Pastors Conference Orissa India
Last week I had the privilege of teaching 200 Indian pastors and wives the biblical principles of how to Stand Firm in the face of spiritual warfare.
We were blessed with an excellent translator who took my message in English and improved it in Oria, the language of Orissa. We had many breakout sessions where the pastors enthusiastically engaged with each other in working through the discussion questions. I had the opportunity to meet pastors who lived in the area where intense persecution against Christians raged six years ago. Today the church has rebounded and is much stronger there!
At the end we gave each one a certificate of completion. It was a delight to see how much they enjoyed getting this acknowledgement of attending the first Stand Firm Conference in India.
The contrast of our time there could not be more clear than this photo of me and the Hindu man who owns the conference hall. He was glad we could meet there and wanted to know if we could come back next month.As Hindus have 33 million gods, they are fine with believing in Jesus, as long as you don’t say He is the only God. Their are many pastors who are strong on that point and see many Hindus come to faith in Christ alone.
On the last night as I watched the tribal pastors lead the group in a very lively tribal worship song, the Lord brought to mind the verse, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 Here in the heart of India I am with men and women that have the same joy when they worship God as you and I do. What a wonderful and mysterious thing it is that we are part of the body of Christ. How great is our God that those of us who have trusted in Jesus are all equally His children, none better and none worse than any other.
As you read this I will be finishing the first day of my second conference in Uttar Pradesh, an area that seems even more remote than where I was in Orissa. Please pray for God’s blessing upon my teaching and upon those who receive it. Thanks for your prayers.
