India

An incredible trip – wonderful hosts who really invited us in to minister, a hungry audience for our seminars who were passionate for God, and time for depth and growth as a team. First a short story and some comments and then if you’re interested, lots of details.

During our study skill teaching times we include lots of simple practical application ideas. One day one man shared that his neighbor had recently parked in his spot and he was quite tempted to be angry. But instead, he practiced what he had been learning and went and talked to his neighbor and told him he could have the spot. Seems small but the people we were teaching had such a heart to grow and live it out!

Though they have had the Bible for a long time, they tend to read it more like a newspaper – interesting but sort of out of touch with their own life. Some of the comments they shared with our hosts:
– “We don’t get Bible Studies like this in Mizoram, we need more of this kind of teaching where we can discover truth on our own.” Monica
– “Studying the Bible this way has broaden my understanding. After the seminar of Jonah I was so inspired that next day I told everyone I met about it.” Dr A
– I always heard about having a mind of Christ but only on the seminar of Philippians did I actually understand what does it practically mean. No one every preached it this way. No one before explained what it means.” Tete-a

Culture

Its been a few years since I’ve been somewhere so remote but it was such a great experience! I’ve seen and experienced many things in my life and so I was actually surprised by some of the things that I learned this time. One particular aspect was my own culture shock. They lived like normal people do everywhere but they still have a tribal outlook on life. Its quite stereotypical but when I think tribal I think of huts, spears and subsistence living. But they weren’t that at all. Yet the way they conduct meetings, relate to each other and live is tribal in outlook. They don’t do much in the way of greetings like “hey, how’s it going” because they see each other so much and they won’t do much in the way of good bye’s either. And meetings of any formality always start with a long preamble of important people who say something before starting, something like honoring the elders and leaders in the group. I saw this in church on Sunday, at a cd/video release party at the hotel we stayed at, and even in our teaching sessions. As tribal people, they share very willingly, so during the day we would walk into homes and invite ourselves over for tea and a snack. But the thing was, it wasn’t inviting ourselves over – it was normal, expected, informal. There wasn’t much of a hello, even when we didn’t know the people.

Teaching

The teaching situation was terrific. With our first audience we had a whole week with the same group, two full days and four evenings so we could really spend some time with them. We covered a number of books, taught Inductive Bible Study method and an Overview of the Bible. The whole province we were in is basically all Christian. Everything shuts down on Sunday (not even corner stores are open) and nearly everyone goes to church. But church is a shallow thing for most people, a ritual largely devoid of meaning and disconnected from their daily lives. A younger generation is growing up that probably won’t carry on most of the traditions as well. Amazingly, God has preserved them from Hinduism to the west and the Buddhism to the east and north. They are surrounded but God has a special plan for them and is preparing a revival of hearts there that he will send to the nations! What a privilege it was to go and encourage them, teach them some Bible study skills, and spur them on in their walk with God.

Our Team

As our team has had some shifts in people this last year, we really wanted to spend some time growing and teaching together. Well this was a terrific time. My favorite part of the trip was a personal sharing time where we all really opened up about our lives. And watching each other teach we really got to see each others gifts and unique personalities shine and to see how we can do better together. But it wasn’t all deep, we did a few fun things together too like hiking in the mountains, seeing some ancient Indian caves with carvings. The other really fun thing was eating together. We ate so many meals in different environments, home cooking, street food, a fancy dinner from our hosts and plenty of authentic food. Daniel likes it pretty spicy, Esther will eat with her hands like a local, Nadia will undoubtedly order something that doesn’t come out right, Sonya and Thelma love the veg and Sasha is ready for a nice bowl of soup.And me, I really enjoyed the variety. I was quite worried that the spicy would hurt me but my stomach was strong enough – thanks for all your prayers!

Yes, thank you for your prayers and encouragement! We can control for efficiency but it is largely the Lord who makes us effective and that comes through obedience and prayer!