Stop Doubting and Believe

“Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.” (Psalm 96:103) Today the team broke up to attend different church services around Kolkata, four of the chaps (Myself, Paul, Peter and Mike) were asked to lead the service at the Big Life Ministry’s church. The theme of the service was Stop Doubting and Believe and we used the text from John 20:19-29 about Doubting Thomas. To bring us to worship we used Psalm 96 and we did exactly what this Psalm said; we “declared his glory among the nations” - of England and India that is. It was very liberating being given a free hand, and it was also a real blessing being part of this small team. Never having really worked together before we seemed to come together in worship, prayer, word and praise. The presence of the spirit was palpable and the joy of the Lord was in our hearts and this seemed to spill over to the congregation. I think it might have been a little louder and livelier than normal – even for this lively church - but if success can be measured by response, then I think we honoured God today as many people were moved by the Spirit to respond to the “altar call”, with several asking for prayer afterwards. It was a real blessing to be part of something so special, so spiritual, so joyful. Sorry there are lots of superlatives in today’s blog but I am still buzzing from this wonderful time.

Post service the leadership of Big Life get together for lunch at a Sikkim restaurant (an area that is in North East India) and we joined them for a time of food and fellowship. It is something else I shall take back to England, with our busy lives when we all dart about from one thing to the next, it is important that the leadership team have a time to share together. At SHBC we do this quite regularly, but lunch after the Sunday service sounds an excellent way to fellowship with our families as well, after all, we are part of the family of God and need to make sure we behave like it.

I have made many friends whilst being in India, especially Kim and Sutil who are both very charming and funny. Whilst the theological discussions were taking place on the other table (which is unusual for Paul and Peter – sorry chaps!!!) Mike and I were laughing and joking with Kim, Sutil, Gillian (Benjamin’s wife) and the rest of the team. What a wonderful day!

P.S. Having had a break between blogging and posting the blog on the website the Lord brought something else back to mind which, I am ashamed to say, I forgot. It was a blot on an otherwise joyous landscape. When we left the church today and gathered to get into the various cars that would take us to the restaurant a small naked boy, who was probably not 2 years old, walked down the street through our group. The boy was sobbing his little heart out, crying for his mummy…..it was a sad reflection on the way some people in Kolkata live; the streets people often leave their children at the mat or pile of rotten, dirty cloths that represent home, to go and do something, somewhere else. Two of the ladies from Big Life picked up the boy and took him back up the street where a community of street-people were living, and after short while deposited the child and returned. The value of life in this place is often zero and this is such a shock to me every time I see it. I am grateful for the projects that hold these people, especially the children, close to their hearts. But there seems so an enormous amount of work to do, amongst a huge amount of hopelessness and deprivation. As I have been reminded so often by people here; "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” (Matthew 9:37), but in Luke 10:2 it continues; “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Join with me asking the Lord of the harvest to send workers to this place of need, but where the harvest is ripe.