Thief, Operation Mobilization, and so much more!

So the last few days have probably been the longest stretch we have spent in Delhi so far. I'd have thought that this time at home would be uneventful and perhaps even boring. Boy was I wrong...

[The links to the various albums can be found all the way at the bottom.]

Thief!
So I'll start with the thief incident. So one fine dandy day, a few days ago, we were all minding our business and doing our work when this random kid decided he wanted to steal a bicycle. There was a bicycle sitting in the corridor on the second floor of our house, which belonged to one of our brothers. So this kid comes up to the second floor and using these special pliers, starts to break the chain on the bicycle. Since there is construction going on presently in our building, one of the workers noticed him breaking the chain and asked him what he was doing. The kid made some excuse, but obviously they realized he was trying to steal the bike. The worker quickly knocked on the doors to tell us that the bike was being stolen.

Now anyone with even a tiny bit of common sense would have taken that opportunity to bolt. But what does our friend do? Yea, he finishes prying the chain open and tries to run away with the bike in his hand!! Can you imagine what must have been going through his mind? Well anyway by this time a small crowd had been gathering around our house and so they chased him down and gave him a few good ones. My uncle and the guys in the office went down and quickly saved him from that mob and brought him up to the office.

I don't know about other parts, but in this area, stealing is a big offense, especially because in the last few months some 12 bikes were stolen. The mob would have probably beat the life out of that kid if he had been left to them. The almost funny thing is that once they start hitting him, pretty everyone that walks down that road past him would stop to give him one. Hey who wouldn't pass up an opportunity to hit a guy for free.

Even after they sat him down in the office, one of the workers from the construction project walked in and whacked him on the back with a piece of wood! Unfortunately, my uncle put out his hand so as to protect the kid from getting hit and ended up getting half the whack on his hand! It was very intense.

The kid was probably somewhere between 18 and 21 and of Nepali origin. He claimed that his father and mother were both dead and that he was here alone. He was a drug user and they found a syringe and some drugs on him. All up and down his arms the marks from the syringe were clearly visible. This is the state of an unacceptably high number of people in India at the moment. They grow up in an environment with no guidance or care and so they resort to gangs, crime, and drugs. It's such a sad thing if you think about it because the way they are is almost from no fault of their own. They resorted to this because there was no other means for their survival. And once they get with the wrong group of people, drugs and crime are pretty much inevitable. And is there an escape from this endless cycle? Pretty much the only end to the cycle comes with Death. Occasionally this cycle can also end if their environment is changed. If they are taken out of their endless routine by some family or some organization, and they are given a new life. But this rarely happens because most people are too scared to just take a random thief off the street and because most don't have the resources to support another person even if they wanted to take him in.

Well my uncle decided that we'd let him stay at the Bible school and if he clears up, well that's one life that's saved. Really the only other alternative was to call the police on him... or worse- hand him over to the people.... They other students at the Center (that's what the call the Bible school here) were happy to take him in. They gave him some new clothes and he washed up and had some food. For the next two days that kid probably got the most love, care, and food that he had ever received in his life.

Then came Saturday. A baptism service was planned for Saturday since almost 22 people from this church were prepared to be baptized. In the morning, one of our student/Pastor (also a Nepali, and also the official driver...) went to the church where the baptism was set to take place to make sure that everything was ready. He brought the kid along with him. The kid's name, by the way, is Churamoni (the moni part is said like "money"), which also happens to be the name of our pastor/student/driver. He was a funny coincidence. So anyway, the two of them get to the venue and our pastor went to get the key to open the place. In the two seconds of his absence, our friend Churamoni made a run for it. Our pastor didn't even get to see which way he ran away. And so ended the story of bicycle thief.

While it is pretty sad that he ran away, it was probably to be expected. Drug users will obviously get cravings for the drugs they are addicted to and maybe the craving got the best of this kid. One thing is for sure however, he will never forget the reception that he got here with us. He came to steal a bicycle and instead got some hot meals, warm bed, new clothes, and hot showers. (ok maybe the shower's weren't hot... or even showers for that matter... but you get the idea).

