India Here We Come!

Just 5 days before we leave!  We have 23 people on our team now!  It's simply amazing!  We are a little nervous, but we can't help be excited about what God has in store as we obey His call to GO!

A couple of the team members have raised less than $500.  They have about 10 days until they leave.  I suppose if there weren't difficulties here, we wouldn't be ready for the difficulties on the field in India.  

A friend of ours, David Sanford sent us this verse to meditate on and pray over our team:

“By His power, may God fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith” (2 Thess. 1:11b)… 



I can't think of a better verse for us right now.  Lord, we ask you to fulfill our intension to share Your love and message with the people of Tiruvallor District!  Help us keep our faith firmly in You.  We know You have the power!

MIRACLE SIGHTING:
Our friends in Madurai, India are bringing up the drumset we gave them last year...free of charge!  What a gift!  A good Drum set is often the toughest thing to get for the teams.

Someone donated $2500 yesterday towards the trip!  If all the team members raise their $3000, P4PI will only need $5500 more to pay for everything before we go!

Our God is awesome!  That's why we've just got to tell everyone about knowing Him!

Update from India - September 10, 2006

Our trip started off with an opportunity to share Christ with Angela on the plane. She was intrigued by our ministry name "Passion 4 People." She wanted to know all about what our mission was focused on. Our mission statement and wholistic outreach model really appealed to her. I told her how the ministry got started...with Christ changing my life and filling me with His love for the overlooked and oppressed. It's really His ministry through us and it's awesome! I gave her a brochure and our team prayed for her.

FRIDAY, SEPT 8
We touched down in Chennai, got 4 hours sleep, then we were off to a meeting with area pastors to start planning our first "School of Evangelism." We had some great discussions and prayer. They were grateful to have International teachers and ministries helping train the evangelists within their denominations.

Later that morning we were at the airport again, this time heading to Madurai. That night I shared the Gospel and a challenge to believers to be Ambassadors for Christ. The rain forced the meeting inside and shrunk the crowd. We were all nearly falling asleep, but God's grace and strength was evident. At least 15 people responded at the invitation!

SATURDAY, SEPT 9
The next day we had almost everyone teaching believers in different gatherings...men, women, youth, pastors and children. That night Rob Welch gave the gospel to a much larger crowd and over 100 responded to the invitation!

SUNDAY, SEPT 10
Everyone was up early heading to churches to preach and share testimonies. Brad spoke at 3 different services with over 200 decisions of various kinds. Brett Butcher & Reid Saunders gave evangelistic messages with a salvation invitation. Over 800 precious people responded. Tonight Reid presented the Gospel at the open-air meeting with over 150 coming forward at the invitation! Over 1150 decisions in one day, not including numbers from a Festival RobWelch held the same night!

The leaders of the Church of South India, who were the ones inviting us, were so impressed by the work of God among us, they are already talking about doing mutiple locations next year and want us to come back! We are giving thanks for the Lord's faithfulness to work through our humble efforts!

God is answering our prayers! Thank you!

Everyone is doing well, just need endurance and refilling of the Spirit with some time in the word and prayer.
Going to the Leprosy Mission tomorrow! Can't wait to see what He accomplishes in and through us! On Tuesday we head back to Chennai to begin training believers in Friendship Evangelism!

Also happening this fall:

October 6-8: Hosting pastors & leaders in Houston who are working on a large outreach festival planned for September 2007 in Salem, "Salem RiverFest-with Reid Saunders." This is an exciting time to take a group behind the scenes in how to go public with the message of Christ.

October 12-18: Lodz, Poland
Our Passion 4 People Team has been invited by local leaders in this city of 1 million people to help them bring the Gospel to the influencers of their city. Through Business & Civic leader's dinners, University & school ministries, Prison & Troubled Teen outreaches, along with Women's tea's and a Youth Outreach Concert Night planned for November. The october trip will focus on training and a preview event to let leaders and believers hear me speak.

October 24-27: Innovative Evangelism Conference-Cedar Mill Bible-A conference to equip evangelists and church leaders. I'll be teaching workshops and MC some general sessions. All are welcome to come, especially on Thursday-local believers and church leader's focus, Mark Mittleburg, Donald Miller and Luis will be among those speaking. Go to www.ngateam.com for more info.

