Number 105:  April 19, 2007

After surviving another cold night in the ice palace and an impromptu dance in the room across the hall, the next morning we piled into the bus and headed back in time. We drove over the dam and up the mountain side. Our destination was the village of Kote Sangna, the home of Vijay Singh. Almost all of the people in the village are believers. The town had been overrun with scorpions. The believers prayed that God would take the scorpions away, which He did. Today, you cannot find any scorpions in the village.

The nearest road to Vijay’s house was an hour’s walk away. Mules were hired to carry our luggage up to the village. As we hiked up we saw many “langoons” or wild monkeys. Vijay’s house does not have state electricity yet. He has a generator that he uses for power periodically. Also, there is no running water. Since tomorrow was going to be a major event with more than 150 people attending, when anyone, including women and children, would walk up from town, they would carry extra water with them to help meet the needs of the fellowship. No electricity, no running water, the closest road an hour’s walk away, but our cell phone worked great. Julie and I called Joan in the USA for her birthday from a mountain side in the Himalayas.

They supplied us with rented mats to sleep on. We slept under the house in the 4 chambered cellar where their water buffalo or musk ox usually sleep. The room where the12 teenage girls were to sleep had a slight problem. A spider about the size of a hand was on an inside wall. When one of the girls shined her flashlight on it; well, you can imagine the uproar that caused. After the commotion died down, and you had looked at all the stars, it was bed time. As I laid there peering out through the open doorway, I realized that if a tiger would visit during the night, I would be the first one he would encounter. I’m glad I did not know until the next day that over the ridge, about a half mile away, was a wildlife reserve that was populated with wild wildlife, like tigers. I also found out the next day that the wild dogs that roamed the village area were present to bark loudly in warning should there be a tiger visitor. This was their purpose in life.

In the morning a number of us were milling around drinking our Chai tea with water buffalo milk in it, waiting for the believer’s to arrive for the fellowship. A blind man with the help of two young children was already there. He had traveled many miles because he had heard that there was going to be a large gathering of the saints. He believed that with all of us present, we could believe with him for his sight to be restored. He had been blind for 9 years. A number of us gathered around him and two of the young Indian believers ministered to his eyes so he could regain his sight. When they were finished they told him to get up and walk on his own. He did. He could see perfectly. Praise God! Later, during the fellowship, I saw him get up, walk over to where his shoes were, put them on and go to the toilet without any help form anyone. Blind men do not do that. Needless to say, he walked down the mountain after the fellowship without any help from the two young people who had brought him up the mountain earlier.