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Friday, January 30, 2009
Lakla Reunion
In October of last year, Awor, Kikon, Taipi and Jeff led "Simply the Story" Training in Lakla. They had such a good time together that they decided to have a Lakla reunion 30 days later. These are some pictures of their silliness.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sikkim Trip
In November, a friend sent us (Trish & Jeff) to Sikkim for a few days of vacation. What a blessing! We got to see God's beautiful handiwork and shop. :) Check it out!
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My Trip to the Post Office
In December I posted something telling about some of the things I'd blog about in the near future. Now I'm making good on that promise.
One of the things I said I'd blog about was a recent trip to the post office. Here it is.
I'd been out of town for the second week of December and got a notice that there was a registered letter for me from the post office, an important legal document I'd been expecting. So the first full day I was home (a Thursday) I went by the post office at 11 AM. They were closed. I went again at 2 PM. They were still closed. On Friday again I went near 11 AM (they open at 9 AM). Still closed. I started wondering whether they're ever open.
That Friday I asked Awor if there's some holiday I didn't know about. He said it was someone's birthday (maybe a former freedom fighter) so the West Bengal government offices were closed. So I went back Monday morning at 9 AM. That's were the frustration started.
They open at 9. When I got there, there were 2 other customers there, sitting on a bench. There were 3 employees behind the counter, opening log books, booting up computers, sweeping the office and getting ready to start their day. I told them I needed to pick up a registered letter. They told me to have a seat. After about 20 minutes of doing the same stuff that they were doing when I arrived one of the employees called out to me.
He said, "We don't have those kind of envelopes here."
"Huh?," I thought. Then I repeated, "I came to pick up a registered letter that was sent for me. I was away and the postman came and left notice that I need to come here to pick it up."
"Oh," said the clerk, "then you need to sit and wait for your postman. He'll come in a few minutes."
So I sit patiently. After about 10 minutes, I ask, "When will my postman turn up?"
They say, "Near 10:00." 30 more minutes.
First of all, why bother opening at 9, if you're not really ready to serve anyone until 9:30?
Second, why do they make you wait 20 minutes to tell you that you need to go somewhere else to get what they think you need?
Third, when they finally understand what I need, why couldn't they say, "If you want to pick up your registered letter, you have to wait until or come back after 10 when your postman arrives."?
In the US we have all kinds of jokes about the inefficiency of the post office and poor service of the government servants. I'll never complain about them again.
I came back 30 minutes later and finally got my letter.
One of the things I said I'd blog about was a recent trip to the post office. Here it is.
I'd been out of town for the second week of December and got a notice that there was a registered letter for me from the post office, an important legal document I'd been expecting. So the first full day I was home (a Thursday) I went by the post office at 11 AM. They were closed. I went again at 2 PM. They were still closed. On Friday again I went near 11 AM (they open at 9 AM). Still closed. I started wondering whether they're ever open.
That Friday I asked Awor if there's some holiday I didn't know about. He said it was someone's birthday (maybe a former freedom fighter) so the West Bengal government offices were closed. So I went back Monday morning at 9 AM. That's were the frustration started.
They open at 9. When I got there, there were 2 other customers there, sitting on a bench. There were 3 employees behind the counter, opening log books, booting up computers, sweeping the office and getting ready to start their day. I told them I needed to pick up a registered letter. They told me to have a seat. After about 20 minutes of doing the same stuff that they were doing when I arrived one of the employees called out to me.
He said, "We don't have those kind of envelopes here."
"Huh?," I thought. Then I repeated, "I came to pick up a registered letter that was sent for me. I was away and the postman came and left notice that I need to come here to pick it up."
"Oh," said the clerk, "then you need to sit and wait for your postman. He'll come in a few minutes."
So I sit patiently. After about 10 minutes, I ask, "When will my postman turn up?"
They say, "Near 10:00." 30 more minutes.
First of all, why bother opening at 9, if you're not really ready to serve anyone until 9:30?