Because of the love that was shown to him, there is a very good chance that he will come to this faith, will leave his present life, and become a child of God. The seeds of salvation have been planted in his life, and at some point or other he is going to be sitting somewhere baffled at what happened these last three days. He's going to be so confused that he'll have to do something to find peace with himself and will try to find the answer. If he comes here, well he probably knows he'll find the doors open.

Just say a small prayer for him wont you? That God will touch his heart and change his life.


Operation Mobilization
So next on the list of eventful things is meeting the founder of Operation Mobilization. Prior to now, I had not really heard much about this group... but I don't see how I didn't! They are one of the largest missions groups in India at the moment and they have work in some 110 other countries. They send teams to certain locations. The team works with the church at that location and helps to spread the gospel by holding meetings and distributing tracts to all the neighboring areas. They also have work in church planting and community programs such as HIV/AIDS awareness, Child Abuse awareness and counseling and the same for Abuse against Women. If you want to learn more about them, read the wikipedia page on them

They are such a successful organization that they have some 2 or 3 large ships! They take students onto the ships and train them in the various aspects of ministry. The ship visits various places all over the world and at each spot, the people on board get off and spread the Gospel and give tracts and bibles. Pretty cool.

So anyway, the founder of this organization, George Verwer, had been banned from India for the past 40 years. There was some issue where the store room where items they brought into India to distribute to the people was raided. Someone reported Verwer and his people as smugglers and so they were kicked out and banned from India. But that hasn't stopped the work from spreading like wildfire throughout India. They have stations and bookstores and lots of things all over the place. Well now he finally is able to come here and so they had a meeting in Delhi. It was pretty cool to meet him. Its interesting how simple of man he is. One would think someone responsible for a ministry so large would be very uptight and dignified... but this man was just the opposite. Great Stuff.




Janak Puri
I also visited Sonu uncle's parents house in Janak Puri last weekend. Coincidence or what, the same weekend I was at Uncle and Aunty's house here in Delhi, back in America the Saturday meeting was at Sonu uncle's house. :)

In Janak Puri (which is a part of Delhi), they have their market on Saturday. All along the roads people set up shop for all sorts of things. One road was all clothes and gifts and other items like that. On another road was all food items (or maybe it was just one very long road... I don't know...). We just walked through the clothes road. There were SO MANY PEOPLE there that its a wonder I came out of there with my wallet, camera, and phone all still in my possession. I'm starting to get a feel for what a Billion People looks like....

So as we're going through the market I spot this thing called a Custard Apple. Some people call it a Sitafal, and in Malayalam they say Ahthekya (pronounced: AH-th-A-kya). See here we're buying it:

The green thing in the background, that's it...

It's this awesome tasting round little fruit. It's got seeds inside with each seed covered with a white fleshy material. Its soft, sweet, and tastes amazing! They should really bring that stuff to America. Even while it tasted amazing, I was told that in Kerela the fruit has even more flesh around the seeds. So I cant wait for some of the real stuff now =D.

A video of me eating some (click to watch it):


Other Photos:




I also tried this thing called a Singada. They SAY its the root of the Lotus plant (as in the Lotus flower)... but I've been told that's just a myth. Its a fruit (ahem) that grows underwater. I figured I'd try it.





It wasn't all that great. It had no taste at all... It tasted like eating raw Yuca, (tapioca, or kappa കപ്പ for you malayalees). Not amazing, but hey, if anyone ever asks me if I've eaten Singada now I can say, "Why yes, yes I have...."

This is me holding an orange at the market:



Philip Yancey
Some of you may have heard of the Christian writer Philip Yancey. He has written some quite fantastic books including "The Jesus I Never Knew," and "What's So Amazing About Grace." Wikipedia says that over 14 million copies of his books have been sold, so hes a pretty popular author.



