Life After The Mission Trip (Over There)

We’ve been home for nearly three weeks.  We’ve received a couple of emails from Pastor Damodar, the head pastor over the Banjara For Christ Society.   The work we did while we were there yielded some fruit.  We preached in 32 thadas (villages) and 27 people accepted Christ, while 35 others expressed interest in people coming back to talk to them more about Jesus.  We also had 40 men in our training sessions and 50 women in the women’s classes.  Almost 400 people showed up for the final rally and heard the gospel preached. 

Life is steady for the pastors in India (as though it would have stopped when we came home right?).  Pastor Damodar has notified us there are still pastors going deep into the country to follow up in the thandas where we people expressed interest while we were there.  People are still accepting Christ as their Savior even now and the gospel continues to be preached by our Banjara Christian brothers!

This morning we received notification that Damodar’s wife, Sush, is sick.  Apparantly she has chicken pox.  I’m not sure how serious a thing this is in India, but he says she’s throwing up a lot and she has a rash.  He also says that their daughter, Goldie, doesn’t understand why she can’t go near her mom.   Their kind of worried about her, she’s only about a year old.  They are more worried for Sush though, Sush is one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever met.  She always works so hard to make sure we are taken care of in India.  We love her as our sister in Christ and hope she gets better soon.  She is in our prayers, as well as the rest of her family and the pastors who are still spreading the gospel.

Get well Sush.

Psalm 139: The Effective, Loving, Ever-present God

Psalm 139: The Effective, Loving, Everpresent God

Recently a friend of mine asked if I had ever meditated on Psalm 139.  I’ve read a portion of it, but have never sincerely looked at it extensively…until today. Before I really go into my thoughts on just a few of what I feel are the main verses of the passage, I would like to say I believe in the sovereignty of God; He can do what He wants…period.  I know I will never understand all He wishes to do in my life despite the kind of person I am, but He does.  That’s one thing I’ve learned from this passage. Secondly, we know that God has endowed his creation man with a free will, and God is glorified when, despite of all we’ve done, we accept Him as He is, Holy, Sovereign and all. “O Lord, you have searched me, and known me.”This to me is the heart of Psalm 139.  God knows me, He understands me, and understands my thoughts far off or near.  He knows them as I think them; He knows them years down the road.  The Lord knows me so well that there is no word on my tongue or lips that God doesn’t know before I say it.  He is also behind me and in front of me.  He “comprehends” where I go, and when I just lie down…he understands my motivations for getting up in the morning and going from place to place and my motivations for going to bed - whether I’m tired or lazy.  If he knows that, He surely also knows why I stay in bed, and whether or not I believe I have any reason for getting up. God knows me; I heard it once said, “God is above me looking down, below me looking up, to my right side looking left and left side looking right, he is within me looking out.”  He knows my outside, every dimple, every pimple, every pucker, and every imperfection.  He knows my inside, every hair, every blood cell, every blood clot, every fat cell…He knows me.  He knows my heart, sinful motivations, sinful feelings and sinful flesh.  I’m a sinner, and he knows that…saved by grace, by Jesus Christ, but a sinner just the same…and with all that information that God knows about my person…verse 5 says He has “laid His hand upon me.” I cannot “flee from God’s spirit,” even if I wanted to.  This doesn’t mean I can’t go out from His grace and sin, it just means God is everywhere and ever present, no matter where I go, He is there.  God will orchestrate life to bring me back as a child of God, and as a sinner, orchestrate life to bring sinners to Him.  But even when I want to hide, when I say “surely the darkness shall fall on me,” even then God shall light the darkness so nothing may hide in the darkness.  He is there, and nothing will hide from Him, no secret sins.  He knows them, even the dark secrets of our past, it doesn’t surprise Him, He makes night to day and darkness and day are one to Him, because it is ALL light. “Oh that you should slay the wicked, O God!”  This passage seemed strangely out of place to me, until I thought that maybe the wickedness would be within me.  It makes sense.  After all that trying to hide my sin, hide in the darkness, and I now see how I am before a Holy, righteous God because of His light, would it not make sense to ask Him to slay the wickedness within? Can this sin within be  my enemy?  Who else might say that I am “my own worst enemy?”  Couldn’t all of us?  I think I’m on the right track in this line of thinking as the next section of verses say, “Search me, O God, and know my heart…see if there is any wicked way within me.” My friend asked after reading this Psalm 139, “How can God forgive me if He knows I’m going to screw up again anyway?”  Because He knows you, and mercy is in His disposition, He’s sovereign and He can, and He also knows He gave you a free will.  He has faith in Himself and His Word, and He knows His light will eventually lead your free will to saying “Search me, O God!  Try me!”  God is God, and He made a Way, and Jesus is sufficient for us, even when we doubt ourselves.  I see this passage as joyful.  If God knows me this well, how can I lose when I trust Him and Him alone?  Not trust Him and myself, but just Him.  And guess what?  We don’t have to understand it all….just trust Him, He does…He’s God.  Even the Psalmist said, “such knowledge is too wonderful for me: It is high, I cannot attain it.”  God is God, He is love, He puts His hand on me, He lights up the shadows and sin I’ve hidden (that’s a good thing), and He looks for us to cry out to Him because He is God, and he loves us, whether we understand it or not.

