Well this certainly has been a week, let me tell ya! No, really, let me tell you-
It was a fairly uneventful week around here actually. I was able to go get a very much-needed hair cut and shave, which was wonderful. Went to a little cafe for the first time, and ate a very tasty chicken burger. Okay, I ate two. They were delicious, don't judge! ;) We basically spent the week getting ready for Friday and Saturday, two very big days for us that needed quite a lot of preparation. Friday was the monthly evangelist meeting here, where many (nearly 100!) of the ministry's evangelists come here for a conference where we share the word, pray together, talk about the previous month's programs and any fruit that is seen thus far, as well as discuss the coming month's programs. Saturday was going to be a big trip to Chennai (which is the cultural center of Southeast India!) and the coming of the first missions team!
Thursday, I was asked to prepare a lesson for Friday to teach the evangelists. I decided on speaking about the life of Paul. I began with 1 Corinthians 11:1 "Follow my example as I follow Christ's example." Follow me as I follow Him. Wow. Think about that for a second. It may come off as a very prideful, boastful statement, but it isn't. Just read his letters to find Paul's heart. He was so confident in his faith, and in who God had made/called him to be, that he knew he was walking in the light. What a challenge! Can we confidently say these words to someone? Can we tell them 'follow me as I follow Him'? I know I am gaining more and more confidence in my faith all the time, yet I don't know if I could ever write these words. And to put in this statement into a bit of statement, Paul has just said to not ever make anyone stumble, whether Jew or Greek or Gentile. He goes from 'do not make anyone stumble ever' to 'follow me as I follow Him' in two verses! I pray to have the Holy confidence to say these words one day!
I then talked about when we first meet Saul (spoiler alert!!! Saul=Paul! What?!) the men who are witnessing the stoning of Stephen are laying the coats at his feet (Acts 7:58). And then in Acts 8:1 we find out that "Saul approved of their killing [Stephen ]." This murderous, religious zealout of a Pharisee turns into the man who are over half of the NT! Why? Because Jesus was never anything less than absolutely real to him after his conversion (Acts 9). Paul dedicated his life to living for Jesus. He always had a 'live is Christ, die is gain' (Philippians 1:21) mindset. He lived his life by these very words. And you couldn't touch Paul. No matter what you did! They'd threaten him with death, and he'd say to die is gain. We'll keep you alive then, they'd say, and he'd say to live is Christ. My life is for His glory. They'd beat him, stone him, drag him out of the city thinking he was dead, and he just got up and WENT BACK INTO THE CITY (Acts 14:19-20)!!! He shipwrecks multiple times. At the end of Acts 27, Paul's life is spared when the other prisoners were killed because he encouraged the men by praising God for His provision! In the first part of Acts 28 he gets bit by a viper, a freakin viper, and just shakes it off like it's nothing. He "suffered no ill effects" (Acts 28:5) and shocked the men around him! Then when he's thrown in a Roman prison, which isn't a nice place in case you didn't know (remember how they tortured Jesus? Yeah, they knew what they were doing. When God saves Peter miraculously from prison in Acts 12, Herod has all of the soldiers killed when they can't find him! This is a serious place!), he preaches to the Roman guards and converts them! Come on! This dude could not be touched! No matter what you did to him! He wrote more then half of his epistles with chained wrists! He wrote some of the most encouraging words in the NT while in a prison cell! And then he asked for prayer. He always asked for prayer! And what prayer did he ask for? "Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." Ephesians 6:19-20. He didn't ask to pray to have things happen to him, for him. He didn't ask to pray to see his circumstances changed. No. He asked that they would pray for him that WHENEVER he speaks that words may be given that he would FEARLESSLY make the gospel known. And why? Because he knows he should. What a bold, confident, humble faith Paul delivers! At the end of Acts 28, we see the end of Paul's ministry, and it is another incredibly challenging thing for me. "For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ-with all boldness and without hindrance!" Acts 28:30-31. With all boldness and without hindrance. Wow. This man was awaiting his death sentence, and it only allowed him yet another opportunity to preach boldly the gospel (good news) to anyone and everyone, never finding a hindrance against him. Why? "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for u, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31. Because God was with him. And he never lost sight of that, and always proclaimed that simple yet incredible truth. This is what I had the honor and challenge to preach about to the evangelists of this wonderful ministry. It is contiuing to stay in my mind, challenging me to remember to be like Paul in ministry.