This week he is making a tour of India spending time in various cities including Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, and others. I had the opportunity to hear him speak in Delhi and get some of his books also. Very nice person and very powerful message. He spoke about Justice and Reconciliation. Bottom line of what he said: considering the war on Christians and Christianity in India, the church does not have time for Justice neither does it need to look for Justice from the law. Instead we should be in a mode of reconciliation. He spoke about how it is easy to forgive, sympathize, and reconcile with those being oppressed, but that it was just as important to forgive and reconcile with the oppressor. Great message and one that the church in India needs to fully embrace. Our fight on this earth is NOT against flesh and blood, the bible says. That means we aren't here to fight with other people. But rather our "struggle" is with the forces of evil and the rulers of the darkness of this age, which, again, is not the physical rulers, but the Spiritual rulers/evil forces.


Delhi Minority Commissioner
Last week I also had the opportunity to meet a Delhi Minority Commissioner, a Mr. Arnold James. From what I've been told, he holds a lot of power- about as much power as a minister (Part of the Legislative Body) here. Since my uncle and him have been friends for many years, he has almost full access to him. He also has a nice business card (two of which he gave me to :D ).

There are Minority Commissioners for all parties considered minorities in Delhi, one for the Christians, one for the Muslims, etc... and this guy is the commissioner for the Christians. Whenever there is a big problem coming against us, we can call him and he can usually do something about. So thank God for him!

Children's Day
Last week I also had the opportunity to visit a school here in Delhi. In India they have a day called "Children's Day" where they "honor" children. Nice idea :)

So we got the opportunity to go to the school, as a team, and sing some songs and put on a skit for the students. My uncle also gave a small message. The fact that it was a totally Hindu school was of a slight bit of concern... but spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ is never going to be easy. By God's grace that event went very well and it was a very good experience.




My Asthma
So some of you may remember from my last post that I had written about the meeting in Hatras, UP. At the end I had added some pictures and one picture especially about a man who had gotten healed. Well as it turned out he wasn't the only one who had gotten healed that night. My uncle later told me that there was a whole healing movement that night. By God's grace I too was healed of my asthma! Yep, I've been asthma free ever since that meeting. Its fantastic because even I was starting to get worried at having to take my inhaler every single day and sometimes even multiple times a day.

Each and every day I am taught more and more about the power of prayer. And I'm not talking about being taught in a class, but rather in a much more practical real-life way by the movement and works of the Spirit of God. I thank God and all of you again for all of your continued prayers.



Prayer for Bihar and Jharkhand

Next on the list is a prayer request. This weekend we are leaving for meetings in Bihar and Jharkhand. From the 24th to 26th will be youth camp in Sahibganj, Jharkhand and then from 27th to 30th will be Youth Camp and Crusade in Katihar, Bihar. The name of the crusade is "Bless Bihar" and we are expecting from 10-15,000 people. The plan is to have the camp during the day and then the crusade in the evening.

Already problems have started to come with first the Police making trouble in Sahibganj and now CHRISTIAN GROUPS in Bihar making problems for us. The first problem has been settled by people above the police, but the second issue is still at hand.

We had called a meeting to discuss and organize the whole crusade and camp and everything. We had invited all the people in Katihar, but most didn't show. So we formed a committee with the people who were present. Now, people who hadn't originally shown up are complaining about the people appointed to the committee. Go Figure.

Anyway, keep those meetings in your prayers so that everything goes smoothly. We will be flying out from Delhi to Kolkata (Calcutta) on Sunday and from there by train we will be traveling the remaining distance. Keep us also in your prayers that when we are traveling and all we'll be safe and happy.



So thanks again for all of your prayers. Its the only thing that's keeping me going here.

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

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God Bless You!

