Sunday 10th Oct - Chapel, Campus tour, testimonies, 2 BOHs
We started Sunday off with a church service at the Bible college campus chapel:
Catherine did an acapella song:
...and Matt taught from Nehemiah 8, mentioning our responsibility as Christians to help people understand God's word:
During communion some of the students could be heard weeping as they meditated on what Jesus has done for all of us.
After Chapel service we were given a tour of the Bible college campus grounds. We saw one of the students' classrooms:
...and were able to pretend to be students for a few minutes:
Then we were shown some of the gifts bought through donations from the Gospel for Asia Christmas Catalogue. Here is a working BioSand water filter:
...here are some of the bicycles and sewing machines:
...and here are some pulling carts for street vendors:
We were also shown the radio broadcast studio:
...where they showed us how they record the radio broadcasts:
...by recording me!
After the tour we met two of the Bible college students who bravely gave us their testimonies.
The first was this girl:
...she is from a non-Christian family, with 2 older brothers, 1 older sister and 1 younger brother, and from childhood she did traditional religious rituals to various idols. At 5 years old she developed a serious form of asthma which gave her severe stomach pains and confined her to her bed. Hospitals and medicines were no help, her family spent thousands of rupees but she continued to lose health and weight, and the doctors said it was a sickness from birth which she would never be rid of. By the time she was 18 years old her family had given up all hope for her recovery and left her alone in a room - no-one would be with her, no-one any longer cared for her. She started wishing she was dead and resolved to hang herself, but suddenly remembered that she had once heard about Jesus at a church she once went to with her friends. She cried out to him. Jesus appeared to her in a dream, and said to her "I am the Lord that healeth thee", and then he touched her, all the burden left her body, and she awoke completely healed. That night she confessed her sins and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour. To her dismay her family then treated her worse because she was now a Christian, despite her miraculous healing. They completely rejected her. Some time later she managed to finish a batchelor's degree, but her spiritual life was declining. She settled to finding herself a job but could not. And then remembered that Jesus had told her to be a witness for him, and she decided to obey Him and serve Him with her life, even though her family were not supportive. It is her desire to be a witness to young girls, and she asks for prayer for her family to come to know the love of Christ.
The other testimony we heard came from this young man:
His family worshiped idols, gods and goddesses, but when he was 13 he was invited to go to church and ended up going regularly. His parents told him not to go as this was not their family faith, but he did not stop. He found such peace in the word and worship that he could not stay away. His parents forced the issue, harassed him, and beat him, until he stopped going. He stopped for a while but then secretly re-started. One Sunday the pastor shared about confessing sin. He cried and confessed his sins and accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour, and discovered a desire to share God’s word with others. Because of his new faith in Christ his parents told him to leave home. He begged them not to throw him out but they did anyway. The pastor encouraged him and sent him to (this) Bible college to study God’s word. His parents told him not to go, but he answered them that even if they cut him in pieces he would never leave Jesus. Now every time he calls them his parents tell him to stop studying at Bible college and come home, such that he is afraid to go home in case his parents kidnap him. He is 21 years old and in his first year, so all these things happened not long ago. He is praying to be led to the unreached, and asks for prayer for his family.
After the testimonies we were driven to a Bridge of Hope centre, where we were warmly welcomed with flower petals:
…flower garlands:
…and traditional dances:
…and a very funny (but extremely difficult to explain!) sketch:
In return some of our party taught the Bridge of Hope children the action song “The Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rock”:
After all the fun we were introduced to the staff:
And before we left the Bridge of Hope centre there was time to meet the children and take photos:
Our next stop was a church building:
...and another Bridge of Hope centre nearby:
We were again warmly welcomed with traditional dances:
...as well as Bible songs. These children sang us "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" in English:
We taught them our action song:
...which went down well, the Bridge of Hope children seemed to enjoy clapping their hands and shouting out "splat!":
...and before the end there was time for sweets, fun, and photos:
Monday 11th Oct - A church
The next morning we went to visit a village church plant:
You may know that it is possible to buy goats for an Asian family through Gospel for Asia. Some time ago this lady's family were given two goats and by the time we saw them the two goats had become eight goats!
They have a steady supply of milk, which they can also sell, and they can even sell a baby goat and get enough money to send one of their children to school for an entire year. The family are not Christian, but because they have seen the love of Jesus demonstrated so clearly the father has been coming to church and is hearing the Gospel!
This below is the onsite Jesus Well, providing fresh water as well as living water:
...and these are BioSand water filters under construction which will later be distributed:
Inside we met some of the people that attend the church:
...Catherine got to know some of the local Bible women team.
...and then it was time to begin.
We heard testimonies from some other ladies who had been given gifts through Gospel for Asia. The gifts included sewing machines which enable them to stitch clothing to earn some money, as well as payphones which they would place near their homes for other people to use. People pay to use the phone and the money provides income for whoever owns the payphone.
Some of us could not resist the chance to try them out!
Then it was our turn to share and Angus told the people a Bible story:
...and the girls taught them another song:
Afterwards we had the privilege of praying for anyone who wanted to be prayed for... which turned out to be just about everyone!
As usual home-time came around much sooner than we desired, and we were forced to reluctantly say our goodbyes and pull ourselves away.
So that was Hyderabad. Thank you so much for reading, and thank you so much for being a part of my life. I will try to write again as soon as I can. I hope you all have a great Christmas - a great time celebrating Jesus' birthday. God bless you all!
