Missions Update

India

On Tuesday night they had a report on PBS about a Jesuit priest in India who heads up a missionary school where he teaches poor children how to play violin, and he only accepts those in the lowest castes (transcript).

It was so awesome! I want to go and help out in any way I can! I sent an e-mail to Twin Cities Public Television, who produced the original story. The next morning, they e-mailed me back and said they had forwarded my message to the journalist who did the report, Fred de Sam Lazaro. Please pray that, if it be God’s will for me to do something in this area, he would enable the necessary connections, and also enable me to be more serious about my violin playing in order to be an effective teacher of large groups of eager students.

When I first began ministry in Scotland, I learned new fiddling styles and techniques in order to be more effective there. The school in India is classically-based and mostly does western music, like Mozart. But they also have a guy who arranges some traditional Indian tunes for strings.
India is still bogged down in karma and caste systems. As Bono says, grace “travels outside of karma.” Grace is the opposite, and has a totally different affect on how people are treated socially. The Indian system has to be changed. They need Jesus. If villagers are open to sending their kids to a school run by a Canadian Jesuit to learn how to play western music on the violin, then that is an open door for the gospel!

Latin America
I got a praise report last weekend from Pastor Juan Domingo at Calvary Chapel Ensenada. It sounds like God’s doing some awesome stuff there. They’re broadcasting the Bible studies on TV, and it’s become so popular that the TV station is actually paying to place large, full-color ads for the broadcast in the paper.
I’ve begun editing Pastor Sam’s studies in the book of John for broadcast on the radio in Belize, and the first broadcast aired on Monday. Pastor Sam’s idea is that when he returns to do a conference down there, people will know who he is because they will have heard him on the radio.
Tonight is the first ever weekly Spanish Bible study at Calvary Chapel Chico. We’re really excited about it. I even translated the bulletin announcement into Spanish before I put it online (although Pastor Will had to make some corrections… I’m not that great at subjunctive tenses). I got my Biblia Versión Popular out and ready to go!

Scotland
My heart is still in Scotland. I have enough frequent flyer miles earned for a free flight to London, so theoretically, I could go to the UK any time. I want to go over during the summer for the CLAN gathering, but I really wanted to go over soon in order to actually spend some quality time with my Scottish friends like the Fyvies and the Espies in their own places of ministry. Unfortunately, I have been unable to get in touch with anybody over there about organizing such happenings, so I will probably just save my miles for the summer and go over with John Bergin.