The response letter to the "Response Forms" went out today after 3 days of signing, addressing, stuffing and stamping.
There were 250 of them. Please pray for there to be some response to the letters that basically say, we are here to pray for you, talk with you, visit you. Church timing and pastor office hours and phone number are all there.
I'm praying for some kind of response from at least 100 of the 250 letters we sent out.
I'm believing God for a net full of fish!
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Friday, December 29, 2006
More Interesting Christmas Program Facts
O. spoke with the professional security we hired for during the Christmas program on the 21st.
These guys work for all kinds of big events, its' their job. So one of them asked O. how many people O. thought had attended the program.
O. said, "Oh, maybe 3000."
The security guy looked at O. like he was insane and said, "Over 9000 people attended."
I guess there were about 3500 who were inside the whole time from beginning to end, but the amount of people who showed up for some or part of the program passed 9000! Wow.
We've gotten a lot of great feedback from Christians and non-Christians alike. Several people have told us that they could never put on a program like this in their town. There'd be riots.
In fact, in O.'s village they could not even celebrate Christmas this year in the church there because of the persecution going on. There have been other reports of programs similar to ours in other parts of India that were disturbed by rioting.
In our own city, a catholic school's Christmas program was disturbed in some way.
God is so good and we knew we had the power of prayer with us. It was/is really a miraculous thing.
These guys work for all kinds of big events, its' their job. So one of them asked O. how many people O. thought had attended the program.
O. said, "Oh, maybe 3000."
The security guy looked at O. like he was insane and said, "Over 9000 people attended."
I guess there were about 3500 who were inside the whole time from beginning to end, but the amount of people who showed up for some or part of the program passed 9000! Wow.
We've gotten a lot of great feedback from Christians and non-Christians alike. Several people have told us that they could never put on a program like this in their town. There'd be riots.
In fact, in O.'s village they could not even celebrate Christmas this year in the church there because of the persecution going on. There have been other reports of programs similar to ours in other parts of India that were disturbed by rioting.
In our own city, a catholic school's Christmas program was disturbed in some way.
God is so good and we knew we had the power of prayer with us. It was/is really a miraculous thing.
It's How We All Felt
My 3 1/2 year old daughter C. woke up around 9:30 on the morning of the day after the Christmas Program last week.
My sister-in-law was in the room when C. started waking and so she said, "Good Morning! C."
C., without opening her eyes, responded: "I have a headache and my feet hurt."
My sister-in-law was in the room when C. started waking and so she said, "Good Morning! C."
C., without opening her eyes, responded: "I have a headache and my feet hurt."
Monday, December 25, 2006
A picture Worth A Thousand Words
You may not know about this project but churches, friends, kids, loved ones, and all kinds of people in the US have been collecting gifts for our Children's Home kids, co-workers' children and our pastors' children for the last few months.
We packaged up the toys, school supplies, undies, socks, toothbrushes, candy, and lots of other stuff and gave the kids their bags tonight.
We had a room full of very happy children and moms and dads.
Our pastors who live far away will get their kids bags when they come for a conference in January.
On behalf of the kids I want to say:
Thank You from the Bottom of Our Hearts!
We love you.
Merry Christmas Kids
Moments after receiving their bags.
Show what you got.
This is how we packaged their gifts.
Show what you got.
This is how we packaged their gifts.
A Little Cake Cutting
After handing out the gifts we had snacks and fellowship with our co-worker families.
Very happy boys.
Very happy boys.
Friday, December 22, 2006
It Was Last Night
We made it to December 22nd. Whew.
Actually, it was a fun and relaxing night and by God's grace and your prayers everything went smoothly. Except the crazy crowd at the Bible table on the way out.
Here's some of what happened. The following is a picture of our guest speaker. He spoke in the local language, Gujarati, and when I heard it I was really disappointed because had he spoken in Hindi, everyone would have understood the Gospel message. Gujarati was not spoken by a large portion of the crowd there last night.
However, as the night went on I came to realize that it can only be God's will even if it's not what we would have chosen. Many Gujarati people come every year to our program and this was the first time they heard the Gospel message in their own language. I'm just trusting the Lord for results.
Pastor Johnny giving the message.
The crowd. I estimate that there were around 3500 people there, at least.
Here are some more statisitcs. We gave out (these are estimates): 1200 New Testaments in Hindi and Gujarat (we actualy ran out of Hindi), 150 comic book style tracks for kids and 500 cassettes called "The Story of Jesus" in Hindi.
We received 262 reponse forms! We were hoping for 100.
Pray for us as we need to be very deliberate to follow up with all of these people. Each person will get a letter withing the next week with all kinds of info. Also, we're attempting to personally call each person who gave a phone number. That will be over 200 phone calls. Lot's of work, three languages are invoved.
Pray for us. This last 10% of work is often the kind that can slip thru the cracks and it's the most important.
Many people asked for prayer for peace and for healing on their response sheets. Keep praying for them along with us.
Lastly, Thank You For Praying!
Go on to the next 2 posts for some program pictures (we had 17 dances, skits, songs...)
Actually, it was a fun and relaxing night and by God's grace and your prayers everything went smoothly. Except the crazy crowd at the Bible table on the way out.
Here's some of what happened. The following is a picture of our guest speaker. He spoke in the local language, Gujarati, and when I heard it I was really disappointed because had he spoken in Hindi, everyone would have understood the Gospel message. Gujarati was not spoken by a large portion of the crowd there last night.
However, as the night went on I came to realize that it can only be God's will even if it's not what we would have chosen. Many Gujarati people come every year to our program and this was the first time they heard the Gospel message in their own language. I'm just trusting the Lord for results.
Pastor Johnny giving the message.
The crowd. I estimate that there were around 3500 people there, at least.
Here are some more statisitcs. We gave out (these are estimates): 1200 New Testaments in Hindi and Gujarat (we actualy ran out of Hindi), 150 comic book style tracks for kids and 500 cassettes called "The Story of Jesus" in Hindi.We received 262 reponse forms! We were hoping for 100.
Pray for us as we need to be very deliberate to follow up with all of these people. Each person will get a letter withing the next week with all kinds of info. Also, we're attempting to personally call each person who gave a phone number. That will be over 200 phone calls. Lot's of work, three languages are invoved.
Pray for us. This last 10% of work is often the kind that can slip thru the cracks and it's the most important.
Many people asked for prayer for peace and for healing on their response sheets. Keep praying for them along with us.
Lastly, Thank You For Praying!
Go on to the next 2 posts for some program pictures (we had 17 dances, skits, songs...)
Program Pictures
These are not professional photos as you can see, but they're what you get on short notice. I was pretty far back and it was dark so I did the best I could.
This photo is the one I wanted in the following post. It's E.'s program. She is center right in side view.
Five girls from our Children's Home. They were sad because their dance got cut short for some reason. They'll perform it again for us on Christmas day at that service.
This photo is the one I wanted in the following post. It's E.'s program. She is center right in side view.
Five girls from our Children's Home. They were sad because their dance got cut short for some reason. They'll perform it again for us on Christmas day at that service.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)