbie, agreed it was the right decision- it just also happened to be a really painful decision. She’s been such a trooper and the definition of a “team player” - putting the Mission before herself. The reason you’re reading this blog tonight is because Debbie knew that without the laptop, no blogs would go up. So she sent it to us through David and Joy at her expense. Give thanks tonight for Debbie and her sacrifices. When you spend MONTHS preparing for the Mission, missing out on 2-3 days is huge. We are all hurting from both her and Sharon being away from the team. Please lift them up in prayer tonight.

I hope you see that God is at work here. He really is. We’re seeing it every day in His provision, His strength, His wisdom on how to relate and the fact that relationships are being formed between people who don’t speak more than 5 words of the same language. But God’s Spirit is speaking and His love is being felt. Before I close tonight, I want to share one other thing that happened this evening. On the way to dinner, the guys were all riding with David and Pastor Gnanam and we had a chance to talk to David about the work God is leading him to do in India. We asked how many churches he has been involved in planting - the network that he oversees. His answer: 33. Three of those are enormous worship centers that have significant outreaches to the surrounding villages. God is using him in ways that we don’t even know - and he’ll never brag about. Ever. But this blew us away even more. I hope you’re sitting down (odds are pretty good). He told us that this week, all of the 33 churches (except for one) are also doing a 9 a.m.-4 p.m. VBS, reaching hundreds of kids in most of them. The one church that isn‘t meeting this week, the North River Church/Mission Center will be having their VBS next week…a schedule shift so that your India 2012 Team could participate in that as well. 33 churches hosting hundreds of children - thousands all over India. And the seven of us are in two of them. There is so, so, so, so much work to be done here. Please pray for wisdom that we as supporters of David Rajan and the ministry God has given to him and his team would know how to partner and work to see the love of Jesus Christ - the love that frees, forgives, brings joy and hope to - would be communicated to every child, every parent, every villager that God gives to this work. Our hearts are for India. Your hearts are for India. Most importantly, God’s heart is for India. Let’s beat on the doors of Heaven and commit ourselves to this work with all that we have.

Tonight, we ask that you pray for:

1) Healing and encouragement for Debbie C and Sharon.
2) That the love of Christ and the message of Christ’s salvation would be clearly communicated.
3) That God would stir our hearts for India and that we would commit ourselves to this work as God calls us.

Thank you, Warriors, for your prayers. You are doing vital ministry.

There's a Frog In My Guitar

No, that’s not a catchy title. There is straight up a frog camping out in my guitar. India is amazing.

Another great day at VBS. Even though we just arrived 2(ish) days ago, it feels like we’ve been here forever and we are seeing God blessing all over the place. One of the greatest joys we are experiencing is that every day, for 6 days, we get to see the same kids/teens/adults and so each day, our relationships with them continue to grow and this gives us opportunities to share the love of Christ with them over and over and over again. It is hot (Heat Index at 116 degrees today) and we are disgusting, sweaty messes, but as we shared in our debriefing times tonight, while this is a challenge, we wouldn’t change a thing about it. Staying here in the Mission Center allows us to cultivate relationships with those in the village and those who are living at the Mission Center. The hardest part - no lie - is knowing that in 4 days we will have to move on from here and onto the next area of service. We thank God so much that He is allowing us to do what we’re doing here and we thank you for your partnerships in praying for us and the Mission.

One of the blessings of the mission structure this time around is that, for the most part, our schedule is the same each day. That allows the team to come together each night, debrief the day’s mission experience and look ahead to the next day and how each member should prepare. Your India 2012 Team is to be commended so much for their hard work - not just on the ground here, but in the weeks and months of preparation that has allowed us to follow the Spirit and move freely in and out of the different mission activities together. The Team has come together in a way that can only be the work of God and we give Him thanks for your hand in keeping us lifted up to the Father.

