A Great Day of Fellowship and Sharing

Wednesday 13th

As the Strike is for 2 days, 12th and 13th, we were expecting a slow day on Wednesday too. But, arrival of Aeron, the head of Campus Crusade for Andhra Pradesh state, from a leadership meeting in Chennai, changed all that. He planned visiting 3 families.

We started the day with Staff Prayer meeting. In that meeting, we prayed trusting God's Power to do what He planned to do through us in whatever circumstances. God just answered prayer so quickly. My parents were so surprised on how we were able to travel around in the city as if there was nothing going on. There were so many violent protests going on in the city and my parents were watching all that in news.

The first family we visited in the morning was a Pastor's family. That is a great family who has 4 sons, one of whom is planning on applying to US Universities for higher studies. I strongly encouraged him to come to Utah as we need more Indian Christians on Campus here. All 4 of them are good musicians, formed a band together and lead worship in the Church where their Dad Pastors on every Sunday. It was a good time to enrich our knowledge on Christian Community, Fellowship, Evangelism, and Outreach, and the Hindrances that they have in India. We tried to gain knowledge on how we can reach out to Indians in Utah.

Keith has been showing Autumn's picture to show who my wife is. Also, it's funny that I don't have her picture, but he has her picture. Everywhere, after seeing Autumn's picture, they ask me to bring her to their house next year when she vistis for sure.

Raj, who is planning on applying to US Universities for higher studies, in the same way I came to US

In the evening, we visited 2 families. One of them is a Hindu family. This family perfectly represents a lower middle classed combined family in India. In that medium sized house, 2 brothers with their wifes and children, their mom, 2 cousins, and a visiting sister with her daughter live. They are very hospitable just as all other families, on top of that, while being the poorest family of all we visited, they are the only ones who gave Susanna a nice pair of clothes as gift while leaving.

As it is custom here that we should not go empty handed when we are visiting a family, especially when there are kids on that house, we are grabbing some fruits and sweets. Those pink apples are a lot more expensive than they are in US. Each apple costs around 80cents in US currency.

Visiting this Hindu family is one of the highlights of my trip. The head of the house, oldest brother, Divakar is friend of Aeron from college. He likes what Aeron is doing in ministry, but asked him to leave Gospel out of their relationship. But, that night, God provided a way for me to share my Testimony. Whole family gathered in the hall to listen, and God led me to add Bridge Illustration to my Testimony in the end. It went really well. The whole sharing lasted anywhere between 40 to 60 mins. Not only my Testimony spoke the Truth of Him and His Existance, but also the Bridge Illustration illustrated the distinction between Him and other gods and illustrated why we need to receive Him very well.

Yesterday, I bought a good Telugu Bible to send it to them with a note and highlighted passages as a gift to them. So, please keep all of them and their Salvation in your Prayers. They have some prayer requests that Keith prayed for. Their sister needs healing and younger brother's wife womb needs to be opened by God. I believe God didn't open her womb yet for a reason, so He can open it now, throught which He will be glorified and they would find their Salvation. So, please pray for those two prayer requests.

From there, we went to meet a Christian family. It sounded like their family has a good history in Indian Christianity. Their fathers and forefathers had a great involvement in Church growth in various parts of India. Aeron visits them once a week to do a Bible Study for their 2 children who go to college. On that night, Keith led the study and shared Word, then, we had a nice dinner with them. Again, it was another long day with late night going to bed.

People love Keith here as he is very good in making conversations, especially with college students. He is very good at speaking slow and clear, keep asking questions to let them involve in conversations.

We really had a fruitful day in LORD. It was answer to our prayer on that morning. Thank you all for your prayers, and, I believe that your prayers helped us on having great time in Christ in the midst of all that was going on.

God Given Restful Day

On Monday, we attended weekly Crusade's staff prayer meeting. We sang some fun dancing worship songs. Then, Keith taught CoJourners tool to India Campus Crusade staff. It is a cool new tool introduced and being tested by Campus Crusade in US. That evening, not knowing that they called for Strike next two days, we wanted to take it slow as we had been having very busy schedules, and visited Tankbund, Lumbini Park and NTR Gardens which are right next to each other. During that time, we got a chance to Abhilash who is a student at one of the colleges here and very dedicated Christian and a prospect Crusade staff. He is a great guy and playing a big role in reaching out to non-believers in his college.

