Red Hills India 2007: 2007

THE TEAM (in no particular order):
Reid Saunders – Evangelist
Brett Butcher – Ministry Director
Carter Scheel – Evangelist / Drama team
Tony Snook – Audio/Visual/Technical team leader
Corey Wells – Audio/Visual/Technical team
Robin Barnes – Drama team leader
Josh Greenslade – Worship team leader
Brent Hayes – Drama team

Ben Serafin – Worship / Drama team
Marcus Smith – Worship / Drama team
Juli Barruga – Worship / Drama team
Melissa Schultz – Worship / Drama team
Justine Sowers – Worship team
Tom and Deena Golden – Ministry team
Mike Scheel – Ministry team
Brandon Schmidgall – Medical team leader

Rebecca Sinn – Medical team
Bev Schmidgall – Medical team
Christina Kaufman – Medical team

THURSDAY, FEB. 1
We met this morning at 3am at Morningstar Church to head up to PDX together in the MSC bus. Reid’s group had hot chocolate and coffee and continental breakfast waiting for us too, so that was such a blessing with the cold morning. We got to PDX with no

problems and began the check-in process. There were a few problems with the airlines computers (they were completely down) but we eventually got to our plane to Chicago with no minutes to spare. After a smooth flight we landed in Chicago with a 4 hour layover and had some time to begin to get to know each other over lunch at Chicago’s famous Wolfgang’s for some fire cooked pizza. Then off to Frankfurt, Germany for our 8 hour leg on Lufthansa Airlines.

FRIDAY, FEB. 2

With one full day of travel behind us we arrive in Frankfurt to connect to our final flight. The airport here is very modern looking, but one thing I noticed right away was there is smoking everywhere. There are casinos here and there too which is a little amusing and sad at the same time. Not much to report from Frankfurt, just waiting together and getting to know one another, playing cards and just hanging out preparing for our next 8 hour leg to India. For sure the jet lag is getting to the team. On the way

to Chennai from Frankfurt, one of our team members, Mike Scheel, was able to share with a Hindu Indian man about Christ. He was very accepting of what Mike had to say with a gentle spirit and they had good conversation. Towards the end of the flight Mike brought up the conversation again and asked the man if he would accept Christ, and he did! Mike asked him how this would affect his life. He said he would openly tell his family about what had happened to him and would openly tell others about Christ. Just the beginning to an incredible trip!

SATURDAY, FEB. 3

ImmediatelWe arrived at the Chennai airport around midnight this morning. After standing in line for a while to get through immigration and collecting our luggage (it ALL made it!), we headed outside. Wow.y we see a sea of people held back by crowd barricades, people holding all sorts of signs, new smells, sounds and sights as we are funneled into the crowd. Across the street we are greeted by Suda, our host, and the others with him. They drape flower leis over us and we go to our buses waiting to take us

to our hotel. It is amazing how many motorcycles are used here! Most of the transportation is by motorcycle, Michelangelo inspired ceiling painting, carvings, and marble floors auto rickshaw (sort of a three wheeled motorcycle buggy), and very, very small cars. And words cannot describe the driving here… neither can pictures. It truly is an art! A combination of weaving and dodging, honking and braking. And very scary to say the least! After several close calls (and close means CLOSE), we arrive at our hotel. It is very nice with an old Roman structure

look with ornate columns, and accents. I am amazed at the stone work here. I am told marble and granite is very widely available here so it is the cheapest to work with. Ironic isn’t it? Much of the glamour is surface, but still very nice looking.

We hit our beds around 2am and woke up for a 10am meeting. Our first stop would be the shopping center to buy suaries for the women (traditional Indian clothing) and clothes for the drama

team. Before hitting the stores, we sent Brett out to exchange our US dollars for Indian Rupies at the Western Union. While there Brett overheard fluent English being spoken and another caucasian (there are NO other cacasian people around so seeing another is unusual). Brett started up a conversation with him and found out he is a missionary. His interpreter, Sunny, spoke fluent English and was considered a well known local. Brett was told that Sunny was at our disposal once he left on the coming Monday. As

it seems, Sunny is very knowledgable of the area and knows many people of "importance", so he has many connections. A divine appoint realized!

