Everybody! Let's Cupid Shuffle :)

I think today was the best day that I have had here so far.  We started this morning off with such a sweet time at devotions.  It is so cool to see how we have grown together as a team and that God has made us unified in him! Zach shared about how we are to be ambassadors for Christ.  God has given us this great message and his exact words that he wants us to tell the world.  In Ephesians 6: 20 it says, "for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak".

"And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." -John 17:3

"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8

Today started off with fun and ended with so much fun! We went to Dr. P's house for lunch and ended up having a jam session as well.  Ray started playing around on the accordion and Dr. P also started playing his accordion for us.  He is so good! And he taught himself how to play it.  He played some hymns that we knew and we were able to sing along....somewhat. Haha I admit that I don't know hymns that well. While we were at Dr. P's house we were able to meet Vasanta's sister and her son.  Their husband/father died very recently and suddenly due to a tragic event and they are in such mourning. :(  He was the president of Dr. P's Bible College and they have lost a great man of God who was doing glorious work.

Dr. P jammin!

Our ministry for the day began at a village where Dr. P has already established a church.  He wanted us to see it and to pray for the people and pastor there.  But God gave us another awesome opportunity as well.  Apparently volleyball is a really big thing in India! They all love to play it, or at least around Chennai.  As we've been traveling I've seen alot of people playing volleyball.  There was a volleyball match going on and we decided to hop it! It was so much fun and the people really enjoyed watching some of us fail horribly at playing.  I also got to play soccer with some of the kids there.  I like volleyball but I saw some of the kids kicking around a soccer ball and had to get in on the action! I got to kick the ball a lot because they all wanted to kick it back at me and then have me kick it to them.  It was sad when we had to leave there, I would have loved to spend more time with those people.  

We have learned something very important about doing ministry and sharing the gospel.  First, you have to drink chai tea.  Everyday before we have gone into the villages, we have stopped somewhere and gotten tea! As Dr. P would say, "First, we drink tea.  Then, preach the gospel."  Well, it works!! We might need to start doing this in America! :)

"First, we drink tea! Then, preach gospel!"

This was a hindu temple to a cobra that we saw.  On the right is the girl who is responsible for tending to it. 

It was dark by the time we got to the next village.  It was one of the larger one that we have visited and Dr. P said that there are probably around 1,000 people living there.  A large crowd gathered when we hopped out.  Vasanta had taught us a kids song to sing in Tamil, so we were able to sing with her and sing to the kids in their heart language.  That was really neat.  This village was different from any other in that there were so many men, young and old, that came to hear our message.  I was very excited about this.  Some of the men looked so old that it seemed as if death was knocking at their door and I saw their desperate need for the gospel.  Praise God that he revealed his truth to so many people through our gospel presentation and we got to see many souls saved! Most all of the older men were saved and overall most of the men that were there made decisions.

Finally, we ended the night by going to a village where Dr. P has a church.  They served us dinner and I finally ate with my hands! Have you ever eaten regular rice with your hands?  Definitely a talent to be mastered.  It was a good experience but the chicken was really hot and it burned my fingers!  While we were eating, I seriously felt like I was an animal in a zoo.  Our team was eating inside the church and all the people of the village were outside surrounding the church peering in through the windows, saying "hi!", and wanting us to wave at them.  It was kind of weird, but also very funny.  After we were done eating all the people came into the church and surprisingly there were a lot of hindus that came.  It gave us an amazing opportunity! Chris shared the gospel and Dr. P translated.  Many were saved and I was once again overwhelmed at God's grace.  God's gift of salvation will never get old.

I loved the people in this village! They were so loving to us.  A girl came around and put flowers in our hair.  Plus it was neat because we got to spend a good amount of time with them.  The title of my post is about to make sense to you! Just wait for it :) Chelsea and I were sitting in front of a group of children.  There were a lot of boys crowded around me and one of them could speak English fairly well.  He asked me if I liked their village.  If I like watermelon and if I was going to take the watermelon that they had for us there.  But he and all the other boys wanted me to sing an american song! I said, "Ah no, I'm not a very good singer! I don't know". Then he said, "Dance! American dance!" And I said okay! and you do an Indian dance for us :) I honestly couldn't think of any american dances to do at that point so I asked Zach what a good one would be.  And thus the Cupid Shuffle was decided upon!! We got the team together and started dancing the cupid shuffle in the church.  It was so much fun even though the people thought it was a really strange dance, but they loved it just the same!  We also got two of the guys to dance for us :)

The first baby that I held! This woman really wanted me to hold him :)