Life Changing Words Ministry

Missionary Journal

February 18, 2007

Again there is rain with thunderstorms. Thank you, Lord, for filling the wells.

Most of the morning was spent just listening to Gene think outloud about the proposal to purchase. Dorothy went for a walk. She has to leave at 6:30 pm for the airport. Dr. Carthi is going to take her.

I helped cook the evening meal after shopping at Monday market with Bill.

You have to take your own carry bags to put all the little plastic bags into, hence, Bill’s assistance. I like going to the subji market and seeing all the beautiful fresh vegetables and fruits. The Washington apples imported here cost $3 a piece. Most of the vegetable staples are 25 cents a pound. Button mushrooms are 28 cents for a ¼ pound. Green peas are 42 cents a pound. There are so many vendors that you can pick and chose. One vendor asked Rs 40/kilo and I found a vendor who asked Rs 35/kilo. As the evening gets later, the vendor is willing to bargain more because he doesn’t want to take it back. You get the greatest bargains then.

I love to listen to the thunderstorms when they drop the rain like from a bucket. Thank you, Lord, for filling the wells.

We hand washed our clothes and hung them under the cover of the porch off the kitchen to dry slowly. Normally the hot sun has them dry in a couple hours even in the winter months.

Gene left to see if the terms he had would buy him the building, only if it is the will of the Lord.

I had opportunity to minister to Mawana, who is a Burmese refugee and in the employ for Gene especially since he always has a flow of guests through his home.

We went to Sarojini market to do some shopping with Gene. He purchased a semi-automatic washing machine, at my suggestion, for Pastor Sam’s wife, Elsamma. She has been suffering with back and shoulder pain. We shopped for practical hospitality needs and Gene’s birthday gift – also practical. Bachelors always need something practical around the place.

We received word that Gene would be having more company – a couple, Dale and Louise Ditto from his home church in Lexington, KY. They would arrive the evening of Gene’s birthday, stay two nights and go on with the people who scheduled their trip. Gene would have to pick them up at the airport around 10pm.

Bill volunteered to sleep on the couch and I arranged to go to Kapashera to stay with Pastor Sam and his family for four days and minister with them.

We spent the morning of Gene’s birthday, 15th, cleaning, washing, and preparing for the guests and birthday party. I packed my clothes to go. Pastor Sam and family came early. When the cooking was finished, his family and I went to get the cake and cards.

The birthday party was successful and fun for all. Gene expressed his appreciation to us and to the Lord in prayer.

After Gene’s party, we all prepared to leave, except Bill and Mawana. Gene ordered a car to drop us with Sam’s new TV before going to the airport to pick up his guests. But the car arrived too late to take us so he sent for a taxi for the rest of us to get to their home.

I slept that evening, not in the front room with the single bed. They put me in the family sized bed, where Elsamma was next to me and Jessy next to her. Later in the early morning hours, John crawled in between his mom and sister. Pastor slept in the front room.

Before dressing for the day, two men came, separately, for prayer – one for a wife and the other for his wife, who was sick. He brought her to the house an hour later. After I prayed for her, laying my hands on her, she had been touched as tears were in her eyes. She and her husband asked if we would pray for deliverance for their one daughter who was a nurse, but believed a curse had been put on her by someone. She could come in the evening.

Friday morning after Jessy had breakfast, (I fast when the family fasts.) we went to the hospital in Delhi where John was born. It took 45 minutes by auto rickshaw. A member of Pastor’s church was there recovering. Her baby had died and they took it by C-section. She was still having some infection. We went to pray for her and to give encouragement. Pastor Sam had already visited her on another occasion.

On the way back from the hospital, we had to return to Gene’s house. He called Pastor Sam to cook something for him. We had already determined that we needed to get back to pray for the neighbor’s daughter. We would not be staying to eat with the guests, who had not yet returned from the day’s outing.