This morning, we had a “Call time” of 8:00 a.m….and everyone was up and ready to go…by 6:30. After a great devotion led by Justin Hanneken, the kids began rolling in and we were able to jump right in and love on them as soon as they arrived. Speaking of which, the Mission Center buses/taxis kids from all over the villages here in those little motorized rickshaws. These “autos” can barely seat 3 adults comfortably. And yet, somehow, today I saw no fewer than 40...FORTY…4-0...children jump out when the auto pulled up. It is a literal sight to behold. If you don’t believe God still does miracles, come to India for a day and watch these kids pile out of the autos. Loaves and fishes.

For our morning program today, we did two skits and two Grain Game activities, as well as teaching the kids some new songs. Just before that, though, Mission Center pastor, Pastor Gnanam (NYAH-num) led the children in singing a Tamil worship song about how we should rejoice because God our Father is always with us. These kids can sing. Loud. And we have no clue what they’re saying, but you can feel the Spirit of God moving as they lift their voices to Him. Our first skit was our “David and Goliath” skit. As mentioned previously, our skits are about 95% narrated and 5% dialogue to keep the translation easy. However, what you can never prepare for well enough is the time that translation will take. So after a line of narration, there is a good pause in which we have to wait for the translation to complete. For a bunch of non-actors, this means trying to figure out how to continue to “act” during those times - and your India 2012 Team nails it. Granted, we look ridiculous…but the continual laughter from the children is assurance that they are connecting with the performance. Our second skit was “Daniel in the Lion’s Den”. With both skits, we realized that one of the best ways to connect with the kids is to have them perform with us. So, the children made up the Israelite and Philistine armies and also the “lions” in the den. The other kids love watching their peers in the skits.

On to the Grain Games! Today we did another four Grain Game illustrations/demonstrations, the first being led by Debbie Chiodo. She taught out of Exodus when Moses and the Israelites were trapped between the Egyptians and the Red Sea. As she’s telling the story of how God brought an impossible rescue, she’s cutting a hole into a single piece of notebook paper big enough for an adult to pass through. In the end, she teaches that just as she cut the paper and easily walks through it, in the same way God has created a way for us, through Jesus Christ, to pass through death as well. She does a great job with it.

Following that “Auntie Betty” led the very first Grain Game illustration we were ever shown: Lavente’s Candle. In this demonstration, we took a plate (the World), poured soda into it (Humanity) and in the center put a lit tea candle (The Light - Jesus). Then, a glass cup (Sin) is put over the candle to separate the soda from the candle (Sin separates from God). But, before the candle in the glass goes out due to a lack of oxygen, the candle draws the liquid outside of the cup into the cup before the light is extinguished. In the same way, we show that, while sin separates from God, Jesus entered the world and through His death, brought men who were far from God close to Him. It’s so simple, but the imagery is so effective.

After a fantastic lunch, we did our afternoon session in which we did two more Grain Game illustrations. I was able to lead one of my favorite illustrations: “Remove The Dot”. I had Moses, one of my Indian buddies, come to the front as I talked about Adam and Eve’s sin and how they foolishly tried to cover it and hide from God - yet God shed the blood of an innocent animal to take away their sin. In this demonstration, a “White Out” dot is put on Moses’ nose. We point out that the dot is embarrassing, so we try to cover it up. So a marker is used to color over the White Out dot. But this just makes it worse. And so the demonstration progresses with Moses trying to cover the shame of the dot - with a face-full of shaving cream, a bucket over his head, a sheet over the bucket….and so on. The kids loved seeing Moses look silly - but then the teaching comes in and points out that instead of trying to cover over our sin with good works (church attendance, tithing, pilgrimage, etc.), it would be so much easier - and much less shameful - to remove the dot. We teach how God allowed another innocent to be killed to remove our sin and that in Christ alone is our forgiveness. It’s such a fun demonstration and yet it teaches a great truth.

Our last Grain Game was “Beach Balls” - and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Justin Hanneken led this one and brought up a volunteer to play “catch” - only, he used a beach ball with no air in it. He talked about how a beach ball with no air is a useless toy. And as he communicated the truth about how God breathed His breath into Adam, he began to blow up the beach ball. The kids were so engaged and they loved seeing how Hanneken used the visual of the ball being blown up as a picture of God breathing His life into us and giving us a purpose. Following that, all the kids were moved outside for a huge group picture…and then we tossed 20 beach balls over the second floor terrace for the kids to play with. Such a great end to the day.

