Mission: India
by Jim Pieleleier
January 30, 2008
A few months ago I had the privilege of meeting James Rebbavarapu, the president of India Christian Ministries and founder and overseer of approximately 1200 churches in India. He was invited by Pastor Bob to minister at TACF. After church our family had the opportunity to have lunch with James and Pastors Bob and Carolyn. After sharing about our mutual interests in India I felt that a kindred spirit was developing.
A few months later I called James in India and told him that I was interested in coming on a mission trip to India and join with either the teams of Randy Clark (www.GlobalAwakening.com) or Todd Bentley (www.Freshfire.ca). I also wanted to have time to visit our own Legacies of Life*-sponsored children’s homes in the Trivandrum area farther to the South. James challenged me to consider leading my own team there, as among other things, we would have more time to visit his children’s homes, the Legacies of Life children’s homes, and other ministry outreaches. After praying, I sensed that this was the direction that God wanted me to go. I invited several people to accompany me including my son Joshua, a pastor from Washington, Steve Thompson, and Ted, the father of my business partner, Randy. After overcoming various challenges in regard to visas, we embarked November 26th on our first Legacies of Life team mission trip.
Arriving from Tucson and Seattle, the team met up in Chicago for the flight overseas. Our flight from there took us through Frankfurt, Germany and then onto Bombay (now called Mumbai). Unfortunately our flight into Mumbai was late; worse, everything in the Mumbai airport was so slow that it took us hours to move through customs. Our 2:00 am flight was missed and the next flight at 6:00 am was already full so we spent about ten hours in the Mumbai airport before finally catching a flight to Chennai.
We finally arrived in Chennai (formerly Madras, a city of about 10 million people) about 1:00 pm on Wednesday, November 28th after traveling about 44 hours. As we emerged from the airport we were immediately greeted by the incessant honking of horns from cars, trucks, and all other manner of transportation. We certainly weren’t in Tucson anymore! Before leaving the city for our four-hour drive to Ongole, we went to a music store to purchase some music equipment for India Christian Ministries and had our final American-style meal at Pizza Hut. While driving I found out that our pastors’ conference began the very next morning! Because of some miscommunication I thought that we had another day to become acclimated to the culture and get ourselves prepared for the conference. Oh well.
Upon arriving at our hotel in Ongole, I saw that the two rooms reserved for the four of us had only a small bed in each room so I quickly made a high-level executive decision and rented two additional rooms. The bathrooms were quite a kick to us as they didn’t have showers, or American style flushing toilets, or toilet paper for that matter. To bathe we filled a bucket with hot water and scooped it over ourselves. We used the same bucket to flush the toilet! The whole bathroom essentially became the shower. The mattresses were only about two inches thick but were surprisingly comfortable. Every morning we were brought a nice cup of Indian coffee (not quite Starbucks but actually quite good in my opinion, made with hot milk and sugar).
The pastors’ conference was a gathering of approximately 200 pastors and leaders from the surrounding region, all of whom are under the India Christian Ministries umbrella. When we arrived in the city of Kandukur Thursday morning, they were already assembled and involved in passionate worship. After the worship time was over, our team was introduced and each one of us was presented with a beautiful wreath of fresh flowers to wear around our necks.
We were given complete liberty as to how we wanted to minister, what to share, and who was to speak. We felt God lead us to call several pastors out and speak what God put on our hearts for them. Most of these pastors were young and had been in the ministry a short time. As we had seven lengthy sessions to conduct, Pastor Steve and I shared the teaching and exhorting time. Joshua asked God to give him something to share; God responded and Joshua gave a great exhortation. He was excited about that! As he said, “This was my first time preaching.” Ted also gave a great testimony. We conducted three sessions on Thursday, two on Friday, and two on Saturday.
While Steve and Ted conducted the last session on Saturday, Joshua and I had the opportunity to visit another ministry that India Christian Ministry conducts; that of ministering to those afflicted with HIV and AIDS. We gathered in a church building with approximately 100 HIV positive people. They were primarily young women, quite beautiful actually. We don’t know if they had been prostitutes or what the circumstances were. They all seemed very sweet. Joshua was able to play some beautiful music on a keyboard for them and I gave them a short message of hope. We then passed out bags of rice and lentils to each of them. Because of their work with AIDS victims, this ministry has been recognized as the best charity of the State for three years running even though the State is 95% Hindu.
A part of our mission assignment was to conduct a three night open-air evangelistic crusade. This was something that none of us had ever done before, so we were excited to see how it would go. The first night was a Friday, and though the meeting was scheduled to start at 6:00, they didn’t bring our team to the location until 8:30. It was being held in a well-lit field at the edge of a village. When we arrived there were tons of people assembled (they tell me approximately 2,800) singing upbeat Indian-style praise songs.
The first thing I had on my mind to do when we arrived was to have Joshua play some classical music (on the keyboard which we had purchased for them). The only problem was that as soon as we started walking toward the platform Joshua informed us that he had to go to the bathroom. Sure! No problem! Unfortunately there was no working plumbing in the vicinity so they had to drive him somewhere quite a ways away to take care of business before he could play. The MC had to keep gesturing to the song leader to keep going, and keep going, and keep going! Finally Joshua arrived and did a great job playing some great classical music while simultaneously swatting away bugs from the keyboard.
