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)