Christmas Season!

So we've been back from Arunachal for about 10 days now. Not much has happened the last week. Now you should know by now that under normal circumstances that would be an understatement. But considering the last two months... not much has really happened the last week.

Newspaper
My uncle has a newspaper that he started back in 1999. Its a christian newspaper that reports on all the trouble and persecution that the church is going through. For the last ten years they (they being my uncle, aunt, and one or two people from the office) have successfully published every month, not even missing a single edition. Now that may not sound like a big deal, but when you factor in that their team comprised of about five people(with only about two of them actually knowing how to work the layout software and such), that they were doing the newspaper as a parallel ministry in addition to their other ministry which included evangelism, church planting, and ministry training school, AND that my uncle was frequently being invited to churches in other cities, states, and even countries to teach and preach there..... you can start to see that it was a pretty impressive feat. Oh did I mention that it was a 12 page newspaper?

It was God's grace and his grace alone that they have been able to reach this 10 year mark, because its almost humanly impossible alone. Anyways, to celebrate this occasion, they are holding a nice big "party"-gathering. Lots of the top political and Christian leaders in and around Delhi are invited and many have already confirmed. Basically we are trying to get the word out even more about this newspaper and to really establish it as a major presence.

From the 10 year mark, they are planning on expanding the newspaper. Right now its only 12 pages, black and white. From February it will be 24 pages with full color front and back pages. They are increasing the frequency of publication from monthly to bi-weekly (every two weeks... =P ). They are expanding the printing from 4000 copies now, to 10,000 copies! They are EVEN going to start an online edition. The online edition will start in January and is currently under construction. Bookmark it, the site will be http://www.praisethealmighty.com

It's going to an awesome source of news in the Christian world. You thought persecution of Christians in India and around the world was bad? You haven't seen ANYTHING yet.


Alcohol Recovery Center
Last week, in fact just yesterday, we held a Christmas meeting at an Alcohol Recovery Center near here in Delhi. The singing team brought down the house with Christmas songs and my uncle gave a nice message. It was a lot of fun. Most of the people at the center are between 25-45 years I'd say, but there were a few older and younger. While the center is called the Recovery Center, you wouldn't have thought so when they started dancing to the music at the end. All I will say is that they can really dance. They also had cake... yum.




Told you I questioned their sobriety...


Cake cutting...


haha "NO MORE NO MORE!!"



Our Office
So we have adopted a new policy here in the office. Everyday all the office staff (that would be like 5 people) come together at 9am and have a time of devotion. We take some time to worship through songs. We have begun a small devotional study of the letter of Apostle Paul to the Romans. So each day we read a chapter and discuss the chapter. Not really having done something like this before, and especially not with the book of Romans, I'm really getting a chance to study more of the Bible.

Its odd, from the past few times that I've spoken at the meetings, I've come away with a funny conclusion. Not exactly funny, but the fact that I seem to have a knack for preaching is evident. I don't know what it is exactly, but when I get up there God just gives me the words to speak and also this sort of adrenaline rush. It is all God's doing because people who talk to me regularly know that half the time my words just get all jumbled up when I'm talking fast and trying to get my ideas out. But God has helped me tremendously with my articulation. (Not really with day to day talking though, that's still the same. Sorry!)

But back to what I was saying, the problem is that I have a severe lack of knowledge of the Bible. I know some things, but it is not nearly enough if I'm to continue speaking. Obviously you can't teach what you don't know, and at the moment I don't even know what I don't know! So the only remedy is to just pick a book and start plowing through. We've only gotten to the 4th chapter of Romans and already so many things are coming to light.

For example, one question that comes up, when talking about believing on Jesus Christ as the only way for salvation, is, "What about all those hundreds of thousands of people who die everyday not ever having heard about Jesus? Surely God cant just damn them all to hell?" The answer to that is given right there in chapter 2.