Albums:
Day with Philip Yancey

The School in Delhi

Medical Camps and Hatras, Uttar Pradesh

] EDIT [
Just some quick corrections to the original post:

1. The police woman who came was not the "SI" (sub inspector) but rather she was the full deal, an Inspector.

2. The recent aggression started in Kandamal, not Karnal. Karnal is a place in Haryana (nearby here, which is why I accidently mixed those up)

Sorry for the mistakes!
] /EDIT [


The last few days have just been awesome!

Medical Camp:

I'll start with the Medical Camp on the 6th of November. The camp is sponsored and staffed mainly by a team from a church in America. They have about 10-12 people from PA and a woman from California with them. Most of them are doctors or nurses, but there is even restaurant owner and a librarian among them. I have to say, they are one very dedicated group of people. They buy most of the medicines from India itself, but bring things like multivitamins from the US. Each day they set up camp in different location and run it from 9 - 5. Basically, the doctors assess the patients, then the makeshift pharmacy gives the patient the medicines the doctors had prescribed, and then the patients are prayed for.



So anyway, the day that I went, things went smoothly. There was lots of people wanting medicines and there were some pretty serious cases. Like one man had TB and wounds all over his body. But since he had a very low protein diet, his wounds were just not healing. Now mind you I'm talking about the wounds on his arms and legs. Then came the worst part- a bedsore on his behind that was just... wow, a hole, I guess you can say? I would say a fist would easily fit into that wound. I helped the doctor who was going to bandage up the guy. I have to say that was a very ... interesting experience. I have a picture of the guy (the wound) but its VERY graphic and disturbing. You can see it here if you really have to see.


But so we cleaned out the wound with Iodine and then filled the cavity with some petroleum-something pads and just covered it up. Unfortunately in cases like this, I was told, the bandaging was a temporary solution. If they family didn't do the same thing everyday till the wound healed, he would return right back to this state. They sent that man home with a huge bag full of bandaging materials.

Some pictures:












Convention in Hatras, UP:



Next up is the 3 day convention in Hatras, UP. The story of the family doing the work of God there is pretty touching. So the work in Hatras has been going on for about 3 years. The pastor there was at one time working in Saudi Arabia. But God called them for full time ministry and so he left all the comforts of his life and came to this (God-forsaken...) place. He barely knew the language and he had two young children. They are now 8 years and about 10 years old, so you can imagine how much trouble the family must have gone through when they first got there.

The meetings were great. With the sound system, they arranged two very large speakers on the roof on addition to the rest of the sound system. This way, the entire colony was able to receive the word of God. Ever since the Orissa and such problems, people all over India are scared about attending such meetings so this was a good way to get the word out. We had gone as a team, as our people would be leading the praise and worship. So we had a guitarist/lead singer, pianist, bass player, and support singer. The support and lead singers switched roles for alternate meetings. The meetings were a great blessing and one person received a miraculous healing too!

Some pictures:


The pastor and Family:


The man who was healed. He was brought to the meeting unable to walk and now look at him after:




The worship team (and me) from left: Piano, Bass, Guitar/Lead, Guitar/Lead:



Second Medical Camp:

So then on Monday we drove back from Hatras and on the way back we stopped at the Medical Camp again. This was in a different place than the first one. So we got there around lunch time and already problems were brewing. Apparently a woman had come and gotten medicines. And as they do for everyone, they prayed for her too. Well a bit later her husband came asking why they prayed for his wife. Turns out this guy was an RSS member. I'm not sure exactly what RSS stands for, but its definitely not something good like Real Simple Syndicate =P. Anyway, they are a radical Hindu organization very much opposed to Christians and pretty much all other religions. They are responsible for a lot of aggression towards Christians and they wouldn't think twice about hitting and killing. So basically this guy wanted to get rid of us. First he complained about them praying for his wife. Then they started saying that the organizers didn't tell the people in their colony about the Camp. They even went as far as making up terrible lies saying that we said "Ram was dead and Jesus is alive." Now mind you, while we have a different set of beliefs, we too value our lives. No one in their right mind would say anything that would in the least sense be offensive. So for these guys to be making up lies like this is ridiculous.

