India

India Trip Report

June 2006

Dear Friends,

Recently God has blessed me and Pastor Aurel Balici to serve Him for two weeks (June 28 – July 11, 2006) in different regions of India. There we have discovered a world of extreme spiritual darkness and confusion, but at the same time a world thirsting for a Savior that can bring them happiness and peace of mind and soul.  Thus, our purpose in India was to bring a message of hope to the hopeless, to encourage those who have embraced the Christian way of life, and to motivate them for jail ministry.  For these reasons, we visited different orphanages, leprosy colonies, churches, and held training seminars.  With this article, I intend to communicate how God used us to touch people’s lives and how our lives have been touched by those we met and had fellowship in prayer and in the sharing of scriptures.
Foremost, our hearts were moved to tears as we visited the schools and orphanages of India.   One of those unforgettable experience happened on Saturday July 1, 2006 when we stopped at a children’s orphanage in the city of Coimbatore, one of the major industrial cities in South India.   There, I and Pastor Aurel Balici found ourselves speechless, but deeply touched as hundredths of young girls welcomed us in perfectly straight rows and they praised God in their native tongue.  The director of this orphanage and the founder’s daughter, Sister ABC, gave us a tour of this complex built in 19XX.  After two hours of fellowship and preaching words of encouragement, we left the place strengthened by the commitment we witnessed from these orphaned girls as well as from their leader who does an amazing work at teaching the word of God and training them to contribute to the society with their sewing skills.   A similar experience occurred on July 3rd as we stood in front of an audience of about 600 children aligned perfectly and dressed alike.  It was a blessing to us to know that each one of these children is privileged to learn and grow in a Christian environment and in a facility provided by ABC Ministries.  Our message to them was to continue studying and achieving high goals, but most important to keep the ways of the real and only God.
Moreover, as we traveled north to Patna, the capital of Bihar State, we were deeply humbled to meet two dedicated missionary families from Romania.  Both of these families sacrificed their chance for a better life in order to work as missionaries in a city where many Christians have been cruelly murdered by radical fanatics.  In this heavily populated city where the spiritual darkness hangs over it like a dense fog, these two young families dedicate their lives to teach poor children the alphabet and how to read and write.  Along with their social work, they hope and pray that these children will accept Christ as their Savior in a state where currently only 15 Christian missionaries stand as true testimonies among 100 million of people worshipping other gods.
Along with our ministry to the underprivileged children of India, we held seminars with students interested in jail ministry and each one of them who participated were given a certificate of completion that will enable them to work in this field.  First seminar occurred on Friday, June 30th, at Bible College located in ABC. The first half of the seminar was led by Pastor Balici who approached the topic of “Fasting and Prayer” with practical results in our Christian life walking with God. He brought many testimonies of effectiveness, results, and benefits of God’s blessings. He also touched upon the fact that if fasting and prayer is done properly, God will provide the solution just as He has done in biblical times. The second part I held a prison seminary, handed their certificates, and rejoiced when 30 students showed interest in jail ministry. Next seminar held in the town of ABC, on the outskirts of ABC, developed in a similar fashion with the exception that the audience were 49 pastors who answered Pastor ABC’s call and gathered here from different parts of the region.  At the seminar, we equipped and trained leaders for the jail ministry as well as prayed for God’s presence and His Holy Spirit to fill their lives and ministry journey.
Three days after our seminar in ABC, we traveled to ABC and we held our prison training seminar in the resort.  This meeting was gracefully arranged by Brother ABC and we soon learned that some of the pastors and Christian workers present at this seminar became believers after hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ while doing jail time.  Their dedication and commitment for jail ministry was evident in the way they welcomed us and blessed the Lord who answered their prayer in sending us to help them get organized.  About 22 brothers came to this training seminar to get inspired and to do jail ministry in an organized and efficient way.  At this same seminar 8 evangelists were dedicated and appointed for the first time chaplains representing different jails in the region of ABC. Pastor Aurel Balici prayed for God to fill them with His spirit and with the passion necessary in ministering to inmates and former inmates and their families.  After we handed them the certificates, Pastor Aurel Balici motivated them to seek God’s anointing, leadership and power since certificates do not hold the key to transforming hearts, whereas God’s Spirit working in us has the power to change lives forever.
Besides the prison seminars, we also visited various churches where we felt God’s hands at work.  Among the churches where God’s presence touched lives was ABC Prayer & Healing Church whose senior pastor is Rev. ABC.  The message “Always rejoices in the Lord” and “Our God is a living God” stirred the hearts of the 400 people gathered to hear the word of God and many stepped and asked for prayer.  We also went to the local and only Pentecostal church in the city ABC. There were about 70 members. Both of us were able to minister to this church and bring a message of hope and encouragement to fulfill the commissions that Christ gave to them and to preach the good news despite persecutions and trials.
However, in the midst of the joy and happiness that we experienced in fellowship and prayer with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we were extremely saddened by a world surrounded by false gods and lost in their confusion. For instance, when we departed from ABC and visited some Hindu temples, we were astounded to see the spiritual darkness that these people are living by worshipping every kind of creature such as trees, animals, rocks, etc… Their Hindu doctrine claims that just as one cannot separate the rays from the sun, one cannot separate God, the Creator, from the things that He created.   The error in this doctrine is self-evident in the bible since it condemns when “people worship the created things instead of the Creator, God who is blessed forever.”   Another site that troubled our hearts was the River Gange which is recognized as the “holy river” by the Hindu people.   The legend of Hindus taught people that water flows from the head of Shiva, the most honored god.  The people in their blindness and darkness believe that by bringing sacrifice to this river, they will receive God’s blessing in their lives.  More troubling is that even human lives are being sacrificed in this river and especially girls since they are not wanted by Hindu families.
Due to the tragedies that we witnessed in our two weeks journey to India, I and Pastor Aurel Balici, departed from ABC airport on July 11th, 2006 thanking God for His blessing to be born in a Christian country like Romania and to be able to experience more religious freedom in America.  Our gratitude to the Lord augmented when we heard about the Islamic fanatics’ attack that happened in the city of Bombay shortly after our arrival in Chicago.  On my part, I thanked God for saving me twice from death since four year ago from this same date, He sent His angel to protect my life from the gang member who shot me in the chest in Chicago.  God, however, saved me and gave me more reasons to serve Him and those who want His blessed presence in their lives.  Indeed, this mission trip could not have been possible without His guidance and protection along the 19,000 kilometers we traveled to the various destinations in the heart of India.  At the same time, this trip would not have been as effective if it was not for all those who helped in our journey.  Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude to Brothers ABC who welcomed us at the airoport and took us to different sites.  Second, I would like to thank Rv. Ilie Tomuta from Philadelphia Pentecostal church in Chicago who motivated me to come on this trip and who also accompanied us in our journey.  Also, I want to thank the Romanian missionaries for being true testimonies of faith and persistence in a lost world.   Lastly, I want to encourage each one of you who read this article to pray for the mission work in India and for God to open the doors that more people can be saved from the wicked arms of Hindu religion.