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INDIA
JOURNEYS 2003
By Pastor Dan Finfrock
It was a busy time getting ready for this trip. I had to travel to Calvary Chapel Visalia, California, to do a weekend seminar and then the very next day, Sunday, I left for India. There are always so many details to think through before departure. Do we have the seminar participant’s wristbands, 2000 of them? Do we have all the candy packed and ready to go for gifts to the 1500 pastors attending seminars? Have all the team members gotten all the information regarding the trip? Have the Indian contacts made all the hotel, train, plane and bus reservations for in-country travel? Who will pick us up at the airport? Will they faint when they see how much luggage 10 people can bring? Did I remember to order my wife flowers for Valentines Day?
Finally, everything was packed and ready to go. My neighbor Joe Buckmaster volunteered to drive Dr Bruce Heinrich and myself to the Los Angeles airport where we met up with six more team members. Pastor Darrell Sparks of Calvary Chapel Palmdale, along with three men from his church, Ed Cox, Jamie Murray and Jim Eckmann, joined us. Also, Pastors David Villarete and Terry Evans from Calvary Chapel Santa Maria, met us. After checking in our luggage, we made our way through the new security web set up. It is amazing to see all the tight security after the 9/11 event. I thought back to the days when I would return from places like the Sudan and carry through the airport a small bundle of spears and knives I had collected. I would have gotten stopped quickly by the security today, but in those days it was a piece of cake to bring them through the airport.
I briefed the team regarding our journey into India. New laws have been passed in several states called the Anti-conversion laws. They have made it illegal for people to convert out of Hinduism, though their constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Sounds like some of their leadership has been taking lessons from American politicians! The government has also forbidden foreigners coming in on tourist visas to participate in open-air crusades. An American pastor was beaten and stabbed one week before we arrived in an open-air crusade very near to the city of Chennai. After several days in the hospital, he is released and immediately the government officials arrested him and deported him for his activities. I warned the team that we may be stepping into a frying pan.
The flight to India is long and tedious. It takes about 24 hours of flying to get to our destination. We stopped over in Singapore and slept in a hotel for a few hours. I had the chance to visit with my former secretary from the Philippines, Cesa Framel and her husband Henry, who are now living and working in Singapore. They took the team all around the city to see the sights. This place is an incredibly beautiful city and so clean. What a contrast to where we are going in India!
The team boarded the flight to India at 9:30pm and we are on the final leg to our first stop. Pastor Jacob Beera of Hope Ministries was waiting for us at Chennai International Airport and took us to a hotel for some rest. He then went back to the airport and picked up our last two-team members, Ron Anderson and Diane Thayer of Calvary Chapel Pacific Coast, who arrived at 1:30am!
Jacob has a wonderful ministry that works with children in five orphanages he has built. He also has built schools on the orphanage sites. They invite the local children to attend the private schools and they have hundreds of students participating on each site. Most of these children are from Hindu families and they use this venue to reach them for Christ.
The next day our team was complete. We all met together for the first time and got aquainted and spent time in prayer. I could tell the Lord had put together a really good team as I listened to them pray. After some great time together sharing, we all headed out to see the sight where it is believed that the Apostle Thomas landed and brought the Gospel to India. Doubting Thomas was no longer in doubt as he landed and for a few short years shared his faith in Christ with the people of India before he suffered martyrdom. What a tragedy that the people of India did not lay hold of the Gospel in the beginning. As of some 2000 years later, only one percent of the one billion plus population claims to be Christian.
That evening after our tour, we boarded the train headed for a small town called Mori. It took us about 12 hours and some 450 miles to reach our destination. The train had bunks to sleep in and they looked inviting after a full day of walking and seeing the sights. It didn’t take long for the noise of the train to be lost in the snoring of the team. Thank God for earplugs!
The train arrived in Bhimavaram station and we had to quickly unload all our luggage. We were met by Jacob’s older brother Joseph and they took us in a bus and two cars to our hotel. The drive to this place was enough to scare one to death. It is unbelievable how many people are walking in the streets, how many vehicles of all sorts are making there way through the throngs. There are old buses, old trucks, old cars, oxen pulled carts all using the roads. Every few seconds your holding your breath because it looks like your going to run over a hundred people or crash into a slow, slow, moving oxen cart. It is only 6:30am in the morning!
