After the events of last week, this week was quite anticlimactic…
As I mentioned last week, Lana invited me to her house for a bible study. The girls and I went to her home that following Monday. We were completely blown away by the opulence of her amazing home! It was probably one of the largest residences we’ve seen here, and the surrounding grounds were equally as impressive. Land is so expensive here that you don’t see properties with a lot of land. Hers was almost two-tiered, with a swimming pool on the lower tier. The whole place was situated on a hill above the beach, so the ocean breezes wafted up, keeping us cool.
We settled in by the pool so the girls could swim, and we started discussing the bible. She was interested in the relationship between Elijah and Elisha because the idea of a master training his devotee fascinated her because this is a Hindus practice- where the swamis train a younger person. She had no real idea of what the Old Testament contained, so I tried to explain the history and layout a bit, and how it relates to the New Testament. I don’t think the relationship between Elijah and Elisha was described enough for her, so I directed the study more toward Jesus and the New Testament. We read a bit from various books and just chatted.
It has been a week since I’ve talked to her, and at first I was kind of bummed. Eventually, I realized that it wasn’t so much whether I convert her or not- that was for God to work out- but it was about whether or not I’d be obedient and go. Quite frankly, I was dreading the visit beforehand. I’ve found that the more I dread that type of visit, the more blessed I will be for having done it. I think it’s the enemy’s way of attacking too, by putting a million reasons in your head why you shouldn’t go. My stomach was bothering me as we drove the 40 minutes in totally unfamiliar streets, in totally unfamiliar parts of town, but I was determined that even if I was on my deathbed, I’d still go because that was what I was supposed to do. The million dollar question is- would I do that at home? Would I go to some person’s house that I barely know, in some unfamiliar part of town? Would I walk across my own street to do a bible study with neighbors? Adam mentioned how when he is asked to speak in front of churches here, he jumps at the chance, but in the US, he never would. I hope we can take the lessons that we learn here back with us.
We miss our friends and everyone at The Pursuit! Thanks so much for all of the prayers on our behalf!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Divine Appointments -long story but amazing!
This story has so many interconnecting parts that it is difficult to know where to start. I’ll begin with Friday, which was a Hindu holiday here in India so Adam had off of work. I had been feeling a bit blue the past few days, lamenting the fact that I had no women to fellowship with and was starting the morning in kind of a sluggish way. Adam was more positive, and when he woke up he had it in his mind that we’d have lunch at a café next to the Mascot hotel in town after our planned trip to the zoo. Apparently he saw it while driving by one day. So after the zoo, we went over. When we reached the hotel, it was not straight forward where the café was located, and I just was not in the mood to face another unknown, and often disastrous, eating situation. As Adam walked into the hotel, I kind of hung back and begrudgingly let him lead the way. We looked around a bit and saw where we thought the café was. As we went out to the patio area, we noticed some Anglo ladies out there. We see a lot of Europeans that don’t speak English here and are usually aloof when we smile at them, but I felt compelled to say something to these ladies, so I grabbed one by the elbow and joked that we didn’t know where we were going and that we’d just follow them. The group turned out to be American missionaries visiting from Michigan! There were 15 ladies in all and one man who was training to be the associate pastor of their church. We talked a bit and prayed outside together. I was so humbled- here I was wrestling with God over not having any women around, and He sent 15 of them! It was truly a divine appointment. We ended up having lunch together and later all went to dinner together to the pizza place. They were here for a week working with an orphanage that they sponsor in town. We also met the pastor that they work with at dinner. The ladies has a wonderful surprise for the girls as well- a bag full of toys that were extras from the 15 suitcases full of toys they had brought! What a blessing that was for the girls. Becky, the pastor’s wife who was leading the team, invited us to join them for church on Sunday where Josh, the pastor in training, was going to speak.
