From Kadapa with Pastor Victor...

Greetings from Kuddapa!  Kadapa? Cuddapah? We're not quite sure of the spelling, but we do know that it sounds just like it's spelled (however that works).

We apologize for being out of touch with the digital world for the past few days, but we have returned to it to tell of the past few days.

During the past few days both Lucas and Melanie had a short bout of a food bourne illness, but we have been restored to good health.
We're now in the care of Pastor Victor. On Monday we went to see a 1000 year old fortress that had been occupied by Indian kings and was then captured and used by Muslim kings. We were approached by a local news reporter and had the opportunity to explain our Christian mission program. Tuesday morning Melanie and Katherine were found on the front page of a local Kuddapa newspaper!

Yesterday we visited a small village church where we had the opportunity to listen to Pastor O. teach 10 pastors in training about salvation by grace and the doctrine of election/adoption as God's children. Pastor O. illustrated these points by talking about the origins of adoption.

• In Bible times if a woman did not want a child she had given birth to she would take the child outside the city walls. The child would be left there and if no one came to save it, the child would die. If a family was looking to adopt a child, they would wait outside the city walls to save a child and raise it as their own. 
• In the same way that the child does not chose the parents, we do not chose Jesus - He chooses us. It is by His grace and love that we receive the adoption into His kingdom. 

Following the lesson we had the opportunity to preach the Word to 20 village children. With such a small group we were able to be very interactive and extend our lesson plans. The children were willing and excited to hear the news of their Savior. They also enjoyed the singing of Jesus Loves Me (accompanied by sign language).

This morning we were invited to Pastor Victor's home where his wife cooked us a great breakfast. Now we're gearing up to teach our afternoon VBS lessons. We are always encouraged by the posts of our fellow mission helpers here in India and very thankful for the prayers coming from home. We are also encouraged by Paul's words in Romans 12:4-5:

• For as we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Melanie, Katherine, Lucas, Pastor O.