I sent the following letter out to the pastors who are laboring with great enthusiasm in preparation for Life Gate.
Please read and send comments regarding how you might like to use the relationship bridge to support these men who labor in Kanchipuram.
They will appreciate knowing there are those around the world praying for them.

Greetings to the Beloved Shepherds of Kanchipuram!

In preparation for my arrival for the upcoming three nights of meetings, my hope had been to spend time with you as pastors and share more intimately the joy I have in being accepted to return for a second time. Unfortunately, this is not possible, and so I am forced to hear second-hand about how wonderfully the Lord has been with you in preparing for the Life Gate Revival Festival!

I want to remind each of you that when I spoke at the Pastors meeting last year, I made a commitment to you. That commitment was to walk as a servant among you that I might not only preach with an anointed authority for the sake of the harvest, but also to walk humbly in your midst so we can build a life-long partnership together. I hope you’ll see this visit and all future visits as further proof of this commitment, and I hope you desire to build relationship also with me. God is building a society of prayer support here at home as I find opportunity to share with more saints about all the great things that are happening in your district.

The vision the Lord Jesus Christ gave me of building a bridge is coming to pass, and the bridge is one of relationship between the saints of two countries. My goal with you is to begin to pass more prayers, information and testimonies across that bridge, so we can become better together than any of us could ever become on our own. (One tool you can use, if you have experience using the internet, is to read and post comments onto http://LighthouseIndia.org/wordpress/ ). I hope that during our brief time together, we will be able to eat together, plan, pray and laugh like was done so wonderfully on the Day of Pentecost. I want to encourage each of you to whatever extent I can to remain steadfast in ministry and to raise up a new generation of pastors, prophets and evangelists.

Finally, let me say on a practical note, that Joshua, Joel and I are committed to making sure the decision cards are completed by those at the altar and faithfully distributed to you by area so you can minister to new families in an effective way. I hope that when we come to that critical time of the service, that you are ready to help me minister to them in prayer. If there ever is a time during the services where your ministry help is required, it is at this time of harvest! We need to resolve now not to let the devil distract or deter us from our goal of ministering to the souls coming through the Life Gate! One final wish is that all of us could pray for 10 minutes right before each service.

God bless each and every one of you in the matchless Name above all Names, Jesus Christ our Lord!

Brother Andrew Deal

As you all have been praying and supporting tremendously for the upcoming crusades to be held at kanchipuram on the 12th 13th and 14th of this month. It is indeed our joy to update you with the progress. Kanchipuram is one of the strongest places of pagan worship and it is considered as the heart of being one of most sacred and sentimental place for the pagan ritiuals and idol worship, consisting about 2500 temples in a radius of 2 to 5 kilometers. The influence and the stronghold of satan is heavy that he has blinded the eyes of the people from seeing the reality of life and has brought fear upon them. Kanchipuram is also known as a very commericial and business oriented city famous for its production and sale of silk materials. Above all God has done wonderous things in the recent past by shaking the foundations and some major shakeups in the leadership of this historical city, as reported in other posts here, which has opened the door for us to reach people that otherwise would feel intimidated. This crusade is the biggest gospel festival conducted at the public quaters in the aftermath. The churches and the pastors’ have come together in unity and love and are really excited in being co labourers in this mass harvest.

we have been working with four pastors fellowship ( about 350 pastors in total) and co-ordinating with them. The necessary groung work has been done as the ground has been secured for the meetings and the fliers and posters have been printed and distributed. we have also arranged transportations to the adjoining places around kanchipuram who do not have transport fecilities to reach the unreached. In preparation for the crusade a fasting was held on the 28 of july in which abot 350 people came in and prayed and cried out to God seeking for His Glory to be manifested during those three days. There was this awesome sence of love,joy and unity as everyone came in oneness to really pour their heart out and stand together to bring down the walls of satan and see gospel being preached and Gods kingdom being extened.

Our resource people have been working the heart out and do need all of your prayers. with more updates soon. God bless.

In the midst of tidbits of news about our progress with the crusade, I feel it a good time for me to take a break and post a short message to inspire you, based on a weakness I am starting to overcome.

