February 14^th 2010, I started an unforgettable journey to a land so far from home. I’m not the best at leaving my family behind for any reason and knowing that this was a God journey honestly didn’t help me sort any feelings out.  There are tons of mixed emotions for anyone going on a mission trip, anxiety, fear, doubt, hope, excitement…you name it - it exists. I have done it before and I’m sure I’ll do it again. I’m not gonna lie, I cry allot when I leave my family…always have, I guess always will.

Our flights really started our trip off kinda crummy. With A cancelled flight from Fresno to SF because of fog, we decided to drive to SF. Upon arriving in SF we found out that the airline Rep. in Fresno didn’t make sure our connector in Germany was confirmed, so we stayed the night in SF and flew out the next evening , re-routed to London instead of Germany…BUT because again the airline people messed up and didn’t confirm our connector in London to Delhi, India, we had more problems. Because of 2 great Air India employees we were able to get on a plane and get to our destination, 1 ½ late, but we made it.

Kolkata, India…home of Mother Teresa (really all I knew before coming) was a new God journey for me and 8 others. All 9 of us are here for similar but probably somewhat different reasons. What would transpire over the next several days will make a lasting mark on all our lives…marks that may not be understood by all who hear about our journey. Words are hard to find when trying to make sense out of who we met, what they said or didn’t say, the things we saw with our own eyes and I pray through God’s eyes.

The Purpose Driven conference was a great experience. Though I didn’t each as much as I had planned to, watching these Pastors eat it up was amazing. On Thursday after lunch was my opportunity  to share and encourage youth workers…how many would come? What would they be like? Would I connect with them or would they think I was a weirdo? Well 31 showed up for my 2 ½ hr long class. I was blown away first by the number but soon by their passion and Love for students. Question after question they fired them off at me…Ha Ha, like I have all the answers. All I did was try to point them back to scriptures, which is exactly what I do when I have questions…I took pictures of all of them and wrote their names down do I can distribute them to all our youth staff for the purpose of praying  for them on a weekly basis. When I told them I wanted to do that, the look of joy was huge…again I was overwhelmed by God’s blessing in my life and humbled that I was able to be used by God to bless others…Trust me, it’s not my natural way but only through Christ do I get that kind of opportunity. I was able to give out many resources, bible studies, messages, training material which they loved too. One young man touched my heart in a special way. He had come by train some 12 hrs from home. I wasn’t able to print some stuff I had hoped to get done, so God reminded me of this, so I filled a 4GB thumb drive full of resources. When I gave it to him he broke…He said God had answered his prayers for both the teaching material from Steve and our youth ministry stuff…he said he didn’t have the money to buy a thumb drive, but God made sure he got everything he had desired…by the time he left town on Sat to head for home, he was going to get home by 8am and preach on Sunday at 9am…WOW!

Sonji’s Slum ministry was a trip. What a wonderful man of God (not to mention an incredibly gifted wife and two sweet boys…His youngest son Martin has been sick recently, he even ended up in the hospital while we were there. Please pray for Martin, such a sweet boy (10yrs old) that he will be healed. He wants to be a worship leader and is playing the guitar which Todd was blessed to play and teach him some things…and ultimately left his guitar behind for Martin as a gift…Martin was speechless…and I couldn’t keep from crying. The slums are a rough place…dirty, dirty, dirty, but the impact that this ministry is having is amazing…taking like 35-40 kids and enrolling them in a pre-education school that Sonji runs. Teaching all aspects of education including the Lord Jesus Christ! I was asked to share a Bible story with the kids (which made me so nervous) I shared David and Goliath and used one of the boys as David and myself as Goliath (which I kinda was amongst Indian people). I sweated so much in a 3 minute story….it was a special moment for me. All our outreach team was able to work with Sonji for 2 days and share God’s love with the kids and Moms.