We arrived at the hotel about an hour later. It was located in the midst of the town where everything is dirty and the roads are more dirt than pavement. The hotel only has ten rooms, all of which Joseph has booked. You might say we rented out the whole hotel! As we were heading to our rooms, they told us one of the rooms was still occupied, but they took care of that by pounding on the door and this poor guy comes out half asleep. He is ordered out of the room immediately and he sheepishly goes. My how things are different in America.
That evening the crusade was beginning and after talking with Jacob and his brother, they assured us that we would not get arrested. They said they had a lot of favor with the government in the area, so the whole team shared in the three-day crusade and nobody got arrested. We saw over a thousand people come each night and many Hindus prayed to receive Christ. We prayed for the sick as hundreds came forward for prayer each night. The people would sit for hours listening to music and one speaker after another share. It was an awesome time seeing God work.
From the crusade, we traveled for more than eight hours to visit a jungle orphanage and then on down to Eluru where we were to conduct our first seminar. When we arrived dirty and dusty at about 9:30pm, we took a quick bite to eat and were told that a church just a “short” distance away had been waiting for us to visit them since 7pm. So at 10pm we drove to the church site that actually took one hour. We arrived at 11pm to a small rural church filled with people. They all exited out of the church with candles and formed two lines for us and walked us into the chapel. We stayed only 45 minutes sharing with them and then had to go. They gave us coconuts to drink and seemed so grateful we had come. We got back to our place and crashed into bed dead tired. No one complained. What a team!
The next day we awoke to the steady stream of pastors coming in for the seminar. By 11am over 1000 pastors had arrived. Pastor Abraham of Calvary Chapel Eluru was our host for this seminar. He shared with me that he had had over 4000 applicants that wanted to come to the seminar, but we could only accommodate 1300. Many will have to wait another year before getting an opportunity. The seminar lasted for four days and the pastors had a great time studying the Word with us. Many pastors do not know how to study the Word for themselves. What many do is simply echo what someone else has preached. What they find out in our seminars is that we teach them how to get sermons for a lifetime!
Pastor Darrell Sparks did some wonderful Bible Exposition with the pastors and was an encouragement to them. The last session of the seminar ended on a powerful note. I had been demonstrating how to preach expositional through the text of Isaiah chapter one. When I finished, some of the pastors began to weep and pray which went on for some time. They were asking God to forgive them and to help them win India for Christ. It was thrilling to see God moving on these leaders from all over India. One surprise of the seminar was when Pastor Abraham gave an invitation to receive Christ and 12 people came forward. He said there were a few Catholic leaders and another denomination present that did not fully understand about salvation. We had graduation ceremonies that ended the seminar. We passed out 1100 certificates and reimbursed the pastors for travel expenses. Many of these pastors are so poor that they would spend a week’s salary on travel to just get here.
From Eluru our team had to split up with some heading home and a few going on with me to the city of Hyderabad which is the capitol of the state of Andrea Pradesh. I conducted another Inductive Bible study training with about 350 students at Gospel For Asia Bible school. I had a wonderful time working with these very eager students. They gave up their weekend to spend it with me so that I could teach them more about the IBS system. It was a most fruitful time spent.
From Hyderabad, our small team flew to Chennai. I conducted one more seminar with a smaller group of about 250 pastors mostly from the big city. I was warned that these pastors are exposed to so many seminars that they often will just stay for a short time and leave. We were conducting the seminar at the Scripture Union retreat center on the Bay of Bengal. After our first few sessions, the leadership was surprised that no one had left yet. The second and third day were completed and still no one had left. The pastors told me that they had never had a seminar like this one. They said, “everyone else comes and just lectures to us, but you came and taught us not only how to study, but how to prepare Bible studies and sermons.” Pastor David Villarete was also a blessing as he taught from the Word. The final question the pastors asked me was “when can you come back and teach us more?”
Many thanks to those churches and individuals that prayed and sponsored pastors to come to our seminars. Please pray with us that the Lord will direct us clearly into the next phase of training for India. Pastors are hungry and eager to learn more and we desire to follow His plan for India.
