Uruguay Update#2

     After many challenges in travels, our team is settled in and active in ministry. Sunday, July 1st, we were blessed to participate in worship at the Baptist Church of Juan Lacaze, in the morning. One man prayed to receive Christ at the end of the service and we had the opportunity to celebrate with him and his family!
In the evening we participated in the worship service at Nueva Helvecia (Envangelical Baptist Church). It was a wonderful time of fellowship with our brothers and sisters-Christ. We were blessed even more when we were able to join them in the Lord's Supper.
   Today, July 2nd, our team went door-to-door inviting the residents of Juan Lacaze to the local church for free medical check-ups. During these visits, two people made decisions to place their faith and trust in Jesus! Two days and three professions of faith - God is so good!
   This evening, we hosted the children from the community for a night of music, Bible stories, crafts and games. 22 children joined our team for this exciting evening and fun was had by everyone.
Pray for our medical team as they prepare for the second and final day of check.-ups tomorrow and then will be leading a session on stress management in the evening.
Uruguay Team

Peru Update#6

The Peru team left Peru, Monday evening at 10:30pm so please keep them in your prayers as they travel home. A final update for their last couple days of ministry is to follow.

Uruguay #1

     The whole team has arrived in Uruguay safely.  Yesterday - they had a wonderful day of ministry - sharing their testimonies with the locals.  The internet in country has been down - but more updates will be soon to follow.

India Update #6

       We had kind of a low key day today.  We met in the courtyard of the compound at ten for some team devotion time.  We got to listen to hymns and songs of praise from a Baptist church adjacent to the compound where we are staying.  We had a time of sharing, some prayer time, a devotional time, and closed in prayer.  This is a good team.  Everybody is involved and everybody shares and encourages each other.  We all shared today the things that had the biggest impact on us so far.  I would say that we have all been changed by this experience.  We could not be at FBCN today so we have FBCN Calcutta annex here.  You sent us out as your missionaries, you have supported us, and you have and are praying for us.  We cannot wait to come back to you, like Paul and Barnabas, with our report on the saints in Calcutta.

     Ellen made an observation that I will try to share but I cannot remember her exact phrasing.  It was about the beautiful colors of the clothing that the Indian women wear.  She said, “They bring amazing colors into a very drab place.”  I hadn’t seen it that way until she said it.  This place is very crowded and run down.  There are a lot of shades of gray and black.  There are also many faded pastels.  The brightest things around are the clothing the women wear.  They are like many types and colors of flowers everywhere and it brightens up everything around them.

      This evening we attended a worship service at the Church on the flat roof of a three story house.  We participated first during the children’s time and then in the service for older teens, young adults, and adults.  During the children’s worship we sang with them and for them.  We decided to do “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” for them since it seemed so appropriate.  We changed the words a little to “Brown and Yellow, Black and White” since it seemed appropriate. 

     I taught a Bible story and spoke of Jesus’ love and esteem for children.  How He chastised the disciples for turning away the parents who wanted Him to hold and bless their children and told they, “Let the little children come to me”.  I also spoke of how Jesus used the faith of a child as an example for adults and said that unless you had faith “like a child” you could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 

     As the children were dismissed they came up to us and shook our hands and said, “Thank you sir” or “Thank you Mam” as was appropriate.  As the young people and adults came in there was much interaction.  All of the ladies, Mary, Cheryl, Ellen, Christy, and Alison, have bonded with the girls and there was much hugging and smiling.  Each has formed extra strong bonds with certain girls.  Two of the girls, and Cheryl have come to love each other very much.   The girls constantly want to hold her hands and hug her.  Bill and I have spent a good amount of time with two fine young men.  They are both college students and they both also teach at the schools.  They are mighty men of God.  I cannot believe the depth of love we have for them in such a short time.  It is because we all have the love of our Lord in us and we recognize God’s spirit in each other.  That has allowed us to bond and grow to love each other so quickly.  The pastor, and his wife are also very dear to us all.  It will be hard to leave them. 

     During the worship service the air cools as the sun goes down and we get a nice “Jesus Breeze” as Ellen has called it.  The back drop of the service is the remains of an old blue tarp.  On a white board hanging from a bamboo structure in the middle of the tarp is written in green dry marker, the church name.  There is not railing around the roof so it is best to keep back from the edges. We sing hymns and songs of praise in three different languages, Hindi, Bengali, and English.  The songs sung in Hindi and Bengali are very beautiful and the believers sing out with joy that can be heard in their voices and seen in their faces. 

