Happy 4th!

Happy fourth of January! This is the newest fourth of January that there has ever been. And...it is the newest day the world has yet seen. And....it is the only 1-4-11 that there will ever be. Isn't that incredible?! Wow. Anyways, here's my last week in a nutshell..at least some of it.

Earlier last week we heard that Ramesh (village pastor who is about my age) was sick and in the hospital. He was in the Eluru hospital so we went to go see him. I guess it was pretty bad stomach problems. His brother also had the same thing and was coming to the hospital as well. They said that some other people in that village had the same symptoms, but they did not know what the cause was. It was sad to see Ramesh feeling so terrible. It was there that I had a very interesting thought. As I looked at him lying there, I thought, “To pretty much everyone in America and most of the people around the world, he is just another sick Indian in a hospital bed, but God has somehow placed us together where I look at him as a friend and brother.” It is impossible for us to know everyone in this way, but it brings much insight into John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” I cannot know all people everywhere in a close, personal way, but God does. He sees each individual Indian lying in the hospital or in their houses or wherever and knows everything about each one and He loves each one. And not just Indian, but African or Asian or American or whoever. For us, we have to group people together, but God does not. He knows us all individually and He loves each one of us enough to give us His Son. How truly amazing this is! That God offers eternal life to each one of us individually if we will believe in Jesus. Wow! Anyways, Ramesh was in the hospital for a couple days and then recovered. Praise God!

Everyone was really busy on Thursday and Friday doing New Year's cleaning and some of the ladies were making sweets for the church dinner. I helped out a little with the cleaning and setting up for the cooking. I helped cook by getting out of the way. It's not hard to figure out that they have their system down and you just stay out of it and watch. I also got to spend a lot of time in the Bible. On Thursday, Stella and Sallie (my sisters) both seemed a little quieter towards me. I wondered if there was something I did that upset them. I could not ask them because they were both busy. I was a little down about it and was sitting by myself praying and singing softly. All of a sudden three of the kids came around the corner and shouted, “Brother Paul!” and ran up to me. Little Joyce (who's probably like 20 pounds) ran up and literally threw herself on me, giving me one of the biggest hugs ever. It was such a blessing and encouragement just when I needed it. Later that night, I talked with Stella and she said they have a saying, “If someone makes you happy, you don't need to tell, but if someone makes you sad, then you must tell.” So she said if I do something wrong, they will tell me about it and that they were just busy that day. Good to know.

New Years was good. We had church from 10pm on Friday to 2 or 3am to bring in the New Year. It was a good time of singing and prayer. After the service we had cake, which was sweet, both ways. Turns out people love smearing frosting on each others' faces everywhere. Haha. There was one thing that happened that greatly disturbed me. However, I got clarification on it later and it all works out.

Anyways, we also had another church service at 11am on Saturday. Pastor Daniel had given me the message. He had Abi (Levi's son) translate for me. As we started, he began sweating a lot and seemed very nervous. He passed the mic to Pastor Daniel after a couple sentences. I felt bad for him. After the service he apologized and I assured him that it was okay. He told me it was his first time translating. I told him that I was honored to be his first translation. He didn't seem to down about it which was good to see. After church, we had FOOD! It's pretty cool how it works. They all eat in rotations. So one group of them will eat while the others wait on them, serving the rice and curry and water. When that group is finished, they swap roles. I also got to serve which was a lot of fun. It is very difficult to serve people here. They are very hospitable and they see me as the guest and so they tend to not want me to serve in any way. This was one of the hardest things when I first arrived. So things like this mean a lot when they at least put up with me serving. Mostly they just laughed about it. It was fun anyway.

Pastor Daniel had given me the message here on Sunday as well as in one of the village churches we would visit in the afternoon. Message in the morning was rough. I felt like maybe I was trying to go too deep too fast. It was hard because I know the way I explained it to make sense in English did not translate well, although Pastor Daniel did his best. Well, I figure there was Scripture read, so the people got that as well as a good opportunity to practice grace. Haha. jk.

After that, we went to the village church where they honored Pastor Daniel and Annamani (his wife). This message went a lot better. Stella translated for me which was different. I feel like Pastor Daniel translates my ideas, which makes the translation longer. Stella translated more word for word and it was much faster. This was good. It also helped having a more basic message. A huge praise is that there were many more men in the church than when we had visited before. One of them was possibly the tallest Indian I've seen. He was as tall as I am. Maybe..maybe...a little taller. Makes me realize how much tall people really stand out. Anyways, we had cake and banana's here too and then went to one of the families houses for lunch. This was nice but they kept insisting that we keep eating more. We were all so full that we didn't have dinner at night.

Well, there was more stuff today (Monday) but it'll have to wait. You are all such a great encouragement to me. There is some other more serious stuff that I wish I could share with you right now, but I can't. I'll just say there are some very important decisions that need to be made and I will need God's wisdom in the days ahead. Thank you so much for praying for me and standing with me. I got blasted with encouragement from some of you last week and it was...well, encouraging, and much needed! God continues to be faithful in everything.

“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Acts 17:30-31

Please Pray for:
--Tabitha's husband-salvation
--Wisdom in decisions
--Unity
--Jay Raju's family (lost mother last week, then had both sons in hospital this week)

Praise Him for:
--A New Year of life!
--Ramesh's health
--Men in village church
--Opportunities
--Closeness with the people here
--Good health