A Final Word

Well, it’s been two weeks since we have left India and Jodie and I are getting back into our routines here in Dallas. I have started working again and will begin classes again next week. Jodie has been busy at school since the first day she got back and her first day of school was Monday the 22nd. It’s shaping out to be another busy semester so before I get too far down the road from my time in India I need to say a few last words regarding the trip: kind of like a summary of the experience and an overall picture of what the ministry is like in India.

To put it simply for me, the internship experience was absolutely amazing. It was everything I could have ever asked for in an internship. I was able to travel with missionaries, spend many hours with native pastors and ministry leaders get real hands on experience with preaching and teaching and get first hand experiences of what ministry is like abroad. I preached 10 times and spent over 50 hours teaching in the Bible college. As I look back to last year when we began the plans for this internship it was like I was dreaming beyond what could actually happen, but God brought all the plans together and provided a way for this internship to happen. Then there were times in the months leading up to our departure that I was anxious about preparing my curriculum for the classes. I was to teach five books in a span of four weeks (Isaiah, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon). What do I cover? I can’t teach every verse… what’s the most important? How do I teach ESL students biblical concepts? And so on and so on… But God worked in spite of my lack of faith and led me to prepare 101 pages of class notes which by God’s grace I was able to complete before we arrived in India.

Along the way I have shared with you in the blog some of the experiences I had with teaching, but I could sum it all up with you by sharing about one of the last conversations I had with one of my students. The night before we left to come back to the States, some of the students came over to the guest house where we stayed to say their good byes. I wanted to make sure I got to say good bye to all of them so I walked back to the student dorm that night to spend one last evening with my students and say a word of prayer for them as I left them. While we were walking back one of my students started to thank me for coming and teaching them and he started to say that I had been good teacher to them… and at that point I started to feel this sense of pride and accomplishment like I was some kind of master teacher and was able to communicate biblical concepts with efficiency and so I thought he was going to say something about my incredible teaching but he didn’t, in fact he didn’t say anything about my teaching, he said… because you have become our friend, and you have shared with us and played volleyball with us and talked with us and prayed with us. Did you catch that? In the end it didn’t matter to him how smart I was or how smart he became because of my teaching, what mattered to him was that I was his friend (thanks S.L. Kuki). That hit me like a ton of bricks and as I look back on this internship experience that little conversation will probably be what I remember the most.
One of the things that Steve and Becky were teaching me before and during the internship was that my students won’t care about your teaching until they have a relationship with you. And so it was important to me that I became friends with my students from the beginning. It’s not like I ignored my students and didn’t care about them, one of my goals from the beginning of the internship was establishing relationships with my students. However, throughout my teaching many times I was so focused on what I was teaching that I prided myself on my efforts that I gave in preparing my lessons and teaching in the classroom, when in fact it was the things that I was doing outside of the classroom that God was using to make the greatest impact in these students lives. There are many more things like this that I learned during my internship experience and all the praise goes to the Father.

I wanted to add just a few words about N.T.C.B.A; New Testament Churches Baptist Association. This organization is an outgrowth of the ministry of some Baptist Mid-Mission’s missionaries who were in Asam, India some 60 years ago. Asam is a neighboring state to Manipur, which is where we were in India. These missionaries traveled to Manipur and gathered potential Christian leaders, whom they brought back to Asam where they would train them in the ministry. From this training came NTCBA which to this day has grown to over 60 churches in Manipur, a college with 40 students, and a Christian school with over 400 students. Because of the difficulty of sharing the gospel in Asam it turns out that the growth of NTCBA in Manipur by the native Christian leaders has become the most fruitful of the ministry efforts of the BMM missionaries 60 years ago. One can only worship God and the power of the Holy Spirit for what He can do in the lives of people!!! Sometimes you don’t know what the Holy Spirit is up to, but be assured that he is up to something! For he works in his way and in his time and through our weak and feeble efforts he works mighty things. Praise Him! - on a side note, one of the members of our ministry team, Kay Lamb was a part of Baptist Mid-Missions and had plans to join that team in Asam 60 years ago. However, her visa was denied and God directed her to Chad, Africa. Now after all these years God brought Kay Lamb back to India as a part of our team where she could be witness to the mighty things that the Lord has done. Kay even got to meet some of the Christian leaders that were trained in Asam under the BMM missionaries. Remarkable!!!

