More Warfare

We are experiencing even more spiritual warfare here in Chennai. Paul Sunder Raj, missionary to Bihar, was in a rickshaw accident today as he returned from Bihar. He was coming home to see his family which he has not seen since November and to take a break. He has been doing incredible ministry in the North and I think that Satan is doing all he can to snatch this worker for the kingdom away. Paul survived the wreck with a broken foot and he will need to be in the hospital for awhile. Hopefully, he can get some rest and then spend some time with his family. His wife and two children are thrilled to have him home and cannot wait for him to fully recover. They are hoping to travel to Bihar with Paul eventually. I have included a pic of my mom and I when we met with Paul Sunder the day before Moriah was born!

We also need to continue to pray for the conference and their leaders as they prepare for a big meeting on Saturday. We are currently in a spot where several people are lying to us and it is virtually impossible to discern who to trust. We need the Lord's guidance to show us how to handle the situation and even more we need the Lord to move and convict the hearts of those doing wrong. I have been praying the verse from Chronicles over our leaders, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land." I have asked the Lord to do what ever it takes to make this a reality. Only the power of God is able to truly handle some of the situations we face.

Easter Fireworks

There are fireworks for every occasion in India and Easter is no exception. We went to yet another building dedication in the evening and they had firecrakers going off all over the place. I thought we were in a war zone it was so loud:)
In all seriousness, we went to a morning service at 5am. It was nice to celebrate the ressurection in a new setting but I honestly missed home very much today. We are used to Rob preaching the sunrise service and the morning service and then spending the rest of the day with our close friends and family. It was hard to celebrate without knowing the language here and without any close family or friends. Rob and I spent a lot of the weekend kind of bored and staring at each other. I am realizing that prayer is my main tool here and that I must take advantage of the down times to pour out my heart to God about my family at home and also my co workers here. I cannot do much physically to help but prayers are vital. I am able to really focus on prayer where if I was in the States I would have many things to distract me.

Oh and the picture on the left is why Rob is now a vegetarian:) These baskets are full of the chickens they cooked for our meal after the celebration. They don't quite have the same food safety concerns that we are used to in America... yummy.

Sweating to the Oldies

Yeah, it is definately "hotting up" over here. It is soooooo hot. I just take Moriah down to the mission office for about half the day and spend the rest of the day recuperating in the AC room in our apartment. Rob came home from the University and his clothes were sopping wet with sweat. Okay maybe now I am giving a little too much info but I just want you all to know that if you need a break from the cold whether at home, India is a good spring break choice:)

Tonight we went to a Maundy Thursday service at an English speaking church. It was nice to have a break from our typical services. Moriah enjoyed trying to get everyone to look at her like usual:)

Rob has had lots of school work this week and I am plugging away at Tamil. I am learning to read childrens books now. It is kinda fun to go back and read stories about mean trees and lizards missing their tails... Tamil seems very impossible somedays and other days I feel like I am right on the verge of getting it. I can say some simple phrases but overall the pronounciation is difficult and overwhelming. I just know that I must learn the language if I am going to ever understand this country and culture.

I have included a picture of the leaders of our conference churches. This is the board that makes the major decisions effecting all the churches. The leaders are preparing for a meeting in a couple of weeks and there will be new officers soon so they are trying to get as much business done as possible. Unfortnately, church politics are as ugly in India as they are in the States and there has been a lot of bickering and things with the leaders. Some of the leaders are not very honest people so it is difficult to know who to trust. This has lead me to believe that the best thing I can do is pray. I just know that I need to spend as much time as I can submitting these men to the Lord in prayer and trusting that He will fight the necessary battles for us. I hate to always be pointing out things that are "not Christian," so I just try to display Christ in my life and pray like crazy. Ultimately, a heart change can only be brought about through a radical move by the Lord.

Death in the Camp...

