Gospel Musical Presentation and more

The gospel musical presentation is over! God blessed the presentation, and many of the children from VBS attended Saturday afternoon's program. We enjoyed singing psalms, hymns, and Christian songs, skit, testimonies, and other parts of the program, but it certainly took a lots of time to put it together!
Yesterday (Lord's Day), we had the privilege of attending Pastor Babu's church in rural Warthur village on the outskirts of Bangalore. Many of the VBS children, seminar attendees, and gospel musical attendees came from this church, so it was a blessing to see these brothers and sisters again. My father preached on 1 Corinthians 12 there, and Pastor Babu translated into Kannada. It is a blessing to see how God is growing the people in that church.
Today, the seven young people on our team went to the Forum Mall. After lunch at the Pizza Hut (Pizza Hut here is very different than in the US - we think they're better here), we did some shopping at some local department stores. This week we are planning to do some visitation to some friends of the church, and Thursday and Friday we will head to the town of Mysore, another main city in Karnataka, for a brief excursion. We will be taking a train, and those of us who have previously traveled on trains here will tell you that it can be quite a scenic as well as fun method of transportation!
As far as prayer requests, here are the main ones:
-That God would bless our remaining time in the country, and that we would use the time wisely and for His glory
-That God would give us a safe train travel to Mysore, and that we would be examples of Christ to Asha's cousin and her family

Time to update

We have been quite busy preparing for the gospel musical presentation, which will take place this Saturday (29th) afternoon. The event will include psalms, hymns, Kannada songs (yes we learned one more this year), Scripture reading, and sharing testimonies. Hopefully, many of the children we taught at VBS will attend and will once again hear the truths of the gospel. We are also working on a skit portraying the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac and God's asking Abraham to kill his son. Aaron will be acting as Abraham, and Nick Rao will act as Isaac. The theme for this year's musical presentation is "Abundant Life."
The evening seminars taught by Dr. Rao have gone well so far, and many people from both English and Kannada background have attended, and Pastor Babu has translated each of the lectures into Kannada. So far, the themes covered have been the importance of God's Word, how to interpret God's Word, Christ's church, and the sacraments. Tomorrow (Friday) will be the last lecture.
By way of prayer, here are some requests:
-that God would bring unsaved people to the gospel musical presentation, and that God would be working in their hearts to bring them to Him
-that we would prepare well for the presentation and do it in a God-glorifying manner.
-that God would give us wisdom as we plan to take a short out of town trip somewhere next week.

May our Lord get all the glory!

Week 2

I apologize for not updating sooner, blame it on my laziness. Part of the reason is that I wanted to upload a video, but I knew that would take some time to get set up, and I simply didn't feel like taking the time to do it. But here's a new post!

The Lord blessed our VBS, which is now over. Over 80 children attended the VBS, and they heard the message of the gospel in both English and Kannada. We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the children, and it was a pleasure to serve the Lord in this way.

This week, we will be preparing for our musical gospel presentation which will take place on Saturday afternoon here at Covenant BPC. My father is also busy getting ready for his seminars which he will teach Mon-Fri evenings at the church. He will be focusing on the unique aspects of the Christian faith that stood out to him when he was a new Christian in hopes that others will be able to relate to them.

I'll update more - we're about to go out and I wanted to make this quick!

VBS

Day 2 of the Vacation Bible School is over. So far, God has blessed us with kids who are pretty well-behaved and attentive, and we have had the privilege of forming friendships with these kids. This is a relief after last year, when we had several rowdy kids, and we were worried that it would carry over into this year. By God's grace, the first two days went smoothly, and we anticipate all that God will do in the next three days.
The first day, the lesson covered the yellow page of the worldless book, about God and his holiness compared to man and his sinfulness. The story was Jesus' raising of Lazarus from the dead, and the craft involved a recreation of Lazarus coming out of the tomb.
The second day, the lesson covered the black page of the wordless book. This lesson emphasized man's sin and separation from God and the punishment for sin. The story was Noah, the ark, and the flood, focusing on how God deals with wickedness.
Tomorrow will be Red, Jesus's blood, Thursday will be White, the new life in Christ, and Friday will be green, growing in Christ.

Day 3

Praise the Lord for the good experiences we have had so far this trip. During our free time, we have been playing with Praveen (Pastor George's right hand man)'s two children, Rajesh (10?) and "Sunny" (8?) as well as with Pastor George's children, Abigail and Nene. On Saturday, we spent some time getting on the same page for VBS. That evening, we went to the Total shopping center, which is similar to a shopping mall. Saturday was a good day to catch up on sleep and to spend time with the children here.
Lord's Day morning, Pastor George preached on the Christian's struggle between the flesh and the new man, based on Romans 7. We met several new young people that have been coming to the congregation, and we enjoyed chatting with them for quite some time. At 4:00 was the Kannada service, led by Pastor Babu. He preached from the first part of John 1, talking about Jesus being the light that came into the world. God blessed this Lord's Day, and I pray that He was glorified through it.
Tomorrow is the start of VBS, one of the highlights of our trip. Pray that God would speak through us to the children, and that the Holy Spirit would be working in their hearts to bring salvation. We look forward to being with the children and sharing the love of our Lord Jesus Christ with them.

Keep continuing to pray! Our God is mighty, and He listens to His people's prayers! Here are a few requests:

- that God would be glorified through the VBS and that His Spirit would be working in the hearts of individual children, bringing them to Him

- that the teachers (us) would have wisdom in leading and instructing the VBS

God is good! Although a couple of our connections were tight, God allowed us to arrive in Bangalore early Friday morning. After a little bit of rest, this morning saw a prayer meeting and time of sharing/thanksgiving at the church. We are excited that God has brought new people into the church, and we had the opportunity to meet a few of them today. We are still a little jet-lagged, but we are adjusting nonetheless. Each blog entry, our team will try to provide some specific prayer requests on our hearts. Today you can pray that:

-Covenant BP church would continue to grow through word of mouth and through the outreach done by the current members. Fruit has already been seen to some extent in this area.
-Our preparations for VBS would be done efficiently, as we start Monday morning.

May God's presence be with you, and remember us in your prayers during this time of service in India.

Welcome to Outreach in India 2010!

Follow this blog as we serve the Lord in India from May 12-June 9, 2010. We will try to update daily, and we will include some photos from our trip as often as we can.