Ministry was really amazing tonight. We took tuk tuks to two different villages. They were about 20 km away from the church in Kanigiri.
The first village was mainly a Hindu village. We had our prayer meeting right behind a temple. We sang a few songs and performed a drama about Daniel and the Lion’s Den for the children. After that, Garrett preached to the people about Daniel and his faith. Pastor kept telling me that there was something wrong in this village because not many people were coming. We prayed for the people who were there, then boarded the tuk tuks and proceeded onto the next village.
In the second village, a large crowd of maybe over 100 people surrounded us right away. We sang songs here to start off, and then the children sang us songs that they had learned in Sunday school. After that, Jessica preached on the prodigal son. She did such a great job. After she was finished, Pastor asked if one more person would preach. No one else had anything prepared, but I felt like I should. So, I opened up my Bible and prayed that the Holy Spirit would fill me because I had no idea what I was going to preach on. I turned to page 980 in my Bible, which is Colossians 2. The verses that my sermon focused on verses 9-10 and 13. I preached about freedom, and the love that we have in Christ. It ended up being really important afterwards; God has a plan with our every words.
It was cool that the Holy Spirit gave me something to preach about. Going to these villages, we can have everything that we think we need prepared, but we never know what we’ll be doing. It’s so different from America to have a service here, in India. At my church at home, everything is scripted – to a certain extent – the people know what will come next and who’s going to talk about what. Here, we go with the flow. If there are lots of children, we do action songs that the kids can have fun with. If more adults are there, we either A. Sing more songs, B. Put on a skit, C. or Get into the message soon. We never have any idea. And, someone might have a sermon prepared, and they might give it, but then they might ask for another. It’s definitely all about adapting and being flexible.
After I finished preaching, Pastor spoke to them in Telugu (the native language), then had us pray for the people.
A group of women crowded around me to ask for prayer. I reflected, after, on how different it is here. Whereas in America, where someone might say their prayer is “unmentionable,” here, in India, everyone is really open about what their pains and sicknesses are. One woman had skin that was flaking off and looked like it could be leprosy. Another woman had hair that was falling out. A lot of people in this village had gas in their stomach and headaches.
When the women were prayed for, a man came up to me to ask for prayer. He told pastor that he had a demon in him. He said that he used to go to church, but that he had now turned to alcohol and couldn’t go to church or even pray. Pastor didn’t interpret for me, but I prayed hard for him anyways. After praying for a couple minutes, his body started shaking, so I put both of my hands on his shoulders. Right as I told the demon that this man was a follower of Jesus Christ and had no place here, I told the demon that it was not welcome here, the man fell to the ground and started writhing around. I kept praying for him and asking the Holy Spirit to give him strength and fill him. I kept praying until finally he stopped moving. By this time, my team had come up behind me and put hands on me, and a crowd had formed around him. He got up after some time with a look of peace on his face.
This man was given freedom. He was raw with his pain and full in his faith. Praise the Lord.
Isaiah 61:1
