Hallelujah, Praise the lord!

Elyse writing today.

Welcome to week two of teaching! We are in Vijayawada teaching some 44ish pastors from the state of Andhra Pradesh. Some are local from the city but many have travelled in from the surrounding towns and villages, even bringing their small children; see the picture below, one little girl found it all a bit exhausting.

We started the day with Norm sharing his Testimony and Roy sharing the devotion from Genesis 12. Pastor George started off the units and the participants appeared eager to learn, keenly flipping through their books to follow along and take notes.

We broke off into our groups for discussion groups. I was very apprehensive about meeting my new group, building new relationships, learning new names, attempting a few words in a new language. Even though I had done it before I was very nervous. The ladies in my group were wonderful and so thankful for the teaching. The idea that the whole Bible tells the story of God’s unfolding plan of salvation from the Fall right through to Revelation is quite a revelation to many in the group.

While the pastors were sitting their first exam we had some team bonding teaching Pastor John’s young daughter, Jessleah, fun kids songs like Father Abraham, Jesus is the King and My God is so big. Jessleah loved it so much she asked to sing again in the car on the way back to the hotel at the end of the night.

We ended the night at the restaurant in our hotel. When in India, and left to your own devices to order, you make the logical decision and have Chinese!!! Followed of course by Indian ice cream, which is excellent and known as a medium fat frozen dessert- I think the name has a ring to it 🙂

Prayer points

• Praise the Lord for Keith’s recovery after a visit to the doctors for sore eyes. Pray that the medicine continues to heal his eyes.
• Pray for the pastors as they learn, that they may understand the course material and grow in their understanding of Jesus