At this point I want to end by saying some words of thanks. Thank you Steve and Becky for your wonderful leadership this summer in organizing a 10 member ministry team to come to India from multiple locations in the States. Not just organizing, but leading and giving direction along the way, thank you! Also, many thanks to Asian Baptist Bible College and the staff, Academic Dean: T.K. Lal, professor Mang, professor Moi, professor Daniel, professor Lun Min, and of course H.C. Steven – thank you for allowing me to come teach! It was truly an honor to teach in your school and be a part of your ministry. AND thanks to my wife for your endless encouragement to me and uplifting support, I know that God will lead us to farther places still together than we could ever go alone.

Completed Work

Thank you all for your prayers and support for the ministry in India. I praise Him and thank Him for all the work that he has allowed Jodie and I to be a part of here in Charachandpur. By his grace I have completed teaching on Isaiah, and the five Poetic books (Wisdom Literature) of the Old Testament. Yesterday we celebrated with a feast that Steve and I provided with ‘hamburgers’ and soda from a local restaurant. This was a big treat for them as the students do not normally have lunch and some of them have never eaten “hamburgers” before. So we all enjoyed a good meal and fellowship. Throughout the weeks that I have been here, the students and I have often played volleyball after classes, but today after our food and fellowship they had arranged a volleyball match against another college. So we got in some taxis (more like little buggies) and made our way across town. Just as we arrived, the storm clouds rolled in and by the time we started playing it started sprinkling then raining and soon it was a down pour. These guys kept right on playing as if it was a bright sunny day. The outdoor court quickly became a mud puddle (no grass) – and for the next hour or so we enjoyed some good mud volleyball. I think they enjoyed having a tall guy on their team. Of course our team won all six games!

As we wrap up our ministry efforts here in India and prepare for our long trek home we are praying that God will give us rest and replenish our energies because the summer is almost over and the fall is quickly approaching. By the time we get back to Texas, Jodie will have less than a week to prepare for teaching and Josh will have about two weeks to get up to speed on his Greek and Hebrew for his upcoming fall classes.

Look for a summary report of all the ministries here in India that we were a part of in the next coming days.

Last Week

After 4 four weeks in India, it seems it was such a long time ago that we were in Indonesia where we started our trip. Now we are down to one week left. There is a part of me that is looking forward to going home but at the same time I am committed to finish the work I have left to do.

This last Wednesday I had an interesting experience while I was preaching during the Wednesday night prayer meeting. About halfway through my message I got very dizzy, light headed and my stomach was about to exit its contents out my mouth. I had to stop preaching walk over to one of the first pews to sit down. As I was walking to sit down I almost lost my vision as I was on the verge of blacking out. After I sat down I was able to compose myself and calm my body down. The congregation sang a few hymns and then I stood back up and gave a “conclusion” to my message before I left to walk back to the guest house to lie down and rest. So what happened? Well, I was dehydrated and while I was preaching in the heat and sweating (no A/C in this part of India) my body was shutting down because I did not have enough water and electrolytes. I went right to sleep for the night and woke up the next morning with the same dizziness. So I had to take a day of rest from teaching and replenish my system with water. I ended up drinking 4 liters of water by lunch time, but it wasn’t until dinner time did I feel back to my normal self. This was an interesting experience for me because I had never dehydrated myself before even with all the training I’ve done for my sports activities. Anyway, I’m all better now and I was back to teaching today.