14-16When outsiders who have never heard of God's law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God's law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God's yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God's yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences. Romans 2: 14-16 MSG

I pasted these verses from a version of the Bible called the Message version because it helps to really clarify and explain it. Basically it says that even people who have not received the laws of God will be judged by what is naturally right or wrong because God has built human beings with a conscience that tells them "Ok this is right, this isn't right." And on that day when everyone is judged by God, these people who have not heard the word of God will be judged according to whether they did what was right according to their natural instinct and conscience.

But of course this brings up the question as to why then do Christians have to go and tell others about the love of Jesus. There are two reasons for that. The first reason is because Jesus himself said, go into the world and tell people about me and so its a "command." But why this command? To what end or purpose is it there? In one word, the answer is peace.

People all over the world are suffering from a lack of peace. Now you may say, "well I'm happy with my life- everything is going well, its all good." But the issue arises when a problem comes into your life, as it is bound to do. No one lives a perfectly carefree life without any problems or worries. When problems come, we as people lose our grip on what we know and see and this leads to depression and all sorts of bad stuff. But Jesus came into this world to give you that peace to carry you through your difficult times. He not only opened the way for eternal life after death in this world, but He also send His Holy Spirit into the world so that you don't have to worry or be depressed. He is the ultimate comforter and no man or woman can comfort like he does. He made the way for life after death, and he also made a way for a happy peaceful life here on Earth. You will come to a point in your life where nothing humanly possible can offer peace or comfort. When you get to that point, two options naturally come up. One is the negative option that tells you to just quit, end it all, even end your life, that there is nothing worth living for and that there's no hope. But then there is always the other option, though it rarely occurs to people, and that option is eternal peace through Jesus Christ. If you don't believe me, hopefully one day you will remember these words and they may be of some use to you.

I don't actually know where all that came from, I wasn't actually planning on writing any thing like that. But see what you can learn from just a few verses? Its pretty powerful stuff.

So yea, we have devotions now. =)

Not much else. I told you about the Christmas meeting at the Alcohol Recovery Center. Christmas meetings are going to be held at all of our churches, so that comes to like 7 or 8 meetings the next few days. You may remember the photos from a school that we went to a few weeks back for Children's Day. We'll we are having a Christmas meeting there and my uncle asked me to Speak there. So that will be interesting. Please do keep that and all the other meetings in your prayers. While the meetings are titled Christmas Meetings, the purpose of these meetings like all other meetings is to tell the people about the Love, Peace, and the promise of eternal life with and through Jesus Christ. So please pray that God may touch some lives this Christmas season.


Aur sub tikhe abhi. Toda thund he, lekin jadha nehihe... acha climate he. Parumeshur hume bahoth ashish denge. Apka prarthana ke liye me danyawad detahum!

[Everything is okay now. Its a little cold, but not much, its just good climate. God has blessed us very much. I thank you all for your prayers!]

Thanks for reading! As a present... you can see the dancing I told you about at the beginning! Click on the video to see it even bigger.



and









If you have a thought or comment, I invite you to leave a comment on the site so other readers can also see it.

If you haven't already, you can also choose to receive my updates via email, or RSS feed. Both those options are available on the left side.

God Bless You!

Arunachal Pradesh!

Praise God!

We got back from Arunachal a few days ago. I was intending to update the blog right away, but then I came down with a bit of a stomach virus last few days. By God's grace its pretty much all gone and I'm feeling splendid again. I just thank God that the first food poisoning that hit me occurred right while I was at home. It may have been pretty difficult if we weren't home... and especially so if a western toilet wasn't available! phew! You know, when we were in Bihar and Jharkhand I came to the conclusion that the Indian toilet wasn't all that bad. I mean you don't have to touch anything or risk getting germs all over you or anything. The only bad side is that your legs start to hurt after a while... which could be a big problem if you're sick. But other than that, its a pretty good deal! =P

So moving on from the toilets...

On the 5th (of Dec...) we took a flight from Delhi to Gauhati in the state of Assam. Security was pretty high at the Delhi Airport...


