Hot work in India

I apologize for not writing sooner but it has been difficult to find time.  We get home just in time to eat and hit the sack.  It has been a great week, but a taxing one.  I have battled various ailments, upset stomach issues from the food, hay fever, jet lag, etc.  It is quite hot, around 104 each day and humid.  We have no air conditioning but plenty of ceiling fans at the training center.  I am spent by the end of each day.  But the Lord has sustained me and given me strength for what I am here to do.  In some ways it is tough work to train here, but I love the people so much that it makes it worthwhile.  The students have performed better than expected so we are delighted.  They are all engaged and eager to participate and catch on quickly.  It has been a great start for the training network.  

I have worked with the leaders on challenges they face in organizing the effort and planning all the logistics for 4 training levels across 14 states.  It really is an amazing effort and will take the Lord's provision to succeed.  I think we got some issues ironed out today that have had them confused.  We have a good plan, but it is dependent on so many people to accomplish that we know the Lord must work in each one to get it done.  There are still financial challenges ahead as well that must be met soon for the project to keep going.  If you would like to sponsor a trainer, a state network or just help with some of the cost we would welcome any help you can give.  Just contact me at my email.

I am attaching a few photos of the trainers and the surrounding area.  We finish training tomorrow and head south to Trichy early on Monday morning.  They are not as well organized down there so we are not sure what we will face.  But the Lord knows.

Al

Darkness in India

I am sitting in my hotel room overlooking a major street and intersection in Ahmedabad India.  I estimate that 10,000 people pass by here every 5 minutes or so.  I know that almost all of them are lost in darkness.  I am thankful to be working with a group of Christians who are aggressively doing something about that.  I was talking today with the leader and he was telling me of some of the problems in the church in India. 

Unfortunately many have moved away from the real gospel to either self satisfaction or to a health and wealth perspective.  I was reminded of the problems in Corinth where even spiritual gifts given by God became a stumbling block to the church.  Here many "come to Christ" through healing.  Someone prays for the sick and they get well and say they believe in Jesus.  But for many they never hear more of the gospel than "Jesus helps us".  Because they have never been told of the need for forgiveness of sins and the provision in Christ, their salvation is incomplete.  Many of these when they later become sick again and are not healed, return to Hinduism.  As in the time of the gospels where Jesus healed many who were never born again, even today many are being healed by God and yet apart from the gospel they are still lost.  The group I am working with wants to keep the real gospel central in the church.  Paul said in Romans that it is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation.  I fear that in the US we have the same tendency to make the gospel more what Jesus does to help us have a better life, than the true message that he came to save us from the wrath of God by taking the punishment for our sins.  

Tomorrow we start the training network that we hope will result in thousands of pastors being trained in the Word.  We are excited abut what God will do through His Word as it is preached in thousands of churches across India.  I will keep you posted about the progress of the week.

Al

Pictures from Africa, April 2012

Pictures: Two leaders from northern Uganda. One of the men had his wife kidnapped by soldiers 15 years ago in the war and he never saw her again. The others are of pastors studying together in Iganga, Uganda. There were pastors from all over the city, from many different denominations.

Final Stretch in Kenya

My life sometimes feels like a zoo where they let all the monkeys out. Actually, this morning there was a monkey in a tree outside our building screaming at some birds. But otherwise life has been a bit chaotic since leaving Uganda. The trip to Kenya went fine but before I left I got a sore throat. I still have it a week later, although it is not bad. I am not sure if it is viral or allergic. A doctor gave me some antibiotics but they did nothing. Also I have a significant rash on my feet and lower legs. It doesn’t bother me much either but is awful to look at. I do not know if the two are related. The medication has made sleeping difficult and the meals have been haphazard so I am feeling a bit weak. From what I am not sure: food, lack of sleep, sickness, the heat??? This is Africa.

The training here did not get off to a good start. Only about half the class came the first day, so a lot of time was wasted. Today was better with only two missing. The pastors are such eager learners and though the progress is slow, it is consistent. I celebrate each small step forward as a major victory. By the end of the day I am beat, even though I have a training partner here, which helps a lot. I am not sure I could do it this week without help and the breaks that come when he teaches.

I have struggled for the past couple of weeks with internet availability. I thought when I got here it would be better because I brought a Safaricom modem in past years and it has worked great. But the first day somehow I accidental erased the driver on it and have been unable to fix it. So we go down to the Cyber Café in town and hook up there. It severely limits availability and makes the evenings long. But it is cheap, about 50 cents for a one half hour session. It’s not a place you want to stay in for a long time. I am attaching some photos of the time in Uganda. Enjoy!

Thank you for your continued prayers,

Al

Eyes opened in Uganda

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I have been in Iganga, Uganda for the past three days and have conducted a pastors conference for the past two. I gave a simple introduction to the methods and principles we use in training pastors to study the Word. It had a powerful impact on the pastors. Let me give you one example. I was teaching them the idea of doing good observation of a passage before we try to understand it. I broke them into groups and assigned passages and asked them to find 10 observations in the passage. One of the passages was Romans 12:1-2. My translator worked on that passage. He came up to me and said that he had been preaching for 18 years and had never realized that he needed to study like this. He was so excited with what he was seeing just by taking time to observe carefully these two verses. He said he felt like crying that he had not learned to do this earlier. I was reminded in my heart that this is exactly why I do this ministry, for men like Robert. What a joy to see them begin the discovery of the scriptures.

I rode from Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to Iganga with a famous bishop here in Uganda. He had been invited to come and preach in the evenings for the open air crusade they were having. As I conversed with him I was unsure about the man. What he said was all good but I felt uneasy. That first night at the crusade I realized that what he had told me privately and how he preached were two different things. It was pretty close to the health and wealth gospel, calling people to come to Jesus for all the good things he would do for them. There was no mention of sin, forgiveness, etc. None of the other pastors said anything to me that night. The next day we started the conference and I began teaching them the beginning steps to studying the Word and challenging them to preach the Word to their churches. That night we had more of the same in the preaching at the crusade. But that night all the pastors realized the difference between what this man preaching and what I was teaching them. They were very disappointed that he was not preaching the gospel or using the Word accurately. Several said the Bishop should have been at my training and he would have done better.

Tonight the bishop had to go home and they asked me to preach at the crusade. It was an open air affair in a vacant lot near the center of town. I would not say this is my area of giftedness, but the Lord calls. The men all wanted to hear how I would preach the gospel differently so there was a little pressure on me to do well. I had very little time to prepare and had no idea what to preach. The Lord gave me the idea to preach from Luke 5 and the story of the man let down through the roof. It worked perfectly. The former preacher talked only about coming to Christ to get your problems solved, receive health, financial blessings, etc. In the passage I used, the man was paralyzed so had a very apparent need. But Jesus did not heal him immediately, first he forgave his sins. I used that to teach that we have a bigger problem than health, wealth, etc. We have a problem with sin and the judgment of God. I was able then to present the gospel clearly. It appeared later that a few people responded and gave their lives to Jesus. The pastors all really appreciated the model. God is good.

The pastors are all excited about organizing for future training. I think within a year we will start the 3 year training cycle here, perhaps in at least two locations. One large disappointment came today as I was supposed to meet with an important potential partner for training in another part of Uganda tomorrow. I did a conference at his church last year and I had hoped to begin discussing setting up the training program with him on this visit. Unfortunately, his son came down with a life threatening condition so the man cannot come and meet with me. I am not sure what the Lord is doing with regard to that but I choose to trust Him.

Thanks again for your prayers, and for following along with my adventures with the Lord!

Al

Pictures from Elephant Park in Thailand

More Pictures from Czech Republic