After shopping, we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the festival and all piled in a van to head to the festival grounds. Driving through the city was very eye opening. The amount of garbage on the sides of the roads here is incredible. Chennai does

not have a sanitation system of any kind so people through it out their windows and on the street. There are piles of dirt
everywhere and I finally found out why. Because of the garbage, the people burn the trash, then move the dirt piles over the burned piles. This breaks down the trash faster and also is used as fill to fill in the many empty lots and potholes in the roads. The drive was about 1.5 hours and by the time we got there most of us were zombies from lack of sleep. But the Lord provides! I felt a

new energy when we got there around 6pm (as well as many other feelings being here and a bit of nervousness). There were already around 500 people there and the festival had started. In India it is customary for people of importance to arrive late (try that in America!) so the timing was good. Tony Snook and I (audio/visual team) set up the cameras as the rest of the team prepared for worship music and the drama to follow. The rest of the night was simply too incredible for words! After awesome music and a

powerful drama led by Robin Barnes, Carter Scheel (Mike’s son) presented his message and gave the invitation to accept Christ. Approx. 40 people came forward and gave their lives to the Lord!

One of the things I think is the most effective about these festivals is that the local church follows up with the people that make first time decisions to make sure they stay with the commitment and are put into a church. The problem with most evangelists or

missionaries in a country like this is that they have no local support. Hindu’s often include Jesus as one of their many gods and then practice Hinduism under a new name of Christianity not really knowing what that means. The local church there is very grounded in the faith and has been in this area since 1935 (no joke!), so they are well equipped to support new believers.

So onward home (to the hotel) we go for a much needed nights

sleep…

SUNDAY, FEB. 4
This morning we headed out to churches for their Sunday services. We split into two teams and headed to two different areas. Our team went first to an orphanage located right off the main highway. The people there were so friendly! And the kids were even more so and adorable! Reid, Tony and I headed over to

another church located a short distance from the orphanage and the others stayed there to have a “youth group” style church with them. After driving through very narrow overgrown alleys, we saw this beautiful old church, a little worse for wear, but a beautiful structure. I thought at first it was abandoned, but the driver pulled up next to it. They were about half way through their service inside when we approached the front steps (again, customary for important guests to arrive late). They were very

nice and we all sat in the front of the church near pulpit. Reid gave a great message on the sower of seeds parable (with a little difficulty from the translator), took communion and headed back to the orphanage. We joined the others at the orphanage while they played Bible memory games. We all got into it including Reid and Tony. It was tons of fun and especially cool to know that these people knew the Bible so well. We left there and headed back to the hotel to prepare for the

second night of Carter’s festival. Again the festival was incredible and many people came forward to accept Christ!

MONDAY, FEB. 5

This morning we went to a medical clinic next to the festival grounds. We thought we were supposed to be there around noon, but somewhere in lost translation we were really supposed to be there at 8am! So there were some pretty impatient people there that had been waiting 4 hours already. We moved in our medical supplies and prayer stations and jumped in with both feet. It was pretty much chaos but after an hour or so we had a system in place to see the patients. At the end of the day 8 people had come to Christ and around 200 people had been cared for! It was certainly an overwhelming day and the busiest so far, but the Lord has been good and people are being impacted.

Since we were there so late we ended up keeping the clinic open until around 4pm. While they were finishing up, Tony and I had a chance to walk around the compound the clinic was held at. The church we were at on Sunday was right next to clinic, which is also part of the church pastors property. There is also a Primary Christian School across the alley from the church, which is owned by the same family. In the late 1800’s the pastor’s great grand parents built a homestead here and in 1935 the church was built. The church is in its original condition, I am sure, but it is well loved. The grandmother of the pastor, Emily Schwartz (yes, strange for an Indian name–she was European and married and Indian pastor), and her husband built on this compound for future generations of Christians. Their graves are located behind the church, as well as an overgrown outdoor baptistery. It really is a beautiful village off the busy, crowded and dirty main street.

