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We’re Back!

Actually we have been back for almost a month, but I am just now getting my life in order and managing to transpose nearly 60 pages of journal entries into this Blog. I tried to make it shorter, and for those of you who would rather watch the movie I posted a great video on youtube.com that shows part of our trip, I recommend checking it out. Search for Edgewater India 09 and if it starts with a segment called digging a well then you found the right one. What follows is a snapshot of our trip and although long I recommend reading when you have a chance, because God is working mightily in India. Quickly let me give you the short version. We dug a well, we built a church, we witnessed a miracle, we sponsored a child, we prayed with people and lead people to the lord, we have never been more hot, tired, or filled with joy than we were on this journey and we are already planning a return trip. We serve an amazing God!

Day 1-2

We traveled and we traveled and we traveled. Including the two hours early we showed up for our first flight, and the 2-hour layovers in San Francisco, Chicago, and Frankfurt, we were traveling for 34 hours. When you add that to the 12-hour time difference you get a full 48 hour (that’s right, India is 12 hours ahead which since there are 24 time zones in the world means India is exactly half way around.) We showed up in Chennai at midnight of the second day. We were picked up by one of the Indian pastors, and we headed straight to the hotel. By the time we got to sleep it was 2:00am but praise the Lord, we had all our baggage (two fifty pound bags each full of toys, candy and tools) were in India.

Day 3

More traveling. We woke early had a traditional Indian breakfast, (rice pancakes, and curries) and headed to the mall. Chennai is a crazy city. We only spent half a day there but the sheer concentration and amount of people has left a lasting impact on me. Traffic for example, if you picture a southern California gridlock and then add cars on both shoulders and fill the spaces between all the lanes with motorcycles you will have a general idea of what traffic was like. But it isn’t stop and go like what we think of as gridlock instead it is a slowly moving, never stopping, mass of humanity. To really experience Indian traffic and driving we got to take a motorized rickshaw ride through the streets of Chennai. The motorized rickshaw is like a three-wheeled golf cart with a bench seat in the back for passengers. We could literally touch cars and busses on either side as we buzzed though the busy roads, dodging pedestrians, street vendors, other rickshaws and holy cows. Yes the cows are holy and as such they have free reign to do whatever they want, including block traffic. After Rickshaw riding we went to the mall so the girls could purchase the traditional Indian clothes they were required to wear. Once the clothes were purchased and the rickshaw riding done we pilled back into our van and headed to our headquarters in Rameshwaram. If you look for Rameshwaram India in the Tamil Nadu province on a map or goggle earth you will be able to see where we were. It is a small island in southeastern India right near Sri Lanka. It took twelve hours of driving to get there from Chennai so aside from the mall trip and brief sight seeing, day three was all travel. We got to the Body of Christ Ministries Campus at 1:00am and headed to our rooms in the training center. The campus has three pastors homes, an infant rescue home, two schools and a pastors training center. The training center is a 200,000 square foot concrete and marble structure (picture the roman coliseum) that is in various stages of completion. Beautifully polished marble floors and plastered walls give way to bare concrete and exposed rebar. Our rooms were unfinished but nice and clean with a fan in each one. Thank you Lord for fans because it is literally 100 degrees here. It was the beginning of their summer and with the 90% humidity, the fan (and exhaustion) were the only things that made sleep possible. We are all quickly asleep and the 7am wakeup came way too soon.

Days 4-7

The next four days were pretty much the same, we woke each morning and loaded into the van to make the hour drive back onto the main land of India and to the building site of the Church. We would have breakfast, work from 8:30 till 3, have lunch, about an hour break, and then head out for village outreaches. The outreaches last until midnight or so then we head back. We’d stop at the church site again for dinner, that is where our cook is (oh yes we had a cook and he was awesome) try to eat something, and then all fall asleep in the van on the way back to the training center; fall into bed around 1, get up at six for morning devotions, load into the van at 7 and repeat. At the church project we were mostly manual labor. During the first two days we dug a well which was an amazing experience; it took half of our crew most of the first two days to complete the well, but when we did and we struck clean water it was an amazing experience. Most of the workers here are volunteers who go to this Church and when we struck good water they were so full of thanks. There have already been two salt water wells dug on this 1/2 acre piece of property so to strike clean water was a miracle and they treated it is such. While half of our crew was working on the well the other half were transporting bricks for the masons. Moving bricks in this 100+ degree heat reminds me of the Israelites in Egypt. It was unbelievable hot and hard work. We all drank about 1 1/2 gallons of water a day and we sweat it all out; we were just dripping and covered in either well dirt or brick dust. The well and the bricks took up days one and two while moving sand was our job on days three and four. India has a rainy season where the entire area around the church will be covered in a foot or so of water. To keep the church dry we filled the bottom two feet of the building with sand. Shoveling into rubber buckets we carried 60 yards of sand into the church. Just when all of us thought we couldn’t possible move any more in the heat it would be lunchtime. More rice and curry for lunch and then an hour or so to relax before village outreaches. Every day when we headed to the outreaches I would think that I did not possibly have enough energy to go, but when we went I would receive such refreshment from the experience that it could only have been from the Lord. Outreaches were amazing, we would show up in the villages and be instant celebrities. We brought candy and toys, which all the kids wanted. We would play with the kids and then walk around the villages inviting people to the town center for a movie. When people found out we were missionaries they would want us to pray for them or for their house or their children. The presence of the Lord was so tangible during these outreaches that I long to be back there. We prayed for a baby who had been crying virtually non-stop for 2 months and she was healed, we were able to lead numerous people (50 some children, many villagers and one 90 year old blind man) to Christ. The joy on these people’s faces at the concept of free forgiveness from sins still gives me chills. Praying with these people was like freeing people from jail. The Hindu religion is so oppressing that the grace of Christ’s free sacrifice was a freedom they had never known. As we walked around the town we would invite people to the city square. We brought a screen and a video projector, and when darkness fell we would play an evangelical movie for the people. As the movie closed the Indian pastors would do an alter call, we would pray for more people, and then pack up our stuff and head back to the training center. In each village we visited people were saved and lives were changed. What an amazing opportunity.

