Prayer Rally Tomorrow

We had the meeting today with the local pastors and Christian leaders in O.'s new office. It was inaugurated today. About 20 people were there and it was a fruitful time.

The rally will run from about 10:30AM to 12:30PM. We'll be walking and praying through the main parts of our city with banners and signs. We're bringing our kids with us, they can walk if they want to, otherwise we'll pile them in the car. I want them to be there, children should be represented, and personally, I can still remember going to protests as a young child with my mom and how it affected me.

The persecution continues in Orrisa. Agraj (our Orrisa Bible Student) was telling me this afternoon that many children are separated from parents and wives from husbands. Families are searching for their family members and not finding them.

Please pray for us as we walk tomorrow. If you pray before you go to bed tonight (Monday) it will be about the right time. (US)

Chicklee was great and we had a wonderful time at the ordination. Also, back to O.'s office inauguration: Today we had all the local Christian leaders there and afterwards we had all the local government leaders there because our school hosted a stop during the run for the "Youth Commonwealth Games" being held in India this year.

Back To Chicklee

If you are looking for Orrisa - see following posts...

Today we head back to Chicklee to ordinate 2 pastors tomorrow (Aug. 31st).

We were going as a big group but since we are planning the Rally on Tuesday we scaled it way down. We'll be back tomorrow night.

Pray for us.

Desi Chicken

Indians have this thing about "desi chicken" which is basically just the skinny chickens you find in villages. It's better for health or something.

On Monday we returned to Chicklee Village and then went 20 km further on Tuesday for a meeting at a church there. The meeting was great but it's the desi chicken that came afterwards that is blogworthy.

By the time lunch came around I was starving. They fed a whole bunch of us in the church. I was the first one to get my plate. On it were three (3) pieces of chicken skin and a knuckle. I also had a small portion of raw mango and onion salad. This was served with a side of chapati (The whole wheat flat bread.)

Well, I was starving so I sopped up the chicken juice and ate all the mango on my plate. Then I ate O.'s mango. Then I ate the onions (which I initially avoided to save myself stinky breath). It was a generally unsatisfactory meal and it inflamed my stomach so I hurt all afternoon.

Apparently fasting is the best thing for gastritis. I'll be starting on a fruit fast today.

Around

I did actually return from Chicklee.

We had a great time, O. and I both love getting out on the "field."

Missing Sundays

I think I've attended church maybe twice in the last month and a half. This is a real blow to a church junky like me. I love church. I hate missing, but it's just been one of those months (and a half).

Our trip to Goa last month had us traveling by train - going and coming - on Sundays. Later in the month we were in Rajasthan and came home on a Sunday. Last Sunday was Dinesh's wedding in the morning - sort of like church but not really. And this week... well, as they say over here, we're "out of station" again.

This time we won't be traveling, we'll be preaching. We've been invited to meetings being held in a village in the south of our state that's about five hours away from us. The meetings start at 8:30AM and go til afternoon. We're looking forward to it, pray for us and for the meetings. The name of the village is "Chicklee." I just like to say it as often as possible.

* This is a side note: I just realized after posting the previous post that O. is currently in Rajasthan performing a wedding ceremony... Ai yi yi