First of all, I want to apologize for
not being timely with my updates this month. Our wi-fi connection in
Ongole was not strong enough to allow me to access my blog, and I am
sorry I was not able to update you throughout the month. With that
being said, it’s time to celebrate what God did in one small Indian
village in May 2011.
Our strategy was simple enough: once or
twice a day we would go door-to-door throughout the village, be
welcomed into people’s homes, tell them a little bit of our story,
tell them a little bit of His story, and then pray for miracles. each
night we would go to a different part of the village and set up a
huge screen and projector and show the Jesus film to whoever wanted
to watch. By the end of our stay, we would begin construction on the
church building, and leave the seeds planted to germinate, and bud in
the near future.
And that’s exactly what we did.
We are in the land of 300 million gods.
Homes are adorned with posters, calendars, pictures, and sculptures
of god after god. Tables hold burning incense and tokens offered to
the gods. So, to these people, what’s one more god, when you already
welcome over 300 million? And that was our biggest problem. How do
you convince a person who openly tells you, “yes I believe in
Jesus and I will worship him,” that, while it’s great you
worship our God, He has to become your only God?
And, we learned, you can’t. After all, we weren’t here to convince
people to join our side, to come to bat for us. We simply wanted to
let them know they were loved, and they had an opportunity to meet
the real and living God, and communicate daily with Him. So, thats
what we did.
Most
homes welcomed us; others told us they didn’t want us there. We said,
okay, God bless you, and shook off the dirt from our sandals, walking
to the next home.
GOD IS
MOVING
Throughout
the month, we saw miracle after miracle; healing after healing. We
prayed for men and women who could not walk, and saw them literally
run with the biggest grin on their face. We prayed for boils and
wounds, and saw them be healed overnight. We prayed for disease and
illness and saw it washed away before our eyes. In fact, the land
that was donated for the church building was given to us after the
family’s son and daughter were healed of kidney stones.
One of
the groups doing door-to-door one day prayed for an older man who had
been vomiting blood for several days. He not only was healed of the
sickness, but he asked for them to baptize him. We all got to go back
and watch him be washed with the water, in the blood of Christ. That
was a very awesome scene…one of my favorites of the month.
HIS
KINGDOM IS EXPANDING
Each
day we saw more and more people enter into the Kingdom. We heard
person after person denounce all other gods and idols before God, and
enter into his love.
One
night Jeannie got to share the story of Jesus with a group of 25-30
children. At the end of her message, she asked if any of them wanted
to give their life to Him. At one fluid time, the hand of every
single child shot in the air.
This
is Kingdom work; and this is what Luke 17 is all about.
THE
CHURCH IS RISING
We not
only saw the church body grow in numbers, but we were able to lay the
church building foundation in the last few days we were there.
Naturally, in India you use granite to cheaply build a foundation,
since the 50-pound stones cost a mere 7 cents. The labor was tough in
the heat, but it was so rewarding to see that simple foundation
standing as we left that plot of land for the last time.
Metaphorically, and quite literally, we were able to lay a lasting
foundation that will provide the support needed for that village’s
Church.
THE
ATMOSPHERE IS SHIFTING
The
end of this month marks the end of this leg of our journey. It’s on
to the final chapter of our race, Eastern Europe. We will be flying
through Istanbul into Bucharest, Romania on the 28th, and will be
spending the month in Arad, Romania, working with orphans.
As the
climate shifts, so will the people, and the spiritual environment.
Romania is God’s country, and He will be moving in new ways; please
be praying us into this new season, as we enter the Kingdom in
Romania and the Ukraine.
