PSCC to Gujarat

For those of you who don't know, we are all home and resting well.

The full report of our trip to India is too long to contain here, so many memories and experiences.

The focus of this blog will now shift to the Puget Sound Christian Center foreign mission focus of Gujarat, India. You can keep up with Gujarat here, as PSCC invests ourselves in advancing the Kingdom there.

Homeward Bound

So we are on the long trip home! We are currently in Singapore where it is 0520 and our plane does not leave until 0900 or so... It feels good to be heading home and I think that I speak for our team when I say that we are all ready to see family and friends again. We have all really appreciated all the comments and feedback from the blog, it has been especially encouraging.

Yesterday, (for us) it was Republic Day in India, so we got to be a part of a celebration at one of the 5 slum schools run by the IPC in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. There were about 100 kids there, most of a Hindu background. Ludhiana is a much different place because of the large number of Sikh people, with a much different belief system than Hinduism, though their roots are the same. For me personally, it was very hard to see the kids there. Children have such a life about them, but to see it practically crushed out of them by grinding poverty and oppression was very hard. Kyle and I were talking about it... the trauma we saw behind there eyes reminded me of a 50 year old who has lived homeless for a long time here in the States. No child should have to live like that. It was very encouraging to see that the Church in Ludhiana is responding to the problem and helping kids get a way out through education. Most kids there are able to test into the public school system (the best schools in India) at the 3rd level.

After the outing to the slums, we were able to have a meeting with the leaders and Evangelists in Punjab and encourage them out of the Word.

Today we drove to Dehli, long drive and a huge city! The traffic was like nothing I could compare it to, and I hate traffic sometimes.

We all can't wait to be home, and it won't be too long before we see all of you... until then,

-Samuel

(sorry no pictures!)

Gujarat... Train... Ludhiana!

So after arriving in Gujarat, we got to spend some wonderful time with the leaders and evangelists there... We were supposed to hold a meeting the first night that we got there, but due to plane delays and many other problems throughout the day, we were too late to meet with the over 700 men and women who had gathered. Oh, well. The next day we got to share with 500 + believers out in a more tribal region of Gujarat. One of the things that we really liked about the vision the IPC leadership has in Gujarat is their heart for unreached tribal people. Kyle shared his testimony there, I got to preach and Dale also shared a wonderful word about healing. It was a great time and many people were blessed. The pastor who was facillitating the meeting decided that it was too cold to keep the people outside with extended personal prayer, so we prayed over them as a body of believers, which was very special.

10 years ago, there were no believers in this area, and in fact the state of Gujarat is probably one of the most hostile places to present the Gospel in the world. They have very strict anti-conversion laws that handcuff anyone who wants to follow Jesus, but it is completely fine if someone converts to Hinduism. The Muslims and Hindus are constantly fighting here and both of those religions have very strong control in this state. The feeling here is noticeably different from Kerala. In Kerala, the birthplace of India's Pentecostal movement, the state is about 30% Christian, but in Gujarat, it drops to a paltry 0.5% (that is not a typo!) People are in great bondage in this state, so it was very powerful for us as a team to be able to minister here.

We left Gujarat, taking a 22 hour train ride to Ludhiana, Punjab, India. We were in a sleeper car, so each of us had a "bed". They obviously made these beds for Indian people and not big American's like me. My "bed" was both to short and to narrow, so finding a good position to sleep in was challenging. Being by the bathroom didn't help either, as whenever the door opened, it would squeak and the smell from the latrines would waft its bouquet my direction. That, I guess is just a part of the mission field!

After arriving in Ludhiana, we have spent today at the Punjab Bible College here, being hosted by Sam George and his wife. We played Cricket, ate more food and went for a walk that almost killed us alongside the crazy Indian roads. Later, Sam took me into town on his moped, which is an experience I will never forget!

Tomorrow, we will be going to the slums of Ludhiana to pass out school supplies to the poor children and then holding meetings at night. We leave for New Dehli on Sunday morning, boarding a plane Sunday night and winging our way back to the West Coast! It will be very tragic when at the end of a long flight, we fly right past Seattle in favor of San Francisco. The GPS location marker on the plane will be taunting us the entire time!

