Hello from India to all my family and friends. I suppose some of you have been wondering exactly what I have been up to for the last month and a half.
I must say first of all that God has been very, very good to me. Why He has bestowed so much grace upon me, and why I would be the one here experiencing this and not some person more capable is beyond my
understanding. The opportunity to be used by God in so many people's lives is quite a privilege. To further illustrate what is going on, I will give you a rough sketch of my schedule.
Monday – Saturday
4:30am Getting up and get ready for prayer
5:00am – 6:00 Prayer with the DTC students.
6:00am – 7:30am Preparation for chapel by studying the scriptures, praying or rest if I need it.
7:30am – 8:30am Chapel. I have the privilege of teaching two to three times a week.
8:30am – 9:15am Breakfast. Mony the foreigner's floor cook makes us a different meal every day, It could be either eggs, Purri, Chipoti, French toast, Idly, Chetni, Oakma, Dossa, or some kind of rice noodle breakfast. All of which are quite delicious.
9:15am – 12:00am I use this time for work on the TV program almost every weekday. However, I do use some of this time for washing clothes, cleaning or assisting some of the pastors or staff with technical issues. I also use it to talk with some of the people here at the ministry. Sometimes they ask me if I can share something from the scriptures with them. However, often I volunteer, and sometimes we spend the whole morning in good fellowship. I don't really have time to do that. But when it happens I don't consider it time wasted.
12:00pm – 1:15pm Serving lunch to the children, both boys and girls from preschool through high school. I think there are around 250 total.
1:15pm – 2:00pm I eat my lunch at this time. I almost exclusively eat curry of some sort. The curry types I am familiar with consist of: Chicken, Beef, Potato, Egg, Carrot, Bean, Okra, Papoo, Benda Kaiya, Dossa Kaiya, Donda Kaiya, Soorya kaiya, Tree w/leaves, Plantain, and Mutton. There are some others but I can't recall them at this time. One neat thing is that we are not fed the same curry two times in a row. That makes it difficult to get tired of curry so often. Also, I eat large helpings of curd (pedigoo), rice and a light sprinkling of sugar after each meal that leaves my stomach feeling very happy. Although, despite all this food I have shed some weight. (Could be the humidity and heat)
2:00pm-3:00pm – I can use this time for anything that needs to be done. Usually more than I have time for. If I don't have a terribly busy schedule my preference is to spend it studying the bible. This is one of the hottest parts of the day so people are not very active at this time. And thus it isn't a great time to fellowship, and is more suited for study or rest.
3:00pm – 4:30pm Prayer and fellowship with the DTC students. I love to pray with them. At all prayer times we each pray aloud at the same time. With thirty-one students, a pastor and I, it is simply amazing.
4:30pm – 5:00pm A few times a week I use this block of time to be with the children. They have from 4:00 to 5:00 to play and that is their allotted free time. The young boys usually ask me to play Cricket with them. I am probably the worst cricket prayer out there, but we have fun together. And surprisingly I managed to 'out' one of
the best batters a few times.
5:00pm – 5:30pm A half hour time wedge that seems to disappear on me almost every day without much of anything getting accomplished. However I do squeeze in my efforts to learn Telugu in during this time. Although, usually not more than 15 minutes worth of effort.
5:30pm – 7:00pm I run study hour with 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. I think my biggest contribution has been in math and English. Most of the students are taught in English, but there are a few Telugu medium students who can be more challenging to communicate with, due to the slight language barrier. I can always find an English medium student to translate for me.
7:00pm – 8:00pm I enjoy my dinner at this time. It consists of one of the before mentioned curry dishes. And I almost always manage to save some curd from lunch so that I can have some for dinner as well.
8:00pm - ??:?? This is the end of the official work part of the day for me. During this time I talk and fellowship with people. And a few times a week I find a quiet place to pray for a while before going to bed. The prayer tower is a good place to go. But if it is taken the roof is an excellent alternative. As of late, I have been regularly
invited on pigeon hunts. They have taken up residence in the space between the two main buildings and have laid down several layers of their droppings. Each evening we go after them and catch a few alive. The DTC students cook them up over an open fire and then we eat them together. The flavor is excellent, but the meat comes out tough and it takes a long time to clean out the pieces that get stuck in my teeth.
Typically I go to sleep anywhere from 9:30pm to 11:00pm. It varies due to the activities I take up during this time. Quite often people choose this time to come to me with technical issues that need solving.
Sunday
5:00am – 8:30am Often I sleep till 8:30am or so. It is good to get the extra rest. Sunday is the only day of the week to get a chance at this. The DTC does not have 5:00 prayer this day of the week except once a month or so. If I feel rested or prompted to, I get up at 6:00 and study in preparation for the Sunday evening service.
8:30am – 10:00am I eat breakfast during this time and also finish getting ready for church.
