"I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers." Ephesians 1:16

Before I began writing this post, I looked through all the pictures of my students that I have taught, gotten to know, and learned from for the past 10 days or so. I have sat looking out the window recalling the smiles that we shared, the worship that we had together, and most of all, remembering their testimonies. I remember how many of them come from places where the Gospel is not accepted. I remember how one student told of his father being shut out of their families house because he began to follow Jesus. I remember of one student sharing of how she was beaten for believing in Christ. I remember various students telling of sicknesses or near death experiences and had it not been for the grace of God, they would have not been at Logos. I remember them testifying to the mercy and grace that God has had on their life. I remember

As I remember, I pray for them. I pray selfishly that I'll see them again. I pray that they would be safe and that the Lord would keep them. I pray that their needs are provided for. I pray that their families would come to know Christ - especially those that come from Hindu families. But even as I pray those things, I reminded that it is not "safe" to follow Christ. That idea is just my comfortable, American way of thinking. With tears, I pray that regardless of all those things, that the Gospel would be advanced by the very people we have spent time with the past two weeks.

MDIV 1st year students! They are all so sweet, humble, and so honoring. I thank the Lord for these.

BTH 2nd year students! This group was so funny and, of course, so sweet to me! I am so thankful for the way they loved me.

I thank these students so much for sharing their stories with me, for loving me, for serving and honoring Michael and me while we were with them, and most importantly for desiring to be faithful servants of the Most High God.

So I'll leave this post with one of my favorite Psalm and one that I often quote. This is my prayer for them:

May God be gracious to you and bless you

and make his face shine upon you,

that His way may be known on earth

and His saving power among all nations.

Let the peoples praise you, O God;

let all the peoples praise you!

Agape Children's Home

Michael's victory!

Our hearts were full after visiting the boys living at Agape Children's Home. It was difficult when we first arrived because we don't speak the language of the state of Kerala (Malayalam) and the boys' English was limited. But once we discovered we could take funny pictures and arm wrestle, the whole night changed! It was good for our souls to be able to laugh and see smiles come to these boy's faces! Michael even got Abraham to join in the fun! :-)

Look at his face!! The other boys could not get over
how serious his face was!

Abraham and Michael. We have really enjoyed
every minute with this guy!

We learned that somewhere between 40-50% of India's 1.2 billion people are children. Agape Royal Ministries (the ministry directed by our host) is wisely making children's outreach a priority and has a number of children's homes throughout India. Most of the children they take in are not orphans per se, but come from single parent homes who are unable to raise them. We were so impressed by the cleanliness and family atmosphere of the home, for which a godly couple serves as houseparents. What a commitment this couple has made! Raising one or two boys who are not your biological children would be difficult, but they have charge for eighteen! Most of the boys in this home come from Hindu families, but now they are regularly taught Scripture, participate in a local church, and hear the gospel. They even sang for us when arrived! Each of the boys were respectful and well-mannered, and we were encouraged that the each of the older boys—or young men, we should say—had a clear career path. One was working toward a degree in Information Technology, another one was pursuing engineering, and two intend to study medicine.

We thank the Lord for enabling us to meet with them even if we only crossed paths for an hour or so. We pray that we will see these boys again one day—around the throne of God as every tribe, tongue, and nation gathers to declare His praise.

Michael was able to pray for the boys before we went downstairs to eat. 

Logos College

This is the girls dorm and where I had my classes.

This is the building where we had chapel and Michael had his class. 

All the students, staff, and visitors (us and Anna)! We were able to get a "quick" picture after chapel.

Bethel Children's Home

On Tuesday evening, we visited Bethel Children's Home. We were greeted by Pastor Sunny and his wife. Behind a curtain, we heard tiny little whispers of excitement! They seated us right inside and then all of the girls came out. They then commenced to sing for us many songs and some even with dances! We were overjoyed to see the joy on their faces. We had been given some background on the children that we would meet in these homes earlier in the week. These children are not orphans, but rather in most cases they are children with only one parent and the parent could not provide for them.

They definitely sang a joyful noise to the Lord. After they performed, Michael and I were flogged! :-) I don't say that because we were bothered by it. On the contrary, it was humbling and just mind blowing to see how much they wanted to talk to us, tell us their names, and touch my face! The girls showed us their rooms. I probably had about 8 or more girls grabbing my arm leading me to their room. It was awesome! They each told us their names and shook both of our hands. Then they would point to their chest and say, "My name" and they would want you to remember their names. Unfortunately it was impossible to remember. Their precious little faces would sigh and then kindly tell us their names again! It was so funny! Then after they would talk to us, they each wanted to touch my face. If you think about how on T.V. the aunt always pinches your cheeks, yes, it was something like that! It brings a smile to my heart just to even write those words.