We should be able to post more tomorrow night after the meetings... until then.

-Samuel

Traveling to Gujarat

Today we are traveling to Amanabad, Gujarat. It has been interesting to say the least... This morning, Thomas Cherian an IPC leader and Valson's Uncle, from Auburn, WA who was in Kumbanad for the Conference, was scheduled to leave for Gujarat with us as a team. He has invested very heavily in the advancement of the Kingdom in Gujarat and is a wonderful man of God. He was to be our guide/escort in our travels helping us to smooth over any rough patches. This morning at 4 am, he went into a hypoglycemic emergency.

People who live with Diabetes need to be very careful how they regulate their blood sugar levels, and Uncle Cherian is no exception. He had come to India with Insulin syringes that were from the USA, ran out of those and purchased Indian syringes to inject his insulin 4 times a day. The problem was that the Indian syringes were not the same size of the American ones and he ended up injecting himself with 2 times the normal level of insulin he needed each day. This accumulated over time and caused his blood sugars to get dangerously low.

We arrived to find him very sick and I was able to take over and figure out what was going on. I have seen many such emergencies at Tacoma General Hospital where I work, so the challenge was how to deal with it in Kumbanad, not having the resources of an American E.R. We were able to get him some Orange Juice and bread to stabilze his blood sugar and he bagan to come around to normal. He did drop his sugar again, but we were more prepared this time to stabilize it with juice, bread and bananas.

It was so cool to see how we blended the emergency treatment and prayer with many of the IPC leaders; Valson, Georgie Uncle, Mercy Auntie, Pastor Noel Samuel, Pastor Johnson and many of the IBC students that were serving us for the week there as well. The first time we checked his blood sugar, with Uncle Cherian's glucometer, and it was a dangerous 48. The second time, it was an even worse 38 but the third time it skyrocketed to 84. This is a miracle of the Lord, as blood sugar levels do not climb that rapidly normally... Before he went to the hospital, it had reached a much more normal 120. The doctor at the hospital asked for Uncle Cherian to rest for 3-4 days before travelling back to the USA.

With our guide/escort in the hospital, we have set off on our own to Amanabad, Gujarat. Pastor P.A. George, the head of the IPC in Gujarat, will be taking over our traveling needs when we arrive. We are safe and covered, and everything is going well.

So, today has been filled with late planes, missed connections, hurried phone calls to Mercy Auntie and a short stay in the Business class lounge of Kingfisher airlines. Tonight will be a meeting of leaders and evangelists in Anand, P.A. George's church, and tomorrow we will conduct an open air crusade and then again meet with leaders in the evening.

We are doing very well... overfed, tired, but excited for the work to come.

-Samuel

Update from Kumbanad

Sit down and strap in, this might be a long update. There have been so many things that we have been able to be a part of and so many memories... This will hopefully give you a glimpse into our time so far! After finishing the Conference yesterday with a communion service for 50,000+ we have had a chance to explore the area. Last night we went and ministered at the local hospital, visited a wonderful mountaintop Christian retreat center and then got to fellowship with many of the leaders and pastors over dinner. Today we went on a brisk morning walk and then visited the construction site of the new India Bible College. Sorry that this has been so long in coming, but enjoy!

Kaj -
At the finale of the convention, they served communion to 50,000 people. I have experienced it once before, but I sat amazed. Due to the fact that I am a pastor and am esteemed by the leadership of the denomination (IPC) they placed me on the stage with the "giants" of India. Quite humbling and honoring. As I looked out on the vast congregation and clapped to the Malayalam songs, my thoughts turned to the time in the end times that we get to celebrate with Jesus at the Supper of the Lamb, communion with a vast multitude larger than what I was witnessing in India. I found myself overwhelmed by the power of God. It was like I got a foretaste of what is still to come (Matthew 26:29)