We as a family filled Saturday with visits to four of The Pursuit’s Mercy Homes. It was great to see the kids again, especially the ones from the home that we personally support. We remembered many of the faces from last time. Adam was great with the kids, asking questions and playing ball with them, etc. We were reminded of just how primitively people in the village areas live, but as always, the children and the pastors’ families were all happy and well adjusted. Midway through our trip, we stopped in to our driver Rinish’s parent’s home for lunch. They too lived in a very impoverished home but were extremely generous in all of the food that they set out for our grand lunch. Thankfully God kept us from getting sick as well, which was a concern!
Sunday continued the weekend full of crazy, divine appointments. The Americans were meeting the orphanage pastor for Sunday worship at a very small Assembly of God church run by a friend of his in the hills outside of town. We arrived before them early in the morning, and in this rural little church, I was a little nervous that we had the right place! It took our driver several ‘roadside Google Maps’ (yelling at a guy on the corner) to find the place. After about 10 minutes, the American group arrived. Sitting on the floor on mats with the men and women separated was a new experience for some. I felt bad for the older ladies sitting on the floor for several hours! To Adam’s surprise, the pastor asked him to speak before Josh. Nothing like a last minute invitation to give a sermon! Adam not only pulled off a great message but a truly God-inspired one. He said that since he wasn’t prepared, he followed where the Spirit led him. He felt compelled to speak on James chapter 1 about joy in suffering. As it turned out, many of the ladies in the group had been having a very tough time and were very homesick. Josh told us later that the message spoke to many of them. The other crazy part is that it tied exactly into the message Josh gave right afterward on Numbers, about the spies and the promised land, and how we should face the ‘giants’ in our lives. We all shook our heads in amazement at God’s hand in the whole morning.
After church, we went with them to visit the orphanage that their church supports. It is probably one of the most impressive buildings we’ve seen here. It was a huge, beautiful campus built at the top of a hill with 360 degree views around it. It is a school most of the year but also does programs for orphans. It was built by a Canadian man a few years ago, but their church also supports the children and is in the process of building another building for the children. Adam found out yesterday that George Verwer was there just one week before! Apparently the pastor we met works with him. While were there, we watched as Becky led the children in a bible study and the ladies sang and danced with the kids. It was their last day with them, so the ladies said tearful goodbyes to the children.
Adam and I had planned on taking the girls to the Leela hotel for brunch (which includes swimming in the pool and the private beach) for a Valentine’s Day surprise after church. After being with the folks at the orphanage and seeing how tired and burned out some of the ladies were, we offered to take them all with us to the Leela and pick up the tab. We didn’t expect missionaries to pay for a five star hotel brunch! They said they would indeed join us.
So enter divine appointment number two- while Adam and I were waiting for the group to arrive at the Leela, we let the girls swim in the pool. I looked over and saw someone waving, and who was it but the very lady from the Wednesday women's lunch group that I felt God telling me to get to know better-for privacy’s sake I’ll call her Lana, the older lady who is originally from Argentina. We had planned to meet last week but she had to cancel. I went over and spent about 20 minutes talking to her, and lo and behold she is incredibly religious to the point where she said that she doesn’t like to spend any time in the day not thinking about God. In fact, she doesn’t like the ladies’ Wednesday luncheons that we go to because she feels like it’s a waste unless she is thinking or talking about God. She was raised Catholic but is now a devout Hindu and even has a temple in her house (she is very wealthy), but she told me that she bows several times to a picture of Jesus every morning. From what I gather, she subscribes to the Hindu idea that there are many paths to God and Jesus is but one of them so its okay to mix things together.
Eventually, the American group came in. We invited Lana to have lunch with us, and- divine appointment number three- she sat next to Josh, the associate pastor in training who is finishing up seminary school. She knew they were here on a mission, so she launched into a bunch of theological questions. When she found out that he had formal training, she was particularly attentive because we could tell this gave him credibility in her eyes (turns out she used to be a lawyer). She asked him many, many deep questions, and he had great answers for her- obviously way better answers then I could ever give her. They talked for nearly an hour. As she and I talked after that, she asked if I’d come to her house so we could do a bible study!
