The last few weeks in Pictures

"Don't Forget About Us"

This Christmas as we enjoy the freedom God has given us here, I can't help but remember how God calls us to pray for our fellow believers and brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering persecution for the sake of the gospel:
"Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering" (Heb 13:3)

Here are just a few things going on right now that you can pray for as you celebrate and worship this week:

Pakistani Christians living in tents, left homeless by violence labeled "the worst against minorities in the country this year". (CNN)

The thousands of families in the Phillippines who have been violently run out of their homes in an ever-growing persecution/violence against Christians by neighboring Muslims.

The ongoing genocide of the Karen people and Christians in Burma as the government seeks to wipe them from the country.

North Korean Christians, considered one of the communist government's "most vile threats", with some 154,000 in prison concentration 'death' camps and others regularly disappearing (CNN).

The 70,000 Indians who are living in shelters after intense persecution from militant Hindus in Orissa state.

The 50,000 member church in China that was recently shut down by the government police and its leaders who were sentenced to years in hard labor camps. Also, the unimaginable beatings/torture/persecution of China's house church leaders and members. More Christians are in prison in China than in anywhere in the world.

Churches in Iraq that are being targeted and blown up.

Iranian and Iraqi Christians in prison simply for refusing to renounce their faith in Jesus...
for everyone who cannot celebrate Christmas openly for fear of persecution.

For believers in countries that experience heavy persecution:
Indonesia, China, Tibet, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, Morocco, Turkey, Nigeria, India, North Korea, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Maldives, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Mindanao (Phillipines), Azerbaijan, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Libya, Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Bhutan.

If this type of knowledge makes you cringe and your tendency is to look the other away or want to ignore it, that's ok. But take it to God, and ask him to show you how he feels about his people. He will break your heart for his suffering church... and this is a beautiful thing. We need not be afraid of this kind of compassion. It softens our heart and leads us closer into God's heart.

And there are so many practical things you can do to help, also... write letters to government officials to pressure them to release innocent prisoners, give money to the incredible projects going on by Voice of the Martyrs to support persecuted Christians by providing them food, supplies and medical treatment for wounds and scars. Go to www.persecution.com if you want more information on each country's situation (click on Restricted Nations tab at top) and info on how you can help!

KGF, Thailand, and home again.

Sorry we haven't written in a while. Lot going on lately. Here's an update:

We went to KGF last week (two hour train ride from us) to meet up with some people we know and minister with a church there. Our church in America is connected with this ministry through a man named Jimmy, who married the pastor's daughter and goes back and forth between KGF and America. It was a really great way for us to end our time in India. The ministry was warm, welcoming, and full of love. The place holds the pastor and his family, as well as some orphans and widows who they care for. We really liked being there- the community among the Indians was so rich that the more rustic conditions (from what we were used to) faded into the distance. KGF is smaller and less developed than the city we live in, so we were able to see a whole other side of India which we also really enjoyed. We loved spending time in people's homes, eating and drinking tea with them, praying for them, and being a part of their lives. We loved what we got to do and how we were included as part of the family, even if only for a short time.

Here's a quick rundown: we went with the team and church to villages and shared Jesus with them, some for the first time. We talked about the difference between putting your faith in idols made of stone and clay and putting your faith in the one true God. We prayed for people who were sick, and saw God heal! One time a few of us prayed for a baby with a burning hot fever. Ten minutes later, the baby's forehead felt as cool as mine! The people began to believe because they saw God move!

We also helped the church encourage some of the local village churches. Ben was able to share a word God had spoken to him about someone there that night, and when he was finished a man came forward and publicly gave his life to Jesus!

I was able to ride on the back of Laban's motorcycle (the pastor) out into the country to a village the church had spoken in earlier that week. At that time, a woman there said she was being "tortured by an evil spirit". When prayed over in the name of Jesus, she said the spirit left her and she wanted to give her life to Jesus. Upon our visit she had stripped her home of all its idols and whitewashed the walls. She wanted us to pray for her home and her family as they put their trust in God alone.

Each of the villages that the church ministers to has one person from the church that lives there. One of these men, Solomon, has a huge hole in his tin roof where the water pours in and runs through his home every time it rains. The hole has been there for 6 years now because every time he has some extra money, he gives it to the widows in the village for food. I've never met anyone so selfless. That's what many of the people we met here are like.

We also brought with us some audio-recording devices that play the New Testament in Tamil and Kannada and run on solar power (for those who can't read and don't have electricity). The widows of the village who had already received one would get together and listen to the 'black box' every Monday. One of these women (in the pic) gave her life to Jesus after listening to the words. The others gave their lives to Jesus while we were there!

(Picture: Pastor Laban, Solomon, and some of the widows)
There's a lot more to say, but overall we are really thankful for the encouragement of this church and for allowing us to be a part of what they are doing.





Ben wearing a lungi- I think he looks pretty good, don't you?














In ending about KGF, here's a little piece of Indian culture for you:
The train stop at the town we were staying does not allow reserved seats and the train is always packed, so Arvind had two of his friends ride from the previous stop to save seats for us. When the train came we quickly found them in a window and Ben and I struggled to push our way inside the train. It was so packed that we couldn’t get through before the train took off, so we passed our bags over everyone's heads to the friends, and then we climbed up over the seats. The two men then climbed over and pushed their way to the door to get off (but didn’t make it before the train left) so they jumped off the moving train and waved goodbye to us from the street. On the ride home I held a baby for a standing woman, and Ben held a little boy, who's first word (pointing to Ben's arm) was "White?"