November 4th: P4P Annual Fundraising Dinner- Luis Palau Headquarters, featuring former Governor of SC, David Beasley.

November 12-19: Lodz, Poland Mission, details above and will be on our website: www.passion4people.org

October/November: Speaking at Corban College Chapel and teaching Personal Evangelism classes.

Until all have heard His Fame,

Brad & P4PI Team-In India

Team Ministering in South India!

BRAD & TEAM Prayer Schedule
India 2006, Sept 6th –18th

My E-Mail: brad.b@passion4people.org

Prayer Fuel

Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. (2 Thess 3:1) And pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message, that we may proclaim it clearly as we should…(Colossians 4:3-4)

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING!

Wed-Thurs Sept 6-7
Traveling with the team to India. The Church of South India invited us to speak at their annual convention. 1000’s of believers from 1200 churches coming from 5 districts in Tamil Nadu State. Daytime sessions for believers, evening outreaches in the city center! For Rest, Team Building, Intimacy with God, and God to prepare our hearts. Please pray for the Church of South India Bishop & leaders as we work with them, may we truly be one in the Spirit & may God give them Spirit-driven leadership as they lead over 1200 churches into fulfilling the great commission in India!

Friday to Sunday Sept 8-10
Church of south india annual convention-3 days of teaching, 3 nights of outreach – Bryan Sherwood, Jessica Lambert, Sudha & Monica Peethala, Rob & Emily Welch, Marjorie Plisch, Reid Saunders, Brett Butcher, and myself will be teaching believers & sharing Jesus with a planned several 1000 people. For God to fill us with His Spirit and for Him to speak through us, have His way in the hearers. For us to be bold, accurate with the Word, and Empowered. For God to give us a genuine love for the people and them for us. For lasting fruit For Jesus to be Exalted in their hearts!

Monday Sept 11th
LEPROSY COLONY MINISTRY We’ll be at TLM Manamadurai Leprosy Mission. We’ll be visiting patients, singing songs & then preaching the word of God. Pray that God will help us to relay His compassion, mercy and the hope of heaven to these poor people suffering without cure. May many of them receive Christ!

Tuesday Sept 12th
Today we fly back to Chennai for a day of rest & preparation. We’ll be visiting Sudha & Monica’s families and growing together as a team. For God to refresh our spirits, bodies, and minds. That we’ll be able to get a report out to home supporters, that people will continue to pray!

Wed-Saturday Sept 13-16
Harvest Thiravallor-Friendship Evangelism Trainings- 12 cities Brad, Sudha, Dave & Rob will be leading teams to train believers & encourage pastors in each future festival location. Teaching will focus on praying, sharing testimonies & serving the lost so that they may be receptive to the Gospel. India Leader: Muthu Mayandy Pray that God will inspire 1000’s to come to the trainings, that the pastors we meet with will be unified on the vision of District-wide outreaches in February 2007. Pray that believers will apply the training and go out with boldness and compassion as they build bridges with their primarily Hindu neighbors and friends!

Sunday Sept. 17
SPEAKING IN CHURCHES-Brad, Dave Redelfs, Jessica Lambert, Marjorie, Sudha, & Bryan. Our Goal is to encourage and strengthen our brothers & sisters in Christ. For God’s Word to be Exalted and His people to hear and respond. God would bless our worship & instruction together! Over 30% of all Indians are under age 15. Around 60% are under age 30.

Monday Sept. 18
HEADING HOME-After some evaluation & prayer times with Muthu and our Passion 4 People India Team-Sudha & Monica, on the journey home we’ll be preparing a presentation of how God answered these/our prayers! Pray for the Indian Churches-to be empowered to do effective discipleship/follow-up & to prepare the way for our NGA 12 city February 2007 mission!

Please pray that we will finish strong, and give the credit to Jesus, be filled with Strength to come home and share, that we would be used to encourage our churches with how God has used all of us there! May a good number be called to join us in February 2007 and beyond in India.

Thank You!

VERSES to PRAY: Eph 3:14-21, Matt 6:9-13 Thank God for what He is/has done!