     After the signing is a time of prayer and praise request and prayer.  Several of the young people praise God for bringing us to them.  We praise God for allowing us to see His work here.  After the prayer Alison shared her testimony and one of the young men interpreted.  She did a great job sharing a powerful testimony.  Her testimony if very relevant to the women here and they need to hear a testimony of God’s love, God’s plans, and God’s restoration.  The church had six visitors tonight, all women.  It was ordained by God before the creation that Alison would be sharing her testimony tonight on the roof of a house in Calcutta and that those six women visiting for the first time would hear it.  God also has a great since of humor.  Right in the middle of Alison’s testimony four goats joined us on the roof and began bleating and started chewing on our bags.  Bill and I had to get up and move our stuff out of the way.  Alison just kept on going. 

     From the roof as we worship we can see the basis of the pastor’s vision for the area.  All around the church there are many multistory building being constructed in this area which they call New Town.  From the roof you can see the new and modern encroaching on the old and dilapidated.  The pastor said that they estimate that in the next five or so year’s, 5 million people will inhabit these high rises and he and his church want to reach these people as they move in.  The roof is almost at maximum capacity for they will have to find more space soon. 

   While the pastor was preaching his message on faith, character, and being the light, a man in the building right next to the church opens his window two floors above the church.  As the pastor preaches the man stops and listens for a while.  There are advantages to an open air church. 

     After the service we interact with the people and probably keep them too long.  The pastor’s wife has to get up at 5 AM tomorrow to get to the school.  She and the pastor both put in many long days.  They have done an amazing job discipling these young people.  Part of their worship service is scripture memorization.  The other day, while Bill and I were prayer walking in the village with one of the young men, he shared his testimony with us.  He is about 22 and he told us how he had been and how God had changed him.  I said to him, “The Bible says that when a man is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come.”  He immediately looked at me and said 2 Corinthians 5:17.  The pastor is helping these young disciples plant the Word of God in their hearts.

   It is hard to leave these people.  Most of them we will not see again before we leave.  Some we will see for a  brief time on Friday, just a quick goodbye.  We share email addresses and even Facebook names for those who have them.  They ask us when we will come back.  I can only answer with, “When God tells me to.”  I hope that we can come back and see the church that they will build.  Not a building, but the people.  The building is irrelevant.  It is what is in the hearts of the people that matters.  They have no sound systems and very few instruments.  They have limited materials and curriculum.  They have no air conditioning.  Let’s face it, they do not even have a roof or any walls and it does not matter.  What they do have are hearts fully devoted to God.  They have faith that is growing and will one day move mountains.  They boldly proclaim the name of Jesus in a hostile environment.  They are the light that God is shining brightly here in a very dark place, a place where most people worship idols that they construct with their own hands instead of the creator of all things.  We believe that God will multiple their numbers because they honor Him with their lives. 

Today was a good day here at the FBCN Calcutta annex. 

India Mission #5

     It took two days to finally get the last message posted so now we are a couple of days behind. The days run together a bit as time here seems to function in another dimension. I am pretty sure that today is Saturday.  Yesterday and today we held medical clinics in two different villages. The villages are very different from the city.

    The first village was made up entirely of one family and the matriarch the village, who is also a Hindu priestess, was very gracious to us from the moment we arrived.  She made sure that we had everything we needed and thanked us many times.  When we packed up to leave she hugged and kissed several of the ladies.  On the way back Mary commented on the fact that if this woman was to accept Christ that many in the village would also since she had so much influence.  We prayed for her salvation and believe that the believers from the home church that were working with us will follow up with her.        

    The village’s livelihood comes from fish farming. They have acres and acres of pond with dams around them that they must build by hand. We prayer walked through the village and it was very clean and open, especially compared to the slum we had worked in for three days before.  The people are very warm, hospitable, and gracious and the Hindu’s do not have any problems with Jesus, they just have a problem with Him as the one true God. Some will even say that they have Jesus in their hearts but if you discuss it with them you will find they also have many other gods in their hearts so adding one more is no problem.  We try to emphasize Jesus as the only God, Jesus as the living God, and Jesus as the only way to the Father in our discussions and witnessing opportunities.  The pastor we are working with, calls Jesus the Living God when he preaches. 

     After the medical clinic as we were driving back to Calcutta (about a 2 hour drive), we stopped in a little town to purchase some bottled water.  The people were very curious and gathered around us.  Soon we were surrounded by 50 or more people.  Bill shared the gospel with them as we handed out salvation tracks written in Bengali.  They listened intently as Bill shared with them that Jesus was the one true God and that he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man can come to the Father except through me.”

     The second village grew rice, hemp, and many other crops that we could not identify.  This village was primarily Muslim.  While we were doing the clinic one young man shimmed up a coconut tree and cut off about 20 coconuts and dropped them about 30 feet to another young man.  Once they were all on the ground they opened them with a little machete and gave them out to drink.  The coconut milk is warm and sweet.  After we drank it they opened the shell and gave us the meat. 

