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!