We all know there is no shortage of bad news in the world today. Some of it is truly tragic, while much of it is inflated and dramatized based on a growing addiction the public has for dramatic trajedy. What will this mean to us if the world stays on it’s current course? Perhaps, with a growing dissatisfaction for the multi-channel inundation of negativity, the church may rise as the last remaining credible publisher of good news. Would’t that be nice? However, before that can happen, two things need to take place:

1) People have to seriously recognize the addictive power of despair and negativity in their own lives, and how the media works hard to feed the habit.
2) The chuch must present the gospel as newsworthy to the world without tiring, because at some point, they will be ready to listen once again.

You hear about a divide taking place culturally and politically in the world? That is directly related to the news you and I hear day in and day out. You may think it is the other way around, but in reality it both. It is a vicious cycle forming in the south Atlantic of our souls like a hurricane. Division and promises of more division and turmoil is what sells newspapers and therefore that is what gets published– and perpetuates based on our impaired expectations. While people fight to remain optimistic and hopeful, the awareness of the difficulty to do so must become acute, so we can be rise above the dissolving standard.

As my own personal intrigue and a desire to reconcile has taken me down a path toward political argument with those who rely on cynicism toward groups and events more than fact, I have found myself conflicted as to how I should best spend my time engaging the world in spiritual dialog. The conflict is really more that just time spent. Also at stake is my own sense of mission in life. To seek an objective position in a polarized world requires a lot of work, and even then, no one can escape trusting some sources over others based on a bit of intuition. Although many Christians concede at this juncture, the problem is not solved by disengaging from politics and issues where there is exists a vaccum of godly leadership. So for those of us who remain in the fray, we have to learn fact while retaining the ability to inject hope, without falling back on groupthink or getting our minds clouded by denial or despair. It is a dynamic path to walk, but I believe it is a duty we are called to undertake.

In my journeys with all of this, I bumped into a familiar scripture in Isaiah that re-centered me in my life mission and inspired me to write this post:

Therefore my people shall know what my name is AND what it means; therefore they shall know in that day that I am He who speaks: behold, I AM!
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns!
Isa 52: 6,7 (amplified)

Publish peace.

God has declared a peace treaty without waiting for our rage against Him to subside. He seeks no recompense and He does not seek to oppress. He unilaterally declared peace to us (read Ephesians chapter 2) and we can truly be at peace with Him. The word ‘publish’ here struck me as a call to respond to the onslaught on negativity in the world, with an onslaught of hope and optimism possible because of God’s offer of peace.

Blog peace. Blog salvation.

If other bloggers happen to read this far into this post, and think about that in relation to what they write day in and day out, perhaps we could see a reversal take place in an increasingly polarized world. After all, do you not consider our role one of leadership? One cannot comment on the state of the world and seek a growing audience without the leadership responsibility that accompanites it.

Those of us who are spiritual cannot become enomored in the spin and despair of the world, but must find our calling in the opportunity to transcend it. This is true by definition. Spiritual people are recognizable as the hope bringers to the world. What we have to recognize is the greater story at work in our own lives and PUBLISH THAT in direct competition to what we are hearing. We have to be relevant, on topic, and reconciliatory.

Let me know what you think.

Finances needed for the crusade have come in wonderfully.

More importantly, the sense of partnership has been growing as the word is getting around about the ministry.

I am now asking everyone I meet at church as well as at parties and political fundraisers simple to pray for me and gain a sense of what we are up to by subscribing to this blog. If people want to give more, we can find new projects for helping the churches we come close to effectively, but for now, I am just glad the prayer base is growing and is gaining focus on the event ahead.

Indi-Andy

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2004 was an year of impact i call it coz the crusades powerfully impacted chengulpet( and surrounding villages) as well as every church and pastors. We saw the awesome HAND of GOD Transform people and change their lives for eternity. Throught the crusades not only heaps of people got saved but also it helped us to get to know the pastors and form a close fellowship and network with them to futhere help spread the Awesome, Powerful, Living Word of God and build His Kingdom.

Pastor Andrew and his Team came with a burden and Gods love was demostrated throught them in am awesome way. The word of God came out in Power and in love. The Grace of God sweapt through the ground and brought people to repentance and except Lord Jesus as their Saviour and King. Amen to what God is doing in india chennai through Pastor Andrew Deal.