Yes, that's a police man on top of a truck with a machine gun...

The security was extra high that day because apparently earlier in the morning, around 1am, there was a report of a sound like that of gun fire near one of the gates. They say that it was probably a false alarm and that they didn't find any evidence. But because of that, things were pretty tense while we were at the airport.

Our flight was a bit late, but we did eventually reach Guwahati Airport in Assam. Assam is directly south of Arunachal, but to get from the airport to where were going, we needed to take a helicopter. The other option was a 10 hour drive over non-existent roads... so getting the helicopter was crucial. The problem was that if any of the politicians needed the helicopter, then it wouldn't be available to the public under normal circumstances. Even till the morning of our flight from Delhi our helicopter status was unknown because some minister had booked it for that day. But when we got to Guwahati, one of my uncle's relatives who works in that airport (in the air traffic control tower!) was able to book us the last three seats on the 8-seater helicopter.

My ticket:


You may notice that it says Johan Thomas. Simple mistake right? I mean Jones-- Johan ... they all almost sound the same. Except for the fact that my uncle sent a text-message to the people with all our names and stuff... so don't ask me how they managed to come up with Johan haha.

And it wasn't even just the helicopter ticket:


That's our inter-line pass... kind of like a visa, but this is just to go to another state; they make you take this when traveling to Arunachal and some other places. Weird, I know- Welcome to India. But anyway, so for the trip I was officially named Johan Thomas. =) Not a terribly bad name huh, what do you think?

Anyways, even though they messed up my name, thank God for that helicopter, because after having seen the mountains and stuff we flew over, I cant even begin to think of how gruesome that ride would have been in a car. The helicopter ride was pretty nice, lots of scenic views.

This is a picture of the pilots:


meeeee:


The trip was so scenic and interesting in fact that my uncle ...

dozed right off to sleep. :)


Levitating and hovering and stuff itself wasn't very frightening, but you cant help but be a little worried when you see the pilot looking at a map and then looking around out the window...


But with map or not, we finally got there:



Arunachal Pradesh is a pretty nice place. When taking the whole of India into perspective, it is really one place which stands out. It reminded me a lot of Kerela. Lots of green, fresh air, mountainside roads, and awesome views. Even better than Kerela, there was very little traffic and no crazy speeding transport buses! There were still malayalees though. You cant ever get away from malayalee people =)



They apparently don't like Bangladeshi people... The sign says:

"BANGLADESHIS GO BACK"
Illegal immigration of Bangladeshis
is restricted(?) in Arunachal Pradesh

Support AAPSU

"Operation Clean Drive"
"Save Arunachal Pradesh"

So definitely some strong feelings being expressed there...


From speaking with malayalee people there, we got mixed impressions of the native people of Arunachal. The setup there is with various tribes. The different tribes have different cultures and languages. The government has recognized about 25 of the tribes as having unique languages, but there are still many that the government hasn't yet recognized. From what we heard about the people, they are very good people. When they set their heart and mind on something, they are very loyal to whatever that may be. They are very civilized, but much of this "civilization" has come only within the last 20-30 years. As such, they are prone to turning back to their old ways. By old ways I mean their sword welding ways. Many of the people who have not come to Christianity (and even some that have come!) always walk around with a 1-3ft long machete. If problems come up, they are not in the least bit hesitant to unsheathe the blade and take a swing. In a quick moment, the tribal nature springs right back up.

But for all the tribal brutality that is in them, there is an equally great amount of civility and loyalty. We being the chief guests from Delhi, we were treated almost royally. They served us water, tea, almonds, cashews, and all sorts of things right during the meeting! Being someone who stops chewing whatever I'm eating if someone begins to pray, seeing all this food in front of us during the meeting was pretty ... interesting.

The ladies have an interesting cultural dress code there. Basically, they wear the same thing that old south indian men wear: the lungi! They call it a gailee and it looks way better, but in effect its just the same thing!



