Oh Cowcutta! How I wish you could see some of what we are seeing over here. In fact I have posted some videos on YOU TUBE and if you do a search for Troy Brewer you should be able to find them without a problem. There are several fun little snippets of some of the site and sounds of our mission’s trip.
For the past ten days, my daughter and I have been in a whirlwind of activity and travel. It started with a 2 hour flight to Chicago and then a 15 hour non-stop flight to Deli. We flew straight north from Chicago and got back into daylight over Canada having seen the sun actually rise from the West before we flew South over Siberia. Once past mother Russia, we flew directly over Afghanistan and a few other stans. I had all I could ‘stan’ of the economy section of American Airlines flight 209 way before we hit India. I’m sure my skinny daughter was tired of me spilling over into her seat as well. Thank God she was with me or I might have gotten closer than a married man is allowed to get to somebody else.
Mission Accomplished
I have the privilege of leading and Pastoring a great group of people at Open Door Ministries. My wife heads up a ministry called SPARK which is an acronym for serving, protecting and raising kids. Between the two of us, we support or fully fund orphanages on four different continents. So a big part of this trip is to see and minister to the kids here. The house where I stay is also a home to hundreds of little boys and girls who would otherwise be victims of neglect or even worse. We have also visited another home for children way out west of Vizak. It’s just a fun thing to get to do.
But in my heart, the ultimate reason for this trip or the purpose of the actual mission was a chance at visiting the persecuted Christians in the state of Orissa.
Last year, the communist gorillas attacked a Hindu commune and killed the Hindu Priest there. The Hindu hierarchy used the occasion to do its best to get rid of Christianity in the region by announcing the murder had been perpetrated by Christians. What happened next was nothing short of an attempt at genocide. Backed by money sent in from Hindus working in the United States, they gathered thousands of radicals from all over the nation. They paid them a wage, liquored them up, handed them big sticks and transported these thugs to the villages of Orissa where for weeks the murdered, molested and brutalized anyone suspected of being a Christian. Not a person in the world would lift a finger to help these people. Even the Indian government set back for more than five days before the first response or rescue attempt.
Last night we were at a church which had actually been torn down in the uprising. More than 400 people gathered outside and sat on the ground for the service. I told them they were heroes to the rest of the church. I told them they were not alone... I told them we loved them and looked up to them. I did the very best I could do to try and relay how important, significant and precious they are to the body of Christ. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.
Remember them in your prayers. They really are worth remembering.
A Guy Worth Forgetting
Haters have always been around. The famous French writer Voltaire often spent his expensive ink and wasted life writing about his hatred for God and God’s people.
He too wanted to wipe out Christianity. Full of Communism and himself, he wrote from his library in Paris, “I will go through the forest of scriptures and circle the trees with my words so that in 100 years Christianity will be a vanishing memory.”
A few years after his death, the British Bible Society purchased that same library and filled it from top to bottom with thousands of copies of the Bible he so hated.
Christians will suffer persecution but never annihilation. Jesus himself illustrated the point through His death and resurrection…You just can’t keep a good man down.
Contact the Brewer at www.FreshFromTheBrewer.com