While Tony and I were wandering we came up to an old house and the pastor’s wife came out and invited us in. We were very surprised at how cool and nice it was inside. We talked for a half hour or so about the history of the grounds and her family and then headed to the orphanage with the rest of the team, which was nearby. The festival started only about an hour or so from that time so we had a rare moment of relaxing and enjoying each others company. At the orphanage they served us fried egg sandwiches and dragon cauliflower with hot tea and coffee. Ragland and his brother, both who help us interpret and work and live at the orphanage, have become great friends of us all. They are so gentle spirited and love the Lord. They exemplify how we should act towards one another in humble serving spirits.

Night brings yet another festival and many more coming to the Lord!

TUESDAY, FEB. 6

This morning the team ventured off into the Red Hills area where Reid, Brett, Mike Scheel, and Tom Golden planned to go to a “VIP” meeting of area business leaders and pastors. The rest of us were going to visit schools in the Red Hills area. We split up and ventured off, but ended up going to the same place (India time…). So we met up with Reid and the others in a slum area inside a little restaurant/deli. They went upstairs to the meeting as the rest of us hung out in the deli, playing music, talking and experimenting with hair gel (we got some great looks from the Indian natives). After about an hour, the meeting was over and our half of the team headed to the school. We went about half a mile and we arrived at the school (why didn’t we go there instead of hanging out for an hour? India time I suppose, but the fellowship was well worth it.).

The school was located in the slum area and down a narrow alley from the main street. The grounds were very clean and was like a little oasis in the hot sun, with palm trees, exotic plants and a compound type feel, complete with cement walls and iron gate. It reminded me of something you would see in an old Western movie based in Mexico, with the stucco walls and dirt courtyard. We went inside the cool office and were greeted by Pastor Abraham, the schools superintendent, who was also the head pastor heading up Reid's festival to start on Thursday.

As we were sitting in the office we heard a loud drumming outside in the courtyard. It sounded like a marching band, and as we poked our heads out the front door, a sea of boys and girls all dressed in white shirts and brown shorts/dresses marched by age and gender into tidy little rows. It was an impressive site to see 800 students line up in front of us as if they were soldiers ready to report for role call. We all ventured onto the front sidewalk lining the building in front of the crowd of smiling and giggling faces. I couldn't help but to get the camera going and get video and photos of them all. The others began with some music to loosen the kids up and then performed a drama of "Sin Box." This powerful drama was able to connect with all ages there (5 to 15) and many of them were obviously affected by it. When we were finished with our presentation, Pastor Abraham led the kids in a song of "God is Good," and was it good! Imagine 800 children singing at the top of their lungs, "God is good, all the time, He put a song of praise on this heart of mine!" It was truly an amazing and humbling experience.

We were told that this Christian school has approximately 10-12% Christian children and the rest are either Hindu, Muslim, or Buddist. The families here that can afford it will send their kids to a Christian school because the curriculum is so much better than the government based schools, even if they believe in a different God. This is very encouraging as I am reminded of Proverbs 22:6, "Train [teach] a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Many of the kids here will accept Jesus as their Lord and with the pastor's help, the entire family will turn to Jesus.

After an hour or so, went to another school nearby. This school was a little different as it was Catholic based. Regardless, the children were very receptive to our message and many made first time decisions to have Christ as their saviour. Keep in mind that these kids are usually Hindu, so having hope in someone like Jesus is completely new to them and a wonderful reality! From the 3rd story open air classroom, I could see the ocean and smell the rare clean ocean air. The buildings there were used beyond their years, but it was an incredibly beautiful place!

