Sunday, November 15, 2009

Our Last Days!!

What a special time we had in our last hours of ministry here in Bangalore, India!!
On Saturday we were honored to go to Grace Childrens Home and minister to the kids there! I should say they ministered to us. What an awesome time with those precious souls! They shared a program with us then we shared a progam with them! Believe me ours was lame in comparison!! They were great kids! We then gave them some candy and tied balloons for them did face painting... What a blast!! It was an experience that I'll never forget! It was the absolute highlight of this trip for me!!

Sunday was a blast! We got up early and were at the church by 5:45 ready to go for the first Sunday morning service!! Greg hubbard preached 5 services all before 1:30 in the afternoon!! To see the people come in and pack that sanctuary was amazing! Before each service was over new people were pressed against the glass doors at the back waiting to get a good seat for the next service! What hunger these people had to see God work in their lives! Every service Tim and Robyn would sing and so I tried to work with the sound guys to make that happen as smoothly as possible! Not always easy when there is a language barrier! God is faithful and so many lives were touched and changed by the power of God!!

Tim then spoke at the 4:45 and the 6:00 services to cap off an incredible time here in India. We are all looking forward to being home with our families! We leave here on a 3 am Tuesday morning flight for home and I hope to be home around midnight Tuesday night!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouraging words!

Pastor Carl

Friday, November 13, 2009

Very Busy Weekend!

The past couple of days have been very difficult on me as I have been pretty sick but am definitely better today! I had some kind of flu that hit me Wednesday and then I had the Chills so bad all day Thursday and most of the day Friday! It was pretty bad but I was able to stay in bed and in the bathroom those two days!! We only had night services so I only missed two evenings of ministry! I am much better this am though with a busy day ahead with a service for men this am then ministry in an orphanage this afternoon.

Tomorrow we will be involved in 8 services and will be doing children, youth and adult services starting at 5:45 when the first worship service begins and then ending at 8pm when we will leave the church! Wow, what a schedule! I am excited to see what God is going to do through us as we finish up our ministry time here in Bangalore! We are all a little homesick and a little bit weary, but we know that God's Word tells us that when we are weak, He is strong!

Thanks for your prayers they are felt here!

Blessings,
Pastor Carl

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

We are Doing very well!!


Thank you all so very much for your prayers as we are doing very well and God is moving in our service times!

Last night, Tues. we had the opportunity to go to a service with the leaders from different parts of the city. Pastor Greg ministered to around 100 people encouraging them to be faithful in their ministries and we had a powerful time of prayer and petition before coming back to the Hotel for sleep! It was a long day but God was in control of our time and we know that God has been blessed by it!

The church runs very differently here, I will try to explain it to you! The pastoral staff here is in charge of a specific area of the city where they minister, along with a team of lay leaders, to the people in their area. These areas start at the smallest being 400-500 up to some that have 3000 people!! These pastors are in charge of visiting people in hospitals as well as small groups that meet in the homes. The lay leaders are who we are targeting in these nightly services. We are encouraging them to keep working for God and allow Him to bless them!!

This morning we went to a Bible College and ministered to a group of close to 300 students. These are students from all over Asia! Tim and Robyn sang three songs together and Greg ministered to them! They were very encouraged by us being there and it was a little easier because they all spoke English! At the end Greg had me give an encouraging word and pray to close! It was a powerful time of ministry!! God is really blessing that school and students are going into ministry from there after each semester!

Tonight another leadership meeting and some rest!
Thanks for you prayer support, we need it!

Pastor Carl

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Coimbatore India

Monday Night

One thing I could complain about is the Internet service here is quite bad to say the least!! I am able to get on for short periods and update facebook and that's about all! I am hoping that tomorrow we will have better service.

Today was pretty relaxing we we supposed to go to a school today but the schools were closed today due to the amount of rain that they have been having. So we slept in and had a nice lunch together.