On Tuesday, due to the Stike, we just hungout at our rooms, finishing up our talks for the retreat on this weekend, playing some games and finding some restaurants which are secretly opened through back door, trying not to be found by protestors. Many groups of Army deployed on every corner of the streets.

Here are some pictures:

CoJourners Training

Visiting a Staff Member's family

Park

Stacked up with enough water as we are not sure if we could find a place to buy water due the strike

They get to sleep longer as they can't find work for that day due to the strike. It is very hard on daily labor and homeless people whenever there is strike as such

What a contrast of life here. Notice the big buildings behind. We see this everywhere.



A Day of Baptisms and Fellowship

Sunday 3rd

Morning

A Church in outskirts of Hyderabad has 18 converts getting Baptized, and we are invited to attend it at a clean water Dam. It was great to watch. We were supposed to attend the Baptism in early morning and attend 2 church services (one at 8:30am and the other one at 11am) where Keith was going to share Word. As it was India timing and getting very late, Keith started getting nervouse about missing Church service at 8:30am, Keith and Aeron decided turn back from middle. As they took a Auto Riksha and went back, I and Susanna attended the Baptism service. Here are some picture from the Baptism service:

The Korean Missionary, David, drove us.

We picked up Church Planters who planted the Church and Discipled the Church Pastor

I sat in the back of the SUV, on the floor, to make room for all the leaders. It was nice sitting here than getting squished in the seats.

We are following the Auto Riksha, in which 18 people who are going to get Baptized are packed into

All of them out of the Auto Riksha. The girl in the white Chudidhar (indian dress) is 18 years old and she has an amazing testimony. She is one of the leaders of that one church who brought Gospel to all these Converts. One of the converts was a male Witch and she said that entire Church witnessed Evil Spirits leaving that Convert. Amazing.

Had to do a little adventures walk to the Dam

Clean Water Dam (Manjeera Dam)

Shared Word, Asked the Converts questions on their Faith before Baptizing them, and Prayed by one of the Leaders

Some of the Baptisms

Some are Singing and Worshipping during Baptisms

After Bampisms, every one changed into New Cloths

Group Picture with New Believers

Evening

We went to visit a Christian family to have fellowship, pray and to gain more understanding of Christian life style in India. Being hospitable, they made us stay for dinner. Not anticipating that coming, we ate early dinner before we left to their house. But, we had to have second dinner and Keith loved it. One thing I learned from that visit is to have a daily quite time with God every morning as you never know when you have to share a Word on this Mission Trip. Before dinner, they asked both Keith and I to share Word which kind of caught both of us by surprise. Great hospitality and Susanna loved spending time with daughters.

Saturday, July 2nd

The Crusade staff took us over to a Korean couple who moved to Hyderabad on Mission 6 years ago to minister to Indians. His name is David. Crusade planned us to meet them, so we get some information from them on, being a foreigner, how it would be to minister to local Indians.

It is a cute little house that they live in. They are planning on turning that house into a Waldorf School. When we walked into their compound, he and his wife were working on their garden. They were laying down some grass, planting some flowers and vegetable garden. They have a 3 year old cute daughter. David helps with Church planting wing of Campus Crusade.

Keith asked him few questions. Based on the answers David gave, two questions caught my attention.

1.       What is one challenging aspect that David faces/faced in ministering to Indians in India?

His answer:

First of all, we need to have a heart of Jesus for the people here to minister. Jesus died for us. And, are we willing to die for others in Him?

One of the biggest challenges is that we could easily get angry with these people here. The grass guy said that he would be here by 8am, but it’s almost 10 and he is not here yet. Construction guy said that he would be here by 9am, but he is not here yet. How would I react to that? I would easily get angry on them. 

2.       One of the things that we were talking last night was that there are so many needs here in India. We can’t try to meet all the needs. So, what particular need that you took up in your 6 year ministry to focus on?

His answer:

I believe there is only one need. There are many needs. But, right here, in India, everything is available to meet all those needs. But, only few people are holding all those resources while many others are lacking. People’s hearts are becoming more and more stubborn. The only need they have is the light of God. Under the light of God, they could let go of things which would meet the needs of all others. I strongly believe we need more revivals to come here.

