Our final evening at the location was spent as a time of celebration with our nationals. There was plenty to celebrate. Over the course of four days we had shared the gospel with 1,937 people. 581 of those people had professed faith in Jesus Christ. 16 I Am Second bible study groups were formed and it is a hope that these study groups, given time and nurturing, will become house churches. Due to the structure of the bible studies, and I'll go into that in depth in a later post, there is a great possibility that those study groups will spread to make many more.
As you can tell from the video, Indian style worship is pretty dynamic and a real joyful thing!
We spent the next morning in more training with the nationals, making sure they were 100% in their understanding of the method of their follow up studies with the home study groups, call "satsangs" in India. Satsang, translated literally, means "discussion."
We spent some time saying our goodbyes. Over the course of four days you spend a lot of time with your team, at least eight hours a day, driving to and from the field, in the field, and at meals. There is a fairly good chance that I'll never see any of them again and I will miss them all.
We loaded up our bus and started the four hour drive to the airport for our first short flight back to Delhi. Unlike our bus drive here, this one is in the daytime and the traffic is incredible so the trip takes longer.
We finally arrive in Delhi and it's bedtime so we crash for the night. The following morning is a bit of free time. It's election day in Delhi so many of the shops are closed. Five of us decide to take a hike to the ruins of a sultan's tomb that is about a mile from the hotel. We walked through some pretty interesting and perhaps dicey neighborhoods and attract plenty of attention, but there aren't any problems. The ruins are pretty cool, but even here there is trash everywhere. I'll never understand the practice of just throwing all your trash onto the ground.
The shops were allowed to open after 5:00 on election day so the bus loaded up and we went to a shopping area to buy souvenirs for our loved ones at home. Then it was off to a final dinner together. There happened to be a real Baskin Robins ice cream store next to the restaurant and we all loaded up on some great ice cream and then posed for a shot of the American team, minus Leotta and Lyle. They had a friend in Delhi they had left to spend a day or two with before heading back.
We had our rooms for the evening so we were all faced with a choice: try and grab some shuteye before our bus to the airport at 1:00am or simply tough it out and spend the next several hours with little sleep. Maybe it was unwise, but I opted for the latter. Little did I know that, due to cramped flights and bad timing, I wouldn't be sleeping again in any real meaningful way for a total of about 40 hours.
It was with great relief that I finally walked in the door of my home to hold my wonderful wife in my arms. I'm still struggling a bit with jet lag and both Matt and I caught some sort of bug on the way home so we're a bit miserable, but it's all worth it. I can't wait to get back.
In the following week or so I'll have a couple more posts for you. One with some miscellaneous info and fun stuff, another with some details on I Am Second studies and the method the e3 Partners has put into place for helping the satsangs thrive and hopefully grow.
As you can tell from the video, Indian style worship is pretty dynamic and a real joyful thing!
We spent the next morning in more training with the nationals, making sure they were 100% in their understanding of the method of their follow up studies with the home study groups, call "satsangs" in India. Satsang, translated literally, means "discussion."
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| This was the team that I hit the field with everyday. |
We loaded up our bus and started the four hour drive to the airport for our first short flight back to Delhi. Unlike our bus drive here, this one is in the daytime and the traffic is incredible so the trip takes longer.
We finally arrive in Delhi and it's bedtime so we crash for the night. The following morning is a bit of free time. It's election day in Delhi so many of the shops are closed. Five of us decide to take a hike to the ruins of a sultan's tomb that is about a mile from the hotel. We walked through some pretty interesting and perhaps dicey neighborhoods and attract plenty of attention, but there aren't any problems. The ruins are pretty cool, but even here there is trash everywhere. I'll never understand the practice of just throwing all your trash onto the ground.
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| Inside the actual tomb. While we were there someone came to worship. I really wanted to tell them that our tomb is better because it's empty. |
We had our rooms for the evening so we were all faced with a choice: try and grab some shuteye before our bus to the airport at 1:00am or simply tough it out and spend the next several hours with little sleep. Maybe it was unwise, but I opted for the latter. Little did I know that, due to cramped flights and bad timing, I wouldn't be sleeping again in any real meaningful way for a total of about 40 hours.
 |
| The American team, minus Leotta and Lyle, along with Charles and his wife Rohini. |
It was with great relief that I finally walked in the door of my home to hold my wonderful wife in my arms. I'm still struggling a bit with jet lag and both Matt and I caught some sort of bug on the way home so we're a bit miserable, but it's all worth it. I can't wait to get back.
In the following week or so I'll have a couple more posts for you. One with some miscellaneous info and fun stuff, another with some details on I Am Second studies and the method the e3 Partners has put into place for helping the satsangs thrive and hopefully grow.
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