Second, why do they make you wait 20 minutes to tell you that you need to go somewhere else to get what they think you need?
Third, when they finally understand what I need, why couldn't they say, "If you want to pick up your registered letter, you have to wait until or come back after 10 when your postman arrives."?
In the US we have all kinds of jokes about the inefficiency of the post office and poor service of the government servants. I'll never complain about them again.
I came back 30 minutes later and finally got my letter.
Short Report on Short-term Team
Of all the short term teams I’ve had, this was the best and easiest to work with. Overall, they were more spiritually mature and flexible than any team I’ve worked with. I didn’t have one complaint from them or problem with them, despite many problems with flights and the local political environment.
As far as the work we did, it also went very well. We employed a different strategy than we’ve ever used in that we didn’t do saturation evangelism, but really were looking for a man of peace in a village and were hoping to really establish relationship with a few people in the village rather than trying to share very briefly. I think the team and our national brothers and sisters really bought into this method. One of the locals told me he thought this was better because this way the person doing follow up meets everyone in the village that is shared with whereas the way we used to do it there were so many people sharing in a village that the person doing follow-up only met 1/5 of the people who heard the gospel and that didn’t make for smooth follow-up when he went to do follow-up and the people had no relationship with him. We also weren’t so concerned about professions of faith or conversions, but in sharing the gospel and in being obedient to God. I told the team that they had permission to not share the gospel at all and to just listen to God and say and do whatever He says.
There’s one story of someone just listening and obeying that I want to share. One of the team members said when he came to one house, God told him not to share the gospel, but just to build relationship. He said for more than 30 minutes (maybe it was an hour) they just visited and joked and laughed together. Finally the people asked him why he was there. He then shared a little bit. That family was really open whereas they said before that some Catholics had come to share with them, some German Christians and 2 other groups and they’d always turned them away. God really made a way here.
We told them team not to put an emphasis on praying a prayer, but to just share the whole gospel if opportunity arose. One of our partners told me that something I’d shared with him in passing has transformed how he shares the gospel. I’d told him that in order to present the whole gospel we really need to start with God’s holiness and righteousness and man’s sinfulness and the consequences of our sin. So at one house he was doing that, when all of a sudden one of the men he was sharing with said, “How can I be saved?” This is an awesome example of God drawing someone to Himself through the hearing of the gospel and that’s what we were really looking for. Praise God.
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be following up with our partners as we meet with them in our Tuesday discipleship groups. Please pray for them and the 24 villages in which we worked in the Dooars region.
As far as the work we did, it also went very well. We employed a different strategy than we’ve ever used in that we didn’t do saturation evangelism, but really were looking for a man of peace in a village and were hoping to really establish relationship with a few people in the village rather than trying to share very briefly. I think the team and our national brothers and sisters really bought into this method. One of the locals told me he thought this was better because this way the person doing follow up meets everyone in the village that is shared with whereas the way we used to do it there were so many people sharing in a village that the person doing follow-up only met 1/5 of the people who heard the gospel and that didn’t make for smooth follow-up when he went to do follow-up and the people had no relationship with him. We also weren’t so concerned about professions of faith or conversions, but in sharing the gospel and in being obedient to God. I told the team that they had permission to not share the gospel at all and to just listen to God and say and do whatever He says.
There’s one story of someone just listening and obeying that I want to share. One of the team members said when he came to one house, God told him not to share the gospel, but just to build relationship. He said for more than 30 minutes (maybe it was an hour) they just visited and joked and laughed together. Finally the people asked him why he was there. He then shared a little bit. That family was really open whereas they said before that some Catholics had come to share with them, some German Christians and 2 other groups and they’d always turned them away. God really made a way here.
