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.

Arrived in India

Thank you for your prayers for the church in Indonesia while we were there the past week. God has raised up incredible leaders that have a true vision for church planting across the entire nation of Indonesia. Steve and I were able to visit a “free Medical services” clinic offered by the hospital in a town 45 minutes outside the city. Some 500 people went through the clinic that was hosted inside the town’s government office, which is predominately Muslim. Steve was able to talk to one of the former leaders who claimed to be Muslim.

The hospital is a vital asset to the church community providing a positive influence on the community in order for churches to be established without resistance. Each person has to claim a religion and have their license id card labeled as “Christian” or “Muslim” or “Hindu” or “Catholic… If you are a Christian things don’t come easy for you. You are not allowed to have any signs for your church or proselytize. In order for a church to build a building there must be a certain number of members AND a petition has to be signed by 60 or more non-members from the community. These types of things make establishing churches difficult.

After the Medical services visit, Steve and I traveled another 20 minutes to a local church plant that is the 3rd church plant by the senior Pastor in his area. They meet in a house and are planning to build a church building next to the house property but they are waiting to build until they have enough funds. They have the foundation laid on a plot of about 1080 square feet which will be used for a church that will seat approx. 80 people and a parsonage for the pastor to live. Completion of the project is on hold for funds that would equal what you and I would pay to buy a used car.

Becky and Jodie ran a teacher’s education conference from Monday through Saturday totaling approximately 50 hours of training for the teachers of the Christian schools that are run by the churches in Sumatra. It was a huge success and Becky and Jodie were loved by all the teachers. These Christian schools are an amazing tool for ministry and evangelism in the local communities here. One school in North Sumatra has 1000 students for just an elementary drawing many non-Christians in attendance. Most all these schools have been started in the last five years so they do not have the established grades past junior high but that is where they are headed in the future. I was able to talk to the pastor of this church during the Mission’s Conference and he was expressing to me his desire to see an American teacher come and teach English for a semester and teach from God’s Word. This is what Steve’s ministry is all about – Partnering with the local ministry to provide ministry help in any way we can. We are praying for these kinds of opportunities and praying for those who will answer the call and be willing to come from America to teach for a semester here – possibly a college student, or recent graduate.

God has taught me many things about the ministry here in Indonesia and it has been a true blessing to be a part of the Mission’s Conference for Team Sumatra. I was surrounded by 50 incredible pastors that have a great heart for evangelism and church planting. While they gave me the opportunity to speak with them about a couple of things such as God’s plan for the church to reach all the nations to bring citizens into the Kingdom of God and from John 17 about the importance of prayer in evangelism – I most certainly had many more things I learned from them and their experiences. I also had the opportunity to preach both Sundays we were in Indonesia and I pray that God’s word was a blessing to the congregations. As we leave Indonesia pray for the ministry there that God would bring many more people to faith.

We are now on our way to Charachandpur, India where we will be for the next five weeks – pray for us and also as we are here, pray for the church in India and specifically for the region we will be ministering in. The region surrounding Churachandpur has 65 Baptist churches in the New Testament Baptist Churches association, with a seminary, Christian school, and an orphanage. This area is rural and “in the hills” with limited resources, but we know that God does mighty things from the lesser of things among us.

Suitcases and Strikes and Roadblocks……OH MY

We left Delhi this morning with our 14 suitcases, 11 carry-ons, and 1 red pan. We have added one more member to our team which means 2 more suitcases! It has been quite an experience traveling with so much. We have had some trouble with some of the airlines because of the amount of suitcases. We try to explain to them that most of the luggage are supplies for kids in an orphanage we are visiting, but I don’t think that really matters to them. However, one of the pastor’s brother in law works at the Delhi airport and helped us get through a lot of our luggage without having to pay for a whole lot of extra weight!
The five tired travelers landed in Imphal excited to get to the orphanage and settle in for the next five weeks. However, upon landing and meeting the local pastor in Imphal we learned that the people who were supposed to pick us up and take us to Churachandpur couldn’t get through because of a strike. Locals who are upset with the government are on strike and block the roads so no one can pass. This also meant that instead of getting out of Imphal and onto Churachandpur we had to get a hotel in Imphal and hope that the strike ends tomorrow so we can get to our final destination.
So….the five of us with our many suitcases rode around Imphal in 3 separate cars with the people from the church here trying to find a place to stay! We are in our hotel rooms now waiting out the strike  Thank the Lord for fellow believers from Imphal who so willingly helped us.
We had a nice relaxing time in Delhi. We ate at KFC, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut! We also had traditional Indian food in the YMCA where we stayed. Josh and I had a wonderful cockroach friend that joined us in our room at the YMCA  I woke up one night to Josh on the floor with my shoe reaching under a cabinet trying to kill the pest. He claims he got it; however, I saw one in the bathroom the morning we left. Not sure if it was the same one or a different one 
We were able to do some shopping in Delhi. Everywhere we went people were following us trying to give us directions, asking us for something, or trying to get us to buy something. I think by the 3rd day they were used to us walking around and didn’t come up to us as much.
Wednesday night in Delhi we went to a church and were able to minister to the people there through drama, singing, and testimonies. There was a boy at that church who was in the orphanage in Churachandpur 3 years ago when I was there. He was a part of the group that I taught puppets and drama! He is now in Delhi going to school and studying botany. It was neat to be able to see one of the kids I had taught 3 years ago.

