Just 7 days left till I depart India and return again to my home. As that day draws near it becomes harder and harder for me to concentrate on the work at hand. I have a week of classes yet before I depart but all my thoughts are on the departure. One might easily expect the same of John when he wrote his gospel. He was an old man. All of his friends had already left. He was alone the last apostle. One might expect that his thoughts would be constantly turning towards heaven, waiting eagerly for the coming day. Perhaps they were. Yet in his gospel John continually rejoices in the current blessings that are his in Christ.

Some random things from India:

I learned today that the father of the bride is not only responsible for her dowry but also is expected to take care of the expenses for her first pregnancy and delivery.

I also found out that even though all the signs, all the car gages, and all the city folk use metric, the rural areas and bible translations use standard measurements.

Here are some pictures of a man delivering fresh honeycomb on the back of his motorcycle.

Here are some pictures of the brunch buffet Dave and I visited this last Sunday.

Sunday April 29th Dave and I joined the Indian district chairman at Nagalapuram for the Inauguration serivce of the 2012 VBS season here in India. There were around 600 children packed into  the hall.

In the picture album below the first girl is singing, the second little girl recited all 66 books of the Bible and then the first psalm.

Dave preached using balloons, pencils, and candy which he afterward gave away to the kids. The basic messsage of the devotion: Don’t be like a balloon which does not go where you want it to,  and always whines. Be like the Pencil which is straight and true and useful like Onesimus. And everyone wants a piece of Candy so share it just like you share Jesus with your friends.

It is also Esther’s birthday party so there was cake and candles. Followed by dinner.

Sitting in the dinning hall they came first and set a small sup of ice cream before us. Dave and I just dug in right away whereas the 600 kids pushed their ice cream to the side knowing the were supposed to save it for after their chicken and rice.

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I just returned from Classes in Nellore and Renigunta. Here Moses regularly monthly holds classes on the 10^th and 11^th. But these dates rarely fit into my schedule so this month Moses scheduled a second set of classes when I would be there April 19^th and 20^th. However due to the irregularity some of the pastors were unable to attend. Furthermore the height of summer is now fulfilled in India and it was hot. On the 20^th in Renigunta the official temperature was up to 105 f and humid. We were meeting in a cement building with small windows and a tin roof, also the power was out so there were no fans. But we persevered and made it through most of the lesson.

We studied the background of the gospel of John. It is common over here to hand out this gospel to members and non members. It is more expensive than handing out tracks to be sure but also much less than buying full Bibles. We try to distribute as many Bibles as we can but when money is tight we hand out the Gospel of John. It is easy to see why. This Gospel was written as a witness, especially suited to those who have little to no background in the Old Testament. John claims in essence to have written the first Christian apologetics book. Here he sets forth in compelling detail all the evidence for the deity of Christ. And yet this God whom John writes about is always the God who “dwelt among us.” John speaks of himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” yet never fails to show how much that love of Christ extended to every human He came in contact with. In one story after another John pictures for us the love and grace of God pouring forth from Jesus Christ and changing the lives of all those among whom He dwelt.

Oh yeah, Moses took me to the beach

I just returned from Goa the India popular tourist beach state. I certainly enjoyed the beaches but I was there to meet with a small congregation that Victor ( one of the BELC district chairman ) has been in contact with. Goa is a small state on the western side of India south of Mumbai. It is known most for its beautiful beaches but also has scenic mountains. It used to be under the control of the Portuguese from 1510 until 1961 who left behind many unique buildings including a number of old churches.

There was some difficulty getting together with the members because of the nearness of holy week and the fact that the younger members had exams. Victor himself got sick the day he was supposed to leave to meet me there, but the members all know English pretty well, so it wasn’t a problem for me to meet with them by myself.

I meet with the members at a hotel in Vasco on Thursday and Friday evening. There were ten members that were able to make it, for about two hours. They were all for the most part younger members. I’m not sure why the older members weren’t able to come. We went through a quick overview of basic doctrines rather than spending an expended amount of time on one or two.

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I have been rather lax in my journaling activities for the last two months. As I become more accustomed to these foreign surroundings my activities and travels seem more and more routine and therefore less worthy of chronicling. But it always makes for an exciting and noteworthy week when friends from the home side of the world come to visit.