Day 8

Day eight was the climax of our trip and something I will remember forever. It was a Sunday and the opening ceremony for the church. The church may have been small (20′ x 40′) but it was completely packed with people; and there were almost as many people standing outside looking through the windows as there were people inside. The service, which included a ribbon cutting ceremony and a full hour of powerful worship, lasted almost five hours total. Jason spoke, I spoke, the new church’s pastor spoke, the three main pastors from Body of Christ ministries spoke, and the mayor of the town spoke. Seven years earlier the church that was here was burnt down by Hindu radicals. For seven years the congregation has been meeting outside, or in the pastors home, but the new church is made of brick and cannot be burnt down, and the congregation was rejoicing powerfully. After the service we had a quick lunch and then headed to the beach to relax for the rest of the day. We got to swim in the Indian ocean, the water was 85 degrees and very salty so we all just floated around and enjoyed the hour or so of relaxing.

Day 9

Today we will be leaving but before that we got to tour the B.O.C. campus and the island of Rameshwaram. We got up early and went to the second most holy sight for all Hindus. There is a beach on the island of Rameshwaram where the waters are said to have healing powers and every good Hindu is supposed to make a pilgrimage here. We saw them there offering sacrifices of food and hair, worshiping at the temple and bathing in the ocean. It was a very spiritually dark place, we all felt it, and were happy to leave. We then returned to the campus and visited the infant rescue home. Traditionally in India girl’s parents are required to provide a dowry to the husband in order to have their daughters get married. Some of the very poor families cannot afford the dowry so if they have a daughter they will kill her rather than raise her and not be able to pay the marriage price. Body of Christ ministries has a rescue home for these girls to be brought to instead of put to death. The little girls were so cute. While we were visiting the infant home the pastor we were with got a phone call that one of their associate pastors had just rescued a girl from a village and they were bringing her there. In order to support the infant home each child has a sponsor. The pastor asked us if as a group we would like to sponsor this baby girl, we said yes and so as a group we are sending money there each month to support her. We even got to name her. We named her Selah (which means to wait and ponder on the Lord) Rain (because we talked a lot about the raining down of God’s blessings on our trip) Grace (because everyone needs grace) Selah Rain Grace, we got to meet her just before we left that day and pray over her. She was beautiful. It was heartbreaking and joyous at the same time to see such a precious baby (three days old!) that had been saved from death to be raised in a caring Christian environment. We toured the elementary school, and the school for the untouchable children. The caste system although publicly outlawed is still very much alive in India and the members of the lowest caste (the untouchables) cannot even go to school. Body of Christ Ministries has built a school specifically for these kids where they provide uniforms, lunches and education. After all these school visits we loaded into the van and drove four hours to the city of Maduri; we had a couple hours to shop for souvenirs, then we loaded on a plane for a one hour flight to Chennai; had a four hour layover and then 36 hours later we were home.

Sometimes I still can’t believe the trip happened. Talking to the entire team afterwards it is clear that none of us will ever be the same. A month later the glow from the missions trip is starting to fade, but I will always remember the powerful faith and praise of my Indian brothers and sisters. I will always remember the girl who was saved, the well that was dug, the people who believed, the baby who was healed and the church that was built. We serve an amazing and powerful God who can do great things through all of us.

God Bless,

James Dennis

Hello everyone, I want to take the time to share with you all about our Fall Coast Camp on the “chili Northern California Coast”.  Some people think I am crazy for even attempting these trips on such an unpredictable Coastline. You really never know what type weather your going to get when planning these trips.  However, fall is always a great time of year for the Northern California Coast.  You actually have a really good chance of scoring great weather.  Our trip sure didn’t dissapoint.  We had two absolutely gorgeous days on the beach. It almost felt like we were in Southern California without the 70 degree water. It did however get down to freezing degrees overnight. Some of the gang were huddled around the fire throughout the night trying to stay warm. The ocean water was also quite chili because of the cold nights lately, but that didn”t keep the crew from hitting the line-up on our longboards. I was so proud of how many of you learned how to surf and actually enjoyed being cold. Once your numb the pain goes away.  We had such a good time of worship and time of Bible Study on Saturday night as we looked at Romans chapter 8.  ”I know God moved that night in some of your hearts” and that is exactly what these trips are all about.  Just to get away from everyday life for a while and learn about God while at the same time enjoying outdoors and good fellowship. I also wanted to thank Steve and Heather Carlino for supplying all the surfboards and wetsuits for this great surf trip. We were all shocked to have witnessed Heather Carlino in a roll over car accident at the beach where we were hanging out for the day.  We all saw it happen and ran up to see her trapped in her car. We were all able to see God move in that situation as we prayed together as a group for her safety. She was released later that night from the hospital without injuries except bruising and a headache. It was all quite shocking for everyone to see this happen before our eyes. We are grateful that she is ok. There should be some pictures posted soon for this trip. thanks to everyone who helped out. God Bless