I stood outside the seafood restaurant with my two sons waiting for my father to arrive. The day was blistering hot - the kind of heat that only summer days in the Southern Gulf states can bring. As the sun beat down upon my head and shoulders, I felt like I was breathing into a hot, wet towel. You could almost drink the air. I stood at the door and noticed the fishing paraphenalia that was strewn about on benches and in front of the restaurant, the kind of kitschy decor that seems common to seafood places. Except I had never noticed it here before. This was my hometown, childhood seafood restaurant, and I had never thought of it as kitschy at all. But, then again, I had never spent much time waiting outside the front door. Usually, we were all together and we just walked right in.
I saw my Dad's car driving up and I lost him as he parked on the side of the building. I waited for him to come around the corner of the seafood shop, past the nets and crab traps, and the old anchor that I was just looking at that I had never noticed before. Instead, he stuck his head out of the front glass door and called out for us to come on in. I didn't know how he got in the restaurant without coming our way, and when I went in, I noticed that he came in a side door. Confused, I asked, "Is that door new, or was it there before?" "It's been there," he said. "Let's get something to eat!" I've been coming to this restaurant since I was a kid and I've never noticed that door. I came looking for the familiar and hadn't found it yet.
I hadn't seen my Dad in about four months, and even then, I only saw him for a little while. I live a state over and I don't get home as often as I'd like. He is getting older and I know that I need to make it home more often, but, you know, life is so busy. That's my excuse. I hate that word, "busy." How "busy" are we really? We spend a lot of time supporting the lifestyle of our choosing, even if we are having to work really hard just to make ends meet. Most of our busyness is about choices, but we act like we are victims of this state of turmoil that takes us over and makes us do all the things that we don't want to do. We aren't as much "busy" as we are consumed with living the life that at some point we decided was the life that we wanted to live but have now forgotten why. That life, for me, didn't leave me much time to travel home and see my Dad. Today, I was trying to change that, at least a little.
This past weekend, Erika and I took a little trip with some friends to New Orleans. I was recently given a new camera and I thought I'd try it out. Here are a few photos that I took in various places in New Orleans, my favorite city.
Last night, I couldn't get to sleep. My mind was racing. Finally, I drifted off, but not before I ran through a dozen different subjects. I've been told by friends that I have adult ADD. Maybe so. It would explain a lot. Normally, I write essays for this blog because it is really rewarding for me to lock in on one topic and explore it and I use it as a teaching platform for my church. Today, I'll take you on a random tour of what I'm thinking about in classic, stream-of-consciousness form. Each of these thoughts could be a blogpost all their own and they have been building up in my head. So, I think I'll clean out my brain a little so that I can think more clearly and start over.
I'm going back to India at the end of next month. Around midnight last night, I called Thom Wolf in India and talked with him for awhile. It was almost noon there. He was my professor and intellectual mentor in school back when I lived in San Francisco and he lives in New Delhi. We will go north to the Himalayas and do our normal thing with the ministries there, and then possibly travel with him for a couple of days to the south of India to meet some people doing very interesting things.
I am working through Paul's letter to the Philippians right now in my Bible study and my preaching. I am also writing essays to go along with each topic. Philippians is a great letter to address the "God as a means to an end" syndrome that plagues contemporary Christianity. I am thinking of releasing the essays after I am through with this. It has been really interesting. Today, I am working on one called "Chains" about how Paul volunteered to put himself in less than ideal situations so that the gospel would be spread to others through his life and suffering. Check out Philippians 1:7-14. Am I willing to do the same?
"According to some estimates, Christians in developed Western countries now represent only 37 percent of believers worldwide. As I travel and also read chruch history, I have observed a pattern, a strange historical phenomenon of God 'moving' geographically from place to place: from the Middle East to Europe to North America to the developing world. My theory is this: God goes where He's wanted." ~ Philip Yancey, Finding God in Unexpected Places.
