God is Awesome!

Oh man! As I looked at the date from my last update, I realized that was a couple weeks ago. Sorry I'm behind.

Unlike some of the previous updates, the past couple weeks have been a little slow..kind of. We had a prayer meeting last week in one of the villages. A family from the church there was having a remembrance meeting for one of their sons who passed away tragically a couple years ago. Like I said last time, they have meetings for just about everything. I was given the opportunity to preach there. It's a wonderful encouragement to see the believers searching their Bibles and following along. Of course, there was food afterward. One of the coolest things was meeting an older gentleman there who's about 70. His name was Abraham. I learned that Pastor Curt (who visited India from Pagosa) had noticed Abraham outside the church on the road when he was here eight years ago. Pastor Curt invited him into the church meeting that day. From then on, Abraham kept going to church and got saved and baptized. Since then, Abraham has been a faithful member of the church and continued in his walk with God. It's amazing. We don't always get to see the fruit come from the seeds we plant, but God uses it whether we know it or not. Praise God!

This last week I got the chance to go to Bangalore. It seemed like somewhat typical confusion. We (Pastor Daniel and myself) were going to take a train there to see Stella (his eldest) since she was planning on taking the GRE. The train was full and the bus would be long. So, he said that maybe I should stay behind since I have long legs. Okay. The next day he called from the bus station to see if I really wanted to go or stay. I thought, “how many times do you get the chance to travel 12 hours crammed in a bus and go to Bangalore?” So I decided to go. The bus ride really wasn't all that bad (maybe I'm getting shorter). It was an interesting day though. Stella arrived in the afternoon and it was good to see her again. In the evening we went to the testing center to check on everything. When she checked in though, the guy told her she needed her passport in order to take the test. She didn't have it and didn't know about it. So she was super bummed and I felt bad for her. Anyways, then we ended up getting bus tickets back that night. Two totally different mindsets. Mine was, “Let's stay the night and check out the town and head back tomorrow sometime.” Theirs was, “Well, if we can't take the test, there's no point staying here. We need to leave ASAP.” So we rushed to pack our bags and cancel everything and try to catch the buses. I guess it was more exciting that way (because P.D and I barely made our bus). So the trip seemed unproductive, but at least an adventure and if nothing else it was good to see Stella again before I leave.

One hard thing is that several of the kids have been gone for a while. Their relatives work in the fields and this is the harvest time for the corn so the relatives take the kids to help them during this time. They will bring the kids back at the end of this month for the year end exams. It's hard because I don't know how kids are supposed to do well on their final exams when they've missed the last month and a half of school. I don't think there's much we can do about it though.

The rest of the two weeks has honestly been just all the regular stuff which I've already talked about and isn't all that exciting. I've had some really memorable times with the families here as well as with the kids. I was given the opportunity to preach last Sunday and P.D said I have the messages till I leave, which means one at the pastors meeting on Wednesday and the last one here next Sunday. In one way it's very hard because I know that I have very little time and I want to leave them with the best thing I possibly can. There's also that feeling were people on missions start going home before they start going home (if you know what I mean). The way I see it, some mission trips are only one week long anyway (which it's hard for me to imagine only going one week now), so I'm just getting started!

Way Cool! Last night I had an amazing opportunity with one of the older kids (18) who is almost ready to leave the orphanage. His name is Mexy. God is greatly convicting him of his sin. He also speaks English so we didn’t need a translator. God opened the door for the gospel. He has not accepted Jesus’ forgiveness yet, but it’s obvious God is working on him. Please pray that he would surrender his life and receive God’s wonderful gift.

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” Philippians 2:5-11


Pray for:
-Tabitha's husband—salvation
-Mexy--salvation
-The believers to continue to grow in grace
-Me—wisdom and God's words this week

Praise for:
-The fruit we do get to see
-Good Travels
-His continued grace and faithfulness.