Preaching at different churches was another aspect of the journey. For me, Colinga Ave Baptist in the morning. It was a very traditional church, where we sang hymns…of course I sang in English while they spoke “Bengali”. And my message was translated too…The pastor shared how he had recently been given a book on tithing and he had translated it for his congregation and in the process God convicted him that he wasn’t tithing himself…so for the past 2 months he has been tithing and experiencing Gods’ blessings in his life as a result. I was able to speak blessing into a 18-20 yr old girs life who had responded to the message. Later the pastor spoke with her and she accepted Jesus Christ as he savior.

Later that evening I preached at Kolkata Assembly of God Church for their youth service called SOAR LIVE! Pastor Jacob was a very nice host for our team. Todd lead a few songs before I got up to preach. It was a “Love” themed month for them so they asked me to speak on Sexual Integrity…the message was titled (By Pastor Jacob) “Your Biggest Battle”…so here I am in Kolkata, India preaching about God’s plan for sex to 200 students (with a mix of older people too)…Pastor Jacob gave me some youth group t-shirts as a gift which was really cool…of course they won’t fit me because nothing in India fit me L

Next up for me was Sumen’s House…this is a home that houses poor or orphaned children. They were the best kids imaginable…all with a different story but all the same results - Joy - Hope - Love. Again our outreach team spent 2 days there while I was only there for 1 day…but I cried when we left, those children along with Sumen and His lovely wife are God hands and feet to these children. It was a special day for sure.

Let me quickly mention traffic in Kolkata…It is the worst I’ve ever experienced…Horns ALL THE TIME…they communicate with there horns…it mean I’m coming…I’m here…Get out of my way…and maybe even I love you (but I’m not for sure on the last one)even IF you are the only car on the street, you still straddle the lines…and honk…just in case. When we stop for various reasons, beggars will tap on your window and motion that they are hungry…they are dirty and very sad looking…One boy had the guts to slide open the my window in my car 3 times…This is one of the things it will take me some time to better process my feelings…the faces are burned into my mind at this point.

Then there was my teaching gig at Kolkata Youth Fellowship on Tuesday night…My buddy Shakhar who is an incredible young man of God leads this group. It’s ran out of a couples one room house. It is located upstairs in a building located on a busy street corner. The street noise was amazing, the heat was nuts, but I wasn’t ready for 40 college students to cram into a room together to worship God in such a real way. I will always remember what happened that night…it was so special that I can’t really put into words that do it justice. Great people, a great God, and me…But once again, God did his thing and blessed the message. Todd led a few worship songs again and gave them all a CD of his music which they were like using their phones to video Todd singing…He was a “rockstar”…I love working with Todd…It was a wonderful last night of teaching…capping off an incredible trip.

Our last day was spent touring Mother Teresa’s orphanage…I saw and caressed the same boy Christy held 6 month ago when she sang Jesus Loves me to him…He has no eyes, and that was a special moment…I would’ve loved to sing to him, but a weird volunteer lady was with him and she wasn’t very nice…but no matter, it was still a special time.

It’s almost 10am in Fresno on Thursday the 25^th…We are flying from Frankfurt Germany on a United 747…about 6hrs left on this flight then we will fly into Fresno around 7:30pm tonight…I am so tired of flying…Today my son Josh plays his very first JH baseball game and I will miss it, Todd and Melanie will miss their daughters Spelling bee probably going on right now…we hate missing out on special family moments, but our prayer is that our children will grow up knowing that serving others is the right thing to do…and that Their parents love them.

Finally let me say a few more words about our team…

• Stace: has had a rough year this year and seeing her minister to the children was such a blessing.
• Kim: had her home broken into in Fresno while she was in Kolkata…but pressed on and was able to re-focus and teach both the children and women.
• Tina: hates flying (real bad) but her passion for orphans outweighs the emotional pain of 46 hrs of flying time on this trip.
• Chenecua: was such a great team member. She spoke with boldness (like she had done this a million times before, teaching kids…
• Rupee: loves to give me a hard time, but I know she’s actually a softee…she was nails in all the areas of ministry and a cool team member.
• Melanie: had to deal with all kinds of stuff as our team leader, including teaching the women and coordinating with Doddy, which isn’t always that easy…thanks for your work.
• Todd: is a great guy…tons of compassion, humility and an obvious ability to lead people all over this world into a time of Worship. Hey NorthPointe - He’s our guy!!! Thank God for that!
• Steve: I got to see several different sides to Steve this trip…from sharing a small room with him for most of the trip, I won’t go into those details J Steve is obviously one of the best bible teachers around…I got to see him encourage pastors of all ages, listened as he shared a Bible story with children, prayed over them and then called for a group hug from all the kids…
• Kevin: well, this guy has a ton of growing up to do for sure…but I think I’ll keep him around…