I ran across a fascinating article today on urban development in post-Katrina New Orleans on Newgeography.com by Andres Duany. Duany, of Cuban descent, says that "New Orleans is not among the most haphazard, poorest or misgoverned American cities, but rather the most organized, wealthiest, cleanest, and competently governed of the Caribbean cities." He says that New Orleans is not really an American city at all. Rather, it is a Caribbean city. Jimmy Buffett, after Katrina hit, said that the northern Gulf of Mexico is actually the northern part of the Caribbean, not the Southern part of the U.S. I agree. Being from there, it is different that the rest of the country, and I love it. Totally different way of thinking, worldview, and lifestyle. Maybe this is why Baptists have had so much trouble reaching the Gulf Coast? Hmmm.
My two favorite songs on my ipod right now are "Rocket Man" by Angie Aparo and "A Change is Gonna Come" by Ben Sollee. They are both cover songs, but the music and vocals are really intriguing. If you haven't heard either of these guys, check them out. Here's a live version of "Rocket Man." I think about this when I am travelling too much.
And, Ben Sollee on the cello. Yes, the cello. This is amazing.
This week marks the 3 year anniversary of us finding a lump on Caelan's chest that was a cancerous tumor. It has been a hard three years, but I praise God everyday for His faithfulness. Last night, Erika told me that the little 3 year old girl that my family has been praying for since we saw her at Caelan's last scans died last week. Her name was Cassie. My heart was broken over that. Maybe that is why I keep singing "A Change is Gonna Come." Ben Sollee, covering Sam Cooke, says he doesn't know what's beyond the sky. I do, and more and more each day I pray that God's Kingdom come.
"As heretical as it sounds today, it is probably worth telling Americans that you don't need Jesus to have better families, finances, health, or even morality. Coming to the cross means repentance - not adding Jesus as a supporting character for an otherwise decent script but throwing away the script in order to be written into God's drama. It is death and resurrection, not coaching and makovers." Michael Horton, Christless Christianity.
Baseball season is about to start. I really don't like baseball. Too slow for my taste. During the dead of summer, it is almost like there are no sports going on. I'm just waiting for football. Although, our church has formed THREE softball teams with about 50 players and they'll be playing mostly on Monday nights, so I am glad for the fact that a lot of people from our church will be hanging out together and building relationships. Being blind in my right eye caused me to never play baseball because I have no depth perception, so maybe that is why I don't like it. I do plan to play summer league basketball, though.
The groundbreaking for our church's new building is April 5, right before we have a huge neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. We've been reaching a lot of teenagers in our community lately, and God really moved in their lives at a youth retreat that we had this past weekend. Several came to Christ and many more opened their hearts to Jesus. We have also started tutoring, GED classes, and are helping with job placement. God is doing some amazing things. The building is just a tool to help us with this, and it should be finished by October. I'll be very happy.
I keep watching Jon & Kate plus Eight. I don't know why. Erika keeps asking why I stop there when we are watching TV and I have the remote and I told her that I really can't believe how mean Kate is to Jon and I can't fathom how they manage eight kids like that. Wow. It's like a car wreck. I have four kids of my own. Do I really need to watch someone else's stress? Strangely, I'm drawn to it. That, and Clean House, which is about people who live in an unfathomable mess. I guess that it is cathartic to see other people's stress and mess instead of my own. Normally, these shows come on right after we put the kids to bed. Hmmm.
I turned in my taxes yesterday and I'm trying to get some insurance stuff taken care of. It's a pain and seems to be taking forever. Car tags have to be paid on Monday and I'm doing a TV interview tomorrow for a local religious broadcasting station about our work in India. I lump all of that together because it all feels about the same to me - stuff I have to do that I don't like doing. I'm not just trying to be humble about the TV thing either. I HATE stuff like that. Communication should be two-way and interactive with feedback, not captured on a television for people to pick over and misinterpret as they wish. Maybe I'm just insecure.
Books I'm reading right now (they happen to all be "Christian" books, which is not good - I need to vary things up a bit and learn from some other disciplines):
Finding God in Unexpected Places by Philip Yancey - picked it up in the airport last week. Yancey writes essays about where he sees God working in the world. Excellent.
