The amazing kids!

Well – another fascinating and challenging day in Hyderabad before hopping back to Blighty.

I teamed up with a couple of lovely guys from the USA – Salt Lake City who had been sent out by their church to investigate how they could be involved in mission.

We were invited on a trip to the local slums of Hyderabad. OM has a big ministry of education and planting schools in the Dalit community. The Dalits are basically at the bottom of the stack in the Hindu caste system. Believed to be created from no part of the god they are untouchables. The belief in reincarnation holds them in a lifelong bondage to accepting their state.

We went to 4 different communities- one was in a 50,000 population slum by the airport. The life is hard for the people but we attended the school that has taken root. The Dalit leaders have asked the church to educate their children and so free them from bondage. The school was just amazing – a beacon of hope in what might be considered a hopeless sea of despair. The children are taught in English – the essential difference to State Education which effectively will change their lives forever. Frankly, they were the cutest kids you can imagine, dressed in uniform and sitting with books and slates they stood and saluted and greeted us. You know I sort of worried about intruding but the reality is they love for us to come and be interested. That way they aren’t forgotten or the refuse of humanity. What restricts the work? – funding each child needs to be funded for some £50 per year.



Then we went on to the pipe village. (Yes really and literally) A community who work as bonded slaves to the local drainage pipe manufacturer. A leader assembles the families and they enter a bonded work contract where he brings them for, 3 years, to live beside the factory. They literally live in the broken and useless mains drainage pipes! Check out the photos. All the people are known to the pastor who takes eggs for the children, fixes them with medical care and leads worship and a service every week.



Its amazing how quickly you acclimatise and slum 3,4 and 5 become a blurring repetition of the marginalised and downtrodden. Yet it was thrilling to see that God’s getting in there with the business of building his church.



Tonight I start the trek home – can’t wait to see the family. This trip has been a privilege.

Hyderabad

Well I have left the team to trek to Hyderabad. Ian has gone on to Japan, the HTB Alpha guys (Nick and Al) continue the Alpha program and everyone else makes for Blighty.

The internal flights to Hyderabad were great and I arrived about midnight grateful to be collected. I am staying at the Operation Mobilisation Campus whichis one of the main centres for the work in India.

OM India has grown to be the largest field, George Verwer - founder of OM, has a real heart for the nation and started visiting in the early days. Now they have some 2000 staff across the nation.

Some of the ministries:

• STL books - literature distribution
• Evangelism teams - showing the Jesus film 3-4 times per week - I think there are over 400 teams
• Dalit Education - aiming to teach a people group called untouchables who are marginalised in the community - this is turning into an immense work with education centres being established throughout the nation
• Good Shepherd Community Churches - when the evangelsim teams have established a small group that gets to the right size a pastor is appointed approximately 2000 churches have been born.
• OM Conference centre - here on the campus the run leadership courses to support the work. All the time their is a group of students.
• Medical Clinic - healthcare provision on the site

I suspect I am missing a lot of it - I was asked to preach Sunday morning when I arrived and slept much of the rest of the day as I was so tired. I wasnt sure if they wanted me to preach for 30 mins or 1 hr 30 mins so stopped after an hour!

Tomorrow I am going on a trip to the slums of Hyderabad for which I probably will need to brace myself. It is a privilege to get to go - as a westerner you are always concerned about your safety but I love to go and see what the world is like. It migfht make it rather easy to sell the Merc when I return!

Couple of extra piccies from Darbhanga

Julie holds forth!





Darbhanga High Street - didn't buy much

Back to the big city from the ends of the earth!

Just got back to civisation – so a quick posting

We have been to Dharbangha, a principal city in the Bihar region. We understand better now that the gospel must be preached to the ends of the earth.

The city is 700,000 people with 150 Christians. Some 200 came for the conference from around the region however some 500 would have come if they could have accommodated them. To understand their commitment we met several pastors who had travelled since midnight by bus and train for 7 hours through the night to attend.

The church here is extraordinary – an indigenous, comprehensively united group of believers who are fearless and passionate in reaching their region and nation for the kingdom. Time and again we spoke with leaders who had been converted by a direct revelation of Jesus, many have been called as missionaries to this poor state of Bihar. They sacrifice an incredible amount.

One of the organisers explained how he first preached the gospel in 1997 when he was beaten by a crowd of 60 at the bus stop.

