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!




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God Bless You!

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.

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!

Albums:
Day with Philip Yancey

The School in Delhi