THAILAND

We also returned from our trip to Thailand. We went there to renew our visa (it's one of the countries closest to south India), but we took full advantage of the trip and enjoyed biking around Chiang Mai and seeing Thai culture. We flew into Bangkok but spent almost all our time in Chiang Mai, a northern city. Ben's dad had been there the previous week on a medical mission trip, so it was a perfect opportunity for him to leave us some things we needed. Chiang Mai was perfect. Beautiful, not intimidating, and authentic. The Thai people are so approachable and friendly, laid back, and hospitable. Many of the people we met had hilarious personalities. To make it even better, the food is so good. You can step outside your door and buy any type of food imagineable in fresh markets (which were ultra clean). We loved our time in Chiang Mai.








(the Grand Palace in Bangkok)

When we came back to the home, there was an adorable new member of the household! 4-year-old Vetry was taken in after his mother committed suicide (in front of him) by pouring kerosene over herself and lighting a match. He is a wild child, but a real cutie. It's fun to see him start to learn English words as he only speaks Tamil. Last night, he told Tammy that he was having horrible nightmares at night and was being visited by demons (every time he slept he would wake up afraid/crying). Not sure what was going on, everyone prayed over him for the nightmares to stop. He slept perfectly last night, and said that "Jesus came and helped him". Isn't that awesome?

We'll be saying goodbye to India and leaving for America next week. Please pray for us as we have some big, specific needs and uncertainties.

We can't wait to see you! Signing off from India (but not from blogging)....

On Dance

Today I was spending time with God, and found myself struggling for words of any kind. So often, I find words fall completely short of who God is, of my own experiences, of what I long to communicate to Him and to the world. In a different culture, sometimes words can be your enemy when you communicate something other than what you meant to, especially when you have been struggling with words lately as I have been. Today my feet felt a longing to dance, and so I gave up on words and lost myself in this form of wordless expression. Dance is a love God has given me, and it is most pleasing when used to worship Him. I don't care who is watching or what people think about me. For then I am flying, participating in a beautiful conversation between myself and my God that nothing in this world can taint.

This is why I come alive when I dance out of what's in my heart:

Because prayer does not always have to be expressed in words.
Because words are limited to our finite understanding.
Because it is utter abandoment; it does not hold back.
Because it is honest, genuine and real.
Because it knows not the past nor the future; it is completely and utterly in the present.
Because I don't care what others think.
Because it knows no language and can be expressed to all people.
Because it knows no worries.
Because it is not easily miscommunicated.
Because it is prophetically giving of your entire self.
Because it is beautiful. It is pure.
Because it makes sense that the only way for me to express the overwhelming abandon in my heart is through the use of my entire body.

Because it is the opposite physical expression of being locked in chains. It is the expression of complete freedom.

Because when I dance "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8)

Trees

Today is a special day that marks Ben's and my first year of marriage. I guess that makes us non-newlyweds. As we have been filling in for houseparents at the home, our day off this week just happened to fall on this glorious Monday, September 14, our anniversary... a little gift from God.

With no real knowledge of anything new and special to do in a city we have just now become familiar with, with little to get or make for each other in the way of 'surprises', since our weekly day off is always spent in the presence of each other and as I, Lisa, should not meander alone, and without the usual access to unlimited resources and supplies we are accustomed to, I wondered what the day would bring.

We ended up at a little restaurant we have frequented before, with checkered red table cloths and park-style benches, sharing a philly cheesesteak sandwich. Then, Ben hands me something simple - a card he made. Just a blank sheet of white paper, folded, with a small drawing of a tree. Along the border is the verse that we decided over one year ago to center our marriage on. With more wisdom than I could appreciate at the time, Clay had asked us to ground our marriage in a verse. I had been drawn to one in Jeremiah about a tree, not particularly moving or lovely. Today those verses were filled with deep meaning. I think I began to understand why we had chosen them.

And in that simple moment, I became overwhelmed by it all. Our lives, the past year. How just one year ago we were saying our vows in Athens, with plans that seemed so certain. The sudden change that was catapulted through a difficult event, and the whirlwind God took us on, changing our hearts and leading us into the unknown. How we had just enough money from our wedding gifts to purchase, not furniture for my future home like I had always envisioned, but tickets to fly halfway around the world. How we left all of our once-precious things behind for people we had never met, all the things we gave up to come here, some things we never told anyone about... and the incredible embarassment I feel when comparing these things, that feel like huge sacrifices in my own eyes, with the sacrifice Jesus made for us. How this past year has kept us clinging to the truth that God is good, and that he is the best and only leader of our lives. How we've battled through loneliness and confusion, realizing that perhaps God's desire has been to teach us things other than what we anticipated. How he has been faithful to us here... How good his plans for us truly are.

I thank God for Ben, for the man he is. If you are drawn to people mostly for surface things like extrovertedness, social ease, or humor, you may overlook a quiet, unassuming person like Ben, often reserved and rarely the center of attention. Yet, it is character that is the true test of a man, of what is deep in his heart when the other things fade away. If you take the time to truly get to know this wonderful person, as I and many of you have, you will be blessed to know someone with uncompromised integrity, someone who walks uprightedly before God in love, steadiness, loyalty, and purity. Someone who chooses good over evil, love over judgment, humility over pridefulness...even moreso in the quiet of his own room than in the presence of a crowd...who makes such choices regardless of whether anyone will come to know about those choices. A man of true character that I am blessed to share life with. I know many of you are equally blessed to know him as a son, a brother, or a friend.

So thank you, God, for the first year of many. Our future is in your hands.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
For he will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when the heat comes,
it's leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
Jeremiah 17