Christless Christianity by Michael Horton - states that the American church has given itself over to an alternative gospel that he calls, therapuetic moralistic deism.
No Place for Truth - Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology by David Wells. This came out about 15 years ago, but it was recommended to me by a friend of mine. It is pretty dense, but a good read. Makes some of the same claims as Horton, but from a historical perspective.
My church is always heavy on my mind and my heart. I graduated from seminary over 9 years ago. I've been the lead pastor of our church for 3 1/2 years. I'm realizing more and more each day that I am not smart enough, talented enough, entertaining enough, or gifted enough to do what needs to be done, no matter how many books I read. God has to work through me. I need Him. I carry the weight of people's struggles pretty intensely. I greatly desire for people to walk with the Lord and to glorify Him and I want our church to hunger after Christ with their whole lives and to reach people who do not know Jesus. But, I am really having to pray about this and release it to the Lord. I can't make anyone do anything. I am completely powerless to make anything happen. God has to do it. I have always known that intellectually. I am learning that emotionally and spiritually and it isn't easy, believe it or not.
Ashtyn has started soccer.
I have great kids and an amazing wife who listens to me go on and on about everything that I am thinking about. She is really patient and she always gives me great feedback. I do not deserve her, and I'm not just saying that because it is what I am expected to say. She's really something. She texted me two days ago and said that we should go on the mission trip with the youth group this summer. I told her that I agreed. Not many mother's of four kids would do that.
My city, Montgomery, just elected a new mayor in a special election a couple of weeks ago. In his election night interview, he said that he hoped that he would "rule" well. Rule #1 in American politics: Never tell the people that you plan to "rule" them. It doesn't sit well in a democracy. Then, he said that he was pushing the inauguration back a week because he was taking his family to the beach. Rule #2: When we are in a severe recession, don't tell the people that just elected you that you would begin to rule, er, serve them, but first, you have to go to the beach. Go to the beach in a few months AFTER you have worked for them for a little while. Wow.
Look, a BUTTERFLY!!!! Sorry, had to get that out. Does anyone ever feel that way? Random as can be.
I've lost 10 pounds in the past two weeks and I don't know how. I guess that I haven't been eating as much. Duh. Stress? Busyness? I don't know, but I'll take it. I could stand to lose a lot more.
Well, that's about it. Not really, but I figure that no one is still reading at this point, so I might as well stop. Believe it or not, engaging in an exercise in complete randomness actually made me feel better. So, I leave you with a picture of my kids that I really love.
God is good, by the way. And, He's always working in every thing. Big, little, important, mundane. God is always at work.
Really, why do we have such a problem ministering in the cities?
My time in San Francisco last week was amazing. Ashtyn and I had a great time together and we will never forget it. I know my daughter much better than I did before and I am incredibly impressed with her. She is unbelievably smart, charming, and interesting. I can't wait to see the woman that she is going to become. An added bonus of our trip was that we got to stay in the home of Eric and Linda Bergquist. Eric is the director of the Page Street Baptist Center in San Francisco and Linda is a church planter strategist for the SF Bay Area with NAMB and the California Baptist State Convention. I knew them back when I was in seminary at GGBTS and they graciously invited Ashtyn and me to stay with them while we did the tourist thing. One of the favorite parts of our day, however, was when we got to sit and Linda and Eric's kitchen table each night and talk about what the Lord was doing in the Bay Area. God is moving.
Churches are being planted as God is placing it on the hearts of individuals and teams to move to the Bay Area. Responsiveness to the gospel is beginning to grow. The San Francisco Bay Area is really like another country and we should treat it as such from a missiological perspective. 6.5 million people live in the Bay Area and every nation in the world is represented. The population is only 2% evangelical Christian. Many are resistent to the gospel, but many are also open, especially among immigrant groups. Unfortunately, there are only 3 SBC churches that are primarily english speaking in the city of San Francisco with it's population of 750,000 people. Linda and Eric and the others working with them are trying to change that.
