Adilabad

Stephen just came back from two days of teaching the Word of God in another district.  He drove this time, and says the National Highway is looking good, though maybe not quite worth the amount they are charging for tolls!

The dear brother who invited him ably interpreted his messages into Telugu.  About a hundred of the Lord’s people patiently listened.  In the two days, there were a total of six sessions, normally up to two hours apiece.

The six topics were:

The Inspiration, Authority and Interpretation of Scripture

Galatians chapter 2, Justification By Faith, with a full explanation of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness

True Christian Fellowship, by means of fulfilling the “One Another” Commandments

I Corinthians 1.17, Baptism and The Gospel

I Timothy 3.14-16, What Are Our Sunday Assemblies All About?

Amos 4.12b-13, Prepare To Meet Thy God

Hopefully, the peoples’ lives will be changed through listening to the Word of God in the Gospel.  They are already inviting both of us to come next time, later this year.

VBS day 4

This morning was our closing ceremony for vacation Bible school.  I believe we had about 50 of the children in attendance.  After the service each child received a small bag of spicy chips and either a pencil or pen.  The children were very pleased to receive their gifts.

 Singing some Telugu songs

 They sang some of the new songs that they learned this week.

 Reviewing the lessons from the past three days

 Stephen giving a summary of the 'I Am's" in the gospel of John.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

After the ceremony, we shifted over to another location for the morning worship service.

VBS day 3

Tonight was the last night of VBS and we had a great time.  We had about 60 children plus some adults too.  Plus we had adults listening in on the nearby rooftops.  We were meeting on the roof of a three story building.  Tomorrow morning is our closing ceremony and we are praying for many of the parents to attend.

Day 1  - I am the Bread of Life

Day 2 -  I am the Resurrection and the Life

Day 3 -  I am the Light of the World

 leading the songs

 listening to some memory verses

 A short puppet skit - "Jesus the Good Shepherd"

 

  

day 2 VBS

Day 2 at the VBS was truly a blessing.  I felt that I was able to present the gospel in a very clear and simple manner.

 stephanie helping me with the mic so I could use two hands

VBS day 1

I have been invited to hold a VBS in the village of Annaram.  We expected 35 children and had 51 our first evening.  We are teaching three lessons from the New Testament.
Tonight was "I am the Bread of Life" with the story of the feeding of the 5000 from John 6

Please join me in praying for these children, many who are Hindus.

Pastor's Seminar

Stephen:  Hi!  Just came back from three days teaching pastors in three different rural localities.  Nice and rural!  On Wednesday, in one of these places, the cults are very active, and so I was specially asked to teach on how to “combat” these with the Word of God.  My topics for that day were The Trinity, The Deity of Christ, Justification By Faith Alone, The Sabbath, The Intermediate State, The Resurrection of the Body, and The Eternal Punishment of the Wicked.  Can you guess which cults were in view?  The brethren seemed very appreciative and I am happy.  I hope the Lord is pleased.   

On the other two days, I taught from Ephesians 4.11-16 on Leadership, including on pursuing True Christly Fellowship by means of obeying all the “One-Another” commandments in the Bible, and also on the Doctrine of Salvation.  I love my job of describing the Lord Jesus and His Gospel to people.  It was really, really hot, with temperatures crossing 40°C (104 F) daily—even as it does here in the city every day for the past couple of weeks, too!  But our Lord is merciful, and I’ve managed to ride the railways home no problem.  On my next such trip to the rural areas I would probably drive.  It’s nice to be home again, though. 

Pune Conference

This week, I was privileged to be asked to speak at the first, Jesus Saves Mission Women's Conference in Pune, India.  We had two sessions with the women being very attentive.  After the evening meeting, I had the opportunity to speak to one lady for a long time.  She had many questions about salvation through Jesus Christ alone.  She is a Buddhist, not Hindu, which was surprising to me.  Her family had already had some bad experiences with Christianity.  One religious group convinced a family member to be baptized because, they told him, your life would never have trouble again.  Of course, as true believers in Christ we know that baptizim is not a magic pill to take away trouble.

• I would covet your prayers for all these ladies, that they would continue to grow in the knowledge of Christ.  
• And pray for those who are still do not know Christ as their Savior, that they would come to know him and love him.  
• And pray for the JSM ministry in Pune that God would continue to bless Mangesh and his family and the School of Missions.