Monday, March 16

Today was a very special day for some of the members of the team. The New Life Community COTN has had a ministry relationship with BCM for about the last 3 years. Two years ago some of the church members came to India to see what BCM did here. Martin, from New Life, had a burden for building a church in India. For the past two years he has been working with Billy Paulose in financing and constructing the building. He hadn't been back here but had been in freq. contact. Today was the dedication of that building. We drove out of Chidambaram to the location of the church. We drove past several small and one larger Hindu temple areas to the small village where the church was located. First we visited the house of the pastor. We walked up outside stairs to the roof of a building where there was another one room, thatched roof house. We all entered, saw their home, and prayed with them. Then we got back into the vans and drove down a narrow dirt road to the church. It was very nice, Brightly painted concrete walls 2/3's of the way up, then open up to the roof, which I thought was tin but apparently was fiberglass. The floor is painted concrete. There were at least 150 people there to greet us. Brightly colored banners and streamers were everywhere. There were two of the low thatched roof buildings nearby, one which was full of cooking fires and big metal pots of rice being cooked. Attached to the back of the church are three small rooms which will eventually be the pastor's new home. There is also a nice well on the property. As we got off the bus we walked down the middle between two rows of people singing and throwing flowers. Martin and his wife and Pastor Ron and his wife cut the ribbons for the grand opening of the church. There was a big plaque embedded in the wall by the door that dedicated the church to Martin and Peggy, to Pastor Ron, his wife, and the New Life church and to the NMI president of New Life, Patty and her husband, and to the "rest of the team". We then went in. All of us sat in chairs on the platform and the church people crowded in. And crowded in and overflowed out around the building. I would guess there were at least 200 people there. After all the singing and testimonies and gifts of "shawls" (bright colored bath towels) to the team, and preaching we were in the church service for 3 hours. Then everybody was fed. A big dinner on the grounds. We were taken to the three rooms for the new parsonage and ate rice, a boiled potato, and a piece of boiled chicken. We were told they kept the spices out of the food just for us.....it was rather bland! After eating we gave gifts to the children of dolls and coloring books. And, BCM handed out new sarees for all the widows of the church. They had bargained at the store in Chennai and got them for $3 each. Then we walked down the road, through a small gathering of houses, cows and goats, across some wet fields, to a deeper pond where two of the church members were baptized. This couple had lost all three of their children instantly in the tsunami a couple of years ago. When we were finished there we left this area and went to a couple more villages close by for outreach ministry and to show the JF. At the first village after presenting the gospel message we were invited to a couple of the homes to pray for them. One of the men in this village told us about the effects of the tsunami there. The village is three miles from the ocean, but water up to his neck flooded the entire area. The second village is where we showed the JF. About halfway through the film we had to jump up and move our chairs to make way for a bus since we sitting in the middle of the road for the showing. The only open areas to have a gathering are the roads since it is a farming area and there is not much room between the houses.Then back to the hotel for a light snack for some of us and then to bed. We will travel about 6 hours tomorrow to Rameswaram.