MISSION JOURNAL - FEBRUARY 2007

Tuesday February 6, 2007 - WE are "over-comers" in the name of the Lord!

Wow... It doesn't make any sense in the natural realm, but somehow we woke up this morning refreshed with no jet lag. We gathered in Dr. Pete's room for a time of prayer together before we gathered down stairs for breakfast which was really more like lunch till we got there.

During our time together this morning we talked again about the difficulties everyone faced getting here and about the unrest with the fundamentalist Hindus of the region and we discerned that we are here because God hand selected this team... but more than that we are here because we said "Yes, Lord" in spite of struggles and fear. And if any of you family members or friends are uneasy, "Peace be still" and know that God has everything under control.

Yesterday I asked you to pray with us about the situation with the evangelist from Canada who was prevented from preaching.(The chief of police is a Hindu Fundamentalist) After a hearing in front of a judge the ban was lifted and he was allowed to preach the last night of their scheduled event. Well, immediately following that court case, the Hindu Fundamentalists brought their fight to Amalapuram to try to shut us down. This morning we got word that the attorney who was fighting for our right to present the Gospel was already there and all initial indications are that we WILL be able to share Christ like we had planned. More on that later.

After brunch we headed off to one of Manna Ministries Children's Homes . On the way there we traveled through some very impoverished areas around Hyderabad. We also passed a Fundamental Hindu School where children are taught their religion and are taught the martial arts skills necessary to defend it. We also passed a 13th century castle once occupied by a Persian King who ruled this land... It is said to have had running water in its original state. Isn't it amazing that a culture so advanced could fall into such a state of disrepair.

We arrived at the Children's Home and School just outside of Hyderabad. They have over 600 children in residence. Each has a bed, clean clothes, warm food. a Christian education and hope for tomorrow. It was a very nice visit and we will see more in Amalapuram.

We hope to put a video together profiling these kids and their lives today. Already we have met a young man whose parents were killed by terrorists and another boy whose father was an abusive alcoholic and his mother couldn't handle it and killed herself by lighting herself on fire... His dad later died of alcoholism. And although the latter young man had tears in his eyes as he spoke, he smiled and laughed the rest of the time and said how much he loved it there. We will talk more about the children in the days ahead.

When we arrived back at the hotel we pulled out a change of clothes, gathered our bags and sent them ahead of us to Amalapuram. We then decided to order Pizza from Pizza Hut of all places. For the record, the cheese pizza was really good, and when we could not identify the meat they were describing so we chose a vegetarian pizza as well.

You may remember from last crusade, Miracle Net Television, owned by Michael Hughes, PhD, came to the crusade and produced several shows with Dr. Pete and Bishop Earnest which are still being broadcast to over 700,000,000 homes in India and Asia. Well, Miracle Net is doing it again only this time they are planning for 16 shows being cut from this event. And as if this weren't good enough, Dr. Hughes called Dr. Pete this afternoon and wanted to bring a man by the hotel so they could pray that this man receive the baptism of the holy spirit. It turns out that this man had been a very BAD man prior to his salvation in 1994... like a Saul... he was involved in the government and had many of his opponents killed. He himself had several failed attempts on his life as well. It was as if God was sparing his life because he would later use him to save many souls. Interestingly, this man is first cousins with the main leader of Andhra Pradesh, the state we are in currently, and that person has the ear of Prime Minister Gandhi. According to Dr. Hughes, are closed door meetings in in progress to use this connection to stop the opposition and persecution of Christian evangelism across the whole country. During the prayer a word came that because of our involvement, some key leadership in the country would come to Christ and quickly open all the doors to win the souls God had promised.

Then Dr. Hughes shared some more wonderful news. Miracle net was the only Christian network approved to begin broadcasting in CHINA!!! That means that our shows will be seen in China as well. This could serve as the catalyst to open up all of that area of the world to the Gospel! It is just amazing to all of us that God would be doing such a might work and he invited us to come along and be part of it. Our only requirement was to be willing vessels that said yes.

After Dr. Pete and Pastor Dave finished praying with them (and yes the man was baptized in the spirit) They rejoined the team and shared the news. If we didn't feel hand selected before, we did now and began to pray and worship together... this lasted several hours and before we headed off to bed, Bishop Slay gave impartations to each team member about what God had in store for us. What an incredibly powerful night.

To say we are stoked and ready for the rest of the week is an understatement. Of the 15 originally scheduled to come on this trip, 11 have now made it to India... the overcomers...and we are ready to do whatever it takes to accomplish his work.

Our last team member arrived at about 2:00 this morning... I will introduce him to you tomorrow as we embark on the next leg of our journey. We will fly to Rajahmundry tomorrow morning and then head by bus to Amalapuram.

Please pray for our safe travel and to prepare the hearts of those who will attend the crusade. Tomorrow night is a festival for the believers... Dr. Pete will speak to them of the importance of going out and bringing as many friends and family as possible... It WILL be great.