Monday, June 24, 2013

India, June 2013

The women students

Women in Class

View from our hotel top

Women in Training



I want to let you know that our time with the ladies in our training was blessed. Though we studied Ruth carefully, we also had a few opportunities to encourage and provide some exhortation. It is always a challenge with translation, education, and cultural issues. I praise God that we were able to try out a number of tools from Bible Pathways while going through the book of Ruth. My partner was struggling with me and rightfully so, since I too was unsure how to do what we did. We didn't know each other previously except for some brief interaction, and she has never personally taken a workshop prior to now. It has taken the week to figure each other out and find a rhythm that will work for us in training. I am thankful for her grace giving attitude, and we are ready to go at it again this next week with a different approach. Pray that whatever we do, it will honor the Lord and encourage and build up the women in Christ and in the Word. I share this with you, because I want you to hear that part of what we are engaged in is working with all kinds of people. We want to be an example of the unity of the spirit through the body of Christ to those we train. We don't have a lot of time to talk through things, and so love, understanding and forgiveness has to come quickly in order for us to do the important work of the Gospel. We are so ordinary and definitely flawed people doing what God has called us to for the sake of others coming to the knowledge of Christ in dark places. I am in awe and humbled everyday.

Pray for unity of the Spirit and that Satan would not have his way. Pray for us to have wisdom in teaching, insight and understanding of Ruth.   

Blessings to you,   

Edie

South India



Our last day in the north was sweet with the pastors demonstrating once again the great progress they have made. Just one year ago we had our first workshop with them and my, how they have improved! They still struggle a bit with difficult passages, who doesn't, but do amazingly well with more straightforward texts. We are delighted. We are also hearing great reports from the field of how the pastors at various levels in the training are making great strides as well. 

Our trip south went quite easily with smooth exchanges in the three airports we passed through. We were all tired by the end of the day but delighted to meet our dear friends here. Our training partners, Jim and Suzy, are doing great for their first trip to India. Jim and I each had the privilege of preaching this morning, one in each of the two churches here. It is a joy to worship with our brothers and sisters here, even though we do not know the language. I did pick up an intestinal bug, probably from the meal last night. It made for some interesting timing with preaching, bracketed with bathroom trips. But God is good and I am on the mend. 

We start our training tomorrow and I am excited to see how the men do here. So far this has been our most advanced group. I cannot wait to hear stories of all the other pastors that this group has trained since our last visit in February.

I would like you to pray for some timing issues for Edie and I. We return on the 28th and I leave for New Orleans and the EFCA national conference to do recruiting on the 30th.  After that, I am home 1 week before we head to three countries in Africa. We need to apply for and receive visas from all three countries before then. I have not been able to apply yet since we have to send in our passports to get the visas. Of course we also need them while here in India. Would you pray that we can get the visas in the short window while we are home?

Thanks for being there for us and holding us up in prayer. Together we are making a huge difference in many people's lives.

Al

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Monsoon Season in India



It is now already Thursday and we have only one more day here in Northern India for training. The time has gone by quickly. We had a late start on Tuesday as the rains slowed travel for some in making it to the training site on time. Our trainers come from 14 states in Northern India and the monsoons have come early and with force this year. There is great flooding in some places with many lost or missing. We are thankful that all but one of our students made it here safely. 

We have been so pleased with the students' progress and performance in handling texts well and preaching them well. Our first presentation session was the best I had ever seen. With only a few tweaks the messages were fantastic. I hardly knew how to lead the session! We did talk about a few secondary issues that might clarify our understanding more. The students were overjoyed and we were as well. Great progress has been made in such a short time, and that progress is being proven out in time as the people they train get really good feedback from the congregations that are receiving the new training.

Yesterday was a blistering hot day and oh so humid, it really wore us out, staff and students alike. It has been raining here off and on for several days, although today was sunny most of the time with one brief downpour that created a lake in the yard in front of the training center. Today was a bit better, but I was really tired out with little sleep last night. This is our fifteenth day on the road and we are feeling it.

Our meeting with the CNI Bishop went really well. He was a very warm and friendly man who received us well. He lives in a large house built 100 years ago by the Irish Presbyterians. I did not know such a group existed, but they did a good job here. In the 1970's seven churches joined to create the large CNI church. It seems that the church is on a decline, through moving in some ways  toward more liberal issues and downplaying the bible. But by God's grace, a fine young man who is thoroughly evangelical has now been elected as bishop. Through our friend who has mentored him for 20 years, he is asking us to bring our training to his church. He has well over two hundred pastors and another 200 or so who are being wooed into the church at present. If this goes as well as hoped, it might spread to other dioceses and thousands of pastors might be trained for the first time in how to study and preach the word of God.

Please pray for the Bishop as he has enormous messes to patch up. There are some politics and infighting going on, and the whole operation has been run poorly. There are numerous lawsuits pending against the diocese. In addition, the former Bishop was liberal and led the group in the wrong direction for 17 years. We are all hopeful that our training will bring back confidence in the word of God, and by learning to study it, and as pastors learn to teach it well, congregations will be transformed. Please pray for this project to have great success.

Al
Neighborhood near the Training Center

Monday, June 17, 2013

A few photos from Thailand Trip, June 2013

They do a dance routine with a song. This is the national Thai dress they wear on Fridays.  
They wear their own tribal dress on Mondays and Tuesdays-Thursday they wear the school uniform.

Thai Food (like our spaghetti with different seasonings)

A picture of the students singing in harmony

From Thailand to India



We closed out our training in Chiang Mai and are quite pleased with the results. We are not sure how the pastors in the denomination will feel about being trained by their peers, but the men we trained seem enthusiastic to pass the training on. We had a great meeting with the president of the church and he talked about some of the significant things he had learned in the training. He said he had never really understood how the death of Christ displayed God's justice and mercy, and that he had never really understood why the church was called the bride of Christ. I was particularly interested in that since I had been wondering how well I had done in presenting that material. It seemed the Lord wanted me to hear that bit of encouraging news. 

Our trip to India was tiring. Our plane was delayed in Mumbai for about an hour due to monsoon rains that began falling a week or so ago. Travel in India is often frustrating. On our trip, the plane from Bangkok was filled mostly with Indians. I had to think about the differences between Thailand and India and the effect it has on us. Thailand is very pleasant to us and India is difficult. The cultures are so different. We love the Indians we work with, but have not grown to love India. I decided I need to ask the Lord to give me a love for India, the same one He has. My first step will be to talk more positively about our experiences here rather than focusing on all the things that trouble, frustrate or grieve us here. I would appreciate your prayers in that regard.

We met our training partners from Illinois today and had a great time with them. We look forward to working together with them. Tomorrow, Monday, we meet with the bishop of the diocese here of the largest church in India. He is interested in what we are doing and may want us to begin training his pastors. This could be significant since this church has tens of thousands of churches across India and is in decline. If their pastors began to study the Word, it could make a significant difference across the country.

On a personal note, my back has not caused me any problems so far and I am getting along quite well with standing all day barefoot on tile or concrete floors (you cannot wear shoes in Thailand or India while indoors). Thanks for your prayers for my health. Edie is getting along fine with the recovery from her sprained ankle also.

Al