Finally we were ushered on into have dinner. We,

still days later, are completely humbled by our dinner that night. Sunny and his wife served us butter chicken (the best butter chicken I have had here) and chicken fried rice (also the best I've had here). They did not eat with us, but rather served us. Over the course of being here more than a week, we have learned that chicken has become more expensive so most people will not have it often. To know that Pastor Sunny and his wife invited us into their home, cooked for us, served us, on top of managing on these kids + 3 kids of their own, leaves us humbly thankful!

Bethel is just one of many children's homes in Agape Royal Ministries. This one was a girls home, but we will go to another children's home tonight that is for boys. We are excited to see what fellowship tonight holds! Please pray for these girls and Pastor Sunny and his family. We are so thankful that as brothers and sisters in Christ we have sweet fellowship.

Teaching at Logos

Hello to all!

It is almost 9:00 p.m. here in Trivandrum and our hearts are full. We have had such a wonderful time so far and as I mentioned to Michael tonight, it is already going to be hard to leave! I wanted to give you all a glimpse of what it has been like to teach at Logos. Michael is teaching Biblical Interpretation and I am working with students on English skills both in speaking and writing.

Michael instructing his class before chapel.

Michael interacting with his students.

Group work: Create your own proverb.

More group work

These are some pictures from my classes today. Students were working on article practice - a, an, the. This has been a challenge for me to teach because, as I shared with them, we are not taught to use articles; we just use them. So it has been a unique challenge to try to teach how to use them and when to use each one correctly. My students are also sharing their testimonies with the class. They are sharing about where they are from, how they have come to know Christ, and what the Lord is doing in their lives currently. It has been really neat to hear their stories. :-) Enjoy the pics!

Listening to their classmates tell their testimonies.

Sharing her story with the class.

Sharing his story.

These at BTH II students. They are so funny! I laugh the whole time I have them.

Sharing her story of how she came to Christ and what the Lord has done in her life.

All of the students working on their article worksheet. Some of this is easy for them and then in some cases determining the correct article is very difficult. These girls on the front row are very kind to me and help me mutter through pronouncing their names! Super sweet girls!

Article practice

Article practice

Article practice

I am so thankful for what the Lord has done in the hearts of these sweet people! May he continue to work so that all people may come to know the saving power that has been given to us by God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Journey to India (Better Late Than Never)

After many failed attempts of taking self-pictures in the airport, I'll spare you of those pictures. However, I thought I would put up some pictures of our journey from North Carolina to India.

First stop: New York, NY

Michael and I had a 9 hour layover in New York so we decided to venture into the city. We at least wanted to get a good piece of pizza out of it, which we did. I can't say that I loved it since our affinity lies with Chicago and its pizza (the place where we had our first home together), but it was exciting to walk around in the city! We went to Rockefeller Center and actually went to the Top of the Rock, as they call it. The views were beautiful. Michael spotted the Statue of Liberty, which I must say was very disappointing at that height because it looked so small. But we did get to see an incredible view of the Empire State Building and Central Park. As I blogged from the Dubai airport, there we so many different people there from so many different places. I can't begin to explain how many languages we heard even solely on Top of the Rock. It was astonishing. 

While we were waiting to go up, we visited a courtyard that had flags from all over the world. As we walked up and stood against the railing, Michael immediately noticed that India's flag was right in front of us. That was pretty neat to see and know that we would be there in a day or so. 

Second stop: Dubai, UAE

Traveling across the globe for us was really a good experience; however, waiting in the airports was not so much fun. Between trying to adjust to different time zones and having flights in the middle of the night, we took naps whenever we could. I'm usually the napper, but Michael has taken that title from me on this trip. Poor thing was trying to read for his class he is teaching, but could not make it through. After watching him fight it for about 20 minutes, I looked over to find this and couldn't help but take a photo.

Among our adventures in the Dubai airport, we decided we need to eat a meal before we boarded our final flight to Trivandrum, India. After roaming and surveying a wide range of options, we decided upon Burger King. The BK had a menu with the standard fare, but it also had choices tailored to the region. After studying the menu board and calculating the currency conversion, we determined that, of all things, the special "Ramadan box" would be our best deal. In the spirit of providing lots of food to a person breaking their Ramadan fast at the end of the day, the box was loaded with a meal we could easily split. I snagged a picture of Michael with the Ramadan box to commemorate the occasion. 

