Police follow-up in Chennai

We confronted yet one more unexpected event every day on the last leg in our short-term India missions trip to Chennai and back up to Dehli. Chennai is on the southeastern coast of India.

I am making plans for our next missions trip to the Congo beginning May 1 with Nate Bean, and Greg and Rhonda Von Tobel.

When we got to Chennai, we connected with Prem Raj, our PFC missionary for the southern part of India, and Charles Finney, who is working with Prem Raj.  We participated in two teaching conferences and visited the Basilica of St. Thomas and the St. Thomas Mount around Chennai.

We visited Chennai's beach, recognized as the largest in the world and the site of a chilling tsunami in 2004 and tremors from an 8.6 Indonesian earthquake in April of 2012.

We also visited an Christian orphanage with 46 children Charles Finney helps to oversee.  Looking out over the children on that sunny day, I actively prayed for several couples in our Faith Baptist Church family who adopted children over the past many years.  

Families take orphans one by one.  The remaining children stay where they are. There are teams of faithful workers who care for these precious youth until the kids are 18.  What a quiet ministry.  Some orphanages care for children of inmates.

Greg led prayer

Just before departing for Dehli, our team visited with Charles in his Chennai home.  In the adjacent picture, Greg Von Tobel and our team prayed with Scott Minter, Prem Raj, Charles Finney, and me.  Don Szolomayer rested on that day.

Police follow-up in Chennai
During the conferences, I taught sessions on working with prison officer staff members and the code of conduct, knowing and following the rules in the jails and prisons where we serve.  

We learned the police visited the host church where we presented the second conference after we departed--another chapter to take a deep breath and surrender the trip to the Lord.  It appears the police wanted to know what we, the foreign missionaries, were presenting or what we were doing there.

The exact reason for the police follow-up was never made clear.  After our initial experiences at the prayer conference the previous week, we asked among ourselves if there was some kind of connection between the two events. What kinds of spiritual warfare might have been active around us?  As we prayed, we asked Him for discernment concerning our time in India.  We still don't know the direct answers to our questions.

When we are sharing with people in the country and traveling, I now see why we identify ourselves as tourists and emphasize the places we visit.  I shared once about teaching conferences and described it as character development. 

I was cautioned about quietly singing hymns on a previous trip.


Dehli included the Red Fort

Red Fort in Old Dehli

Before returning home, we completed a shopping tour in Dehli and visited the outside of the Red Fort with Joshua Gawda, our PFC missionary in the northern part of India.  

Wikipedia notes the Red Fort was built in 1638:

The Red Fort covers a total area of about 254.67 acres enclosed within 2.4 kilometres of defence walls.^[1] The walls are punctuated by turrets and bastions. They vary in height from 18 m on the river side to 33 m on the city side. The fort is shaped like an octagon with the north-south axis longer than the east-west axis. The use of marble, floral decorations, double domes in the buildings inside the fort exemplifies the later phase of Mughal architecture.^[20]

It showcases a very high level of art form and ornamental work. It is believed that the Kohinoor diamond was a part of the furniture. The art work in the Fort is a synthesis of Persian, European and Indian art which resulted in the development of unique Shahjahani style which is very rich in form, expression and color. Red Fort is one of the important building complexes of India which encapsulates a long period of Indian history and its arts. Even before its notification as a monument of national importance in the year 1913, efforts were made to preserve and conserve the Red Fort, for posterity.

We also had lunches at KFC and McDonalds, both more expensive than other restaurants.  While in a foreign country, we don't drink fruit juices or unbottled water.  We don't eat lettuce, uncooked vegetables, or tomato slices.  We are careful what we order. 

I am especially cautious everywhere because I don't handle spicey foods nor curry-flavored items. Yes, that means I watch very carefully and commonly eat smaller meals.  That doesn't hurt anything.  

Apostle Thomas sites were deeply moving

Thomas touching Jesus

Visiting the sites surrounding the Apostle Thomas were more deeply moving for me than I ever anticipated.  He planted several churches in the southern region of India and made in-roads with the Brahman Hindus.  Several of these Brahman chased him to the mountain and speared him in his martyrdom death.

The very clear historical foundation for our Biblical text was clearly established for me.  The apostles all took the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations very seriously, as I wrote before.  We were on location where Thomas evangelized and planted churches.

Forays into self-control

I was embarrassed over my defensive reaction and loss of self-control.  What just happened?  I was stunned by my reaction.  Taking a personal time-out after being disrupted over very little with a co-worker in Christ, I retreated into a nearby restroom.