Those are two groups doing action songs during the meeting.

I guess they don't really have a cultural top because most of them were just wearing t-shirts or other western-style tops.

They gave us these really cool looking vests. Each tribe makes different patterns so its easy to identify where the vest came from. This is me wearing mine.



I just have a tie because everyone here dresses up nice and fancy. Remember? I said they were civilized! =)



The meeting organizers put us up at a really nice hotel. Nothing flashy or fancy, but they had running hot water and a hot shower which is definitely a luxury in India. They also had really nice soap =P. You can probably guess that I took long relaxing HOT showers.

This was our hotel room:




The meeting that we were attending was actually an early 2-day Christmas Celebration meeting. And so they were serving food after most of the sessions. In Arunachal, and some other parts of India, there is this animal called a Mithun. Apparently it's like some sort of buffalo/cow that is on steroids. It's not ACTUALLY on steroids, but if you saw one, that's what you'd think. It is said to have the purest meat in the world. It is "domesticated" but it lives in the wild. Surprisingly, the owner of the mithun will know exactly where it is at all time of the year even though it is free to wander around on its own. It follows the same routes, supposedly, through the forests. Anyway, its a prized animal, and for this meeting, they got one.


I literally mean they GOT one.


Now I'm a decently brave soul when it comes to food items. I mean I can eat pork with no problems, and I'm unfazed even after hearing the diet the pigs in India consume (word to the wise, unless you are pretty strong-willed, don't go asking about a pig's diet if you plan on eating pork from India). So when they served this mithun, I was fine. First piece I tasted was liver... liver tastes same in everything. I don't really like liver, but I figured ok, next piece will be better. Unfortunately the next one was also liver =[. My uncle was bold enough to ask our hosts what they had served us, and it was only then we learned that they had just served us the stomach and intestine parts. If you feel like regurgitating whatever is in your stomach, you can imagine how we felt.




We were sitting in their traditional kitchen/eating place. Their houses are pretty much completely built from bamboo. The thing in the middle is a large stove and a place to dry/smoke meat.


A better view of the stove.


As culturally enriching as it was, I think we all liked our hotel meals slightly better.




Soon it was time for us to go back. Once again we barely got seats on the helicopter. This is the plane, and those people walking ahead of us are very important people.... (They went to the VIP lounge at the helipad :))


My uncle getting in =)


To be sure that we didn't miss the helicopter, we got on the first flight in the morning. That brought us back to Guahati by 9am. Our flight to Delhi wasn't till 3pm, so we had plenty of time to kill.


by sleeping...


and listening to something...

It was a very tiring day...


But in the end, everything worked out and so all was good.


I know today's post seems a bit choppy, but there have been complaints that my posts are too long, and since I have so much to say, I tried to jump through all the topics. I still probably missed a nice bit!




Whats next?
Now that the Christmas Season is here, there will be a bunch of Christmas meetings around at all our churches. There will be one more youth camp here in Haryana.

One of the evangelists working with my uncle, who graduated from this program, is going to be getting married soon. Most likely the wedding will occur in West Bengal or Jharkhand, so we may get to go there one more time. Pray that all the plannings will work out smoothly for them.

As for going to Kerela, I may leave for Kerela right after that wedding. Otherwise the absolute latest will be February 7th- which ever comes first.

Anyway thanks for reading and keep praying for us here!


If you have a thought or comment, I invite you to leave a comment on the site so other readers can also see it.

If you haven't already, you can also choose to receive my updates via email, or RSS feed. Both those options are available on the left side.

God Bless You!

Jharkhand and Bihar, Take 2

Praise God!

How great our God is! Just fills me with awe and praise when I think about all the great things He is doing.

Last week we were in Jharkhand and Bihar so I'll start with Jharkhand:


Sahibganj, Jharkhand
We took a flight from Delhi to Kolkata (or Calcutta for some of you). The flight wasn't too bad, but they pretty much charge for everything. Okay everything except the bathroom... but I guess that's included in the ticket.