Healing -
We prayed for everyone and everything. Literally 2,000-3,000 people with 15 of us praying. Skin diseases, advanced cancer, diabetes, blind eyes, deaf ears, children's grades (studying is a very big deal here in India), barren couples, mutated arms and legs, you name it we saw it. Prior to us arriving, a team from Reading, CA, Bethel Church, had been ministering healing to many people. They have been running a healing room ministry likewe have at PSCC. So many had been healed that word got out and people brought the sick from all over. Most didn't know English, so we grabbed one trnaslator each and began to pray, The music was so loud it hurt so many times yelling and hand motions were the only way to communicate. The testimonies came in steadilyof healings and miracles. Exhausting yet rewarding. The elders in the IPC said that since Grandfather (K. E. Abraham) died in 1974, they had never seen that amount of healings and baptisms in the Holy Spirit at a convention.

Sharing -

Impromptu, I got to share my testimony of coming to Christ on Vashon with the convention. By far the largest group I have ever shared with. They loved it and rejoiced with me in Christ's salvation.

Hard Part -

I have been surprised by howmuch of India, my love for the people and my memories are wrapped up together with my wife Janell. On the trip from the airport, I must have turned 3 times to tell her something only to find Jesse. It felt as though Janell was in the other room with Phoebe. The guys have been great in bringing me back to reality with the odors and male sense of humor. Thankfully this trip is only 2 weeks long!

Kyle -One thing that has greatly impacted me here at the Convention is the youth. Their passion to serve the Lord amazed me. So many of them want so badly to serve and be used by the Lord. So many of them are running after God and are laying down their lives to serve and be used by the God.

Also, the faith of the people here is inspiring as God is healing the sick. The lame have stood up and walked, the deaf have begun to hear, relationships within families have been restored and those with pain have been completely relieved of all their pain. God is really moving.

One of the most impacting healing was a woman experiencing pain in her head. Samue and I had prayed over her, but she was still experiencing pain. We continued to pray and God told me that she was having a relationship problem with her husband. We told her what I had received from the Lord and she began to forgive her husband. Her husband was standing right next to her as she expressed forgiveness. As she did that, God relieved her of all her pain and restored her relationship with her husband. It was awesome.

Dale -
The trip here was anything but uneventful. I went through London and an incoming plane ahead of us crashed on the runway (the wheel collapsed) and we were delayed 3 hrs. 12 hrs to Bangalore. Fogged in – diverted to Chimay 3 hrs later. Connections lost so buy a new flight to Kochi. Finally get in at 9:30PM (supposed to be 7:30 AM). Met at airport by Ratish. Good talk on the way to the base.

I got in around 12:00AM to the IGO campus (Called Hebron) to be greeted with people still being prayed for under a huge tent. The rest of the group was already here and were still involved praying for people. I was overwhelmed with so many different sounds, smells, and general atmosphere. A 70+ year old blind man had just received sight through prayer. Many other miracles from what I heard. I was led upstairs to dinner. Finally went to bed around 1:30AM.

Ministry involved healing for the sick quite a bit of the day. Many needs. Headachs, diabetes, heart problems, ulcers. Many quick healings. The response is so quick because of the faith that these people have in God. I prayed for an infant who was paralyzed in one arm. I prayed for about 10 minutes when the baby woke up and started crying. I kept praying for a few more minutes while holding the infants arm and the baby grabbed my finger with its paralyzed arm. I continued praying and this happened more times. The arm is very weak from atrophy but is moving. I had a translater give some directions to the mom to continue in faith in praying for the full restoration of the arm.

Sunday is the day where many of the Christians around town come to the Hebron for their largest meeting of the year. As best we can figure, there were about 50,000 + people there. Included are about 3000 pastors from all over India. Services started early at 9:00. The first event was a communion service. Many speakers came and gave messages. Many were without interpretation for us westerners. We just tried to follow as best we could. Communion was served to everyone. Quite a task for 50,000 people. Many songs and prayers during the serving. It took about 45 minutes. The services continued for quite a while longer. Pastor Martin was asked to minister with his testimony. He gave a quick 10 minute (with interpretation) talk about his Hindu background and his salvation by Christ. This is quite an honor to be asked to speak at this meeting. The meeting was concluded with a long fiery sermon on bearing fruit as Christians and as the church. As the services were ending, a crowd gathered in front of our team. This was not announced or planned. They were there for healing prayers. Kaj was still up on stage so I checked with the leadership and got the go ahead. We prayed for people for a while longer and finally went to lunch.

