The time is drawing near for our departure to India. I appreciate your prayer for Darrell and myself as we make the final preparations. I am listing our itinerary and some strategic prayer points for the trip. God has provided for us in some amazing ways but we are not fully funded as of today. We are resting in the Lord for His provision. His budget for us is not always our budget. As my pastor says, "Where God guides, God provides."
ITINERARY
2/4 Leave Phoenix
2/6 Arrive in Bangalore, India
2/6 Leave Bangalore for Vijayawada in a prop plane
2/7 Visit a ministry in Guntur
2/8 thru 2/9 Visit ministries around Vijayawada
2/10 thru 2/11 Visit ministries around Khammam
2/11 Leave Khammam for Chennai by overnight train
2/12 Visit a ministry in Chennai
2/12 Leave Chennai for Bangalore by overnight train
2/13 thru 2/18 Visit ministries around Bangalore
2/19 Leave Bangalore
2/19 Arrive in Frankfurt, Germany and visit family in Aschaffenberg
2/20 Leave Frankfurt
2/20 Arrive back home in Phoenix
PRAYER POINTS God's direction
Spiritual insight and discernment
Health
Our spouses while we are away
Travel - Planes, trains, and automobiles
Finances
The ministries we will be visiting - Rural village and city churches, orphanages, leper colonies
The people God will put in our path
Thank you all for your interest in what the Lord is doing in and through us. I covet your prayer and your encouragement has meant more to me than you could ever know. This is a grand adventure Jesus has us on. Thanks again for being a part of it.
It all started at a football game. I was sitting next to a friend
of mine, Darrell, when out of left field he said, "You and I should take a
mission trip to India."
Being a seasoned churchgoer, I mustered up my most spiritual
answer, "Yeah, sure. I'll pray about that." Of course I was really
thinking: "I don't want to go to India. I never have and I never will. I'm
just saying I'll pray about it in the hope that you’ll forget about it by the
next time I see you." But, as usual, God was several steps ahead of me in
the process. During the next 48 hours He
orchestrated a series of events that not only confirmed my call to India, but
also changed my heart toward the people and the mission field there. You can read
the full story at my blog, truckstoptheologian.blogspot.com, under the Vision
India 2012 post.
I cannot ignore the fire that God has kindled in my heart for the
people and land of India. I believe He is calling me to go and see the work He
is doing there already, and to show us how we, the community of believers in
Phoenix, can be used to further that work.
Darrell and I are going to India for the first two weeks of
February 2012. We will be visiting several ministries throughout southern
India. From city churches to rural churches in Hindu villages, orphanages, leper
homes, and school ministries. We will
even be visiting an orphanage that is raising girls who were rescued from
infanticide because the parents wanted a boy.
We desperately need and cherish your prayer support. India is
saturated with millions of false gods and idols; behind each is a demonic
spirit. Ephesians 6:12 tells us that we do not war against flesh and blood but
against "spiritual forces of wickedness." King David said in 1 Samuel
17:47, "The battle is the Lord's." We trust the Lord will protect us
as you lift us up in prayer.
Would you please commit to pray for us as we go? There are several
specific things that you can join us in praying for: 1) We have a great deal of
preparation to do before we leave in terms of logistics, packing and
communications with host ministries. 2) Please pray that we receive the funds
we need for the trip. 3) Pray for the people the Lord will put in our path while
we are there. 4) For our health and safety. And 5) Pray that the Spirit will give
us clarity as to the nature and extent of our future involvement with the
ministries we encounter.
The Lord has called us to step out in faith, so here we go. I look
forward to sharing with you how God uses us, and you, on this trip.
I have been asked to explain my interest in India, so I will try to put forth a brief summary of what God has done in my heart for this country I've never had a desire to visit. I know you have your doubts, because brevity has never been one of my strong suits, but I'll give it a shot although I make no promises about the length.
It started in October 2010. My beloved sister, Karen, was just a few weeks from finishing her battle with cancer. I was working at the church for just three months and I was feeling as if I was walking through mud. Karen was doing progressively worse and she could take a turn at any time. It was as if we were on a death watch.
Denice and I went to our great-nephew's high school football game. His uncle on his mother's side, Darrell, was at the game. Darrell had just returned from a business trip to India. We talked for a while about his business and how it was going in India. When we were concluding our conversation and I was about to go sit with Denice, Darrell said, "You and I ought to go on a mission trip to India sometime!"
"Yeah! Sure! Let's pray about that." Those were the words that came out of my mouth because it seemed like the spiritual thing to say. But what was going on inside my head was, "I ain't going to India! It is dirty! I have never had a desire to go to India and I don't plan on ever going. I'll tell him I'll pray about it and he will forget all about it by the next time we talk."
