India Short Term Mission 2008

Aloha!

"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"!! Praise the Lord! I am honored to be part of this year's India mission team and would like to thank the home team, the brothers and sisters at Grace Baptist Church who have supported the team and prayed for each one of us during our mission.



Fertile Terai Soil
Albeit very short, from July 22 – 29, our journey into India was filled with God's amazing Grace and blessings! This was my first trip to India and it has been life changing. Our journey took us through part of the Himalaya range and the fertile soil of the Terai (moist land) full of tea gardens and rice paddies to Jaigaon, West Bengal which is a border town with Phuentsholing , Bhutan .

Mission Camps
On this India mission, we setup several camps -the Vacation Bible School (VBS) camp with Outrigger Island as the theme for the youths, the leadership training camp for church leaders at the local Dalsingpara Baptist Church and a medical team which went to three different off-sites to treat and share gospels to patients. I had the opportunity to serve in the mission module with Bobbie West (our English pastor's wife who is 70 years old). We shared with the youths the different locations around the world where missionaries are serving. Overall, it was an amazing and fruitful VBS. The children are so happy to participate in the various activities such as games, bible classes, music and missions modules. They were so elated to receive gifts made by Taipei VBS students. Many youths had to walk many kilometers from surrounding villages to join our VBS camp. Some kids came from Bhutan . The children's joy and happiness left in me an indelible smile in my heart. Pastor Kunsang Chhophel was gracious enough to personally cook every meal we had during our VBS camp.

God is amazing and wonderful!
During our stay at the church, we were so amazed by God's handling on everything. He never overlook on any details. I was surprised at first that 2 Indian army soldiers came daily to the church compound to inquire about us but it gave us "security" blanket during our VBS camp. They were very gracious and didn't intrude much in our activities. Indeed, there were many security issues in other part of India during the time we were in the country as there were terrorist bombings that occurred in the West and South of India. On the last day as we arrived in Siliguri, our hotel was even locked for a little while due to security concerns. However, we were never in danger. Heat, humidity, clean water and the mosquitoes were on top of my mind. Needless to say, as I sweat a lot in this type of hot weather, I was pretty much a walking water fountain and I also did have a "last supper" experience as my internal system didn't like tap water. I am glad it occurred on the last day of the mission trip back to Taiwan and not at the beginning of the trip.

The Bhutan Gate!
Some of us had the opportunity to visit Bhutan during this mission although very short. I for one had the chance to visit Bhutan twice. It was very brief but I thank the Lord for leading us into the border town of Phuentsholing , Bhutan . The road into Bhutan has an ornate gate. It is a beautiful structure leading into the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan. We prayer walked around the town near the gate and some open shops for the people of Bhutan to come to Christ. We thank God for his walk with us into Bhutan . We were elated to be in Bhutan . It was a peaceful trip.

Share the gospels & be a witness in Bhutan !
The 2nd time, a much larger group (8 people) walked into Bhutan at night. This time a much older immigration officer let us into his country. I told him we just wanted to shop and visit the town and would come back within an hour. It was getting late anyway, who is crazy enough to hide in a peaceful, strange and cold place like the Himalayas . At a clothes store, I met a father and son at the shop's entrance; they are bakers and own a bakery nearby. I managed to speak to the son in English on the beauty of Bhutan , the peacefulness of the country (at night) and their families and I did managed to transition our conversations into spiritual or religious topics. They came from inland Bhutan 2 years ago to start a bakery, are Buddhists and I shared the Gospels to them, telling them the story of Jesus. I did not expect much but prayed for them. They smiled and were happy to hear it; and they led us to walk a short distance uptown to visit some part of town. As we walked up a few minutes later, a stranger came to me and asked if we were Christians. I delayed in my positive reply because I thought he was some border official or cop and we might all end up in jail like the local pastor Kunsang (who spent time in jail for his conversation into Christianity at age 19). However I did say yes as he said to me he was a Christian as well. In the middle of the night, on a dark street, next to a temple, Taiwanese Christians meeting a Bhutanese Christian, only our gracious Father in Heaven can arrange this encounter, a divine appointment. I later confirm his name with Pastor Kunsang (a local Bhutanese pastor) who told me that brother K. is a Bhutanese Christian and he brought his son to our VBS camp. And, some of us wore the cross into Bhutan. We prayer walked for the people of Bhutan around a temple as Pastor David Kong led us in prayers. This second trip was amazing once again.

A Tuktuk Driver & Local Evangelist!
While in Jaigaon - as I was visiting the nearby fruit market in the morning I came across a tuktuk, or 3 wheels auto-rickshaw. I was surprised to read a sticker above the windshield. It is written "Jesus Saves you"... I approached the driver to ask him if he was a Christian and he nodded, telling me he has been saved and that he goes to worship a nearby church. Brother Samuel loves Jesus - hence he put this sticker wherever he drives his tuktuk and wanted to share the gospel with whomever customer the Lord brings to him!

Brother Philip is an evangelist that took part in the church leadership training program. He shared that he goes from villages to villages to bring the Gospels to the local people. He is part of the church planting movement. He told me it is sometimes difficult on his family. He was a drug addict and the Lord saved him from that and never wanted to return to that stage of his life. He has a growing family and asked us to pray for his children to have better education.

God wanted to share with us the few Christian brethrens and share the Gospels to non-Christians in this end of the earth. So yeah our trip into Bhutan and India has been fruitful even though it was really short but the opportunity to share the Gospels to Bhutanese in Bhutan is a privilege never to pass up!

Valuable People
These fellow believers are all very valuable people. People that are made to hold the treasures of God, God Himself dwelling in each by the Holy Spirit and they are not afraid to impact others and share the story of Jesus and the Gospels with others in the area. They are filled with the power of glory of God. May we pray that they continue to impact others and let the great Master, our Father in Heaven mold and shape them in their different ministry.

The True Gate!
And I leave you with the passage of John 10:9 - "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture."... Many Bhutanese have yet to know Christ... yet Jesus Christ knows them all already. Pray that many more Bhutanese will be saved by going through the True gate: Jesus Christ instead of the ornate gate to Bhutan .

Thanksgiving!
Thank You Grace Baptist Church! Thank You Teammates! Thank you my friends for your prayers and support! Thank You Holy Spirit! Thank You Jesus Christ! Thank you dear Heavenly Father for an amazing mission!