After Joshua finished I welcomed the crowd and introduced our team. We had a great interpreter named Samuel who has interpreted for both Randy Clark and Todd Bentley. Pastor Steve then gave the sermon. At the altar call time, approximately 150 to 200 people made decisions to follow Jesus. We then made an invitation to all who needed prayer for healing to come forward. It seemed as though half the crowd came forward and the four of us were immersed in a sea of people that wanted us to pray for them. We did as best we could as we tried to lay hands on every forehead. It was exhausting but awesome. The people are so beautiful and sweet.
The next night the crowd was a little larger. They estimated that approximately 4,200 people arrived that night (various trucks and tractors with trailers were arranged to transport those coming from the surrounding villages). After the praise and worship was over Joshua played another classical piece (many of these people had probably never heard any classical music in their lives). I then got up and shared my life story in all its fascinating details. It seemed to be well received as another 200 to 250 people made decisions for Christ when I made the invitation at the end of my talk. We again invited those who wanted prayer for their sickness or pain to come forward and again we were each surrounded by huge crowds of people wanting prayer (each of us was protected by a ring of young men encircling us holding hands to keep the people from overwhelming us although the first night we didn’t understand what they were doing and broke through the circles ourselves).
Sunday night, the last night, we got there quite early and the crowd was quite a bit smaller. James told me not to be concerned as they will keep coming until 9:00. He was right! People kept coming until after 9:00 in fact. They estimated the crowd at about 7,000 people! Once again they sang for over two hours. Joshua got up at about 9:15 and played another beautiful classical piece. Pastor Steve then opened up with a teaching on the prodigal son. I jumped in and spoke on Jesus as the good shepherd leaving the 99 and going after the one, incorporating stories about sheep experiences we had at home when I was growing up. Among other things, I shared about our dog Muffin’s near death experience. I could really sense the pleasure of God at that time. It was truly amazing! Anyway, on this last night I felt a strong compunction to passionately express God’s desire to bring them into His Kingdom. I wanted to make sure that the invitation was extremely clear and I even clarified it a couple of times. Over half of the crowd responded to the Holy Spirit and dedicated their lives to Jesus! The beautiful thing is that these people all come from small villages where they are known by the pastors at our pastors’ conference. So not only were they able to be born again, but they will have a great opportunity to grow in the Lord and be discipled under the village pastors.
We again had the opportunity to pray for thousands of people for healing and other needs that they had. I had the opportunity to minister to one obviously demonized lady who, when I starting praying for her, starting yelling and carrying on and then suddenly fell over and lay on the ground very still. After we got back to our hotel, sometime after midnight, as I was eating trail mix in my room, I suddenly realized that I had not washed or sanitized my hands after praying for and laying hands on the heads of hundreds of people. Oh well. Fortunately, no ill came my way and I can laugh about it now.
As we were discussing the meetings the next day with James and Sarah, they told us that one of the reasons that the meetings grew in attendance so much was that some of their pastors told them that tumors on people’s bodies had been healed and disappeared. This was especially exciting to us, as we had not seen any tumors disappear when we were praying for the people!
The next couple of days we spent driving around the countryside with James and Sarah, visiting some of their churches and seeing some of the ministry and business opportunities available there.
For the last few days of our trip we flew down to Trivandrum, near the southern tip of India, to visit orphanages that we helped establish. We met and spent time with the 40 incredible children that make their home there. They were a delight as they shared some songs and dances with us. In addition to seeing them at their homes, we visited their school and went to church with them on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.
While in the area we visited the area in which the Tsunami hit. We had the chance to spend some time with a pastor there whom my partner, Abraham John, and Legacies of Life had helped at the time of the Tsunami. This pastor helped his village considerable by providing supplies, helping re-build homes, and even providing a businessman a new fishing boat. Because of his efforts many Hindus and some Muslims in his village came to know Jesus. In fact, a few months after the Tsunami, when these Hindus were coming to Jesus, the hierarchy of the Hindus in the village became very upset with him, beat him, and put him under house arrest. There was a period of several months where if he had left his house they would have killed him. We spoke at a house meeting while we were there at which about 40 people had gathered and were zealously worshipping the Lord, including many of these former Hindus and Muslims. It was quite exciting to be in their company!
The return trip to the United States was a deja vie of the trip over, in that none of the flights worked out according to plan. We spent one day in Frankfurt, Germany, instead of two and spent an evening in Chicago. We learned to be patient and flexible as we did eventually get back home and in one piece too!
This was a life-changing trip for all of us. Perhaps you have felt a gentle nudge to join an overseas mission trip; let me encourage you! You will be changed, and you will draw closer to God as you step out! Missions are an important and growing piece of our ministry at TACF – pray; talk to Pastor Bob; and see what exciting new vistas God has in store for you!
*Legacies of Life was birthed a few years ago after God put a desire in my heart to establish and support orphanages. Although I had no funds at the time, my pastor in Washington encouraged me to “go for it” and am I ever appreciative for what God has done. We now have our homes in India full of wonderful children that love Jesus.
|