A little over a week ago, on Thursday the 15^th of March, Mr and Mrs Duden from the Red Wind MN area arrived early in the morning for a visit to India. Purely by coincidence Vanessa Meyer had been also planning a trip at the same time and arrived a few days later on Sunday the 18^th. Duden’s brought crayons, coloring books, and other presents for the kids. Vanessa who had little experience teaching nevertheless courageously accepted the challenge and prepared a bible story for the kids. Thus we spent the week traveling to various churches, teaching two parables and handing out gifts to the children. The four of us visited four congregations in the evening Tuesday through Friday. The Dudens visited two more congregations traveling with Dave Koenig to Nellore and Chengleput. While I was with them we handed out a total of about 350 coloring books and crayon boxes, also balloons, candy, pencils, and Vanessa’s handmade necklaces.

On Friday the visit was a bit more extensive. Mr. Duden as a farmer was interested in visiting the rice paddies of the BELC. After this we stopped at D Paul’s house for supper. D Paul’s second daughter was home from school for the weekend and had brought a friend along. They wanted to take Vanessa shopping but since she had to leave Saturday night there wasn’t any chance for this. After the normal lessons and worship in the village that night the Indian children put on an extensive program of songs and dancing, which Vanessa and Mrs. Duden enjoyed while Mr. Duden waited patiently in the car.

Besides this mad rushing about, our visitors also received the chance to visit a wedding the first Sunday they were here and stopped at the Chennai reptile zoo on Saturday. Saturday evening we all got together at my apartment and barbecued chicken on the roof of my apartment building while watching the sun set over Chennai.

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On Friday the 24^th of February the district chairman of the BELC meet with Dave Koenig and me for our bimonthly chairman’s meeting. Normally we would have held it in January but both Pastor Koenig and I were absent from India until early February.

All of the Chairman spoke about the growth of the word of the Lord. Moses has started a new church Naidapet. Victor has gained again a lost pastor. Dave Koenig spoke about the completion of eight church building which is now possible because of the very generous gift of one of our American brothers. We certainly thank the Lord for this donation. Rajamani spoke about his trip to Malaysia.

Across the Bay of Bengal in Kuala Lumpur a number of Tamil speaking Indians live and work. Some of these men know of Pastor Rajamani and his work here in India. They have been asking Rajamani to visit them and investigate the building of Lutheran churches among them in Malaysia. Finally they were able from their own pockets to provide the means for Rajamani’s trip. Rajamani left last November and spent one month in Malaysia. He met with 15 pastors and discussed the catechism and 4 of the seven pamphelets. D Paul and Rajamani plan to remain in touch with these men and continue to send them materials.

An alligator in the Nesbit Castle Hotel

Conference with the men from around Bulwayo

Todd teaching the men from Bulawayo

On Sunday around noon we finally meet with the Apostle Liberty Atawa for the first time in person. We were speaking with him about the problems in Zimbabwe for the spread of the Gospel. He complained that no one wants to listen to teaching. “They will say, ‘yesterday we were dancing and singing and today we are only talking.’”

Liberty gathered twelve men for us to meet briefly with on Sunday night, and another five for a total of seventeen which gathered together on Monday for study. Again since it was our first meeting with these men we went through the CLC statement of faith and purpose. Already in our brief talk Sunday night many of the men were eager to be taught. They expressed a great desire in the possibility of going to school at the Bible School in Tanzania, even though that would mean leaving their homes and families for five years. A few of them were already taking correspondence courses from a Bible School in South Africa, and a few were enrolling in classes at local bible colleges.

During our conference on Monday there were definitely some questions and even some lively debate. These mainly centered on speaking in tongues/miracles, baptism, and women in the church. I always find it far more encouraging when pastors ask questions and challenge what I am teaching rather than simply nod along in agreement. For one it shows they care. For another it shows they are familiar with God’s word (they were often taking me to passages ). For a third it shows that they know what their churches teach. And for a fourth it shows they have the backbone to stand up for what they believe to be right. Furthermore they often seemed not to be asking so much because they disagreed with us but because these were arguments they faced and questions the wrestled with. For example I noticed that the man who was grilling me most ardently on speaking in tongues was also the quickest and loudest to clap after Todd and I had answered those questions with scripture.

After everything it was a very encouraging meeting. We pray that the Lord would continue to bless the work through Pastor Gullerud and Liberty here. Liberty is going to continue to meet with these men every month and take them through more lessons, which Pastor Gullerud will be sending him. Hopefully when a missionary returns next year there will be seventeen solid foundations and even more in the process.