Part of our adventure included many fruitless attempts to the (purportedly) free Dubai airport Wi-fi. After finally giving up, we discovered that with a purchase at a coffee shop/food stand we could gain access to their Wi-fi. So after polishing off the Ramadan box, we settled upon a Nestle Toll House stand, where we purchased a cookie and a Coke Zero (for Michael). After firing off a few short missives to family on our newly-acquired Wi-fi signal, we boarded our final (4 hour) flight into Trivandrum. 

Worship in Another Language

This morning we worshipped with Bhart Bible Church in Kunnathukal. We were greeted with smiles by the pastor and congregation as we arrived. We were then encouraged us to take off our shoes as we entered. Yes, we worshipped barefoot. :-) Everyone was so friendly. There were lots of teens and children there and they were so friendly. I cannot speak to most of them and only one spoke to us in English, but for the rest of them I could receive their names and smile and that was mutual.

I cannot tell you the words to all the songs that we sang, which were many nor could I tell you the prayers of praise and adoration to our God by members in the congregation, but I can express that they were worshipping our risen Savior Jesus Christ.

Services there are so God-centered. We entered as they were praying. They would sing a few songs (I say they, because all we could do was clap) and then they would pray again. This cycle was repeated quite a few times. They are so dependent on the Father for everything - throughout the entire service. The songs were about Him. The prayers for to Him not out of their wants or needs, but in praise to Him for His mercy and grace (as we were told by our translators), and the message was about Him. I am thankful for that. Our churches in America seem so far from this sometimes, but that's a different blog post for a different time.

Michael preached from 1 Corinthians 15:1-5. God was gracious and kind in enabling him to speak the Gospel clearly. Other than the congregation singing "Because He Lives" in English, this was the only other time I could understand. Augustin translated for Michael and translated so beautifully with great passion and urgency of the Gospel being proclaimed! It was an amazing thing to hear Michael proclaim the truth of the Gospel and then to hear Augustin repeat the proclamation in a different tongue. It was a very poignant time that I have not experience anything like before.

We then entered into another time of prayer and then observed the Lord's supper. As Michael wrote to our pastor a little ago, it was a great reminder of what God has done through Christ's blood. He has united all in his blood. By us joining together around this ordinance this morning, that became something we could physically see. What we have already felt in the bond that we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ here in India, we were able to see in this ordinance. This was such as sweet time of fellowship and worship with them.

Abraham's son, Finny also shared from Scripture. I'm sure it was good; however, we could not understand anything! :-)

After service was over, I was suddenly surrounded by all the girls from the children's home and two super cute little boys who are also staying there. They all wanted to shake our hands. Each one introduced themselves to us. I communicated to them how beautiful they were and how much I loved their clothing - clothing here is always colorful and just beautiful! They were so kind to us. They asked us if we would please pray for them. I'm not sure why they wanted us to pray. It was actually quite humbling that they would ask us this. Michael prayed over them - for safety, for God to bring them up in His truth and grow them spiritually, for godly men who would become their husbands, for good education, and most importantly that they would worship God all the days of their lives. It brought tears to my eyes as Michael was praying to unite with them in spirit.

Look at this cute little face!

We had to leave quickly after they gave us Pepsi and bananas because of things going on later today, but we later found out that the pastor wanted me to teach the girls some songs. We are supposed to go back to this area tomorrow for a pastor's meeting so I'm hoping for more opportunities to share with them.

We are so thankful for this time and what the Lord is doing in us and in his Church. Stodrum! (I think)

Schedule/Prayer Request

We are so tired! We have not been awake past 10 any day - most days before that and we are up around 6. So we have to be up and ready in the morning to travel about 1 1/2 to the church where Michael will preach. For those of you who are reading today, (your Saturday), please pray for Michael as you head to bed tonight or as you sit down to watch t.v. because he'll probably be preaching around that time. We have a much busier schedule now that we have had a couple days to get over the jet lag. Monday Michael will talk to pastors in the afternoon. Tuesday and Thursday we will go to different children's homes. We have busy days ahead, but we are looking forward to spending the next week with the students, pastors, children, and others we will meet! Pray also that God would continue to work in our hearts and do what he wants in us just as he is working in the lives of those we encounter. 

