October Training in India

Sunday 10/20: We arrived safely to S. India yesterday. As usual it was two hard days of travel but we held up pretty well all in all. It was such a delight to see our Indian brothers at the airport. We have come to love one another so much it was like a family reunion. On the way to the hotel Seth chattered on and on about how he had taken our Pathway training to Malaysia and Singapore. We are so proud of him and the others. They have now taken our training to 13 different locations and have yet 4 or 5 more in the works. Their enthusiasm for the training stems from the great benefit they have seen in their own lives and ministries. In their view it is only natural to pass it on to as many other pastors as possible. We talked about how the men they train need to be encouraged to pass the training on as well. Seth talked about one group that is going to do just that and that he is going to "mentor" them as they train the next group. I told him he was the answer to my prayers and a real partner in the training ministry.

I preached in two churches this morning, preaching in Seth's church first and then immediately leaving to go across town to preach in Saju's church. It felt a little ragged the first time adjusting my message down to about 35 minutes with translation but the second time it went much better. The Lord definitely showed up as I am still a bit jet lagged. We went to bed about 8:30 pm and awoke around a quarter to three. It will take a few days to settle in to this time, almost 12 hours different than at home. If you would like to see what it is like, just try to stay up tonight until around 10 tomorrow morning and then sleep until about 4 in the afternoon.  Then maybe you can go to bed around 7 the next morning. Subtract an hour or two each morning and after 4 or five days you will be back to your normal times.  

We will have supper at Saju's home, which is also the church and location of our training, about 100 yards from our hotel. Rather, I am sure we will eat while they watch us. It is always a little odd to be served by an Indian family for dinner. They stand around and serve us like kings while they watch. Once you get the idea that this is Indian hospitality, then it actually becomes fun.  

Edie and I will try hard to stay up until 9 or 9:30 pm and hope to make it until 4 or so in the morning before we rise. One great thing about this schedule is that I have plenty of time to be well prepared for training, being up for 4 or 5 hours beforehand. We will be doing the workshop on the Psalms this time and I am excited to work together with the men through this marvelous book. We will try to keep you up to date on how it is going. Thanks for your interest and partnership with us in this great work.

Al