Sunday we went to Chennai, leaving here at 5:15 in the morning. I'm sure you can assume how excited about this I was lol. It was a bittersweet thing for me, actually. I was so very excited to have two more Americans joining me for a couple of weeks, yet it was so dang early! We got on the road, and drove for a couple of hours before stopping for a roadside breakfast. We had these things called idly which are little rice cake, patty-like things. They're sweet and tasty, and you put a chutney or curry over it. I very much enjoyed this breakfast! We made it to Chennai at about 8:30, and began a long day of errand running, which was often pretty boring for me. However. There were also many moments of highlights that I HAVE to tell you about lol. Some amazing things that I saw- The single most wonderfully beautiful feathered Mullet I have ever seen. This thing was sooo good, just flowing in the wind as this man rode on the back of a motorcyle passing by us. It went by in slow motion, honestly. I ate pizza at pizza hut. Yes, they have pizza huts here I guess. Found that out quite recently, and was very happy to have found this knowledge to be true! We had a pepperoni pesto pizza (alliteration ftw!) and a chicken sausage pizza. First off, this pizza hut was the nicest pizza hut ever, I swear! There was a hostess, and a restaurant menu with servers bringing you your pizzas and drinks and such. Cool wooden tables and chairs. Hip American music in the background. Yeah, it ruled. I almost fell asleep in a tire shop as we got a new tire on our truck, which was rather entertaining. Then, my pastor wanted to go get a cut and a shave, so he left me and the driver (who speaks as much English as I speak Telugu) to wait for him. He put on the radio, and changes it to the American music channel (yeah, there's that too!) and begins rocking out to the song. We listened to three songs. All three were heavy beat songs that we both just jammed to. They were (no lie) Ke$ha, T-Swift, and J Biebs. It was glorious. Just rocking out, jamming to hilariously fun pop music with this Indian dude who is jamming as much as you are, smiling huge smiles allthewhile, was one of my favorite parts of the day! We then made our way to the airport to pick up Kari and Merri, two sisters from America who have been a huge blessing so far. Their plane was 40 minutes late, but they took next to no time to come out once they'd landed, so it evened out in the end. We then drove back home and took to bed at the wonderful hour of 2am! haha I will write about the adventures of three Americans soon, but this post is slowly finding its way to the end!
I love you all so very much, and thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! You are all wonderful and I cannot say how much I appreciate them! Please continue to pray that our ministry and work would be righteous and fruitful! Pray for protection physically and Spiritually! Thank you so much! Love ya! See you soon!
Joel
It was a fairly uneventful week around here actually. I was able to go get a very much-needed hair cut and shave, which was wonderful. Went to a little cafe for the first time, and ate a very tasty chicken burger. Okay, I ate two. They were delicious, don't judge! ;) We basically spent the week getting ready for Friday and Saturday, two very big days for us that needed quite a lot of preparation. Friday was the monthly evangelist meeting here, where many (nearly 100!) of the ministry's evangelists come here for a conference where we share the word, pray together, talk about the previous month's programs and any fruit that is seen thus far, as well as discuss the coming month's programs. Saturday was going to be a big trip to Chennai (which is the cultural center of Southeast India!) and the coming of the first missions team!
Thursday, I was asked to prepare a lesson for Friday to teach the evangelists. I decided on speaking about the life of Paul. I began with 1 Corinthians 11:1 "Follow my example as I follow Christ's example." Follow me as I follow Him. Wow. Think about that for a second. It may come off as a very prideful, boastful statement, but it isn't. Just read his letters to find Paul's heart. He was so confident in his faith, and in who God had made/called him to be, that he knew he was walking in the light. What a challenge! Can we confidently say these words to someone? Can we tell them 'follow me as I follow Him'? I know I am gaining more and more confidence in my faith all the time, yet I don't know if I could ever write these words. And to put in this statement into a bit of statement, Paul has just said to not ever make anyone stumble, whether Jew or Greek or Gentile. He goes from 'do not make anyone stumble ever' to 'follow me as I follow Him' in two verses! I pray to have the Holy confidence to say these words one day!