We rested (very short) and headed up to the hills of this area to see a retreat center. Major Lukos was our guide for this trip. It is a very peaceful serene campout on the top of a hill that overlooks the area. We saw the sun as it got close to setting but didn’t stay for the sunset. We headed down the hill and went to the local private hospital. We were there to pray for those who were infirmed. As we walked toward the building, a man stopped us and asked what we were there for. We told him and discovered he is the administrator of the hospital. He also was retired military and this seemed to create immediate credibility and honor toward us. He had served as a civil engineer and spoke very good English so I was able to talk “shop” a bit with him. He had just had a grandson born there this morning. He led us in to his office to introduce us to what they did as a private hospital (much better than the public hospitals as I understand). He then allowed us to pray. We walked around the hospital and prayed for many. We did not see any immediate healings.

Jesse -

The thing that has most impacted me thus far is how hard the work of praying for healing truly is. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is week relative to the workload… (Luke 10:2)

The need exhibited by the crowds is more than heartfelt; it is a sense of last hope for need or healing. As such, the times that we have spent praying have been dually overwhelming and exhilarating. The massive crowds, numbering in the thousands, would literally swarm us and press in to such a degree that it was like being trampled. With the other team (from Reading, CA) and us there were only 15 to serve the crowd. As soon as the service was over we were literally mobbed. People would push and shove each other to try and get your attention and I was almost knocked over multiple times; it was suffocating.

While it was awesome to look out over the crowd and see such numbers coming to receive from the Lord, after an hour of praying, to look out and see hundreds more still swarming to get at just 15 people (keep in mind that we had already sat through 3 hours of convention with no break) brought a sense of realism as to how hard our task was going to be. For now, let me just say that we need more people willing to step into the harvest… whether they step into actually praying, or just support those who are praying (like bringing them a drink of water to quench their thirst, helping to direct the crowd, or providing follow-up after the prayer/healing has occurred), the body will only function better with greater numbers of workers.

Samuel -

To me the greatest thing of the convention has been seeing all the different facets of ministry all at work in the same place at the same time. Pastor Mark Wolbert encouraged me to recognize that our church (PSCC) has a different annointing and calling than Bethel Church and I have a unique calling as well. His encouragement to me was to be myself on this trip.

For me, the healings were amazing and I rejoice in the testimony of what God has done here for people in need. I also got to pray with many people to receive healing, baptism in the Holy Spirit and salvation. Most people we prayed for were instantly healed, some took some labor in prayer and others God will provide for later. The best thing I saw was the release of ministry.

Jesse, Kyle and I were talking about how God sent the people who had a specific need to the peopl annointed to pray for them. Jesse got to pray with a lot of young kids for blessing, because he is a father committed to blessing his children. I got to pray for a lot of young people to be releaed and blessed in ministry. The highlight of my time at the convention was when Joshi, my interpreter would pray for people with me.

In the healing rooms, we got to pray for so many people and Joshi would interpret for me. At the start I would pray and he would just interpret, but I encouraged him to pray along with me. He started to pray and intercede and God's power just flowed through him! It was a real blessing to hear him praying in Malayalam and the Spirit for people, because I firmly believe that the same Spirit works in him as He does in all of us Americans. At one point, we were asked to pray for a woman who had pain in her neck (we got to pray for a lot of thyroid conditions, most were healed quickly). She had her son Phibin with her, so I asked him if he believed that Jesus could heal his mother. He said that he did, so I asked him to pray for his mother. His eyes got real big, but he did it and and Joshi and I agreed with him in prayer, his mother was healed! Another time in the healing room, a woman was having pain in her belly. Again, she was there with her daughter Blessen, so I asked Blessen if she would pray for her mother. As with the other testimony, Blessen's mother was completely healed and this little girl got to experience the power of God right under her hands!

