Pastor Conference Day 1 Khammam

We started our pastor conference today in Khammam .  The village pastors always hold a special place for me.  These men and women sacrifice so much to serve those around them.  Our prayer for the conference is that we can encourage these servants of God.

Jay and I will be teaching on discipleship once again.  Building up disciples who make disciples.

We have a much bigger crowd this time.  It will be lots of fun to work with our friends as we share in ministry.  

Hit the ground running

We left our hotel at 4:30a on Thursday morning to head to Khammam village.  12 people with luggage and materials climbed into a van with 10 seats for a 4.5 hour ride. The trip was comical in that everyone was trying to sleep.  We had blankets or scarves over our heads to block out the sunlight.  With everyone bouncing as we drove it must have looked like we had all died.

Nissi Faith Youth Meeting

The team from Atlanta led a youth meeting at Nissi Faith Wednesday night.  Church members 15 and up were invited.  They were encouraged to bring friends from school and their neighborhood.

The meeting encouraged the youth to understand who Jesus is and what he has done.  They were also lifted up and encouraged in their faith.  To walk out their faith.  To walk as part of God's army.

Many made a commitments to follow Jesus.  Many others committed to continue walking in faith and being part of the uprising of God in India.  Atlanta team was fantastic.  Clear Gospel message, energizing worship and a call to action.  It was good to see God moving!

Tapering before the race

Today is Wednesday here in India.  I have a less packed ministry day in the morning.  I am using the time to get packed and ready for the next leg of the journey.

The Atlanta team is having a youth rally tonight at Nissi Faith here in Hyderabad.  That will put us back at hotel around 11p tonight.  Thursday, we'll wake up and be on the road by 4a tomorrow morning for a 6 hour car ride to our next location.  The second pastor conference will start at 11a.  That lasts to 4p and then off to villages for a Gospel meeting.  Friday and Saturday are packed as well and conclude with us returning to Hyderabad and hotel around midnight on Saturday.  Church most of Sunday and more meetings and then flying home Monday (that flight leaves 4a as well)

All that said, I'm going to try and charge up today.  I appreciate your prayers and support.  I will continue to write when I can.

Children

We went out into the poor communities once again.  The English translation would roughly be "remote area".  No running water, there is electricity, no commerce, and lots of poverty.  It is in these areas several pastors have made their home.  God's call on their life is to minister to the children and in turn minister to their parents.  Daily, these pastors provide tutoring, Bible lessons and a hot meal.

The other team here in Hyderabad is focused on the children and women.  It was a privilege to go out with them and see them minister.  They had the kids from Nissi Faith learn a skit so they could perform in Telegu.  Here's a link to the skit.

Teach Me How to Pray Skit

The message was clear and the kids got it.  Then the team told the kids how special they were and how God's love is so big.  They also bought a meal with meat and lots of vegetables.  Quite a treat for these that only have one meal a day thanks to the ongoing ministry.  More than humbling knowing that a lot of the food was excess (and planned so) from the conference we had just finished.  Quite a perspective considering my big problem for the day was spilt tea....

Pastor Conference Day 2

We finished our pastor conference in Hyderabad today.  It was fantastic.  The focus on discipleship was something we had worked a lot on.  We had a booklet of notes, scriptures and discussion questions created for the conference to give tot he pastors.  All of it is in Telegu.

Jay and I took turns teaching through five major ideas.  Each section had several bullet points, scriptures and discussion points.  The idea was the pastors can talk to one another, and then go back to their churches and teach others.  So they can teach others, and they can.....  It was awesome.

I was super excited to see Jay bringing the truth of our calling to these men and women.  I was blown away by listening to the testimony of some of the pastors.  Freedom from alcohol, witchcraft, drugs, anger, infidelity, the list goes on.  Hearing how Jesus continues to set people free was absolutely amazing.

At the end we once again asked everyone to join in a covenant of salt to push forward for biblical discipleship.  We had a full bowl at the end!  PRAISE!

God is good, everywhere and all the time.

Crying over spilt tea

Tuesday morning started crazy here.  I had woken up well, chatted with my family on Skype, took a shower and gotten dressed.  I was sitting at the desk in the room enjoying reading the Bible and drinking a cup of tea.  Until I spilled the whole cup.  Spilled it on me, my Bible and the open laptop.

I quickly went into cleanup.  Turned the laptop off and laid it upside down to start draining tea.  I washed my clothes in the sink with hand soap to get the stains out.  I put towels on top of my Bible.  The clothes were a big deal because they were my new India clothes for preaching the second day of the conference.  I felt dumb.

I continued calling myself names as I stood in the bathroom trying to use a hair dryer to dry my clothes.  Kept calling myself names as I turned on my computer and it was making very strange noises (I immediately turned it back off).  Kept calling myself names as I was pushing tea out of the pages of my Bible.  Things were not going great.

I finally got clothes dry enough to put on.  Used the hair dryer to blow more tea out of the laptop and then had to leave.  I quickly called Melissa using my cellphone and Skype app.  She prayed immediately.  Went to war against the condemnation I was loading on myself.  Went to war for the laptop and conference.  She went to war for me.  What a wife!

Prayers worked.  I am posting from a slightly sticky laptop.....  :)