4 September 2006

Life in India - Pondicherry, Neyveli and Pondroti

Stotrum!

Alright, so I know you may have been wondering if I disappeared in
India long ago because I am actually doing my monthly updates only
once a month... please dispel all the rumors, I am alive and well.

First things first. In a feeble attempt to keep my updates at a
readable length and my Internet cafe minutes to a minimum... I have a
thought. Respond with questions that will be answered in the next
update. I then won't get carried away with individual responses which
tend to be long winded cause I have this habit of writing how I talk,
which is a lot. Obviously.

So, here I am, one month into the beauty that is India. The team and I
are quite busy, working 6 days a week. We are mostly doing open air
outreaches in villages with local pastors translating and doing all
the hard work, like follow up. Most of the pastors we have worked with
so far are young and building up their churches, we are helping gather
in some of the harvest. It reminds me so much of John 4:37-38.

When we are not doing outreaches, we are doing house visits, which I
like much more. The pastors take us to homes of acquaintances and we
hang out, share some testimony, drink some chai and pray. It is just
so real that way. Recently these house visits have been in mud huts
with thatched roofs and candle light.

I'll just throw out some stuff running through my head, because I
can't think of where to begin to tell you of all that is going on...
Two nights ago we couldn't drive to the village we wanted to due to
intense monsoon rains and haystacks in the road. So we went to the
next village, pulled up and immediately saw a temple that Ashley had a
vision about earlier that day. We went into a house and the problems
and prayer requests were exactly what God had shown us in
intercession...

Then we went to the next house. I kept my headlamp on the ground, I
felt like a snake was going to come from the bed I was next too, but
there was no where to move in the one room house with over 20 people
in it. Darla asked me what I was doing, when I told her she said to
share. God gave me Luke 10:17-20 and I told the family what I felt,
figuring it was symbolic. It wasn't, they have a problem with a
particular snake that enters the house and comes out from under the
bed. We were all taken aback a bit at how rad God is when He speaks,
than I gave the word God gave me to share and it opened up to each
person in the house getting prayed for...

One of them had just been in an accident and had a hugely swollen
ankle. Ted prayed for him and told him to get up... there was no pain,
but the swelling was still there and he couldn't move it. Ted prayed
again, unwrapped the brace and the swelling was gone... he is fully
healed, believes in Jesus and more people are going to heaven now.
This is my life, on a daily basis. Rarely does anything go as planned,
but usually it turns out better than what was expected. See, told you
this was long.

I have lived with a woman with more authority when she prays than you
can imagine, grant it she has been resurrected three times and has no
colon... therefore has not eaten or drunk anything in 26 years...
therefore has been to heaven and has very little doubt when praying
that it might not be the right way. She receives people for prayer day
and night. Usually the people seeking prayer are not Christian, but
Hindus and Muslims... they just know that Jesus heals, so they go
where He is moving and now more people believe in Jesus and are going
to heaven.

We've seen demons cast out, cripples healed, the dumb speak the name
of Jesus as thier first word, fevers have broken in my hands, sick
babies eat after days of nothing, marriages restored, and yes, even
prayed that a sick cow would give milk.

God is moving here, there is no possible way to deny it. Nobody can
see what we are seeing and say there is no God (hence lots of people
getting saved).

I love it, Christianity here isn't about the social circles, legalism,
damnation and such. Its the simple reality that Jesus is a God of love
and He wants to pour that love and grace into His children.
Thank you for your prayers, they are being heard. I am praying for
you, so please respond with anything you want me to pray for
specifically and any questions. Maybe then my emails will be more
structured, but then again, maybe not.

Much love,
courtney