My Conclusions about LEAP

Where else in the world can one go to be greeted at the front door of a home with whispers because the lady of the house is performing yoga for religious purposes and not exercise, to survey a Tamil Hindu, to witness to a Somali Muslim and to converse with a Sikh on holiday from Delhi about the Gospel.

The greatest blessing was to get to know the WH staff in West London and to hear first hand their vision for what they feel can happen in these boroughs. We also were able to get to know people from different churches in theUSA. For me, it is always a blessing to see that God works in people different from me and to worship with people of different backgrounds.

Benefits of exposure to missions through LEAP

LEAP = London Evangelism and Prayer Conference

Here are just some of the benefits of attending a LEAP conference with World Harvest in London.

1. Bond quickly with attending believers from across the USA and to worship daily with these believers.
2. To be motivated by the great need for prayer, to have your needs prayer for by other LEAPers, and to pray for the needs of LEAPers.
3. Be motivated through Scripture and teaching to be a called out one and to understand that a major calling and motivation of the church of Jesus Christ is to be “a sent church.”
4. To understand why London is strategic as a gateway city and the tremendous need of the Gospel there and in India.
5. Exposure to at least three major religions of the world (Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus) through teaching and visitation to temples, shops and mosques.
6. Exposure to the Punjab and Gujarat ethnic groups and cultures. Immigrant residents of Southhall, Wembly, Hounslow and other centers are primarily from these parts of India and Pakistan. The two churches established by World Harvest in the area are made up of people from these backgrounds. However, I met a Tamil, Somali, and New Delhi Indian on the streets of Southall and Hounslow. So within these areas many other ethnic groups are also present.
7. Exposure to methods and ministry which in other contexts could only be done by “professionals.” Because the primary language in these areas is English, we were able to do surveys in the communities, man book tables and converse with those who come to those tables, and pass out literature for the ministry on the streets.
8. To see in action people in various functions of ministry. We met and heard from elders in these churches, life missionaries, Apprentices, Interns, and those who have devoted retirement to missions.
9. Hear the vision of ministry leaders regarding future plans for these ministries: additional Asha charity shops and planning for future church sites.

LEAP into London

On Jul 21, 2009, at 12:43 AM, John wrote:

I believe there will be lots of fruit from this trip. Yesterday was so interesting.

In the afternoon my group did the prayer walk before maning the book table.  I prayed that I would be able to share the gospel with someone from a different nationality that I had not been exposed to. At the table  we man it, some take surveys, and some hand out brochures on the  church or about how to have peace.

As soon as I walked up to the table, a Somali muslim walked up right beside me. I spent the next 1.5 hours talking to him about the  uniqueness of Jesus as God. I have never met a Somali before.  There were amazingly so many answers to prayer during this trip.

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Invitation to view a photo from John's Picasa Web Album - Southall

You are invited to view a photo from John's photo album: Southall Reputation proved true. This is a hole in the wall but ooooh so good! View Photo Message from John: I don't know if you can see my comments that come with this photo but this place has great kabab. Like so many other aspects of life, the sauces (small things) makes all the difference. The sauces make the nan and kabab come alive. Thanks Jason. If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=jpound3&target=PHOTO&id=5362172246423817874&aid=5362169060148481089&authkey=Gv1sRgCLHi_9Li78vGUg&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

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Book table--in Southall?

This could have been a scene at one of our book tables. Actually I
swiped this one from the Internet but we sat up similar book tables
and had many Sikhs come by those tables to talk about how to have
peace. In fact, I met a Sikh from Delhi and discussed the Gospel
with him. He was here on holiday to visit grandchildren.

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Streets in Southall--west London

Though this is photo of a street in canada somewhere, this could have
been taken right here in West London where thousands of Sikhs live.
The team here ministers to Sikhs quite often. In fact, I heard two
former Sikh testimonies who are now part of the local church or
sangat.

The view out my window

If you are in the south you don't have your windows open right now. Mine is wide open here in west London and the birds are singing. It is 72 degrees F. I am ready for another day of exploring the ethnic groups here. Yesterday we went to the Hindu temple and into Harrow where the World Harvest Asha charity shop is located. We also visited homes in the area. On the day before, we ate at an Indian restaurant. There are vegetarian restaurants around however this one served plenty of meat. Mutton was on my kabab.

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Sikh Central Gurdwara

We will visit this Sikh Temple or Gurdwara tomorrow. It is the
largest Sikh Temple outside India.

