Number 101:  April 3, 2007

After two days of recovering from the flight we loaded our belongings, along with 12 cases of water and 6 cases of toilet paper, and headed to the mountains. An air conditioned bus had been rented for the occasion. Around 40 American and Indian believers piled in the bus ready for a life-changing journey. The traveling party included Sangat, his 3 daughters who would do translating, the newly arrived Americans which included my 18 year old daughter Julie, 4 young Americans who were living in India moving the Word of God and receiving spiritual growth back from their experiences, and a host of Delhi saints including Bhupender and his children Ashish and Chiya.  

Driving in India is an experience. I have been to rural Egypt, but this was much worse. Everything imaginable was on the same road trying to get somewhere at whatever speed they could muster. Horns were forever sounding as we weaved around the slower traffic as we headed toward Gulab Singh’s fellowship in the plains before the Himalayas.

In route we stopped to observe a 100 foot statue of Shiva, the destroyer god. It was in a park along side the Ganges River where millions come to be baptized every year. This statue is a reminder of Daniel 3 where King Nebuchadnezzar erected a giant image that was to be worshipped at the sound of the music. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Jewish captives from Israel, loyal to the true God, chose not to worship it. The true God honored their commitment to Him by delivering them from the fiery furnace, their punishment for insubordination. Shiva is just another acronym for Baal, the god of the Old Testament who wants worship. She is very popular throughout India.

As we headed through the national forest where wild elephants run amuck, we finally came to Gulab Singh’s. His home was laid out in typical Indian ranch style with an enclosed courtyard adjacent to the building. A canopy was put up over the courtyard to protect the fellowship goers from the sun. An American toilet was built to accommodate the guests. Plastic chairs were positioned around the courtyard for anyone’s use.

Although we had come halfway around the world, we were home! The spirit from the living God was alive and vital in the Indian saints. They greeted us joyfully with warm embrace and showered us with the best hospitality they could muster. They were thankful that we would come this far to visit and bless God’s people. We were thankful to see like-minded believers who cared for the things of God and were holding forth the Word of life in such a powerful way in an idolatry riddled nation.

Gulab Singh had moved back to the foothills to move God’s Word full-time. He was teaching Bhupender and Stephen how to cook in Delhi. Bhupender, after running from the Word for many years, finally listened to Sangat and taught Stephen and Gulab Singh the rightly divided Word and the power of the true God. These three men, cooks at the same restaurant, are three of the leaders of true Christian revival in India. Sangat had been asking God for leaders, and God had supplied three at one time. Don’t limit God.