Our Team
Dave Redelfs-Administrator, Brad Butcher, Reid Saunders, Rob Welch - Primary Evangelists - Brett Butcher - Festival Director & teacher, Marjorie Plisch, Emiliy Welch & Jessica Lambert - Woman’s & Children’s Ministry, Bryan Sherwood - video & photos, youth & computer set-up, Sudha Peethala - P4P Inida Director & teacher, Muthu Mayandy - Harvest Thiravallor Director.

Mission Accomplished, almost!

The Mission is nearly over. Tonight we conducted our last night of Prayer Festival.
Just over 3000 people came out! Over 300 came forward at Reid Saunder's call to surrender their lives to Christ. Many Hindus, Muslims and nominal Christians found a relationship with God through Jesus. In our passion for people, this was our mission! If we leave them with medicine and food, they'll be happy for a day or more, but if we leave them with Jesus, they'll be happy forever!



Between our partner this last week, Reid Saunder's Team, and our Brad Butcher Team, over 5400 recorded decisions to follow Christ! We also had 5 nights of live Television to over 300,000 homes. The phones were ringing none stop throughout the show with several people praying with us to recieve Christ that we know of and hopefully many more who were not able to let us know.

Please ask the Father to help these new followers to grow in their faith and become part of a fellowship of believers near them. Please also ask the Father to give them boldness to share the love of Christ with others as He is changing their lives!

Tonight, Monday Feb 13, we have a new believer's seminar. Please pray that many will come and learn more what it means to be a Christ-follower and others will surrender their lives to Christ who are coming as seekers.


The band, Redmark, gave their Base Guitar to
Indian Evangelist & Village Church Planter-
Apollo Sam. He was our interpreter at the
festivals.



Luke, Brody & Bryan Sharing Jesus with school
children through songs, skits, personal testimonies
and God's word. May they know Jesus' love personally!




More details and photos will come when I get home! Thank you for praying!

Brad

Amazing Trip

Well its been a while since i posted last. We didnt really have a chance to update it because of our busy schedule. I let you all know what has been going on since the last post by Brody. When we went to the orphanage the 2nd time, we were allowed to play with the kids instead of just doing songs and skits. It was soo much fun. Many of the girls who were all younger wanted me to write my name on their arms, and people in my family. Some of them also wanted me to write their names, which tended to be very hard since of their pronunciation of letters. ha ha. Many of the girls were asking me not to forget about them, and wanted me to take pictures of them. Some of the girls that were close to my age started to flirt also. I plan to write to some of the people i met since i really felt like all of the kids that didnt want me to forget them wanted someone to love them.


We had a great festival but Luke, Brody and I were wanting to go back to the orphanage once more. Brad did a wonderful job as usual, and i got to pray over the new believers. Many came to the Lord for the first time but not as many as hoped.





I got to know Muthu and J. Jesuraj alot better through the rest of the time. They are incredible men , even though they arent much older than I. Those 2 caused me to think about coming back to India. The day before we left we went to a school and did a few skits. The very last night we went to the Jesus film and i sat by some girls who liked me. I was very impressed and in awe, that of all they have, they are willing to share it, or give it away. Luke shared his testimony and many came to the Lord.

On the way back home was a very different story. We got to the airport at 3:00 and our plane didnt leave until 4. so we had alittle time. We got a meal on our 40 minute flight. Now thats not very common in America. When we got to Chennai. We had 7 hours of nothign to do. We had very humorous ideas of what to do while we were there, but were mostly bored. When we got to Kuala Lumpur we slept in the airport on the benches from 4am- 9. It was the most anxious and worst sleep you could get. I woke up just about every hour hoping we didnt miss our flight.
I slept about 3 hours on the way to Taepei, and watched the Prince of Egypt.

I would say that coming on the way back from Taepei was the most fun of all the flights. I watched about 6-7 movies from my seat of the tv's that are built in. Too bad that more flights that arent international dont do it. I stayed up the entire 17 hour flight watching movies with Luke and Brody. LAX was the point were we got to finally eat American food. YES!! We went to McDonald's and had alot of food. It was the biggest experience of my life that couldnt be accomplished by doing anything else. I am starting to feel like i really should go back to India many more times, since God really works through people who are willing to listen.