Thankfully my uncle has some good connections. So he called some people up and soon the police and some of the higher ranked police people came. I don't know what all the letters are that they use to refer to the police, but the "SI" "Inspector" came... All I know is that she is a very high ranking officer. Thankfully she came in good time because about the same time she got there, the big shots of the RSS organization also got there. Things could have really gotten out of hand because that guy (the leader) had the nerve to say (right to the face of the police officers) that a "...Karnal Kandamal is going to start here..." if we didn't get out of there. For those of you who don't know, Karnal Kandamal is the place in Orissa where all the recent aggression towards Christians took place. The SI was a very strict woman and told him to shut up immediately.

Not looking for any trouble though, we immediately packed up and got out of there. By God's grace no one got hurt, but this was definitely a close call. The area is a red-zone now for the pastors and others ministry workers there so please keep them in your prayers. The situation in India is such that one of these radicals could break into a person's house, kill everyone there, and it all would just go unattended and unnoticed. So please pray for their security and safety.

Some pictures I took there:


(click the picture to view the album with some more from there)

As of now, the next event on the calendar is the open-air meetings and youth camps in Katihar, Bihar and Sahibjang, Jharkhand. That leaves about 2 weeks in Delhi. Good time to catch a small break from all the traveling =].

Not much other news. I caught a little cold in Nepal and its still lingering so I figured I'd start on an antibiotics dose, even though I know it wont help me in the least. Otherwise all is well.

I know I didn't write this in the previous posts, but I have been getting the chance to drive occasionally. They are scared, and very reluctant to let me. And I don't want to force the issue. But the fact still remains that if I go to Kerela without enough experience to be on the road, it could end up being a very long two months...

So keep praying for me. Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharhkand, Punjab, and Nepal (and other places traveled through) already down and a few more to go, and it's only your prayers that are keeping me going.

Thanks and God Bless

THE ENTIRE ALBUM of pictures from all three events can be seen here:

7, 8, 9: Medical Camp 1, Hatras UP convention, Medical Camp 2

Nepal!

So the amazing trip continues with yet another fabulous journey. New opportunities keep popping up day after day! So last week we were in Nepal in a place called Tikapur. Its in western Nepal (a cookie for the first person to send me a map with Tikapur circled :-P )

We had gone there because my uncle and another missionary from the US, who resides in Delhi, were invited to speak at an AG Youth Camp. Unfortunately, he couldn't come, so that left just my uncle to speak at the entire meeting (4 days, 3-4 sessions each...). Because the other missionary couldn't come, my aunt and my uncle's nephew (who is staying with us now... I've mentioned him before) also decided to come on the trip. Anyways, so we left last Sunday after the second session of worship service. After traveling for about 8 hours on some terrible roads and amidst horrible traffic... we reached a place called Bareilly in the state of Utter Pradesh. Originally the plan had been to just drive straight to the camp in Nepal, but luckily we decided to break some where in between. The pastor that we stayed with in Bareilly we were meeting for the first time. My uncle just randomly called some of his friends and asked if they knew anyone who lived in Bareilly and luckily this pastor came up. We reached their house around 11:30 and they received us very well. We left Bareilly around 6:30 the next morning and drove another 9 or 10 hours to reach Tikapur. This time the roads weren't terribly bad, but we picked up some extra passengers, and well... long story short... the driving part was not all that great. This was taken around 7 in the morning as we were leaving Bareilly.


Driving into Nepal is a whole different experience than driving in India. There are a few National Highways which run from one end to the other end of Nepal and which are pretty much the only roads in that country. The Highways themselves are not too bad, with only the occasional pothole. The big difference was the checking every few kilometers. Guards with big guns would stop us and check our papers. They inquired about where we were from, where we were going, what we were carrying in the suitcases... everything. In Nepal currently the Maoists are in power. They have been doing the country some good in terms of infrastructure, civility, and some social development. But the country is still very VERY far behind in everything else. One thing you notice is that once you get off the highways, cars and trucks are almost nonexistent while even motorcycles are somewhat rare. Though, everyone has a bike. It is by far the most common mode of transportation... save for maybe the bull-carts. Nepal is so far back, in fact, that India has been for some years investing in them to raise them up. India has helped them so much that now anyone coming to India can also freely enter into Nepal... no visas or anything required.

