Khandhili Trip

A group of women making incense sticks by hand. They are paid 8 Ruppees per 1000 sticks completed. To give you an idea, our dollar varies between 38 annd 40 Ruppees. By comparison the are making a nickel for every 1000 sticks they roll. They do not have child labor laws here either, as we saw some pretty young children rolling incense. They use these in many Hindu rituals. You can bet they do not have dish pan hands.

Here is a village we visited while in Khandhili. Went traveled to villages that a Pastor took care of that BBCM Supports. BBCM is the organization that Jeremie and I are working with currently. As you can see the houses are not much and the roofs are made of palm tree leaves. The Pastor, who was trained at the school I am teaching, has been able to reach a few of the residents and continues to make more and more progress.

We are walking to another village because the van could no longer travel on the road. It looks smooth right here, but trust me the rocks and crevices we past made it undriveable. The pastor on the left rides his bike to these villages and preaches and counsels each week. This guy must ride 40 miles a day with his wife on back of the bike a lot of time. His moped was stolen during a prayer meeting at one of the villages.

Here is a house church in another village we visited throught the day. You can see the house is made of mud and the roof is made of palm trees. I had to duck to get inside and once you get in there, as you will see below, there is not much room. I figure the house had to be at most 150 to 200 square feet. A quarter of it was taken up by hey for animals. There were little chicks in there when we went in. All this man had inside was a cot and a couple of stones used for cooking. This is living in humble means.

This is my good friend O'Neal. He drives us everywhere we go. To school, back to the house, to school, back to the house. . .I think you get the picture. He also drove us to Khandili for the day, as Jayakumar had surgery on his arm and could not drive. O'Neal i standing inside the house church you saw from the outside above, and as you can see it is not as decorated as our churches back home, nor is it decorated like our homes in the states, even homes in the poorest neighborhoods. No indoor plumbing, no running water, no floor (well, dirt), and the walls are mud. No door to close at night, so animals and cobras can just come on in. How would you like to wake up and see a cobra staring back at you? Now that is a good time waiting to happen. Yes, there are cobras there. On Sundays 25 people gather in this tiny space to hear the word of God and to worship Him for their salvation. How many of us would go to a dirt floor house filled with hey, animal waste and many other nasty smelling things to praise God? Yes, it is all they have, but they could just make the excuse there is not enough room or it is too hot (and it is extremely hot in Khandhili). They come to worship their Savior, Jesus Christ. It is awesome.

This is a church right by the medical center. The roof blew off during a wind storm and they are currently trying to decide either to fix it or build another church. The same pastor also preaches here and they still meet here each Sunday. The Pastor starts preaching in one village at 8:30am and then rides his bike to another to preach at 10am. Trying doing that between services.

Here is some of the main dudes in this important ministry. Starting from the left: Is Pastor Raaj, who is the pastor that roams around the villages preaching and sharing with Hindus. Your support in sending Jermie and I here have helped people like him become prepared to do the ministry he does. Jaykumar with the computer on his lap is the founder of BBCM, ACPL and the medical center in Khandili. ACPL is the organization that plants the churches and trains the pastors. We are staying at his house. This man is active in trying to reach India with the gospel of Christ through planting strong Biblically based churches in villages equipped with a trained Pastor to lead the flock. I have considered it an honor to be part of the work he is doing and look forward to being a part of it in the future in any way God will allow. To the right of Jayakumar is Stanley and he is an elder of the church and one of the key figures in the design and construction of the medical center. We just met him on the trip and we are going to have dinner with him on Thursday. They love feeding us here. I am thinking that I may not lose the weight this time.

This is a picture of the village around the medical center. Though it may look run down and that no one lives there, it is inhabitated by people. What you are looking at is the home of probably a family.

This is the front of the medical center where they see approximately 60 people a day. When the medical teams from America and Australia come in to volunteer there are lines that reach 100 yards. They start lining up at 3AM and wait. They will also take the teams into some neighbooring villages and work with people from 7am till 7pm each day and barely scratch the surface of the needs.

It was a very impacting trip for me in a variety of ways, especially in my thinking about the Gospel for Christ. We traveled past villages and communities that have not even heard of Christianity, let alone Christ. I am not sure if I mentioned this in another blog, but there are also 250,000 untrained pastors. That is a staggering figure. God is at work and moving and needs all the capable hands to teach pastors so they can go and reach the villages and communities for Christ.

Jeremie and I were discussing some of our observations on the walk back from one village and it occured to me that in America anyone could ultimately here the Gospel if they truly wanted. We are without excuse, as the average household in America has 6 Bibles. There are churches everywhere, and you can most likely find one within a mile or two of your house and in the farming communities you can usually find one in the closest town and many times in the fields.

Where evangelism is still extremely important in America and there are still those that have not heard and need to, or those that need to hear correctly, it is not the same in India. If someone wanted to get a Bible you could go to a Holiday Inn and pull it out of the dresser drawer or go into the local library and pull one off the shelf. One cannot do that in India. Bibles are not prevelant everywhere and churches are rare in the smaller towns and villages if non-existent.

My change came in because I am not a fan of projects overseas that do not make in impact for Christ. There seems to be a lot of money spent on just doing things and not training or equipping people for reaching others. I became frustrated and hardened about overseas ministries as there seemed to be little effect with just coming over handing out a few tracts or building something and leaving. There is just no substance. What good is a house if you are destined for hell? What good is a tract if you do not have the capability of being discipled or even being told what it truly means, in that what he or she is really committing too?

BBCM and ACPL are doing what I believe is the key to reaching the lost in India and should be modeled in other countries. They use the resources given for reaching the lost. Everything they do is driven towards preaching Christ. If a building is built, it is built mainly by local people, giving them work and letting them take ownership in their local ministry. Those that come over to India are used to teach pastors, teach construction, teach English, teach teaching, and everything in between. We do not come over do it for them and leave and they have no idea what to do after that. The support you have given me and Jeremie is going towards teaching pastors and teachers to go to the mission field to disciple and teach others.

This time has softened me again on overseas ministries, at least for those that take the resources given to reach the unsaved and to use for multiplying the kingdom. I look forward to continually being part of this work even as I leave here. There is just so much going on for the kingdom here and it is a true blessing to be a part. Thank you for giving me that opportunity and being a partner in this mission field.