Me sitting Delhi Airport with a disposable mug of coffee in my hand:


Then from Subash Netaji Chandra Bose airport (in Kolkata) we took a taxi through Kolkata city to the train station. Wow I thought driving in Delhi and Kerela was crazy, this was just INSANE. Granted we were there at rush-hour time, but the sheer amount of controlled chaos was just ... exhilarating, (in a scares-you-to-death kind of way.) Driving to Howrah (pronounced HowDah, yea all the r's are said as D's) train Station we had to drive over the Howrah bridge. Its apparently a suspension bridge, but its purple. Literally the entire bridge is purple! It looked like some ride from Six Flags...


I googled it and apparently its illuminated to looked super purple... but no difference... It still looked pretty nice:



Then we took the train from the train station (duh) to Sahibganj, Jharkhand.

Us standing at Howrah station waiting for the train:


My uncle and aunt for the top berths:



Me in my side top berth:



Sahibganj, Jharkhand saw their first Youth Camp in its history. 24th, 25th, and 26th were days that changed the course of Christian evangelism in that city.

History
About three months ago, a few of the bible school graduates here in Delhi (graduates from my uncle's ministry here) decided they wanted to go back to their homelands and start a work there. So led by Pastor Samuel Soren, a team of 5 started the Sahibganj, Jharkhand branch church of Sacred Assemblies Fellowship (my uncle's organization). They have been working there for the past 3 months and are doing pretty well. They decided they wanted to hold a youth camp in that area so people could learn more about what was going on.

The team with my uncle:



The Camp
The 3 days were pretty awesome. My uncle from here (obviously) and my uncle from NY were the main speakers, Brother Martin Clarence, from Kolkata took one session and I also took one session =). Each day more and more people attended. For many it was the first time they were hearing the word of God like this, or even at all. Lots of lives were changed and people were healed and everything. It was just great.

Coincidentally (or not...) at the same time as our camp, the local college was having student body elections. It just so happened to turn out that the group of students who had attended the camp, their party won the elections. So they were all super happy. But in general there was a big desire to hear more and continue with what started in those 3 days.

Us at the Sahibganj Church/House for Nasta (breakfast =P )


My uncle from NY and me at our hotel room:


My uncle preaching (and me singing in the back =) )


People at the meeting:



My aunt taking one of the group discussions:

My uncle and his group:


The hall where the meetings were taking place:


Me pretending to play the drums:


The worship team teaching an action song:


And the crowd:


Me Preaching and Pastor Prem Marandi Translating:


The people are looking at each other because I told them to pair up and start praying for each other:


My Aunty with a baby:


Another shot of the music team... and this time with me trying my hand at drums:





Katihar, Bihar
Then after the three days at Jharkhand, we crossed the Ganges River over into Bihar. We took the first ferry in the morning and it was PRETTY COLD. But being from NJ, I braved the cold with just a small jacket. B). Actually what happened was that we didn't know it would be that cold, and I actually just got stuck in that skinny little jacket. It was okay, I'm still alive. =)

Me on the ferry at the crack of dawn:


At that same time, the rest of them were freezing:



He's fine though: =)


But check out this marvelous shot I got:


The beauty of the creation of God!



In Katihar they were having the youth camp during the day and then a public meeting at night.



They expected a lot of people and so they arranged a tent in the field outside the hall:



heheh a goof-up:


Anyhow...

The camp was great. A lot of people came and they too were wondering about what they were hearing. Many people asked us if this was what Christianity was really about. They had been told lies or have had misconceptions their entire lives and they were just so curious and all the more ready to accept the word of God.

My uncle speaking at the camp:


Then at night tons of people came, mostly just to see what was going on. But here again so many people were wondering if this was what Christianity was really about. They were wondering whether what we were speaking and preaching was actually the stuff from the bible. They couldn't believe that it was from the bible because of all the misconceptions that they have had.

