If pictures are worth a thousand words what's a video worth?

Want to see a short video of our recent trip to India? Check this out...

http://picasaweb.google.com/stzach/Video02/photo#5036248065963570498

For explanation of the events shown be sure to check my entries from Feb 1-9

Introducing Alex

For those who have been following my blog (and haven't given up on me) you might remember my summer adventure in Belize. At that time I was so excited to share with you all the amazing potential and encounters we had in Belize that I don't think I took adequate time to introduce a good friend that I have been working with over the past year to develop the ministry of CCI in Belize and Latin America.

Like many of the amazing leaders we work with world wide Alex has got a pretty incredible story. After considering the twists, turns and hardships people like Alex face I wonder how do people like this rise to the top while so many who endure so much less do not. The answer I believe demonstrates God's amazing plan for amazing individuals like this who are courageous enough to choose it (and I wonder if I'm courageous enough to choose all that God has for me).

Alex was born in Guatemala in the early 80's. As many of you may remember this was a time of war and unrest in this Central America country. The day Alex was born his town was in the center of the action. He shares the story his birth mother told him about the difficult labor - it seems Alex was not anxious to be born into such conditions. When Alex was born and his family fled they discovered the building he was born in was only one of three left standing in the entire town. Alex a little more of the war torn scene but you can probably fill in the picture of what is left of a town when it's been bombed.

There are details that I have yet to learn about Alex like if he ever knew his birth father - whom I know still lives in Guatemala. I do know that Alex, his older brother and his birth mother ended up in Belize where they shared a few years together. However, when he was very young (I think he was around 6) Alex's mother left to make a life in the United States. There she met a man and joined the Jehovah's Witnesses. She never returned or sent for Alex. Alex was now an orphan. The friend of the family that Alex had been staying with graciously took him in. Though he refers to her as his mother Alex didn't grow up with the kind of love a support many of us did. But he had a roof over his head and food in his stomach that carried him till he could experience the love of Christ which would fill some of the big holes in his life.

It was in his teenage years that God called Him into his current family - the family of believers. We haven't so specifically talked about the events leading up to Alex coming to know Christ (the conversation hasn't often made it past how much Alex is in love with Christ and his family - and I haven't filled in a lot of the details mostly because Alex has got his eyes so firmly set on the future that the past isn't much the topic of discussion). Alex's faith and his home life did present some challenges as his foster mother was heavily involved in the occult (when we went to visit her this summer she had apparently been quite anxious as she had clients stopping by to have their fortunes told while we were there - we didn't stay too long as some of these tensions where pretty obvious). So needless to say Alex's faith was his own while all around him he faced the battles of growing up. (There's countless more stories to tell of his family that were involved in the drug trade, murders and that sort of thing but it might be best to wait for the movie. However, I will say that a lot of the stories revolve around his foster sister, whom Alex is now quite close to. After some time in hiding, as a result of being surrounded by the drama listed above, she came to know Christ and is also serving Him faithfully.)

Alex did have the opportunity to attend a Christian high-school an opportunity and blessing he speaks of often. There he grew in his faith and became aware of the calling he had to reach the people of Belize. In fact, he jokingly told me of the trouble he got into when he would leave the campus. Did he go out to party like other teens? No, instead he frequently put together ministry teams to go out into surrounding villages to share his faith with the people there - what a wild child! I've heard from some of his old teachers who said they were moved to tears by the dedication of this young man.

The Lord continued to bless Alex in his studies and he had the opportunity to come to Canada and study at Steinbach Bible College. It was in the summer of Alex's first year that I met him at Winkler Bible Camp. Alex served that summer as a camp counselor and that's when he sensed God calling him to reach out to Belize children and youth through camping ministry. During the summer between his 2nd and 3rd years at SBC I travelled with Alex to explore the potential of this ministry in Belize. I can assure you, as it is obvious right from his birth story, that God's hand is on this young man and you can expect some more great stories about him in the future.

