Karl, Niki, Katie and Eddie write from India
23 Mar 2011 | Hannah Montgomery | Posted in India, News1 Comment
(N.B Some of the names within this post have been changed to protect identities)
Hello from Bangalore!
We have spent 4 days here and have seen and experienced much. On Thursday and Friday we were involved in a leadership conference at the OM Base. Senior leaders and pastors based in the south of India gathered and we taught on a wide range of subjects such as leadership, being one with the Son, heart, friendship, marriage and women in leadership. We loved spending time with these guys and hearing some of their stories. Many of them have stories of suffering and persecution because of their love for Jesus and desire to share him with others. Its been great to encourage them and to be encouraged by what they have shared. A highlight for us all was the privilege of being able to wash their feet and pray God’s blessing on them.
The guys at the OM base remember the inter:act teams visits from the last couple of years with great fondness – they were so encouraged and blessed by those trips and told us so often. The murals are still looking lovely!
Niki and Katie also managed to take a trip into one of the slums in Bangalore. Here OM have a ministry with the community there. There is a small church which provides a nutritional feeding programme for around 60 children. They give them milk, bananas and eggs – often their only meal in a day. We were able to help hand the food out to the children and pass on Jesus’ love simply in a smile or a touch.
The Pastor of this church, Joseph, shared his story of how the church came into being. Joseph and his wife had become Christians (at the moment he asked Jesus into his life his bent back was straightened!) and were working in the quarry. His two sons stayed behind in the slums and were playing together. Their youngest son was 11 at the time. While playing he fell into a pool of sewage just behind their house. Only his hands could be seen. He was pulled out and carried back to their home and left lying on the floor of their home, dead. His parents arrived back about 6 hours later to find him there. They prayed, crying out to God for their son’s life and promising to bear witness to God’s greatness if they could have their son back. Three hours later he sat up, was sick from all that he had swallowed and was absolutely fine!! Incredible! On the same spot that incident happened the church now stands, bearing witness to God’s goodness and faithfulness.
On our way back out of the slum we stopped and prayed with two ladies in their homes. One of these ladies was blind and was caring for her niece and had a daughter aged 4 who was unable to walk. She has no other family – the church, amidst their poverty, were pulling together resources to help care for and feed them. Again, it was an incredible privilege to pray with people living in difficult circumstances and know that we are one in Jesus. It is easy to feel hopeless, but commit them to God and know he is the Hope-giver and source of life to these friends.
We will be going to church in Bangalore tomorrow where Karl will preach. Then, we fly out to Pune where we will be doing some more teaching to a group of Pastors from Maharastra. We look forward to catching up with friends we got to know last year.
Thank you for your prayers – God is at work.
Karl, Niki, Katie and Eddie
Marcia said:-
March 26th, 2011 at 12:40 am
Your journey is an incredible account of Hope and Love shown by our glorious King. Thank you for sharing your story and know that you are all in our prayers, Marcia and Michael