INDIA
Morinda & Batala (Punjab)
& Patten-Kodoli & Kumbhoj (MS)

12-26 February 2009

A Brief Report

In my last visit to India in the month of October 2008, the city of Delhi, I was approached by three ministers from Punjab requesting me to make a trip to their state to hold some meetings in the early part of 2009, the Lord willing. I said I would pray about it. When I was in Mumbai ministering the Word, I was requested by some ministers to hold a convention in Kolhapur district in the southern part of the state of Maharashtra.  Bro. Solomon Jacob, a Jewish believer of the message and minister of the Word of God, telephoned me to request the same.

So the schedule and the conventions were planned by the ministers in their respective states for the month of February.

February 12:  My flight took off in the evening and I arrived into Mumbai at near midnight. Mumbai is a commercial city and hotels near the airport charge prime rate for their rooms. Any reasonable hotels that are some 15km away are also costly, about S$80 (Singapore Dollars). But there is problem getting to the airport. There are many areas of the highway under re-construction.  Traffic in many cities of India is atrocious. There are just too many vehicles creating a jam at every junction and turn; each vehicle tries to beat the others to stay ahead.  A 15km distance to the airport may take an hour or more if one is lucky.

I am blessed to have the love of good Christian believers who took the effort to find me cheap accommodation near the airport upon my request. What a blessing when a Hindu man (Bro. Pressan) came into the Truth some months back. He lives just about 3km away from the domestic airport in a very crowded area. Most of the buildings are old. Just next to his tiny apartment of the same building, the owner, a Hindu, had converted the one room apartment into a lodging room to take in guests. The room was secured for only 400 rupees (S$13), a concession only for Hindus. The room was clean and comfortable enough. I had a good rest that night.

February 13:  Sister Flossy and Bro. Pressan saw me off at the airport just as they had received me on my arrival. The flight  to the capital city of Punjab, Chandigarh was delayed for more than an hour. Upon my arrival, Bro. Pratap Singh (from Delhi)

and Bro. Robin William received me and we went in a rented chauffeured car for about nearly 40 minutes to Morinda, a village where the meetings were to be held and then some 20 minutes to a hotel in Ropar, a town, where I was to stay. The rate was 1000 rupees a night and the room was not clean. It was the only room available and night was fast approaching. So I stayed there for the night and shifted to a cleaner room the following day.

February is a wintry period for the northern part of Punjab. A portable electric heater was provided by the hotel but it was not powerful enough to heat up the room. By God's grace, I had brought with me some heating packs which I placed on the bed and on my pyjamas to give extra heat to warm my body.

February 14-15:  The first day's meeting was to start in the morning but due to a slight shower in the night, it was slightly delayed. Most of the attendees on the first day were believers. However, due to the level of understanding the Word, I stressed more on the importance on the Faith in Christ and in His Word, the difference of being a religious person and a spiritual person, and what made a truly born again person.

In the afternoon, we had a ministers' meetings. They were pastors and elders and active workers who came from their villages for the convention. Pastor Kans Masih, from Batala, was also presented.

A few good questions were asked. One good one was on the "sin that does not lead to death"  that the Apostle John mentioned in 1 John 5:16-17. It was discussed and Biblically answered to everyone's satisfaction.

The second day's meeting went on to the late afternoon after much singing and worship of the Lord. More non-Christians came, the Silks and the Hindus. So, in the administration of the Word a balance was kept in feeding the believers with some strong meat and the sinners with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was wonderful to see the Silks and the Hindus singing and worshipping together with the believers. They must be searching for Truth and may the Lord open their hearts to see the salvation that lies in His begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
 

 

February 16:  This morning we (Bro. Pratap Singh, Bro. Robin William, his wife, his little son and I) left in the car for a long drive up, northwest, to Batala which is a city not far from the Pakistan border. Bro. Kans Masih left the night before to his home to prepare for the convention.

I stayed in a small hotel room right in the dusty city of Batala. The room was more bearable than the previous one in Ropar. Though the night was colder than in Ropar the heater warmed up the small room nicely.

The meeting place was also held in a village, about 15 minutes drive from the city. The meeting started in the evening around 5pm but the people took their time coming. The singing continued until about 7.30pm when worship was offered to the Lord and the ministration of the Word began at 8pm to 10pm. Believers came from different villages. A good number of other religious faith were presented. And so again a balance of the ministration of the Word of God was kept.