It is incredible to sit back and watch God at work like He was this past weekend. Of course He is always at work, but it is so cool to see things like this. I realized as Adam and I have been reading through the old Testament that I have been acting like the Israelites- I have the ‘what have you done for me lately’ mentality too often. He shows me miracles, and then as the monotony of everyday life sets in, I complain. I guess its human nature to always want the peaks and not the valleys, but as Adam reminded us in James chapter 1, the testing of our faith produces endurance, and endurance will yield its perfect result. Our prayer request for our whole family is that- endurance. As the ladies leave today, it will be all too easy to feel lonely again, but I also can’t wait to see what other divine appointments God has for us in the coming months.
We as a family filled Saturday with visits to four of The Pursuit’s Mercy Homes. It was great to see the kids again, especially the ones from the home that we personally support. We remembered many of the faces from last time. Adam was great with the kids, asking questions and playing ball with them, etc. We were reminded of just how primitively people in the village areas live, but as always, the children and the pastors’ families were all happy and well adjusted. Midway through our trip, we stopped in to our driver Rinish’s parent’s home for lunch. They too lived in a very impoverished home but were extremely generous in all of the food that they set out for our grand lunch. Thankfully God kept us from getting sick as well, which was a concern!
Sunday continued the weekend full of crazy, divine appointments. The Americans were meeting the orphanage pastor for Sunday worship at a very small Assembly of God church run by a friend of his in the hills outside of town. We arrived before them early in the morning, and in this rural little church, I was a little nervous that we had the right place! It took our driver several ‘roadside Google Maps’ (yelling at a guy on the corner) to find the place. After about 10 minutes, the American group arrived. Sitting on the floor on mats with the men and women separated was a new experience for some. I felt bad for the older ladies sitting on the floor for several hours! To Adam’s surprise, the pastor asked him to speak before Josh. Nothing like a last minute invitation to give a sermon! Adam not only pulled off a great message but a truly God-inspired one. He said that since he wasn’t prepared, he followed where the Spirit led him. He felt compelled to speak on James chapter 1 about joy in suffering. As it turned out, many of the ladies in the group had been having a very tough time and were very homesick. Josh told us later that the message spoke to many of them. The other crazy part is that it tied exactly into the message Josh gave right afterward on Numbers, about the spies and the promised land, and how we should face the ‘giants’ in our lives. We all shook our heads in amazement at God’s hand in the whole morning.
After church, we went with them to visit the orphanage that their church supports. It is probably one of the most impressive buildings we’ve seen here. It was a huge, beautiful campus built at the top of a hill with 360 degree views around it. It is a school most of the year but also does programs for orphans. It was built by a Canadian man a few years ago, but their church also supports the children and is in the process of building another building for the children. Adam found out yesterday that George Verwer was there just one week before! Apparently the pastor we met works with him. While were there, we watched as Becky led the children in a bible study and the ladies sang and danced with the kids. It was their last day with them, so the ladies said tearful goodbyes to the children.
Adam and I had planned on taking the girls to the Leela hotel for brunch (which includes swimming in the pool and the private beach) for a Valentine’s Day surprise after church. After being with the folks at the orphanage and seeing how tired and burned out some of the ladies were, we offered to take them all with us to the Leela and pick up the tab. We didn’t expect missionaries to pay for a five star hotel brunch! They said they would indeed join us.