Next Installment

Day 5 - District Coordinators and Supervisors Meeting

What an encouraging event for me. These are our team members. You can't see them all but there's a lot of them (and not all of them could be at this meeting as they were preparing for an outreach event in Nagercoil that I'll tell you about later). About 60 of our volunteer and full-time staff were at this meeting to share with each other and us what God is doing in their districts of Tamil Nadu, India. The level of commitment in this ministry is amazing. A lot of these guys receive nothing in terms of finances from us but God is pouring out the most incredible blessings on their ministries. The testimonies of growing churches are simply to numerous to retell. But each of these guys had dozens of stories to tell. The solution is really quite simple - you need to meet them yourself!

What I was so impressed with, and I don't know why it surprised me so much, was the level of organization and accountability there was to this ministry. As the ministry grew I really thought that there would be a few details that would fall through the cracks but the people shown in this room have certainly filled the cracks. Every single church (and there's well over 800 already) that we work with is visited regularly by a network of supervisor like you see hear. They encourage the churches in their work, provide materials for youth council programs and follow up the various ministry goals set by the church. Then these supervisors report all that God is doing in these churches to the district coordinator in their area who reports to Antony and the IBCM leadership team.

Prayerfully with this information the leadership team decides where funding goes for children's camps. So we all can be confident that every dollar is wisely invested only in churches that are passionately and are committed to reaching out to their communities (and they run a pretty tight ship).

Day 6 & 7 - Visits to Trichy and Tanjure

That's when we saw these inner workings of the ship. We travelled south to our home base city of Trichy. Here we visited the office and saw just how thorough the team out there is. It's obvious they spend a lot of time doing what they do - maybe that's why many of the staff live right there at the office! Antony's bedroom was behind curtain #1 in his office! Imagine if I were to move into the office. I think people who tell me that my work owns me. In India the attitude is, "this is not a job, this is who we are!"

In the evening we had the opportunity to visit Pastor Pandian's church and a couple follow up programs.

I need to say a little about Pastor Pandian... If there was a person in life that I could be more like, Pastor Pandian is certainly one of them. I guess it's really up to me because the things I admired about him the most revolve around his character. I don't know that he had specific talents but just meeting him you were overwhelmed by his deep humility and obvious connection with Christ.

Unfortunately Pastor Pandian passed away suddenly less than 2 weeks before we could see him again. In the picture here you see him standing at the Jan 3rd prayer and planning meeting. Perhaps the picture is too small but he's got the biggest smile on and you can see everyone is laughing. The next day he went to be with the Lord after he suffered a heart attack.

Though it was a pretty big blow to the ministry and to Antony personally (as he played a very significant role) he left an amazing legacy. He told Antony just a little more than 2 weeks prior, "When I die don't cry for me - I'm a soldier of Christ. Just bury me in a military uniform with the IBCM flag over me." It's the cause he fought for and I wonder if that's how I'll see him next time I see him. He certainly fought well and gained a lot of ground for Christ's Kingdom. We went to his church to remember him, say our goodbyes and spend a few tender moments with his wife and church. He certainly deserves a better tribute than a short entry on my blog but maybe honor his memory better by living like he did.

That night we met some of the most precious children and heard some of the most amazing singing. It was truly incredible to take in a couple of the most incredible follow up programs. It's hard to get the magnitude of what's going on but this picture can be multiplied by about 800. That's how many of these programs there are. It was something else to see the eagerness of these kids to share the bible passages (sometimes entire chapters) they had memorized. Probably one of the most moving things is to listen to them pray. I know God love to hear this kind of thing. How they pray for their churches and families and friends really puts me to shame. And to think, till a few short months ago their only option was to pray to a stone idol that neither heard nor cared about them.

Day 8 - Youth Event in Nagercoil

Are your eyes sore yet - mine are. Probably more from writing about Pastor Pandian than anything but I'll try to pick up the pace a little.

