Day 2 is in the Books

Another great day at the eyeglass clinic. The gospel was shared 144 times. We pray for God to use those seeds that were planted to grow faith in the hearts of the people that received it.

I asked for more pictures, so you get the benefit of that request. Here's a day in the life ...

You can see that it was a full house. There are people in the balcony and waiting on the stairs and crowding the door. The door is controlled by members of the church to make sure the clinic doesn't get too full and difficult to run. Vision begins the process by accepting the registration forms from the people coming through.

Meenu is educating the visitors in their own tongue and preparing them for Traci who will check their eyes for any communicable diseases and other problems that may hinder their vision, like glaucoma.

Trisha and Melinda test for the right prescription ... both distance and reading.

Their translators, Emmanuel and Pyrenean, also work the eye charts.

The next station is where the gospel is shared in their native language, with Bibles available for them to take.

While that's happening, Sandy fills their prescription and passes them along to the next station.

Mark and Ray are helping perfect the prescriptions and get the right glasses for each person.

The last station is the fitting station where Gaylen makes sure the glasses fit the person and gets them cleaned.

And that's how the process works. By the way, most of the pictures are from Clay, so we don't get to see him working, but be assured, he is! 

Here are a few more pictures from the day. 

I'm told Kelly has to keep Mark in line.

As a musician, Ray seems to be inspecting (or playing??) an Indian percussion instrument.

A glimpse of the beauty of the land.

Thanks for joining me in taking a sneak peek into the eyeglass clinic. Please continue to pray for the mission and the missionaries. May God bless the work of their hands.

First Day of the Eyeglass Clinic

The first day of the eyeglass clinic was a success. Here are a few pictures from the day with a little commentary.

Team leader Kelly Bone laying out the plan for us. On her left is Traci from Kansas who is an LPN doing the nursing function.

Trisha and Melinda flipping for scripts. This is where the initial prescription is determined before getting a honed in prescription by trying on three pairs of glasses. For a better description of the process, visit the MOST website (link on the side and also in a previous post).

Gaylen McDonald fitting glasses. Doing a fantastic job of bending and forming eyeglasses to create smiles and great fitting glasses.

Here is Elizabeth sharing the gospel using an Evangel Cube ... it gives the gospel message through pictures, allowing the person to see a visual image while hearing the story. The good news of Jesus was shared 154 times today! Praise God!

After a successful day of the eyeglass clinic, the team had the wonderful experience of going to a house church and worshiping with the faithful members. Here are a few pictures of that. 

You can see it was a full house ... there are people sitting out on the sidewalk through the front door.

Pastor Daniel is preaching ... notice the cell phone light for illumination.This was his 3rd sermon in English. He is working hard to improve his English.

The Indian hospitality is alive and well. The team was served dinner at the home of Pastor Daniel's first new believer when he started his ministry in 1996! You can see that in traditional fashion, dinner was served in the bedroom/sitting room. The bed doubles as table and chair. 

In addition, the team also enjoyed some mango juice prior to evening worship at the house church.

It seems like it was a very busy first day, but God was in the midst. He is working and many are being blessed ... both Indian and American.

And for a little humor ... everyone was very impressed that Mark chose his shirt to match Pastor's walls. Can't wait to see what he wears tomorrow!

As always, thank you for your continued support and prayers for the mission team. As we are getting ready for bed, they are awake and getting ready for day 2 of the clinic. May God bless the work of their hands!

A Day of Worship and Preparations

Praise the Lord! Jai Masih Ki!

The team joined our Christian brothers and sisters in worship at Everlasting Life Church this morning (yesterday for them). There is something so moving about worshiping the One True God with passionate believers in another language.

There is always a very warm welcome for the members of the eyeglass clinic team.

The team enjoyed fellowship and great food on their first day in Dasuya. The hospitality is incredible and the food is delicious.

There was much work to do to set up the clinic for the hundreds of people that will come through the doors in the next four days. As an experienced leader and a returning member of the clinic at Everlasting Life Church, Kelly gave direction and made sure the team is prepared for tomorrow (again, it's today for the team).

Please pray for the clinic to run smoothly, for the team to have strength and stamina, and, most importantly, for God to move mightily through the clinic and volunteers to touch the hearts of the people coming to the clinic.

Arrived in Dasuya

The team has arrived in Dasuya and are sleeping (hopefully) after a long journey. Pastor Daniel and Vision met them in Delhi and they traveled by bus to Dasuya and checked into their hotel.

We are so grateful for their safe travel and we pray for the rest they need for the week ahead. Tomorrow, they will join in worship with Everlasting Life congregation and then they will set up the clinic, which will begin on Monday.

Praise God for this team and their safety. Please pray for the preparations for the clinic and for their fellowship and worship tomorrow.