It appeared like I stormed off.  In solitude, I took a moment to breathe and pray and then... didn't want to return to the group I abandoned moments before.  I became aware the Lord  was walking with me through another journey into personal holiness with His emphasis on self-control.


Preparing for Lucknow and Chennai

Lucknow noted and Chennai on the SE coast

God's university in self-control and holiness will be taken to another level with a Prisoners for Christ team from February 16-March 1 to Lucknow and Chennai, India short-term global encounter missions trip. My financial support is nearly all in and I am making preparations for the trip.

I will be overseeing the finances using Excel for the trip shadowed by President Greg Von Tobel, as part of my servant-leadership team training. 

Greg also asked me to encourage one of our team in his support-raising.  I am taking steps toward increasing my own ongoing monthly support-raising.  Lessons I deliver for my global encounter India co-worker directly apply to my self-control to be active in these things.

Relearning self-control  

When I was a middle school teacher, we often talked about helping students work through failures in impulse control.  These lessons needed reteaching because previous teaching needed improvement or the learners were not mastering the concepts.  The teaching and learning connection lights were not on.

Helped out of a slough of  weak self-control

In my ongoing journey, how am I pursuing holiness on a daily basis?  Is real holiness or even progress in holiness possible? Do I get discouraged by my fores into John Bunyan's "slough of desponds," so I functionally give up?  

Sloughs are hard places of discouragement involving traipsing through mucky stuff often involving folks we care a lot about.   Getting back to the Lord's right path may be just feet and moments away. It feels like I can't get where I am supposed to be without help from others.

The basis for an ongoing foray in victory is our assured position in Jesus Christ.  As believers, we are "in Christ." In Gregory Frizzell's powerful book, "Returning to holiness--a personal and church-wide journey to revival," he writes on this vital understanding. 

We are saved by Christ not just to take us to heaven but to indwell and empower His children in His Kingdom here on earth, in our daily journey.  The same God that spoke John 3:16 also spoke Romans 6--


“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." ~John 3:16 ESV



"We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." 
~Romans 6:6 ESV

"For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."  ~Romans 6:14 ESV

"In fact, these verses can become your personal declaration of independence over the power and dominion of sin.  When Christ died for your sins, He not only removed the penalty of sin but also the power. By the Holy Spirit, this same risen Christ now indwells every saved person.

"The Christian life is not you trying to grit your teeth  and somehow live for Him, it's learning to let Him live through you!  We do this through a moment by moment faith in His indwelling life and power," the author concluded.

Gaining self-control in the Spirit
In my disruption,  I experienced a breakdown in self-control. This was an impulse control struggle and recovery.  Thank Him for recoveries and gracious people.  The Lord gave me peace to go right back to my team and carry-on. Later, I sought forgiveness from the one I sinned against.


Paul preached to Felix and his wife Drusilla, openly living together in an adulterous relationship, in Acts 24:25 "on righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come."  Felix was guilty and didn't want to hear it. Paul also listed self-control as a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Peter encourages adding self-control to knowledge in 2 Peter 1:6. 


Self-control is a work of the Holy Spirit.  It is a God-given strength over my flesh and attacks of the adversary.  I don't do what my body tells me to do if it negatively impacts the reputation of our Lord, others around us, and us.  My flesh is not in control, reigning, or a master over us in Christ.  We are not powerless over the flesh because we are in Christ Jesus and His Spirit indwells us. The Greek word for self-control maintains getting a grip on one's self and one's passions. In the Spirit, I protect myself with His power.

In Proverbs, Solomon pictured self-control:
"Like a city that is broken into and without walls Is a man who has no control over his spirit."    ~Proverbs 25-28

City states were walled for protection from marauders. No wall meant no protection. No self control by analogy means one is wide open to attack from marauders in the flesh, world, and the devil.  People lacking self-control are easy victims when attacked by strong desires and impulses. 

Here are some awesome quotes on self-control to close:

• It is impossible to be a follower of Jesus without giving diligent attention in our lives to the grace of self-control. There is a form of self-control that says 'yes' to what we should do as well as that which says 'no' to what we shouldn't do. ~Jerry Bridges

• The beginning of self-mastery is to be mastered by Christ, to yield to his lordship. True spiritual self-discipline holds believers in bounds but never in bonds; its effect is to enlarge, expand and liberate. ~D. G. Kehl

• The man who disciplines himself stands out and has the mark of greatness upon him. ~D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones