A Prophet Visited Us

Today is a travel day. We are flying to Raipur this afternoon where we will be learning together with leaders for the next three days (and then home :-). Our time in Raipur may be the most rich and/or difficult stop in our adventure. Before I tell you about the prophet, let me quickly fill you in on what happened on Sunday. We began the day going to church. It was a very traditional (industrial - thanks again for the Mike) church. Except for the Indian accents, I could have been in a start up church in Phoenix. But God was beginning to do something new there. I shared with the church how the day of the Ordained is over and they should embrace the day of the ordinary believer doing amazing things. The people were excited. After church, we went to lunch with several folks and near the end of our time, I spent some time with the Pastor. This conversation spilled over to coffee back at Matthew's house which spilled over to dinner and further conversation. The Pastor and his family left for home about 9pm. It was a long day, but it wasn't over... During our 7 or so hours with the pastor, we talked about many things regarding Organic Church. He was very open and it seems that the Lord is opening his heart for new things. We will see what God will do through this man in the months ahead. SIDE NOTE: Days like today where we spent hours together in conversation, sipping coffee, eating snacks and enjoying 'community' is very normal here. I have not watched but 30 minutes of T.V. on the day of the U.S. elections (I am not having media withdraws). And I can hardly believe that the children I have spent time with do not watch much T.V. either. The two boys in this home (ages 9 & 12) have only watched 30 minutes of T.V. and that was on Saturday morning. They do not have gaming systems like Playstation and spend their time doing other fun things like football, cricket, playing their guitar or keyboard. The family culture is very different here. So our visit from the prophet. A friend of mine from San Jose, California happened to be in Delhi the same time we are. I did a Greenhouse (Organic Church) in his church in April and we have connected ever since. Mike arrived at Matthew's home at 9:30pm and we spent about 1.5 hours talking and sharing stories. At the end, Mike invited us to pray for one another and so we did. When Mike prayed there were two main emphasis'. The first prayer emphsis was that I would be like Philip the Evangelist from the Book of Acts as we go to Raipur. He prayed that we would be as powerful in words and deeds as Philip was. He also prayed for Josh to be like Barnabas and encourage the work of God that we are about to do. The interesting thing is that this very much confirmed to Josh what Jesus had already spoken to him before we left for India. Josh knew his role would be to support and encourage myself and those we spoke with - he has certainly done just that. It is a blessing that he is with us. The people who have spent time with Josh are amazed at how mature he is and only being 30 years old and for knowing Jesus only a few years. God is good. We'll see what God does in Raipur...I'm sure it will be amazing. I'm not sure if I'll have easy internet access in Raipur. We will be staying a hotel and our schedule is very full. Please pray for us to have clarity as we present the principles of Organic Church and please pray that we will be powerful in our love and dealings with the people there. This adventure has been fantastic...you can have not idea. Once I return, I'll tell you about several miracles that we were told about and how God is moving in amazing ways here in this land. I'll write as soon as I am able. Blessings, Ed