Mar 20

To Bengaluru and Back

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Bengaluru

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At the end of March I went to Bengaluru (Bangalore) for a two-day training with some 26 new pastors. Missionary Matthew Ude flew into Bengaluru the evening after the first day, returning from his furlough in the States, and taught the second day of the meeting.

IMG_1245These pastors have been gathering in Bengaluru each month for several months now to see if they agree with what we and the Bible teach so that they can join the Berea Evangelical Lutheran Church (BELC) in fellowship. We have been going through My Church and Others byJohn Theodore Mueller.

As we drove back to Chennai (our home base), we stopped and taught in three other districts along the way:

Vanyambadi

IMG_1257Here 44 pastors attended. This is an “older” district and these pastors are part of the BELC. It was an honor to encourage them with God’s word.

After teaching we drove to the next district, Ambur. The hotel at which we would have stayed was under renovation, so we tried IMG_1259to get rooms at another hotel in Ambur. That hotel was all booked up (probably because the other hotel was under renovation). We could have gone back to the first hotel, but their restaurant was closed due to the renovations and there was no other nearby restaurant (at least not one that was proven “safe” for us foreigners), so we decided to drive the hour or so and stay in the next district, Vellore. We would have to drive back to Ambur in the morning for the meeting there, but better safe than hungry (or sick).

Ambur

IMG_1278IMG_1277Amur is also a new district. We are using Luther’s Small Catechism as a framework to go through the teachings of the Bible to determine if we are in doctrinal agreement. We meet in a room in the top of a hotel lined with 4 cots. The room was full with the 15 men who attended.

IMG_1276Missionary Matthew Ude told me that on a previous visit he was sitting outside the room on the flat roof (deck) while the other missionary (I don’t know if it was Ed Starkey or David Koenig) was teaching.  He had put the sealed bottle of Coca Cola that the men in Ambur had given him down on the cement next to his chair. After a bit, a monkey ran up, stole the bottle, and then proceeded to chewed off the top to get to the Coke! Hopefully the caffeine didn’t keep the monkey up too late that night (or make him too rowdy)!

Vellore

IMG_1295Vellore is also a new district where the 35 pastors are coming to hear what we and the Bible teach to see if they agree and can join the BELC in fellowship. I taught a lesson justification, focusing on how God has declared the whole world “not guilty” because of Jesus’ death and resurrection (2 Corinthians 5:19, Romans 5:18-19, Romans 3:23-25). This declaration was accomplished almost 2000 years ago and is freely given to you through faith in Jesus.

What a blessing and honor it was to meet with and share God’s word with these 120 pastors! Please pray for them as they minister and spread the Gospel here in India.

Feb 26

Extreme Culture Shock

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Culture Shock is something one can experience when visiting a foreign country. Often there are different expectations, different ways of communicating, different ways of doing things, different levels of comfort, and different levels cleanliness and hygiene. These differences can lead to feelings of unease, discomfort, even anxiety and frustration.

When driving on the dusty, bouncy, dirt roads of India, I miss the clean, paved roadways of the States. When my feet are devoured by mosquitos and gnats and I worry about malaria, chikungunya, and dengue fever, I begin to think that the mosquitos of Minnesota really weren’t that bad.

But the occasional and minor discomforts I may experience here do not compare to what our Lord and Savior Jesus experienced. Think of what He did! Jesus,

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:6-8

Although Jesus was God, He left the glory of heaven to become flesh and dwell among us in this dirty, smelly, sin-corrupted world. We cannot even begin to understand how great Jesus’ humiliation was. We cannot comprehend the difference between heaven and here. Talk about culture shock!

But Jesus not only left the comforts of heaven to live here among us sinful people, but He humbled Himself to the point of experiencing something completely foreign to the eternal Son of God: death. And He suffered an ignominious death as a common criminal on a cross.

Jesus did this all for you and for me. He came to live the perfect life of obedience to God the Father than none of us have lived, and He took all of our failures to keep God’s law — all our sins — upon Himself when He died on the cross. By His death and resurrection from the dead, Jesus has taken away your sins and reconciled you to God, so that you have an eternal home in heaven and His perfect life here on earth is credited to your account.

This is why Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Rejoice in the salvation that Jesus has accomplished for you at such great cost and suffering.