Pondicherry, Madurai, and Whats Next?

Dear Friends,

It has been a while since I updated you with what has been going on. After our crazy time in Mumbai; we were visited by Dr. Matt Benson and Bonnie-Marie Yager. They stayed with us for about three days, and then Matt left while Bonnie stayed with us to accompany us to our next Indian destination--Pondicherry.

Thus, all four of us arrived in Pondicherry, and we stayed there from July 6th to July 13th. When we arrived, the director ReshiDavid was excitingly telling us all that we could teach according to what he had heard were our strengths, but this did not sit well with me. In my own American-kind-of-made-up-Indian-way, I continued to ask him questions about the missionaries who would be attending the programs. This finally led to him revealing that almost all of them were new believers, and they had no biblical background, even about basic characters such as Moses of David. After this conversation in addition to some helpful comments made from our Indian friend Raju, a biblical seminary student interning with Word for the World at the same time we are, we decided to teach a miniature form of "An Introduction to the Bible" and an in-depth-study in the book of James.

We were able to make time lines, charts, fill-in-the-blanks and hand them out to the people due to the Xerox center right down the street; this proved to be so inspirational to the people as they realized how much they were learning and that they had all the notes they would need to later teach the material themselves. As I taught an overview of the Bible and then specific sections such as the Torah, Prophetic Books, Writings, I began to realize that there papers will filled with Tamil notes as they were diligently writing down everything. I was privileged to teach James 5 and sum up what we had concluded the theme of the book to be. This was very encouraging to me; at the end the missionaries spent so much time thanking and rethanking us for all the work we had done and all the material we had taught. Afterward, we came back to Chennai for a day; Bonnie left us; and Andrew, Kristen and I headed off to Madurai for another adventure--Madurai.

We stayed in Madurai from July 17th to July 21st. In these six days of reuniting with our Ebby Ana(His name is Ebenezer Christopher--his wife, daughter and he are very talented singers; they are asked to sing everywhere), we had fourteen programs to do. On Tuesday, we were scheduled for five. While this may sound like we three blind mice ran around exhausted from ministry; I would like to note how gracious God was to our team. As I taught and preached, I began realizing how God's grace was proportionate to the work He had called my and team and I to do. This has been one of the greatest joys of mine--"getting to sit back and see God move." His ways continue to keep me on the edge of my chair. To give a quick glimpse of my teaching/preaching ministry in Madurai, I spoke to a youth group on "You belong to God;" I spoke to a retirement home called Shalom Gardens and to a youth-confirmation class on "Guilt, Grace, Gratitude-Isaiah 6;" I spoke to a Teacher's Staff Devotion time on "Come to Me--Matt. 11:28-30;" and I also spoke on Sunday morning to a C.S.I church, Church of South India, on "But if God does not--Daniel 3:17-19." Then, I came down with a cold, and it was right in time for my talk to a hundred college women at the inauguration of St. Stephen's College for Women. The pastor at the C.S.I church asked if we would share at this college ceremony; it was very exciting and encouraging. The only problem was 85% of the women were Hindus, so after some prayer and consideration I spoke on "What is Truth?--John 18:38." It went well as I began to give them the old-one-two routine that I learned from my time at Summit Ministries at Bryan College before my senior year in high school. I only set out to stir their pots of presuppositions and ask them the intiuitive-morality spill on "What man is not a man who does not leave this world better." What does your religion say is truth? & Does it leave the world a better place? I think it went over well. That day, it was also time to say farewell to the missionaries in Madurai. This was very hard.

We came back to Chennai from July 22-July 29; we have a few more devotionals and a few more days before we head to Italy for a week. This is what's next! All the ACTS Interns meet in Italy for a week for debriefing, which translated means story sharing, reflecting, games, and places like Venice. This time promises to be filled with joy, but pray for travel mercies for all the team members coming from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of Europe. In eight days, I will be heading home, and I cannot wait!!

In Christ Alone,
Seth Flores