Monday, September 04, 2006
A Praise & Prayer Report from India -
Thank you for your prayers- as Bobby says God is at work! we have been blest in so many ways, yesterday Dr Greg Frizzell preached one service at a church that has six (6!!!) Sunday services each with 4000 or so attendees- they have a baptistry below the main auditorium which has a line of people being dunked J one right after an another.
Their building is 30 feet from a main street- and the full property is approx, 100 feet wide and 1000 feet deep- the building is about 60 x 300 and the stage is on the 300 foot side, with a balcony wrapping 3 sides it extends 50% over the main floor-(I know this as we were on the platform for the service and when you can speak the language and are waiting to start you have to not stare) the point is they maximize the space and have a real system going to empty each service in 15 minutes.
They also have 100 pastors, 3000 cell churches- 2-300 people a day, praying 7 days a week, 24 hrs, 365! And the Pastor (who I heard in Tamil yesterday, and who came and preached today) started as a bare footed, non-english speaking poor servant, mentored by an American missionary (I also meet him and his wife yesterday- 41 years in India, 4 children with 3 of the 4 in missions, 1 in India, 1 in El Salvador and one off the field now, the fourth is a officer and involved in his church). Anyway, he has been persecuted, had his church burned down and still
trusted, and now pastors a body of 35,000! He is a powerful speaker yet as Bobby says, unselfish and Christ centered.
Next week Greg is preaching to a Church that is on 2 acres- or what I mean is a open air, non-walled 2 acre structure seating 21-23,000 at one time-! Hope I get to sit in the crowd!
Tonight Pastor Mohan (guy above) launched the first session of the HBI Indian National Evangelical Churches (INEC) the denomination of HBI- missions conference- there are pastors, students or missionaries from every state in India-and the surrounding countries (except Pakistan) approx 800-1000 expected.
They look so different, so Asian types, some tribals in saris with mirrors woven into their garments (I have pictures). Starting tomorrow I will be teaching 3 sessions to a group of 48 Telagu pastors or missionaries- they come from Andhra Pradesh, just north of this state. God is at work the INEC just planted over 3,200 churches and are planting more than 1 a day! And the Missions Director has challenged them to plant 5 churches and disciple 5 pastors, so that by 2020 they will have planted 10,000 churches.
Experts are saying, maybe only Korea is seeing a greater work of God- and that there maybe already 14% believers in India.
I guess you can tell I am excited, but it is midnight and I have to up by 6:30 to be ready!
THANK YOU and the whole team for praying- we, together will be blest by what God is doing, for we are co-laboring in this as one~
Love you guys-
God bless,
Bob Simmons
¶ 2:40 PM
Thank you for your prayers- as Bobby says God is at work! we have been blest in so many ways, yesterday Dr Greg Frizzell preached one service at a church that has six (6!!!) Sunday services each with 4000 or so attendees- they have a baptistry below the main auditorium which has a line of people being dunked J one right after an another.Their building is 30 feet from a main street- and the full property is approx, 100 feet wide and 1000 feet deep- the building is about 60 x 300 and the stage is on the 300 foot side, with a balcony wrapping 3 sides it extends 50% over the main floor-(I know this as we were on the platform for the service and when you can speak the language and are waiting to start you have to not stare) the point is they maximize the space and have a real system going to empty each service in 15 minutes.
They also have 100 pastors, 3000 cell churches- 2-300 people a day, praying 7 days a week, 24 hrs, 365! And the Pastor (who I heard in Tamil yesterday, and who came and preached today) started as a bare footed, non-english speaking poor servant, mentored by an American missionary (I also meet him and his wife yesterday- 41 years in India, 4 children with 3 of the 4 in missions, 1 in India, 1 in El Salvador and one off the field now, the fourth is a officer and involved in his church). Anyway, he has been persecuted, had his church burned down and still
trusted, and now pastors a body of 35,000! He is a powerful speaker yet as Bobby says, unselfish and Christ centered.
Next week Greg is preaching to a Church that is on 2 acres- or what I mean is a open air, non-walled 2 acre structure seating 21-23,000 at one time-! Hope I get to sit in the crowd!
Tonight Pastor Mohan (guy above) launched the first session of the HBI Indian National Evangelical Churches (INEC) the denomination of HBI- missions conference- there are pastors, students or missionaries from every state in India-and the surrounding countries (except Pakistan) approx 800-1000 expected.
They look so different, so Asian types, some tribals in saris with mirrors woven into their garments (I have pictures). Starting tomorrow I will be teaching 3 sessions to a group of 48 Telagu pastors or missionaries- they come from Andhra Pradesh, just north of this state. God is at work the INEC just planted over 3,200 churches and are planting more than 1 a day! And the Missions Director has challenged them to plant 5 churches and disciple 5 pastors, so that by 2020 they will have planted 10,000 churches.
Experts are saying, maybe only Korea is seeing a greater work of God- and that there maybe already 14% believers in India.
I guess you can tell I am excited, but it is midnight and I have to up by 6:30 to be ready!
THANK YOU and the whole team for praying- we, together will be blest by what God is doing, for we are co-laboring in this as one~
Love you guys-
God bless,
Bob Simmons
¶ 2:40 PM
