Khammam to Hyderabad

OUTLINE:

1.       Khammam Church Pastor visiting my parents’ house – he and his wife shared their testimonies. They both are Hindu converts and their main church which has around 400 members consists of almost all Hindu converts and one Muslim converts. He shared his ministry and how God planted 3 churches through him.

2.       Leaving Khammam to Hyderabad for the Mission – We took train, which was a little adventures as we couldn’t find the right compartment that was assigned to us before the train started leaving the platform. Aeron, who is the head of Campus Crusade for this State, Andhra Pradesh, came to the station in Hyderabad to receive us. Keith’s daughter started feeling icky in stomach as busy schedule and lack of enough water to drink in the travel upset her stomach which made her very weak for next couple of days.

3.       Ministry on Campus and in National Day of Fasting Prayer – I visited a campus, met students, lead a Bible study, participated in the National Day of Fasting Prayer and shared Word.

DETAILS:

It was great to see the Pastor and his wife came over to our house to visit us as a follow up to our visit to their church on Sunday. It was even more awesome to listen to his and his wife’s testimony. He was a Hindu fundamentalist, had some followers and even built a couple of Temples for Hindu gods. It was when he wanted to find out which one of the many Hindu gods would bring him to heaven, his quest started. He enquired about religion and god except Jesus, as, similar to me before I came to Christ, Jesus was considered as God of untouchables and low cast people. When he thought he found who the right god is, he wanted to find ways to spread it with his followers. That intention made him accept an invitation he got to an opening ceremony of a Rice Mill whose owner was a Christian as Christianity does the best job in spreading its believes among all religions. In that opening function, when a pastor was preaching, he encountered Jesus for the first time saying that I’m the one you are looking for. That encounter itself is worth to listen. After that, when he went home he was afraid to reveal it to his family which consists of his wife and his two children. But, when his wife overheard him talking to his children about his encounter with Jesus, she came out, cried and said that she came to know about Jesus 6 months ago and worried about how she could tell him about it. That’s a short version of their testimony.

It is very encouraging to hear their Ministries. Once a month, they go to a village around Khammam and do door to door evangelism during the day, and, in the evening, they do a big prayer meeting in middle of that village to which several interested people from that village would attend. As most of them from their church once came to Christ like that, all of them would be very enthusiastic and leave aside everything to join this monthly event. They also arrange a big prayer meeting by renting one of the big play grounds in Khammam once a year, to which 50000 people attended last year. Also, it is very encouraging to see how much the church members give, not only in terms of their time and efforts, but also money and food. Since they started the church few years ago, they have spent 50 lakh rupees which is equivalent to around 150000 US dollars and, all of that came from church giving. They didn’t raise any money from outside. The fact to note here is that most of them didn’t have a job or a house before they came to Christ, but now God blessed them all with some small jobs and houses. Still they are considered poor economically, yet they are very rich in giving. Also, during the church service, all the women were walking with some plastic bags and leaving them in front of the podium before they find a place to sit. So, I asked them what those bags are. They said that, everyone in their church, whenever they cook a meal for the family during the week, they take a handful of stuff and put it in a bag. That’s the bag they bring to Church on Sunday mornings. So, they have food stored up in church, and whenever someone visits and have no food to eat, they send that person back with some food. Also, once a month, they do Baptisms and Communion, and, after that, the Church provides meal for everyone, so they all have a meal together.

When they were visiting our house, Keith’s daughter, Susanna, even though there is the language barrier, seeing the Joy in them and seeing them sharing their testimonies and ministries, she felt led to give them the gift that she brought from home to give in this trip.

I was very happy the way God brought all this along and gave me a chance to meet them in this trip. Listening to the Pastor and listening to all that God doing through him, in terms of bringing Gospel to everyone in villages around khammam, I felt like, if I’m back home in India in Khammam, I could see myself in him. It’s like, sharing the same call.

Before we left Khammam, Swamy, the driver, came to visit, so, on this time, I got a picture with him, so I can share it with you. Here it is,

Next day, we left Khammam to Hyderabad for our Mission on train. As the train stops only for 5 minutes in the station, and, as it is very crowded to get into the compartment, we were unable to find and right compartment that was assigned to us and decided to load our luggage into whatever compartment quick before train starts moving with the hope that, in next station, try to go find our compartment. In the next station, I grabbed a couple of bags and took Susana with me, found the right compartment, loaded the bags and left Susana to guard them and tried to go back to Keith who was guarding the other bags in the other compartment. But, the train started moving. So, I jumped into a different compartment and waiting for next train station. Finally, in the next train station, we were able to bring the luggage to the right compartment and sit down in our assigned seats in the air conditioned compartment. It was a little adventure, especially for Keith and Susana.

Aeron, the head of the Campus Crusade for Andhra Pradesh state, received us in Hyderabad and took us over to the guest house booked for us. Unfortunately, Susana started feeling sick with icky stomach from all the busy schedule and lack of enough water to drink in the travel.

PIC

On Friday, 30^th, we went to Campus for a Bible study at 8:30am. I never thought of myself worshipping, praying and studying God’s word with a group of Christian students in a Campus before. It was nice and pleasant in the morning when students start coming to the campus for classes slowly. We cleared the ground and sat under a tree. We started worshipping while one after one kept coming. We were 8 in count (4 guys and 4 girls). 2 of them were Hindus and found Christ through the students in that group. It was very refreshing to be around those young, humble and energetic believers. I shared my Testimony and then taught them the Bridge illustration, a great tool in sharing Gospel.

Then, we hurried to get back to join the Fasting Prayer. Keith shared Word, and then I shared Word on Christ like attitude (Philippians 2:5-13) and how that helped me in my relationship with Christ to grow and to experience the freedom from some of my own issues.

For more pictures, please visit the link below. Keith uploaded from his camara.

https://picasaweb.google.com/phinney/0624To0713KeithAndSusannaToIndia?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ-B5pnIhoGqOg