So enter divine appointment number two- while Adam and I were waiting for the group to arrive at the Leela, we let the girls swim in the pool. I looked over and saw someone waving, and who was it but the very lady from the Wednesday women's lunch group that I felt God telling me to get to know better-for privacy’s sake I’ll call her Lana, the older lady who is originally from Argentina. We had planned to meet last week but she had to cancel. I went over and spent about 20 minutes talking to her, and lo and behold she is incredibly religious to the point where she said that she doesn’t like to spend any time in the day not thinking about God. In fact, she doesn’t like the ladies’ Wednesday luncheons that we go to because she feels like it’s a waste unless she is thinking or talking about God. She was raised Catholic but is now a devout Hindu and even has a temple in her house (she is very wealthy), but she told me that she bows several times to a picture of Jesus every morning. From what I gather, she subscribes to the Hindu idea that there are many paths to God and Jesus is but one of them so its okay to mix things together.
Eventually, the American group came in. We invited Lana to have lunch with us, and- divine appointment number three- she sat next to Josh, the associate pastor in training who is finishing up seminary school. She knew they were here on a mission, so she launched into a bunch of theological questions. When she found out that he had formal training, she was particularly attentive because we could tell this gave him credibility in her eyes (turns out she used to be a lawyer). She asked him many, many deep questions, and he had great answers for her- obviously way better answers then I could ever give her. They talked for nearly an hour. As she and I talked after that, she asked if I’d come to her house so we could do a bible study!
It is incredible to sit back and watch God at work like He was this past weekend. Of course He is always at work, but it is so cool to see things like this. I realized as Adam and I have been reading through the old Testament that I have been acting like the Israelites- I have the ‘what have you done for me lately’ mentality too often. He shows me miracles, and then as the monotony of everyday life sets in, I complain. I guess its human nature to always want the peaks and not the valleys, but as Adam reminded us in James chapter 1, the testing of our faith produces endurance, and endurance will yield its perfect result. Our prayer request for our whole family is that- endurance. As the ladies leave today, it will be all too easy to feel lonely again, but I also can’t wait to see what other divine appointments God has for us in the coming months.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Weekend Party
Not much of note happened this week, except that we went to a really interesting party on Saturday night. First, I have to back up and give a bit of background information on how we met the hosts…. Every Friday night, our family goes to the only pizza place in town, Pizza Corner. Its actually pretty descent for an Indian pizza place. Anyway, about three weeks ago we saw another Anglo family there, and they introduced themselves as they were leaving. They were from Holland, and they sold everything and moved here so the husband could start a software outsourcing company to outsource to Holland. The wife, Mieke, invited me to a weekly luncheon each Wednesday with other Europeans and Indians who have spent a lot of time abroad. The crazy thing is that very morning while Adam and I were praying, I had asked for an American or European friend! Since then, I have gone to this ladies’ luncheon every week. It would have been even better if at least one of them were Christian, but sadly none of them are. I have a strong sense that they are very a-religious, for lack of a better word, like many Europeans are now. There is one lady in particular, however, that I’d like to get to know better and hopefully share the gospel with. She is an older lady originally from Argentina who has lived all over the world, including New York for 20 year. She is very much into Hinduism, so it should be interesting.
So back to the party- it was at Mieke and her husband Wim’s apartment, along with their three young children. In attendance were a couple from France, a woman from the Czech Republic who is married to an Indian Muslim, another Dutch guy, a woman from Turkey who is married to an Indian, a woman from Germany (whose parents are from the UK and Italy, so she doesn’t feel quite ‘German’), and several other Indians who have lived abroad. It was a pretty crazy party with lots of food and a lot of small kids running around in a small, hot apartment. Wim apparently was a DJ for some time back in the Netherlands, and he had what seemed like every music video that was made in the 1980’s which he played quite loudly!
Aside from the party, we are adjusting to everyday life here. I have mentioned this to others in the States, but what strikes me most in this culture is its self-centeredness. Everyone pushes others aside to get ahead in line, etc. even when someone is clearly there ahead of them, and even adults will push ahead of children. We went to the zoo the other day, and Jackie was straining to see a cobra in its display and a group of grown men and women came over and pushed in front of her to see. Sadly, even in the local church that we attend, people push in front of others to take communion! We were shocked the first time, and now we try to joke about it each time. Adam has noticed things like this at work as well, but he pointed out that in that case, perhaps its just the sheer number of people here that doesn’t allow a person to do things like hold a door for someone or to say hi as you pass in a hallway, because if you did, you’d be holding the door all day and saying hi all day. I get that but not so much the pushing others out of the way. Coming from Boise, home of the uber-nice, its still a shock.