Jai Masih Ki!

1/2 a Day in the Paris Airport

After a less than restful flight, our team is in the midst of a 10 hour layover in the Paris airport. They considered leaving the airport, but it took an hour and a half to get from gate to gate, so they are playing it safe and staying put. Apparently, there is no shortage of perfume shops. This is the view from their gate.

 Some members of the team enjoyed sipping Starbucks while in Paris.

One very big positive of having a long layover is that the team has the opportunity to get to know each other well and build that team bond that really helps while traveling and running a smooth clinic. The quote I received was, "We have spent 10 hours on team interpersonal dynamics during sleep deprivation. Things are gelling nicely."

I have no doubts that God is blessing this team and is preparing them for a great week in India. Please pray for their continued safe travel, for rest on the next flight, and for God to use them for His glory and purpose.

Safe travels, team! We're proud of you!

The Journey Begins

Our India Mission Team is on their way ... after a minor bump in the road ... okay, it was a large bump. But God is good! The airline that the team was scheduled to fly went on strike at midnight and all flights were cancelled. So, MOST Ministries worked with their travel agency and new flights were successfully booked late this morning. The team is in the air and heading to India by way of Paris. Flexibility is the key word when it comes to mission work! And, of course, trust ... God is faithful.

The team will have a long layover in Paris and then take their second flight to Delhi, India. From Delhi, they will travel by bus North to Dasuya where the eyeglass clinic will be held. If you want to see what the clinic entails, visit the MOST Ministries page.

God has big plans for this team and we get the privilege of following along and supporting them with our prayers. Please remember them in your prayers while they're serving on this mission.

To God be the glory!

India Mission Team 1921

Our next mission team headed to India is ready to go and serve! Join me as we send them and cover them in our prayers while they travel and serve God and His people in Dasuya, India. We will include a picture soon, but you can still pray for the team members by name: Kelly Bone (team leader), Melinda Cummins, Clay Donnell, Sandy Gulick, Gaylen McDonald, Traci Rahe, Ray Riggs, Mark Scmittling, and Patricia Vani.

God has called each one of them for a specific purpose on this mission team. I know that Pastor Daniel, Everlasting Life Church, and the Dasuya community will be blessed by this team and I pray that God works mightily through them and the members of the local church that will be serving with them.

I remember a song written by a son of St. Matthew (Gary Scharrer) and sung during his "sending" service into pastoral ministry. The lyrics were, "You have been gloves on the hands of our Savior. You touched our lives in just the ways He planned." These 9 missionaries to India are gloves on Jesus' hands. He will be working through each of them as they distribute eyeglasses to people ... some of these people may have never seen clearly in their whole lives. Many of these people have never seen love like they will experience in just a few days. We pray that God softens the hearts of these people so they are receptive to God's message of love and hope that they will hear while waiting for their new glasses.

The team leaves in 24 hours. We pray for their preparations and their journey!

On American soil

Jai Masih Ki! Praise the Lord! We have arrived in Newark after a very interesting and long trip. We have one more flight until we are home. 

The journey so far has included a blown out tire on our bus, a little trouble finding the parking area for our bus, a 2 1/2 hour delay for our first flight, and a few other bumps along the way. But it also included several moments of noticing God’s mercy and love. He has carried us through al of the trials of this journey and has continued to sustain us. 

Thank you again for your prayers. We are looking forward to sharing our stories with you. 

See you soon! 

Your India Mission Team 

Journeying home

The journey home has begun. We have spent all day in a bus driving to Delhi. We will board a plane headed back to the other side of the globe. (Pre-posting revision ... we couldn’t get WiFi so we are posting this from 32,000 feet and more than 2 1/2 hours behind scheduled flight departure.)

We are eager to be home to see our families and friends and to share all of our experiences with you. But we are also sad to be leaving these great people. We have shared so much with them and the bonds continue to be strengthened. 

We will fly home. They will get on the same bus and drive back north to their home. Our parting is sad but we know we all have much to do in our own communities. Our mission resolve has been strengthened and encouraged by the zeal of our Christian brothers and sisters here in India. 

An example of the encouragement we’ve received is to see how the Dasuya community is softening to the message of the Gospel. Vision told us of a neighbor that was drawn to the church because of the eyeglass clinic. She had many wrong ideas about the beliefs and teachings of Christians, but she felt comfortable talking to Vision because of the open arms the church was showing the community. Vision was able to sit and talk with the woman and clear up those misconceptions. The woman was very open to hearing of God’s love and said she wanted to come back for worship but her husband wouldn’t let her go for 3 hours (yes, the church is so on fire that they gladly praise our Jesus for hours). Vision gently told her she was welcome for any amount of time, even if it was only for 15 minutes. The woman was excited and said she would be joining them for worship. 

