Thoughts in an airport.

I'm sitting in O'hare airport in Chicago, waiting for my last leg of the journey. Thanks for staying with me, oh you brave few! I only regret that I could not keep up with daily updates due to lack of anything resembling modern electronic communications. What a mix of the ancient and the modern is India. You have guys hauling a mountain of rice stalks with an ox cart hooked up to huge water buffaloes and the latest Chevrolets and Tatas blowing their horns, all at the some time and place!

I met a guy named Ravi in a cafe in Frankfort who was from India (now living in Vancouver, Canada.) He overheard me telling my waiter (an Indonesian named Choo) that I had been in India. He was very interested in my impressions. Turns out the guys is a fairly serious Hindu. Ravi was explaining to me about: 1) Why the color orange is sacred, 2) Why the swastika is a sacred symbol, and 3) Why homeopathic medicines work (something about how the active ingredients are so diluted that they work at the molecular level of the "sacred essence." Right.

I think he could tell I wasn't buying but he was willing to let me pray for him and bless him in Jesus' Name. Ravi is a CPA working for a multi-national accounting firm. That's India . . . a mixture of the ancient and the modern.

I preached about 17 times in about 10 days to about 300+ pastors in about 9 locations. I spoke in churches with a thatched roof and very simply poor people. I spoke in cities where there were middle class people as well. I prayed for hundreds of people and humbled by their response. I was honored wherever I went some like kind of dignitary. When all is said and done, I believe the one changed the most by the whole experience is me.

I didn't know what to expect as I prepared to come to India. I had very little by way of expectations other than to see God move. I saw His hand at work every day of the trip. I don't know what the future holds in terms of future ministry in India. All I know is there is a wide open door and the need is so great. Here am I, Lord, send me.