Finally, prayers for the girls would be appreciated. Hailey continues to get upset when we are at the local church. It makes her really, really miss home and The Pursuit. It is also not easy for them to spend every waking minute together. Even though they’ve been real troopers most of the time, it not easy to be around each other and no other kids 24/7.
I do continue to thank God for the apartment He set up for us. I have gotten past the moldy roof tops of the neighboring buildings and can now see the beauty of the trees around us. Having seen the accommodations of others as well, we are truly fortunate to have such a nice apartment.
So back to the party- it was at Mieke and her husband Wim’s apartment, along with their three young children. In attendance were a couple from France, a woman from the Czech Republic who is married to an Indian Muslim, another Dutch guy, a woman from Turkey who is married to an Indian, a woman from Germany (whose parents are from the UK and Italy, so she doesn’t feel quite ‘German’), and several other Indians who have lived abroad. It was a pretty crazy party with lots of food and a lot of small kids running around in a small, hot apartment. Wim apparently was a DJ for some time back in the Netherlands, and he had what seemed like every music video that was made in the 1980’s which he played quite loudly!
Aside from the party, we are adjusting to everyday life here. I have mentioned this to others in the States, but what strikes me most in this culture is its self-centeredness. Everyone pushes others aside to get ahead in line, etc. even when someone is clearly there ahead of them, and even adults will push ahead of children. We went to the zoo the other day, and Jackie was straining to see a cobra in its display and a group of grown men and women came over and pushed in front of her to see. Sadly, even in the local church that we attend, people push in front of others to take communion! We were shocked the first time, and now we try to joke about it each time. Adam has noticed things like this at work as well, but he pointed out that in that case, perhaps its just the sheer number of people here that doesn’t allow a person to do things like hold a door for someone or to say hi as you pass in a hallway, because if you did, you’d be holding the door all day and saying hi all day. I get that but not so much the pushing others out of the way. Coming from Boise, home of the uber-nice, its still a shock.
Finally, prayers for the girls would be appreciated. Hailey continues to get upset when we are at the local church. It makes her really, really miss home and The Pursuit. It is also not easy for them to spend every waking minute together. Even though they’ve been real troopers most of the time, it not easy to be around each other and no other kids 24/7.
I do continue to thank God for the apartment He set up for us. I have gotten past the moldy roof tops of the neighboring buildings and can now see the beauty of the trees around us. Having seen the accommodations of others as well, we are truly fortunate to have such a nice apartment.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Trip to Pastor Daniel's
This past weekend, we went to visit Pastor Daniel in Thrissur. I think we all forgot just how long the drive was. It was around 7 hours one way, with an average speed of probably 35 mph. I must say that having a good driver makes all of the difference in the world! Our drivers last time would floor it, then slam on the break. This cycle would occur every 30 seconds or so, so it was a motion sickness-fest whenever we went anywhere. We have a permanent driver this time, a young man named Raneesh who is excellent. He drives relatively smoothly (by Indian standards). More on Raneesh later…
At about one hour into the drive, we heard loud music coming from the streets. We eventually caught up to a procession of Hindus parading down the street, presumably toward their temple. We saw men with what looked like sticks held between their teeth. As we got closer, we realized that the sticks were actually protruding out of holes punctured through their cheeks! Even younger boys had this. Some of them even had apples on the ends of the sticks, I guess to add more weight and, one can only imagine, pain. It was all very disturbing. I witnessed a man who was obviously demon possessed, ranting and being pushed along by another man. The most shocking display of all was a man being suspended by hooks in the skin on his back from a palm tree trunk that was strapped to the top of a truck. It was akin to the Sun Vow ritual in the 1970’s movie ‘A Man Called Horse’. We didn’t get any photos or video of this mostly, I think, because we didn’t realize what we were looking at at first. Fortunately, the girls didn’t see this. The sticks in the face were more than enough for a kid to see.
