Interesting India

I apologize for not communicating sooner. Our hotel is under construction and the wi-fi is not very dependable. There are 4 floors in the hotel with rooms and most only have one room per floor that is useable. The rooms are nice but the hallways, etc. are all in one state or another of demolition or remodel. Our team is scattered out over all the floors, using the only useable rooms. We are the only guests at this time.

The conference is going well. We have close to 300 people we are teaching. It is such a blessing to work with them. We start early in the morning and go steady until dinner time around 6 pm. There is preaching in the morning, then we split up and present seminars all afternoon. After dinner the team goes back to the hotel and I stay and work with the master trainers and leaders preparing them for the major training effort we are planning to begin in June. These men, about 25 in all, are an absolute delight to work with, very motivated and sharp. I get back to the hotel about 10 pm so it makes for a long day.

There have been a couple of interesting developments as we have gone through the week. Because there are so many people a large tent was constructed outside to accommodate everyone for the preaching and for seminar space in the afternoons. Just across the road, about 100 feet away, a major rail line runs through the city. There are probably 60 to 70 trains that go by every day. It can get a little noisy. One afternoon when I was conducting a seminar in the tent, about 12 trains went by in the 3 hours. They blow their horn right as they pass to move people off the tracks ahead. In addition, we have about 100 kids from the slums at the conference and they meet across the yard in another tent. They can be a bit noisy as well so it makes for an interesting teaching time.

The city is doing major work on the sewer lines around the training center so the road is all torn up. During the day they make slow progress digging a trench and laying sewer pipe. After the workers leave for the day all the squatters who have makeshift houses along the road dig their own lines and hook up water and sewer to their homes. You wonder how any of it works. Yesterday, somehow related to all that work, the sewer backed up and water ran all under the tent making it unusable. We had to move everyone inside the center, cramming all 300 into a relatively small space. It was cozy with many sitting on the floor, but no one complained as they sat through three sermons with one half hour break. A few even had little kids with them and they did fine as well.

I really enjoy the ride home at night in a three wheeled motorcycle taxi. The exquisite chaos of the Indian traffic never ceases to amaze me. There are many more vehicles on the road than anywhere I have ever been. Thousands of taxis, motorcycles, bicycles, cars, trucks, buses, people on foot, camel drawn carts, etc., etc. And that is not mentioning the many dogs and cows as well. There are only about two stop lights in this area and everyone ignores one of them. Still all in all the traffic moves very efficiently, more so than in America. There are no traffic jams and few short delays. I cannot explain it but it is a wonderment.

I have only two more days here now. I will try to update you again as I am able. Thanks for your prayers.

Al

2012 Trip to India

I arrived in Mumbai, India last night at 11:30 pm and went to bed around 1 am. Then I was up at 6:30 am to fly on to Ahmedabad for the next week. I will be preaching at their annual pastors conference twice on Luke 18 and 19, giving a two part seminar on the nature of man and working with the leaders and master trainers in the evenings to prepare them for the beginning of our training program in June. Pastors from all over India will begin arriving tomorrow, as well as the team from Valley Church in Des Moines, IA. Pray for us that this will be a productive and encouraging time for the pastors here.

Al

This was the third day of training. On Monday, only half of the students were there to start. Several came later, two came the next day and one more today. We must work with them on the importance of coming at the beginning and staying throughout the meetings. One didn’t show up today and no one knew why.

On Monday, the training went well although the students had not done their pre-assignments mostly because they did not receive them in time. It is difficult to distribute the assignments when no one has mail service or email. We will try to give out the assignments for the next training at the end of this one.

It is quite hot and humid here and the students lose their ability to think well by mid afternoon. We have had to adjust the schedule to present more interactive materials in the afternoon and thinking materials in the mornings. This is par for the course in cross cultural training, always adjusting to the circumstance. We covered the topic of world views on Monday and Tuesday and it was a real struggle for them to understand the concept but I think we finally got through.

Today, Wednesday, was especially frustrating. Several factors contributed. Our main translator brings her 2 year old boy with her and he is a typical 2 year old. He runs all over, gets into the markers, books, notebooks, etc., and cries, pushes chairs around, etc. all during the teaching. At times she nurses him during translation. It really is a challenge all in all. Today lunch was two hours late, throwing the schedule all off. We couldn’t find the marker so the students took forever to write out their presentations. In general there seemed to be a lot of confusion and their work was disappointing. I think it is partially a warfare issue so we talked and prayed together about that. It is really a pleasure to have Eric my partner to talk to and to strategize with. Our Kenyan leaders also are very helpful. In the end, after a very hot and frustrating day, I think we accomplished a lot in the last session. We are cancelling one topic tomorrow and adding a new exercise to help with an area they are struggling with. I trust the Lord to help us make progress tomorrow and Friday. Thanks for helping us in your prayers as we battle for God’s purposes here.

Al

Sunday in Kenya

Saturday was a quiet, restful day for me and was much appreciated. I enjoy getting here a couple of days early so I can adjust to the 9 hour time change before going to work. On Sunday morning, I traveled about a half hour to a local country church for services. It is always a joy to worship with the believers here. They are so open in their worship. I estimated that there were well over 100 people in the small building with over half of them young children. The service started around 10 am and we had singing, praise, prayer and more of the same for over an hour. Then small “choirs” as they call them, sang special numbers, starting with the little kids first and working up to the young people and finally the adult women. That took another hour. Then I preached with translation for about 40 minutes and the pastor added on to the end his own comments for another 15 minutes or so. Then, they had announcements and some more singing for another half hour. We finished around 1:30 pm. That takes some stamina. I was very impressed with the fact that many of the younger children, 8 to 10 year olds, were still paying very close attention to the end. Obviously their attention span is much greater than that of our children. I am forced to wonder if television and video is one of the main culprits in this difference.

