India

As most of you know, last week I returned from India and in an effort to attempt to adequately quantify some of what went on while I was there I thought that I’d write a series of blog posts. I’ve got so much more to say than can really be said in response to the casual, “How was your trip?” Therefore, you (the 2 readers I’m lucky to still have after my sporadic history of blogging) can read a more full account at your leisure. And given my record of saying I’m going to blog about a particular topic and then that blog failing to materialize, I can understand the skepticism of my intent to complete this series. Rest assured dear reader, the series will be completed because I’ve already written the entire series and will be posted selections over the coming days. So, diving in…

Just to set the stage for those who might be unfamiliar, I recently spent 10 days in southeast India where God was so gracious in allowing me to see all that he is doing there. It was such a joy to see the ways the Gospel is spreading and taking root, to see the ways the Gospel is breaking down barriers that have existed for thousands of years, and to see mostly the way God is upholding his promise to make his name great among the nations (Malachi 1:11-14).

On June 3, I left with a team of 5 others from my church en route to Hyderabad, India. Once there, we met up with 2 others from a sister church in Charlotte, North Carolina. From Hyderabad we took a bus southeast 6-7 hours to the village where our local contact, Vijay’s home church is located. We spent the next 10 days in this village, Ventrapragada, and surrounding villages conducting pastor’s conferences (the 2 pastors: Nathan from Grace Church Memphis, and Coty from Desiring God Community Church in Charlotte, NC taught hundreds of Indian pastors), conducting gospel meetings in the villages in the evenings, and working with the precious children from Ventrapragada and the children’s home there which is associated with Vijay’s home church. While the team went to take the gospel and to teach local Indian pastors, I know the group would probably unanimously say that ended up learning far more from them. Hopefully you’ll get just a glimpse of that in through the coming posts….