We finally arrived at Pastor Daniel’s, and it was really nice to him and his wife Lilly. Lilly always takes such good care of us. We joked that she was actually an Italian mother at heart, because she is always pushing food on us. She even gets little ice cream cups with the little wooden sticks for the girls (okay, and for me and Adam as well :) ). They had a 70 year old woman staying with them for the next month from America, so we stayed at the nearby hotel that we stayed in once during our last trip there. Daniel and Lilly always seem to have people visiting and often staying for extended periods. They are very gracious hosts. We went to their church on Sunday morning, and Daniel called up the whole family and Adam shared a bit with the congregation. The people are so genuine in their worship. I think for many their faith has come through major hardships. I can see, especially in the faces of the women, how circumstances have affected them physically. It is a hard life for many.
Back to our driver Raneesh…. We were pleased to find out when we first arrived that Raneesh is a Christian. He is able to converse a little bit in English but not to the level we would like. You are never quite sure if he really understands what we’re saying, and its hard for him to find the words to express things to us. Adam tries to talk to him every day to and from the drive to work. As our driver, he accompanied us to the trip to Pastor Daniel’s. While we were there, Daniel talked with him a bit about spiritual matters. At one point he went in to the guest room where the drivers stay to find that he had taken one of Daniel’s theological books off the shelf and was reading it! Raneesh had gone to college, but from what we can gather, he couldn’t get a job and became a driver. Adam also got it out of him that we are his first clients! The long and the short of it is we feel like God has more for Raneesh. He told Daniel that he had been involved in work with orphans and other things like that. So we are asking ourselves, does God want us here again to change the course of yet another driver’s destiny? We have been joking and calling him Pastor Raneesh. We look forward to taking him to Mercy Homes and letting him spend more time with Daniel. It will be interesting to see how things play out.
Lastly, we ask for continued prayers for the Pastors who are leading Mercy Homes. Daniel told us about a story of persecution, right here in Kerala, where the majority of Christians in the country live. To make a long story short, one of the girls in a Mercy Home had started the equivalent of community college and one of her Hindu professors essentially seduced her into coming back to the Hindu faith. He prompted her to make false accusations against the Pastor saying that he made inappropriate advanced toward her. What struck me most in this was that teenagers who go to college are the same, whether its in the US or anywhere else in the world! I became a rabid animal rights activist in college, under the influence of some older friends. Anyway, the local Hindus have been targeting this pastor for over 6 years. A few years ago, they killed his father-in-law, and told him ‘if you keep converting Hindus, you are next!’ All of the allegations that the girl made were of course bogus and come down to him standing in her room, or something silly like that. The ridiculous part is that the pastor was out of town at a conference during the time that this allegedly took place.
The police came to his house and took him to the police station where they proceeded to beat him violently. He is a small, thin man so he was hurt so badly that he now has a life-threatening blood clot in his right lung. The only upside to the story is that, thanks to God’s mercy, the case against him was tried in a neighboring city and the magistrate there threw out the case because of its absurdity. As one can imagine, the pastor is demoralized and beside himself over the loss of this girl that he’s raised for the past 7 years. Pastor Daniel told us that this is the new tactic the Hindus are taking- trying to discredit the work of the pastors and demoralize them in the process. Prayers are needed for the courage and strength of these men and women who are truly suffering in the name of Christ.