Five members of our ministry team left today to head back to America so we are back to just Steve and Becky and me and Jodie. It was sad to see them leave but even sadder for the people here that they ministered too so faithfully. The Christian school had an assembly yesterday morning where they sang songs and gave gifts to us. It was a special time and a great pleasure to see the joy and happiness in all their faces. They wanted us to make sure and give Thanks to all of you who have supported us and prayed for us in our ministry because your giving has impacted their lives through us.

Prayer Requests for this last week include:

Continued strength to finish the work we have committed to do in the final week.
Josh will be preaching twice again this Sunday.
Jodie is working with 3 different teams teaching them The Redeemer skit, pray that we can teach the complete skit before we leave (we are also working to get full length video and music to pass on to them so they can teach themselves – the college kids are very eager to learn so they can use these in their ministries)

Mosquitoes in our net

The rest of the group (4 people) came about a week ago so Josh and I moved from the house where we were staying into the orphanage. We are in a room on the 2nd floor right by the boys rooms. So now every morning instead of pouring warm water over our heads we poor freezing cold water over our heads!!!!!!!!!!!!! It sure wakes us up!!!
We have been working at the school each day teaching with the teachers and helping them plan lessons for the next day. I have been working mainly in the second grade which has been somewhat of a stretch for me. Most of the teachers are very interested in having us teach or work with them on different ideas of how to teach a certain topic. They are open to new ideas and wanting to learn which is an encouragement.
Josh and I have been teaching some of grade 10 a drama. So for the past few days after school they have been staying after and working with us. A few evenings back we (the whole team) were asked to go to a service that the college students were having for the freshman (freshers). Once we got there they wanted us all to speak! Oh my! So we all had to think on the spot and share something. Thankfully the Lord brought something to my mind to share.
Everyone has been fairly healthy the past week. I am constantly itching. It seems any type of bug or bacteria is attracted to my skin! Fun times :) Josh and I have not had anything unusual living inside of us though which is a praise! Let’s hope it remains that way! Josh and I are sleeping on two beds that have been put together and our “mosquito net” is more like a tent on top of the bed. It looks like a dome shaped tent just without the stakes. I think it’s really cool because we don’t have to tuck in a net we just unzip the tent . Anyway….the other night Josh wakes up in the middle of the night (without me knowing) and gets a blanket from outside of our tent and brings it inside. Well, at some point during the night I wake up and hear whining/buzzing around my head. When we woke up the next morning there was about 4 mosquitoes in our tent. They had come in with the blanket! And guess who got bit…..that’s right me. Josh didn’t have one bite on him. I told him that if I got malaria it was because of him. Haha.
Most of the group that is here now leaves this Friday. My parents and Josh and I will remain for another two weeks. Pray that we finish strong. We are both getting very tired and are missing home.

A busy week, just two weeks left

Well, it has been a busy week and I have not been able to post for the past several days. This is a quick update on how things are going. The rest of our team has joined us this week. Another Pastor Steve from Indiana will be teaching a module class on Biblical Counseling and his wife will be working with the teachers at the school. Former missionary Kay Lamb will be doing Bible Studies with the ladies and Sue from New Jersey will be organizing the new library for the school. This trip we brought over 300 books that will be added to the library for the students at the school. The few books these students come into contact with are mostly the textbooks for class. So the library that has started here at the school brings many new books for the students to read.

I finished teaching the book of Isaiah and gave a test and I’m happy to say that all my students passed. In fact there were three 100% and everybody did better than 80%. Today I started teaching the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament and will continue for the next two weeks.

Yesterday I was able to spend some time with three of my students. They were asking me about life in America and I got to know more about them and their background and how they came to study at the Bible College. There are a few challenges to communicating with the students in the class room. One being the language barrier but along with that is the student’s respect of the teacher and not wanting to question the teacher. Also, they can be intimidated by an American and be afraid to use their English in front of you or in general just be nervous to speak up and ask a question. (The president of the College, H.C. Steven also told me that the Indian people will sometimes feel inferior to the white man because of the former British Empire colonies in India). So one of my goals is to establish relationships with my students so they can get to know me a little better and I can get to know them and they can be more comfortable in the classroom.