The hotel was the best in Bihar, Hotel Ganga. On checking the register only 4 westerners had been to the city in 4 months. Facilities are grotty though the city has been home to one of the oldest Universities in the world but we discovered why. Every year the region floods for up to 2 months as it is on the Ganges fold plain. Last time the water reached 8 ft above the main highway and it destroys all property.



Our first night was frankly awful - bugs - grot – and best of all ear splitting call to prayer and live hindu temple worship broadcast from very loud speakers from 2am. We emerged shaken and bedraggled in the morning!

Our Alpha conference was received with real joy and enthusiasm. A measure of their poverty – the Questions of Life book costs (at subsidised rates) one tenth of a pastor’s monthly salary. Yet their joy in Jesus is unparalleled. The leaders of the region meet monthly for a night of prayer and day of fellowship – there are no denominations - their unity is incredible – their calling formidable.

Later we found out why – a prophecy was given in Singapore by a woman who did not speak English. She said revival would come to India and could only spell that it would come from D-A-R-B-H-A-N-G-A.

We were humbled as we continued to hear the stories of our hosts, their labour in the gospel despite adversity, pressed on every side has moved us all. Quite literally they rely on God for all provision. You know what they ask us for – only to pray! But they beg us – please pray for Bihar.

The teaching of Alpha was a privilege and we ministered with a powerful manifestion of the Spirit’s presence. Thanks God!
Our travel from Patna to Darbhanga and back was wild, tarmac is sporadic, oxen prolific, rules unobserved, danger ever present, overtaking blood curdling and we rejoiced with huge enthusiasm upon reaching our hotel in Patna! We never doubted our return – only whether it was to Patna or more directly to a final glory!

In the closing stages of this trip we have become aware of the incredible significance this has been to the believers here. More affecting has been to hear of the faith of the organisers particularly George – they have toiled without complaint and in faith for 3 months. He has had to literally rely on the Lord to provide in every respect. The cars and drivers organised were quite literally the best cars in this city, and we did not realise it.

We get ready to return with humble hearts…… Ian flys to Japan, Keith to Hyderabad and the rest back to Blighty – put the kettle on!

Julie gives a report of day 2

Hi there this is Julie speaking with my thoughts on the second day of the conference….WOW. We had an early start 7.45 prayer call to our leaders room. I gave out my usual drug distribution to all who requested treatment for the day!! The patients ward round went very well apart from was a couple of slight concerns in that our 2 main speakers for the day appeared not to have slept at all the previous night in fact Keith reported getting hot chocolate at 3 am!! Having revived him with all the prayer we could muster we dashed off for day 2. We were greeted at the door by the cow, goats dogs and children as usual in the street. An emergency trip to chemist for further supplies were needed the team arrived intact Hallelujah!!!!
Matthew kicked us off with worship and thankfully we have almost abandoned all attempts at our English songs and went straight into whooping it up Hindi style (led by Matthew with tambourine!) Wow the gypsy kings have nothing on this lot they really know how to rock!!


Greg had barely completed the first talk on prayer ministry before Matthew appeared to have plunged into the deep end with Power Ministry, He said only touched him but the man had to be taken out of the meeting on a stretcher by several pastors for further ministry He tells us its his first time but we don’t believe him!!!
After this the spiritual temperature just continued to rise as Keith explained the Holy Spirit session of the weekend. We felt to really pray as a team to put on the full armour of God during the ministry time and read out Ephesions 6 together.
There was an overwhelming sense of the Holy Spirit being poured with much evidence of the outpouring of His Spirit. They were so hungry for prayer and kept on returning for more and more prayer.




Although we felt few in numbers the team were able to move around and pray for everyone. Edna and I were particularly amazed that the women who had been huddling together at the back for most of the talks eagerly came forward to the front even pushing their way past the men!!! God blessed them and touched many in a visible way with many signs of Gods presence. It was truly an amazing time and a very humbling experience for all the team.

Posting from Bihar - India

(We've added some photos - will try to get better uploads with the next batch)

Well this latest blog posting is from India. I (Keith) have come to Bihar state as part of an Alpha team involved in training church leaders on how to run Alpha. It started when the Billy Graham organisation ran a TV series that was supporting the work of "My Hope India". Local Christians were encouraged to open their homes and invite their friends for the screenings of the show which happened around Christmas. They have some 3 million response cards filled out but the estimate some 15 million people made a prayer of commitment to follow Jesus. The numbers they talk about in India are truly staggering.

