India Mission Trip 2006

Days One, Two and Three

We boarded the plane in Harrisburg at 9:00 am Thursday, taking flights through Detroit, Amsterdam, Bombay and Vishaknaputnam. While in Bombay, I had a short conversation with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, for he was visiting the Prime Minister and was catching another plane. After arriving at our destination, we were greeted by Nehemiah Gootam, the president of Kakinada School of Preaching and Ricky Gootam, the nephew of Nehemiah. We visited in the vehicles over the three hour drive south to Kakinada, arriving at nearly 6:00 PM on Saturday. Needless to say we were extremely tired and headed off to bed early.

Day Four

That was a great sleep, but now to work. Paul Yoder and I worshipped at the church of Christ at the Kakinada School of Preaching. Nehemiah wanted me to preach a lesson of encouragement for them and the Lord blessed us with the baptism of a Hindu man and his wife. This is of particular encouragement since often times Hindu men forbid the conversion of their wives for it brings great shame on them before their peers. We also went out into a couple neighboring villages where there were two and nine more baptized respectively.

Day Five

Paul and I began our teaching mission at the preacher school while Anastasia and Angelina participated in the work at the orphanage. Though there were many students still returning from a holiday, there were still sixty plus in attendance to hear classes on evangelism and 1 Peter taught by myself and Paul respectively. These are great students with a fantastic attention span, often able to hold great concentration over a period of many hours.

In the afternoon, the Yoder ladies and I joined with Joshua Gootam, Nehemiah’s brother, and visited a village church about an hour away. This was definitely a more remote area, for the road was congested with many cows, water buffaloes, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, and farmers driving carts of straw, all in the view of cotton and rice fields decorated with palm and coconut trees. There were even a few parrots, lizards and wild monkeys to be seen if one kept their eyes open for them. The church we visited was a new work, but a thriving one. We prayed with and taught many, resulting in three more souls being added to the kingdom. We walked through the shadow of a four-story statue of the monkey-god on the right side and the cobra-god on the left in order to reach the river for baptism. At the same time these three sisters in Christ both literally and figuratively left their old gods behind and began a personal relationship with the only true and living God. Later on that evening we visited another village church and ten more were baptized into Christ.

Day Six

Paul and I continued our teaching of the preacher students at KSP. Because everything at the college must be translated into both Telegu and Oriya, we are limited to the time that is spent on each lesson. The twins ventured into some areas of ministry with Ricky Gootam, encouraging the orphans and continuing their support of them.

In the afternoon, we worked on the new Bible computer library at the school. Rite Aid, whose corporation is headquartered in Camp Hill, was upgrading their company laptops a few months prior to our departure; therefore we were blessed to be able to acquire some of these perfectly functional devices for the students and staff at the school. It melted my heart to see the smiles on the faces of these eager souls scrolling through entire volumes of electronic Bible material and color photos of archaeology, all with the push of a button or two. For many of these men it was the first time they ever touched a computer and now they have an entire world of biblical information at their fingertips to help them prepare for a life of preaching the gospel. It was the blood of Jesus, the technology of the twenty-first century and the godly passion of men that came from huts all meeting for the first time. What a wonderful day!

That evening we went to a remote village called Venkata Nagaram, a work that some of my friends in the U.S. support. I preached a lesson on Christian unity and the Lord opened their hearts, resulting in fourteen baptisms. There was another reason for additional joy this night, for we had a couple of bags of candy that was distributed to the children after we were finished with the preaching. Nothing brings more joy to the face of a young child more than a handful of Smarties or Sweet Tarts. It was nearly midnight by the time we arrived to our place of rest, but we had much to dream about this night.

Days Seven, Eight and Nine

For the next three days, Nehemiah would be taking me to a town called Guntur, located about five hours from Kakinada. It is in the jungle areas around this city that many churches have been planted, providing for many opportunities in evangelism. Because we did not arrive until evening, the first night was spent at the ribbon cutting of a new church building for a congregation of about 60, resulting in one baptism. That evening on our way back, we passed through a town called Amaravathi, taking rest under a 100 foot tall statue of Buda, for this is the supposed place that he offered his prayers. There were 400,000 Buddhists that gathered from all over the world the week prior to worship with the Dali Lama at this "holy" site; yet it was the followers of Jesus Christ that were the truly enlightened ones that were present (Philippians 2:15).

Day eight was very busy for there were four meetings to preach at and all of them were in rural areas around the city. We taught lessons about the body being the Temple of the Holy Spirit, The Great Commandment, the Woman at the Well and a lesson on the church. We preached late into the night, arriving home at eleven, but it was all worth it because it resulted in 23 baptisms.

