HOW I FIRST CAME TO INDIA    

    In 1991, a young man from India named Hemant, sat at our dinner table and told my family what it was like in the jungles of northern India. He was a student at a Bible School where I had been teaching and had been staying with us over the Christmas break. He told us how some young evangelists from his village had ventured into the jungle and had started churches among the tribal people. The young brothers had been stoned and treated very badly by the natives, but they persisted in living among them. In time, a few became believers and had started a few small churches deep in the mountains. We marveled at some of his experiences. Then he asked if I would be interested in going with to this region to teach and minister to these new believers. This was something I had never considered doing before. The prospect both excited and frightened me.  Little did I realize where this would lead or that I was about to experience the adventure of a lifetime.  I had been asking Jesus for an adventure with Him. I wanted to go some place where they didn't take Visa or Master Card and I would have to trust Him completely.  I wanted to work with Him and experience His power in my life. I also longed to know His companionship outside of what was safe and familiar to me. I thought we might go to Costa Rica or the Dominican Republic, but I never considered going to India. Yet, I realized when I was being invited by this young brother that it was actually Jesus answering my prayer. 

     I went to Northern India for the first time in 1992, and have been back many times since. The tribal villages I stay in consist of a cluster of rust colored mud huts with thatch roofs. You often feel like you're walking in something you read about in National Geographic, until you hear them worshipping and praising the Lord.  These Indians are tribal people who live in the mountain jungles much the same way they have for thousands of years. They were not Hindus, but animists who, much like our American Indians, believed in a Great Spirit, and in the reality of good spirits and evil spirits. They once participated in human sacrificing, but now have begun to turn to Christianity in large numbers.  It is an amazing thing to travel deep into the jungle and come to a village and be greeted with "Praise the Lord!!" 

    Our work in the jungle mostly involves traveling from village to village, holding meetings for the believers. The goal is to encourage them and strengthen their hands in God. It has also become apparent that one of the reasons for my being there has been to impart the Baptism with the Holy Spirit to them. There seems to be a special grace for this as it happens everywhere we go, and many have experienced Pentecost for the first time. 

     After my second visit, the native leaders asked me if I would help them organize their churches into a Fellowship. This was important to them because there was no indigenous organization for them to join. We helped them start Word of Grace Fellowship, with fifty pastors as members. The have their own board of trustees and I helped them write a Constitution and by-laws to govern by. We provide leadership seminars to help do the pastoral training, and provide financial support for those who have been members for a year. These pastors have had no training for ministry. Some can hardly find the books of the Bible, so ministerial training became our immediate focus. We are also committed to sending in teams to help with outreach at least twice a year.