Few other things he talked about are:

There are around 625000 villages, in which, the number of villages that have at least one Christian are around 40000. There are still hundreds of thousands of villages who don’t have any Christians which means the Gospel was never brought to. Even though, percentagewise, the Christian community is still small in India, in number, it is equal to the whole population of Korea. That population could make a huge impact. In 1900s, there was a big revival in Northern part of India for Christianity, and, since then it’s like a wave, comes and goes, so, 21^st century is due for a big revival in Souther part and throughout India. And, David wants to be part of that fire by the Holy Spirit.

He says that he and his family love the culture, family values and how religious people here in India are. So, when they come to Christ, they are all in. Being a Korean and grew up in an environment like, one language and one nation, one of their biggest challenges was the several languages and several nations like different cultures atmosphere here. First thing they did was becoming fluent in English, and then learning Telugu. He and his wife, like my wife, can speak few Telugu words and could form little sentances, and, his daughter could speak Telugu very well.

Also, he has a close friend who stays in Khammam and runs an orphanage and a church.

In that evening, we attended a youth fellowship in a Baptist church. It is college age group and young working singles. They have a great worship band and played some Chris Tomlin songs and some Telugu hymns. Then, we played a fun game. After that, I shared my Testimony which was followed by a message by Keith. It was encouraging to me to know that few of the youth could relate to my Testimony and be encouraged. I’m asked to share my Testimony again in one of the Churches’ Sunday service tomorrow. Keith gave a great message on what it means to be a disciple. I think that’s a great topic that youth need to be taught.

I don't know what God is doing in me, but, I never thought of the comfort that I feel here now through all this great Christian community. Before I left India, I shared about my discomfort around fellow Indians, especially, with sharing Gospel. Not even once, I felt that here so far. I'm very happy and excited for God revealing His Work that He is doing here through bringing many dedicated believers along in our walk in this trip.

Thank you very much for all your Prayers. Thank you very much for partnering with me and being with me here in Spirit.

I discovered my motivation factor in Christ. It is Eternity. While I'm excited for living with all these great people in Christ eternally, the thought of eternal seperation for many greives my heart, makes me long for the lost, and keeps me growing.

In the end, it's the matter of whether we TRUELY believe what Bible says:

Hebrews 2:2-4 - "For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will."

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 

Sensing God at Work Around Us in Khammam even before we start our Mission

My Mom completely stopped worshipping the Idols that she used to. But, she still has some idols left in the house. So, I confronted with her on that in a loving way. She was very hesitant to let me take them out and throw them away. I was sad and upset on that. As I’m learning to go to God first on anything, I prayed on it. Later, she came to me and said that she not only stopped worshipping idols completely, but also will throw them away soon, but just not now. She is afraid of the idols cursing us, especially Autumn as she is with a life in her. I was trying to be careful on not to push her and force her through questioning her believes as I just trust in our God and in His Power. She was asking me questions like, why she can’t do both worshipping Jesus and participating in communion with her friends and family in worshipping idols, and also asking me why, just like some guys that we know, I follow Jesus but I just let my parents do whatever she wants to and not to pursue after her to follow the same.

Yesterday, when God provided an opportunity, I told her that I don’t know about all those guys, but I’m pursuing after her out of my love for her and I don’t want death to separate us eternally that we never see each other again. Not only that, but I can’t bear the thought of her suffering the loss of “hope and love” of God for good. Then, I shared what Ravi Zacharias shared once in one of his books. When his Mom died, at her funereal, all he could think repeatedly was “she is gone”. He was disheartened, filled in grief, sorrow and hopeless. I could see myself in that. The loss would be unimaginable and unbearable for me. But, then, Ravi’s father came to him and asked him to finish his thought, “she is gone to where”. That’s when the amazing hope that we have in Christ took him over. She is gone to heaven and, one day, he is going to see her again. So, I told her that, one day, I want to have that hope. The thought of not having that hope, even writing this, makes my heart cry so deep and pushing water into my eyes.

Please Pray for the Holy Spirit to Seal the Saving Faith in her Heart permanently through the precious Blood of our Lord, Jesus, that was shed on the Cross for her.



This was right when I was explaining her why I'm after her finding Jesus. Nothing is better than spending time in kitchen and talking with her to have great fellowship with her.



It is sad to hear her finding humanly reasons for and dismissing the Prayers answered by God, which caught her by surprise and moved her when she was visiting us last year. My fears came true on this as all the fellowship she has is with her friends and family who are very strong Hindus. It reminded me, , which emphasizes on Christian fellowship for the believers.