Ministry in this area is very difficult. Many church planters come and go. However, it is not impossible. More resources and more church planting teams are needed. Really, a great need would be for Christians who can work and support themselves to move out to the Bay Area with an intentional plan to be a part of a church plant. Could we provide theological/missiological training to people who want to move to and work in the Bay Area so that they could help churches grow and reach those communities? Could local associations and state conventions in other parts of America partner with Southern Baptists in the Bay Area? There are SBC associations out there and an SBC seminary along with the state convention, yet not one state convention or local association in AMERICA has a partnership with what Baptists are trying to do in San Francisco. Why is that? Alabama, my state, has 4 million people. We have over 3,000 Southern Baptist churches. We have over 80 local associations. We have a state convention with 66 state missionaries. We keep tens of millions of dollars of our cooperative program money in our state, not to mention the millions upon millions that we keep in our churches to spend on ourselves. Still, the number of Christians in Alabama is DECREASING instead of increasing. Is this a good investment?
However, if we can figure out how to reach cities like San Francisco, New Orleans, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, etc., then won't we see a change in America as a whole? The Apostle Paul seemed to understand this when he went to the cities of the Roman Empire to establish churches. He knew that if he reached the cities, he would reach the countryside as well. Why don't we do the same?
Southern Baptists struggle in these cities (even though we have seminaries in SF and New Orleans) because we, as a whole, really don't want to be there it seems. We are more comfortable in the suburbs or rural areas where life makes sense to us. We struggle to go cross-cultural because at that point, we have to change. We have to stop thinking about things in ways most comfortable to us and begin to incarnate the gospel, putting ourselves in the shoes of others. We have to sacrifice. We have to admit that life is not all about us and our needs and our desires. This is difficult for Southern Baptists as it is with most Christians. Yet, isn't this what God calls us to?
I fear that America has already succumbed to the homosexual agenda that is so accepted in San Francisco. The battle has been lost, even though we do not see it yet. Public opinion has turned. I truly believe that gay marriage and homosexual rights will be established in America in the very near future. The evangelical church must learn how to minister in this environment or we will be overwhelmed by it. Yelling at homosexuals has not worked. How do we minister to them with the truth of the gospel and the love of Christ? San Francisco is a great place to learn. What would it look like if 10 Southern Baptist associations partnered with Southern Baptists in San Francisco to plant 5 new churches over the next 2-3 years? What if those churches that were planted then began to support other church plants and you brought some more associations or churches on board? Within 10 years, you could possibly see an additional 40-50 churches in the SF Bay Area! That would make a HUGE difference in the spiritual climate of this region that is so important to the future of America culturally, spiritually, and economically.
What if we did the same in New Orleans, LA by partnering with the local association and the seminary there? Many seminary students at NOBTS go there to get an education and then try to get out of the city as quickly as possible. What if we sent some folks there who truly loved New Orleans and its people and weren't just looking to pastor a church somewhere in rural Mississippi? What if we had families move there and partner with church planters sponsored by local associations throughout the South? How different would New Orleans be in just a few years?
What about the great cities of the north? What if a group of churches worked together to support a church plant in New York City? What if state conventions appropriated some of the millions of dollars that they kept from CP giving and put it toward church planting in urban areas in the northeast, led by the believers that were already there? What we we moved to these areas with the idea that we were going to incarnate the gospel into these cultures, we were going to work and build relationships, and we were going to see the Kingdom come?
What if our missions dollars were used more directly for missions instead of for us?
Anyway, those are some thoughts. Now, for some pictures from the trip:
My daughter, Ashtyn, was born 10 years ago this May. I cannot believe that the time has gone by so fast. It seems like just yesterday that I was holding her in one hand while giving her a bath under the faucet in our kitchen sink. When she was first born, she would cry with a little quiver, so I called her "Little Mouse" because that is what she sounded like. She was born to Erika and I when we lived in Marin County, which is right across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. I was finishing up seminary at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, CA, when Ashtyn was born to us and she has always been our "California Girl." She likes it when I call her that.
