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.