While waiting for the "chef" to finish, I showed John, Jessy, and Mawana how to do a Sudoku puzzle. Mawana would have to spend time waiting in long ques (lines) to renew his refugee status permit. He will leave on Saturday evening and be gone till Wednesday.

The neighbor’s daughter came. She told us someone had done witchcraft by giving her a chipati to eat – therefore, the curse was in her stomach – and now she had lost weight, had no desire to eat, nor did she have a desire to marry.

In India when there is jealousy or anger in a rejected marriage proposal, men will pay for this cursing procedure to be done to the unknowing woman so that she will not marry anyone else and as a way to destroy her future.

Pastor gave her the gospel. She received Jesus and we prayed for deliverance. I think she will need more times for deliverance prayer, but pastor told me later that she was able to sleep without nightmares the night we prayed for her. Praise the Lord, it is a start.

The children are excited about having a TV and DVD player. They have no cable, so all they can watch are DVDs. Every DVD we had was seen in one evening until 2 am!!!

Saturday morning we slept until 10am. Morning chai/tea was the first assignment and the second was to initiate the new washing machine that had been delivered on Thursday. I got to pray over it to bless its use in their home before starting the laundry. I showed John how to use it too. They do not have the connections like we do, so the machine had to be put into the hallway to reach the drain and electrical plug-in. The water hose to fill the tub was connected with the hose from the bathroom faucet. When the laundry was finished, the machine moved into their bedroom where it can be locked up with security. [The narrow hallway is an open area where other people who live upstairs come through...only the two rooms and the kitchen have locks.]

Since we had been to Gene’s the day before, John had borrowed the DVD of the Ten Commandments. We waited for Bill to arrive. We had one prayer obligation to do before we could start the show. Mawana finally dropped Bill at the front of the building before heading off for the weekend to his church.

We ate our food and then set out to go pray for a sick lady in Gurgaon, about 6.5 km distance. But to get there we would ride the crowded local bus, an auto-rickshaw bus that holds 12 people, and it would take two bicycle rickshaws to get us all there.

Come to find out, we know the people and have been to their home before this with Pastor Mammen – Mr. and Mrs. Paul Philipoos! Mercy is the wife’s name. He invited us to have tea and biscuits first, and then we went into their bedroom to pray for her. I prayed the healing scriptures related to her bones and blood, to increase her platelets to normal levels, and for the bed sore type of wounds on her skin. After we prayed, she sang a song in English demonstrating her joy to be a testimony for the Lord. Mr. Philipoos dropped us back to the bus stand to catch a small bus back to Kapashera.

I sat in the seat Pastor Sam directed me to sit, after he told the sleeping fella to move over. Elsamma sat on the seat at a 90 degree angle from me so the guy was sort of between us. Elsamma and I looked at each other and at the man again. He was the same man who was drunk on the crowded bus that the passenger next to him was slapping in the face. He was sleeping so we could only pray for him secretly.

Back at pastor’s house we fellowshipped until the power returned. We ate supper and watched Moses before bed.

Sunday morning we all fasted with only a cup of tea. Elsamma finished cooking lunch before she dressed for church. Pastor Sam, John, and Jessy went on ahead to unlock the church and lay the mats. Bill, Elsamma, and I rode a bicycle rickshaw to the jugi/slum. It is within walking distance, so we walked back after the service.

Bill shared a simple message that was greatly appreciated by the illiterate, as well as those who read somewhat. Pastor Sam expressed his appreciation for the simplicity in Bill’s presentation because the people understood his message.

Pastor gave me time to share testimony of the work in W. Mulund that He wants to do in the hearts of the people here. You could see in their faces the encouragement they received.

Bill took a nap after lunch while Pastor took Jessy to get the bike that he promised his nine year old daughter. She was so happy when she came back with it. She let John give her rides on it first. Later John was riding on back showing her how to ride it. Even though it is Jessy’s bike, the members of the family will be using it for various purposes, especially the pastor for the night needs to go out.

I sat and prayed with him and Elsamma as he shared concerns, issues, and problems that face slum pastors...another mentoring opportunity.