It’s so encouraging to hear how small acts of kindness and a willingness to listen opens doors for people to respond to the Holy Spirit’s whisper in their hearts. 

Please pray for this neighbor and for all the people that heard of Jesus’ love over the last week. We thank you for your prayers for our safe journey home. And we look forward to seeing you soon!

Blessings, 

Your India Mission Team 

Team pondering

Well, this blog post started about 30 hours ago when we were discussing who would write yesterday’s post after our last day of clinic. Ray had a great story he wanted included and we got to talking about the day and the week. We decided it would be fun to share a few thoughts from different members of the team. So, here we go...

Ray’s translator was Rosie and I noticed in the afternoon that she was wearing a winter coat inside he clinic. It struck me as odd because I was sweating. I asked Ray jokingly if the Americans were freezing her out with the fans. She told Ray that she wasn’t feeling well. He asked if she wanted to go home and she declined. He said as the afternoon went on, it was obvious that she felt terrible and he tried to make her go home. She replied that she was working for the Lord. What an incredible young woman with incredible faith and a willingness to do what god calls her to do even when she’s feeling her worst. 

Next are a few thoughts from Clay:

I would like to take a minute and thank my roommate on the trip. I don't know how many of you know Ray Riggs and his lovely bride Tracy, but if you don't you should seek them out and introduce yourself. 

I'm an 8:15er. He plays in the Prayer and praise. To my knowledge we have never met before. He and Tracy are professional musicians. Ray is a retired firefighter EMT and fits perfectly into our team for prescreening clinic candidates for infectious diseases. While he fills that slot so well he also fits into the team, which he only joined so we could hit our minimum of 8. He can follow the pack or when asked, take the lead. He spoke from the pulpit with about 10 minutes advanced warning. He prayed with the sick and took pictures for all to see. Something about Ray makes the locals want to get a picture with him. I'm not sure if it's because he is White, wears a Detroit baseball hat, carries a camera around, or just that infectious smile. Maybe the locals can see the heart of the man deep inside.

Regardless, Ray is da man that stands in the gap. He tells a great story or two or three. We love them all. He loves people and has a heart of Gold for God

Lord, bless Ray and Tracy and their family in all that they do.  

Janet included the following thoughts to share:

     This trip has been an incredible experience. It is truly a land of striking contrast... big beautiful houses next to makeshift tent living, trucks on the roads with bike pedaled carts, every woman dressed in beautiful colored clothes in a land of dirt and brown, religious temples and shrines outnumbering churches. 

     Yet I have seen such a similarity in the people’s hearts. Every person expressed such thankfulness in receiving their eyeglasses, the young ladies serving as our translators working so hard to help us understand, the joy of the church members worshipping our God.  This is truly all about sharing God’s love and the gospel to a people so different from us, but so similar to us in need of His grace and salvation. I pray for their hearts to be changed as much as mine has been changed.

And Sandy added this:

Over the past several days, I watched as 8 individuals, each with different gifts and talents, come together and work as a well orchestrated team. Each with our designated task of serving at the eyeglass clinic. And, it reminded me how we, as the body of Christ, come together with different gifts and talents to serve others. This has truly been a life changing journey and I pray the seeds we have planted here in Punjab will grow and bare much fruit. 

The last day of clinic was our strongest day. We worked until the last person outside came through. Our grand totals for the week have us seeing 633 unique individuals who heard God’s love shared with them. And we distributed 846 pairs of glasses to those individuals. God is good!

Those 633 people now have the gift of better vision. But they have also have a greater gift! They heard the gospel of Jesus! They heard that Jesus loves them. They heard there is salvation through Jesus. There is no better gift than Jesus. 

So, you might ask if the eyeglass clinic really makes a difference in the community here. We ask the same thing. It makes a difference. While we don’t get to see all of the ripples from our 4 days of distributing eyeglasses, we get to hear little bits of how God has already moved. 

Pastor Daniel has a neighbor across the street that has been very opposed to his family and his ministry for many years. The person never speaks with respect to him and tried multiple times to get the police to stop the church from meeting here. That person came to the eyeglass clinic. And for the first time, she called him “Pastor.” She sought him and Vision out to specifically thank them for the eyeglasses. Did it make a difference? Was her heart softened a bit? I think the Holy Spirit is working in her heart. 

Vision shared other stories of other people that were impacted. Maybe we will share a few more stories in the coming days. 

For now, we are just a couple of hours away from departing here and beginning the journey home. We continue to thank you for your prayers, support, and love. Please also continue to pray that those 633 people would seek to know Jesus more and more. Pray for God’s love to be displayed to the many people of this great city. 

In His grace,

Your India Mission Team