At this event in Nagercoil about 4,000 young people came together to hear the message of the gospel and be challenged through a variety of speakers, skits, dances and songs. It was really

an amazing event and again we really saw God at work. But His work is not without opposition. By mid afternoon of this day long event about 200 students had to be asked to leave the event as they became extremely disruptive of the program and openly mocked the message. The ironic thing was I think the illustrated every point that had be made that day and for the remaining 3,800 people I think the reality of the message shared was that much greater. So again God uses what was intended for harm to build His kingdom again.

Day 9& 10 - Back To Tirunelveli For A Youth Training Event

It was the last event to take in on our agenda for this trip. And again it's amazing to see what God is doing in the lives of the youth that are working with this ministry. It was so neat to hear the testimonies of the many youth who shared that they had experience God at this program and heard Him calling them to ministry among their peers. Does this sound repetitive? It sure is!

In 2007, Lord willing, each of the young people will be multiplied by 21,000. Those trained by 10,000. Campers by 100,000. So we covet your prayers and support. We've got a lot of work to do! Perhaps you want to join this team.

Then it was the long trip home...

Still On India Time?

They say it takes about a day to adjust to each hour of time change. So by next week I hope these entries will be made a little more descent hour. Till then I think I'll just enjoy the quietness of the night. It really is a productive time of the day!

Again I'd like to be a big thank you to all who attended our little lunch at church. It certainly was a lot of fun for us and we hope it was a blessing for you. For those who were not able to attend we'd still love to connect with you to tell you all about the exciting things going on in our lives and ministry. It could even include some Indian food!

But if you're burning a little "midnite oil" with me and just catching up on our blog I'll continue telling you a little about my time in India...

Day 2 & 3 (Saturday - Sunday)

Youth Counsel Training

In my last post I introduced you to the idea of the youth counsels. Each church we are working with has developed these groups to mobilize their youth to be active in the ministry of the church. It's really amazing what some of these groups are accomplishing. Pastors are just thrilled. For so long their only method to accomplish more was to work harder and longer and now they are excited to have the help and support of the youth of their church. One pastor noted that the youth were once just spectators in the church but now they are active participants. He went on to share how much he appreciated having more time for personal prayer and study.

On the weekend we had the opportunity to take part in a training session for youth counsel leaders. It was so neat to see these 80 young people coming together from 80 different churches to focus on a common goal - to reach their communities and peers with the good news of Christ. Many of them had never met before but by the end of the event they had a new passion for ministry and shared contact information and ideas on how they could work together to proclaim the gospel in the city on Chennai.

It's really big to see churches coming together to work in partnership to reach this city which is certainly in great need. I spoke with another pastor from Chennai who was blown away by what he saw. He said that churches have never come together like this before and he was excited for the revival that was going to come in this city and state through this ministry because they were finally working together.

Day 4

Pastor's meeting

Continuing on that thought. Churches are coming together in an amazing way throughout the state of Tamil Nadu. Until this year we haven't had much opportunity to work in the city of Chennai (the capital of Tamil Nadu) so it was a good time to gather with many of the pastors in that city to share a vision for revival. Again many pastors shared that it would be unlikely that anyone would stay past lunch to hear about this ministry. However, around 1,300 pastor attended and stayed till after 5 or 6 pm (I lost track of the time it was at least 6 before we left and there were still many pastors at the venue). Many said that they had never felt so encouraged from a meeting before and began to share the vision with those who had not attended (many of whom later called to express their regrets that they hadn't either heard about the meeting or were not able to attend).

Well there's another morsel to chew on. Plenty more update is on the way but in the coming days I have the opportunity to teach the book of Acts at the Cross Current Discipleship Program at WBC this week and I should use a few of these fruitful hours for that.

Home Again

Well it may take me a series of posts to catch up with all that has happened over the past couple weeks. Again I apologize for the lack of updates while I was in India. Each day we hoped to pop in to an internet cafe but all kinds of opportunities kept popping up. The result we only got in touch with technology once while we were overseas.

