out of india

Wasn't that a book by Rudyard Kipling? Anyway, our team is out of India and back at home. I apologize to those of you that I told to check here for daily updates while we were gone. The guest house in which we were staying did have Internet access, but it was only available from 9am to 5pm - the same times that we were going door-to-door in the neighborhoods. So I'll take time now to highlight some of what God did on this campaign.

First of all, thanks SO MUCH to those of you who were praying for all facets of the campaign. We witnessed things that could only have come about through the prayers of the saints. Just knowing that there were several hundred people back in the U.S. praying for us, the national believers, and the lost people of India was an incredible thought and encouragement.

Where to begin. Getting to India. Needless to say, it takes a while to get there. In order to meet the group in Atlanta, I left out of Charlotte on Friday, Nov. 23, at around 9AM. After hooking up in Atlanta, we flew to NY and then across the Atlantic to Mumbai (formerly Bombay). After a long layover there, we flew to Cochin, Kerala and took a 2-hour bus ride to our guest house. When we finally arrived at the guest house, it was mid-morning on Sunday. We were able to rest for a couple of hours before we joined the host church for a time of worship in the afternoon.

About India. Two things stand out - it is a beautiful country, and there are a lot of people. The state of Kerala has a tropical look to it with lots of coconut trees (Kerala means "land of coconuts"). It's not uncommon to see an elephant being led down the road by its owner since they are commonly used to move heavy loads. The standard of living is obviously below ours, but we didn't encounter abject poverty as in other parts of the country. But there are a lot of people. India is about 1/3 the size of the U.S., but has as many people as the continents of North America, South America, and Africa combined. Chew on that statistic for minute - it's really mind-boggling. Over 80% of those people are Hindu, and nearly 12% are Muslim. So technically, it's not a godless land, but it is a very God-less land. The biggest thing that I'll take away from this trip about the Indian people is their hospitality. It's as much like biblical hospitality as anything I've ever seen. When you visit their house, they invite you in, pull up every chair in the house for you, and bring out food and drink for you, even if they don't have much themselves. It was very humbling to be the recipient of such selflessness.

Regarding the ministry, beginning on Monday we were divided into teams and went to our respective neighborhoods. I was on a team with Martin (my brother-in-law), Bijo (our translator), James (another translator and seminary professor in northern Kerala), and Manoj (an Indian national). Our goal was to do door-to-door evangelism Monday through Wednesday and then follow-up with those individuals on Thursday, encouraging them to come to a cell group meeting in their neighborhood Thursday afternoon. By God's grace and the Holy Spirit's guidance, we were able to lead nearly 40 people to faith in Christ during the week! While every conversion is notable and significant, the one that stands out is the chance we had to lead a 104 year-old woman to faith in Christ! What a picture of God's grace! Overall, our campaign team saw over 160 people "born again" into the Kingdom of God! The four exclamation marks in this paragraph really do not do justice in attempting to convey just how incredibly God worked this past week.

But even more significant than these individual professions of faith (if there can be anything more significant than a person being rescued from death and brought into newness of life) is the foundation that was laid for the future of evangelism in India. Since this was e3's first campaign to this part of India, the hope was that by the end of the week we would have helped plant at least one church. But as Eph. 3:20 tells us, God is "able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us." By week's end, we witnessed 5 different cell meetings in 5 different neighborhoods! Each of those cell groups is a baby church full of fledgling believers that through the nurturance of the local mother church will hopefully develop into a multiplying church full of mature believers. Additionally, we were able to train many national believers in evangelism and discipleship by modeling the process throughout the week. Through this training process, the work of making disciples in India will continue, long after our team has gone.

With our team is back in the U.S., the new believers in Kerala are in very capable hands. Pastor Dani Abraham, e3's national director for India, has assembled an awesome team of pastors and lay people who have a heart for evangelizing, discipling, and shepherding the people of India. The mother church, Worship Church, led by Pastor Sabu, is full of individuals who have committed themselves to seeing these baby churches grow to maturity. Our team was just one small tool to help reach India with the gospel. The bulk of the work will be done by these Indian nationals, so please be in prayer for them.

As you pray for India, please pray for the following: (1) these new believers and new churches, that they would persevere and be a light in their communities; (2) Worship Church and the national believers who will be discipling the new believers; (3) Pastor Dani as he works to accomplish the vision God has given him for the evangelization of his country; (4)
for our American team, that they would take what God showed them through their involvement in this campaign and be even more motivated to make God's name famous in the States; and (5) for how you might be involved in what God is doing in India - by praying, supporting Pastor Dani, or going with me on a future campaign. God moved in a mighty way on this campaign, but there are so many more people that need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.