This is the best part of ministry to me... the releasing of others. After we were done with the healing rooms and on our way to the main conference evening session, Joshi asked me if he could interpret for me again as we ministered to the sick. It was so honoring that he would seek me out to do that with me again because I had released him into his calling. At times, I would not even have to offer counsel to the person I was praying for, because Joshi was already doing that in Malayalam. I could tell he was speaking truth and wisdom because my spirit agreed with every word that I couldn't understand.

God is moving here... very much so. One last thought that I want to illustrate with pictures, please watch the following slide show!

Mission Update

We are now in Kumbanad, Kerala ministering at the 84th India Pentecostal Church General Conference. It truly has been quite the experience and we all have memories that we will never forget. God is doing some powerful things here and we are honored just to be a part of it. Our main focus has been in praying for the sick and those who need prayer. In our first night at the conference, we were thrown right into the mix, being asked to pray with people at tha altar. Instead of an "Altar Line" it was more of an altar mob! Of the 20,000 - 30,000 people there, probably close to 5,000 came forward for prayer. We were ministeringto people for well over 3 hours! God also did some amazing things at the altar...

The second night was more of the same at more thousands came forward for prayer. It got rough as men would try and jockey for position and sometimes they would shove others out of the way. More miracles and people getting set free. Another highlight from today was being able to minister in the Healing Rooms here, with many more testimonies of God's healing power being poured out here in India. It seems that we are praying a lot for people with Diabetes, overall body pain, neck pain, thyroid conditions. Most people are instantly healed, but some require a bit of waiting.

Tomorrow we will be a part of the last service of the General Conference with some 60,000 people expected to attend. I thought that the amount we have been seeing has been a lot, but I don't know what that will look like tomorrow. Please be praying that we will have annointing and breakthrough tomorrow. We won't be praying for the sick per se, they will be offering communion to 60,000 people so that will take about 3 hours they say.

We have recedived the report about the Wednesday prayer meeting, and thank you all for your prayers as we are gone. There is a real spirit of unity among the team and it is amazing to see these men work together for the Kingdom. Kyle and I were praying for a woman and we both got to hear parts of the word we were to give her and in the end, she received her healing both physical and emotional. This is just one small example of the massive work that God is doing here.

The more I think about it and interact with the people here, the more I realize that we really are the same. We are all human beings, created by God, needing a Savior and dependent upon a Holy Spirit.

That is all for now, I promise to update tomorrow after the conference wraps up and I will try to include some testimonies of what God has done here.

-Samuel

p.s. If you want to see all the pictures instead of the slide show, just click the show all button at the bottom of the slide show...

Traveling!

We are currently in Singapore, after 25 hours of flying. You don't really realize how long a plane flight is until you are in the middle of it. Our plane was late leaving Seattle, and it took us a long time to get into San Francisco due to fog. After taking off from San Fran, we realized that we were backtracking a bit as the plane flew right back past Washington, over Alaska into Russia and then down the coast to Seoul Korea.

We only had a little bit of time in Korea, but it was definitely cold, about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. One of the highlights of the trip has been playing football in all of the airports we come to. We have yet to get talked to by anyone, even in Korea or Singapore... we will see how long that lasts.

We have been in Singapore since 2:30 am local time (10:30 PST) and we will fly out at 1920 local (0320 PST) on our way to Cochin. It was very nice to stay at a hotel on the airlines expense, so we all got some sleep and showered.

In case you have never been to Singapore, it is a gorgeous city. Very modern and most strikingly, clean! I walked out of my hotel room chewing gum, and then was reminded by Jesse to not spit it out anywhere, because they will flog people for that offense, even foreigners! I am very excited to see more of the city this afternoon before flying out this evening.

We are going to enjoy the city, thanks for keeping up with us! Feel free to comment...

-Samuel