The Great Punjab Meetings
3rd to 8th April, 2013
During the Pune-Mumbai meetings, Pastor Shekhar David
invited me to accompany him to minister in Punjab and New Delhi, North India. I
left Coimbatore on the 31st of March. Pastor Shekhar joined me on 1st
April in Mumbai where we boarded the Paschim Express to Punjab.
The welcome we received in Punjab was immensely warm. The
believers there are a credit to their forefathers in faith who have laboured
hard in the land of Punjab sowing the seed of the Word of God many years ago.
The fruit of those labours are there for all to see today in the fertile
hearts, the godly smiles, and spiritual hunger of the people we met.
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| Punjab - Stretch of farmland |
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| Meeting Venue in Amritsar |
Pastor Gulzar Masih of Amritsar welcomed us into his home as family and put us at ease.
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| With Pastor. Gulzar Masih |
We had meetings from April 3rd to 5th in Tarpai, Amritsar. We ministered to a mixed congregation of independents and denominationals. Pastor Shekar and I preached at alternate services. My subject was : 'Wolves in Sheep's clothing - false prophets and preachers'. An average of 2,000 people attended.
After the third meeting we traveled from Amritsar to a gathering in
Ludhiana where we ministered alternatively on the 6th and 7th
of April, to around 1,000 souls. The messages centered around the 10 virgins and the prophetic signs of the day.
Pastor Shekhar also received a call to minister at a small
village called Bagwanpur near the Pakistani border on April 8th where
the Word was well received.
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| LOC at the Indo-Pak border |
My messages were
interpreted by Pastor Nirmal Makhu in Punjabi for the lay people.
In attendance were ministers Gulzar Nasrke and Bashir
Dhariwal from Gudraspur, Bro. George from Amritsar, Pastors Simon and Patras
from Ferozpur, Pastor Victor Gill from Ludhiana, Pastor Samuel from
Lodhinangal, Pastor Surinder from Birbalpur, and Pastors Didar Singh Byas, Buta
Singh Baba, Karma, and Rafik Dera Baba Nank.
All those who attended were touched. The
messages preached were a source of joy and strength to all those growing
in the faith.
In a world of half empty pews and shrinking congregations,
it was a real joy to preach to the flooding multitudes in Punjab, to watch the
avid faces frown in concentration grasping this and that revelation, the smiles
of joy while receiving the Lord’s pearls of wisdom.
It was also a real treat to listen to the Punjabi melodies
and kawalis during praise and worship. The songs they sing have a distinct
‘Northy’ feel and are a tribute to the boldness and ‘big - heartedness’ of the
Punjabi way of life.
The Punjabis like their potato J. And besides the open hearted
admiration of the little children, the solemn respect of their elders, and the overwhelming
love and good fellowship, we also received an abundance of potato, parathas,
and countless cups of jaggery tea.
The well tried mode of transport in rural Punjab seems to be
customized carts spruced up with Kirloskar pump motors – a novel ride for me
across the bumpy Northern terrain.
Pastor Shekhar and I took some time out for quiet walks in between meetings. There in the middle of the gleaming fields of wheat dancing in
the dawn light, we remembered the words of the Lord, “Say not ye, there are yet four months,
and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say
unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already
to harvest.” (John 4:35)
The meetings in Punjab were a joy to attend and the love of
the people not soon forgotten. What we see in Punjab is a testimony to the
simplicity of the people’s faith in accepting the deep and massive Truth of the
Word.
New Delhi Meetings
9th and 10th April, 2013
After Punjab, Pastor Shekhar and I traveled by train to our
nation’s capital New Delhi. We reached on the morning of 9th
April, and were received by Pastor Samuel MacDonald who pastors a small
congregation there. His family saw to our needs and the time we spent in the
church there, although brief, was filled with lighthearted moments and the
harmony of good fellowship.
The meetings in Delhi were held in the evening on the 10th
and 11th of April, with one service handed to Pastor Shekhar and
another to myself. Pastor Shekhar's message on the signs of the times and prophetic fulfillment convicted many of the state of their lives and preparedness for the coming of the Lord. My message on the marriage supper of the Lamb won a chorus of 'halleluiahs' in Pastor
MacDonald’s church where around 50 people attended.
And from there it was the Coimbatore Express for me.
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