India - May '08: Day 15

Another day of ministry among the Muslims. This is our last medical camp and our last day of ministry. We traveled for almost 1 ½ hours to a farming village where the people were waiting for us at a school. The team had much experience setting up so things were in place quickly and the medical staff was hard at work in no time.

The local people, all very poor, continued to come from all over the area and we lost count at 177 the number of patients we ministered to. Even as we were loading up, one doctor was seeing patients from the back of the van and another doctor was re-opening the boxes of medicine and filling prescriptions.

Again out of respect for the local pastor, Pastor Paul, Pastor Daniel and I stayed among the people and “quietly” blessed them and prayed for their salvation and healing.

One of the organizers of this particular medical camp is a former Muslim who is now an evangelist, spreading the Gospel among his people. He was disgraced by his father (who burned his Bible), and severely beaten by his brother, but he persevered and his brother has since come to the Lord and many others are finding Christ through his witness.

Kashmir is a very tough area to penetrate with the Gospel because of its strong Muslim influence, but there are small pockets of light that are growing stronger. No church could be built because any construction would be immediately burned to the ground. The hard work of the local pastors and the support of Pastor Daniel and Ecclesia Ministries (which Immanuel’s Church in turn supports through our support of the Immanuel’s School of the Bible in India) is making a difference.

Again, amid all of the hard work and seemingly slow progress these last two days, I was blessed to be a part of it!

Tomorrow after a worship service with Pastor Paul’s church, I will be dropped off at the airport to begin my 40 hour journey from Srinagar to Delhi, to Hyderabad, to Dubai, to JFK in New York and finally to BWI. Pastor Daniel and the team have a day’s drive to Jammu where they will catch the train on Monday night and then travel almost 48 hours to Kazipet.

It has been a privilege to serve alongside of Pastor Daniel, and to see his vision and heartbeat for all of the people of India. His compassion, sensitivity and humility have been a great inspiration to me. What an incredible 18 days of ministry!