Up Close and Personal

Wednesday:

After a restful night in our hotel in P we departed about 6am for our 2 hour drive to city J. Josh had the devotion today which was a passage from Revelation 20 which portrays our assurance of the ultimate defeat of Satan.

During our trip, we stopped to visit one of the church planters who graciously offered us breakfast. We visited and prayed with this family of believers for physical healing and for encouragement.

Our teaching today in City #4 was held at a private residence. Hillary taught the sword method of scripture analysis, Susan and Dave taught on the Bible’s reaching regarding the roles and conduct of husbands and wives I the marital relationship, Josh presented the topic of singleness and Hillary taught from John 13: 1-7 about the importance of being humble servants.

The second part of the session began with Brandon’s presentation on godly living followed by Josh’s seven essentials of discipleship. Liz concluding today’s teaching with a passage from Joshua 1 about our need to be obedient to God’s commands.

The owner of the home where the training was held is in need of prayer. His name is Ravi and he is a believer who is a new church planter. He recently had surgery for a brain tumor and is in very bad health because of it. At the end of our training, our team and some of the believers gathered around him to pray. The believers shared how passionately Ravi was about training students to plant churches. It was sad to now see him in the bed helpless. Pray with us that God would grant Ravi a miracle to be healed and that his healing would serve to advance the gospel in his city!

A highlight of the day was to visit personally with four different families in their homes. We had the opportunity to encourage them and to pray for their needs. Pastor S took us to these homes and it was up close and personal. It was a cultural experience to be in these homes.

One of the homes we visited was the home of a non-believing family. This family is open to the gospel and one of our church planters has been faithfully visiting them and sharing the gospel for the last couple months. The daughter-in-law of the family has had trouble getting pregnant. She is now 8 months pregnant but she is bleeding. They contribute this pregnancy to the work of Christ because she has been barren for 5 years after having a miscarriage. Our church planter and other believers have been praying that the Lord would spare her child as a testimony to his power! The family has said that if Jesus spares her and this child they will give their whole lives to Christ and serve him only. This is common here as people serve so many gods that it often takes a miracle for them to come to faith and turn from idol worship. All in all, we were able to pray and share the gospel. Pray with us that God would graciously keep this mother, R, and her child safe so that they may believe!

We then had a three hour drive from city J to city A where we spent the night. We had our evening devotion led by Hillary on Hebrews 11 regarding faith followed by our team time.

All in all it was another great day teaching, encouraging, and praying. Please pray for Brother E and the students in the 11 church planting educational centers in Northern India. Pray that they will be encouraged and that new churches will continue to be planted and that many people will come to faith.

-Dave