Latest Ministry Update

After much traveling, and some stomach issues that have knocked me down for some time, I am back. November has been a busy month for me. I traveled out to the east of our state to visit 5 of our 14. It is a 10 hour train ride, which was 5 hours late due to mechanical problems. This interrupted my schedule somewhat, but I was still able to visit all of our guys in the 4 days I spent there. We rented a taxi to take us around. We took a 2 hour drive to one place where one of the 14, James* runs a school for pre-K through 1st. He then took us 45km away, about 3 hours more, down some of the worst roads you could imagine, and here I was with a bad stomach. I made it fine, and we were able to spend some time in the village of another of our 14, Philip* and his son Thomas*. We found that Philip had found 3 places with men of peace. From Luke 10:1-11, we taught all of our 14 to pray and let God lead them to the village where He wants them to find the man of peace. So, Philip got on his bicycle, peddled 20 km to the first village, 15 more km to the next, and 10 more km to the next. He has been doing this for the last 3 months every week, traveling to each of these places to start churches in these places. That is dedication. I want to challenge those of you who think it is too far away to develop a relationship with your neighbors that live right next door. Just think of Philip, who travels 6-7 hours by bike to plant churches. This is one sold out follower of Christ! We finished with Philip and Thomas by praying with them, and for them and their families.
We then came back to where James' school was, and spent time praying with him and his family for his ministry. He has been able to speak to one Muslim man in his city, and the man has been very receptive to hear what James has to say about the Gospel. The relationship is developing. We also met with Titus*. He is a young man, who has been faithful to go to new places to share the Gospel and search out the man of peace, but has been unsuccessful due to his age. Many people will sit and listen to him, but are not accepting. In this place, if you are young, many older people will not put stock into what you say. James has said that he will go with Titus and help him have some credibility among the people.
The next day, we met with Andrew*, who runs a large church in another city. He has 10 CP's that he is teaching all the things we are learning together, and he is also teaching and challenging his 35 church members to go into their neighborhoods and share the Gospel and start new things in their villages. Many of them have had success with the things we have been teaching and slowly they will become church planters as well. Nathaniel*, one of our other guys I was able to meet with, has 2 different churches in different areas. He has selected 4 from one and 8 from another and has been giving them the training and teaching we have been giving him. They are receptive, and things are going slow, but once they start to happen, God will begin to move quickly that no one will be able to control it.
We have heard so much good progress from our 14, as we have all come together this week to meet as we do every month. Please continue to pray for our ministry and our 14, that they will continue to be faithful to put the things we are learning into practice. I am encouraged by their dedication and faithfulness to carry out these things we are learning together.

*For security, original names have been changed to Apostle names.

Give Us Some Biblical Feedback!!!

We live in a place where festivals are plenty. These festivals honor false gods and idols. We have been invited to attend some of these religious ceremonies, and we kindly arrive as guests, but do not participate in the worhsip or ritual. Still, we are invited to most of them by our neighbors. This week, the Hindu festival called Chhath (pronounced chut) is taking place. This is a sun worship holiday, with the main rituals taking place this morning and evening. The women of the home fast from food and water for 2 days, and many parties are put on with guests showing up and food being cooked and given to the guests. The worship of the sun takes place at sunrise and sunset the chosen day. People buy food, like fruit, cookies and other things and offer them as sacrifice to the sun. The food is then eaten as the ladies break their fast, and the leftovers are offered to the neighbors - which is where we come in. Our good friends in our building brought us some food and actually said that this is the sacrifice food from today. We know that this is just food, and if they just gave us food, we would accept it and eat it. The Bible is clear in stating that you should eat what is put in front of you. But, when the unbeliever gives us food and they say this food has been sacrificed to an idol, then we should politely decline it. Not for our conscience, but for the unbeliever's, because when we witness to these people, they will wonder why we took part in food sacrificed to their idol when we proclaim to follow Jesus only. It is bad for our witness.

I have read this passage in 1 Corinthians 10 many times, but this is the first time I was confronted with it. My first thought was not to be rude. We accepted the food with thanks, but we have not eaten, and will not. The couple left, and then we looked at the passage in scripture again. We discussed and came to the conclusion that we should tell them that we did not eat their gift, though we are thankful for them thinking of us and bringing us food. We must also explain why. They know that we are followers of Christ, but they do not know why we do some things, and refrain from others. This will be an opportunity to witness and share our faith. Another reason we did not eat the food is because the girl who comes and cooks and cleans for us everyday is a believer, and we do not want to be a stumbling block to her walk, as it also says at the end of 1 Cor 10.

Anyways, let me know what you would do/would have done in this situation. Anything different? Give me some feedback.