I wanted to give you a report on my recent trip to India. Many of you contributed financially and I know that so many of you were praying for me while I was gone. I felt those prayers every day!
My first week was in a very remote area in the Southwestern part of the country. One of the main reasons that I was going to India was to be a part of a four-day pastors and leaders event. Almost a hundred leaders came to the conference, many of them traveling for hours from the isolated areas where their churches were located. It was such an honor to serve these servants of God.
The theme of the conference was “Into All the World.” They had asked me to teach on the Acts of the Apostles. Over the four days, we worked through five of the major themes in Acts: our mission, the Holy Spirit, prayer, community, and leadership. Each participant received a certificate for completing the course.
I also preached in six different village churches and we saw a total of over fifty people come to Christ. In one church, a twenty-one year old girl asked me to pray for her after the service. She told me that she is the only Christian in her family and her parents and siblings persecute her for her faith.
She hung her head and said that her father was a drunk and he sometimes beat her when she came home from church. She told me through my translator that she had been seriously considering walking away from Christianity but that my message encouraged her to keep going. Sadly, I heard the same story repeated by two other young women in two other churches.
Thankfully, your support allowed me to be there to encourage them and so many others to stand strong in Christ. In the extreme Hinduism of rural India, following Christ is not for the faint of heart. The government has even passed laws forbidding churches to engage in outdoor evangelism and any type of overt outreach. Just a month before my trip a group of pastors attending a conference similar to the one I was a part of was attacked by a mob of men armed with sticks. Many of the pastors were injured during the attack.
The local church is still the hope for the world. Christian communities all over India are having a powerful influence in their communities. So many pastors thanked me for coming to encourage them, surprised that I had traveled so far to preach in their small churches. I was able to tell them that a lot of American Christians had made my trip possible!
My second week took me to the big city of Hyderabad. One of our C3 Churches is located there. I spent a few days with Pastors Swaroop and Aruna Victory who are building a great church there. I spoke to their team on Saturday night and preached there on Sunday. This couple has a huge vision and I look forward to working with them in the future.
These few pictures here will give you some idea of what we did in India. If you want to see more, go to my Facebook page. I uploaded three photo albums there. I’m already looking at going back next year. I will keep you in the loop as we plan for ministry trips in South America and India in 2019. As always, if you want to be a part of what God is doing, just click here. Your gifts are tax-deductible if you live in the US. Thanks so much!
