Impressions of India

One of the wild things about an overseas experience is the sensory onslaught that you experience. Visually my brain started hurting as I tried to adjust to the sea of people that live in India. Geographically India is about a third the size of the US but has over a billion people living there (more than 3 times the population of America). Driving through the streets was truly an act in learning to trust God in a whole new level. Not only do they drive on the left side of the road but they basically drive on all sides of the road. After awhile you just get used to the fact that you nearly die in a head on collision with a truck, richshaw or cow every 18-20 seconds. How about the wonderful smells we experienced. Imagine the beautiful combination of diesel fuel, cow dung, and raw sewage mixed all together into one captivating aroma. That gives you a little picture of how the cities smelled. How about trash and bathrooms. Well anywhere on Indian soil is yours for the taking in these two areas. I also learned that there's nothing you can't do with bamboo. The sky is the limit. Build a house, make kids toys, make an 8 story scaffolding for a building, no problem. Amazing how resourceful they are. Entering into the world of Hinduism was quite interesting. I'm very used to a world view of One Creator God. But over there it is a plurality of gods and godesses. Almost every house we went in had posters of the different gods and goddesses up on their walls. Yet, God is visiting these people in a powerful way and revealing to them that these gods are man-made and do not have eyes to see, or ears to hear. It brought a whole new light to passages in the Bible like Psalm 115.

India Lesson 2: The gospel is powerful

One of my most memorable encounters was with this group of guys to the right. We began sharing with them in one of the bamboo huts we were in and discovered that they were part of some kind of gang. They listened intently to our presentation of the gospel and near the end I shared with them this verse, "If we confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead you shall be saved." Romans 10:9
Right after I shared this verse, the young man pictured to the right began explaining that he had been hostile towards other Christians in the village. He really wanted to believe in Jesus in his heart but felt he was unable to confess Jesus with his mouth. The Lord brought the story of Paul’s conversion to mind and so I began to share that with him. I explained that Paul was a man that persecuted and attacked Christians and that Jesus completely changed his life and he became the most effective and influential apostles the church has ever known. Through the course of talking this through with him, God changed his heart and this whole group of guys prayed right there in the hut to trust Christ as their Lord and Savior. So I can’t wait to see what God might do with these guys and their testimonies!

India Lesson 1: Indian has some serious Christian Soldiers

In seminary I learned about the process that missionaries go through. Basically on their first trip they go with the attitude that they will teach the natives, after a while they see them as equals, and then after awhile still they eventually humbly learn from them. From the outset I was blown away by these men of God who we had the privilege of ministering side by side with. My translator for 4 of my 5 ministry days was Abijeet Pegu. He is 28 years old and is a full time evangelist and associate pastor. He was truly my guide for the week as I had no idea how to speak the language, how the culture worked, etc. As we would share the gospel with people I would say my couple of sentences and then he would begin passionately pouring out his heart and sharing with the people sometimes for 5 or 10 minutes. At first I felt a little frustrated because I didn’t feel like I was doing a whole lot but God really humbled me and taught me a lot about teamwork through this process. Sometimes my main job was to simply give us an open door to conversation with people, sometimes God would give me a word to share, and sometimes I just needed to pray as Abjeet was ministering to people. It was a great reminder that whatever we accomplish in ministry, it’s not about us getting credit, but it’s about the end result of what God does and that the glory all goes to Him! The last day I had the privilege of working with Meren as Abjeet got sick (from eating too many hard boiled eggs!). We had a great time hanging out and even discovered we both have a love for singing and so we are looking into starting our own music group called "American Indian." All of our Indian Christian brothers were truly a blessing to get to know. From Lipok, the director, whom God has used to help provide leadership for the planting of 70+ churches in the last 3 months, to Babala who’s parents were both martyred, to Akon who just smiles and laughs when you talk about Jesus. These men are truly soldiers in God’s army!