Tuesday, November 28th -- Bangalore, India

Day two of the conference began a little rough for the entire team, but harder on Christopher. We all collapsed into bed early on Monday night, but then began waking far too early. Christopher and I finally just got up at around 3:30 am since we had already been awake for almost two hours. We later learned that Stan and Arnold got up at four for the same reason. So, we were all exhausted by the end of the day again.

However, Christopher had it harder than the rest of us beginning during breakfast. When we walked into the dining room of the compound, just the smell turned his stomach, so I took him some food outside, but he wasn’t able to keep it down. But he was a trooper! I had him lay down in the room they have set aside for us to rest in. He ran a fever for a short period of time, but a little Tylenol brought it right down. He was able to eat lightly during the day and he just stayed in that room and rested. By evening, he appeared to be doing fine.

Arnold and Stan had definitely adjusted to the setting and the interpreters today. Both of them spoke with increasing confidence and felt much more comfortable with the focus of their messages. Arnold completed part two of his teaching on spiritual growth and began the series on spiritual gifts. Stan was focused on biblical counseling, while I covered two more periods of church history—The teaching on how the early church finalized the books to be included in our bible proved to be of special interest to them.

In addition to the normal activities of the conference, the OM leaders also hosted several key leaders of the Dalits in this portion of India (If you aren’t familiar with the Dalits, or “untouchables” of India, just let me know and I will send you some information when we return -- mattheww@cumcmemphis.org). We had an opportunity to have lunch with these leaders and participate in an extended discussion regarding what more can be done to free India’s 300 million+ Dalits from generations of political, economic, and spiritual oppression.

If the rate at which Dalits are abandoning Hinduism and placing their faith in Christ continues to accelerate, India could easily become the focal point for growth of Christianity. It literally holds the very real possibility for tens of millions of people to place their faith in Christ in a very short time period! The prayers of believers all around the world for the persecuted church in India could be realized in the not so distant future.

Thanks for your continued prayers!