While no two days are alike, they do quickly fall into a pattern that continues Monday- Saturday the whole time we are with Pastor Moses. We usually arise by 6 or earlier. I get things ready for the day and instant message with Nancy if she is home. I take my medications, including malaria pill, spray myself for mosquitoes, get my water bottles, hand sanitizer and plastic spoon, and gather any specific medicines I may need to see me through the day and I am ready to go. At 7 AM we eat a nice, healthy free buffet breakfast at our hotel and start our drive to the site of the day’s conference. Most drive are 1 ½ to 2 hours each way. I review lessons for the day and maybe type a blog while traveling.
We arrive at the conference site to find a few pastors start showing up. When their number grows to 6 or 8 they will start singing and/or praying. Conferences scheduled to start at 9 seldom start before 10:45, and even then there are only about 20 pastors present. In two hours time, when we provide a free meal for them, there are a hundred or more present!
While waiting for enough to come to start, Alan and I will walk through the local streets ‘talking’ to people and taking lots of pictures. Everyone finds it an honor to be photographed. People are very friendly and invite us into their homes to sit, have chai or a chapatti, or even a meal. We always keep moving, for when we stop it is extremely difficult to get going again.
Our first session, “What God Expects of Pastors,” goes from about 11 to 12. It is a good session which I have been using for many years and which is always very well received. I wrote my first book for India based on it. I end with a strong emphasis on putting their wife and children before the church. It is very motivational and is always commented on in their closing remarks about how God used the conference in their lives. This sets the stage for a second hour-long session, after a chai break, given by Alan about the husband-wife relationship.
By the time Alan is finished, announcements are made and lunch is ready it is almost 1:30. Everyone eats outside, but we stay on the stage from which we taught and our fresh, hot Indian meal is delivered to us. After eating we walk around the area and community, taking more pictures.
The afternoon consists of 2 shorter sessions, about 40-45 minutes each. During the first I dress as a disciple of Jesus who explains Jesus’ return to them. He (I) shows the parallels between it and the way marriages were carried out in Bible times so prophecy becomes more clear to them. It’s a wonderful joy and privilege to explain these great truths for the first time to hearts hungry to learn them! The second session tells about when we get to heaven, the 7 year Marriage Supper of the Lamb. I explain about the crowns we will be given and then laid at Jesus’ feet. We look at verses in Revelation about the throne in heaven and the descriptions of Jesus, the lion-lamb, there. This leads to a great time of praise and worship focusing on Jesus. After we clean up we drive home. I use this time in the car to download and organize my pictures, audio and video files from the day.
The second day we are usually able to start earlier for we tell the men when we will be starting and they don’t want to miss the third prophecy session which is a summary of the tribulation. It mainly focuses on the Second Coming of Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19). There is great rejoicing and celebration as they hear of the in the sudden and total victory of Jesus over sin and Satan. Another session of about 40-45 minutes follows after a short stand-up break. This concludes the prophecy series with a focus on the Millennium and then eternity and what it will be like. I’ve really enjoyed these sessions for it adds preaching to my teaching. What could be more enjoyable than talking about Jesus glory and soon return!
After a chai break on the second day we have our last session, also about an hour. It is about Jesus’ victory over Satan and demon, taken from the Mark 5 story of the demonized man in Gadarenes. The magic in all the talks does a lot of emphasize and drive home truth, but that is especially true in this last session. It culminates with me leading all of them in a prayer to remove anything demonic working against them, their family or their church for any reason. It is very, very powerful hearing 100+ pastors praying as loud as they can for God’s victory over Satan’s forces! I then pray for them, for deliverance from anything working against them for any reason. ‘Powerful’ is the best word to describe it, but you’d really have to come see it to understand it.
Following this various pastors or wives will come forward to share what God has taught them through the conference and what they think of it. “We’ve never had anything like this,” “Best conference ever,” “It changed my life,” and “Please come again, and soon – we need this so very much!” are typical comments. Then we take a group picture and I hand out travel money and 4 books to each person. I enjoy shaking hands with each person present and giving them these things. We then eat the meal provided, clean up and head home. Many will come to have hands laid on them and have prayer for them. That is a very special time for me! I feel sad saying good-bye to these new friends. It always amazes me how close we can become in just one day when we can’t even speak the same language. But that’s what it is like meeting brothers and sisters in Christ I didn’t know before! Oh the conversations I will have in heaven!!!!
When all is over we drive home. Alan and Pastor Moses go to a restaurant to eat. Sometimes I join them, other times I eat one of the tuna fish packages I brought for this purpose and work on getting ready for the next day’s conferences. I also finish and post my blog from my hotel room. I enjoy reading the emails sent me in response to previous blogs. Then I talk to Nancy by instant messenger if we can connect at the same time. I get to sleep as early as I can. Then I get up and do it all over again, six days on and one (Sunday) off – but Sunday is as full as these days for we go to 3 or 4 churches each Sunday! And that’s a typical day (month) in India!
Matthew 25:14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
Pray we would faithfully carry out the assignment the Lord has given us, both here and when we get home. Pray you, too, will faithfully carry out His assignment for you. Do you know what it is? How are you doing in carrying it out? If I can pray for you concerning this send me an email and I will.