They are running the same series again this Christmas and are seeking to follow up more effectively. So Holy Trinity Brompton church in London were asked to assist in training a wide group of churches (70,000) in the running of Alpha courses which will be followed up by "the purpose driven church".

Well I left on Saturday and it was a truly mammoth journey punctuated by a night in undoubtedly the most awful hotel in India. A true Third World experience, although I quite enjoy the adventure. The hotel managed to drop me off at the wrong terminal at the airport but I did found my way to the correct terminal and met up with the rest of the team from Ecclesall church.



We flew on to Patna the regional capital of Bihar state, home to 80,000,000 in one of the poorest parts of India. I have to say that we were bracing ourselves for a shocking level of poverty but it really hasn't been like that. Ever the adventurous, a small group of us ventured from our deluxe hotel (pinch of salt required) to walk in the park across the road. We were immediately mobbed by a large number of the locals many of whom just stood and stared at us. They really aren't used to having Westerners in this part of the world. They wanted to talk and practise their English and proceeded to take us on a tour of the locality.

Things we saw

Wild pigs and cows in the park and on the general street corners

innumerable games of cricket in the park

people having haircuts and shaving in the street

the wildest form of traffic management

a snake charmer with attendant python

a tiny child walking on a tightrope in a bicycle hoop



the Ganges River with ferry boats


a lot of people relieving themselves in a variety of manners pretty much everywhere
a huge grain store built by an Englishman in 1770
a visit to the Krishna temple our adopted guide insisted we go in

It was a really interesting walkabout, really is a fascinating place.

Onto the preparations of the conference and spot of light dinner, my colleagues are very concerned about what we eat and the general hygiene situation. I am trying to be very good but have an inclination to try any thing looks interesting. After a little bit of planning for the conference, we managed to go out on a cycle rickshaw adventure in the dark. Great fun going round roundabouts the wrong way, quite a white knuckle ride.

We managed to turn in after this and have a relatively good night’s sleep. It was however little bit like sleeping in a hospital with so many things happening in the corridor outside through the night.

The conference started this morning and what a day!








There's about 200 people have come to the conference and they are keen as mustard. God has really been touching what has been known as "the graveyard of missionaries". 98% of the conference attendees have been converted in the last few years. Several others have been ministering in this area as missionaries sent from other parts of India. This evening we heard from a man in God told 35 years ago to leave his home and go to Bihar. He bought a one-way ticket and has invested his life here. Pretty much all in attendance trace their discipleship to his ministry.

It is a real privilege to be among such people, who welcome us with open arms, are grateful that we have come and quite frankly humble us. They are tuning in to using potential of Alpha.

We have Edna and Alan Nicklass in our team who are missionaries here some 20 years ago in Kashmir. Edna says she is really rarely been anywhere to experience worship like this with Indians and it is moving for us all to see what God has done. It is a thrill to see the truly indigenous church God has raised up. We've had teaching and worship and prayer times, their zeal and fire is evident. I really think that we might learn a great deal here. We'll try and post this tomorrow if I can get on the Web

The Mitsubishi had to go.....

Well if we really are going to go we can't take all the cars so Dawn's people mover went on ebay this week. We thought the Merc might be easier to shift later on. Anyhow on ebay it went. All quite exciting when 44 people were watching it. Then someone asked how much to sell it for cash now and can i come to see it tomorrow!
And so a deal was done with cash - the nice chap came with his son which was a big mistake as we all know never shop for cars with a small child who immediately got inside and said "i want it!" so it would of course then be child abuse not to buy.
I was then persuaded to drive them back to North London with the promise of a lift home - all, I thought, better than Dawn having to close the deal when I am in India next week.
Now I had warned him the fan belt needed attention before he came, it was due to be replaced on Monday but no the buyer wanted to take it on Sunday. 2 miles down the Parkway out of Sheffield and screech bang the fan belts (2) explode! Sort of embarrassing.
The purchaser's ardour was however undimmed and Brittannia Rescue (the annual fee is worth it) fixed it with 2 new belts in the dark in 75 mins - wow!

1.45am Keith returns triumphant with used notes and one asset disposal accomplished. The guy was delighted - his wife however was a little cross!

feels like we are off the blocks! Our life is changing - thanks Mum your Fiesta is fab - washed it today in thanks and reverence.