Next Update From India

It was sure good to get a good night’s sleep last night! The past couple days we’ve certainly been on the go. We spent Friday and Saturday seeing the ministry in Chennai and it’s hard to imagine that we really only started in this city a couple years ago. The momentum is tremendous.
Our time began on Friday with a youth event. And as is typical, the house packed out. I think they were expecting about 100 young people but 277 showed up by the time the program got into full swing. What a blessing to hear their testimonies and share with them in a time of worship.
On Saturday we began the day by attending a pastors meeting. Dad took the opportunity to get behind the mic and shared a neat illustration that really connected with the pastors. He asked them to imagine that they were a vehicle. What vehicle would they be? A motorcycle, rickshaw, car… He shared how he had a license to drive a motorcycle. It is a good, convenient and easy vehicle to navigate the busy Indian streets. However, it will only carry a few passengers (2 in Canada and 5 or so in India). Because the pastors chose a Mercedes Benz to be the vehicle that Dad would represent he spent some time imagining with them that he would go for a drive. A car like this would be prefect capacity for his family. When he asked the family where would we drive to we replied heaven. As he shared he noted what he imagined Jesus would say if he arrived at heaven’s gate with his car load. He imagined Jesus taking his license and saying, “I see you have a license to drive a bus, why did you come with only a car.” At this the pastors became very excited and said that then they would like to drive a train instead. What vision!
We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting follow-up programs and met some of the most precious children. While we have visited countless follow-up programs already it really doesn’t get old. Even though at times we’ve been very hot and very tired our hearts are always filled with joy when we see what is happening among the children of India (I had to pick up some more video tape because I can’t resist filming every moment!)
Bright and early on Sunday morning we jumped into the vehicle to head to the Thanjure area to speak at a church there as well as visit the village of Budalur (the birthplace of the ministry.) However, word got out about our travels and I think we visited nearly every conceivable church along the way! It was really good for a laugh… but by the end of the day we were VERY tired but still VERY blessed.
It was really great to introduce my Dad to some of my best friends: Pastor Paul Perinbaum, Pastor Antony Muthu and their families. It felt like home to be in their small church in Budalur again. I really love these people. Words can’t describe the enthusiasm of the children there either. What a great evening!
After we were thoroughly blessed we drove on to Trichy to spend the night there. The newly weds (Antony and Emery) joined us on the ride. They sure are a cute couple… perhaps it was the sub-zero temperature we kept the vehicle at or else they were just very happy to cuddle… I had fun teasing Emery a little about where they’d sleep and what we’d feed them when they came to Canada (her family has insisted that we stay in very nice hotels while we are here and so far they have been paying for everything… very awkward… but we have our ways of getting even!)
So that brings us till this morning. On the agenda is a Trichy pastor’s fellowship meeting as well as some follow-up programs. I’m also hoping to get done some of the critical things I came for and document some of the incredible stories of the people impacted by this ministry.
Hope to share again soon!