The crusade is being organized by the following local Pastors in Kanchipuram, and I want all who visit to get to know them and their testimonies with us.

Although I would prefer to have the testimony of Hudson Taylor who never asked for finances, but instead for people to help him break ground in China, I want to let friends who read this blog know that we need help financing the crusade expenses.

The great news is that all we need to bring in at this point is about $1300, because everything provided will be matched up to $2500!

So please send me a note to let me know what you can do right away, which will help us know we met the goal so we can send more money ahead to India as they work to distribute the advertising.

Thanks friends.

PS. I gave $1000 myself, and we are paying our own personal expenses throughout this effort. All collected monies are going totally to crusade related expenses. Crusade budget can be sent to you upon request.

Ok. here is the first report from last years efforts.

BACKGROUND FIRST
Chengulpet sits as a gateway city into one of the most famous areas of South India. Right near it lies Kanchi, which is one of the seven most holy cities in India. Although the State of Tamil Nadu has a Christian population of about 5%, this area is only about 1 to 2%. The main reason for this difference is that the Kanchi temple area attracts a great deal of loyal Hindu devotees, and because of religious intimidation those of other religions have experienced.

THE ENCOUNTER
We went there last year and my first encounter with Chengulpet was to attend and speak at an area pastors meeting. My first inclination was to make sure that I did not communicate as one seeking authority over them, or with any sense of superiority. I wanted to be sensitive about this, although I knew the message I had for them was an authoritative call from Scripture for pastors to be true shepherds according to Isaiah. I had been in meetings where outside preachers from America conducted pastors meetings and promised to adopt local pastors ministries and try to have them attached under their umbrella of ministry.. all so they could go back to their support base at home and boast how many churches in India were ‘under’ their covering. Instead, I made a specific point to bear my heart to them and ask if they would be gracious enough to adopt me for the sake of seeing their city touched by God. During this meeting, although there was trouble with the translation from time to time, I was 100% confident that the Holy Spirit was guiding me to say these things.

I was also confident that God was indeed opening a door of minstry that would make a difference, so I committed myself to them wholeheartedly, and today I am simply taking the next step in that commitment. My hope is that the pastors remember me warmly and that our hearts are truly merged in seeing Biblical breakthrough throughout the Kanchipuram District.

PEARL OF THE GOSPEL
The meetings were about one week later. All the pastors, to the best of my knowledge, were working together to make the event a success and an honor to Christ. My team had arrived and we were all praying for miracles. I was inspired to preach on the “pearl of the gospel”, meaning the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the complete and final solution for the condition of mankind. Charles Finney was the model, and the theme was to plead with the people from all backgrounds to truly seek understnading and appreciation for what Christ has done for them. The services themselves were wonderful, and many healings and deliverances took place with an average attendance of about 2300 people. Although I did pray for the sick on 2 of the nights, my emphasis was on the miracle of salvation, where the revelation truly touches the soul that Christ died to make us whole before God. On the final night, we intended to show portions of the final scenes from Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. All three nihgts were building up to this final time of impact regarding the power of the Cross.

It was an amazing impact! over 550 decision cards were received, and the organizing pastor, Joel, saw a great depth to the testimonies and sttements made on each. People were hungry for God.

AFTERMATH
Along with the victories, there were some struggles. Factions that had been surfacing among some of the pastors came to a head at the crusade, and Pastor Joel had been left to undergo huge amounts of false accusation and grief. Some had accused him of receiving funds from us as the coordinator, when in fact he paid money of his own in order to see the crusade come to pass. We had to pray through the situation as I was back in the US, working through some of our own struggles keeping the business on track.
But overshadowing all of that by leaps and bounds were great testimonies of how the ministry of the crusade had been having rippling effects upon the community. The followup effort had been going well, people were added to the church and new freedom had been realized.

One woman in particular was especially touched. I prayed for her at the crusade, as she was under a terrible curse of depression and despair. I cant remember seeing someone with so heavy a countenance. When i prayed for her, I felt such compassion (which is not natural to my personality) flow by Holy Spirit and touch her heart. She had felt it too, and immediately began to feel joy overtake her sorrows. When I returned in January for Tsunami relief, i saw her at church and she was the most beautiful and joyful person there! The change in her life created great healing in her marriage and family. What a tribute to the power of God!

