By the time our service at Grace starts today, I will have finished both the morning (English) and evening (Hindi) services here at Covenant Blessings Church. We had a great time this morning and it was good to see everyone here again – Basil introduced me as a father to the church here. Now I don’t know about that (I’m way too young after all!), but the worship was outstanding and I think the preacher went over pretty well too. I used the sermon I preached at home last Sunday to start our 40 Days of Community – “Why We Need Each Other”.

I was telling them that I love the church – and I do. That’s only right, because the Bible says that Jesus loves the church too. Looking forward to being back in our own church next Sunday!

This will be my last post here for about a week as we leave early tomorrow on the four hours drive to Poona where the church camp is being held. It’s in an old hospital which is now a retreat center. I hear it’s pretty basic, so it should be fun. Basil tells me there’s generally a rat that keeps coming up the drain in the room I’ll be using – should be fun.

Please pray that these next five days will be significant in the lives of everyone who is there. Friday night we start the long journey back to JFK, arriving Saturday afternoon. Taking the time difference into consideration, we’ll be traveling around 34 actual hours, but it will be worth it to sleep in my own bed again and see our own church family on Sunday.

As we move out from here tomorrow, Gill will be heading to South Africa with a missions team. I guess we share the same passion to show God’s love to those who need him and when you think about it, it’s a good job we’re on the same page even though we’re on different continents.

Looks like I’ll just squeak in with our Friday feature – Cool Person Of The Week. It’s Saturday morning here and I’m back in Mumbai, but it’s still Friday back home in the USA.

We finished the Pastors Conference yesterday and those who attended were very appreciative of all the teaching. In a country with no resources available to church leaders, these guys got enough material to help them with their ministry for several months to come.

We flew back here last night on Jet Airways, the Rolls Royce of economy airline travel. Trust me, Delta, American, US Airways, United, and even my favorite Jet Blue, could all learn a lesson from Jet. They actually treat you like people. Before take-off there is a drink and candy, during the flight they serve a full meal and they are the most courteous airline staff I have ever encountered. All this during a sixty minutes flight by the way. Now it may seem as if my rating of their service is based on the amount of food provided, but we all know that would be an unfair conclusion to come to!!!

HERE IT IS … SUPERCOOL PERSON OF THE WEEK
It will come as no surprise I’m sure to learn that my Supercool Person Of The Week comes from the Indian sub-continent. It is our host for the Pastors Conference that has just concluded in Udaipur, Pastor Manohar (don’t worry about his last name, iot’s unpronouncable and I can never remember it anyway!)

Manohar has done a great job planting a good church in this tourist city in the state of Rajestan. From the church he does a lot of outreach into the surrounding villages and he is now in the process of training ten young men who will move out next year and plant another ten churches. He works tirelesly, loves people who need Jesus and is the most courteous host you could imagine. By the way he also did a great job of translating for us for the whole conference.

Here’s the bit that struck me – Manohar, his wife and teenage daughters live in the balcony of the church. They work with people who are dirt poor and I suppose a tithe of next to nothing is very little indeed. His income must be tiny, far below what he would need to rent or buy a home, so they have put a couple of sheets of plywood up against the rail of the balcony for some privacy and they all live there.

I never had to live in the church in all my years of ministry. We’ve always had a home to go back to. I really admire this man. He’s totally sold out to what he’s doing. So he’s my hero as I look at the past week.

Of course I’d love to see him in a place of his own, but we’ll chat about that later!

Someone who is new to our church asked me yesterday why I have astrological data on my blog profile. That’s a fair question.

The answer is not that I believe that stuff. It’s part of the template that the host website gives you. I looked upon it as an annoyance, but I realize it could give the totally wrong impression, so I’m looking into doing something about it.

Thankfully I don’t need demonic weirdness to tell me my future, God has written it very clearly. His plans are to prosper me and to do me good, to give me a future and a hope.

There’s a lot of darkness over here, a real spiritual battle going on, but I have met some outstanding pastors who are at the forefront of that warfare. In this area the government has put together a list of churches that are “converting people”. Sadly there are only 51 churches on it of the hundreds that exist.

The host church for our conference is high up that list. I’d want Grace Church to be on that kind of list too. In some ways it’s a threat, but it’s also a badge of honor. If people are not coming to Jesus, what’s the point of it all?

