3 Dozen

This is approximately the number of bananas I eat per week. Yes, that is a lot of bananas. However, they are super cheap and super delicious and super good for helping digest food. So in spite of all the spicey food, I'm feeling pretty good. I could make a new detox program. You just eat Indian food and lots of bananas. It works great! I think the only thing I eat more of than bananas is rice. It's kind of like creol, it goes great with everything...especially curry. Let's try to just list a few: fried potato curry, veggie curry, shrimp curry, goat meat curry, chicken curry, fish curry, carrot curry, beet curry, and yogurt. And that's just this week. So yeah, rice is good with everything, and it's better when you eat it with your hand.

Thursday night we had all night prayer with the fifteen or so pastors from the village church plants. This was also a great time. It was a blessing to pray with them and their wives and some of the believers from the church here. We then had a “pastor's meeting” Friday morning. I thought there would be more discussion, but it was pretty much just like church: Singing and praying and getting into God's Word. It was fun to meet all the pastors anyway. Pastor Daniel also gave me some time to teach Thursday night. I hope it was an encouragement to them.

The spiritual battle here is raging. Sunday morning, I had a good alarm clock that woke me up at 5 something. It kept going and I couldn't find the snooze button. Well, the Hindu temple next door doesn't have a snooze button. They do have another set of speakers though. Yes, they got two more loudspeakers and placed them on a telephone pole right next to the church with them facing toward us (as if they weren't close enough already). Pastor Daniel went over to talk to them about it, but it didn't seem to accomplish much. They kept the speakers going all the way through the church service into the afternoon. The purpose of the new speakers is mostly to disrupt us. Please pray that God would give us wisdom with how to deal with this situation. More so, pray that these people would get saved. The biggest thing is not that these speakers are loud and obnoxious, but that these poor people have yet to meet their Savior. They need Jesus!

On a different note, Pastor Daniel's family asked me at lunch on Sunday how I lost all the hair on my forehead. Haha! Oh yeah, good ole receding hair lines. Thanks for those genes Granpa! I told them it's because I'm getting old. They laughed but said that in India it's considered favorable to have no hair...so I guess I'm well on my way. I probably should have just told them that receding hair lines are considered attractive in America.

Anyways, it's hard to take pictures and update more on the culture now because so many things have begun to be normal for me. It's normal to see ox-carts and water buffaloes on the road along with bikes and bike-rickshaws and auto-rickshaws. Near collisions don't seem all that strange or out of the ordinary when traveling. Or seeing tons of people and playing real life frogger when we're in the city. It all just seems normal.

It was a joy to preach on Sunday morning, even with the loudspeakers going off. I don't know if they were turned down or not, but I honesty didn't notice them at all while I was preaching. I noticed them before and then afterward when I was praying for the people to be saved, but that was it. Praise God! Another praise is that one of the guest speakers for the Gospel Campaign confirmed that he would be able to come on those days.

The weather has been relatively cool here and we've had a little rain from the cyclones. God has blessed me with good health physically. He also continues to work on me spiritually. I'm learning so much about drawing near to Him and He gives me new ways to trust Him all the time. My mission and ministry seems to be solidifying here and I'm so stoked to be here and be a part of what He's doing. I'm also excited to see what He's going to do in the future.

“I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” Luke 15:7.

Please pray for:
-Tabita's Husband—salvation
-Wisdom and Discernment—for the spiritual stuff and also for the loudspeakers.
-Gospel Campaign—Hearts to be prepared and logistics
-Sponsors for orphans
-Me—that God would be glorified through me.

Praise:
--Confirmed Pastor
--Physical Health
--Clarity while speaking Sunday. Praise God!