Banjara For Christ 2007-2008 (Day 10)

Karen has never looked more beautiful than when she did as I turned the corner of that airplane terminal.  I hugged and squeezed her, kissed her, and hugged and squeezed her some more.  All of our families and friends were there at the airport waiting on us.  It’s good to be home.

I’m thankful to God that I’m not sick this time around.  Though I think my stomach is having a harder time digesting food from home than I originally thought it would.  Karen was able to work while I was gone and was making some money.  It seems our washing machine, barely over a year old, shot craps along with our DVD player, also no older than a year.  No big deal though.  Karen bought a new DVD player and we’ll get the washer fixed.  We have folks who will let us do laundry at their house if we need too.

The boys are at mom’s house tonight as it is still their holiday break from school.  We’ll get them on the fifth.  I can’t wait to see them.  All seems well at home and the weather is unseasonably beautiful.

Karen gave me a new journal for Christmas this year.  I’ve been writing in it the entire trip as that’s what she bought it for.  I’m having a difficult time deciding whether or not I will continue to write my own daily thoughts in it while here at home.  Life is a journey, that’s for certain, and some days are not as exciting as others.  Even on a mission trip though, some days are not as exciting as others.  Life is so “daily,” someone once said, and it may do some good to keep a continuous flow of thought through this journal specifically as I’ve already started it through the New Year.

The mission trip is finished; I look forward to going back.  Yet life goes on while still at home.  Today is the first day of the rest of my life, the first day of eternity from here on out.  I’d like to live in a way and seize each moment like this, making things fresh and new when I can.  Praise God for His goodness, grace, and might.  I love you Lord, Amen.

Banjara For Christ 2007-2008 (Day 9)

This morning started as a typical morning for us.  We woke up early – not because we wanted to, but because we were all awake, again.  We were showered in record time as the water was extremely cold this morning.  Breakfast was at 9, the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed for the team because they knew there was nothing they personally had to preach or teach today.  Though Jana got sick last night and didn’t feel much like eating.  Sush has been getting sick too…

After breakfast we all went to our rooms where we were donned with another fancy Indian outfit. This was much nicer than the ones they bought us last year.  However, they were all too small.  Only I could get the shirt buttoned all the way down, but I was uncomfortable with that.  Steve and Richard were in the same boat.  Sush asked that we instead wear then more like sport coats and that worked out fine.

Pastor Steve baptized about 20 believers and then the fan fare began.  There was a huge procession for the six of us.  It was complete with “stick dancers” and traditional Banjara tribal dancers.  There were so many of them.  We walked through a huge parade of people dancing and singing.  Flowers were being thrown in the air on us and all around us.  They gave us more flowers to place around our necks.  I’ve never seen so many colors and heard so much noise as these humble village people escorted us to the front of a huge tent.  There we heard more music and were entertained by the best of the stick dancers.  They danced and sang to music as each one of them had two wooden sticks in each hand which they clicked and clacked together as they weaved past each other in dance.  Each on wore a red bandana as a headband; signifying the type of entertainer they were.  Most of these dancers were young men, no older than 21, but there were 3 ladies there who were just as skilled as the men.  Banjara dancers were next, three women who danced and balanced big liter sized bottles of water on their heads.  One of these women we’ve been watching all week.  She has this look of absolute confidence on her face when she dances; almost a look of smugness.  She never has this look any other time except when she dances.  It’s pretty amusing.