At around three we went to the pastors house had some tea and cake with him. It was nice sitting and listening to him talk about the hinu way of life! He also relayed his digust with our president taking part recently in one of their holidays the celebrates when all of their kings were destroyed and the Hindu cast system was put in place! He was really discusted with Pres Obama taking part and slapping the Christians in India in the face!
We then went and ministered in an orphanage to about 25 kids! We had a blast as we shared a song with them and a skit. We also gave them candy and bracelets and then finished with lots of balloon hats and animals! It was a great time with them!
Then we went back to the pastors home for dinner. We had some spectacular food with curry beef and some spicy chicken and rice it was awesome!! As my mother in law would say it took the hair right off your tongue!! Wifey would love the food here!!
After that we went to the church to meet with the church leadership! Greg talked to them about vision compassion cooperation creativity and knowing God! It was really great, and each one there was so very thankful to us coming to be with them. This was our last meeting with this church so we said goodbye to the leadership team. We will see the pastor Jason, pastor preteem, joy the pastors daughter and Shauntie the pastors wife tomorrow at the airport to see us off!
These are all great people with a hunger to see God pour out his spirit her in this city. We had such a great time here but are looking forward to Bangalore and our ministry there!! We are packed up and ready to go there!!
continue to pray for us there!!

Pastor Carl

Coimbatore India

Sunday 11-8 PM

What a great day of ministry we have had today!!
We had three services and as I sit here I think about how awesome it has been here already!

After speaking to the teenagers this morning I want to share with you Some of the biggest thing that stick out to me so far. I noticed as I shared my heart with them this morning that they are very intense people. What I mean is, that these youth were just hanging on every word that I said. They were hungry to hear what I had to say. I pray that our people are more like that! Desperate to hear God speaking to them. Then after the message every one of those kids stayed and one by one they brought their needs to the altar and I had prayer for them! I was amazed by their faith and expectation to see God work in their lives. These people are very happy to have us here in their country ministering with to them!

Tonight Tim is ministering in the Adult service and several have received healings already!! One guy in particular had his legs healed! He was living in pain and could barely bend his knees, but by the time the altar time was done be was high stepping around the church!! It was awesome and we gave all the glory to God!!

This morning Tim went by motorcycle with the associate pastor to a church across town to preach there. He said that it was a crazy ride! Driving here is insane, worse than anywhere I have ever been! The streets are narrow and they are jammed with taxis bicycles motorcycles cars vans busses, you name it, it comes at you fast! Tim had a great service and was very humbled when they gave him an offering at the end of the morning!! this building literally had a tree growing up through the middle of it! The amount was two hundred rupees which is the equivilant to around 4 American dollars! Very humbling!!

It has been a great day!!

Coimbatore, India

Staurday 11:40 pm

Today was a great first day of ministry her in coimbatore! We arrived at hotel at 7:30 am this morning. We were looking forward to going to bed and resting until the first nights service. After Greg spoke with the pastor he realized that the church had a 10:30 am service!! So all of the girls went to bed and the boys went to the church! We all has a good time and following the service we went right to bed until 5:30 pm when we had to be back at the church! We Had a great night with Robyn and tim singing three songs then Greg preaching! The people responded very well and we got to pray with everyone that was there! Finally we ate at our hotel resteraunt, curry chicken! Spicey hot goodness!! 7 of us ate like kings for like 7 dollars each! Amazing!
Enough for now, tomorrow is a long day with three services!

I hope to get back on the Internet soon!!
The weather today was in the low 70s but terrential rains came in tonight, it was a little rough, but we managed it!

Blessings,
Pastor Carl

India

Saturday 4:30 am!
Right now we are sitting waiting for our last flight from Chennai to Coimbatore where we will begin our work here in India! We will get to our hotel and rest after a long two days of travel! Our first ministry will be a church service tonight after we rest and get cleaned up! The first two flights were very smooth, but very long! The first one was around 7 hrs. and the second was close to 9 hrs.!! But all is well and I will post this as soon as I can to my blog! Continue to pray for us the God wil have His way!
Pastor Carl

Thursday, November 5, 2009

On the way!

I am currently in a van on the way to Philly to catch a plane to India! It is overwhelming to think about how quickly this vame about for me!! God must be ready to do some amazing things through us!!
Andrea sent me a prayer sign-up sheet where our students signed up on different days to pray for us every day that we are gone! They signed up last night at youth! It is awesome to know that we are covered in prayer and exciting to know that they were willing to commit to that!! I am truly a blesses man for sure!!
Check back as I will be posting as much as I can!
Pastor Carl