Thank you for all your prayers.

Clothes, Bugs, and Bumps

It has been raining a little each day here as it is their rainy season. The rain is a great thing as it cools everything down! However, rain does not help our clothes washing experience. We wash our clothes in a bucket and then rinse them off in another bucket and hang them out to dry. It’s a lot more work to wash clothes then what we are used to but it’s actually kind of fun. In fact, I’m thinking of getting rid of our washer and dryer when we get home! J/K.
We have seen a variety of bugs while here. This really big beetle thing flies into our living room area almost every night. The kids at the home here just pick it up and throw it outside. We are all afraid to get near it…lol. Last night I was getting ready to get into my suitcase and I saw a critter run behind it into hiding. I jumped back hoping it was not the mice that we were told were in the place we were staying. The past few nights a little Gecko has been watching my nightly rituals of getting ready for bed. Probably waiting for me to leave so it can move again. The good thing is that we sleep under a mosquito net so they can’t get us while sleeping. Although this morning I woke up and there were about 5 flying things in my mosquito net. Not sure how they got there!
I developed some big bumps on my arms and some on my legs that itch. We have been told that there is a worm here that comes out and if you touch anything it touches you can develop these bumps that itch. However, some think that I may have a food allergy. The bumps are starting to get better which is good; however, I do not know what caused them!
Things are really going quite well here even though living here is much different than the states! All but one day has been pretty cool. There is usually a nice breeze which is great! This past week was the first week of school for the students here in Churachandpur. Many teachers were absent so Barb, my mom, and I filled in as substitute teachers all week. Between the three of us we had math, geography, writing, and reading covered. We also led the devotion time on Tuesday and Friday. We sang songs and Barb taught a lesson to the students from the Bible. The past three nights, my dad, Josh, and Barb have given a message during the boy’s orphanage devotional time. Tomorrow Josh is preaching 2 times and tonight we are doing a drama for the youth group here. Please continue to pray for health and strength. We are going to bed around 10 every night and get up around 4:30 or 5:00 each morning. Because everything is open (i.e. windows) we basically wake up with the sun.
Josh and I have had it made while here. We’ve not been staying with the rest of the group. We have been staying at the pastor’s house so we have some luxuries that the others have not had. For example, we have a fan at night…..of course it’s only on when the electricity is on which is very touch and go…but still….it’s better than not having it at all! We’ve also had hot water for bathing. The houseworker puts two canisters of hot water in our bathroom that we mix with cold water in a bucket to bathe with! The others are bathing with cold water….sshhhh don’t tell them.

First week in Churachandpur

I will be preaching each Sunday that we are here for the next five weeks and sometimes twice on Sunday for a total of about 7 sermons. I am really appreciating the opportunity to preach and I pray that the Lord will encourage his people from His Word.

I am continually amazed at the students I am teaching. Our class room is without electricity so the only light we have is the light that comes through the windows. And they will sit and learn from 9:00am to 3:00pm with a 15 min break every 2 hours without any lunch. They get two meals a day breakfast and dinner.

There are other difficulties we work through mainly with the language barrier. All the Bible college classes are in English, and it is a requirement for admission to speak English. However, their English comprehension ability is junior high level. The first two days of my teaching, the students struggled with my lectures. I have had to continually rethink my teaching methods and get more creative. Each night I conference with Jodie and her Mom for help on my teaching techniques and helping the students get the most out of my lectures. Today was much better and I’m hoping for continued improvement. I greatly appreciate your prayers.

Please pray for the church in Manipur, India. The community in Churachandpur has an Orphanage and a growing Christian school along with multiple churches in the city and new church plants in the hills. Please pray that God will continually work in and among these nations to reach the rest of the Indian people. Just a few kilometers south of Churachandpur there are no more churches and the region is predominately Hindu. In my class I have students from Hindu families and students from the neighboring country of Nepal. I am praying that some of my students will be missionaries to these areas and start churches in areas where there are no churches.