One week........

Well, it's just one week until I head out to India. I think I've got everything ready to go. Bags are packed, meds are in place, all the paperwork is done. Now it's a matter of surviving hour upon hour of boredom in five airports and a bus on the way to our final destination. It's hard telling, but if I have internet access at the airports, I may be able to post an update during the travel.

I did want to take this chance to thank all of you for your financial and prayer support. Please take just a bit of time to download the prayer calendar that I've included here. Print it out and stick it to your fridge. Prayer support is a vital key to any ministry. I'm pretty lousy at ever asking anyone for personal prayer, but in addition to the things listed on the calendar, please pray for my health. I've had a bit of a Crohn's flare-up this last week and while that's always manageable, it's certainly something I don't want to experience on the other side of the world. In addition, my church also has a team that is leaving for a short term mission in Poland on the same day. Please pray for their ministry and travels.

 

In the last week I've also found out that in addition to the evangelism, home bible studies, and HIV and malaria prevention education activities, we will also be distributing water filtration systems. The units we will be distributing are ideally suited to use in the areas we will be in. They work with no electricity and the replacement filters will be made readily available. Many of the diseases that plague the children of this are are water-born so it's a real privelage to be able to help them find relief.

Thank you again for your prayers and financial support. I might not post again before I leave, but make sure and check back often from the 17th on as I'll try to post updates and photos daily.

 

 

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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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Almost Home

Just a quick update:

Late this afternoon I got official word from e3 that Larry's team made it safely to Delhi. I believe that as I write this Larry is in a jet headed home. A jet is basically a metal tube, surrounded by combustible fuel and propelled at frightening speeds through a series of controlled explosions and then lifted to a few thousand feet above the earth. Allegedly this is a safer place than Larry was just 36 hours ago. I say we should keep praying.

Thanks so much for your response and prayers for the teams safety. I think it's a strong reminder that most of the world is not as blessed as we are here in the states.

I'll give Larry a week to decompress after the trip and then work on an interview so I can share his experiences with all of you.

 

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Under Attack

NOTE: I started the following post this morning, planning to publish it on Larry's return. That, along with the title of the post, changed tonight for reasons you will read about below.

I wanted to give you a little update on my friend Larry. Larry went with me to India this last February and he was a great travel companion and roommate. He suffered a bit on the last trip with some stomach problems, a nasty spider bite, and, of course, having to be my roommate.

Larry had planned on coming with us in January of 2013, but it turned out that by the time our trip got scheduled, his number one employee, the one he counts on to keep his business going when he takes trips, had scheduled a Caribbean cruise with her husband. The husband is bigger than Larry so rather than try and fight him for her, he decided to go with another group. He just got back this week.

Larry's trip turned out to be a little more exciting than most. It started out with a series of airport delays and cancelled flights due to a winter storm, all of which combined to leave him without the rest of his group wandering the Delhi airport for several hours. Adding to the excitement is that Larry didn't really know where his team would be working in India. They purposefully kept the information from him so he wouldn't let it slip and endanger the team. The particular area they were working in has been hostile to those sharing the gospel and there have been arrests, beatings, and worse in the past.

Here's where the post changes.

Yesterday I recieved a two day old report that the teams in that region of India had so far shared the gospel with about 1000 people and nearly 300 had prayed to recieve Christ as their Savior.

At about 6:45 tonight, a call was recieved from Larry. His team was under immediate threat from a terrorist group. They were in the process of evacuating their hotel and fleeing to Delhi. Please pray for Larry and his team. If they can make it to Delhi they should be relatively safe. I am praying that the words of the 3rd Psalm would come to life for the team there.

A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.

1 O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! 2 Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." "Selah" 3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. 4 To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. "Selah" 5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. 6 I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side. 7 Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. 8 From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people. "Selah"

 

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Communication

I blogged earlier about the new initiative that my church had the chance to support in India. In a nutshell, it became apparent that a vast majority of the over 1,500 people that we reached during our 2012 trip were illiterate. Even if bibles were available in their language, Assamese, it wouldn't do any good because they simply can't read. It also wasn't helpful for us to quote scripture as we talked to them because it was referring to a written word that they couldn't understand.

Since the dawn of civilization until a relatively short time ago, a vast majority of people passed on knowledge through the art of storytelling. In much of the underdeveloped world, this tradition still exists. The oral tradition is the way that nearly all knowledge, beliefs, history, and custom is passed between peoples and one generation and another. e3 has worked on techniques to use this tradition, one that the people we are trying to reach are comfortable with, in order to share the gospel. In addition to sharing the story of Christ in a way that is familiar to the people you are working with, the technique is also a safer method for the missionaries as it doesn't require the carrying of a bible or even an evangicube. In many regions of the world, including parts of India, having either of these items can create problems with authorities or militant believers of the native religions.