Have a great day loving others and enjoying God’s love.

Isn’t it amazing what a lot of prayer and two Tylenol PMs can do for you? After less than five hours sleep in over 56 hours, last night I slept from 10.00pm until 6.30am. It would have been longer if my alarm clock had not pulled me back to earth from whatever I was doing in my world of dreams. I could also have switched it off and gone back to sleep, except I did need to spend some more time preparing today’s teaching for the Pastors’ Conference. So day one is almost done. We have a service tonight for the pastors and the people from the church hosting the conference and I’m scheduled to preach. Then it will be back to the hotel and hopefully more sleep.

I remember many of the pastors here from last year’s conference. They are good guys, doing a great job in what is often a hostile environment. One pastor told me today that a while ago his 12 year old son was kidnapped by Hindu extremists. They took him to some secluded place and one drew a knife to kill him. He kicked out and his two captors both fell to the ground and stayed there unable to move as if being pinned down by some unseen force. The boy ran and escaped.

In this state only 1% of the population are Christians, yet the Hindus are worried about how they will influence the state. So the majority are acting like the minority, while the minority is thinking like the majority.

So whatever you have come your way today, remember that one with God makes a majority and remember the force is with you – God that is!

Arrived in Udaipur and checked into our 175 year old hotel for the duration of the Pastors’ Conference, which is being held in a nearby church.

Was traveling over Sunday night and dozed on and off for two hours. Last night I slept for 1 1/2 hours, so if you get a moment, please pray I sleep tonight as tomorrow is a full day. Thanks!

It was good to walk out of the crowded Mumbai (Bombay) airport last night and see our good friend Basil D’Souza there waiting for us. Door to door the journey took little more than 24 hours, which is not too long at all compared with some of the traveling our missions teams have done this year. It was 82 degrees at 10.45pm, which is pretty good for October in my book. Daytime temperatures should be in the 90’s all the time we’re here.

What a privilege to be able to stand with Basil as he works in this great country and with the churches under his care.

Pastor Agnel in Goa has been in negotiations over a piece of land and it looks like that will now move forward. So as I lay in bed this morning and read today’s devotional from 40 Days of Community, I reflected on the fact God really does know what he’s talking about … we are definitely better together.

This afternoon we fly north to Udaipur for a conference with 100 pastors that will run from Wednesday to Friday and I don’t expect to be back on here until we return to Mumbai at the weekend. Have a great week – read the book, get into a group and let’s keep growing together!

I have spent quite a bit of time talking to the press this week and have been amazed at some of the questions I have been asked. Let me say upfront that all the editors and reporters I have had conversations with have been extremely courteous and their reporting has been fair and balanced. The crazy questions came from ill-informed and downright malicious comments from people with their own agenda who want to stop us building. In Letterman style, here are my Top Ten Stupid Questions …

10. WAS GRACE CHURCH OFFERED AN ALTERNATIVE LOCATION?
Only if you count someone pointing out that the Brookhaven Multiplex is up for sale as the same thing as being offered another place. That’s just passing on information we knew already. Now if that person offered us the $20,000,000 to secure the purchase, that would meet my definition of being offered an alternative location.

9. ISN’T THE BUILDING TOO BIG FOR THAT LAND
Nope! In Brookhaven you can build on 15% of your property and we’re only planning to build on 11.3%.

8. IS IT CORRECT THAT YOUR CONGREGATION COMES FROM PLACES LIKE QUEENS?
Nope! 90% of our folks are from Brookhaven and the others live a few miles either side.

7. WHY ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE A DRUG RHAB CENTER IN A RESIDENTIAL AREA?
We’re not. Never had one, haven’t got one, don’t plan to have one. Just another story being circulated by nasty-minded people to prey on the fears of the uninformed.

6. DIDN’T YOU AND ANOTHER PASTOR START A CHURCH ON RTE 112 & HORSEBLOCK ROAD THAT RAN OUT OF MONEY?
I guess that’s a reference to the church being built by my good friend Anthony Pellela. He’s my buddy, but it’s not a joint-venture. They did have a glitch in the building process, but I’m happy to say it’s back on track and will be opening in a couple of months.