Years ago, I told Erika that when Ashtyn was somewhere between the ages of 8-10, I wanted to take her on a trip, just she and I. We have talked about it for the past several years, and we finally just decided to go for it. So, tomorrow, I will take Ashtyn to San Francisco, the city of her birth. She has always wanted to visit there, so I thought we would give it a try. The awesome thing is that we are hardly spending any money at all. We made this her birthday present, so grandparents and family are kicking in, we found REALLY cheap airfare, and I called someone I knew out there and they are letting us sleep on an air mattress in their living room! We leave tomorrow and will be gone until Wednesday of next week.
I am really looking forward to this. I am glad that I am spending this concentrated time with Ashtyn before she reaches adolescence. We talk a lot, but with 3 younger brothers, things can get pretty hectic. She is growing up really fast and time is slipping by. Before I know it, she'll be gone. It is so easy for one day to turn into a month and into a year. I really am trying to treasure everything, but it all slips through your fingers so fast. I think that continually praising God for the blessings that He gives us is the best way to go about savoring the moment. When we praise God for the life we have, we recognize an eternality to the moment and it is preserved in Him. When I was taking the kids to school today, we praised God for all the blessings that He's given us. Peyton and Kieran were saying how happy they were that Ashtyn was getting to go on the trip. I'll remember that. It will stand out as more than just a drive to school.
Ashtyn sang in a duet today at her honors choral concert at her school. She was beautiful. I am so proud of the girl that she has become and I look forward to the young lady that she is growing into. It's a shame that she will never be able to date boys, though. I haven't told her that yet, but I'm hoping that she'll understand when I do get around to it. I plan to keep her locked up in the house until I can find a suitable husband for her. I tend to procrastinate, so it could be awhile. She's only turning 10 this Spring, so we're a long way from worrying about any of that. A very long way. Seriously. I'm not kidding.
Anyway, San Francisco awaits. The Daddy-Daughter trip I've been planning in my mind the past decade has finally arrived!
I wrote this around 4am in a guest room in a remote area of the Himalayas last week. There was no electricity where we were, so I wrote by candlelight as my travel companions slept on cots beside me. Through this writing, I was able to capture my thoughts about India and the work that we are able to do there. I hope that you enjoy.
The Road to Dehradun
It is an early morning hour as I sit by candlelight in a distant valley of the Indian Himalayas. I am surrounded by verdant forests and mountains while the night is filled with the roar of waterfalls from a nearby river. Creeping through the forests are panthers and tigers and I have been told that men who wander often do not return. I sit at a little desk in a 10X12 room owned by a school that we have traveled many hours to visit. My two companions lay sleeping on their cots beside me as I endeavor not to wake them. I have journeyed many days and find myself precariously at the ends of the earth.
What has brought me here? I have been to India over and over again in search of God's Hand as He calls people to Himself. I have met His servants in this place and have seen their sacrifice, their courage, and their passion for the Lord Jesus. Risking life and fortune, they have spread wide into the hills and valleys of this remote land bringing Good News of Salvation, hope, and eternal life. Persecution has met them. They walk miles each day with no regard for their own lives. They strengthen fledgling believers, heal the sick, cast out demons, and proclaim the in-breaking Kingdom of God.
There is no easy route to this place - at least not one that I have yet traversed. Arriving in the sprawling metropolis of Dehli, 16 million living, breathing souls on the edge of eternity, we only pause to gather ourselves briefly before setting out on the Road to Dehradun, which takes us to the provincial capitol of Uttarakhand, the northernmost Indian state straddling the Himalayas. At all hours of the day and night, this road is filled with weary travelers, rising from the sweltering mass of Delhi and following the twisting, dusty trail north to Dehradun, the threshold of the Land of the Gods. Men, women, children; oxen, goat, and holy cow; truck, car, motorcycle, and bus - cross the sandy plains and decaying villages that lie on the edges of the Road to Dehradun. India, in all her romantic, confusing, shifting and contradictory manifestations, is present along this road.
