Archive | March, 2006

I’m at the end of day 2 of teaching in Visag, India. We’ve continued to have pastors come, and I met one tonight who traveled over 600 miles to be with us. Amazing. There are now about 120 pastors attending, along with about 30 women. Today I addressed the topic of What Do We Sing? However, before we started I shared that I felt God wanted specifically to encourage some of the men there. I shared Psalm 40:17 with them: As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God! I asked if any of the men had been feeling "poor and needy," unaware of God’s care for them. …

It’s 9:30 PM, at the end of my first day of teaching at Love-N-Care Ministries. There are close to 80 pastors who have come from surrounding villages and towns to hear teaching on worship, and to reconnect with one another. Right now I can hear them in the distance, singing praises to God in their native tongue of Telugu. The day seemed to go well. One of the things I asked people to pray for is that I would be able to connect quickly with the men. I felt the Lord answered those prayers, even though only a handful of pastors speak English. I addressed the topics What is Worship? and Why Do We Sing? As I expected, being here is helping me see …

Well, we’ve arrived in Visakhapatnam, which I’ve learned is Visag (why-zag) for short. The conference starts tomorrow, and Yesupadam, the leader of Love-N-Care is expecting around 200 pastors and worship leaders. Probably a little over half will know English to some degree. Fortunately, someone will be translating what I say into Telugu, the native language. I stopped by a prayer meeting shortly after we arrived and got my first taste of Indian corporate worship with about 25 young men who are in a training school. I had no idea what they were singing but it was loud, it was enthusiastic, and it was accompanied by loud drums. I learned later …

I’m in the Mumbai domestic airport right now, waiting for the flight to take us to our first place of ministry, Love-N-Care Ministries. We arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) last night, and got about 5 hours sleep, and are heading for Visakhaputnam today. On the flight, we sat next to Aruna, an Indian woman who has been living in Orlando for around 20 years. She was very gracious and engaging in conversation. She asked us numerous questions about what we were doing and why, and we were able to share the Gospel with her, and encourage her to consider that apart from Jesus there is no way we can ever be good enough to enter God’s presence. We’ll be sending …

Well, I’m here in the Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris using one of the computers in the airport. I’m not sure whether I can get my satellite modem working or not, but it doesn’t matter at this point, does it? My friend Larry and I have completed the first leg of our trip. We leave in about three hours for Mumbai (formerly Bombay). That will be another 8 hours. Then tomorrow we’ll take one more plane over to our first destination, Visakhapatnam. There I’ll spend three days working with pastors and worship leaders on principles of God-honoring worship. Being in a country where English isn’t the primary language reminds me again that this world …

Tomorrow (Sunday) I’ll be flying out of Dulles International Airport with my good friend Larry Malament, headed for India for 12 days. Larry sersves as a pastor at the Sovereign Grace church in Charlotte, North Carolina and is definitely the guy you want to go to India with. This will be his 12th visit. As I mentioned in a post last week, I’ll have the opportunity to train pastors and worship leaders in two separate three day conferences. The first will be with Love-N-Care Ministries in Vishakhaptanam on the east coast of India, and the second will be hosted by Logos Wholistic Ministries in Ahmedebad, on the west coast. These are ministries …