5. IS YOUR CHURCH GOING TO RUN A FOOD PANTRY?
That’s a dumb question because someone meant it to be accusatory – as if we should hide the fact or be ashamed that we are helping struggling local families as is every church worth its salt. So the answer is … yes we are! And with no apologies.

4. DIDN’T YOU WORK WITH A HOMELESS ORGANIZATION
Yep, I volunteered a lot of hours a week for seven years with a ministry that helps the homeless in Manhattan. Loved it, glad I did it. What’s the problem?

3. IS IT TRUE YOU PASTORED A CHURCH IN SCOTLAND THAT FAILED AND SO CAME HERE?
Nope! The person looking for ammunition on my blogs should at least quote them correctly – here’s last week’s statement again for the clandestine critic who likes to twist the truth … When we moved over here in 1991 the church I had planted there went along quite well for a while, but then it faltered. When I left it was doing well – I thought I stated that clearly enough.

2. WON’T YOUR CHURCH CREATE TRAFFIC PROBLEMS?
No it won’t. Professional independent engineers have done a report which has been approved by Traffic Safety and the Planning Department that says we will have negligible to no impact on trafffic in the area. Can’t we lay that objection to rest. It has been answered a hundred times.

1. DO YOU EXPECT TO WIN?
Of course I do. The Constitution is on our side. The law is on our side and best of all God is on our side. If you really want to take on that combination, you obviously relish exercises in futility.

Yes folks, it’s Friday again and time to unveil our Cool Person Of The Week

Having introduced you to someone last Friday who is planting a church in our area, how about meeting another church planter?

I have known Tony Balsamo for around 13 years now and for quite a few of those he has been the Associate Pastor at the other Grace Church – Grace Gospel Church in North Patchogue.

Turns out they’re planning to plant a new church in the Spring of ‘06 and Tony is moving out to launch it. He’ll do well putting everything together for their Easter Sunday opening and I’m sure he’ll build a great church.

So pray for him as he gets everything in place and thank God for another new congregation that is coming to Brookhaven.

He’ll be with us Sunday to see how not to do church! So look out for him and encourage him all you can.

For daring to step out of his comfort zone, Tony Balsamo is our Cool Person of The Week.

Life in the 21st Century really is amazing! Especially to someone born when food was still being rationed following WWII, trains were being powered by steam, televisions were only just becoming popular and the Beatles were hardly out of diapers.

In those dark distant years when some dianosaurs still roamed the forests of southern England, there was no such thing as the internet (Al Gore was just a kid) nor was there an extravagently priced coffee house on every corner. But that was then and this is now.

So to my amazement and amusement – simple soul that I am, there I was sitting in Starbucks on East 66th Street in Manhattan today and working just as if it was my regular basement office. I walked in, plugged in, logged in and had full access to the internet and to my Bible program, so I worked on my sermon right there amidst the chaos of life in the city.

For those who may wonder why I took the 7.04 out of Ronkonkoma this morning to sit and prepare Sunday’s sermon over a latte, there is of course a simpler answer than the fact that I may at last have totally lost my marbles.

I’m leaving for India on Sunday afternoon and while I have a 10 year visa, my friend Josh who is traveling with me doesn’t have any visa at all. As he couldn’t get away from work, I told him I’d go to the Indian Embassy with his paperwork. You drop it off at 9.15 and pick it up again at 12.00 noon (which turned out to be 1.10 in reality).

While waiting I used the time to work on Sunday’s sermon, deal with emails, write some letters, etc. The coffee was good (totally overpriced of course) and there were few distractions. I actually got quite a lot done, but I doubt if I’ll make a habit of riding the LIRR to my coffee shop office on 3rd Avenue.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited about our 40 Days of Community small group that will be getting together next week for the first of six meetings. I must admit that I enjoy Rick Warren’s teaching so his video teaching is one of the things I’m looking forward to in our Saturday morning group.

But I’m also waiting to see which of the community projects we’ll undertake together. If God had intended us to be isolationists he would probably have directed us all to monasteries, but the fact is he never planned for that. He wanted the church to change the world.

So here we are, poised to learn, be encouraged and to actually take the time to put some of this good stuff into practice.

If you didn’t sign up to join a group yet, please make a point of doing so on Sunday. Don’t sit on the sidelines – get in the game and dare to believe it will make you different and also that you will make a difference.