But I trust in God’s Timing and in His Power, and finds hope in His Love for her as, compared to my grief for her to find Salvation, how much more His, who love is perfect, grief would be for her to find Him.

If I picture Jesus, I would picture Him scratching, not just knocking, loud on the doors of the heart of every lost person with hands covered by blood with the hope that the person would open the door and let Him into his/her heart, but not a picture of all smiling and glowing Jesus as some religions portray while the lost are suffering death.

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When we rent a car here, it comes with a Driver. On last Saturday night, my Dad called for a car for me to go to Airport to pick Keith and his daughter, Susanna, traveling to join our mission at the Airport. The drive is 5 hours long. An hour before we are supposed to leave home, the driver called my Dad and expressed his worry about the chance of missing Church in the morning. Listening to that, I was excited to meet him as he seemed to like Church and Jesus a lot, and also his name is Swamy, which means he is a Hindu convert. Right after I got into the car, not wasting any time, I asked him his testimony. We talked for 4 hours straight. He has a great testimony and he came to Christ not long ago, just little over a year ago. He really loves Jesus a LOT. I told him that he is my inspiration in loving Jesus.

I serve Jesus. But, I don’t love Him with my whole heart yet. Lately, with God’s grace, I have been working on in that area, just to be in love with Him. Even my Bible study, Experiencing God, with Students on-campus is very helpful for me on this. While talking to Swamy, Martha and Mary’s story from Luke 10:38-42 came to my mind. I need to slow down and reflect on God more.

Listening to Swamy talking about the church he goes to on its worship, prayer, ministries and fellowship, I have decided to visit the church with him and take my parents with me as I and Autumn have been praying for a church where my parents can find good fellowship for a while. After picking up Keith and Susanna, we hurried back home so all five of us can go with Swamy to his Church.

At the Church, we were received well, and, personally, I could say that it was my best worship that I had on a Sunday morning. The only complain I have is the length of time that the whole service took. It lasted for 3hrs and 20mins. But, at the same time, I like it not to worry about time and not it to be like all pre-planned according to time, but just wait on Him and led by His Spirit when we gather to worship Him on Sunday mornings. Simply, if I knew it earlier on how long the service would last, I would have been prepared to set a big part of my Sunday aside to be in Him.

In the end, the pastor’s wife came over and took my Dad’s phone number, and told me that they would follow up with my Parents through calling them and visiting them in person.

Please pray that, if it is God’s Will, my parents would get hooked up with this Church and find great fellowship which would lead them to get into an ever increasing loving relationship with Jesus, our Lord.

The Church we went to on Sunday. I wish I have taken a picture with the Driver and a picture in the Church during the Service.

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We are leaving to Hyderabad tomorrow (Wednesday, 29^th) to start our Mission. Please lift all of us involved in it up in your prayers that we would wait on God in the Holy Spirit and join our LORD, Jesus Christ, in His work right where we are, and let Him work through us.

This time, we will be travelling by Train as Keith and Susanna are not so excited to drive as there were several moments when their hearts literally stopped beeping in their drive from Airport -J.

Did I mention that the sermon at the Church on Sunday was on Prayer? I’m looking forward to talking on the subject in few days.

Thank you for all your support and for joining me daily in this Mission through your Prayers in the Spirit.

Some more pictures:



I can witness the work of Holy Spirit in my Dad. He simply says, "I asked Jesus for few things to happen, and all those occurred. So, I know He is God and I believe in Him"



The best mangos are found in India. Especially, in Southern India. After 9 years, I could make it to India in the mangos season.


 

Keith, the Man, and the Dad, who is witnessing to my Mom and to her friend through the way he treats and loves his daughter. As many do not have Dads who model Christian values, I realized that it is the best way for men to witness to women here. Also, he and his daughter, through their behavior, outfits and mingling with people and guests, they fixed the perspective of many around here on American culture, which is not just what's shown in HollyWood movies. Everyone loved them both. His motto is to be like Indian when in India as much as possible. With that, man, it makes it a lot easier to talk about Jesus with them.

 

Caram Board. It is like a mini-pool, but you flick it with your fingers instead of using pole. Keith loves it and wants to get one for his home and four for the Cross Cultural Club to have some competative games among international students once we come back.