This is the Sarda River... the border between India and Nepal



Skipping ahead to the camp, we got there around 6 pm, even though the meeting was supposed to start at 4pm. They were treating us with a lot of respect. They even sang us a song welcoming us to Nepal and the camp. It was really cool. The hall was filled with people and they had benches outside for the overflowing crowd. There were about 300-350 attendees.

The organizers arranged for us to stay at a hotel nearby. Construction was still going on for most of the building, but it was still a nice facility. Unfortunately for me, I started developing some sort of chest infection which, coupled with the dust,etc from the construction, caused my asthma to flame up the moment I got into the room. Sleeping on the bed was the worst part, the first night I barely got any sleep. Even taking the inhaler was not doing any good!! It was pretty terrible. Second night also same thing happened. The third day my chest infection was getting worse, with coughing and congestion and all. So that night I took a couple Advils before going to sleep. That really did the trick, and I slept pretty soundly that night.

Me in the room... fighting off evil spirits! =]




The second day's first session was given to me. Can you imagine speaking in front of 300 people? How about speaking for an hour in front of 300 people. Or how about speaking for such an extended period for the first time in your life, in front of 300 people, after getting little to no sleep? :-) In happy to say that it went relatively well. I spoke on the topic of a Purpose Driven Life using the life of Joseph as my key topic. It went well enough that my uncle told me to take the second session of the 3rd day also. That went even better, and I spoke on the Cost of Following Jesus. It is God's grace (and I know that at least some of you prayed for me following my last post) that I managed to pull through. Here is a clip of me speaking... don't laugh! The person next to me is Pastor Joel. He's translating right into Nepali for the people.













The day sessions were fine, and even the power outages didn't affect the meeting much. In night sessions, however, which were from 4:30-6:30, the power outages caused a problem, especially during the altar-call. On the third day to get some light into the hall, we pulled up our SUV in front of the hall and turned on the headlights in highbeam mode. The light streamed through the door and the windows and ... it was better than nothing...

Eating dinner after the meeting was still a harsh experience. It was pitch black as we were eating, the only light coming from a few candles. Being someone who needs a lot of light when eating... this was a bit difficult... but we managed.



Me just tired and taking a nap:


The spirit of God was being poured out in that camp. So many people were filled with the Holy Spirit. Lots of people decided to take water baptism. Many demons were cast out and in the Mission Call, almost 30 of 40 young people submitted their lives to full time ministry. It was such a spectacular camp. The last day was awesome, this is a video of part of the worship.


The drive back to Delhi was just as intense as the drive to Nepal. Instead of breaking it up into two sections though, we decided to drive it straight. We left Tikapur around 6am on Friday morning and after hours and hours of driving, we finally reached Delhi 11:30pm on Friday night.

I should be in Delhi and the vicinity the next few days. Today (Sunday Nov* 2) I got to visit a local slum. I have to say, the conditions are pretty extreme there... and there are a ton of people. We went to a small classroom session where a kid who lives in that slum itself is teaching younger kids stories from the bible like a mini-Sunday school. Today there were about 30 students. Keep that small ministry in your prayers that God will allow it to grow and that it may become a deliverance in the lives of the people of the slum.

The next big trip is to Hatras, Utter Pradesh for a 3 day convention. That is next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Keep that meeting in your prayers.

My little chest infection//cold is dwindling down, but it still there a bit, so please keep me in your prayers also.

Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Some pictures:

My aunt and I at the hotel


Me sitting in a small Nepali house:


A bridge that was washed away by flooding in the area... notice the amount of water remaining... (barely any)