No longer backwards coming forward!:

Yesterday morning we went to a remote rural village, it was delightfully primitive and there had been no major Christian witness, in fact it was only in the last few years could anyone go into this place in this capacity. We were to hold a meeting in the centre surrounded by tiny houses, outbuildings and goat pens.

Pastor David was expecting about 20 people to turn up and as such a few chairs was scattered around in a very compact way. Within moments of our arrival people gathered from nowhere it seemed. Bear in mind this was around 10.30am but almost 80 people inc children arrived.

People brought their beds out onto the street to sit on:

We arranged for a few more chairs to come and within 10 mins a man with a bicycle appeared with a large bundle strapped to the back of his bike!! (Chair team watch this space!!!)

David led worship by singing a song (no keyboard here)..and people just listened as there appeared to be no Christians. I noticed just one woman tho, and it turned out she was called Naomi, and had been praying for Jesus to come to her village for many years!!!!!!!

Kym spoke first which was short message and challenging , some of the younger generation moved back and hid behind a cow shelter. I then spoke and expanded on her talk with an illustration and then preached the Gospel. I yelled at the boys to come out and told them I could see them hiding and so did God.

  

We felt God's presence, and I gave an alter call and to my amazement approx 40 came forward and gave their hearts to Christ. It was so powerful to see the Lord working and changing hearts! Old and young, men and women and some of the lads!!

This blew us away as this meant a new church had just been started and  what would be the next thing? Pastor David was so excited as he had been wanting to start a church here for some time, now he has to find a pastor and so thats the challenge for us back home, we need another £25 a month plus a small home to rent or build. Please be thanking God for this great witness and for the necessary funding !

It did not end there, as one man (Just given his heart to the Lord) came up and said he had some land and would allow us to buy it ONLY for a small church building....how cool is that !! The very man who comes to Christ wants to start a church... how do such things happen out here like this?

It was hard to leave this place it is such a beautiful village and the people so loving and grateful, a place we will never forget!!

Please pray that the Lord will guide us and make His will clear, the land will be about £3500 to buy and another £1500 + other fees. The land is big enough to build a pastors house (sound grand but actually only two rooms), David thinks we could do this ALL for around £6500-7000. Lord you own the cattle on a thousand hills... speak to the hearts of many!

Lastly one young man stared at me from a distance with a glazed face.. and marks on his face, arms crossed! He came up to me and said 'Hare Krishna'.. at once I knew what he was about!! BUT he wanted to give me a copy of his bible Krsna (in English) , BUT wanted one of ours to read!!!!!!!! So we exchanged bibles.....please pray for this man, as needless to say I challenged him and he kept saying his god was more important despite the witness... PRAY IN JESUS name that the Holy Spirit will reveal the truth!

PLEASE keep praying as the Lord is about His fathers business and using us here, we are tired and looking forward to a day and a half break. Pray for refreshment and continued anointing.

Hall of Hope:

Some may recall that a year ago we prayed over the foundations in a rural village that God would provide the funds for the first IVCM church building or as it's called here .. a Prayer Hall..!

The funds came in November and the work began in earnest to raise the walls and have this work complete with the strong possibility of being able to dedicate this building on this trip.

The earlier pictures shows us doing some practical stuff before hand and a few days later we have the privilege of dedicating and opening the hall. As we arrive the small crowds had gathered and we were given garlands and welcomed once more. This process for us presents us with mixed feelings knowing how poor they are and that we are made so special. Training at BMS on 'cross cultures' comes in as a useful reminder as we must respect this culture and embrace their customs.

We were then requested to unveil the commemoration plaque and receive more public attention!!

  

Amazing experience with such joy and worship and prayer! I then led everyone thru the act of dedication, and then we anointed with oil each of the 4 corners of the building and thedoor and threshold, reading out a different scripture and short prayer! The final moment was to cut a ribbon and let the people go inside. There was no stopping them !!!!

Once everyone was settled we blessed the builder and his workers with gifts and had an amazing time of worship.

The Holy Spirit was filling this temple! Awesome to take the very first service in this new Prayer Hall! The atmosphere was electric and we sensed God's presence amoungst us. Towards the end I had this thought that wouldn't it be awesome if just somebody gave their heart to Christ. What a blessing if that should happen... could it...?

I prayed to the Lord that He would grant my wish and began preaching the Gospel and made a deliberate outreach hoping that somebody from within the village would be here and to be saved. I invited any to come forward after the end of the service rather than a public alter call and said where I would be waiting. While Kym and Peter prayed for individual believers one person cam forward,... then another! In total 5 people including a husband and wife came to know Jesus that night! ..Praise God

I am excited about evangelism and the power of the gospel... Thank you Jesus! Amen. Believers had invited friends to come and some where simply curious! The gospel was proclaimed and the Lord gave granted my
wish and the fellowship has now increased. PTL

Please pray for these people and in particular for one lady who was partially paralyzed and her brain also affected as a result of her last childbirth! I noticed Kym in particular praying fervently with her and was pleading to the Lord on her behalf for healing and restoration. If you could pray also for her then maybe we might here a wonderful testimony in time to come! Come Holy Spirit come.

The Bible to people - however we can do it!

