Trip to Villipuram, Tamil Nadu

The purpose of this trip was to teach our new batch of church planters on the important subject of the Great Commission. 

I departed Singapore on 18 Feb. This time I travelled to Tiruchirappalli (Trichy), instead of the usual Chennai stop. Flight time from Singapore to Chennai or Trichy is almost the same. The road travel is from Chennai to the training Centre is about 4.5 hrs. The road travel from Trichy is about 2.5- 3 hrs, much shorter. The only problem is the immigrations in Trichy. I waited for 1 ½ hours to clear the immigrations alone. It is a small airport and there were only four counters for foreigners, unlike Chennai where you can clear in 20 mins. The officers took a long time to check the documents and also there is no discipline of queuing in line. It was quite frustrating. 

So looking at the overall situation, it’s better to go via Chennai. At least the waiting time can be spent sleeping though the journey. But if you have booked via Trichy, no worries. Hopefully the situation gets better. 

On Sunday, we travelled 2 hrs to Pondicherry to visit one of your church planters. There were about 50 people gathered for the service and most of them you people. I preached the Word and it was a blessed time. 

For the next three days I was teaching the new CPs on the Great Commission.The training centre is located in Veerapandi Village, about 10 km from the main town Tirukoil. There are 12 full-time students in this batch and 8 part-time students. Some of the students are in their 40s. These men are from the gipsy tribal group and there are very few church planters in this groups. It is quite difficult to reach these people group and hence quite difficult to get younger church planters. Most of the students have basic Bible knowledge and some quite in-depth. They are keen to learn and very participative during the sessions. I enjoyed teaching them the Great Commission module.

Bishop Thomas and his wife Kala were great host. They took care of my needs and I am grateful. 

One thing I enjoyed much was the breakfast. We always went to the town in Tirukoil for a nice meal of rave dose. Cheap and good.I loved the morning walks. It was cool and the sunrise was awesome. The green fields and the sounds of nature were simply refreshing. "He made all things beautiful in His time:.

I was scheduled to return to Singapore on 23 Feb morning. But to my horror when I tried to do an on-line check in, I discovered that my flight was delayed 24 hrs. I needed to return to Singapore on 23 Feb as I had to be in the office. But there was another flight departing around the same time. I called Jeya and asked her to check with the airlines if I could get a seat on that flight. Unfortunately the flight was fully booked. Bishop Thomas and I prayed. Wen drove two hours to the airport, hoping and trusting to see if there will be just one more seat available.

We arrived at the airport at 8pm. The flight was scheduled to depart at midnight. Again the agent at the counter told us "no more seats and asked us to contact the Singapore office. I was pushed to and for but to no avail. Bishop Thomas assured me, "Don't worry sir, God will provide a seat".We kept asking the agents to check again and again and every time the flabbergasted agent told us :patiently" that no seats were available.  I was almost ready to make alternative arrangements when  finally at 10pm, by the grace of God I got a seat. I was much relieved.

Prasie God for all His favour and mercy on me. To God be the glory.