Around dinner, David kindly took us out to the beach for some time of refreshing. Some got in the water and cooled off (Leon has an Oscar the Grouch bathing suit - don’t tell anyone), while others hung out on the beach and basked in the ocean breeze that I’m pretty sure was a direct gift from our generous God. For the record, Jen, I did NOT get in the water. I was in no danger of being eaten by a crocodile (I apologize for this personal aside, but my wife is convinced that I’m going to be eaten by a crocodile if I get near the water). We enjoyed dinner at a roadside restaurant called “Mama’s Kitchen”. We didn’t get to meet “Mama”, but the fried bananas, rice, chicken and Nan were crazy delicious. Our evening concluded with our debriefing time giving God the glory for His provision and a time of looking forward to tomorrow.

One of the things that came out of that Team time together was a realization of how blessed we are as Americans. Listen, I know that every time someone you know goes away and experiences another culture they always come back talking about how spoiled and focused on “stuff” and “comfort” we are…but there’s a reason for this. When you come in contact with such a culture that has nothing compared to what you have, you should feel embarrassed. If you don’t, shame on you. We came back to our rooms today discovering that, while we were serving, ladies from the Mission Center came into our rooms, cleaned up our things, made the bed, swept/mopped/cleaned the bathrooms, etc…and the embarrassment washed over us that these ladies had seen the excess that we had brought. It’s pretty safe to assume that each team member probably brought more clothes/items for a 2 week mission than the people we’re serving have altogether. And they were serving us. We were challenged tonight to be mindful of the command in James 1:27 to look after the orphans and the widows - champion those who have less than we do. But when we look at those who are serving, we want to be careful not to say they are “hurting” or “have need”…because these beautiful people would not describe themselves that way. We’re applying an American standard that is false, assuming that we NEED this or NEED that. Our wants look a whole lot like “needs” these days. And I’m not trying to preach or change your minds in this tiny blog thing - only to point out that these people, who have CONSIDERABLY less “stuff” than we do seem to have a whole lot more joy and satisfaction in serving. The challenge to us is to chase after this same joy and find satisfaction in serving God and others. With all that we believe God has blessed us with, if it’s not drawing us to Him in thanksgiving and service, then it’s just “stuff”. Over and over again we are convinced of the joy these beautiful people have and we are being challenged every day to love with a sacrificial and joyful spirit. Come to India - it’ll change you.
Wow…ok, soapbox over. Sorry so heavy for Mission Day Two. Well, onto prayer requests. We thank you so much for your continued prayers and support. For tonight, we ask that you pray for these things:

1) Debbie C’s ankle is very swollen from twisting it last night. This has not stopped her from participating or loving on the kids…but it certainly makes it very difficult for her to do all she wants to. Please pray for miraculous healing. She’s a trooper, but right now, she desperately needs your prayers.
2) A prayer of thanksgiving for the energy the team has each day - it is a miraculous thing to see your India 2012 work so hard being so outside their comfort zone.
3) Continued prayer for the strength and energy of the team. We have the desire and the passion - we need you to lift us up for more energy each day and throughout the day!
4) That we would hear God’s Spirit moving us and leading us in how to more creatively serve and develop relationships here in India.

David told us that each year it is typical to see continued growth each day of VBS. Yesterday we had 188 kids. Today we had 217. David says we could get up to 250-300 by the end of the week. Here’s the thing, though - we don’t share this to celebrate numbers. We share this to let you know that God is drawing kids/teens every day and every day new kids are hearing the truth of God’s word. Your prayers are NOT in vain. To love on all of these kids, to communicate well to each of them and to see the Holy Spirit at work in their lives is a task that 8 team members CANNOT do apart from God actively working here. Pray that His Spirit would have free reign, that the children would feel loved and that each day their ears and hearts would be open to the truth of Jesus. We love you guys. We miss you…but we thank our God for your partnership in this. Your prayers are going up and we see God answering each day in many different ways.

Nandry. (Thank you)