Jesus plus nothing really does equal everything

Today we went to the point of three seas - the Indian Ocean, the Sea of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. We went out on a ferry to this place where you can see all three waters come together. We also went to where Ghandi's ashes were and Ghandi stood at some point. We also saw some shrines/temples and just saw a lot of the country. So we traveled from Trivandrum to the very south tip of India. I don't think neither Michael or I thought we would be gone all day, but we were. We left our hotel at 9 and just got back a little bit ago. So we've had a full day. We were super blessed to have our driver chauffeuring us around and we are extremely thankful for Augustin who was our personal tour guide and the one we could ask all our ignorant American questions to. Nevertheless he was always eager and kind to answer with a smile.  

We could say two things about our day - one positive and one negative. It was very sad to see all the lostness - based on Hindu practices they obviously know there is something higher than them and they given the sacrifices and offerings they provide, they must believe that they are not good enough on their own account to come before that higher power. Problem - they believe in many many (Augustine told us today it was like 133,000,000 gods/goddesses). So that part is very sad and burdensome. But, hearing what God is doing and how the gospel is spreading is crazy! In our car rides today, we would ask Augustin questions or he would either volunteer information about religions, culture, or how the gospel is spreading in India. Many times as he was speaking tears filled my eyes because everything he shared was a testament to God's goodness and faithfulness to carry out his gospel. He is taking care of the believers in India. He is providing for their needs and blessing their ministries - as they would say - not because of anything they have done but because of God's grace. They know that the only way they can accomplish the will of the Father is to pray. Michael and I are humbled to hear the professors and students tell us their testimonies and desires to use their lives to further the Gospel. And they make it clear that every single aspect both in their pasts and their futures is all dependent and has been a result of God's grace. 

I am so thankful for this opportunity. We still have a full week, but I'm already trying to figure out how we can come back, what we can do to support the work of the Lord here in India, and how in the world I'm going to go back to my normal life in America. By God's grace, I will not go back to my normal life in America and fall back into complacency and a life of comfort. I want these two weeks of seeing the students' passion for the gospel and their desire to see the great commission fulfilled at all costs to change the way I live from this point further. I pray that our church can see truly from the testimonies that we bring back and see that the Gospel really is worth it all. Jesus plus nothing really does equal everything! - jana

Greetings from Trivandrum, India.

Greetings from Trivandrum, India. The Lord has been so kind and we are honored to be serving here. We have been so encouraged by the believers here, and I’ll try to pass along that encouragement to you.

I have the privilege of teaching Biblical Interpretation to seventeen eager students, from basically 9 AM to 4 PM, with breaks for chapel and lunch. I have been pleasantly surprised with their grasp of English—it is very good!—and if not for this Southerner’s accent the communication would be pretty smooth. The college is clearly preparing them well, and their knowledge of Scripture and Christian doctrine is very sound, which makes teaching both easy and joyful. Above all, their pure faith and sincere love for Christ have been refreshing; I am so grateful for the transforming, trans-ethnic gospel of Jesus Christ! Can you imagine a group of students who, with all genuineness, asks to take time to sing praises to the Lord in the middle of class? This is the group I am honored to teach. (Or should I say, be taught by?)

Yesterday afternoon I asked if they could each share a word about how they came to faith in Christ. I wish you could have been there to hear them share, because it was a soul-stirring time. Many come from regions of India, or other countries, where it is dangerous to profess faith in Christ. Everyone faces the challenge of living where their faith is in the extreme minority—less than 4% Christian in most cases, versus 86% Hindu or another religion. But their love for Christ and desire to proclaim the gospel are unmatched.

One student quoted 2 Tim 4:4–5 and said that he was once like those mentioned there, who didn’t rejected the truth of God and wandered after myths. His family was Hindu. But, he said, God delivered him. And now his desire is reflected by verse 5: be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Another student shared a family struggle. His mother insisted he go find a job instead of attending a Christian college. But he began seeking the Lord and reading the book of Matthew, and when he came upon Matt 6:33, he felt he had his answer: seek first the kingdom of God.

Another student (as is true of many here) had experienced several harrowing accidents. He had fallen off the roof of his house, and nearly died. He had fallen off one of the packed buses of people that are so common here, and again nearly died. And yet now he is here, in my class. He is broken over the lost among his people. And he plead, “Please pray for me. I want to proclaim the gospel. But I do not know when I will die.” His great fear is not death, but not having the ability to share the gospel with his countrymen.

There is more to share, but time and words fail. Today will we travel to a point on the Southern tip where we will see three oceans (Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea, I think) come together. We look forward to a little sight-seeing as we continue to get to know this culture. Thank you for your prayers, and for sending us. -michael