    At the second clinic we registered 20 patients and then stopped for a program.  Christie shared her testimony and gave a gospel presentation through an interpreter.  The rest of us sang.  We learned one Bengali song before we came, “This is the Day that the Lord has Made”.  I would write the Bengali title but I cannot locate the paper it is printed upon right now. 

     Bill and Alison see all of the patients while Mary and Christie fill the prescriptions.  It has varied some with the rest of us, Ellen, Cheryl, and I are doing the registration, taking temperatures, and doing blood sugar checks.  The person doing the registration has an interpreter, as do both Bill and Alison.  We also try to have someone for the pharmacy, which Christy has dupped the “Mary-Chris-Mess” pharmacy do to the fact that it is manned by the two of them and due to its limited space and other challenges, it is very hard to keep straight.  They both do a great job and Mary is especially good at reading Bill’s handwriting.  Once the registration is complete, we have learned that we have to cut it off at a given number, Alison and Bill see the remaining patients, Mary and Christie fill the scripts, and the rest of us circulate and interact with the people.  Our host, from Nebraska, speaks Bengali and does whatever it takes to help out.  He moves from place to place and we often have to call for him or go get him to help us understand or to help us explain something.  One of the many blessings we have received has been our driver.  He has become a very important part of our team.  He drove a taxi in Calcutta for 25 years and he may be the best driver on the face of the earth.  I will not even try to describe the traffic here.  I am not that articulate and even if I were, you would not believe me.  He weaves in and out, going from the right, to the left, to the center of the road.  He also knows every shortcut and the traffic patterns.  We all feel very safe with him driving us. 

     Many people here speak English and some very well.  Many that we have met can only say “hello”, and they call that out to us when we walk through the villages or the markets and smile when we respond.  Some speak English but with a Bengali accent.  While it is a little hard to understand each other we can converse.  Some of us brought Shutterfly photo albums with pictures of our families, friends, and home.  They love looking at the pictures with us.

    After the clinic Saturday in the Muslin village our driver took us to a restaurant that he knew on the way home.  It was air conditioned and the food was excellent.  It seems that he also knows where the best restaurants are.

     We had to do a quick turnaround when we returned to base.  The ladies had to get ready to go in two groups, Mary and Ellen in one, Cheryl, Alison, and Christie,(in the other) to two different Henna parties in different parts of Calcutta.  Nothing is close by in Calcutta.  There are 16 million people living here and it is hard to travel through the city.  Many of the streets are narrow.  The streets are shared with cars, trucks, trolley cars, buses, these little vehicles that operate as cabs that look kind of like a cross between a golf cart and the old Good Humor Man ice cream trucks.  There are also motorcycles, motor scooters, bicycles, bike pulled rickshaws, people pulled rickshaws, people pulling carts, and people walking all over and across the streets.  Imagine all of that and then some cattle, dogs, goats, and chickens all sharing the same road. I drove with our host to pick up two young ladies who were going to help at the Henna parties so we had to take one to each party.  It took an hour and 45 minutes to accomplish that task. 

    At the location of the Henna party they threw flower petals on us when we arrived and then gave each of us some red flowers, kind of like roses, attached to a stick about 24” long.  They also gave us two beautiful flower arrangements, one for the men and one for the women.  The ladies shared stories from the Bible in Henna paintings on the hand.  As the painting is made they share the story of the woman at the well.   Our host and I briefly went out into the neighborhood to pass out tracks with the male host, and the owner of the house, which is also where their church meets.  Everywhere we go in public we create a spectacle.  People go get their friends and families just to look at us.  This gives us opportunities to share the gospel.  They are very friendly and most willing to engage in conversation. 

After a busy day we head home and believe it or not, we ordered Subway subs delivered to the compound where we are staying.  The subs are pretty much the same as home but everything is chicken or turkey.  At that time, about 10 o’clock, we were just looking for some fuel.  After eating we all shower and hit the sack.  We are blessed to have hot water and an air conditioned sleeping room!

Peru Update #5

     Day 5- the team served our last day in Pamplona today. It was bittersweet because more people were coming each day and new and exciting relationships were being formed each day but the mission was also coming to an end.
      The team was engaged in several women's activities (Bible study, cooking class, having a meal together, and hand care). This was a special treat for them because the rest of the team took their children and provided activities for them as well.  There were over 20 women in their sessions and 60 to 70 children. This little church plant was thrilled at the things that took place this week! We believe it holds the possibility of providing the light of Christ in very dark circumstances. Please pray that God will raise up strong leadership that will guide this family of faith in the coming days.
     The team will return to Villa el Salvador for the last two days of ministry. One of the exciting elements of this mission has been to see the members of this three-year old church plant now take on the role of a sponsoring church. They have two small-groups meeting in other areas of their community and they have a wonderful church facility. God is indeed pouring His blessings upon First Baptist Church of Villa el Salvador and the Pastor.      Team Peru