Pastor Steve gave a message and brought the gospel to a lot of people who have come from the thandas.  Some we preached to in the village, some are church members who came and wanted to say goodbye to us.  Still others were just people who had heard the noise and came to see what the commotion was all about.  Steve gave an invitation, though it was not clear as to whether people heard the gospel and were responding to the Holy Spirit working conviction of their sins, or if everybody simply was coming to receive prayer for healing and blessing.  The Banjara are a very superstitious people, and it would be easy to see how they would think “white people” could pray for them and all would be well.  The whole group prayed for those who came, believing and hoping they were coming for salvation.

After those services we had lunch.  EVERYONE had lunch.  There was a huge amount of food being served to a huge amount of people.  Rice and chicken were on the menu as usual.  Though I learned most of these people don’t get the chicken on a daily basis, all they ever have any abundance of is rice.  I couldn’t imagine it.  Sush called it a “chicken feast,” and that it was.  There were so many Banjara people; I hope our visit did them well and that Christ’s message will not be obscured by the “white folks from America” who came to tell it.

After lunch we finished packing and tried to nap before leaving for the city to do some shopping and then going to the airport.  It wasn’t easy to sleep as we knew we were going home.  We got one more cold shower in hopes that we could stay clean through the biggest part of our journey.

Goodbyes were quick thank goodness.  Many of those I was saying goodbye to I had not personally spoken to all week long, but they were all tearful just the same.  These people love us so much.  Sudakar, Damodar’s brother, who served us meals all week long, was about to break down while we were saying goodbye.  And Damodar’s mother had huge tears in her eyes.  That was hardest for me; seeing this woman who barely knew us weep over such simple servants of the Lord.  We were there to serve her and she served us one thousand times over by just being there, to love us and listen, to dance, to sing or just to smile as many, many others did the same all week long.  We will be missing some very good friends.

Thinking on the trip home about the events of the day and the past week; I can’t help but say that I’ll miss the fellowship more than anything.  We had so many good times with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We did our best to serve one another and I’ve learned that this is a major part in fellowship in the Lord.  These beautiful people treat us as though we are heroes or celebrities.  They make big banners in order to announce our comings and goings and they make sure every need is met according to their best ability so that we soft Americans are as comfortable as we can be.  They see us as leaving homes thousands of miles away as being the biggest, most important events of our lives.  To some, it is.  To me, it is; not because I am any type of hero, but because it takes a huge amount of faith in the Lord to get there and to get through it.  Money, time, lessons, embarrassment at times, sickness at times, fears to conquer, love to risk and even the chance of never seeing your loved ones again, back home and in the mission field; at least not until we all get to Heaven.  All of these must be considered and take faith in the Lord just to get by and step out toward that visit to the Banjara people.  It seems the people of India understand that, though they may never understand the specific details.

Now, going home, which has been a remarkably smooth ride (I slept 6 hours of our first 8 hour flight) I realize I’m heading back to a place where my words will not mean near as much as they do in India.  Among my own people, I am just like they are.  I am equal and not held on a pedestal.  People will categorize the words I speak for the Lord as being with those they respect, like they would a dear pastor or a youth minister, but rarely will those words be taken to heart.  No, at home, in America, there must always be more than words, but there also must be action.  People love to be put up on a pedestal, they love to be made to feel important, as though what their words say mean something to those around them.  They SHOULD mean something.  The very fact that intelligible words are coming from the voice that God gave them should mean that someone is listening, especially when it’s someone from home who can relate to them.  If this trip has taught me anything, it is that when the very least among men is speaking, the very least among believers should be listening.  Open hearts should be among us, so we might seek a way to bring men, women, and children to the saving grace of our Lord and then the sanctifying favor from He who we have found and adore.  I personally realize just how much we are called to serve among believers and unbelievers alike, even when serving just means listening.

As for the fellowship among my brothers in Christ who went on this trip, we have all grown closer.  Richard, whom I didn’t really know very well, will now be a life long friend as we have served together and realize we see much more eye to eye than what we ever believed.  It was regrettable though, to the both of us that we never took time out before to get to know one another.

Sometimes people have preconceived ideas about another person and often times they let those ideas keep them from stepping out in faith to get to know them.  I believe Richard realized that he never knew me.  Well, not to the point he does now.  The same can be said about me with him.  Yet I was apologetic and let him know that I’m shy as it is.  Because of that, there are few we serve in the church with who do know me as well as he does now.

Steve, my pastor, friend and mentor is looking at these mission trips now with comfort and casualness.  He understands the urgency of souls needing to be reached fro Christ, but there is now comfort ability in what he does when he goes to India.  He is not as apprehensive as he once was about teaching and preaching to people he doesn’t know.  Now he sees all of them as just needing Jesus Christ and that’s giving him a drive to come back again and again.  May I also learn to step out of my comfort zone until it becomes comfortable for me as well.

