D-Day -20

Well, just twenty days until I hit the skyways and bi-ways on the way to India. Speaking of which, this years route is a bit more circuitous than last years with more stops on the way there and a few layovers. The good news about this is that the dreadfully long non-stop flight monotony is broken up a bit with some shorter (though still long) flights. The bad news is that with time changes and layovers, I will be spending all of my time between Thursday at 9:00am and Saturday at 2:00pm in airport waiting areas, aboard planes, or on a bus. That's a lot of travel time without a bed.

Most of my personal stuff is taken care off. I have a couple immunizations to take care of and a few final things to track down, but with this being my second trip most of the things like a passport and visa are in place already. Now it's just a matter of getting my personal stuff together and packing it all up.

Thanks to support from friends and the sale of my motorcycle, at the time of this writing I'm only about $900.00 short of my total goal of $3750.00. There are still a couple weeks left so there is hope that additional funds will come in. If you'd still like to contribute support you can either drop an old fashioned check in the mail or give online by following the GIVE link at www.e3partners.org. Any support, no matter how small, is appreciated.

I've been participating in the training with the rest of the team. Some of the information is "old hat" to me, but still, it's good to get a feel for the rest of the team. George Cheek, Tom Parr, and I are the only ones on the team from last years group and the only ones that have traveled to India before. We will be working with many of the same Indian volunteers and pastors that we worked with last year, including Charles Golla, one of e3's India directors. I'm really looking forward to seeing Charles again. In addition to being an extremely dedicated man of God, he is also one of those infectious people that, within minutes of meeting him, you feel like you're an old friend.

That's about it for now. In the next week or so I'll be posting a prayer calendar here that you can download and stick on the fridge. It will include our itinerary and activities and prayer requests. Stay tuned and keep in touch!

 

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An Update on Larry's Trip

I told you that I would get more information from Larry and post an update. The more info part has only sort of happened as Larry has been playing catch-up since his return and it seems like my schedule is always busy this time of year. We haven't had time to really sit down and talk in depth, but here are a few more details from his trip.

Larry (second from the left) during a break in the action on our trip last year.

Larry's trip was quite a bit different from the trip we took together last year and pretty similar to the one I'll be taking in just over a month. Last year we were with a doctor, an ophthalmologist, and a pharmacy, setting up one-day clinics in rural villages and giving spiritual counseling and sharing the gospel with patients. This year the trip was more about sharing God's word and spending more in-depth time with people. The team would split off into groups of two or three Americans and a translator and go to pre-arranged homes where they would meet with a group of people interested in hearing about Christ. They would share a story from the bible, take time to get to know the people, and arrange to meet a day or two later to discuss the story.

A day or two later they would meet at the same place and visit with the people about the story they heard on the previous visit. These bible studies were based mostly on the I Am Second method of studying. It's a great method as it really encourages participation from everyone, regardless of their comprehension level, spiritual maturity, or even whether they know Christ or not. After the discussion the gospel would be shared and an opportunity given for the participants to accept Christ as their savior.

One of the key aspects that Larry really enjoyed was being able to spend more time with the people he was working with. During our trip last year it wasn't unusual for each team member to visit and share with nearly a hundred people in the course of four or five hours. Other than our translators, drivers, and partners in the mission, there just wasn't time to really get to know the people we were dealing with. This is something I'm really looking forward to as well and it makes me even more excited to get on the plane and into the field.

 

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