Day 134, Mumbai

I have been told that a lot of you are asking about my iPod. lol. I have tried drying it out and charging it...nothing works. Its okay though, its just an iPod, its not the end of the world. He gives and takes away.

Wednesday morning we crammed onto a bus with our small backpacks for a trip to a base a few hours away in the hill country of Lonavala. Mostly inhabited my small "tribes" or slum areas, there is a fairly nice YWAM base nestled in the mountains there. Our busride through the mountains was very scenic and the monkies that swung in the trees and walked along the rode helped the time to pass and helped us to not notice the absense of A/C. We were going to teach. At this base there was a new team of DTS students who had just begun their lecture phase. Shortly after we arived I had to change into my dress clothes and prepare to teach. The students entered the classroom and I began speaking about dramas and outreaches. After two hours I was about half way done. lol. We ended the class and met with a man named Alex who took us to his house for dinner. For those of you who know my bud Marko, Alex is the guy who led him to the Lord. After an evening of dinner and talking we returned to the base and retired to our rooms where I spent the whole night coughing.

For about 2 weeks now I have been fighting off a cold. I am congested and cough non-stop. I dont think the pollution is helping much. Hopefully this will pass soon. Pray for healing.

The next morning we woke and were briefed on a local outreach the students were going on. We decided to go with them. My team paired up with a team of 10 DTS students from the Lonavala base. They had only had a couple outreaches so far and were new to it. The village that we would be taken to had just been reached a few weeks ago, and so far all the outreaches that had been done had been praying outreaches where they walk around the village praying. We brought a battery powered CD player and planned to do a drama for the village. Our group, along with the DTS students, circled to pray for the next few hours of outreach. The students were still shy and uncomfortable (I remember this phase my team went through during our lecture time), and I was so proud to see each member of my team pray out and declare the outreach for the Kingdom and ask that the Holy Spirit be with us and speak through us. Only two from the DTS students prayed, one of them being a staff member. As the SUV climbed the mountain rodes I thought about the village that we were about to enter.

We piled out of the SUV and began walking. We entered someone's house and just sat there. They students didnt know what to do. We talked to the outreach leader and he said we could do a drama outside if we wanted. Well, we wanted to! As we stepped out onto the dirt rode and began to set the CD player up, the Indian Staff member told his team what we were going to do. There was no crowd, no one watching, just a few people walking past in the street every few minutes. I began to wonder how this would work....it was a small street, no room for anyone to crowd and watch....and no way to let the village know! They'll come, I reassured myself. We set up like we were about to start the drama....some people passing by watched curiously as we took our positions. Only one problem...the CD player wouldn't work. No matter what we tried, we couldn't get it to work. So we decided to start singing. As we sang, more and more villagers stopped to watch, then the children came. After a few minutes there were 50-75 people crowded on both sides of the street, infront of us, behind us, on both sides, crammed together. We decided to do a drama that didnt need music. We located some props we might need and then got someone to translate for us that we were about to do a drama. Afterwards I would preach.

We did our drama and the staff member from the other team came to translate for me. As I stood there preaching the Gospel, more and more people began to come. I spoke for about 45 minutes, and at the end I spoke about salvation and gave a opportunity for them to pray. As he translated the prayer, I looked up to see so many people, children and all, bowing their heads in prayer, repenting for their sins and asking Jesus to come into their life. I couldn't believe it. They Holy Spirit had been with us. What an amazing outreach.

As we finished up our program the villagers came to speak with us, my girls played with the little girls, and the guys spoke with the men and boys who had questions or just wanted to meet us or ask us for personal prayer. As me and my translator walked a little farther from the group he said to me, "That was amazing.....this is the first time the Gospel has ever been preached here....that was so powerful....thank you".

We got back to the base, I washed up, and prepared to teach another 2 hour class on outreach dramas. This one wouldn't start until 9pm. I walked into the classroom and finished up teaching the DTS students the dramas and how to use them. After we encouraged them in their outreaches we retired to our rooms and I spent another night coughing.

We left the following day and came back here to Mumbai. Which is where my story leaves off right now. I am still pretty sick, but looking back....I have realized that during the classes I taught every night and the preaching in the village....i didn't cough once. Thats a miracle.