Fruitfulness & Flexibility

We finished four fruitful days with our friends in Sri Lanka. These men are some of the brightest and most influential men we have ever trained. They were a lot of fun to be with, always joking and laughing with each other. They picked up the concepts really well. Even though several of them teach at Bible schools and seminaries, they had not learned the simple tools we were presenting. All said that what they had learned was so significant. I really think that there is the potential with these men to impact a large part of the Sri Lankan church. They represent several different denominations and educational institutions. But they must first learn how to train others who in turn train more pastors. That is the great challenge we put before them and they seemed to receive it well. Time will tell how well they do and the health of the broader church lies in the balance. Please pray that they are faithful, well organized, and can overcome the many barriers to multiplication training.

Edie had a fairly large group of ladies each day and they were enthusiastic learners. She only had them for two hours each day so it made learning harder as they had to learn more material in less time. She covered the book of Jonah with them that we usually do in a week with 6 hours or so each day for four days. But the Lord knows and I am sure they learned something.

We arrived in Trichy last evening and were so warmly greeted by our dear friends here. This is our 12th trip here and the people are like family to us. We will meet with many who know us this morning and then after lunch we will travel 3 or 4 hours to Chinnamanur where we will train next week. I will be preaching at our partner Seth’s father’s church there on Sunday morning. We have not been to this location before so it will be a new adventure for us. It appears to be near mountains, and should be a bit cooler than where we have been (in the mid 80’s). 

This is a small town for India, about 70,000 or so, so much like our hometown in Colorado. But the hotel situation is poor so we will be staying about a half hour away in a large town where there is a more adequate hotel. Not quite sure how we will get there this afternoon, things are always in flux and we have to be flexible. Our friends traveling with us brought a “Gumby” man and we award it to whoever had to be the most flexible during the day. We are promised that there will be a group of women there for the full week. We will see what that is like. Edie usually gets the gumby for the day.

Al