We are pleasantly amazed at how the conference registrations are coming in this year.

We figured we would only have 350-400 in attendance this year, since last year we had to reduce our conference from two days down to one. So to be safe, we budgeted for 500 people and figured we could be content to slowly rebuild attendance over a couple of years. Turning people away last year was a sad event that had some pastors critical about returning.

So this year, on Sunday I learned that to our surprise we got 500 registrations mailed in from pastors and their wives wanting to attend! We figured we had a full house.. great news, end of story, happy days. Then last night, we discovered we got 250 more registrations bringing it up to 750! Wow God. Looks like we’ll have to turn people away as we can’t ask the cooks to stretch out the food supply.

Please pray for us and help out if you can. Our cost for each attendee is $25 for a two-night stay and 6 meals provided as well as a conference packet. It is a bit of an emergency, not that we are drowning, but just that we need to know quickly whether we should expand our capacity quickly or limit who can come. In India, limiting who can come is trickier than in the States, as many of our pastors come from small villages and have little to no phone service.

If you want to help, the easiest way to do a small amount is to do it on this form or by Paypal.

Doing it through the church is not possible this time, as this years event has been self-funded up to this point, and nothing official through the church has been set up for donations.

I am excited to see how the messages for this year are coming together. I have been initially inspired by the theme, “The Overcoming Church” for the conference, and it all stems from the idea that God’s project is the church. Too often, our project is ourselves. Our agenda. Our promotion. Our blessing.

In studying through this, I discovered/re-discovered that in each of the three places where teaching on the gifts are found: Rom 12, 1 Cor 12, and Eph 4, that high emphasis is first placed on One faith, One Spirit, One Body, exhorting us toward humility, submission and service. Imagine if the church could come together, knowing that we represent one another, with a determination to be the readied Bride Christ is returning for.

Thanks for your prayers as we move forward towards next weeks meetings. Please click the headline in the email and read Josh’s posts from Friday. There you will find prayer points, logistics updates, and most interestingly, great new picture galleries.

Indy-Andy

Hi everyone, how is it going? We are excited and ready for this years outpour of God’s awesome & powerful presence. If u would have read Andrews post yes,this year instead of the crusades its going to be a one-day Revival Meeting and this will be on the 26th of this month. We are expecting about 1000 to 1500 people, its going to be an all day event featuring music, preaching, food, praying for the sick, games and competitions. We have secured a venue for this day and all the preparations have been done. Pastors fellowship meetings have been conducted and all the pastors are not only working hard for this meeting but have also made it a point to meeting together everyday and pray. Please pray for good weather, healing, protection, favour, salvation and peace that surpasses all understanding to rule and reign the hearts that come that day.

29,30,31 are the dates set for the conference, we are almost done with the promotional work and we already have 350 registrations as of today, and our target is 500. Overcoming Church is this years theme and we are going to have a 2 days of powerful worship, practical and live teachings, last but not the least fellowship with one another. Please pray for all the preparations that are underway and pray that God would minister to his servants, ignite the passion and fire as they rest in his presence during these 3 days. My hearts desire and prayer is that when our pastor leave this conference they would leave Purpose Driven.

We thank and appreciate everyone who has been of help in every way. God Bless you. Please check the site and continue to keep in touch with us..

I leave you with some pictures of the pastors meetings and fellowships…. Blessings.

Uttiramerur Core Group

Uttiramerur Pastors Fellowship

chengulpet Pastors Fellowship

Brochure and Fliers

Although we have not updated all of you in a while, the plans for India’s ministry have been forging ahead according to schedule. I am meeting Katherine in LA tomorrow, and we fly out of LAX late Tuesday night. This year it has been hard to switch gears to have India and the meetings on my mind. Now that I am sitting in the airport however, and after a great weekend where I got great encouragement at church, I am confident this years ministry will be stellar.

No longer do I have a sense that this is a big juggle, which has been my biggest concern over the last few months. The privilege of preaching in new territory and speaking to district leaders deserves high devotion from me. This ongoing opportunity to serve and lead in Kanchipuram is a high honor which I do not take lightly.

This year is definitely different. No big team. No big prep. No big crusade. First time for my wife to be with me in 4 years. First time she’ll be speaking with me. New church behind me. No financial assistance. Great prayer warriors remembering us daily. Instead of a crusade, we are doing a one-day, all day event in Uteriamerur featuring a different style of evangelism. Food, music, preaching and extended prayer are on the agenda. We’ll have more info about it soon. Please pray for a visitation of the intimacy of the Lord in this meeting.

The theme for this year at the conference is going to be the overcoming church. In short, we are the bride of Christ. How does a bride prepare for her marriage? What kind of spiritual, emotional and phyical health does the bridegroom desire His bride to possess? If there is strife, second guessing, infidelity in the bride’s character, does this not break the bridegroom’s heart?

We will be gathering together about 500 pastors and their wives for a 2 day retreat to explore these ideas and renew our devotion as pastors of the bride, to expel all strife, self-serving and beggerly spirits in our midst. This is now my passion for this trip, as I know I am directed to preach along these lines.

Thanks one and all for your help in prayer and support. Please check the site and pray through past years archives so you can intercede for us in this years bridge building. I appreciate each and every one of you.

First thing…

You need to read Joshua’s post that really gives you a great report of how well the preparations are going on his end. He lays out the breakthroughs and the challenges well. For the visual among you, you also need to check out the updated Kanchipuram interactive district map, as it now has a layout of this years Life Gate Festival.

Prayer is needed now for getting the venue secured. You can see how small the Christian population is here, so getting a good location approved by the Taluk leadership is going to be harder than in the past, but the fruit at the other end is greater. Let light shine in the darkness friends, as we seek to breakthrough.

