December 23rd

Yay. I made it. It's December 23rd and the Christmas celebration is OVER.

It was surprisingly unstressful. Well, other than when I got there and the 3 hanging mics for our ladies drama were NOT THERE and I was told we would have to adjust with 1 clip mic and 1 cordless. For 17 people! Who had never even had to practice with mics before! You gotta be kidding me.

I yelled and screamed in my righteous anger (I had been assured for a month that we could have them by MANY MANY people.) Then I went around and apologized to everyone I had yelled and screamed at. I moved on. We adjusted and that was that.

The thing is, we do the entire program with the purpose of sharing the gospel with those who don't know Christ. Two hours worth of songs, dances, dramas, etc... are really just fluff on the outside of the Main Point.

We invited a pastor and his team from a church in Bombay and he gave a powerful, clear and concise Gospel presentation. I was praising God in my seat and praying in my heart for the 2500* or so people hearing that message last night. The presence of God was there and I know it was because of the prayers of so many.

It didn't even matter that the sound system didn't work properly for our Worship team or that E.'s dance with the kids in our children's home didn't have words to their music - twice, or that we had to stand on stage for 15 minutes during our drama and pass around a cordless mic. Oh well. It was all worth it, the months of prayer and preparation, the big cost, the stress and lack of sleep.

The way I see it, those 2500* people won't have any excuse when they stand before God in judgement. My prayer is that they won't need one.

The work is ongoing, prayer and discipleship, continual witness to those that have heard. Keep praying with us.

(Pictures coming later - I didn't take any so I'll have to wait for the photographer to get them developed.)

* Update: There were 5000 people there, we had 4000 chairs and every one was taken and the place was full back and front with people standing.