Fried Bananas, Fish heads, Chicken feet…..YUMMY!!

Yes it is true we have been served these delicacies! The fried bananas are really not that out of the ordinary and they taste great. The other 2….not so much. I’m not really all about eating something while it’s still looking at me (fish). Okay so that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s not too far off…I mean we were served the whole fish….Josh ate it with great gusto (as he eats all food), holding it up for me to see and waving around the bones of the fish (all still in one piece) when he was finished. The heads of the fish were lying on his plate looking as if they were missing a part of them.
Chicken feet were in a soup served to us for lunch at the teacher training. I chose not to take that part of the soup! The food has really not been bad just a few surprises here and there. They always warn us if something is going to be hot (spicy) so we don’t take too much of it 
The teacher training is going well. The teachers are responding well to all that my mother is presenting them. She is doing a lot of group work and various activities that they are not used to; however, you wouldn’t be able to tell from watching them. They have participated with great enthusiasm and thoughtfulness. They also seem to enjoy the math activities that I am showing them. They are used to solving math problems the way the teacher shows them and in some schools if a student gets the right answer but gets it a different way the teacher tells them they are wrong. In my workshops I am explaining to them that it is important to let students share how they got an answer and encourage them to explore different ways as it helps to build great problem solvers and higher level thinking. I am also trying to show them that math can be exciting!!! The first day I asked who liked math and none of the 24 teachers raised their hands. Hopefully that is changing as the week goes on.
Josh has had an opportunity to speak to pastors about church growth in the seminar that my dad is doing and it went well (he will have to write more about that later).
We are all still getting adjusted to the different time zone. I wake up in the middle of the night and stay awake for about 2 hours before I can fall back asleep. Josh has been getting up around 4 am and working on stuff for his classes before our actual day begins. We are 11 hours ahead of EST and 12 hours ahead of CST.
We have been spoiled here in Indonesia. Although it is extremely hot and humid outside we are able to sleep in an air conditioned room!!!!!! Thanks for all your prayers. Things have gone very well as far as ministering to the people, please pray that will continue and we will remain in good health.

Sunday in Indonesia

Josh preached this morning at a 6:00am church service and Steve preached at a different church at 9:00am. Thank you for your prayers. We were unable to take the hospital tour yesterday so we took the tour today and learned the history of Baptist missions in Indonesia. What an incredible ministry!!
The highlights:
Southern Baptist missionaries started ministry in Indonesia 60 years ago.
There are now 500 Baptist churches throughout the Indonesian islands.
There are 4 seminaries and 3 hospitals.
We are staying on the island of Sumatra which is Indonesia's poorest island.
It has 140 churches and 1 hospital.
The average size of the church is 50-100, the largest church is 300.
The churches are altogether under one denomination called the Union Baptist Church denomination.
They are now fully independent of American Missions.
Even the hospital that was started by a Southern Baptist missionary in the 80's is now completely run by the Indonesian nationals.
It is a self-supporting hospital that generates income and financial support to all the area churches as well as the Christian schools that the Baptist churches have started.

What amazing things God is doing in this country! It is a privilege to work alongside these people for God's kingdom. And there are still many needs! Our ministry here is establishing a network of partners with American churches to provide help in any way we can. Our main mission is not to break-ground but to provide support.

Indonesia is the fifth most populated country in the world and still 90% Muslim.
- The Churches have a great desire to grow and start new churches (as you can see there are over 500), but they want to do much more! (Steve and Josh will be involved with the Sumatra Missions Conference starting on Tuesday through Friday)
- The teachers at the Seminary lack extensive theology knowledge and the churches could use better theology training.
- The one Christian school in this area next to the hospital started 4 years ago and has 400 students in grades K-3. Becky and Jodie will be working with these teachers for the next 5 days doing education training. The teachers here are eager to learn.