On the way home, after dinner under the mango tree, I rode back to the highway on a motorcycle. Then I hitched a ride with two guys in a small truck back to town. They asked if I was a pastor, since I was carrying my bible. They said one was a Christian and one a Muslim and that they worked together in this small business they had. Life continues to be interesting on the road.

The pictures are of the church building, the inside before the service, during the service while a children’s choir was singing, and the pastor’s wife counseling a woman before the service.

Thanks for your continued prayers,

Al

Arrived Safely in Kenya

Thankfully, I arrived at my guest house in Kenya just after 2 am local time, around 11 pm Central time. Only 34 hours from Des Moines this time. I got about an hour of rest from Detroit to Amsterdam, and another hour on the way to Nairobi, and felt like that was enough to get me by quite nicely, although I was glad to see the bed when I got here. I had some significant conversations with a nominal Christian American, a good Christian brother, and a Muslim man from Mombasa.

It is the middle of summer here, high 80’s every day and quite humid. I walked into town today to get money exchange, and to get minutes for my computer modem, and on the way home it began to pour. I was soaked by the time I got home, a good cool shower that I know I will pay for later as it continues to heat up and steam.

I feel so privileged to be here to serve and train these men and women in the Word of God. Pray for us that this week will be significant to their progress, and for their transformation through His Word, and our transformation as well, of course.

Al

A Good End To Kenya Training

We finished the training in Kenya today and were overall satisfied with the results. The pastors we worked with started right away organizing a training session for other pastors, to be held in about 6 weeks. They are very serioius about their responsibility. The week has been up and down. On Wednesday we had a lot of spiritual opposition, crying baby, hard rain, tired pastors, etc. They didn't do too well that day, but bounced back the next. We could really see progress in their presentations over two years ago. It has been good to work with Wes and we have had a lot of good talks planning for the future and discussing things we can do differently.

I am really excited about the whole church organization here and the growth we have seen over the past 4 years. This is my 5th trip to Kenya and the changes are dramatic. The Kenyans are now strategizing about reaching far off places in their country, and in a couple of weeks will be sending two of the men we are training to Tanzania to help with the mission work there and to do training for two years. This is what we mean when we say develop, empower and release nationals to do ministry, multiplying our efforts. Four years ago they had no training at all and were not anywhere near as healthy as they are today. Praise the Lord! Every time we come we take baby steps with them but they add up to giant gains in the kingdom. Thanks for your help in getting us here to do this training. The Lord is blessing our efforts!

Al

Leaving Uganda and Beginning in Kenya

The training ended in Uganda for me on Thursday evening. I was greatly encouraged by the response of the pastors and how the training went generally. We think this could be a possible future training site with great potential. It is possible that leaders from here will join me in Kenya in December to experience the training there and consider a similar training process for themselves beginning sometime next year.

I left Mbale, Uganda at about 5 pm and started the long 5 hour trip to a hotel near the airport in Entebbe where I was to spend the night. I wish it had been a bit earlier when we crossed the headwaters to the Nile, it would have been fun to see that before dark. When we reached Kampala, about an hour before the hotel, we stopped to eat. I put my debit card in the ATM machine and must have done something wrong because it captured it. I needed the card in Kenya to get cash for expenses there. We had to travel on to the hotel and then come back during rush hour to the bank the next morning to retrieve my card. Thankfully the bank eventually cooperated, returned my card, and we were on our way back to the airport. Such fun! The rest of the trip to Kilifi, Kenya was routine and boring and therefore great!

It was good to be in the worship service on Sunday where I preached. Their worship is quite different from ours, but still very honoring to the Lord. Even though I usually do not know what they are saying or singing it is beautiful to watch them love the Lord. One of the pastors we have worked with in the past gave a testimony that last January some men planned to kill him one night. Some dogs outside his house scared them off and he was spared. Unfortunately, they then went to his elder brother’s home and killed him. We do not know what these men face on a day to day basis and yet they have such commitment and joy.

We began our first session this morning (Monday) with only half of the students we expected. A couple could not come because of work including our best translator. One pastor found out just before we started that his father died and he had to leave. We started late to allow a couple more to come and then our translator struggled a bit as we taught. Our one woman student, who is a great translator, arrived so we were all relieved. Soon we found out that she had her 1 year old son with her and he wanted to be with her. So part of the time she translated with him on her lap, at other times while she was nursing, and once while I held him on my lap, although he had enough of that after about 15 minutes. We sense a bit of opposition here, but we won as the men made good progress and really enjoyed it. My partner Wes did well for his first try at cross cultural training and I am enjoying working with him. We are looking forward to a great week.

On a personal note I am so thankful for the privilege of representing the Lord to these people as I train them in studying His Word. It is a great blessing to me. On this trip I feel that the Lord is really ministering to me personally in special ways in spite of the various challenges I have faced. Thanks to you who are praying.

Al