I found this approach interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, e3 took the time and effort to find out from the native pastors what tools they needed in the mission field. To often outsiders don't take the time to find out what is actually needed. When my church board approached me about finding a project in India to support financially, the original idea was to do something like dig a well for fresh water. Instead of pursuing that, I asked Charles Gulla, one of e3's Indian leaders, what his people needed. I did this because I remembered hearing a story about a multi-million dollar chicken processing plant that westerner's built in Afghanistan in order to "help" the local people. The problem was that there was no infrastructure to transport these beautifully cleaned and processed birds, no refrigerators in the homes of the people that would buy the processed poultry, and no money in their pockets to purchase the chickens if they wanted them. Westerners had spent tremendous resources to do something that the locals simply didn't need and failed to address the needs that actually existed.

Secondly, reading and researching this initiative made me realize just how much we have lost the ancient art of storytelling in our modern world. In this day of computers, televisions, texting, and video games, we even seem to have lost the simple skill of conversation. It's sad. I'm not that old really, but I remember my uncle's telling me stories of their youth and nights with family when a television wouldn't even be turned on. I'm just as bad about my reliance on technology to pass the time. On a recent trip to visit some very dear friends, it wasn't an hour after we were in their home that we were all centered around the front of a television. Even the first step of storytelling, simple conversation, seemed to elude us. That's something I'm definately going to work on.

Anyway, here is a video from e3 that tells about the power of storytelling as a tool to reach an oral people.

 

For more information about e3's storytelling initiative, you can check out their site here: http://www.e3partners.org/orality#/about

 

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Saying Goodbye

Well, I said goodbye to a friend this weekend. Anyone who knows me knows I love to ride my motorcycle. The problem was that I just wasn't getting enough time to ride. In the last 18 months I had only put about 2,500 miles on my bike. So starting about a month ago, I started listing the bike on several forums, websites, etc. in order to try and get it sold. I finally found a buyer and loaded it into the trailer for delivery, along with all the various assorted goodies one accumulates with a motorcycle. A swap of a title for cash, a couple signatures, and a handshake and the bike is gone from me forever.

So what's this doing in an India mission blog? Well, truth be told, my decision to sell wasn't solely about me not getting time to ride. It had more to do with priorities.

Here it is, a former friend of mine that gave
me a lot of smiles over the last 4 years.

About three months ago I was approached by my church board and asked to find a project in India that our church could give financial support to. It was then that Charles Gulla, e3's partner in India, contacted me about the training and equipping program I outlined in a previous post. Part of that program was the support of a native pastor for a year. The total cost of that support was put at $1,200.00.

That's right. $1,200.00 would cover his food, lodging, living expenses, traveling expenses, and ministry. As I walked around with that knowledge in my head, it became very difficult to walk by this blue and silver machine that I had really only used about 20 days over the last year. It gnawed on me. With the knowledge that an Indian pastor and his family can live off $1,200.00 for a whole year, could I really justify having something worth around $3,000.00 sitting around doing nothing for more than 90% of my time? I just couldn't. And so I put it and some of it's associated goodies on the market. The largest part of the proceeds from the sale will go to my mission trip, some will go to support other Indian missions, and some will take care of other expenses I have so that I can free up a little cash flow in preperation for the trip.

I did keep this little guy. He's been with me on one
motorcycle or another for about 20,000 miles.

Now lets get a couple of things straight here:

• This doesn't in any way mean that I'm a more spiritual person than anyone else. Let's face it: if I was only using it a very little bit of the time, I obviously won't miss it much. Remember the story of the widow's mite. Her offering, as small as it was, was considered more worthy by Christ because for her, it was sacrificial. Given it's lack of use, my motorcycle is obviously not the equivelant of the widow's mite. I'll miss the bike being there when I want to take a spin, but it isn't going to be any sacrifice for me to be without it. All it really means is that I got a piece of knowledge (what an Indian pastor can survive on) and God used that knowlege to put a conviction in my heart.
• I'm not telling you this in order to brag about what a great guy I am for giving something up. Read the above point. I'm also not trying to put a guilt trip on anyone about their own toys. I've still got lots of toys. I'm still very prone to the great ailment of the west, consumerism. (He says as he types on an iPad.) But I do wish that all of us, including myself, would think about our priorities more. If you're reading this it is most likely that you're an American. Even with the downturn in the economy, we're still the most blessed nation on earth. Even our poor have things like cel phones, cable television, computers, and running vehicles. Most of us are blessed enough to have all that plus much more. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. But I know that in my own case I often put my desire for these things above my support for ministry and God's work. It's something I struggle with daily.

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