Let me start at the beginning...

We arrived in Delhi on late on Thursday the 18th (actually it was Friday by the time we got to our hotel) and were extremely grateful to have a hotel shuttle waiting for us when we arrived (a luxery that is often advertized but not actuallized - and it wasn't ever again). We were grateful to have a clean bed as it had been a long tiring trip.

We all (Tania & Mike - my sister and brother-in-law and Jocelyn one of their friends who also joined us) woke up at the crack of dawn as our bodies began to adjust to the 11 1/2 hour difference. We enjoyed an Indian breakfast and a quick connection with a fellow Winklerite who had been in Delhi since late 2006. Nicole Enns stopped by the hotel to pick up a package that hitched a ride with us and shared a little about her ministry in Delhi as we ate breakfast. I encourage you to check out her blog at http://nicoleenns.blogspot.com

Then it was off to Chennai to begin reconnecting with the India Bible Camp Ministry team. And what a great beginning it was. Immediately it felt as though I had come home to my home away from home. The sites, sound and smells were a lot how I had remembered them and it was so great to share that with Tania, Mike and Jocelyn (it was especially fun to watch them as they experienced the many "close calls" of Indian traffic).

It was great to see Antony again after nearly 2 years. There was so much to catch up on and we did till the wee hours of the night.

We didn't plunge too deep into Indian culture just yet as Domino's Pizza was across the street from our hotel. I think Antony did that on purpose to make us feel a little more at home. We were all eager to get into some butter chicken and brota (one of my favorites) but there was plenty of time for that coming so we graciously enjoyed some really good pizza.

Tired from the journey and time change we orginally planned to unwind and relax at the hotel or maybe venture out to see some of the nearby notable sites (not that Chennai is a real tourist location but everyone was interested to experience traffic and just look at how Indians live). However there was a much better option for us to take in. One youth counsel was holding an outreach program in the Northern part of Chennai (where their church is located) in the slums of the city. The pastor was very eager to have us visit - and we discovered later that he had actually even hired a care to drive the hour long trip through the city to pick us up. Already having our own vehicle we drove out and met the pastor who showed us some of his community and told us about his ministry.

What amazing people and amazing churches we are privileged to work with. I can not describe the singing - the thundering singing - we heard as we pulled up to the youth counsel program.

Perhaps before I get to far into telling you about this program I should tell you a little bit about what it's about first.

The Christian Youth Fellowship of India (CYFI) was started after many of young people who worked with the camping programs were eager to continue ministering to their communities. Since September over 700 groups have been established in different churches. We offer materials, training and accountability to these groups and they go nuts!

Each group is asked to once a year reach out to their non-churched friends and host an evening of singing, skits and encouragement. The group that we visited was holding their program that week (every week there's at least one of these programs going in India). The youth counsel of about 30 members had brought in 300 of their friends. The had planned, fundraised and initiated this program on their own. Antony shared that this group had also spent the last 7 day-times in prayer and fasting asking the Lord to use this event to bring about change in the lives of their friends and community. That passion was certainly reflected in the program.

As we were greeted at the door by this youth counsel we could hear amazing praises coming from inside. God's presence there was so overwhelming that many of us were immediately moved to tears. I can't tell you how many responded to the gospel message that night as we don't generally encourage alter calls (which in India people typically just respond to out of respect for their hosts). Instead each attender was personally invited and followed up by the youth counsel. The result is simply amazing. The church is growing! It's not about us and our programs and stats but it's about helping these churches reach their communities and it's working!

I have so much more to say about this event but I really missed the family so I'm going to pull myself away from the computer now. But you can join us this Sunday after church for Indian food and more updates from my time in India. We just ask that you let us know you're coming so we can make sure we prepare enough food. Hope to see you then. And if we don't come back here and I'll tell you about day #2.