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Islam

We just visited this mosque in Southall.

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Chicago 2 London

I made Chicago. It is an all night flight to London. I hope to send pictures from there too.

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Preparations for LEAP 2

As I shared earlier about Vankateswami of India, he was searching how to get forgiveness of his sin. When he finally received forgiveness from God through Jesus Christ, he realized that he wanted others to also have forgiveness of sin. but he did not know how to communicate to others. That was solved one day when he visited a family and the wife was very sick. He prayed for her and she immediately was healed. Soon the news spread about him and others were coming to him to find out about this power. Eventually he because a powerful evangelist traveling all over India.

When he saw the great need of the Indian people, he wanted to get training to establish a bible training center in India . He did not know how he would get that education. God worked that out. He set his heart on going to an American school, Moody Bible Institute. A friend from the American military had previously told him about MBI when they met in India. But how would he get there. He wrote to the friend, James in Chicago, via another army friend in Los Angeles. He did not have James' address. His Los Angeles friend got an application from Biola University and sent that to Vankateswami or Paul.

The short story is that he was accepted but how would he raise 2500 rupees to pay for it? He had never seen anything close to that kind of money.

Before long, He and his wife, Devi, had raised that amount and they sold bicycle and jewelry to make the trip. They go to the ticket counter to purchase their sea passage to Los Angeles, the agent asks to see the $50 in travelers checks. The agent explains that all Indians must have $50 so that they will not be on the streets of America begging money. Paul explains that he never knew of that rule but the agent would not give him their tickets without. He and Devi walk around the station praying to got for a solution. As they pray a messenger delivers a telegram to the ticket agent. When the agent reads the telegram his eyes widen and his face paled in apparent shock. He calls Paul and Devi and tells them that the telegram is from American Express in New York ordering him to give Paul $50 in travelers checks. "You are a remarkable man!" the ticket agent said. "Thank you Lord! Thank you Lord!" Paul kept repeating! Again the ticket agent: "You are a remarkable man!"

After their education at Biola, Paul and Devi move back to India to establish Hindustan Bible Institute.

The Tube

I don't look forward to the tube, but it is the best way to get around in London.

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West is East and East is West

This point by Ranald is especially meaningful to me today since I will be headed to visit the West side of London which is mostly Indian in a few short days.

By Ranald Macaulay

Given our current political and cultural climate it isn’t surprising that the media swamp us with news of Islam. By comparison little if anything is said about Hinduism. Is this because Hinduism is irrelevant to the West today? Is Hinduism, as its name implies, simply a religion of the Indian sub-continent? Could it be equally invasive and no less threatening to the now invisible and eroding cultural backbone of the West given to us from our Christian heritage? Put differently, has the familiar 19th century adage - ‘East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet’- now lost the significance it once had?

One of my recent guided tours of Cambridge illustrates the problem and may also, I hope, explain it a bit.

On the day in question I had about a dozen in the group. Two were Indians, and as we walked between various historic sites through the colleges we got chatting from time to time. They had come to the UK to work and they were on an outing to the famous university. At that stage, however, I couldn’t tell if they were Indian Hindus. What I did know was that they were delightful people to have on a tour: intelligent, eager to talk, full of questions and, interestingly, more familiar with British history than anyone else in the group – including westerners! Then later, through a passing reference to diet in the UK, I discovered that they were in fact Hindus.

We were about to visit the old Cavendish Laboratory where I talk about the key role Christianity played in the rise of modern science. I mentioned, as I usually do, that the philosophic materialism of the contemporary western world could not have provided the formative climate for the rise of modern science that we take for granted, and neither could the eastern monism that stands behind Hindu thought. It was the Judaeo-Christian worldview that was responsible for that.
After this my Indian friends approached me all the more eagerly and an energetic though amicable conversation ensued as we made our way back towards the Round Church. Here the conversation became truly revealing (more penetrating for me in a way than if I’d been reading explanations in a book) and very chilling. ‘The essence of Hinduism,’ one of them was saying, ‘is exploration.’ There are ‘no definite dogmas to be believed, a case of personal discovery only, a system that is infinitely flexible and inclusive.’ Innocent sounding in a way – but sheer poison and, ironically, so western!