Bryan

Kids

Today we went to the orphanage again. We finally had a chance to just hang out with the kids and play with them. We took what seemed like hundreds of pictures with them. I also had to sign my name on about two hundred arms. We brought soccer balls and had lots of fun kicking it around. Then they sat me down and wanted to talk to me. They knew bits and pieces of English and repeatedly asked me what grade I am in, how old I am, and how many family members I have along with their names. I think some of the older girls were even flirting with me. When I started taking pictures again, they all wanted individual pictures with me. Kids were crowded all around me and kept putting my arm around them. When we had to leave, they all told me that they would never forget me and asked if I would forget them. I told each of them that I wouldn’t. When I said that, a giant smile came across their face. Some of them reminded me of the picture of just me and them and asked again if I would forget them, and of course I said that I would not. I then realized that all these kids wanted was someone to love them. I became overwhelmed with the feeling of wanting to have a relationship with all of them. It is hard to describe the feeling of wanting so much to love on these kids and knowing that it is impossible. I became deeply sad and convicted with the thought of running some sort of camp with them. And if not in India, then in some other country like Africa. Then I could form a relationship with a lot of kids and let them know that I will see them in heaven if they would commit their life to Jesus, and how awesome heaven will be. I want to be that person that loves them and provide for them. There are just so many unloved kids in this world that it is impossible to visit them all. It makes me realize that I cannot just sit around and do nothing. I could go on and on about my overwhelming feelings to love on these kids, but it is too hard to explain and it would sound like I am repeating myself. I just hope that I do not forget these feelings when I go back home.


This is just one of many pictures taken. These are some of the girls that wanted individual pictures with me. You can probably tell that they were full of energy

Praise the Lord/ Miracles

Today we had Fred Butcher lead our devotional. It was quick but very good. Later on, the rest of day was very busy but very good. Redmark and our team went to the Madurai hospital. We had a great translator who was John Kennedy. We thought we should call him JFK.

After going up a few flights of stairs we went into a conference room where Redmark and our group sang some songs for the head employees. They really enjoyed it and were more than excited to see us being there. We went to the AIDS/HIV room where there were about 18 adults who were infected. Brad spoke to them about the gospel that was very moving. All 18 chose to follow Christ. Praise HIM!!! We then went and fed some food to some of the patients, and went to the Cleft palate(sp?) room. There were about 7-8 mothers with their children who had cleft. Later came 2 children who had already received the surgery. They told us they have performed about 2000 surgeries for free. Wow!!

Tonight i gave my testimony. Though it was shaky sometimes, i got through it and made it out. When i was asked to film, i made the mistake of going out into the crowd. Ill just say i got mobbed.

no further questions.......

Today was very moving for me and very touching. I prayed for a man who had seeing problems, which had also just come to Christ. Now im still praying for him so that i can see that if the Lord heals him. It would be a real blessing. There was healing tonight at the festivals. A girl who was colorblind was prayed over and could then see!! Thank You Lord!!!!!! Also, a women who was going blind was prayed over and could then see!!! Seeing miracles happen before really opened my eyes to His Kingdom and to believing more in Him.

Better get to bed its 1:00am


Bryan Sherwood

Hospitals - Sickness - Head Bobble

Today we went to a hospital to sing and pray with the people there. It was awesome to see Brad preach to some of the people. So many of them are close to death and are like the thief on the cross next to Jesus. They are getting saved at the very last second. But praise God! We were the second group to visit there in the entire time that the hospital has been open. Tonight is the second night of the festival. I am going to film the whole thing with assistance of a pro, Dan. He is showing me how to film and giving me pointers on what angles and distances to film at. It’s really cool to learn from someone who knows what they are doing because I have been interested in film for some time now. Before the festival we went around and handed out flyers for the festival and handed out cookies. Everyone seemed so curious to see what we were handing out and as soon as they saw someone else get one, they had to get one as well. I could really tell that they are really interested in westerners.

I am getting sick of spicy Indian food. It’s starting to get to me, so I’m having to eat lots of CLIF bars. Now I’m starting to get sick of those too. Thankfully I brought lots of food so I think I will get by with all of the trail mix, beef jerky, and cheese and crackers.

One of the funniest things I have noticed about the Indians is their head bob. It is hard to explain. They kind of shake their head side to side, but not the way that we do. They move their head in the motion that you stretch the side of your neck. It basically means ok, or I agree, or thank you. Everyone here gets a crack out of it and no one can do it without laughing. People are starting to get sick so keep all of us in your prayers. Also I get a lot of stage fright so pray for my courage and boldness if I end up giving my testimony at the festival

-Brody

India By the Numbers-Days 1-5

Hours on a plane: 24
Hours of sleep first 3 days: 3-7
Number of people witnessed to on the trip one-on-one: 6
Number of haircuts: 1
Number of Rupies recieved at exchange by team: over 100,000!
Number of ants biting Brad's feet: 40 plus!
Number of showers required per day: 2
Number of people at festival night #1: 300
Number of 1st time decisions night #1: 21
Number of people asking for personal prayer night #1: Over 100!
Number of people left to reach with the Good News in India: Over 900,000,000
Number of festivals happening on this trip by all teams: 78 nights!
Number of water bottles consumed per day: 3-4 (its hot!)
Number of prayers needed for our team: As Many As Possible!

Thank you for your prayers! God is working!

Urgent Prayer Needed!

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST~

Today, Thursday, Feb 2, several Indian police brought to a festival location by Hindu leaders ordered the festivals to be cancelled in the city of Melur. The local festival coordinators then transfered the site materials to a church. Please pray people will still come hear the gospel and that this persecution will turn into salvations and glory to God.

Please also pray that these same Hindu Political leaders in the area don't go on a hunt to shut other locations down!

NOTE: There is no danger to our teams, just politics to shut down the preaching of Christ openly, sound familiar? (Acts 3-4)

Please pray this passage from 2 Thess 3:1-3 for us!
1Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. 2And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. 3But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

Please also pray that all the teams with us will be allowed to do the ministry they have planned in schools, hospitals and orphanages. There has been some cancellations and the time is short!

Finally, please pray that more people will come to the festivals and hear the voice of God. Please pray for the Indian belieivers to invite and love their pre-christian friends!

Kuala Lumpur-The Two Towers. On the way to and from we got to share

Jesus with Sigar & his cousin Rocky. They are from India and Hindu.

They said they would read a New Testament if we brought them one

on the way back through. Please pray for a successful delivery!

This family was celebrating a wedding in the temple as best
we could tell. Lots of entire families worshipping together.

Meneekshi Temple Complex. Hundreds of worshippers were offering prayers and sacrifices in the temple. We prayed for God to show them He want's them to be His temple. Their devotion to these life-less idols broke our hearts.

Children at our friend, Sudha's family Christian school and orphanage. The girls sang angelically for us during the breakfast they served us. What awesome hospitality we experienced!

In the back of the plane no one was seated in their assigned seat. Surrounded by very excited Chinese from Taiwan, we played cards, helped them navigate movie selections and shared a Gospel track during the flight. This girl was especially excited to sit next to Brody & Brian!

What an amazing day.

Today was an amazing day!! This morning the Brody, Luke and I went to get Brody’s haircut. We had a driver who was very friendly. The people I noticed that the people generally wear the same clothes as us. Button up shirts and slacks.

But I also noticed that they usually have sandals or no shoes at all. This causes their feet to be very cut up. How sad. Everyone was very kind to us. They all enjoyed our company and seeing Americans. Many wanted to shake our hands and ask us questions.

Furthermore, I saw that they have a whole different culture here compared to us in America. Different customs, different laws and rules. An example would be the head bobble. When you see some of them they bobble their head side-to-side when they are saying yes, which would be the equivalent of our nodding for yes. They also honk a lot when driving. Which isn’t road rage but a system of wanting to pass people.

I really like India. Everyone wants to be friendly, good people. But back to focus. Tonight was our first festival. I was in a skit and prayed for everyone. It was so great tonight to see so many people responding and accepting Jesus. It really touched me. To continue with that, many of them wanted us to pray for them(those who had become saved). Though I didn’t always fully know what to say, God really helped speak and pray. Tomorrow I plan to go to a hospital.