Banjara For Christ 2007-2008 (Day 8)

Our teaching sessions ended this evening.  I almost hated for them too, the lessons I mean.  I’ve had so much fun teaching the Pastors of Banjara.  They are so attentive to what I have to say.  To what we ALL have had to say.

Steve has taught all his lessons on church planting, and they are not what a person might expect.  I know I was surprized at what he is teaching; though I don’t know why, all he taught we’ve discussed before.  I guess I had just forgotten what I once had learned.  Steve taught starting churches “the Master’s Way.”  Through a “person of peace” and then after that, theach them to observe those things that I was teaching about, disciplines through the wheel. 

“The Master’s Way” of discipleship is what we called my portion of lessons.  These were ALL methods in which Jesus showed his disciples during his time with them on earth.  Taking in the Word, praying, fellowship, and witnessing centered around the person of Jesus Christ.  All of these of course come after we surrender our lives to Him.  I went through a wheel illustration made up by Dawson Trotman, teaching the four very basic disciplines that every follower of Christ should have.

Richard’s been teaching personal evangelism, “witnessing the Master’s Way.”  He showed us how to use the Ten Commandments as a school master to show us our sin and how to use tracts as a witnessing tool.  He was nervous, but he did just great…I was nervous too.  We found that most of our lessons came across really well any time we involved the men in our exercises in a role playing fashion.  They played in skits, they drew pictures, they laughed and at one point I cried.  Once I had 5 of them laying in the floor piled on top of eachother to tell a parable Jesus taught about prayer.  These times were so precious and the Lord provided so much to say.  I can’t express my joy at these new and old friends we have made.  They are so open and honest and lively.  I love their culture.

Tonight was a night for singing and dancing.  Steve got some of it on video.  It was a lot of fun.

We just finished dinner with a Catholic priest who owns the hostel we’ve been staying in.  It was a fine meal but our normal Indian friends were not around.  Tomorrow we get to sleep in, which is a blessing, and then we have one last service to say farewell and then we are heading home.  I’m ready.

Banjara For Christ 2007-2008 (Day 7)

It’s New Year’s Day and I’ve never spent one like this before, half way around the world teaching and preaching the gospel.  I appreciate the Lord’s grace in being here, though I miss Karen and the boys very much.  I hope she’s not upset that I’ve not called again.  I tried twice now a couple of days but wasn’t able to reach her.  Sush has not brought it up again so I’ve not asked; it’s so expensive to make international phone calls.  It’s fine I’m sure.  Karen would appreciate hearing from me, but has the strength to wait until I’m home.  I hope her New Year’s Eve went alright.  Maybe family was able to call her. 

Last night was a night I’ll never forget.  We had a service from 11 PM to 1 AM.  There was lots of singing and dancing.  A couple of the Banjara women were dressed in their traditional Banjara gypsy garb.  Steve taught a small message and there were gift exchanges and cake and everything wholesome in brotherly and sisterly love.  

Steve started preaching about 10 minutes to midnight and got about 7 minutes into it and the electricity cut off.  Apparantly the government here does this in order to save energy for the country.  It stayed off for about 3 minutes while everyone sang and when the light came on, it was midnight.  It was a great celebration.  The people (rather than kiss) stuff cake in their friend’s mouths.  I had a mouthfull before I could object.  Richard nearly choked…it was pretty funny.  We received cards and key chains and even rearview mirror ornaments.  These are such a loving people.

Richard got his suitcase last night.  It was like Christmas all over again for him since the airport had lost his luggage and he had to do without for a few days.

The girls are doing well too.  There is so much more laughter this trip because of them being here.  I wish my wife was here.

My lessons that I taught went well today.  Steve and Richard’s too.  I taught on ”Jesus the Hub” of the Christian Wheel.  God is so good in providing words to say.  I can’t describe how much he has blessed.  Damodar said I have improved in giving messages since last year.  I appreciated it so much.  He said if I remained in India, I’m going to be named “Bishop.”  I’m proud he said it, I’ll admit it, but still – that’s quite a compliment coming from him.

Tonight is a night for relaxing.  I’ve played some volleyball and visited with Sush and Damodar and Richard.  Dinner will be served soon.  Tonight, here on the roof of this hostel, my thoughts are with my wife.