Relational India - men sit together, locked in close conversation at roadside respites in the early hours after midnight. Industrial India - trucks carrying food, crops, goods, and supplies belch their black pollutants into the air as they crawl and lurch along the highway. Religious India - pilgrims ride the cramped busses and jostle for air at the windows opening to the night sky. They are traveling to the holy cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh to dip themselves into the River Ganges to wash away their sins. They travel along the road to climb the winding paths out of Rishikesh on their way to the resting places of Krishna, Vishnu, and Shiva - the Land of the Gods high in the Himalayas. Their trek along this road sends them in search of salvation and hope; a deliverance for the grinding struggle of life with its unforgiving Karma and ceaseless punishments for past sins. They hope to be unlocked from the chains of the cycle of life and unending rebirth into human forms and less.
As the Road rises it enters Dehradun, the city with its feet in the plains and its head leaning upon the edge of the mountains. Dehradun is the gateway to Beautiful India - the Himalayas, rich in majesty and mystery. It is into these mountains that we have traveled, searching for and finding the people of God who have forsaken all to live among the mountain tribes, far removed from the larger world that is unaware of their existence. Patterns of life continue here as they have since the dawn of civilization. Nomads tend their herds of goats and water buffalo; farmers scratch at the hard, rocky soil, bringing sustenance out of barreness. Life goes on here as it always has - birth, life, death, and according to the Vedas that were written here eons ago, rebirth. Fear and superstition cloud the minds of the people and traditions are adhered to ceaselessly. The fast moving world of technology and globalization has barely made its mark here, and when it does intrude, it bows to the flowing waters of time, tradition, tribe, culture, and religion.
In the midst of this Hindu Haze, a light flickers, not unlike the dancing candle flames that sit on my desk in my sparse, dark room. While there are many dark corners where the light does not reach, the illumination of the flaming glow enables those with eyes to see the contours of the room itself - the reality that exists, not the illusion imagined. The actual light that illuminates these mountains is the light of God's Children - native born Indians who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. For God has not left Himself without witness, even in this distant, idolotrous land. Vessels of Christ have come, led by the Holy Spirit for years now, bringing light and salvation to all who have eyes to see and ears to hear. For a few days, I am privileged to be among their number.
The dancing candles also remind me that our lives are fragile and temporary. While the Divine Light of the Presence of Christ will never be extinguished, our own journey along the path of this life is a misty affair. We appear here only for moment before we make our way to judgement and eternity. I think at this moment of how I spend the few days that I have here. I think of my wife and children, God's precious gifts to me. I think of their love and the hope that dances in their eyes. I wonder where God will send them and if they will also find themselves at the ends of the earth, living as candles to light the darkness. Our days here are so few - how do we use them? God calls us to Himself and spreads us throughout the world to flicker and flame in dark places. He puts us in families to propel His glory and Good News across the generations. Do we journey with Him, or do we make our homes in familiar places, arranged for our own comfort?
The Road to Dehradun is filled with danger, mystery, and adventure. It is a dry and dusty road, teeming with trials and temptations. Yet, it must be traveled and the pitfalls along the way must be overcome so that we can arrive at our destination. At the end of that road, the mountains rise into the heart of darkness - the Land of the Gods awaits. Light must penetrate darkness and the chains that enslave those that God loves must be broken. Christ won the victory over darkness and evil on Golgotha, but the message of this victory must be brought to those who slumber in the night, with no light to illuminate their path. It is carried by those who have stepped off the road of progress and civilization because their hearts belong to Another and their ambitions are lashed to the fortunes of the damned. Like yeast in dough, like a flickering candle in a dark room, their presence brings transformation and illumination.
Redemption lies at the end of the Road to Dehradun and it flows from there to the Ends of the Earth. For a time, I flow with it and I praise God.
I returned from India on Saturday evening and have been incredibly busy ever since. The trip was incredible and all of our goals were accomplished. I'll briefly share what happened and elaborate more later:
In conjunction with a Christian hospital high in the mountains of Northern India, we established the beginnings of the Himalayan Clean Water Project. We are financing the building of water tanks and toilet systems in three villages along with a plan for implementing the systems. We are looking at this from a development perspective and there will be a community group established to discuss the uses of clean water and a study conducted to find out how their water supply has been used in the past. A local pastor connected to a ministry that we are working with will work alongside the project as a basis for building relationships and sharing the gospel. We are praying that this becomes a platform for evangelism and church planting, as well as to help the people with clean water.
