Courage and the Unknown

Saturday, September 30: Our time in Lebanon went very well. The students were wonderful, intelligent, passionate and eager to learn. We had a wonderful time together. These believers are courageous. One told about God leading him to go and preach to the Hezbollah. He was hesitant to do so but did and found them “hungry for God.” Another traveled extensively in Syria, in areas where ISIS still operates, to visit churches and encourage them. Most of the pastors in the area had fled to safer regions and the churches had no leadership. Our hosts, Ben and Burgi, are also wonderful and are courageous people themselves, giving themselves wholly to the work of the Lord and to their students in a difficult part of the world. 

I found the week to be of great benefit to me. It has been awhile since I have had the privilege to teach systematically through a section of Scripture. Spending 4 days working through Romans 1-8 was wonderfully refreshing to me. I realized I need to find more opportunities for that in the local church. Our church in Colorado, which was a church plant, closed last month. When we return we will have to begin to look for a new one. Teaching and ministry opportunities for Edie and myself will be high on our list to evaluate.

We went from our hotel to the airport at 12:30 am, flying out at 4:30 am. We arrived in Bucharest at 10am, obviously quite tired. Then we had a 2-hour drive to our host’s home. Thankfully, we had a one-hour nap before lunch as we kept dozing off in the car. Then we traveled to a nearby Roma village to “do ministry” but we did not know what that meant. A group gathered at the house of a Christian where they hope to plant a church, and gathered a crowd from the neighborhood. They had Gypsy singers come and asked myself, another pastor who was there from Canada, and the lead singer to “say a few things” (which meant preach the gospel). We did and a number of people responded, although we are not really sure what was happening since it was all in languages we do not understand. It was a bit “Pentecostal” for Edie and I, but the Lord knows exactly what went on and will do His will. We were exhausted when we finally reached bed after supper around 9:30pm. We both got 9 hours sleep, a new modern record for me, and felt much better this morning.

We had Gypsy barbecue at a church member’s home today and it was wonderful. We had good conversations in a relaxed atmosphere. Tomorrow after church, we will travel to the first training location. This afternoon, we do not know what we will be doing. That has become the norm for this trip, but God enables us as things develop. I do not know what is coming but I am sure it will be interesting.

Al

Expecting the Unexpected

Edie and I set out for our month-long trip to Lebanon and Europe on Thursday morning. We will be in Lebanon until Friday and then move on to Romania where we will train Roma pastors for two weeks in two locations. Then it is on to Germany to train Bulgarian Turk pastors. We return to the States on the 2oth of October and Edie will fly on home from Minneapolis while I will stay another week for ReachGlobal leadership meetings.

We arrived safely in Beirut and waited anxiously for an hour in the airport because there was no one to pick us up. I tried connecting by phone, text, etc. but got no answers. I looked up on my computer to see that I had communicated properly about our arrival time and date and I had done so correctly. We were not sure what to do so we prayed. Five minutes later a man, Abdo, walked up and asked us if we were the Lewis’s. He had been looking for us and evidently, we had crossed paths on different sides of the arrival hall several times. He had my picture but I was not wearing my glasses. Evidently, we foreigners all look the same. 

Our hotel is a little rustic but completely adequate, although we had to change rooms today, as our air conditioner was not working. Beirut is a beautiful city with stunning views all around as we are on the edge of the city in the hills. This evening we visited our Lebanese ReachGlobal partner Joseph, in his home, which is nearby. I have talked often over the years at various conferences, etc. with him about coming to Beirut, but this our first opportunity to be here. We will work together to see how we might come back in the future to do training with him and his organization. Joseph and Ben, whose students we are teaching this week, both have a vision for sending pastors and church planters back into Syria when things calm down, and into Iraq, Kurdistan and other parts of the region. Many of the pastors have left Syria with their families, due to the war, and the churches now have no leadership. God is opening many doors for people in this region to be open to the gospel due to the violence and character of extremists and many people will need to be discipled and reestablished in their home countries. We hope to be part of the solution to these needs as time goes by.

Yesterday we found out that our training time will be 2 days shorter than we had expected. Communication, communication, communication. It is so hard to get it all right but God knows and I have been working today to reschedule and consolidate my teaching to fit the schedule. We are certainly on an adventure on this trip. This is only the first unexpected change that we fully expect to face over the coming weeks. We also have had communication struggles with the Roma leaders we are working with in Romania and with our missionary partners working with Turkish pastors in Germany. We are so thankful that God is with us. Thank you for praying for us as we travel and train.

Al

Higher Perspectives

We arrived in Trina, which is about 20 km from Chinnamanur where we will be training. It was a difficult three and a half hours here as the car was small and my back complained the whole way. It is quite beautiful here with steep mountains, the surroundings covered with what looks like scrub oak. This town is about 100,000 and busy. We are staying here because there are no good hotels in Chinnamanur, which I now find out is only 40,000 people. This hotel is a challenge, called a business class hotel but I am not sure what business they are shooting for. We had a good time last night trying to figure out how to turn all the lights off, about 10 different switches. I tried to recharge my computer but the only outlet that works is connected to a light so no charging overnight. Thankfully, the bathroom outlet worked and I charged it there. We have warm water and internet, occasionally. When it is on it is good but lasts only a few minutes and then goes off for a while. This is usually the kind of stuff that gets to me but I am trying hard to have a higher perspective. I am preaching this morning on the inheritance we have in Christ, Ephesians 1:11-14. I will try to keep my eye on that.

As with all new networks, we have a challenge coming talking about finances. That is always interesting. We look forward to meeting the pastors tomorrow and beginning their journey to careful Bible study.

Al

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

Traveling Mercies

Monday, July 10: We arrived in Delhi tired but safe. Fourteen hours from Newark to Delhi is a long time on a plane. It’s been a while since we had a flight that long. We are not looking forward to the flight home next week. Our flight to Colombo was delayed by 2 ½ hours so we got in around 6:30 pm and to our hotel around 9 pm. We were fully ready for bed but slept well. So far, our new jet lag diet is working quite well and though we are tired and not exactly on the right sleep schedule, it is much better than usual.

On Sunday, we traveled to southern Colombo to a boy’s home where several churches had gathered for a camp retreat. I was asked to preach, which I expected and was prepared for, but I was not prepared for the request that I preach back-to-back sermons, separated by a tea time. Thankfully, I had planned to preach a sermon I preached two weeks ago on Ephesians 1:11-14. I had been discussing the next two passages with my son, who was scheduled to preach them next. So, that is what I used for my second sermon. It seemed to go well, at least from my perspective. 

It was a great joy to be reunited with our Sri Lankan pastors. I was not sure what to expect since I had not had good communication with them since last February. Most of them had passed on the training and we only need to tweak a few things to help them become more effective. Unfortunately, none of them had received the pre-assignment so they were not prepared well. We gave them time in the afternoon to do the necessary preparations. 

Edie had several ladies to train and that seemed to go well although the timing was a bit off. They waited for us for over an hour and then had to leave early so Edie only had one hour to go over Jonah 1. But the Lord once again helped and progress was made. Hopefully today she will have 2 ½ hours. We would have liked her to have more time, but it is better than nothing. 

The couple traveling with us who are considering joining our team are doing wonderfully. They are a delight to be with and we expect that they will be good additions to our team if that is how the Lord leads.

Al