Living Word Church of the Nazarene

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord!

What a great day we had yesterday! Our day began with a great devotional from Richard Volz followed by breakfast. Yes, curry was the main spice at breakfast too!

We arrived at the worksite and began our work around 9:30 AM. Before we arrived in India, the church walls and roof were completed. For most of us, our first work day consisted of sifting sand through a wire mesh in order to separate the rocks from the sand. This sand was used to make the plaster that was being put on the walls of the church. By the end of the day, we began to put primer on the outside of the church building in preparation for the painting. We did have some surprised guests (a troop of monkeys) climbing on the house next to the church.

We have much to do before Sunday night’s dedication service. We are praying that today will be very productive day for the team.

The first VBS began last night at 5 PM. It was held at another Nazarene church (30 minutes away) called Peniel Church of the Nazarene. There were approximately 20 kids present. The team did a great job of presenting the story of Adam and Eve and how sin entered the world. John Resac made his acting debut as Adam… I think LWN’s drama team might have its newest member. The kids had a craft, games, snack, puppet show, and music. Everything was translated to Tamil by Cynthia Samuel. I am anticipating a larger crowd of kids tonight as the team prepares to share the story of Noah’s Ark.

Our day concluded with a prayer meeting at the home of one of the families of the church. The home was that of a man named David, the first convert of this church… sixteen years ago. We packed our team and a number of families from the church into this welcoming, but modest, home. The Spirit of God was strong with us as Pastor Kingsley led the meeting. We sang, prayed, and shared. I was asked to preach on the spur of the moment. I remember being told by my first mentor in ministry that “Preachers always need to be ready to preach, pray, and die at the spur of a moment.” I now understand.

We returned to the hotel around 8:30 PM and finished our day with dinner at 9 PM.

Everyone seems to be adjusting to the time change pretty well. We have teased that our beds at the hotel have sleep number mattresses that are permanently set on the “rock” setting. It doesn’t matter a whole lot as we are very tired at the end of the day.

Thank you for your prayers and your blog comments. We are praying for you each day as well.