Thanks for supporting us with your prayers…You all became a huge part of this journey…Good bye Kolkata…You will always be in my heart and if God has more plans for us together then I will see you again.

Kevin

Not just any day in Kolkata. (2/19)

We had such a very powerful day yesterday. I keep saying that I don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to describe and express what we saw and felt while ministering to the women and children of the slums. The God that spread the stars across the sky and designed the mountains and valleys has a special plan for these wonderful people and to be in the midst of such power and grace overwhelms me with emotions. I admire the willing hearts of so many to build a Kingdom of God in a city teeming with religious rules and tradition. I have felt the Holy Spirit many times in my life and I have seen God’s faithful hand glide across the lives of many, including myself…..but what I felt yesterday I could not contain. All day, from the moment I found out our house had been robbed until the moment that I stood before the women to speak from my heart on “The Beauty of a Woman”, I had been shaking. Not in fear, but almost as if the Holy Spirit was ready to do mighty, powerful things through this time in the slums. I don’t know that it was at all the words that I spoke, but more the fact that they could see my heart was breaking and knowing that I was finding strength in a God they don’t know yet, but were now interested in finding out about. I can’t say that I believe that God planned to allow my house to be invaded….but I do know that from the time I felt that God had called me to India I knew He was going to do immeasurable things on this trip and because of Satan’s attempt to bring it down it only magnified God ability through us, and won many hearts for God.
There is something profound in sharing tears and emotions with each other. When you are faced with language and cultural barriers, it’s in those common emotions you find a ground to build on. I know God has begun to pour a foundation that the ministers here have sacrificed their lives for, and to be a part of the construction process is both an honor and a fear that I have enjoyed balancing. I’m being stretched for God and I wouldn’t want it any other way!

Women’s Conference (2/20)

Today Melanie, Stace and I spoke to the women at the pastor’s wives conference. It was an exciting teaching time as Melanie spoke about “The True Heart of a Woman”, Stace shared her personal testimony, and I spoke on “The Pains of Life”. We bonded as women, finding common ground in the shared struggles of worry, fear and pain that hold us back from God’s divine purpose. The feedback was all positive as many women are dealing with the very subjects we spoke on, confirming for many of us that God has had his hand on this journey for a long time. Over and over we have experience the awesome power of God as He confirms His purpose in bringing each one of us here and to be in that kind of love and presence of God is both exciting and slightly frightening for me personally. It’s intense to right size this God we serve, but in doing so we are able to achieve so much more than we thought imaginable.

After the conference was over, we took a short walk down the street to visit the Mother House (The home of Mother Teresa). This was a reflective and quiet time for each on of us. Mother’s life was lived with such purpose and desire to know the heart of God the Father and to live a life that strived for perfect unity with him. I know that this was memorable for many of us. After leaving Mother Teresa’s house, we drove to an outdoor market to shop and take in the city scene. We had a blast shopping (well, us girls did) and finding special gifts for our familys while experiencing the active environment. Kevin even took a ride on a bike down the street, which I thought was nerve racking considering the luck that our pastors have had on bikes and the street insanity that is Kolkata, but he made it safe, thank God! We laughed (which was nice) and enjoyed each other’s company into the evening until we had to get back for dinner. It’s night now and I’m going to head off to bed like the rest of the team. Tomorrow is church (which I’m looking forward to) and it’s a bit early, so good night NorthPointe we’ll see you soon!!

Here’s a quick slideshow from last night’s Trunk or Treat event.

How Faith & Works Works

Pastor Steve Williams | Aug. 16, 2009

The trip is June 14-24, 2009.