Greetings from India, where Psalm 121:6 has far more relevance than it does in the Midwest.
This last week Dave and I had the wonderful opportunity to get out and meet with most of our Pastors from the Koppedu district in their own homes. We did of course learn of many challenges that they face and added much to our personal prayer lists, but over all it was definitely an encouragement to us and hopefully to them as well.
One of the real highlights of the trip was our stop in the city of Koppedu itself. Here in this one village we visited 10 of the 34 pastors of the Koppedu district. None of these 10 pastors actually preaches at the church in Koppedu that is D. Paul’s church. These ten travel to villages nearby every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday for services. Usually Wednesday is catechism class, Friday is a prayer meeting and or course Sunday is Sunday worship. This village is a wonderful reminder that where the Gospel of Christ is clearly preached and the joy of the forgiveness of sins is given priority, God not man moves the hearts of faithful men to dedicate their lives to preaching that same word of Joy to others. Here where D. Paul has been clearly and forcefully preaching the Gospel, the result is not lazy and indifferent christians but men strong in the Lord and in the power of His might
Another wonderful surprise was the door (4th picture) to Bhaskar’s house which was carved by a local carpenter.
At another place as we were handing out candy to these children (last picture), we had to ask them a couple times to hold out both hands, as we wished to give them a larger amount of candy than would fit in one palm. This is a reminder to all of us that we need also to remember to hold out both hands in expectation of the gifts which God would bestow upon us. For He wishes to fill us full of all good things, but all too often we hold out only one hand, God will not give us more than this anyway.
On another note entirely, jyothi Benjamin has been doing a wonderful job of getting the CLCI churches marked on a google map of India. This can be viewed at https://lutheranmissions.org/blog/maps/india-clci/ . Unfortunately Dave and I have not been quite as adapt at doing the same for the BELC churches, currently the districts are marked on https://lutheranmissions.org/blog/maps/india-belc/ but not the individual churches.
May the strength of God and the joy of His forgiveness strength each of you towards the working of all good things which He has prepared for us to do from the foundation of the world.
-Pastor Matthew Ude