It’s Sunday Morning as I’m writing this. I now have two nights meetings under my belt. I’m feeling better now, less stressed over the unknown. I had never worked with a translator before and I didn’t know what the venue looked like, I didn’t know what the electrical and sound systems looked like either. It’s not that bad.
We are meeting in the local village school yard. It is enclosed by a concrete fence about 7’ high. The ground is basically dirt and they set up plastic yard chairs for the adults. The kids sit on the ground. If there aren’t enough chairs, the men get first chance and the women sit on the ground with the kids.
They put up temporary lighting in the trees and wires are hanging everywhere. Electrical tape is used like we use duct tape. Some are calling the electrical tape “Indian wire nuts”. The sound system uses huge speakers and they keep the volume “LOUD”. Even if the villagers don’t come into the compound, they can hear what we are doing for miles.
The people are extremely friendly and very curious about us light skinned Americans. They stare at us constantly and the kids follow me like the pied piper. Most of the folk in the villages have never left their village since birth and they are too poor to have a TV. They don’t know much about the world out there as they are very poorly educated.
I almost created a riot last night when I brought out my digital still camera to take some pictures. The kids were pushing and shoving and grabbing to be the one in the picture. After several minutes of chaos, we explained that I would take all their pictures and put them on the screen with my computer. They somewhat settled down and waited their turn but they still tried to creep in the shot. Some stood behind me and watched the viewfinder to see what the camera was doing. Most of them had never seen themselves on a picture before. I took over sixty pictures of the kids. I wish I could post all of them, they will break your heart.
The meetings last about 2 hours which comprises of singing in the local Tamil language, a children’s story which I tell to the kids and it is translated. Always a Bible story, there is nothing in my world that would make sense to them. The local pastor/translator then does a short health talk and I begin to preach with PowerPoint. The visuals on the screen (which is a sheet hung on the wall behind me) keep the audience’s rapt attention. Even the kids sit and listen with mouths open as the stare at the graphic, videos and picture of the world. Last night we had a 20 second video clip of pictures of the stars taken by the Hubble space telescope. It was like Ohs and Ahs at a fireworks show.
At the end of the meeting, they begin to line up. The locals see me as a holy man and they want prayer. One by one the come to the translator and tell their condition or problem and ask me to lay hands on them and pray for healing, finances, broken families, blessed marriages, or barren women. I am humbled and almost in tears as I plead for them and know that I have no ability to help them, but offer them to my God who is ever faithful.
When I post, I can only put one picture up from a hundred that I take each day. I wish you could experience for yourselves what I am seeing and feeling through this work for the Lord. There are 45 villages in which we are doing this work simultaneously on this trip. We have most of the hotel booked with Americans, Australians, and other Indians working on the major project. Most of the villages are similar to mine and the circumstances vary a little but the pre-meeting estimates are looking at 5000 people to be baptized when we are done. Can you say God is awesome?!?!
This doesn’t mean there isn’t opposition. Some of the villages have closed down the meetings and the group had to go elsewhere. Other villages are operating under close scrutiny and opposition by small but vocal radical Hindus who are angered by what is happening. The battle is raging and people are still coming. One woman in my village asked for prayer because she wants to come and learn and be baptized but her husband is a staunch Hindu and he will beat her, or worse, divorce her if she won’t stop coming. We don’t see much faith like this in America. Maybe we have it too good to realize our need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Pastor Kevin
We are meeting in the local village school yard. It is enclosed by a concrete fence about 7’ high. The ground is basically dirt and they set up plastic yard chairs for the adults. The kids sit on the ground. If there aren’t enough chairs, the men get first chance and the women sit on the ground with the kids.
They put up temporary lighting in the trees and wires are hanging everywhere. Electrical tape is used like we use duct tape. Some are calling the electrical tape “Indian wire nuts”. The sound system uses huge speakers and they keep the volume “LOUD”. Even if the villagers don’t come into the compound, they can hear what we are doing for miles.
The people are extremely friendly and very curious about us light skinned Americans. They stare at us constantly and the kids follow me like the pied piper. Most of the folk in the villages have never left their village since birth and they are too poor to have a TV. They don’t know much about the world out there as they are very poorly educated.
I almost created a riot last night when I brought out my digital still camera to take some pictures. The kids were pushing and shoving and grabbing to be the one in the picture. After several minutes of chaos, we explained that I would take all their pictures and put them on the screen with my computer. They somewhat settled down and waited their turn but they still tried to creep in the shot. Some stood behind me and watched the viewfinder to see what the camera was doing. Most of them had never seen themselves on a picture before. I took over sixty pictures of the kids. I wish I could post all of them, they will break your heart.
The meetings last about 2 hours which comprises of singing in the local Tamil language, a children’s story which I tell to the kids and it is translated. Always a Bible story, there is nothing in my world that would make sense to them. The local pastor/translator then does a short health talk and I begin to preach with PowerPoint. The visuals on the screen (which is a sheet hung on the wall behind me) keep the audience’s rapt attention. Even the kids sit and listen with mouths open as the stare at the graphic, videos and picture of the world. Last night we had a 20 second video clip of pictures of the stars taken by the Hubble space telescope. It was like Ohs and Ahs at a fireworks show.
At the end of the meeting, they begin to line up. The locals see me as a holy man and they want prayer. One by one the come to the translator and tell their condition or problem and ask me to lay hands on them and pray for healing, finances, broken families, blessed marriages, or barren women. I am humbled and almost in tears as I plead for them and know that I have no ability to help them, but offer them to my God who is ever faithful.
When I post, I can only put one picture up from a hundred that I take each day. I wish you could experience for yourselves what I am seeing and feeling through this work for the Lord. There are 45 villages in which we are doing this work simultaneously on this trip. We have most of the hotel booked with Americans, Australians, and other Indians working on the major project. Most of the villages are similar to mine and the circumstances vary a little but the pre-meeting estimates are looking at 5000 people to be baptized when we are done. Can you say God is awesome?!?!
This doesn’t mean there isn’t opposition. Some of the villages have closed down the meetings and the group had to go elsewhere. Other villages are operating under close scrutiny and opposition by small but vocal radical Hindus who are angered by what is happening. The battle is raging and people are still coming. One woman in my village asked for prayer because she wants to come and learn and be baptized but her husband is a staunch Hindu and he will beat her, or worse, divorce her if she won’t stop coming. We don’t see much faith like this in America. Maybe we have it too good to realize our need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Pastor Kevin
1 comment:
My eyes filled with tears just hearing your descriptions of the people and circumstances that they live in. I can't imagine seeing it let alone living it. They have nothing and while Americans curse God in their poverty the people of India are seeking Him. That says a lot about us as Americans. I pray that God continues to strengthen you in your journey...and I pray for the people of India that truly need a God that can move mountains!
God Bless...Lisa
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