By Pastor Dan Finfrock
It was a busy time getting ready for this trip. I had to travel to Calvary Chapel Visalia, California, to do a weekend seminar and then the very next day, Sunday, I left for India. There are always so many details to think through before departure. Do we have the seminar participant’s wristbands, 2000 of them? Do we have all the candy packed and ready to go for gifts to the 1500 pastors attending seminars? Have all the team members gotten all the information regarding the trip? Have the Indian contacts made all the hotel, train, plane and bus reservations for in-country travel? Who will pick us up at the airport? Will they faint when they see how much luggage 10 people can bring? Did I remember to order my wife flowers for Valentines Day?
Finally, everything was packed and ready to go. My neighbor Joe Buckmaster volunteered to drive Dr Bruce Heinrich and myself to the Los Angeles airport where we met up with six more team members. Pastor Darrell Sparks of Calvary Chapel Palmdale, along with three men from his church, Ed Cox, Jamie Murray and Jim Eckmann, joined us. Also, Pastors David Villarete and Terry Evans from Calvary Chapel Santa Maria, met us. After checking in our luggage, we made our way through the new security web set up. It is amazing to see all the tight security after the 9/11 event. I thought back to the days when I would return from places like the Sudan and carry through the airport a small bundle of spears and knives I had collected. I would have gotten stopped quickly by the security today, but in those days it was a piece of cake to bring them through the airport.
I briefed the team regarding our journey into India. New laws have been passed in several states called the Anti-conversion laws. They have made it illegal for people to convert out of Hinduism, though their constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Sounds like some of their leadership has been taking lessons from American politicians! The government has also forbidden foreigners coming in on tourist visas to participate in open-air crusades. An American pastor was beaten and stabbed one week before we arrived in an open-air crusade very near to the city of Chennai. After several days in the hospital, he is released and immediately the government officials arrested him and deported him for his activities. I warned the team that we may be stepping into a frying pan.
The flight to India is long and tedious. It takes about 24 hours of flying to get to our destination. We stopped over in Singapore and slept in a hotel for a few hours. I had the chance to visit with my former secretary from the Philippines, Cesa Framel and her husband Henry, who are now living and working in Singapore. They took the team all around the city to see the sights. This place is an incredibly beautiful city and so clean. What a contrast to where we are going in India!
The team boarded the flight to India at 9:30pm and we are on the final leg to our first stop. Pastor Jacob Beera of Hope Ministries was waiting for us at Chennai International Airport and took us to a hotel for some rest. He then went back to the airport and picked up our last two-team members, Ron Anderson and Diane Thayer of Calvary Chapel Pacific Coast, who arrived at 1:30am!
Jacob has a wonderful ministry that works with children in five orphanages he has built. He also has built schools on the orphanage sites. They invite the local children to attend the private schools and they have hundreds of students participating on each site. Most of these children are from Hindu families and they use this venue to reach them for Christ.
The next day our team was complete. We all met together for the first time and got aquainted and spent time in prayer. I could tell the Lord had put together a really good team as I listened to them pray. After some great time together sharing, we all headed out to see the sight where it is believed that the Apostle Thomas landed and brought the Gospel to India. Doubting Thomas was no longer in doubt as he landed and for a few short years shared his faith in Christ with the people of India before he suffered martyrdom. What a tragedy that the people of India did not lay hold of the Gospel in the beginning. As of some 2000 years later, only one percent of the one billion plus population claims to be Christian.
That evening after our tour, we boarded the train headed for a small town called Mori. It took us about 12 hours and some 450 miles to reach our destination. The train had bunks to sleep in and they looked inviting after a full day of walking and seeing the sights. It didn’t take long for the noise of the train to be lost in the snoring of the team. Thank God for earplugs!
The train arrived in Bhimavaram station and we had to quickly unload all our luggage. We were met by Jacob’s older brother Joseph and they took us in a bus and two cars to our hotel. The drive to this place was enough to scare one to death. It is unbelievable how many people are walking in the streets, how many vehicles of all sorts are making there way through the throngs. There are old buses, old trucks, old cars, oxen pulled carts all using the roads. Every few seconds your holding your breath because it looks like your going to run over a hundred people or crash into a slow, slow, moving oxen cart. It is only 6:30am in the morning!