On day nine we ventured two more hours further into the rural areas called Karampudi, meaning "place of chili powder". This is definitely the most remote area of the excursion, for most of the people were goat and sheep herders or rice and cotton farmers. The church building we met in was a young widow’s one room home and the congregation was recently planted by an area preacher. This is an area that is 20 kilometers from a notorious group of Marxist rebels that have kidnapped and killed many businessman and foreigners that have gone into the rain forest. It is in this jungle environment that a few new churches had been planted and many of the lost there wanted to hear the gospel from the white man. Usually the practice is to "Go out into all the world and preach the gospel", but because of the danger, we "brought the world into us" by busing them to the safer area. They were much more tribal in their appearance, but eager to reason the gospel, resulting in 12 more baptisms in the river nearby.

Paul, Angelina and Anastasia all worked with Joshua and Ricky Gootam for the past three days, visiting and teaching in the villages and orphanage as well as working on the new computer Bible library for the students at KSP. There were four others baptized during this time.

Day Ten

Paul and I continued teaching at the school in our previously discussed courses. They are in a special six-week program. This was something that was set up to help the rural preachers to be able to come to school and better prepare themselves by taking a few courses for a short time before returning back to the work. It was also open for the denominational preachers to come and learn more about the Bible. After the class on the gospel, two of the denominational preacher students from the villages decided they wanted to be baptized; therefore this means this morning they have some "Good News" for their home congregations.

Later on that evening, we traveled to a rural church about 1½ hours north of Kakinada and I preached a lesson on knowing the reasoning behind God’s commands. There was not any electricity so we used a few candles; therefore I was glad that the lesson was already in my head. It was hard not to imagine that this was what it was like in the first-century for many of the Christians. There were eleven more that wanted to be baptized, including a visiting freelance preacher who will now be helping this congregation’s preacher.

Day Eleven

Paul and I preached at the School of Preaching congregation and Kakinada Church respectively while the twins taught the class for the young children. It was good to see some of the saints from my last visit over two years ago. Many of them were coming up to me asking, "Sir, do you remember me from last time?" Following worship, I took ill for a few hours, resulting in sleep for the remainder of the day. This meant that Paul would go out without me and preach the sermon in a distant village in the evening. This was our second Sunday here and the Lord blessed us with eleven responses in the morning and four more in the evening.

Day Twelve

Today consisted of a ride to the train station, a fourteen hour train trip in a bouncy sleeper car with three Hindus and hours of Bible reading. Phalguna, one of the professors from KSP, and I studied for a couple hours with some denominational preachers from Madras. They seemed very attentive and it helped the time pass. We arrived in Balangir at 3:00 A.M. and yes, we were very tired.

Day Thirteen

Benjamin Nanda, a preacher from the area, worked with some of the other preachers and held a meeting for about 150 people. We preached about Christ and the church, resulting in five more baptisms. Hostility is greater against Christianity here in this state, because of the Hindu influence. According to Benjamin, in order to be baptized, a person must go down to the police station and fill out a permit confirming that this person is doing it of their own freewill. We really do not appreciate our freedom of religion in our own country like we should.

Following this event was an arranged meal provided for them by some supporters in the U.S. There were also many poor preachers visiting from the area that we distributed some of the funds to for them to use in their work. That night we made a three hour trip to the next town called Bargarh, hitting every pothole along the way

Meanwhile, back in Andrah Pradesh, Paul and the girls accompanied Ken Grimm, an old friend that lives four hours south of Kakinada. They helped in the work for Lifeline of Hope, an orphanage relief organization, evaluating several orphanages for the distribution of funds.

Day Fourteen

I thought that Bargahr was a backwoods region, but Chikili was way back in the sticks, for we traveled for two hours over very rough roads and dirt paths to reach it. Once we arrived, we were greeted by a group of about seventy that chose to attend the scheduled seminar on Matthew 6. After about two hours of preaching, there were three Hindus that wanted to be baptized. This was all followed by a wonderful meal prepared by the brethren. After making the two hour drive back to Bargarh, we refreshed ourselves at the hotel and loaded up the car and headed out for the six hour trip to Rourkela, having planned two daily seminars.

Days Fifteen and Sixteen

We held a seminar in a rented facility for about one hundred individuals, mostly denominations. The topic of discussion was generational curses and how they affect our family legacy. It was the choice of Dirahj, the son-in-law on Benjamin Nanda, to have this seminar, for it covered many of the issues that Indian families had faced. In between sessions there was another meal provided by the US brethren with the hope of many families attending. This seminar resulted in only seed-planting and no conversions.