Here at the Public Meeting we are praying for and blessing two officials who attended:


My uncle preaching in the night meeting:


Me preaching in the camp and Pastor Sushil translating:


My uncle from Delhi preaching during the camp:


My aunt playing "Raja kaytha" (the equivalent of Simon says...):


"Kadeojaye!" Aww that kid lost, Raja didn't say "Kadeojaye":


Before the night meeting:


My uncle speaking at the night meeting:


On the last night of the meetings, after the service the people started doing a tribal dance, and of course, pulled us in also:


The meetings were a great blessing and here too lots of people were healed and Blessed. The name of the festival- Bless Bihar, was made a reality as Bihar was truly blessed.


In Katihar most of the days we went to the restaurant near our hotel for food. One day we tried the soup and fell in love with it.

After a long day of preaching and teaching, enjoying some soup:


MMMMMMM YUM, Tandoor Chicken: (I think this was our Thanksgiving night as well)



In Bihar, goats sit inside, people sit outside. Bihar is a land where animals have put humans in their place:



On Sunday our train was at 4:25 from Katihar Station. It was late, of course, by like an hour... so we took pictures while we waited:


Ah finally on the train. Now for a traditional picture with the soup stick:


I made it tradition that all first time soup stick eaters should get their picture taken. You may remember my first soup stick (or not, since I never uploaded it before):



My aunt eating Ice cream (yum) and I think my uncle just bumped his head uh oh!:


They gave me a broken paddle.. erm I mean Stick:


and I ate with it too... not even realizing it...


And then, since it was time to go to sleep, I decided to put my bedsheets up. I had the top top top berth, so I told my aunt to hold my ice cream while I made the sheets. Yea well, as I was making the sheets, she got distracted and put down my ice cream and completely forgot about it. Me, occupied by my bed making, also forgot about the ice cream for a bit. When I suddenly remembered, my aunt was already under her blanket ready to sleep! It was so funny, she suddenly jumped and frantically started searching for the cup of ice cream. She finally found it under her blanket. Thankfully it didn't spill, but the sheets for a little wet. And even though we found the cup, she still couldn't find the little stick! So we decided to just forget about it and figured we'd find it in the morning... I couldn't eat the ice cream anyways, it had blanket fibers in it =P =( It was good ice cream too.... But anyways, so we just went to sleep. Less than five minutes later, though... this is the scene I see and hear:

"I FOUND IT I FOUND IT":



It was one awesome trip.





In other news in India, you all probably heard about the Mumbai terrorist attack before we did. In the middle of camp and preparing for our messages, no one took time to watch any TV. So we were effectively disconnected from the outside world. My uncle called my aunt in NY and that's when we heard about the attacks and about other stuff going on in the world.

I've said this before and I'll say it again, India is on the brink of a social revolution and desperately needs your prayers. Prayers asking God that there will be peace in this land and that corruption and poverty will be cut down.











You can also see the album on Google Photos, but its pretty much all the same photos as here



Next Plans
Tomorrow morning at 5am we will leave for Arunachal Pradesh. We will fly to Guwahati and from there take a Helicopter into Arunachal Pradesh.

We have been told to expect much checking and that sort of business, so pray that all goes well. There will be 3 days on meetings in AP and then we will fly back on the 8th.

My uncle from NY has been suffering from the food here, so pray that he will feel better. I've been told the food in AP is quite different from the rest of India so, that MAY become a problem.


So keep praying for us, and God Bless



Final Note
One lassst thing: I wrote before that I had been healed of my asthma and now its been tested. Train, Hotel, Plane.... I'm really truly actually CURED!! Praiseeeee GOD!




If have a thought or comment, I invite you to leave a comment on the site so other readers can also see it.

If you haven't already, you can also choose to receive my updates via email, or RSS feed. Both those options are available on the left side.

God Bless You!