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.