Joel also informed me at that time of a major change that took place in the area. The powerful and influential Sankaracharya, the high priest of Kanchi was arrested under the direct authority of the previously supportive Chief Minister, Jayalalitha. This man and Jayalalitha had been instrumental in the creation of an anti-conversion law that previously intimidated Christian pastors into fear and ineffectiveness. The law had been repealed, and now with this arrest (not that we are glad anyone is in jail) turned out to create a huge, huge, huge transformation of the spiritual climate of the area. Now Christians have a new freedom just to be themselves and worship God where before, they were operating in near secrecy.

As I heard this story, and later went online to see how the story was having impact throughout the nation, I was utterly amazed. Joel took it a step further and declared to me that the crusade had a direct connection to how things played out, as he has seen the spiritual impact unfold among people, liberating them to live for Christ. Thank God for a friend who does not get caught up in political intrigue like so many, but honestly sees the hand of God in all things, liberating people as the Word of God goes out and bears truth to all things.

We’ll hear from Joel and Josh and others next.

As I was researching information for our upcoming kanchi crusade, I found this blog and knew i had to post a reply to it. If you dont have time to read the whole thing, please check out my post I made to it. I think it reveals the heart i have for people, and the concern I have that religious fanaticism can undermine the ever-critical message of hope that the world needs to hear.

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I read through this entire blog and am amazed how all this talk about religion and religious identity has absolutely ZERO spiritual value.

If there exists any reason to maintain any particular religious identity or convert to a new one, it must only and ever be becuase a spiritual revelation takes hold in the life of the individual.

Now that we live in a global world, where people of different backgrounds and interests mix more freely then ever before, we have to come to terms with the fact that the best ideas are the ones that are going to win over the people.

India is a country that on many levels is embracing an amazing amount of change, and well balanced people understand that in order to grow, you cannot resist change but must embrace it.

Almost every party addressed in Rajeev’s moanfest above wields a great amount of power based on stirring up fear of change among their constituents. And look how we decay into playing along! Accusations fly, personal responsibility is ignored and spirituality is mentioned not!

I can speak from personal experience that the Kanchi upheaval came about from a spiritual war. The spirit of intimidation that has plagued Christian pastors in the area due to the anti-conversion law threat was countered with powerful prayer and a demonstration of new boldness by Christians in the area. Today, there is a new freedom in Chengulpattu and many are finding new hope by seeking God in their own way.

Does that cause fear in you? If anyone fears a new idea, you have two choices:
1) Argue for the superiority of your idea and back it up, OR…
2) Seek to destroy the new idea and spread fear among the uneducate whom you try to control.

#1 is spiritual and respectful of the individual, who will stand or fall as a unique creation of God.
#2 is dastardly, unspiritual, divisive, factious, oppressive, and unfortunately, all too familiar in Indian culture and politics.

indiandy@lighthouseindia.org

P.S.
I am committed to not breaking down nor speaking ill of any religion, but instead promoting a direct and wonderfully rewarding relationship with the Father God.
# posted by Andrew Deal : 7/17/2005 1:20 AM

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Now that the web tool is set up for journaling our progress as we step closer to Aug 12th, I need to start these real-time notes by establishing the priority of prayer partnership. I want each and every one of you to understand that partnership with you, not contribution, is what I am seeking. What this means specifically is that in order for us to fulfill this mission, that more than a few people need to have a stake in it. And, although we need to raise a bit of money to augment what I and our matching partners have put in, invested prayer to break the bonds that have kept India suffering is the essential ingredient.

I wont go into a list of prayer requests now, as that is what the whole blog is for.. to keep partners up to date on prayer needs and opportunities. What I will say however is that the opportunity is great, our support team is honorable, and this hour for the gospel in Chengulpet and Kanchipuram is unprecedented.

There is a new freedom for Christians to share their faith without persecution, new opportunities for broken lives to be healed, and many new Christian leaders to be raised up to plant churches!