Strategic Planning

Jeff and I finished the stategic plan online. We then printed it out and cut up each of the individual objectives. We were then able to more easily see how each of them fit together and within the overall plan. We edited the plan online to arrive at a final version. "Final" is a somewhat relative term though since this will likely be a living document; it will need updated as changes occur.

Worship Conference Participants

The Worship Training Conference we held last week had over 60 people in attendance. Here is a group photo the last day.

This Weekend

Friday afternoon I had the privilege of working with Jeff and his team. I presented an Instructional Systems Design (ISD) model to them. This will help them with much of the training they are involved with; it will also help them with planning and implementing many other objectives.

Saturday morning Jeff and I worked on his strategic plan. In the afternoon we drove out to a village in the middle of a tea plantation about an hour and 15 minutes away. We traveled with Rajesh Hans, a local church leader Jeff works with. Rajesh works with eight church planters sent out from his church. He also works with several other discipleship groups. We met with one of those groups on the tea plantation. It was a great blessing seeing someone present a Bible story to a group believers, even though I could not understand the language.

As an aside, we saw several monkeys sitting or walking beside the road. We also saw a lynx that jumped out in front of us while we were on the return journey. He decided to turn and exit the road quite quickly once he realized there were so many cars around.

Today, Jeff and I spent several hours working through his strategic plan. He now feels he has a good working plan.

Conference Completed

The conference was completed on Wednesday. We finished with a great worship session led by Jeff Moore. On Thursday we visited a local church where we helped them reposition their sound system and speakers. We then drove up into the Himalayan foothills for some sightseeing. It was simply stunning. The rest of the team left on Friday to return to the states. They are all back home by now. I am staying on for another six days with Jeff Ward. I will write more about that in another post.

Day 2 - Afternoon

We had a couple great sessions this morning at the Worship Training Conference. During the lunch break we had two extra, optional sessions.

The first session was for drummers. Rob Schilz met with a group of people who play drums at their churches. He talked to them about how to best play drums and also how to care for their drums so they get the best sound out of them in different environments. The second session was for people who wanted to learn more about how to write songs. Jeff Moore led a group of people through song writing technique.

This afternoon, Cody Dowling is leading a session about the role of a technical person in church. Later, Jeff will be leading another session. I will write more later about what Jeff is presenting in his various sessions.

First update from India

Hello all.

We arrived in New Delhi late Saturday evening. We spent the night there at Hotel Lohias. We flew from New Delhi to Bagdogra on Sunday. Someone met us there and took us to Appolo Hotel, where we are staying till Friday.

As I wrote previously, we are here to hold a Worship Training Conference in Siliguri, West Bengal, a city in the far northeast section of India. We have over 60 people in attendance at the conference. It is so very exciting, to be here. It is a great blessing and privelage to have opportunity to be here and share with brothers and sisters in Christ how to more effectively lead worship.

We had some time Monday morning to adjust to the time change. The Worship Training Conference started Monday evening. We had one great session led by Jeff Moore, the Worship Pastor at Fellowship Church in Austin.

This morning we had a second session, again led by Jeff. Before that session through, we had a group of young people lead worship to kick off the day's activities. It is awesome seeing a group of people from another part of the world sing and praise the one God whom we all worship. He alone is worthy.

We just finished a short break and are now in the thrid session. Jeff is once again leading this session but with help from Rob Schilz, one of the drummers from our church. Cody Dowling, one of the sound guys from our church is running the sound board. I am just helping out where I can...and writing this blog post.

We will have several more sessions today, and two or three tomorrow. Although the internet connectivity is quite limited, I will write more as I have opportunity.

Visa Arrived

I received my Visa and Passport back on Thursday or Friday of last week. Now I only have to get a few more shots - the last round of Hep A and Hep B - and pick up some prescriptions before I go. Much of the physical preparation is out of the way. I still must do much spiritual preparation though. Of course that is a daily, ongoing task to live a life for Christ.

I think all of our preparation is going well. We still need a good bit of financial support though. That is probably the most pressing issue at this moment. I am hoping and praying much of that comes in by the beginning of March.

I am going to try to get more definitive updates from the other guys over the next few days so I can post it here. For now, this is all I have. I will write more when something else of note occurs.

Trip Update

Well, it's been almost two weeks since my last post. Several things have happened in that time. I will write about one of them here and the others in separate posts.

We managed to purchase our plane tickets; however, we decided to push the dates back a few weeks. We had planned to go March 13 through March 21. That meant we would have been gone over Spring Break. We found out, though, that by delaying our trip by a few weeks, we could save several hundred dollars on each ticket. That seemed like a good thing to do.

Besides saving much money, delaying the trip is having a few other ramifications. Originally, five people were going to be making the trip. Because we delayed the trip a few weeks, one of the members can not go. Now only four of us are going. Also, delaying the trip has allowed me to schedule an extra week in India with Jeff Ward.

Now we are all flying out on March 27. Three team members are flying back on April 4. I am flying back on April 10. The extra time I am staying with Jeff will be very important. I will be helping him with strategic planning. The several extra days we spend together should be both beneficial and worthwhile. I am excited to have this opportunity for ministry. God is good!

shots

I went to the travel clinic yesterday and had a few shots they recommend for anyone traveling to India. I also got a prescription for Typhoid immunization. It is a series of four pills to be taken every other day; I started taking them today and will finish next week. I have to go back next week and take a few more shots. I should then be done with my immunizations. Yea.

Welcome to this blog

I, along with four other people from my church, am going on a trip to India in March of 2009. We are going to visit the Ward family, a family from our church who now lives in India. Jeff Ward helps train men how to lead others to Christ and how to disciple them. The purpose of the trip is to hold a Worship Training Conference for several pastors who Jeff works with.

Our group has had a few meetings already and is well on the way in our preparations. I want to write here about what we are doing so that anyone who is interested can follow our progress.

Please comment about any post if you would like. More importantly, please pray that God would move in a miraculous way in all things surrounding this trip.