On to Ahmedabad

We just finished our last day of training in South India. We are all really tired but it is a "happy tired." The group here did really well in picking up the training, perhaps the best of any group we have trained. We are really hopeful that they will spread the training to many groups. They all will be good trainers. We have many stories of moments of insight, good presentations and enthusiastic learning. We always learn during these trainings as well, not only about better methods of teaching, but from the Word of God itself.  What a privilege we have!

The electricity here goes on and off every hour or so. Each time it does they have to switch to a generator and then back again in the next hour. I have no idea why that is. Tomorrow we have a much needed day off, the first in the last two weeks. Our days are long, from early morning to late at night, training and preparing for the next day. Thankfully we are sleeping well most nights.

Sunday I preach in one of the churches here and then we leave in the afternoon for Ahmedabad. We are looking forward to another good week of training there.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support,

 

Al

South India, October 2012

Our time here in South India has gone very well so far. We were so excited to hear about the 6 trainings that the pastors had conducted since we were last here. It is such a joy to work with them because they are not only eager learners, but also enthusiastic to take the training on to others. They told us some of the pastors they have trained keep asking when they will get the next workshop. I am sure the men we are training will begin training others as soon as we are finished training them. They are bright, well educated and pick up the material quickly. In spite of the fact that many of them have bible school training, and several have taught in bible schools, none of them have actually been trained to study the bible itself. We find this to be the case everywhere we go.  

We have had a few challenges, as usual. Several men showed up who have not had the previous workshop and have had difficulty catching up. Two are not English speakers and have had difficulties understanding the teaching, although one man has been translating for them. We have worked these issues out so that everyone receives the previous workshops from the leaders here before they attend the next workshop. We also agreed that non English speakers will be better trained by the Tamil leaders here than by us. The three leaders here, whom we affectionately call the three amigos, are so cooperative and easy to work with.  

Edie and Linda have had a great time with the women. One problem they have had is too many women are coming. They had 20 women yesterday, way too many to effectively train with our method. We discussed that also with the leaders and I think we will have that solved next time as well. We will need the women to catch the vision for training other women. You can pray for that with us.

I am feeling much better, almost no back issues at all, and we are getting good rest at night. It is amazing how much better things go when you feel good. Thanks for praying for us. We feel your assistance through the Lord every day.  

Al

A Visit to Tea Country

Our time in Siliguri ended up going quite well. In spite of all the physical problems I experienced, the Lord saw us through and the students made remarkable progress. They began the week not understanding the most basic aspects of Bible study and ended doing a fairly good job of understanding assigned passages in II Timothy. We were delighted with how all that went. The training with the women went very well also. Edie thought they made amazing process and feels that the relationships she and Linda built will be lasting. We are not at all sure what the group will do in terms of passing on the information or who will continue with the training. That all has to be worked out here by February, the time for our next workshop.

During the course of the training one of the students gave an amazing testimony. He and his wife married without their parents blessing and were cast out to be on their own. They struggled to have enough to eat so he joined the Maoist army (they lived in Nepal). He was caught by the police and beaten so badly he was paralyzed. Somehow he was taken to a hospital and gradually improved. He had to flee to Cyprus to escape with his life. There a friend stole all his money and ran away leaving him destitute. He lived in a bathroom for a week. There a Irish missionary happened on him and started talking to him. When the missionary found he was from Nepal he started talking Nepalese with him. It turns out the missionary had served in Nepal for about 20 years. He was taken to a church, befriended, helped and eventually came to Christ. He returned to Nepal to his wife and they now serve as youth ministers in their church (the wife was one of the women Edie trained). He later told me that he had killed the father of one of the families in the church when he was a Maoist but that they had forgiven him. Is God amazing or what?

We left Saturday afternoon for Darjeeling, far up in the mountains, to visit one of the leader's churches. It was supposed to take 3-4 hours and ended up taking 6. We had 4 straight hours of winding, twisting, narrow mountainside roads. We all took car sick medicine but all still struggled to one extent or another. I, of course, got thoroughly sick and had to survive hours of miserable sickness in the car. For some reason the Lord has chosen to especially test me physically on this trip.  

