House church and Waterfalls

Well, as it turned out, my fellow gringos (Jacob, Jean, and Kristie) joined Joel and I for the church visit yesterday. We also had a couple of Living Hope staff come as well. We headed out at about 9:45 for the 10:00 service. The drive was over an hour, so we arrived after 11:00 - fashionably late for India! I tell you what, driving in India always makes me thankful that I'm alive, because it reminds me that I don't have to be, haha.

Anyway, when we got to the house church the service had already been going for a while. There were probably 40 people or so there - it was pretty packed. They made room for us there, and made us sit in chairs even though the rest of them were all sitting on the ground. They did a couple of songs and communion, and then it was time for the preaching - my turn!

My message was basically derived from my spiritual vision for Asbury this coming year. It's from 1 Peter 2:9-12 - "Called Out". I talked about what I believe are the 3 main aspects of the calling God has on our lives - Salvation/Redemption, Holiness, and Outreach/Ministry/Evangelism. I think it went pretty well! About 45 minutes in all, with translation into Tamil and everything.

After church, we went to lunch and then headed out to do some sight-seeing. We went to a couple of waterfalls which were absolutely packed with people. Apparently, Hindus think that their sins can be washed away by bathing in one of these falls, so a bunch of people will come when it's in season. It was good to brush shoulders with the people and get a better feel for the culture. We also got to taste a bunch of cool Indian fruits that were really good. Mongoosa and Jackfruit were two of them, I think...wish we had these in the states.

So, another good Sunday experience. All four of us gringos had cameras, so we got a bunch of pics. I'll try to post some pretty soon. Later...