That was Friday and Saturday was a new day. Saturday evening Denice and I were at a banquet for a ministry here in the Phoenix area. While the speaker was giving his message, the Lord told me to ask a friend at the next table if he would be interested in going on the mission trip to India with us. "WHAT! I don't even want to go to India!"
"Just ask him," the Lord replied.
"Lord, he's not going to want to go! He's a contractor and he has laid off everybody but himself!"
"Just ask him," was the gentle encouragement from the Lord.
"Lord, he has young children and India is not the safest place for Christians! He is not going to want to go!"
"Just ask him."
So I asked him. He smiled real big and said, "Yeah, let's pray about it!" He had a ring of authenticity in his voice that I had lacked in mine the evening before.
Sunday afternoon I was in the atrium at the church doing a little straightening up before the evening service. The only thing going on was some guitar lessons so there were very few people around. An Indian woman, named Elizabeth, came up and introduced herself. I asked where she was from and she replied she was from India. I told her I didn't know exactly what the Lord was doing but He may be calling me to go on a mission trip to India. She told me that she and her husband would be praying for me. Her smile was radiant.
That evening, during the worship time following the teaching, I was sitting next to Pastor Randy, the man who has mentored me for the past 15 years. He had his Bible opened. Pastor Mark came and talked to him and the next thing I knew, Pastor Mark was on the platform saying that Pastor Randy had a word from the Lord for us.
Psalm 40:1-3
1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,
And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
Many will see and fear
And will trust in the Lord.
As Pastor Randy read these words my soul was stirred. A pit of distruction- Karen is about to die; Out of the miry clay- I felt as I had been walking through mud; Set my feet on a rock,put a new song in my mouth, and many will trust the Lord.
"Lord, are you telling me that if I go to India you will put my feet on a rock, put a new song in my mouth, and many will put their trust in you? That is a stretch! I'm reading a lot into that. I'm going to need more confirmation than that, Lord!" Pastor Randy came back and sat next to me. A couple of songs later he leaned over to me and said, "That was for you."
That was the confirmation I needed. God had used a series of seemingly unrelated events over a 48 hour period to change my heart towards India. I having been seeking His will from that day forward as to what He is wanting to do with me in India. I could use your prayers. I am totally relying on God to supply the financing for Darrell and I to go to India in February. We estimate we will need about $5000 each for our airfare to and from India, traveling while there, meals, lodging, and money to bless the ministries we visit. Thank you for putting up with my lack of brevity and I pray I have given you a peak into my heart and what the Lord is wanting to do with us. Again, I covet your prayer.
One of my coworkers at the church I work at told me of a man who called the other day to register a complaint. We have a large marquee sign right up against a very busy freeway. This man is a commuter and he was upset about a message he saw displayed on our sign that said "Don't text and drive." The message that follows has something to say about how it's a good way to go meet Jesus face to face.
What bothered him was what he perceived as an order from the church not to text while he is driving. He said, "What gives you the right to tell people what to do?"
My coworker said, "Well sir, the sign belongs to us and the constitution gives us the right to put any message up we choose." He went on to explain how texting while driving is as dangerous as driving while intoxicated.
The gentleman was undeterred in his protest. He finished with letting us know that he would NOT be attending our church because we had the audacity to tell people what to do with our "Don't Text And Drive" message on the marquee.
Okay, let me get this straight. This man sees the sign. Feels we are trying to tell him what to do. Calls the church and reams someone out for telling him what to do...Yep, that's what he did. He called us to tell us we shouldn't tell people what to do.
Hmmm! If I'm not mistaken, he called the church to tell us what to do, namely, "You shouldn't tell people what to do!" Do you see the same thing I see? Isn't he breaking his own rule of "It's wrong to tell people what to do?"
I don't think his problem was that he felt put upon by a sign with a message, else he would use all his cell phone minutes calling Coke, Burger King, Ford Motor Company, and every other advertiser that has a billboard on his way to and from work, telling him to buy their product. My suspicion is that he is mad at God and was ready to unload on the first church that he felt had done him wrong. We were just the one he found to vent his penned up anger towards.
My first reaction was one of sarcasm. I know, you probably find that hard to believe! Okay, that was sarcastic. But upon reflecting on it more, I find myself praying for him. He is a man who is wrestling with God, and God is winning. The Lord has his attention and he doesn't like it one bit. So I pray that the Holy Spirit would pin him to the mat, he would give up, and surrender his will to Jesus. Until then, the Lord will continue to say, "Here's your sign!"
"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12 ESV