We awoke this morning to a beautiful, sunny, cool day in some of the most picturesque scenery you can imagine. The place we are staying is on the edge of Darjeeling and the whole area is a tangle of steep mountains and deep valleys. There is almost no flat ground at all. People here must be hardy because the walking is something else. We are at about 8,000 feet and we walked a mile or so up the road to catch a ride to the church. We could tell we were at a higher altitude. The church is over 9,000 feet up and and the view from there was spectacular. I felt my sermon was very flat (I suppose I could use the excuse given for Obama that I had not acclimatized myself long enough). It was good to see the people in the church, many are new believers and four were announced as having been baptized this week. They were each given a new name. The idea is that they are all former Hindus or Buddhists and they needed Christian names.  I thought it was a pointed reminder that we are new creatures when we come to Christ.

Darjeeling is world famous for its tea. There are tea plantations all around. We were to tour a tea factory  today, but when we arrived a regional manager happened to show up and he felt the workers were not wearing the proper safety equipment and would not let us tour. They did give us a package of tea though.

Tomorrow we have to be off at 5 am to head back to Siliguri in order to catch our flight out to Trichy. We fly all day with three stops arriving around 9 pm. It should be a grueling day. I plan to take two of the car sick pills to be prepared and hope that works better. We will see. 

Thanks for your continued prayers,

 

Al

India October 2012, #2

We arrived safely in Delhi on Sunday night. We had  good night's rest before heading to Siliguri on Monday morning. Unfortunately I came down with significant back problems. I was fine when I got up in the morning but later noticed a slight catch in my back which progressed rapidly into a major problem. It got so bad that I could not walk well and had to eventually get a wheel chair to make it to the gate and onto the plane. Edie was able to get me some ice and it was slightly improved when we arrived, enough so that I could walk down the stairs from the airplane and into the airport. Fortunately, I did not have to teach on Monday but even yesterday, Tuesday, my back was so tight that I could not stand up straight. I walked like an old man, which I guess I am becoming. I taught most of the day sitting. This morning, (it is around 3:30 am, we have not gotten over the time change yet), my back feels better so I am hopeful for a better day. Your prayers would be appreciated.

The students are mostly young and bright and a delight to work with. They come from about 4 or 5 different countries and almost all them speak English quite well. We were delighted with their progress yesterday. They all need to learn how to discuss and interact in the classroom, something they have never had experience with before. We are not sure that they fully understand what our vision for a training network is and we will need to work further with them on that. It is essential for them to take the training to others if we are going to have a successful network.  

Only 3 women showed up for the training. Edie and Linda were planning on 10. But the ladies are connecting well and are learning the material quickly. It has been a good start for Edie and Linda as they are learning how to teach together and how to use our training materials with women. So far it has been a joy for them to work together, even though they are very different in personality and gifts. God is good.  

We have a challenging week ahead as we present two full workshops in one week, twice what we normally do. We can accomplish this only because it takes less time to train when we can do it in English without translation and because we are limiting our electives. Still it is a lot for them to be introduced to in such a short time. We felt it was necessary to do two workshops in order to catch them up with the two other groups we are working with in India. We are praying that all of us will  have the energy to accomplish what God has put before us. Thank you for your help in praying for us. We know that is one of the reasons we can make it through some of the physical and spiritual battles we face. Our Internet access is limited but we will try to keep you posted as we can.

Al

India, October 2012

I have had multiple problems getting hooked up to the Internet, so I am using someone else's computer today.  We arrived safely in Delhi, India on Sunday night. Unfortunately on Monday morning I had some pain in my back that started with a slight catch and gradually became more intense, to the point that I had to get a wheel chair to make it to the gate at the airport.  Edie got me some ice and I improved slightly by the time we arrived in Siliguri.  I was able to walk into the airport and to the car.  But I have struggled with a lot of pain and tightness in my back so that I can not fully walk upright.  This is challenging for my teaching and I have had to sit during much of the training.  It is better a bit each day but I have a ways to go.  We have all experienced quite a bit of different types of opposition in preparation for this trip so we think this is one of many strategies by the enemy to discourage us.  It has been more apparent than usual for this trip, so we feel the enemy must not want us here.  That is all the more reason for us to press on.  Please pray for us in these regards.

The training is going well although it is not the group we expected.  Many of the leaders invited sent young people to represent them so our group is quite young and inexperienced, although there are several that are seasoned and mature.  We are not sure what this will mean for the future.  But we press on with who we have and they are making great progress.  Edie and Linda have only three women to train but that is also going very well. 

Hopefully I can send a more complete blog soon when I get my own computer hooked up.

Al