We told them team not to put an emphasis on praying a prayer, but to just share the whole gospel if opportunity arose. One of our partners told me that something I’d shared with him in passing has transformed how he shares the gospel. I’d told him that in order to present the whole gospel we really need to start with God’s holiness and righteousness and man’s sinfulness and the consequences of our sin. So at one house he was doing that, when all of a sudden one of the men he was sharing with said, “How can I be saved?” This is an awesome example of God drawing someone to Himself through the hearing of the gospel and that’s what we were really looking for. Praise God.
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be following up with our partners as we meet with them in our Tuesday discipleship groups. Please pray for them and the 24 villages in which we worked in the Dooars region.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
My Worst Day
Yesterday was the worst day I'd experienced in a long, long time. I'd told people to expect a rough time after a great week of ministry. After all, Elijah experienced the same thing. (1 Kings 19:3-4). I even planned accordingly. Let me tell you the story.
Yesterday, I was scheduled to drop off the last of our team at the airport (I couldn't go in with them since there's increased security in the airport). Then I was going to go home and take a nap. After all, I'd been running fast and furious for 11 days non stop. Those eleven days included making adjustments for missed flights and delayed flights, and adjusting to a strike that turned violent. After all of this, Thursday was to be a day of rest and finishing up some long overdue reporting.
Everything was going according to plan. I had had finally asleep when Trish woke me up to tell me that the guys had called from the airport to say their flight had been canceled. I was still not all the way awake when I started working on contacting Jet Airways to see what concessions they'd give and contacting Continental to see what their policy is for rescheduling flights ($250 per person).
I sent Trish to the airport, while I worked on making arrangements. While I was making arrangements, the day guard came up and told me that our septic system was overflowing feces. Yuck! I went to see and sure enough, it was gross.
All of this wouldn't have been so bad, but I knew that Thursday the ruling political party had called a strike. That means that I would have to get they guys to the airport and return home before sunrise or else I'd get stuck at the airport or have to risk getting the car stoned. For the same reason, we wouldn't be able to get the septic system fixed. In fact, I later found out that the septic system can't get pumped until Tuesday. (It turns out Friday and Monday are holidays and they don't work on the weekend.)
Anyway, I was not having a very good day. Still at the end of the day, I was able to say to the Father, "Lord, you give and take away. Blessed be Your name."
I did manage to get them to the airport and get home without incident this morning and though their flight is delayed, it does look like they'll get off today. (We're still praying.) I also got to come home after dropping them and get some rest.
Now I'm off to long overdue reports.
Yesterday, I was scheduled to drop off the last of our team at the airport (I couldn't go in with them since there's increased security in the airport). Then I was going to go home and take a nap. After all, I'd been running fast and furious for 11 days non stop. Those eleven days included making adjustments for missed flights and delayed flights, and adjusting to a strike that turned violent. After all of this, Thursday was to be a day of rest and finishing up some long overdue reporting.
Everything was going according to plan. I had had finally asleep when Trish woke me up to tell me that the guys had called from the airport to say their flight had been canceled. I was still not all the way awake when I started working on contacting Jet Airways to see what concessions they'd give and contacting Continental to see what their policy is for rescheduling flights ($250 per person).
I sent Trish to the airport, while I worked on making arrangements. While I was making arrangements, the day guard came up and told me that our septic system was overflowing feces. Yuck! I went to see and sure enough, it was gross.
All of this wouldn't have been so bad, but I knew that Thursday the ruling political party had called a strike. That means that I would have to get they guys to the airport and return home before sunrise or else I'd get stuck at the airport or have to risk getting the car stoned. For the same reason, we wouldn't be able to get the septic system fixed. In fact, I later found out that the septic system can't get pumped until Tuesday. (It turns out Friday and Monday are holidays and they don't work on the weekend.)
Anyway, I was not having a very good day. Still at the end of the day, I was able to say to the Father, "Lord, you give and take away. Blessed be Your name."
I did manage to get them to the airport and get home without incident this morning and though their flight is delayed, it does look like they'll get off today. (We're still praying.) I also got to come home after dropping them and get some rest.
Now I'm off to long overdue reports.
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