Life Changing Words Ministry

Missionary Journal

February 10, 2006

Fridays are Fasting Prayer for the training center. The workers, pastors, and students gather from 10 am to 1:30 pm. I shared on how to pray the scriptures and expect to hear God. We all spent some time quietly waiting for the voice of the Lord to speak to us. Even the children who were there received a ‘word’ from the Father for direction and discouragement.

The Hindu public school teacher, Deepak, asked me to sit with him in the courtyard of the campus. He asked me about the Achapara tea village and how I felt about them in their poor condition under the closure of many of the tea gardens. [He had asked me not to talk to him about religion.] As he was talking, I was praying for wisdom and the Lord’s words for him. Because I don’t remember every thing that was said, I know they were not my words that touched his heart. He ate supper with us in good fellowship; we all prayed together and each went to bed in our own places.

Salome spent a lot of her time with me when she was finished with her homework and tutoring. She is in an English-medium school. She made copies of recipes and scriptures on ornaments and other Bible notes. She is excited that she can read her daddy’s copy of Foundations for Righteous Living; “I can understand it”, she says with excitement. So I am encouraging her to learn it to teach for the sake of other children. She thought that was a good thing to do. Lord, use her and other children’s enthusiasm for Your glory and the kingdom growth. Amen.

We went to Achapara (means, good place) to distribute sweaters to the Sunday school children. We took some snaps and the children were excited to receive them. Following this, we traveled over to the Chuapara (means, rat place) cottage meeting.

On Sunday, Bill ministered in the Khokla church with Jonathan. I did some computer work and spent time in fellowship with Salome, whose Kerala-house name is Merlin, while my husband napped.

Monday we spent with the Chuapara Sunday school children at a picnic on the old landing strip of the British tea plantation owners. Everyone had a good time playing, dancing tribal dances, riding bicycle, and finally eating the food that was being cooked there. The children could eat as much as they wanted.

Distribution of the last of the sweaters was at Mechpara and number two tea garden.

In all the haste after making the peanut butter, I forgot my sweater or coat and only had my wool shawl. I didn’t think much about it because we are generally inside a hut. However, this particular evening, because of the number of people, the Mechpara cottage meeting was held outside under a tarp at a believer’s house. Of course I became very aware of the children’s condition before they received their sweaters. They were happy to receive and each one said, ‘danyawad, Yesu” after receiving their gift. There were so many children there that I said to Charls that these were the next leaders. The children’s enthusiasm was contagious.

Sweety took me to meet her friend, Biki, so she could show me how to wear the tribal gift she gave to me. I got a couple snaps for reminding me what it is supposed to look like. The three of us went out to find blouse material for it, but none was found. This blouse looks like a sari blouse, but the hooks are in the back. It is quite beautiful in bright pink and silver. She tried on me another style. She calls it a party dress. It reminded me of a fifties dress with a long shawl. It costs around Rs 3700 or $86.

February represents our completing fifteen years coming to India together. The LCWM Board is sending an invitation to celebrate the anniversary in the States sharing how the Lord has used him in winning souls for the kingdom.

The house owner’s son, David, celebrated his seventh birthday. We were invited for cake and asked to also eat the evening meal with them. The meal wasn’t ready until after ten pm and the men danced until after midnight when they would eat. I danced with the ladies too. So they saw that I was not too old. However, because of my exuberance, and over exercising, I overslept the next morning…so much for hiding old age J.

Our cottage meeting at Bhatpara with Pastor Joseph allowed us to receive the challenge of “Consider Jesus” and then feast on snacks from Nepal, Bhutan, Kerala, and West Bengal. Always we have good fellowship and laughter.

One afternoon I helped Salome, Abel, David, and Denish with English. As it got closer to supper, I made cornbread and Bill fried for a first time taste for the family. Because it was coarse, the fellas decided to sift and grind it to a finer meal. So Charls ground and sifted it for the next making. [It was so much better the second time.]

Pastor Joseph came for me to help him practice his English with me. He can read nicely, but had no vocabulary.

Sweety asked me to go with her to get her ears pierced and to price some small gold sphere earrings. Later, we had more discussion on women’s adornment and because of Reedish’s view on the subject, he was sent to his room to search the scriptures to defend his opinion. In a few days he came back to say that he could not find any reason for a woman not to wear ornaments.

The evening was cooler as Charls family prepared their bed for the night. We laughed about Bill being my “heater” and Sweety being Charls “Kerala shawl”. Our evenings usually end with singing and praying before bed.

My time for me is only when everyone is in bed. I now understand why Jesus did most of His praying when no one needed or wanted Him – ie. in the middle of the night.

Normally Bill speaks at the cottage meetings, but Charls, Sweety, and Bill had gone to pick up Sweety’s earrings and it was then that they decided that I should speak in the evening cottage meeting. Experience the meaning of “be prepared in season and out”!

“Water the grass” goes along with “communing with nature”, but this time the watering was closer than accustomed… when the meeting had concluded, the people were waiting for the tea to be served. Pastor Charls told the pastor’s wife that I needed to urinate. She took the flashlight and directed me around to the side of the house and pointed to the ground under the open moonlit sky. She watered next to the bush. We spoke, “chai, chai, pani, chai” laughing together. [“tea, tea, water, tea” – funny how some things are understood in every language.]

Between teaching, cooking in the kitchen, helping with English by tutoring, showing the ladies how to do the steaming for the face, visiting with the children, disciplining Asher, praying and doing acts of love, it is no wonder that the days go by fast.

The little gal who helped Sweety the last time we were in West Bengal came back to introduce us to her new husband and new baby, Prince, who is two months, ten days. He made me happy by smiling at me when I talked to him.

Helping Meena wash the dishes by the pump brought some reactions. Salome came out to ask me what I was doing. I told her, “the dishes”. She asked, “Why?” So I told her that no one here is a hired hand, we are all servants of the Lord working together for His glory. She immediately stooped down and began to help us do the dishes and has done so ever since.

So many things we can minister to people by being the example for them of what kingdom people look like and what they do. Our actions speak so much louder than our words do. Besides, it is just plain good therapy!