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.
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).
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.