We met with the leaders of 6 indigenous ministries that are combining evangelism, church planting, schools for orphans and mistreated children, and development projects to talk with them about working together. We met with them in March on our previous trip and we had a follow up meeting to discuss the topics of spiritual transformation, the power of unity, and the economic affect of the gospel on the poor. They were very receptive and are interested in forming a coalition/network of ministries that are impacting their state in both word and deed to bring the gospel into the unreached mountain regions of Northern India. Here is the teaching that we shared with them: Working Together to Bring Spiritual, Social, and Economic Transformation
We explored and moved forward on several microfinancing projects. We are wanting to infuse capital into the hands of believers who are entrepenurial in both a financial and Kingdom perspective. These leaders are starting businesses to provide income for people that they are leading to Christ to improve their standard of living and also to give them a broader platform for ministry. Basically, they are stepping forward in the concept of business as mission and we are helping them to do that by providing low interest loans instead of handouts. In some cases, we are just giving to ministries, but in others, we are trying to set up a system where they can become sustainable themselves. We worked with another non-profit in this called Isaiah's Legacy, led by Bill Hurley, who went with myself and another minister named Carmen Falcione on the trip.
At the end of the trip, we went back to Delhi and attended the semi-annual meeting of the workers connected with Truthseekers International, a ministry that is working amongst the politicians and educators of India to bring a Christian worldview to the nation. This ministry is also made up of indigenous Indians and is led by Sunil Sardar. We heard the testimony of what God is doing through this ministry in India, heard from several Indian MP's (ministers of parliament) who had become believers, and also heard about the great church planting effort that is going on. I met one man who has helped plant hundreds of churches and has the gift of healing. He has seen many people healed and even saw a girl raised from the dead. This was attested to by many in the meeting as an established fact. He gave all the credit to God. Actually, the meeting lasted 7 hours and we sat on the floor the whole time!
We connected with ministries who were impacting lostness in Northern India and were penetrating unreached people groups for the first time. Some of the areas were seeing the first Christian converts ever. We met a woman who went into a village near Hardiwar, the second most holy city for the Hindus, and led 31 people to the Lord, many were her family members. A church was quickly planted and a day care was established to minister to the children through an afterschool program. The church planter assigned to that area is using the day care as a platform to minister to the families of the children who are coming. All of this is being organized and led by Indians who are devoted to Christ.
We have learned many things through our travels to India. We are working in an area that is the seat of Hinduism, boasting the most holy cities for the Hindus on the Ganges River and many mountain shrines and temples. If Northern India comes to Christ, the whole nation will follow. We are working with indigenous Indians who are doing incredible work and are far outpacing the Westerners that are there. Did you know that an Indian church planter only needs $1500 per year to live and do ministry? Western missionaries need tens of thousands of dollars to do the same work, although they are hampered by language and cultural barriers. There is a growing church in India that is serious about taking responsibility for the evangelization of their own nation. Of the 1.3 billion in India, only 2% are Christian, but many are mobilized and are working diligently to see the Kingdom come. We are going to help them directly.
Here are a few more pictures from the trip. I'll be writing more on this over the next few weeks.
"Beautiful Feet" - This is a picture of the shoes of little children left outside a church on Sunday morning as they go inside to worship. I could not help but think of the verse in Romans that says, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news."
Over Labor Day Weekend, my family and I travelled to North Carolina to see my wife's sister and her husband. We had a great time visiting the North Carolina Apple Festival, camping in a cabin by a lake, seeing Asheville, hiking in the mountains just a little, and driving up the Blue Ridge Parkway. The kids did great and it was a beautiful trip. Here are a load of pictures because . . . well, just because. The first picture is of Caelan and me. I don't normally put pictures of myself up, but this one makes me look like I'm doing something productive, so I thought I'd treat everyone.
