India Trip 2003

Ajai & Indu Lall
Originally uploaded by larzmarshall.

In the fall of 2003, I was privileged to travel to India with a group of pastors, sponsored by Christ In Youth. I spent some time today thinking about that experience, and how incredibly moved I was (and still am, though its frustrating how time can erode those feelings). Ajai Lall and his wife Indu are amazing. Their accounts of ministry and how God is working in and around them are humbling, exciting, and often breathtaking. Their vision of planting churches in central India is somewhat daunting - 80% of Indians are Hindu, 12% Muslim, and a meager 2.5 % Christian. Oh, and well over 1 billion people! But to spend a few minutes with Ajai, you walk away believing that he really could be a catalyst for God to change that nation. It's really incredible, and puts so much of our happy-go-lucky approach to Christianity into perspective. When I met pastors who had been beaten in public because they renounced their Hindu or Muslim beliefs to follow Jesus, that changes the way you think and approach ministry.
A note from my Operation World prayer calendar regarding India...
"Pray that the Church worldwide would rise to the challenge that India presents. India has the greatest number of unreached people and people groups in the world. An overwhelming number have no Christians, churches or Christian workers. Pray that Christians would embrace continued freedom to proclaim the Gospel in India despite intimidation and persecution."
Pray for me, too, as I 1) sort out how to integrate all of this into who I am and what I do, and 2) as I try to get to know the new gentleman from India who just started working at my neighborhood convenience store. He's on my heart at the moment...

(BTW, if you click on the photo above, you can go to a page and scroll through some additonal pics from my India trip. I promise they're worth your time!)