The following day we went to a meeting at the Rourkela Church of Christ, a congregation located in the heart of "dung" land, literally. This small encouraging group meets in a building that is centered in the area of town where the people make dung brick out of piles of manure for fuel for the poor of India. The preacher from the congregation is Brother G.C Mahonta and he is doing a fine work. We covered "Fishers of Men" and "God's Unstoppable Plan". There were three more souls converted and there followed another meal. We had a special surprise for Mahonta's family; there were funds sent over with us to purchase new shoes and dress clothes for the entire family. The man wept because he had not been able to buy his wife any clothes during his eight year marriage. This would be the first time that anyone in his family had ever owned a pair of closed-toed shoes. You can only imagine their faces when picking out new clothes to wear for the work of a minister of the gospel.

Benjamin Nanda and Brother Mahonta saw us off at the train station. Once again, the train was only 2½ hours late, something that is the standard for the transit system. It would be another fourteen hours before we would reach our destination back in Kakinada.

Paul continued his teaching for the 1 Peter class at the Kakinada School of Preaching, while the twins worked with the adjacent Hotel Management School, having already been familiar with food preparation safety regulations from the family business. The twins and the hotel students really enjoyed this, for it was something different for both of them.

Day Seventeen

Nehemiah and I spent the next seventeen hours on the train, making the five hundred mile trip south back to Kakinada. I slept; I studied; I ate; I slept some more; I studied. I was so tired that I forgot it was my birthday until later in the day; therefore after arriving home at 4:30 PM, we decided to go out for chicken pizza, their substitute for pepperoni. The Gootams and Yoders surprised me with cake and a song.

Day Eighteen

It is the first day of the week and time for collective worship again. Paul preached at the Kakinada church and I went into the coconut groves with Nehemiah with our first stop being Mulaparru. They are a vibrant large group and the small building was packed. We preached on salvation and there were 11 baptisms. Following worship, we were treated to fresh coconut water directly from the tree. From there we went to Palacole to meet with a group of one hundred and thirty. This is an area that has many congregations; therefore there were over a dozen preachers in attendance. During the invitation there were 16 men an woman requesting to be baptized. We walked the half mile through the village and down to the river to witness their birth. Following this, we were invited to a meal at the preacher's home, which happened to be attached to the house.

Day Nineteen

Today was an extra special day, for I met the Prasad Kumar family, a preacher from Hyderabad that our family has supported for awhile. They traveled twelve hours on the train to visit me at the school. We had never met, but simply shared in the same labor through prayer, letters and support. We spent the best part of the day visiting and making plans for the work.

While Paul and his daughters were finishing some departure plans, I finished my duties of teaching the evangelism class at the school. We will really miss these men, for they absolutely are dedicated to the learning of the Bible and the principles thereof. Later that night, after Paul and I finished some work on the computers, we hopped a three-wheel taxi and departed the school for the last time.

Day Twenty

The Yoders rode the train north to Visaknaputnam while Nehemiah and I took the vehicle with the luggage. We would meet later in a few hours and stay in a hotel for our departure the next day. On the way up, Nehemiah and I stopped in a village called Chukkapalle, which means "Colony of the Stars". The church building was a partially completed structure, needing only the roof and floor, but it was absolutely complete with joy, including 10 more conversions responding to the lesson on the price of discipleship. Later on that night, we held a meeting at Visaknaputnam Church of Christ, which would be our last for this trip. It was a small church building that was accessible by 50 yards of steps and offered a beautiful view of the city.

Day Twenty-one

This would be our last few hours with Nehemiah and his wife Nalina. We did a little shopping, a lot of packing and around noon headed for the airport. After checking the luggage and securing the tickets, we huddled off to the side and had a closing prayer, thanking the Lord for our time here, the people that made it possible and the successes that He brought us. We experienced an uneventful journey home, having just a few delays.

Not counting the travel time to and from the country, we only spent sixteen days in eastern India laboring for the Lord. What was accomplished in this time confirms the great pace which we moved in this mission. We traveled over ten thousand kilometers to visit over thirty-five different congregations, assisting over fifty orphans in their needs, distributing funds to over sixty different preachers and their families, preaching nearly seventy lessons, educating many dozens of preacher students, encouraging thousands of saints and witnessing one hundred and fifty-seven individuals committing their souls to Christ through baptism. As discussed among the other members of the trip, there was nothing we were unhappy about concerning the mission. We surpassed our goals and know what was done will last an eternity for many.

I would like to thank you all for your prayers, encouragement and support in this mission. You are helping shape the future of the second most populated country in the world by leading them to the throne of Jesus.

Yours in Christ,

Doug Hamilton