Caught up at last with the blog, just a few hours before tonight's meeting so here's the update for Sunday. 3 services, two normal ...(if there is such a thing out here!...everyone is different and you don't know what might happen next)! First these young lads greet you as good stewards to an opening between shops! Could this be Nightshift in India?

Two traditional services in the morning, followed by a special one late afternoon. worship, preach followed by handing out bibles to the needy and saris to the widows. (see pics)... notice how young some of the widows are!! Then request from individuals for prayer.

 

At one church with lots of children Peter talks to the children about the storm that Jesus calmed and after using his prop , gets them to do the actions!

I love looking at the women especially in Worship as they are not inhibited in any way... God is their audience!

Prayer requests come in sorts of ways .. here a 95 year old woman is greeted by Kym and Peter. These personal prayer requests are expected ......why are we so reserved to request prayer in some Western churches? Here it's the norm!

Mission possible!:

Today was an awesome day... sorry for the delay but Sat and Sunday has been full demanding days but Exciting... PTL! 

Am writing this at 12.30 Monday Indian time to try and keep you posted!

Saturday started with our Youth meeting  when 125 had signed up to come, but by 10.45am 180 youth showed up for this rally!!!!! A great morning of teaching and worship culminating in approx 25 kids giving their hearts to Christ .. praise God!  Another 80+ made fresh commitments to their faith !

   
7 recent believers came for baptism and had the privilege to baptise them and give each one a Tamil Bible during the service that followed. Here baptism is first outside ... of course and then pile into a house church 20x16 with barely an inch to move.

  

Following the service we pray for many people who come forward requesting prayer for many different things. Here you can see an older lady who just wept before me .... Jesus bring relief into her life. 

Please pray with us as we seek to bless them and uphold them before our saviour... we pray that we will hear testimonies in the future of great and wonderful things.

 

      

One man (seen in front of me) after prayer gave me a free will offerring, which I was not allowed to refuse! This blew me away and I could not hold back the tears, and nor could he.. These people and their passion for Christ and expectations are so HUGE!!!!!!

One person gave us several bags of knitted teddies/dolls in all shapes and sizes, which nicely added to our luggage at the last minute!! As you can see these kids felt very special!

 

Talk to us!:

Did you realise you can leave messages for Rod and Kym on this blog?

At the bottom of each post there is a 'comments' link. Click it and leave them a message.... 

Go on, give it a try...

Painting and Planting.....

What a day...!! It was a real hands on day as we spent our time helping out at the New Prayer Hall Project.. The day began by taking a look at the almost complete building with various bods doing the finishing touches.

Peter and Kym began painting the walls with a substance that was the furthest thing removed from what we call emulsion paint... probably more a 'white wash'... do we do that any more in the UK ?

Then it was decided that the colour was a bit grim, resembling something like the colour from a dishwasher! No probs tho within 1hr we were presented with another bucket of a similar substance but biscuit colour... much better!


Rod spent the time landscaping and in his element... gardening in India!!!!!

First preparation of soil ????? Is that what you call it? Then off to a local nursery .... of sorts ... no B&Q here!! Great fun choosing plants and then loading them into our vehicle and back we go to plant!


Placing and planting with what we call a trowel and spade here referred to as a 'Spoon' and a hoe!? All planted and it does look great, watered in ?..... yes of course, just dig a huge channel, chomp out a paddy field and here comes the water.... lots of it!!

While we got busy with paint and plants we also met the local carpenter who was building a lectern, and other painters who decided to paint the walls outside after planting my raised tub... I guess builders are the same world over .? Well actually that's not quite fair .. it was the painters fault .... or was it the ...? Oh well. This builder did a great job, under huge time deadlines and actually saved us money .. he is a Christian.. so take it back (big time!) Job done!

Also took time to see our cow project again and as you can see also doing well!

Need to get a good nights sleep and prepare for the youth meeting and baptismal programme for tomorrow!

Safe arrival..

After many weeks of preparation we finally boarded a plane having met up with Peter at Terminal 5 and handed over a large number of cases which were all OVERWEIGHT!!!!! (except Peter's). Made the right decision to pray over them before we left and hoped we would not be charged as we had been given lots of last minute things to take and bless people with! Amazingly they all went thru without any question a s if they never existed!

We landed safely complete with our extra kilo's and met Pastor David and another Peter at Bangalore as you can see!:

It was a task to get all this gear strapped on the roof with what looked like the most feeble of thin rope, hoping that no emergency stops would be needed.

After an hour into the journey we felt, smelt and heard all those familiar sights and noises that can only be identified with INDIA!!!.

Complete with a refreshing coconut..we are back... tonight we shall meet with 7 co-pastors for a time of great fellowship.......

What an awesome night of prayer, song and fellowship and teaching with these dear men of God, special times to savour!! We prayed earnestly for the mission and celebrated communion together...... Now we are ready for the off!!

The clock is ticking...

Rod, Kym and Peter leave for London Tuesday and fly out to India Wednesday. 


Please pray for them....

Rod and Kym's blog is about to go live again!!

Rod and Kym are going back to India 26th Jan for almost a month and attempting a fairly hefty program. Having said that the last week is a vacation in Kerala.

More news soon on the 2010 trip. Watch this space.....

To see posts from Rod and Kym last trip to India click here or go to the archives section below left