Bryan

I should be sleeping

Wow today has been amazing, we were totally submersed in the culture, we were able to do some shopping, the clothes for women and vibrant, and beautiful. Men pretty much wear the same clothes as us, slacks and nice shirts. We did our first festival tonight, many people were saved, and opened up pathways for tomorrow.

God is doing amazing thing, people in the streets are getting saved. People in the hotel we are staying at are getting saved, there is a unity of all the evangelists and there teams. God is equipping us and encouraging us during a chapel time we have everyday. There is a unity in the churches here in Madurai, pastors form the states our equipping the local pastors here, and strengthening the faith in Christ. The devil is hurling attracts, and God has been faithful to show His presence everywhere.

There is so much to pray for, I want everybody to pray in the Spirit because I can’t write it all out, it is late, I need to sleep – Luke Huber

God really loves everybody!

Well the plane ride was long, and I still haven't really got over the jet lag, but God has been faithful to keep us all energized. Brad is such a big encouragment, he has been staying up untill about 1 am the past couple nights, faithfully serving and encouraging.

I can't even discribe the culture shock I have had, we take so much for granted back in the states. It is amazing to se how God has put everybody here at this time for His purpose. The people here are so friendly, they have the most beautiful smiles. The children here love candy, and as foreign people look up to us in some many ways.

I was able to do a little melo-drama for the kids, about David and Goliath, they loved it and laughed, we were able to sing songs, and share our testimonies. I have been so nervous, speaking does not come easy for me. I'm supposed to start leading at the schools, and I don't have a clue what I'm doing, so please pray that the Holy Spirit will work through us!

It has been awesome getting to know Brian, Brody, and Brad on this trip. Also Toddly and a new evangilist Clint Dexter from Kansas. Please pray for all of us, everybody but Brad is a rookie, but we know God called us here to serve. Pray that we can cast all of our fears on Jesus, and speak boldy about his love!

Here is some scripture we have been meditating on.

1 Corithians 13 (Without love, Jesus' love what do we have)
Isaiah 50 (Trust in God, he gives words of wisdom, we will not turn)
Exodus 2-3 (Moses and his fears-and being the first sent out)
Ephesians 2: 8-10 (We are all new, through Jesus, all glory to Him)

With lot of Love - Luke Huber

So many are deceived !

Today was our first full day in Madurai. This morning I gave a devotional on 1 Corinthians 13 about love and how important it is for the kids to know that we love them because God loved us first. We went to the temple as well today. We found a guy that took us to his roof that gave us a great view of the whole temple. We couldn’t wear shoes in the temple so we took them off and left them at his shop. We went inside the temple and we could all felt the darkness inside. We saw so many people giving worship to man-made idols and I speak for all of us when I say that it made us deeply sad. How could a man-made have any power? They have millions of gods that they worship and we saw just a few thousand of them in the temple. It reminds us all of how much these people need Christ. Tonight we had a prayer meeting with some of the people from the church that we will be working with here in Madurai. It went extremely well and it encouraged me for the filled day tomorrow of going to schools and an orphanage and promoting the festival that will take place tomorrow night.

-Brodster

Culture Shock

The other day when our team arrived in Chennai at 5pm, I really noticed the dirtiness and slums of the city. I experienced a lot of culture shock but was soon over. I liked staying at Sudha’s parent’s home in Chennai. There was great hospitality with great warmth. When we arrived in Madurai I noticed the poverty like in Chennai, but noticed it was cleaner. I really liked meeting the people in Madurai. Many of them seem to be very friendly. Tonight at the festival beginning, I talked a few times and felt pretty nervous. After praying about it, and later going out to pray over people, I felt the nervousness leave. Today really encouraged me to be prepared to go to schools and orphanages with much larger crowds to tell them my story of why I am here in India.

Bryan

Praise God

Thank you everybody for the prayer, my throat is back to normal with two days left to go before our departure for India. God is the best healer ever, and desirves my praise!!

Well, I am sick

This is true, I have been sick for about a week now, and with less than a week until we go to Madurai, I am starting to worry about my health. To those who read this blog please pray for me and my health. - Luke Huber 1/22/06