Life Changing Words Ministry
President's Journal
4 Dec 2006 – Pune – 3:45pm
Back to yesterday: Immanuel Prayer House (Mulund) is supposed to start at 9:30, but given IST, it didn't until 10. It was a longer service than I expected... lots of worship, and testimonies of what God was doing in the locals' lives – pretty amazing, really; these people recognize God's daily blessing and provision a lot better than many American Christians. I was in my kurta, and got to give my testimony for the whole church [in the back of my mind, I was disappointed, because I'd forgotten to get Georgene my camera]. After me, Bill preached a good sermon. Lunch and fellowship with the Joseph family. That evening, we went back to our hosts, spent some time re-packing in preparation for going to ↗Pune – didn't want to carry all three of my bags on the bus, so I shuffled a week of clean clothes to my duffel bag for easy travel. I tried to nap some, but I'd developed quite the nasty runny nose. There were late-evening visitors to the Powars' house, and I excused myself at about 10:30, because we were supposed to be up around 5 the next morning, to be on time for our 7am bus. My sniffles and my roommate's cough made for a non-restful night. But I apparently eventually fell asleep. Bill's alarm was set for our wakeup call, and I'd been able to hear it every morning previously, so I hadn't worried about getting up in time. But the next thing I knew, Bill was waking me up ... at 5:30. As I was getting ready and putting the last of my clothes in the duffle bag, the triangle connector that holds the shoulder strap snapped—I guess there's a reason the bag was only about five dollars :-) ; still a bargain even without the shoulder strap.
Even with my later-than-expected start, we made it to the bus depot on time. It was about a three hour ride inland and uphill to Pune, with a stop at a snack shop halfway. One of the first things I noticed, other than the altitude climb, was that it was significantly less humid (being farther from the sea helped), and it was really quite comfortable weather. We met Pastor Prashant Shivkar at the bus station. Then to "Immanuel Prayer House – Pune", which is an extension/outreach of the Mulund church. The front-room was the meeting hall, and the pastor and his family lived behind. There were a few upper stories [apparently added more recently], which were rented out; the top (indoor) floor was what I'd call a "youth hostel" – local college students rented the rooms like an off-campus dorm. I stayed in one of these rooms, with the pastor's brother, Pranay. After lunch and some fellowship, upstairs for a rest (and this journaling).
I'm feeling a lot better, physically, than I was yesterday – sniffles are pretty much gone – however, the enemy has just changed tactics. God, please help me focus on You and Your work, not on the lies and distractions of the enemy.
Oh, there's Georgene and Pr. Joseph's voices downstairs, I think. Nap-time's over.
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