At about one hour into the drive, we heard loud music coming from the streets. We eventually caught up to a procession of Hindus parading down the street, presumably toward their temple. We saw men with what looked like sticks held between their teeth. As we got closer, we realized that the sticks were actually protruding out of holes punctured through their cheeks! Even younger boys had this. Some of them even had apples on the ends of the sticks, I guess to add more weight and, one can only imagine, pain. It was all very disturbing. I witnessed a man who was obviously demon possessed, ranting and being pushed along by another man. The most shocking display of all was a man being suspended by hooks in the skin on his back from a palm tree trunk that was strapped to the top of a truck. It was akin to the Sun Vow ritual in the 1970’s movie ‘A Man Called Horse’. We didn’t get any photos or video of this mostly, I think, because we didn’t realize what we were looking at at first. Fortunately, the girls didn’t see this. The sticks in the face were more than enough for a kid to see.
We finally arrived at Pastor Daniel’s, and it was really nice to him and his wife Lilly. Lilly always takes such good care of us. We joked that she was actually an Italian mother at heart, because she is always pushing food on us. She even gets little ice cream cups with the little wooden sticks for the girls (okay, and for me and Adam as well :) ). They had a 70 year old woman staying with them for the next month from America, so we stayed at the nearby hotel that we stayed in once during our last trip there. Daniel and Lilly always seem to have people visiting and often staying for extended periods. They are very gracious hosts. We went to their church on Sunday morning, and Daniel called up the whole family and Adam shared a bit with the congregation. The people are so genuine in their worship. I think for many their faith has come through major hardships. I can see, especially in the faces of the women, how circumstances have affected them physically. It is a hard life for many.
Back to our driver Raneesh…. We were pleased to find out when we first arrived that Raneesh is a Christian. He is able to converse a little bit in English but not to the level we would like. You are never quite sure if he really understands what we’re saying, and its hard for him to find the words to express things to us. Adam tries to talk to him every day to and from the drive to work. As our driver, he accompanied us to the trip to Pastor Daniel’s. While we were there, Daniel talked with him a bit about spiritual matters. At one point he went in to the guest room where the drivers stay to find that he had taken one of Daniel’s theological books off the shelf and was reading it! Raneesh had gone to college, but from what we can gather, he couldn’t get a job and became a driver. Adam also got it out of him that we are his first clients! The long and the short of it is we feel like God has more for Raneesh. He told Daniel that he had been involved in work with orphans and other things like that. So we are asking ourselves, does God want us here again to change the course of yet another driver’s destiny? We have been joking and calling him Pastor Raneesh. We look forward to taking him to Mercy Homes and letting him spend more time with Daniel. It will be interesting to see how things play out.
Lastly, we ask for continued prayers for the Pastors who are leading Mercy Homes. Daniel told us about a story of persecution, right here in Kerala, where the majority of Christians in the country live. To make a long story short, one of the girls in a Mercy Home had started the equivalent of community college and one of her Hindu professors essentially seduced her into coming back to the Hindu faith. He prompted her to make false accusations against the Pastor saying that he made inappropriate advanced toward her. What struck me most in this was that teenagers who go to college are the same, whether its in the US or anywhere else in the world! I became a rabid animal rights activist in college, under the influence of some older friends. Anyway, the local Hindus have been targeting this pastor for over 6 years. A few years ago, they killed his father-in-law, and told him ‘if you keep converting Hindus, you are next!’ All of the allegations that the girl made were of course bogus and come down to him standing in her room, or something silly like that. The ridiculous part is that the pastor was out of town at a conference during the time that this allegedly took place.
The police came to his house and took him to the police station where they proceeded to beat him violently. He is a small, thin man so he was hurt so badly that he now has a life-threatening blood clot in his right lung. The only upside to the story is that, thanks to God’s mercy, the case against him was tried in a neighboring city and the magistrate there threw out the case because of its absurdity. As one can imagine, the pastor is demoralized and beside himself over the loss of this girl that he’s raised for the past 7 years. Pastor Daniel told us that this is the new tactic the Hindus are taking- trying to discredit the work of the pastors and demoralize them in the process. Prayers are needed for the courage and strength of these men and women who are truly suffering in the name of Christ.
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