At the festival tonight the crowd had grown quite large. There were probably near 2000 people in this small soccer field all praising God! Numerous people came forward, including the brother of a local guy named Godson. I met Godson the second night of the festival, and he is a believer that came to Christ the past year. He invited his brother to the festival tonight and I found out that his brother had accepted Christ! After the festival I was showing Godson photos of my family and gave him a few of them. The orpanage girls, who were there every night, saw me with the photos and wanted to see them as well. One girl asked if she could have a photo of my wife and I said yes, and that led to me giving away the rest of the photos in my small album! One last girl came over as I was signing the back of the photos (their idea, not mine!), and seemed sad as she was looking through the album to find no photos left. She then asked if she could have the album. Why not?! It felt really good to give these girls something to hold on to. It didn't seem like much to me, but they have no family but each other and to give them a little piece of my family was a joy and honor.

It was a great ending to a very special night and festival. I am really looking forward to our next festival that will start Thursday night in Red Hills.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7

Today we had a medical clinic in the Red Hills area to care for the people there and to spread the word of the festival we will start there tomorrow night. Half of our team went to a clinic near the festival grounds and the other half went to a clinic in a small village about 15 minutes into the countryside. We saw many people at this clinic and it was much more organized than the first (we're getting better by God's grace!). Many families come to the clinics as one of their family members see the doctors and nurses we have there. It is fun to hang out with them and see them as a lot like us. It is much more tollerable being away from my family having the kids around as it somewhat fills the void. The kids here are beautiful! The two little girls pictured here were so sweet! They kept coming up and asking for me to take pictures of them. These two are sisters and another family there had 8 brothers all at the clinic. It was a joy to serve the people there and to give them something the may never get again, free medical care. The amount of medical supplies we have here is staggering. There has been such a large turnout at these clinics that we need more supplies already. We plan to go out tomorrow to buy more for clinics later this week and for other NGA teams.

After most of the day at the medical camp, we headed back to the hotel for a little rest in the afternoon. Tonight I went with Reid, Brett, Melissa, and Ben to the ground breaking ceremony at the festival grounds. We met the pastors of the churches involved and there was a small group of church leaders there with their families. After songs of worship and a message from Brett and Reid, Reid noticed a man that had been circling around the back of the crowd. He turned a looked at Reid as he was walking away and Reid motioned to him to come forward. The elderly man, named "Gopal" and obviously Hindu with a large white smear across his forehead, walked forward to Reid. The man said something in Tamil and Pastor Abraham translated that he said that he needed love and that he had never felt loved his entire life. Reid then told him the Good News through Christ and the love that he can have by believing in Him. The man, very touched and emotional, said with deep thanks that he wanted that very much. Reid and he said a prayer right there and he accepted Christ! Many of the leaders there were very touched by this and took Gopal aside afterwards to help him into a church. It was yet another incredible experience of the Spirit moving among the people of India, preparing hearts, one at a time!

THURSDAY, FEB. 8

Since there were no medical clinics today, I decided to head out with Reid, Brett, Mike, Tony and interpreter Sunny (whom we "randomly" met Saturday at the Western Union) to venture into downtown Chennai to buy medical supplies, bibles, and shoes for kids in the slums. On the drive there we discovered exactly what a blessing this Sunny guy was! We found out he was from the highest Caste system and intentionally married a woman from the lowest Caste system in order to break the boundaries of prejudice. He has a huge heart for the Lord and is very educated in the Bible having a M.Div. and M.Th. He first took us to the heart of Chennai into the business district. Down several narrow alleys, I felt as if I was in some sort of spy movie trying to find the "meeting point" to buy our "supplies." Finally in a narrow alley we came in front of several steel roll-up doors on the front of a 4 story building and a man met us in front. As he rolled up the door, it revealed stacks of boxes and shelving containing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies. Come to find out this business was the main wholesale medical distributer for the entire city of Chennai. We were able to purchase about $10,000 US worth of supplies for approx. $300 US! God is good...

