January 6th – Our rest day, Monday. I exercise about 90 minutes, take my bucket shower and read “The Normal Christian Life.” It’s a heavy book, so I can only get through a few chapters before my brain taps out. Nice long quiet time. Shopping for fruits and punjabi’s takes 4 hours. Dinner is at 8:30 p.m. and I sleep early.
January 7th – We visit the home of a man who is in politics. He is not a believer but his family is. I’m distracted because the mosquitoes are biting me. I miss part of what happens, but the man says he worries if he becomes Christian that it will be bad for his career. The pastor turns to us and says, say something to him. We look at each other. Alexis and I are the closest to him. In my mind, I’m thinking, are you gonna go? Should I say something? So after a pause, I speak to him about what profit a man if he gains the world and loses his soul, about abundant life Jesus came to give, about how you will lose your life if you hold onto it, and how life is unstable and you can’t maintain control of it, but in Jesus there is a peace that comes from Him giving you solid ground. It was a monologue. I’m thankful that the time the translator speaks gives me time to formulate my next thought. He responded by asking for prayer to the obstacles to him coming to Jesus.
January 8th – When we arrive at the village, children start to follow us from home to home because we are walking there, praying and then moving on. We try to leave when asked because we read the manual which said the hosts will not often explain things, but they have their reason. I have the Father’s Love letter in Telegu. I give one to a young man at the end of service. Soon everyone around me wants one and I give out all 20. Many people were saved this night. Arrive home around 10:30 pm.
January 9th – We drive a long ways. We stop for tea at the pastors house. They climb in, there are now 14 of us in this vehicle, although 3 of them are children. This village is much more undeveloped. We do many house visits. Men with alcoholism comes up a lot. The last house we pray for healing, and this old woman cries as we leave because she is still in pain. That night I share my testimony of getting sick and how God uses everything for our good (Rom 8:28). My stomach growls because I forgot to snack on the way. For the first time no one stands up at the altar call. This night the service includes a dance by the pastors kids. Then we start praying for people. I pray for a man with back pain, it feels better. Hmm…interesting, I think. Next is a woman with leg pain, I pray and she is healed. I’m lucky in that the translator is nearby this night, so he is around to translate. He hands me the phone and says pray. I pray, and he says she is healed. I’m thinking…is this really happening? This is crazy. Next a woman wants prayer for studies. Next, Phil says to pray for the woman from before because she still has a lot of pain. I pray, and she feels better. Phil jumps in, we pray again and she is healed. She cries for a long long time. Finally we eat. We go to drop the pastor’s family off and the headlight goes out. 15 minutes turn into an hour while, we deliriously laugh while playing the it could be worse game. We get home exhausted at 12:30 a.m.
January 10th – This time the dancers grab us to dance. We laugh because everyday something new is thrown at us, and we aren’t quite prepared. So we dance. During the altar call, everyone came up. We’re pretty sure they were confused. We start praying for people. The healed woman from yesterday brought her mother and traveled to this much further village to attend this service. I pray and the woman falls down. The pastor says she has a demon, cast it out and walks away. Eep! Good thing I was reading about Jesus in Mark today!?!? I pray, pastor returns and says the pain is gone and so is the demon. More people want prayer. One by one, headache, fever, stomach pain, leg pain, all gone. No car breakdown, but we arrive home at midnight because service was long and even after dinner people wanted us to pray.
January 11th – There was much more disease to pray for in this village. Kids followed us around again as we walked from house to house. I spoke on Gideon, on turning away from idols to God and how He chooses the foolish things and the weak things to show His glory. As I pray, I don’t see any healed. But Kayla later shares she felt pain in her back and then prayed for people with the same back pain and they were healed. A few I prayed for said they felt something during prayer. A girl and a woman both felt a hand touch them on the part needing healing, and another felt a coldness run through her body. I’m not quite sure what to make of it, but sense that God did touch them somehow. I’ve been fighting a cold all week, so I’m exhausted by the end of the week. I sleep most of the hours of our two days off. We went to a birthday party our first day, and met a woman who visits the church almost daily. I think Alexis prays for her every time. I’ve never prayed so much in my life! People in India love prayer!