On Saturday we learned that Kumari's dad died in the hospital he was receiving treatment at. Kumari is one of the ladies that works and lives at the mission. Kumari had mentioned that her dad was sick a couple of times. Rob kept asking how he was and she kept telling us that he was better and then suddenly he died. This is a common pattern around here and I have not been able to pinpoint the problem. Just a couple of weeks ago Danny's brother died after being sick for a week. It seems like as soon as people tell us that their loved one is "better" we find out that they have passed away. The people we work with have very little medical knowledge so things that are big always seem small to them and things that are small they always think are major... So I am trying to learn what questions I can ask so that I truly understand the situation. I am tired of asking how people are and finding out way too late that they died of something treatable. Right now we are praying for the principle of the school in Bihar. His wife needs a hysterectomy but he cannot come home to help her (nurses do not take care of the patient) until May. He insists that she will be okay until May and that she can just receive blood transfusions and outpatient treatment until he gets home and can help her in the hospital. I am just so worried that I will hear bad news about this situation as well and that I should have pushed harder for him to come home now... I cannot force people though. At some point if they tell me that it is okay I have to believe them.

On the brighter side, we had a busy weekend. We went to a drama Saturday night at Stanly Foljers church. They had put signs all over the town announcing the drama but they also put our names in big letters all over the place. This is a big no no since we are supposed to be students and only students. We asked the pastor about it and he just laughed. They just love to celebrate people who support them. They love to have the "missionaries" at their churches. I also struggle with this a little because I want them to fall in love with the Lord and not us. We must continue to point to Him and only Him!

On Sunday we celebrated a 25th anniversary of one of the local churches. The fact that this church still exists is a miracle. A developer had come into the area and bought all of the surrounding buildings and they wanted the church property as well in order to complete his project. The people refused to sell because there was no other church in the area and to relocate would mean no Christian presence in that area. The developer threatened to knock down the building with a crane. The Christians did not back down though. They stayed in the church night and day fasting and praying for their building to be saved. God heard them and answered their prayers. This Hindu developed was impressed and decided to build them a new church in the same area but on the edge of the property he needed instead of the middle of it. So the church ended up being able to stay in the area and received a new building for free! If this does not prove the power of God then I do not know what does:) I have included a picture of the celebration we attended. It was so packed that there was not one free inch of space on the floor. I was sitting on the stage and when Moriah got hungry I had no where to take her to eat. I went outside and almost started feeding her on the side of the road but the pastors wife took me to a shed that I could use... Yeah. It is always an adventure!

10 hours in the kitchen....

I have been struggling to try and reach the ladies that are a part of the ministries in Chennai. I want to learn more about their lives and their struggles. I am amazed at all they do and all they put up with but I cannot figure out how to help their situations. The women we work with are typically full time homemakers. They work tirelessly at preparing food and taking care of their familes. I learned that even a few years ago many of our mission workers were still cooking by fire because they could not afford a gas stove! Imagine 100 degree weather in Chennai and cooking all day over a fire. Indian cooking is very time consuming so ladies spend most of the day doing this. Either way, the women here have little time for relaxing and talking to the missionary... It seems I am going to need to be more creative in my approach:)

Jingles and Baldness

Rani brought Moriah a gift of jingles last night. The baby girls here wear anklets with little bells on them and they make a pretty sound. Rani insisted that Moriah is an "Indian Baby" and therefore she must have jingles also. Moriah loves them. She kicks her feet and laughs when they make sounds. All the people that saw Moriah today were so excited to see the jingles. I also learned that all Indian babies get their heads shaved around 7 months old and again at a year old... I told everyone that Moriahs grandparents would be very angry if we allowed her head to be shaved. (Although she truly would be a little Rob if she was bald) They say that babies get colds when their hair gets wet... (Remember that oranges also cause head colds:)
Anyways, Rob was able to go with Neil Armstrong to visit some possible Muslim ministry sites in Chennai. Neil has struggled for months with health problems and his families health. Everyone is finally better so we are trying to find a place for him to minister to the Muslims in Chennai while he waits for proper documents to go back to Malaysia.