February 17:  This morning I woke up with a painful right Achilles tendon that had me limping for 3 days.  I suspect the heavy blanket, in a cover sheet, must have put too must pressure on the heel while I slept on my back throughout the night. I have also noticed pimply rashes on my hands and side of face.  They remained throughout the rest of my trip. Though they were not itchy, they did not all clear up even after I returned home.

There were two meetings today, one in the morning and one in the evening.  The evening meeting drew an unexpected crowd of people. Pastor Robin was extremely glad about it. The previous day's meeting must have prompted more people around the village to come. The Lord guided me through with getting a balance meal for the saints and sinners. There were shows of hands among the sinners that they desired Christ to be in their life and saints who wanted more of Christ and those who needed healings.  Prayers were made and thanksgiving offered to the Lord.

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February 18:  We headed down to Chandigarh in the morning where I spent the night before the flight back to Mumbai the next day.

February 19:  Again the flight was delayed.  In Mumbai, I stayed in the same lodge for the night and flew out to Kolhapur on the morrow in another delayed flight.  The flight took 1 hour 10 minutes.  Kolhapur lies SSE of Mumbai.

February 20:  Bro. Solomon Jacob and Pastor Kiran received me at the airport and drove me some 25km to a small town, Ichalkaranji, where I stayed in a Hindu run hotel that served only pure vegetarian food. It was a clean hotel and the room cost less than those that I stayed in Punjab.

February 21:  In the morning, Bros. Solomon and Kiran came to take me to a village called Patten-Kodoli for a meeting. Together with two other brothers, Bros. Bhalerao and Vijoo, who came in the morning to lodge in the same hotel, we set off.

 

 

 

 

I spoke on God's Four Indictments against Israel and how the same are applied to Church today. Many have spoken harsh words against the Lord, calling evil good and good evil, turning away from God's ordinances of Water Baptism, Feet-washing and Communion, and robbing God. It was reported to me later that many had confessed to their guilt of failing to fulfill what God requires, especially in giving to God what He had given them.

February 22:  Today was Sunday. This was the first of 3 days' convention in the village of Kumbhoj, about 20 minutes drive from the hotel. It was to have started in the morning but for a believer's father who passed away the night before, the meeting was delayed to the afternoon as the villagers carried out the burial.

I began laying the foundation of the Word for the believers beginning with the differences between religion and salvation, between having a religious spirit and having a spiritual life.

The following two days of February 23-24 I continued to stress on the importance of holding to the Infallible Written Word of God as our Absolute.  I took the assembly through the Creation, the Fall of Lucifer, the Making of Eve, the Sin of Adam and many other connecting topics that were important to their understanding of the Plan and Purpose of God.

Emphasis was also put on cleanliness, the wearing of jewellery, and the redeeming of time when it comes to assembling themselves together.

After each meeting, prayers were made for the sick and those who were oppressed by devils.

February 25:  As most of the believers had left for home, either the previous night or this early morning, the afternoon was spent in showing some video clips and explaining how the many false prophets and false teachers operate to deceive their audiences across America and the world.

February 26:  I checked out of the hotel in the morning and was driven to the airport by Bro. Solomon.  Once again the flight was delayed. I arrived in Mumbai at 5.30pm instead of 12.55pm.  Kingfisher Airlines apparently grounded their flight from Sholapur to Mumbai due to a low load of passengers and then had the Kolhapur-Mumbai flight re-direct to Sholapur to pick them on route. The total number of passengers on the two sectors was about 60 and the plane could carry 80. Fortunately, my connecting flight home to Singapore was at past midnight.  The lodge in Mumbai was not available for me that day as it was booked far in advance by someone else. As it was just a few hours to connect my flight, I decided not to go to another lodging house which was quite a distance away. I just stayed and fellowshipped the time away in the tiny home of Bro. Pressan, his wife and two children.  Bro. Hubert , his wife and Bro. Vijoo were also presented.  I was glad that I did not go to the other lodging house for the traffic congestion had almost hindered me getting to the airport.  God knew the situation.  Blessed be His Name.

February 27:  Touching down in Singapore I was received by my deacon, Bro. Paul Sim, who took me home in his car.  As I thought of the trip, I thanked God that my health was good even though I went through the cold north and hot south of India where the dusty and dry humidity had caused my sinus to cracked and bleed. Amen.