Please pray over the maps and listen for words you can share with us.

Thanks,

Andrew

Greetings, as you all are aware by now that our focus for 2008 is on Uttiramerur. Before we start, here is a ball park view about the place. Uttiramerur is one of the key taluks in Kanchipuram district, has a population of around a 380000 spread over 262 villages. The taluk has a Christian population of 2500, 40 Churches and about 550 temples. The literacy rate is lower than what we have seen at Maduranthakam last year. It is an historical place rulled by the pallava kings from the 4th - 9th century. We will be ministering to a very diverse population and our prayer is that God will open up the heavens and pour out his blessings over this town.

The Preparation starts!

We (Team India) did meet with the key leaders of this taluk on the 4th of this month. We had a good time praying together and seeking the heart of God for the upcoming crusades. They are a awesome group of pastors in union with each other and are very happy to support us in what ever way they can to make this crusade happen and are all the more excited to proclaim the matchless name of Jesus Christ duirng these times. We are making history by having the crusade here coz it has been 7 years since anything like this has happened. It is a very strong place spiritually, but we have a God who is the strongest of all, so we all are very excited and are looking forward for the awesoem three days in july. Ps. Arokiasamy who heads the uttiramerur pastors fellowship is such an humble and prayerful man who has been here (uttiramerur) from the very begining of his ministry and has poured his heart for the taluk. We all are strengthened by his faith and his spiritual walk with Christ. We have identified couple of venue’s where we could conduct the crusade but waiting for clearence and permission from the land owners. Please pray that God would open up doors and we would find favour in the eyes of the authorities. We are meeting again on the 12th for prayer and to secure the venue for the 25th, 26th & 27th of july.

Please remember us in your prayers coz we need them and continue to keep in touch with us.

I leave you with some pictures of the pastors and the venue’s we have selected. The empty fields you see will be transformed, where thousands of people will join in celebration to worship the Living God. Wow….. Wanna a be a part of this history making event come join us this july……. Blessing…….

Each year, our team in India prays for the best location for our crusade. As you can see on our map, each year we are moving southward through the district, with a goal to reach places that are outside the usual large meeting circuit, and can use a distinct word that will set lasting change in motion for a particular community, and bring leaders together throughout the district to work with one another.

Although I still believe a big year ahead will have us move closer to the largest populations near Chennai, Uttiramerur, sitting further south still is a place hungry for change and hopeful that what took place in nearby Madhuranthagam last year can happen for them as well.

As this is my first newsletter this year, I want to pose this location to all those who know me here in the States as well as overseas to pray and help us confirm this years strategy. You may not know all the details, but I trust God to speak through you who call upon Him. Please read through the stats below and visit the blog to see how it flows with prior years as you pray. Whatever God has for us this year, I am trusting His favor and growing friendships to bolster my efforts as I know I can do nothing alone.

Uttiramerur Taluk

1. Panchayat Villages : 73
2. Taluk Villages : 262
3. Theatres : 2
4. Liquor Shops : 3
5. Polytechnic : 1
6. ITI : 1
7. Higher Secondary School : 1 (girls)
8. Higher Secondary school : 2 (boys)
9. Private English schools : 5
10. Banks : 6
11. Treasury : 1
12. B.D.O Office : 1
13. Police Station : 1
14. Hindu Bible college : 1(people from all walks of life
Come here to learn)
15. Taluk Office (Village Office) : 1
16. Irrigational Lake : 2
17. Town Population : 35000
18. Total Taluk Population : 380000
19. Catholic Churches : 4
20. Protestant Churches : 12
21. Hindu Temples : 9 (big ones) some 1500 years old

The pastors and local leaders are willing to work together in extending the Kingdom of God and breaking through here in Jesus Name.

Thank you for your help here.

BTW, the tentative schedule, subject to meetings this week, is to have the crusade on July 18th - 20th, and to have the conference afterwards (change) on July 29th - 31st.

Greetings. I want to make this site a resource for those that are praying, and to do so requires that you have a sense for recent news items coming from India, especially relating to caste issues. To make this happen, I decided to embed this feed into the blog so you can take a look as you are reading updates. Right now it is just part of this post, but we’ll likely make it a permanent part of the home page as this post gets pushed back to page 2.

Why news about caste? The dismantling of the caste system in my view is the single biggest ongoing news theme in India relating to a spiritual shift in the nations culture. When we conduct a crusade, caste is on my mind, and setting the captives free under the authority of Christs mission is the place from which I speak in faith. If we continue to come from this place in both word and deed, we’ll see town after town transformed in every way, as the church truly grows in its role to lead people in love toward freedom.

Sorry about the ad there.. It comes with the news feed package :-/

Dear Children of the Living God,

Does any religion allow this – Is this not Terrorism.
Keeping quite about it will not help – Christians, do not retaliate, we are willing to die as Martyrs, however, are these people willing to face God and justify their actions?
Please send this to your friends, and raise your voices, against the atrocities committed, in the name of religion.
I am an Indian, and am proud of being a Christian.
Attached are few pictures of violence against Christians in Orissa.

Reports received that thousands of Christian homes were burned down, many were brutally murdered and many are living away in remote unknown hide outs, without food and clothes to change. Many are living in the shelters.

Please pray for our country and those who are suffering.

A REQUEST TO ALL CHRISTIANS – PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES SO THAT TOGETHER WE COULD RAISE OUR VOICE TO HEAVEN…

The VHP has plans to kill all Christians in Puri District of Orissa. Let us fast and pray to Jesus for His intervention and protection of his people…