India: Day Five

Today has been a whirlwind! We had a prayer meeting in the morning at Pastor Sami's church and then we left for a refugee camp in Chennai. More about Chennai later.

At the prayer meeting the people were passionate about crying out to the Lord. They prayed in the "harp and bowl" style, intermingling praise & prayer, worship and intercession. Just as I was going to give an encouraging word to them, a man literally stumbled in, hardly able to stand, let alone walk. He was a Hindu man, who one of the members met that morning and invited to the meeting. Well, he picked a good meeting to attend, because the Spirit of God was strong! I was told he had a sickness (I don't know the English equivalent for it) and it affected his whole body, making him weak and hardly able to move. I told him that only Jesus could heal him, and he needed to call on the Name of Jesus, and not any of his other "gods".

I asked him, "Do you want to be healed?" He said yes, and lifted his hands and called on Jesus. We prayed and he stood up and walked, proclaiming, "I believe in Jesus!" It just doesn't get any better than that!

The refugee camp in Chennai is where people from Sri Lanka, who fled their nation because of war, have settled. There are over 3,000 people living on five acres! Imagine the living conditions.

Right in the middle of the camp is a modest building of 12 by 15 feet where a church meets. Over 50 people packed on tho the floor of this tiny building in expectation of what the Lord was going to do. They worshipped, I preached, and then after we prayed. Then I was called upon to I gave the charge at the ordination of the church's pastor (remember: I had to be ready for anything on this trip). After the service, a Sri Lankan man came to me and one of his eyes was swollen almost completely closed. He said only two words to me: the first was "pray" as he pointed to his eye. I put my hand over his eye and began to pray for him. After I finished, he said the second word: "clear", as he again pointed to his eye with a big smile on his face. It was fully opened and he kept looking around everywhere!

The Lord is good! Tomorrow I am off to a new area (Vellore) for the second week of my trip here in India. Please continue to pray! This corner of the world is experiencing the power of God. Lives are being changed and the Kingdom of God is being expanded!