10:00am – 12:00pm The Telugu worship and church service. Pastor John David preaches and Raja Bobu and his wife lead the worship. I enjoy the worship service; it is quite exciting to see all the Indian's worshipping God in their language. Also, I have learned several of the songs, and when they sing them it is really a blessing to sing along with them.
12:00pm – 1:00pm We eat our Sunday meal at this time. Consistently it has been chicken curry, my favorite.
1:00pm – 6:00pm I almost exclusively use this space of time for prayer and study in preparation for the evening service. I spend it in my room. One of the most private places I can go.
6:00pm – 7:00pm The evening service. It is divided into half and hour of worship and half an hour of preaching.
[Josh has been preaching almost every Sunday night]
7:00pm – 8:00pm Sunday evening dinner in the foreigners hall.
8:00pm – 10-ish I wrap up the day by typically reading or talking to people.
That is the general schedule. Since it is India, many days it changes as other things pop up. For example almost since the beginning I have been assisting with a database for the children's ministry. That means that almost any time of the day I could get called up with a question. Many small things come up during the day that I can take care of, such as computer advice, or certain things that need fixing.
I was presented with a neat opportunity recently. One of the children asked me if I could help him learn to translate messages better. He is in the ninth grade and gets picked for chapel quite often. I thought it was a great idea and said yes if it was okay with the warden. He asked if another possible student could join. Even
better I thought. So I went to the warden and asked if it would be okay if they spent some of their free time with me. He also thought it would be good, so we spent almost an hour together. It was good in many ways. It is good for me to become more experienced at preaching. And it is good for the students to hone their translating skills, and it is also good for them to hear the messages I am teaching. They received an extra dose of the first two verses of psalm 34. [Josh also told that the disabled students were stopped their studies to listen and several DTC students dropped in to listen.[
If I can, I would like to take some time at least once a week to assist in their translating. That may get added into my schedule somehow. By God's grace I have been able to spend much time (both free and work) talking and praying with people. I think it is possible that those times may be the most important of all.
Shortly after a few of the messages I delivered some have said their confidence in God was boosted or they seen some new truth that had not been revealed to them before. I don't consider myself a good
preacher, and I say that truthfully, not in mock humility. I do know with certainty that God's word is powerful. And that is what breaks through hearts of stone, or encourages a believer all through the Holy Spirit. And I ought to be responsible and proclaim the word boldly to the people, and pray and study earnestly. Then God's Spirit works through it, and give me the words to speak. And I have found that to be the case often.
Even though I trust and fervently pray each time I go up to preach. And I pray that the words spoken be God's not mine, I know that I am fully responsible for the words I say. So as I stand before God and man, it is quite a fearful responsibility to me. Although I am in the word constantly, a few times I have not had complete messages prepared for weekday chapel services. They called me up to share God's word and I had a handful of verses running through my mind and a general idea of what I thought God may have had for me to preach to
them. Then during those times I pray for the grace to deliver a message that is accurate, applicable, God glorifying, and certainly from God not me.
I hope to keep getting e-mails from you. And because I am giving you the short end of the email stick, I will try to get another email out before the end of the month. I don't think I am going to do any blogging on focusedonchrist.blogspot.com until September. However this e-mail may end up there sometime between now and then.
Thank you for your emails, they have been very encouraging. A very big thank you is due to my father, for consistently emailing me every week with quite large and thoroughly fitting emails that have been sustaining me by the spirit quite excellently.
Thank you to my church, Morningside Baptist. For giving me the deeper knowledge of God that changed my heart's attitude towards missions and caused me to desire them for God's glory. And then for giving me much fuel for missions by constantly engaging me in God centered conversations. And a huge thank you to my pastor, Dave Sowers, for the personal training he gave me for this mission and for all the encouragement and prayer that he has put behind me in this.
To the youth of Morningside: Keep those emails coming.
To C3: Remember me on movie night.
To my family: Thank you for being a true family and praying for me even though several thousand miles are between us.
To everyone: Make sure and visit The Long Home often in my place. This letter will be much more enjoyable to read if it is accompanied by a thick frothy Noah's espresso. (No marketing intended, they are that
good) Also, he has lots of untold India stories.
Parting thoughts
These words surge in my mind each time I am disappointed with contrary situations I find myself in. I reflect on them often whether I am grieved or not.
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
(Psalms 34:1)
"I am here for the sake of the name of Jesus and His gospel."
" This is not a humanitarian mission, I am here to spread the gospel
which saves souls for the glory of God."
"If you go out of your care for the people, you will find they will
disappoint you and they won't be reason enough to sustain you."
"…how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach,
except they be sent?"
"Begin every day by acknowledging my dependence on God and my need for him."
"At the end of each day reflect on the activities of the day, then
transfer the glory to God."
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
(Philippians 3:8)
--
J.S. Andersen
Visit me at http://focusedonchrist.blogspot.com/