We then went into the marketplace to buy shoes. This was a great experience, weaving in and out of vendors selling everything from the most exotic dates, nuts, fruits and vegetables to shops selling bales of silk, cashmere, and then to the more modern shops selling shoes, clothing, jewelery, electronics and everything in between. We bought several hundred pairs of shoes with $50 given from a donor specifically for this. With a huge bag of shoes on his shoulders, Sunny took us back to the car to head to the Int'l Bible Society to pick up a few cases of bibles written in the native language.

On our way there a man pushing a bike wagon (bicycle with cart on the back) crossed the street very slowly without giving a second look to the traffic. The driver slammed on his brakes and we stopped short of him by inches as he slowly looked over his shoulder at us with confusion and continued walking. Then SLAM! A large SUV slammed into the back of our packed Toyota Qualis. As we checked ourselves out to make sure no one was hurt we watched the drivers of both vehicles get out and banter over the rear end accident. Thankfully the very large brush guard on the SUV hit the steel bumper on our Qualis square on and left only a baseball sized dent. After a short minute the other driver backed up and sped off. Insurance? Not in India! No harm, no foul I guess!

So after our memorable experience we picked up the bibles and headed to the slums where Sunny's church plant was located. As we walked down the alley of this very poor area, Sunny
glowed with the Spirit! He introduced us to many of the people living in the area with a lot of joy, saying, "This is Maria. She came to know the Lord last week. And this is Gaman, he came to the Lord a month ago..." and it went on and on! The little church was a room about 20 x 15 feet in size with scriptures painted on the walls. It was on the 4th floor of an old building overlooking the entire neighborhood. From there you could see all the small homes and temples on the roof tops. The sights, sounds and smells are almost overwhelming at times, with a strange blend of new and old (mostly old here), combined smells of food cooking and open sewage culverts and a distinct smell of incense. An amazing and humbling site to see.

After dropping off the bibles and shoes for Sunny to distribute to the villagers, we headed back to the hotel. There we prepared for the first night of Reid's festival. The festival started off seemingly OK. Tony and I got the projector, sound and cameras set up with relatively no problems, until about 10 minutes into Reid's message... the sound cut out. It defies logic how they can even make sense, yet alone make thing work with the wiring they have there! It's actually a little scary with bare live wires sticking out everywhere (and 22o voltage mind you!). So after a little tweaking the sound was back on and Reid continued. About 15 minutes later, and by this time well into the darkness, the generators and power sources completely shut down. Complete darkness and no sound. At this point I had been on the stage taking photos of the crowd. To me this was a spiritual battle going on, so I stopped and prayed with Reid as the rest of the team was off stage praying as well. We were also concerned that people may leave the festival, but Pastor Abraham assured us no one would leave. Minutes later I started hearing singing from the crowd. The kids in front started singing louder, and louder, and of all things, Bible camp songs! So I pointed my camera towards the crowd into the darkness with my speedlight on and started clicking. Everytime the flash fired the singing got louder! It was incredible! This went on for about 15 minutes and finally we got sound and one light. So Reid did what he does best and preached it! Gradually, all of the lights came back on and by the end of Reid's message hundreds of people came forward to accept Jesus... The Holy Spirit is working here and is triumphant!

FRIDAY, FEB. 9

This morning we headed to a medical camp that was held at the school we were at Tuesday. It was a hot day today so many of us are pretty worn out from the heat of the day and dealing with sick people all day long. It was such a blessing though as 16 more people came to Christ! It is amazing how God just lines people up to be at the right place at the right time. As Mike Scheel, Josh Greenslade and I were praying with 2 women as they had just accepted

Christ, a group of school girls, probably in their early teens, sat down behind us. Mike had gotten up to get some water and sat

down near them to talk to them about their schooling. God had other ideas... Mike felt prompted to tell them about Jesus, and using the "cliff and culvert" illustration drawn in the dirt (man seperated from God by sin, or a culvert, and the cross of Jesus bridging that gap), these girls all became believers! It is simply amazing to see God's hand in everything we do here...

MORE TO COME...

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