Please pray this week for God's work in Indonesia.

spell check

Bandar Lampung - I still had it wrong last post :)

Indonesia for the next 10 days

After a day and a half in London, we traveled for the next 36 hours on three plane trips through Singapore and Jakarta on our way to Bandar Lampur (I spelled it right this time). In those 36 hours, Steve, Josh and Jodie only slept for about 3 hours and thankfully Becky was able to sleep much longer, but we were all exhausted. We only had one hiccup at the airport in Jakarta. Our luggage did not arrive with our flight because the layover in Singapore was 1 hour and the bags were not able to get to the next plane fast enough. However, they were on the next plane to Singapore and we got them before we left Jakarta to fly to Bandar Lampur. We also had a little trouble getting our boarding passes at the Jakarta airport because of the language barrier but it all worked out and we are here. Last night we got caught up on some much needed rest. Currently we are 12 hours ahead of you all in the states. It is Saturday morning and Becky and Jodie are printing their education workshops notes for the education conference that starts on Monday (Jodie will be teaching every day). And Josh and Steve will be preaching this Sunday at two different churches. In a couple hours we will all head over the Christian hospital for a tour (we are staying at the house of the director of the hospital). Please pray for education conference this next week. And the guys who will be preaching that we will effectively work with translators and the God’s Word will be an encouragement to the churches here.

In the Airport

We are sitting in the airport waiting for our plane to board! It has been an amazing week of getting things ready. We arrived at Dulles with 12 bags to check :) and all of my class notes ready :) Thank you for all your prayers, for I know the Lord provided us with God-speed in finalizing all of our preparations. Please pray as we travel through the airports along the way that we keep our luggage intact. The extra luggage is for supplies and gifts for our partners in India. The next few days we will find ourselves in London, Jakarta, and Barlombam(I spelled that wrong)before we end up in Indonesia for a week and a half. Josh will be doing is final class prep while attending an Indonesian Mission's Conference. At this conference Jodie and her mom will be leading education seminars. We are excited and our plane is boarding :)

Preparation Continues

Josh and I left Texas on Friday and drove to Indianapolis where we were able to spend the evening with my sister and her family. We then continued on to PA and stopped in Ohio along the way to see Josh's family. (Yes this was longer then driving straight to PA); however, it enabled us to see other members of our family and as we all know...traveling more hours not so much fun, but time spent with family "priceless". We arrived at my parents house on Saturday night and quickly began preparing for Sunday morning worship which my parents and I were leading!

Josh has spent the past couple of days working diligently on finishing up his notes for the classes he will be teaching. I have also worked on what I will be doing in the math workshops. I was also able to drive to New Jersey on Tuesday to see some friends and pick up some more supplies for our trip. It was great to be able to see some friends I have not visited with for a while.

Thursday we are headed to Maryland to spend some time with my brother and his family and then Monday the 2oth in the evening we leave the country.

Praises - We have had safe travels!!!
My mother has been working on getting a science kit to take over which has many hands on activities and will really help to increase their science instruction. She just found out yesterday that the company is going to give her this rather expensive kit for free!!!

Please continue praying as we have more to get ready i.e.finishing packing suitcases...which is quite a challenge with the weight limit and all the supplies we are taking over! although we just found out we are allowed 3 suitcases per person! This means 12 suitcases for us. We can take more supplies that we originally thought would be left behind. Also pray as we continue to prepare for what we will be teaching and make copies of the materials we will need. And then of course as we leave please pray for safe travels and sane travelers :)

Thanks for all your prayers already! Things are really coming together great and we are so excited for the opportunity that awaits us :)

Prayer Requests

Prayer requests for the two of us:

1. Preparation of what we will be teaching/presenting
2. Getting our house ready and things in order for the long time away
3. Health while over there
4. God’s direction in our future
5. Unity among the team

Prayer requests for Josh related to his internship:

1. Deeper dedication to prayer and dependence on God
2. Develop an understanding of Asian Baptist Bible College and how it works with local churches to raise up leaders
3. Develop my skills in teaching conceptually (especially in a different culture)
4. Develop an understanding of the Manipur people and their culture for effective communication

Getting Ready!!!

The past few months have flown by and we are excited at what God has been doing.  We praise him that we are at 100% support for our trip.  God has provided more than we could have imagined in such a short amount of time and for that we are so grateful!  Thank you so much for your support both prayerfully and financially.

We are leaving June 20 and will be flying into Indonesia.  We will be there two weeks at a mission’s conference.  Around July 3 or 4 we will be heading to India and will stay there for six weeks.  While in India, Josh will be teaching two Bible classes, one on the book of Isaiah and the other class will be on the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament.  Jodie will be training math teachers with different strategies to teach math conceptually.  She will also be teaching some children in the orphanage new dramas and help another team member refresh the kid's puppet skills!

Thank you for all your support.  It is so encouraging to know we have people praying for us as we seek to do God’s will in our life.