Mission Trip to Orissa 30 Jan - 4 Feb 13

Praise God for a wonderful trip. We experienced the mighty out pouring of the Holy Spirit during our visit. This is my second trip to this part of Orissa. The last time I was there in Jul 2011. The team comprised the following 

                       a.         Rama

            b          John Prince

            c.         Pst Nehemiah (Hyderabad, AP)

            d.         Pst John Signey, (Chennai, TN)

            e.         Pst Gopi (Guntur, AP)  
 f.         Pst Ratnababu ( Kakinada, AP)

Objectives

2.                              The objectives were as follows:

·         1 Day Seminar for church planters from Orissa and

·           Visit two church planters work

·         2 nights Gospel meetings

·         Graduation ceremony of Bible School Students

·         Baptisms

·         Sunday Service in PEC RAE Team coordinator's church in Vizag

3.                  Bro John Prince and I departed Singapore on 30 Jan and arrived Chennai just before midnight. Pst John Signey was at the airport to receive us. The next day we took an early morning flight to Vizag, where we were met by the rest of the team.  

Visit Church Planters

4.     From Vizag, we took to the roads for a long drive to Rayagada, Orissa. The last time we went on these roads, it was bad and I was expecting the same situation. But to our surprise the roads were new and good, except for some bad patches. The whole ride took about five hours. That’s because we went on a wrong track for a while and shopped for lunch. The last time it took more than six hours without a break.

5.     Pastor Anjan, our Orissa Coordinator was waiting for us as we reached Rajagada town. After we checked into our hotels we were immediately out again for another two hours drive to visit our church planters in the mountainous areas of Rayagada District. Half of the ride was through jungle mud tracks and it was really bad. It was already getting dark by the time and we could hardly see a thing in front of us. There were no other lights, except for the stars above and the headlights of the vehicle. Then at the centre of nowhere, we had to walk for about 35 minutes to reach our destination. Since it was so dark we had no idea where were walking. Up and down the hilly terrain. Fortunately the weather was cool. It was bushes and trees on both sides. Neither did we have good torch lights. We were using our hand phone lights and some weak hand-held torch-lights. The church planter who was leading us said that the area is infested with leopards and bears. You can imagine what were thinking. All of a sudden we would spot two shining lights...thank God it’s only a dog for a calf. But after the painful and fearful walk, we arrived at two different villages in the mountainous jungle area. There we met the believers and the PEC church planters who are labouring in those areas. We were told about 30-40 people have accepted Jesus as Lord in each of the villages. In spite of the trauma we went through to reach the villages, we were filled with joy to see our church planters working in remote areas to share the gospel. You must be there to see and experience it yourself. We did not have time to see the work done by the other church planters in other different areas and districts.

 

6.       After the visit we had to rush back to a village, Bassim Cattack, where Pst Anjan is staying. He had arranged two nights of gospel meeting there. By the time we arrived at the meeting place it was already 9.30pm and many have left. About 400 people remained. Bro John Prince delivered a powerful message on the first night. By the time we reached our hotel it was almost midnight.

Church Planters Seminar

7.       On 1 Feb, we started the day with a baptism service. 27 people from K District followed the Lord in baptism. Yet our church planters are registering many new conversions.  What a joy it was for us to see these tribal people coming to know Jesus as their Lord and saviour.

8.    We then had a one day seminar for all our church planters. I took one session and Bro John Prince took two sessions on the Book of James. Some local pastors also joined us for the one day seminar. Bro John Prince is a good teacher. He should be used more for teaching.

 

 
9      That evening we had the second night of gospel meeting. The enclosed area was packed with more than 900 people and there were many standing outside. The people sang and worshiped the Lord with such joy and the danced without any inhibition. I have not seen anything like that before. That night hundreds responded to the gospel. The people were really hungry for God and as we began to minister to the people, the Holy Spirit began to move in a mighty way, like never before. Many demon-possessed were set free and people were just crying to God. We were actually not prepared for this but just stood and watched what God was doing. At the end of the service the team held hands and gave God all the glory. Pst Ajan said that they had never experienced such a move of the Holy Spirit like that before.

Combined gradation of church planters

10.   The next day before the graduation, we had another baptism service for another 28 people. We baptised a total of 55 people on the two days. Praise God for the great work He is doing.

11.   A total of 22 students graduated from the PEC Orissa Church Planters Training Centre.  It was joy to see these graduates, rearing to go out to plant churches in the villages.

12.       Pst Anjan told us that this is the first training centre in Rayagada District in Orissa. What an achievement. Praise God. The students shared how they have been blessed by the training and how they are going back to plant churches. Even after the graduation, there was a queue of people wanting us to pray for healing and deliverance. They must have heard what happened last night and they all came eagerly for prayers.

13.       That afternoon we made our journey back to Rayagada town and reached early evening.  After dinner, I came down with a severe bout of food poisoning.

Sunday morning service at Vizag

14.       On 3 Feb, we joined Pst Joshua, one of our Rural Area Evangelism Team leaders for the morning worship service in his church. About 200 people attended and I shared the Word.  Somehow by God’s grace I managed to pull through service. That night I took a connecting flight to Chennai and returned home on early morning 4 Feb.

Conclusion

15.       We praise God for what we have seen in the mission field. We identified the following needs:

·     The harvest is ripe and ready. There is a great need for training church planters.

·     There is a great need to support church planters. Most of them are poor and live by faith.

·      There is a great need to equip the church planters with sound teaching.

·     The training centre needs some additional rooms and basic equipment.

·    Church planters need church buildings.

·      Pastor Anjan badly needs a motorbike to travel. It costs $1500

16.       We met all our objectives. We are more than satisfied with what we have seen. The work is growing and the church planters are working very hard in the field. The real work is out there on the ground. But they need our support badly. The support given by PEC and its sponsors was not in vain. Praise God.