Apologies

I must give an apology to all of my faithful blog readers for not posting lately. Time has gotten away from me this past week. I want to update everyone that the family with major problems I discussed in the last post is doing a little better. The leaders of the Fellowship got together with the family and they were able to work out some of the problems. They have all agreed to move home to the village for awhile and try to work things out. It is a huge blessing and step forward that the missionaries were able to stay out of it. I say this because we are working hard right now to help the Indian church look more Indian. We want the Indian leaders to make these big decisions and handle the big problems.

We are also grateful for the opportunities to worship with several churches over the weekend. We went to a service at Kottur in Chennai and enjoyed meeting the believers there. They were very interactive during Robs sermon and they were very nice to us. Rob also went to a parsonage dedication. This was neat because a man in the church saved money for years to help contribute to the addition of a parsonage and vestibule for the church. He was so happy to give what he had saved. I was blessed to see those with so little give so much. I hope that his spirit of giving is passed to all of those we serve.

Please pray for us this week that we always look to the Lord. I have been a little frustrated lately and I need to remember that we do this for the Lord and the Lord alone.

Marriage Troubles

Today we had a meeting with the leaders of the Fellowship churches. At the end of the meeting we heard from one of our pastors wives about a serious situation. Her and her husband are having horrid problems and today he took her baby from her and has left. The cultural implications are difficult to understand but I will try to explain.
The marriage was arranged as is the custom here. Apparently the families had agreed on a dowry and on the terms of the marriage and then later the husbands family demanded a higher dowry. They wanted more gold. So the girls family rushed to come up with this so that the girls family did not lose any standing in the community. The families have always had disagreements about the alliance and the dowry. Soon after marriage the wife became pregnant. It is also custom for the wife to go and stay with her parents for the end of the pregnancy. Coincidentaly, the baby was born on the same day as Moriah. Since the baby has been born the wife has refused to go back to live with her husband. He is in ministry in a difficult village area and she wants to live in the city. Also she claims that her husband is irrational and will beat her. So the husband came and took her baby back to the village where his ministry is located. Currently the leaders of the denomination are going down to meet with the pastor and to take the baby back to the mother. The police will not be of much help so we need to pray that the leaders are successful in safely retreiving the child. We also must pray that God would intervene in the marriage and make an impossible situation better. Only He is able to bring redemption to this family and peace.
I am very much at a loss as to how to help in these situations. I want desperately to help these wives but the culture is so different that I have a hard time comprehending all the implications. I am praying that God would reveal a way for us to provide counsel to the families and support for wives who are horribly mistreated. It seems like an impossible task but we know that all things are possible with the Lord and we must put our faith in that.

When the Lizard hits the Fan:)

We were meeting the other day as a group when a large lizard climbed onto the fan and was launched into Ernies lap... We love our friendly lizards that are all over our home but when the lizard hits the fan it can scare you silly:)
Lately it seems like more than a lizard is hitting the fan. We have had some struggles with knowing who to trust and who is just abusing the system. All of us at the mission seem to be getting easily agitated and annoyed. This morning Ernie mentioned that he really felt that we are coming in contact with serious spiritual warfare. We are doing many new things and trying to really move in the direction that God leads so it only makes sense that Satan would try to thwart our efforts. It is important at times like this for us to keep things in perspective. It is crucial that we take all things to the Lord in prayer and to avoid taking them into our own hands. We must not allow our anger or frustration to interfere with the wonderful works that God has for us.

Fellowship Day

Friday we had our monthly fellowship meeting with the pastors. We always look forward to spending time with the pastors and hearing about their work. Neil Armstong gave a message about Jesus coming in on the donkey. It was interesting to hear what he had to say. It was somewhat of an allegorical sermon on winning souls for Christ. It seemed very good to me:)
We also had a meeting with one of the pastors from the south in the afternoon. He said he wants to plant a new church in another nearby area. He said he had been pastoring his present church for 22 years and that they need someone new to bring new life to the church. He said he has been evangelizing people in a nearby town and would like to put one of the first churches there. We are always excited about helping churches get started in areas where there are few to no churches so that was good too.