We arrived at the hotel about an hour later. It was located in the midst of the town where everything is dirty and the roads are more dirt than pavement. The hotel only has ten rooms, all of which Joseph has booked. You might say we rented out the whole hotel! As we were heading to our rooms, they told us one of the rooms was still occupied, but they took care of that by pounding on the door and this poor guy comes out half asleep. He is ordered out of the room immediately and he sheepishly goes. My how things are different in America.
That evening the crusade was beginning and after talking with Jacob and his brother, they assured us that we would not get arrested. They said they had a lot of favor with the government in the area, so the whole team shared in the three-day crusade and nobody got arrested. We saw over a thousand people come each night and many Hindus prayed to receive Christ. We prayed for the sick as hundreds came forward for prayer each night. The people would sit for hours listening to music and one speaker after another share. It was an awesome time seeing God work.
From the crusade, we traveled for more than eight hours to visit a jungle orphanage and then on down to Eluru where we were to conduct our first seminar. When we arrived dirty and dusty at about 9:30pm, we took a quick bite to eat and were told that a church just a “short” distance away had been waiting for us to visit them since 7pm. So at 10pm we drove to the church site that actually took one hour. We arrived at 11pm to a small rural church filled with people. They all exited out of the church with candles and formed two lines for us and walked us into the chapel. We stayed only 45 minutes sharing with them and then had to go. They gave us coconuts to drink and seemed so grateful we had come. We got back to our place and crashed into bed dead tired. No one complained. What a team!
The next day we awoke to the steady stream of pastors coming in for the seminar. By 11am over 1000 pastors had arrived. Pastor Abraham of Calvary Chapel Eluru was our host for this seminar. He shared with me that he had had over 4000 applicants that wanted to come to the seminar, but we could only accommodate 1300. Many will have to wait another year before getting an opportunity. The seminar lasted for four days and the pastors had a great time studying the Word with us. Many pastors do not know how to study the Word for themselves. What many do is simply echo what someone else has preached. What they find out in our seminars is that we teach them how to get sermons for a lifetime!
Pastor Darrell Sparks did some wonderful Bible Exposition with the pastors and was an encouragement to them. The last session of the seminar ended on a powerful note. I had been demonstrating how to preach expositional through the text of Isaiah chapter one. When I finished, some of the pastors began to weep and pray which went on for some time. They were asking God to forgive them and to help them win India for Christ. It was thrilling to see God moving on these leaders from all over India. One surprise of the seminar was when Pastor Abraham gave an invitation to receive Christ and 12 people came forward. He said there were a few Catholic leaders and another denomination present that did not fully understand about salvation. We had graduation ceremonies that ended the seminar. We passed out 1100 certificates and reimbursed the pastors for travel expenses. Many of these pastors are so poor that they would spend a week’s salary on travel to just get here.
From Eluru our team had to split up with some heading home and a few going on with me to the city of Hyderabad which is the capitol of the state of Andrea Pradesh. I conducted another Inductive Bible study training with about 350 students at Gospel For Asia Bible school. I had a wonderful time working with these very eager students. They gave up their weekend to spend it with me so that I could teach them more about the IBS system. It was a most fruitful time spent.
From Hyderabad, our small team flew to Chennai. I conducted one more seminar with a smaller group of about 250 pastors mostly from the big city. I was warned that these pastors are exposed to so many seminars that they often will just stay for a short time and leave. We were conducting the seminar at the Scripture Union retreat center on the Bay of Bengal. After our first few sessions, the leadership was surprised that no one had left yet. The second and third day were completed and still no one had left. The pastors told me that they had never had a seminar like this one. They said, “everyone else comes and just lectures to us, but you came and taught us not only how to study, but how to prepare Bible studies and sermons.” Pastor David Villarete was also a blessing as he taught from the Word. The final question the pastors asked me was “when can you come back and teach us more?”
Many thanks to those churches and individuals that prayed and sponsored pastors to come to our seminars. Please pray with us that the Lord will direct us clearly into the next phase of training for India. Pastors are hungry and eager to learn more and we desire to follow His plan for India.
Last Updated July 27,2003
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