Kevin Olsen – India Update

The trip was long, but it went well and we praise the Lord for that.

What is ministry like in India? There are at least five parts to that answer.

1. Visiting the churches in the evening has gone well. We have been able to divide up and hit more churches than if we only traveled together.
   1. We have been to six congregations over the past four days.
   2. We have shared three sermons in a couple of the places, two in two other places and occasionally just one.
   3. Three churches in Chiralla, which is easy because they are close. One was an open air gospel meeting and one was at the remote Fisherman’s Village that is about 4 hours away. At the fisherman’s village, they have started two elementary schools by faith that they can grow and become strong. One meets in the storm shelter and the other meets in the church. Raju, the son of the pastor is overseeing both schools, preaching on Sundays, going to school for his masters and working as a Chemical Engineer. He was also just married in September, so his life is VERY full. There were 7 adult baptisms and one infant. Of the adults two couples were newly married and the child was a child of one of the couples. The Lord is at work! This congregation was started by a blind woman who went to this village as a missionary. The first convert from the blind woman’s work had children and Raju married one of her grandchildren. It is awesome to see the Lord take the simple things of this world to grow his kingdom.

1. The contacts have been great.
   1. Raju is a great guy and it is fun to get to know him. Pray for him and his crazy schedule, his schools, the church.
   2. Rafael is a man from Hydrabad who is working with a Mobile Bible College. He travels to 4 towns each month and conducts 3 day training seminars which cover some Bible basics for pastors. The work he is doing is similar to what we are doing in the sense of training pastors in a mobile type of way, but our methods are different. He will be with us this week and taking in the training that we are offering. He is interested in using some of our curriculum in his training. Who knows where this will lead?

1. The encouragement and discussion with friends is amazing in so many ways.
   1. Luther and Vardini are a great couple and continue to work VERY hard. I worry about them for that, but it is great to get together again and laugh and talk about the ministry. Luther and I play cricket or volleyball with the boys who stay at the school every day at 4:30 for an hour. It is a highlight for all of us.
   2. Devasahaym – or D.D. as he often goes buy is always a delight. He told me that in 2011 he will only speak English and no Telugu. I told him that I would be speaking Telugu by that time so it wouldn’t matter. J
      We joke about the many hats that he wears. He is Luther’s right hand man with the ministry. He preaches, plays piano and drum, teaches the Orality curriculum, publishes a 1000 piece brochure, does video, and everything with complete joy.
   3. Samuel – Neither of us can understand each other at all, but he is one of the pastors that is working with the new mission congregation in Pedepe. His wife has been our cook now for this our second time. (She is a great cook.) His 8 year old son is attending St. Paul’s school as a boarding student. He has a sweet motorcycle that he loves to give me rides on. He got it from his mother-in-law.
   4. The 18 girls that stay at the hostel or the 12 boys who stay at the chapel building are a huge delight. They love talking with us even though our conversations are very limited. Mark and I played hide and seek with the girls tonight. We are quite large and easy to see in the dark with white skin.

1. The training
   1. Our short course classes start tomorrow morning. Pray for us as you go to bed. I think it is going to go well although I am personally nervous.
      1. Dr. Monseth starts at 9:00 with Doctrine of the Means of Grace
      2. Mark Antal is at 11:00 with Discipleship
      3. I am at 2:00 with Congregational Life
   2. Oral Training will be in the evenings with Devasahaym. They are significantly behind where I was hoping they would be. It will not be possible to test them for their 2^nd Term, so they will need to do that later.

1. The mission work from Indians to other Indians.
   1. Pedepe – I mentioned Samuel up above. He and Isaac are possibly going to move there this next month to start services in two towns. We will see how it goes. I was hoping and expecting to visit there on this trip, but it will not work out for various reasons.

Thanks World Missions!

Looking forward to serve you on this half of the world.