Implicit is the idea that Truth, and especially revealed Truth as is given in the Bible, doesn’t exist. So it’s up to the individual: you make up the rules; you discover what works for you; you get by in a puzzling universe by doing this or that, sometimes ‘up,’ frequently ‘down’ - intermittently and haphazardly ‘spiritual’ yet admirably inclusive, flexible, tolerant, amusing, exciting, etc. Or so the story goes. “Exploring” they call it and as such apparently innocent, maybe even benevolent. “Being entertained,” “doing stuff,” “whatever” are the western equivalents.

Walking past the sun-drenched market stalls, Cambridge seemed typically peaceful and normal but the words ‘chaos’ and ‘evil’ leapt to my mind. This was darkness representing itself as light: a blasphemy lying deep within India’s confusions and oppressions over millennia. The Wounded Civilization was V.S. Naipaul’s pointed title as he explored his family’s Indian roots in 1978.

“…the heritage has oppressed. Hinduism hasn’t been good for the millions. It has exposed them to a thousand years of defeat and stagnation…It has enslaved one quarter of the population and always left the whole fragmented and vulnerable…again and again in India, history has repeated itself: vulnerability, defeat, withdrawal…” (p 50)

Of course, differences between East and West remain today as in the past, but the West has changed. That is what struck me that Sunday with the use of the word ‘exploration.’ The new is unlikely ever to carry the name ‘Hinduism,’ but fundamentally that is just what it is: truth unknowable and unknown, intellectual flexibility and moral relativism, in other words ‘unlimited exploration.’ It is the mindset which has ‘wounded’ India, admittedly within a framework of withdrawal. But what sort of whirlwind awaits us, one wonders, within the secular activism of the West?

To visit Christian Heritage of Cambridge (Mobile)

London School of Theology

Here on Green Lane is the London School where we are staying. This is about 3 miles from where we are one the streets meeting Pakistanis and Indians.

Testimonies of the legacy of Vankateswami (Paul) Gupta

Here are but a brief set of testimonies of others who have learned to follow Jesus as a result of Vanketeswami's ministry to others.

http://www.globalpartners.org/about/testimonials.asp

Preparations for LEAP

I am rereading the God of the Untouchables by Dave Hunt, a story of Vankateswami's journey in discovering his failures as a human, realization that he was sinful before god, and among many other ventures, seeking with all his heart the salvation he needed from the God who could deliver him.

Vankateswami was named for the Hindu god, Vankateswara. Vankateswami remembers the day that he and his mothers long flowing black hair were offered to the god, Vankateswara. The hair was offered because his parents had prayed to the god to give them a healthy son, then Vankateswami was born. Vankateswami was the apple of his grandmother's eye. He was an idea child. He was sent away to high school with the vision that he would become a lawyer and help his father's business. He ended his high school education because he did not study and only partied. Horrible grades resulted.

His father had him become the bookkeeper of the business and paid him no money for the work. He thought he deserved something, so he cooked the books and began regularly stealing money. He was caught. His failures gnawed at his soul. He knew vividly that he was a sinner and that he needed forgiveness. He read faithful the Bhagavad-Gita, the Book of books until he came across this passage: "Lord Krishna came to save the righteous and to condemn the sinners." He knew he was a sinner and thus would be condemned with no hope. He stopped reading.

Christians came to his village and sang right in front of their business: "you can be free from your burden of sin, there is power in the blood of the Lamb." His ears perked. "There is forgiveness. Who is this Jesus?"

He sought out the preacher to the untouchables and eventually accepted Jesus as Savior and was radically transformed. He wondered how he would share this good news with others. But, that was decided for him when he prayed for a very sick Hindu lady and she was instantly healed. The news spread. He prayed for others and they were healed. He began reading the New Testament aloud early every day as they started their business. He had read the Bhagavad-Gita aloud in the past. He felt his family would be accepting because Hinduism is known as the most accepting of others of all the world's religions. As he began to reach others for Christ he found out that his family was violently opposed to his new found faith and that his immediate family was going to poison him. He refused to eat and was ordered from his home never to return.

He then lived with the pastor to the untouchables or dalits for a season and became an evangelist.

To be continued.

What is LEAP?

LEAP stands for London Evangleism and Prayer.

It is a 10 day break in the summer where follower of Jesus visit sites in London and reach out to Pakistanis and Indians mainly.

It is a wonderful time of prayer and seeking to understand members of other cultures not like our own.

We pray for much fruit from our interactions with Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims.