It has been an amazing past few weeks, that have flown by. It is stunning to me to think that I only have 1 month left here. But I have been all over to see amazing things, but perhaps the most amazing was the time I got to spend this past weekend with one of the preachers, named Baskar(pronounced Baska) Rao. He ministers to a small congregation in the village of Anjur. Anjur really is a village, it has mud huts, thatch roofs and stick fences. But the people that reside in this tiny hamlet are incredibly joyful, the one I remember most though was a man named Moshi. Moshi is and elder in the church at Anjur, but he is also a field worker. When Baskar Rao called him and told him that he was coming and bringing someone to visit He left the fields and ran home. He arrived right as we were leaving so I was only able to meet him very briefly, but in that brief amount of time he made such an impact on me. As we were getting ready to leave he asks us to wait and runs into his hut to grab something, he emerges a few minuets later and presses something into my hand. I look and see it's a 20 rupee note, this is about 1/6 of what he makes in day, I try and give it back because he needs it more than I do. But he insists I take saying, that he wants to be able to give me a blessing, even if it's something small, I was blown away by this and as we left my eyes began to tear up some. Here I am a spoiled American and he sees past that to see me as the brother in Christ that I am, and chooses to bless me with 20 rupees(which is about 40 cents). I was just amazed.
One other thing made the weekend memorable and that was the sunday morning service, I found out I was preaching about 2 hours before the service started, but this is a common Indian thing to do so I had come prepared thankfully. But the church building had been a brick structure with a thatch roof and wood screen work on the sides. At the end of January though it caught fire and all the wood and thatch burnt up, which left it with 2 stone walls at opposite ends of the church and a knee high brick wall connecting them, but they simply got a tarp put it over and met under it. It was amazing to be a part of that, the proof that despite Satan's best attempts to tear them apart they still met together because they realized that the church is not a building, but that they are they church, the bride and it was beautiful bride, that Sunday, covered by a tarp, soaked in sweat yet still praising God despite the hardships.
The church had burned down because a nearby farmer was stealing power, and the way he hooked up the wire was very poorly done, which led to a series of sparks, which led to the fire.
About a week ago I began to question my sanity a little, this came about because I saw a cobra. Now a normal person would back away and try and get to a safe place, but since I had my camera I wanted a picture of it with it's hood up, so I get closer and then start throwing rocks at it in hopes of makes it's hood come up, but it just tries to escape...So I started chasing it and throwing more rocks at it, in the end I didn't get the picture. In the course of questioning my sanity I realized I'm not insane I just have my parent's genes. My mom's desire to get good pictures, and my dad's love of nature and seeing what it can do. I say this about my dad because a few years ago we were in Florida and he saw an aligator, so instead of being content to just see one, he wanted to see one in action so, he started throwing rocks...like Father like son haha.
One other thing made the weekend memorable and that was the sunday morning service, I found out I was preaching about 2 hours before the service started, but this is a common Indian thing to do so I had come prepared thankfully. But the church building had been a brick structure with a thatch roof and wood screen work on the sides. At the end of January though it caught fire and all the wood and thatch burnt up, which left it with 2 stone walls at opposite ends of the church and a knee high brick wall connecting them, but they simply got a tarp put it over and met under it. It was amazing to be a part of that, the proof that despite Satan's best attempts to tear them apart they still met together because they realized that the church is not a building, but that they are they church, the bride and it was beautiful bride, that Sunday, covered by a tarp, soaked in sweat yet still praising God despite the hardships.
The church had burned down because a nearby farmer was stealing power, and the way he hooked up the wire was very poorly done, which led to a series of sparks, which led to the fire.
About a week ago I began to question my sanity a little, this came about because I saw a cobra. Now a normal person would back away and try and get to a safe place, but since I had my camera I wanted a picture of it with it's hood up, so I get closer and then start throwing rocks at it in hopes of makes it's hood come up, but it just tries to escape...So I started chasing it and throwing more rocks at it, in the end I didn't get the picture. In the course of questioning my sanity I realized I'm not insane I just have my parent's genes. My mom's desire to get good pictures, and my dad's love of nature and seeing what it can do. I say this about my dad because a few years ago we were in Florida and he saw an aligator, so instead of being content to just see one, he wanted to see one in action so, he started throwing rocks...like Father like son haha.
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