Sunday 31 October 2010

2. Rajasthan 6-9 Oct

Hi friends,

Here is part two of my India trip recollections:

Thursday 7th October – a Bible college and a village church

We arrived in Rajasthan late Wednesday evening, and the next morning we went to visit a Bible college.




Brian gave greeted the students and thanked them for letting us visit.


Then a couple of students gave testimonies of how God had saved them and called them into His service.


And we were blessed with some time to hang out with the students and staff and take photos.








Afterwards we drove about an hour to a village out in Rajasthan’s arid countryside. The roads out here had different feel to those of the inner city.






The below YouTube video is about the village we visited. The missionary sent here was hunted down to be killed on his wedding day by the village head.



We met the village head, who is now a Christian!


He is now supporting ministry in his village, including a women’s literacy program.




Among the women in this particular tribe there is only a 12% literacy rate. Today these ladies were learning to write their name and the numbers from 1 to 100.


The village head also gave land for the church to be built on.


The missionary wasn’t around this day as he was spending the time in prayer and fasting. I asked where he lived and was told “the other side of that mountain…”


I also got to pump a Jesus Well! These are hand-pumped bore wells funded by donors through Gospel for Asia. They are accompanied by a plaque with the inscription: ‘Jesus Christ says: "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst" (John 4:13-14).’ Unfortunately the inscription plaque here had been knocked over by a water buffalo!


Matt tells you a bit more about the Jesus Well in this video:




Friday 8th October – “Miracle Church” and a Bridge of Hope

To get to the church this day we had to drive about an hour and a half through increasingly narrowing roads which really didn’t seem to have been made with jeeps in mind. We even had to drive through a shallow river to get here!




This church was known as “Miracle Church” because just about everyone there had a testimony of how Jesus has healed them of something and it had made them realise that He is the true God. The worship here was vibrant and heart-felt, with songs being started by various members of the congregation as they felt led by the Lord, and being resonated by the rest in joy and unity.


Whenever there was a “hallelujah!” everyone would raise their hand and echo it!


Whenever someone said “let’s pray” they would bow down and start talking to Jesus!


Matt taught this day with the aid of a translator. He had felt led to change his message just that morning, from the account of the two blind men to the account of the woman healed of an issue of blood. This lady in dark purple had come to Christ because Jesus had healed her of an issue of blood!


Through her testimony 40 other families from her village had come to know Christ as their Lord and Saviour, including this man who was the village witch doctor!


After service they lined up for prayer from us! I was so humbled, I really felt like they should be praying for me (and that maybe they would if they knew what I was really like!), but at the same time I felt so honoured and privileged to be able to pray for these my brothers and sisters in Christ, who I had not met before today but with whom I could sense kinship and fellowship.


We also had the privilege with praying for the pastor of this church.


He had come to Christ during his studies. He had been given a tract while at school and later met some people selling New Testaments. He could not afford to buy one… so he stole one! After being healed of an eye problem he went to enrol in a Bible college, but it was full – so he spent the next 7 days asking to be let in, while fasting and praying. He got in! Eventually he got sent here to this village and on the very first day he knocked on every door and handed out tracts. Then he spent 3 days in fasting and prayer, and sharing the Gospel in people’s houses. Now over 200 people are part of this church! This actually confused our guide who said to the pastor “but when I came last month you said there were only 180 people in the church in total.” The answer he got was “there have been 32 public professions of faith since you last came.” Praise the Lord!






Later that day we went to visit a Bridge of Hope centre where we were once again warmly welcomed.






I was once again taken aback by being in the presence of so many young and individual lives being impacted by the love of Jesus – love expressed through labourers here in India as well as by praying sponsors in the West.

Angus told the children about when Elijah was fed by ravens by the brook.


And we were treated to songs and psalm recitals by various children.


And afterwards there was plenty of time for fun and photos!













Saturday 9th October – sightseeing


Saturday was set aside by our hosts for some tourist activities. Meet Bunci:


Bunci was to be our just-after-breakfast entertainment, though some of us were more keen on him than others.


I think he stood up more quickly than Trudi expected a camel to stand up.


And he was also a bit tricky to get off of.


Matt seemed to get on just fine with Bunci.


In fact as he rode it seemed that his countenance changed.


And of course I also had a chance to ride Bunci.


Next we went to look at a Hindu temple to get a better understanding of the religion of 80% of India.


We saw some people during their worship of their idol. We didn’t take many photos because we were forbidden to do so by one of them. Clearly these people feared and revered the power of the object of their worship.


Every one of these carvings on the temple walls represents a different Hindu god.


This lady is paying respects to this idol in the temple courtyard.


After the temple we went to visit a royal palace.


We saw inside an image of the sun made for the king to worship, amongst other images.






The palace had some nice rooms and nice views.




And I found a nice cooking pot.




After lunch we left for Andhra Pradesh, but that’s a whole different blog post! I will write about our next stop as soon as I am able.

Thank you for your patience and thank you for reading. And thank you again for your love, prayers, support, and being a part of my life. God bless you!

JP