In Christ, Matthew Ude

The Pastors from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Pastor Ibrahim pretending a bowl is a hat

Victoria Falls

Todd Ohlmann, Ibrahim, Matthew Ude at Victoria Falls

Friday January 27^th we held a short conference with the pastors from Lusaka, and pastor Yumba from D R Congo. Pastor Yumba had accompanied us from Lubumbashi in order to meet the new pastors in Lusaka. As this was our first meeting with these men we took them through the CLC statement of faith and purpose. These men had already been studying with Ibrahim and were familiar with our doctrine. There were some questions, but not really any disagreement. The men seemed ready and eager to study and learn and join Ibrahim in working for the Lord in Lusaka, and throughout Zambia.

We ended the conference at 3pm and Todd, Ibrahim, and I packed up for the trip to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. We had intended to take a plane but there are apparently no direct flights. The journey by car it is close to 15 hours. So we had decided to drive to Livingstone Friday night and get a bus from Victoria Falls City to Bulwayo on Saturday. Saturday morning we woke up and since Victoria Falls is right there we stopped to see it. There is little I can say about Victoria Falls other than to simply state that is without a doubt the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. I will post a few picture but of course they can hardly do it justice.

Zimbabwe ran into a bit of economic trouble a few years back and was having some serious currency problems; as a result they took a rather unique solution. They quit printing money altogether. Instead they just use American Dollars. Almost everyone will apparently accept Euros, and Pounds as well but as far as I could tell Dollars were the predominant form of currency. However they don’t use American coins instead if they have to give you change for less than a dollar they give it in Rand (from South America). It all seems like it would be a bit confusing for them but for us it made things easy.

[I will post more pictures of Victoria Falls later ]

[ note: I updated the map "Central Africa Visits" ]

Thursday, our first day in Lusaka, we spent running errands trying to find tickets to Bulawayo, changing money, etc. Today we headed out for hospital visits and evangelism. We stopped briefly at an AIDS/HIV hospital but there was some program going on and we weren’t allowed in. We went down the road a little to a village and started visiting houses. At the bottom of this post is a map of the village and houses we visited along with a description of what happened at each place. There is also another map showing the various place in Lusaka mentioned here.

Pastor Ibrahim is a native of Tanzania. He went to the Bible School in East Africa before the trouble we currently are having there. He has worked with Nathanael Mayhew. He had some friends recently ask him to come teach in Zambia, so he came over to Lusaka and has been working hard here ever since. From the first moment we met Ibrahim he showed his love and zeal for Christ. He constantly talked about how we must not waste the Lord’s money. He always sought to find the cheapest way to do things, even though we were the ones paying not him. He also spoke about how many pastors are lazy but that we must work to support the work of the Gospel. He is planning to return to East Africa in time for the mission helper trip this summer, so that those of you who will be here this summer will get a chance to meet and work with him also.

Here is the map showing the various places that we visited around Lusaka.

Here is the map showing the village where we did evangelism.

[Click on the Red Box with the white magnifying glass ( left hand side of the map about half way up ) to view full screen map]

Wednesday January 25, 2012

This morning we packed up at 8am to head out. This time we left Congo for good and headed across the same border once again unto Zambia. We rented a Taxi to take us to the Zambia border. From the border we took a small bus ( really a big van stuffed full of people ) to Kitwe. Kitwe is the same city where we meet the Zambia pastors on Monday. In Kitwe we got on a big greyhound style bus for the six hour trip to Lusaka. This bus would have been comfortable except that they didn’t leave until every single seat on the bus was sold. And of course the seats were too small even for a normal person much less some of the bigger Africans. I had an aisle seat and spent the ride half off the seat. Todd was sitting on the back seat and was squished between two people.

We arrived in Lusaka around 8pm almost exactly twelve hours from when we started. The Kewelle Lodge where we are staying is a decent price and fairly nice, especially by the standards of most of the hotels we normally stay in. Apparently there is a big soccer match between the Zambia national team and someone else. So the bar and restaurant is packed full of people tonight.

We meet Ibrahim and received our marching orders for the next few days. We will be here at the Kewelle Lodge for the next four nights including tonight and then we leave for Zimbabwe. One of the first things we need to do tomorrow is look for tickets to Zimbabwe either by bus or plane.