I then talked about when we first meet Saul (spoiler alert!!! Saul=Paul! What?!) the men who are witnessing the stoning of Stephen are laying the coats at his feet (Acts 7:58). And then in Acts 8:1 we find out that "Saul approved of their killing [Stephen ]." This murderous, religious zealout of a Pharisee turns into the man who are over half of the NT! Why? Because Jesus was never anything less than absolutely real to him after his conversion (Acts 9). Paul dedicated his life to living for Jesus. He always had a 'live is Christ, die is gain' (Philippians 1:21) mindset. He lived his life by these very words. And you couldn't touch Paul. No matter what you did! They'd threaten him with death, and he'd say to die is gain. We'll keep you alive then, they'd say, and he'd say to live is Christ. My life is for His glory. They'd beat him, stone him, drag him out of the city thinking he was dead, and he just got up and WENT BACK INTO THE CITY (Acts 14:19-20)!!! He shipwrecks multiple times. At the end of Acts 27, Paul's life is spared when the other prisoners were killed because he encouraged the men by praising God for His provision! In the first part of Acts 28 he gets bit by a viper, a freakin viper, and just shakes it off like it's nothing. He "suffered no ill effects" (Acts 28:5) and shocked the men around him! Then when he's thrown in a Roman prison, which isn't a nice place in case you didn't know (remember how they tortured Jesus? Yeah, they knew what they were doing. When God saves Peter miraculously from prison in Acts 12, Herod has all of the soldiers killed when they can't find him! This is a serious place!), he preaches to the Roman guards and converts them! Come on! This dude could not be touched! No matter what you did to him! He wrote more then half of his epistles with chained wrists! He wrote some of the most encouraging words in the NT while in a prison cell! And then he asked for prayer. He always asked for prayer! And what prayer did he ask for? "Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." Ephesians 6:19-20. He didn't ask to pray to have things happen to him, for him. He didn't ask to pray to see his circumstances changed. No. He asked that they would pray for him that WHENEVER he speaks that words may be given that he would FEARLESSLY make the gospel known. And why? Because he knows he should. What a bold, confident, humble faith Paul delivers! At the end of Acts 28, we see the end of Paul's ministry, and it is another incredibly challenging thing for me. "For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ-with all boldness and without hindrance!" Acts 28:30-31. With all boldness and without hindrance. Wow. This man was awaiting his death sentence, and it only allowed him yet another opportunity to preach boldly the gospel (good news) to anyone and everyone, never finding a hindrance against him. Why? "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for u, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31. Because God was with him. And he never lost sight of that, and always proclaimed that simple yet incredible truth. This is what I had the honor and challenge to preach about to the evangelists of this wonderful ministry. It is contiuing to stay in my mind, challenging me to remember to be like Paul in ministry.
Sunday we went to Chennai, leaving here at 5:15 in the morning. I'm sure you can assume how excited about this I was lol. It was a bittersweet thing for me, actually. I was so very excited to have two more Americans joining me for a couple of weeks, yet it was so dang early! We got on the road, and drove for a couple of hours before stopping for a roadside breakfast. We had these things called idly which are little rice cake, patty-like things. They're sweet and tasty, and you put a chutney or curry over it. I very much enjoyed this breakfast! We made it to Chennai at about 8:30, and began a long day of errand running, which was often pretty boring for me. However. There were also many moments of highlights that I HAVE to tell you about lol. Some amazing things that I saw- The single most wonderfully beautiful feathered Mullet I have ever seen. This thing was sooo good, just flowing in the wind as this man rode on the back of a motorcyle passing by us. It went by in slow motion, honestly. I ate pizza at pizza hut. Yes, they have pizza huts here I guess. Found that out quite recently, and was very happy to have found this knowledge to be true! We had a pepperoni pesto pizza (alliteration ftw!) and a chicken sausage pizza. First off, this pizza hut was the nicest pizza hut ever, I swear! There was a hostess, and a restaurant menu with servers bringing you your pizzas and drinks and such. Cool wooden tables and chairs. Hip American music in the background. Yeah, it ruled. I almost fell asleep in a tire shop as we got a new tire on our truck, which was rather entertaining. Then, my pastor wanted to go get a cut and a shave, so he left me and the driver (who speaks as much English as I speak Telugu) to wait for him. He put on the radio, and changes it to the American music channel (yeah, there's that too!) and begins rocking out to the song. We listened to three songs. All three were heavy beat songs that we both just jammed to. They were (no lie) Ke$ha, T-Swift, and J Biebs. It was glorious. Just rocking out, jamming to hilariously fun pop music with this Indian dude who is jamming as much as you are, smiling huge smiles allthewhile, was one of my favorite parts of the day! We then made our way to the airport to pick up Kari and Merri, two sisters from America who have been a huge blessing so far. Their plane was 40 minutes late, but they took next to no time to come out once they'd landed, so it evened out in the end. We then drove back home and took to bed at the wonderful hour of 2am! haha I will write about the adventures of three Americans soon, but this post is slowly finding its way to the end!
I love you all so very much, and thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! You are all wonderful and I cannot say how much I appreciate them! Please continue to pray that our ministry and work would be righteous and fruitful! Pray for protection physically and Spiritually! Thank you so much! Love ya! See you soon!
Joel
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