Once-Lost India

 Here is my brothers letter to you:

"Wishing you the greetings of grace and peace from Jesus, our Savior

A prayer request from INDIA 

I would like to introduce myself as pastor M.victor suneel form INDIA

Church Name "Victory Prayer Fellowship "

Dear Pastor's Believers, Bro's & sister's 

As you know, Church is the house of God, Church is a holy place. The king David said that the believers will grow up green like olive tree in the house of God. Several will have the opportunity to pray like Hanna. 

We are sad to inform you that as we don have a proper church to pray in, we are facing many problems since 5 years. 

By God's grace in the month of last December 2011, we have withe a great effort could be able to construct a foundation for church. By His Grace Foundation work was completed, but rest of the construction was not completed due to lack of finance. 

Therefore we request you to please pray, pray for church need and rest of the construction work if God inspires you to full fill His work .. please share your valuable offering to us 

The gift of righteous will be like a living tree. The church will be a greatest witness unto God till His 2nd coming...

Thanking you so much 

In His service Pastor suneel"   

(Please look below for the many photos he has attached of the facility)

  As many of you know, my wife and I have been called to go and serve along aside a fellowship in India.  It is a great ministry the Lord has knit into our lives and we are so excited as we prepare for what the Lord will do.
   With much anticipation, we know the Lord will do a great work in India as He has confirmed to us several times to go.  Though tough at times, we learn patience till the time we get to leave.  In the end, if it's His will then it is His bill so we prepare and work hard to the calling and see Him bring the increase.
   As we have tried more and more to research and understand the culture we will live with, I have been so blessed to grow to know a great brother in the Lord.  He has opened his home up to us for the 6 month trip we will be taking there and also been so encouraging to me everyday with the Word.  This brother of mine is Victor Suneel and is the translator my wife served with in her 10 day mission trip to India in September of 2011.  I have grown to know this brother in Christ so much just through the amazing technology of email and Facebook and at most times our conversations turn to hours chatting at night (his morning) talking about what the Lord is doing in each of us.

"Suneel translating"

   I so look forward to serving with this dear friend I have grown to know and love and I know the Lord will do a great work in India when we are there but currently I write asking about a need.  In the United States we see hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions poured into a church facility to accommodate a comfortable environment for some couple thousand church attendees.  Now this is not an article at all trying to call out an issue or condemn but an eye opener to us here who take so much for granted.
   We see in Scripture that the body of Christ is the group of believers in Jesus Christ who come together and worship/serve Him in spirit and truth.  So the "church facility" is simply a building with materials. And those materials consist sometimes of concrete, brick, wood, sand, etc which in the end when brought together form the holding for the church.  This does not constrict the body of Christ to one area but gives a wonderful place for edification, accountability, encouragement and several other ways to glorify Christ.
   The issue is, we in America take this building for granted when thousands of those in the body do not have such a grand meeting.  Not that the building is necessary as we don't see in Scripture to go and build facilities (Matthew 28:19) but it's a great place for the believer to know where to get encouragement and the non-believer to know where to go if they have questions about the truth.  We are the light of the world, a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14), and beacon to those in the dark and how great to have a center place to come together and worship our Creator with one another.
   My plea is this.  Our brothers and sisters in India are in need of a local facility to teach and sharpen each other with the Word.  In India, it is not common to have a Bible teaching church facility and it would work as a great outreach to the community there. Take in mind that the average church facility in a major city of the United States costs about $1,776,000 (http://www.reedconstructiondata.com/rsmeans/models/church/).
  Yep, you read that right, almost 2 million dollars. Our brother Suneel is requesting the average cost to build a square concrete facility which is $6,000 US dollars.  Hard to believe when you read it, I know.   They have already started construction and laid the foundation for the church facility which is called "Victory Prayer Fellowship" but are at a stand still as they needs funds for the building itself.
   After reading his request I urge you to pray, above all.  Please pray for this fellowship and the teaching of God's Word in that area.  God has brought up believers across the nations and you would be amazed how more often they pray for us! Then ask the Lord what He wants you to do.  I beg you to search the Scriptures.  I am not the type to ask for money or donations commonly but I do see what the Word says and I know we are so blessed here in the States and that gives us a responsibility to taking care of our brothers and sisters that are lacking!
   I urge you to seek the Lord on this opportunity and then pray some more.  I would not want this to be a hindrance or act of selfishness in any way so I ask that you make sure it is what God has called you to do but please know that we have a responsibility as the church here in the United States and to often our brothers and sisters are being forgotten.  Pray for them and encourage them in any way possible!
   Unfortunately they do not have an easy way to just bless them with a donation if you feel lead to do so the best way I can think of is you get a hold of me and we will do a western union which I have done already with him before.  I personally do not see it necessary for me to be involved but if I can help in any way I would be glad to so you can email me at kyle@once-lost.com or contact@once-lost.com and we can work out how you would like to get involved.  I can give you his personal information and you can go right down to a Western Union and send it yourself or you can deposit it into my account and then I will make sure and show you the transaction on my part.  Either way, I know the Lord will make it happen if it is His will for you to come along this body and support them.
   God bless you all for your patience through this letter and I look forward to what God will do with this opportunity!

Ephesians 4:28
"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."

The Bible Mini-Series Part 1

This post was originally written and given consent to repost by: Flynn Huseby (http://unityinthetruth.com/)

THE BIBLE: produced Roma Downey and Mark Burnett (Note: Both are Roman Catholics. Roma
Downey is also pastor via the internet.)

The Bible: Part 1 of 5 (Creation-Spies in the Land of Canaan)

The comments below are this writer’s observations from watching part 1 tonight. My desire was to base both pros and cons on biblical accuracy, not visual and acting quality.

Note: Too often it’s what is omitted that reveals what kind of story a person is trying to tell. Granted, the History Channel’s movie is meant to be a “docudrama”, and there are many constraints in attempting to pictorially portray God’s Word, however people are very influenced by sights and sounds. We must be careful to weigh everything against the actual Bible.

Some Pros from the Movie-

• Creation was read as a literal 6 days. See Genesis 1
• Noah’s Ark was to scale. See Genesis 6
• The whole world was flooded. See Genesis 6-9
• Israel is called God’s chosen nation. See Jeremiah 31:36, 46:28, etc.

Some Cons-

• God’s angels never killed people with swords in Sodom. There are no examples in God’s Word of the Lord’s angels ever killing people. See Genesis 11
• The sacrifice of Isaac left much to be desired. The biblical description of a ram caught in the thickets by his horn was made out to be a little lamb in the movie. There is important biblical symbolism to the ram. The horn represents power, and only Jesus had the power necessary to overcome sin. Although other OT places talk of the lamb as a sacrifice, the ram here is key. Also during the sacrifice Isaac cries and begs Abraham not to do it. Isaac is a type of Christ, and the Bible says nothing of Isaac begging his dad to stop. Isaac trusted Abraham just as Christ trusted to Father all the way to the cross. After the sacrifice, Isaac pulls away from his dad and runs to his mother who is at the bottom of the mountain. See Genesis 22
• Again, according to the Bible, Abraham’s servants went with Isaac and him. The movie has Sarah running after them as if to stop Abraham. The movie is very misleading as to how Isaac’s family ended up in Egypt. The movie states that the Israelites all left the Promised Land due to a famine and went into Egypt where they were slaves for 400 years and Abraham was just a distant memory. Unfortunately there is no mention of Joseph, even though there dozens of parallels between Joseph and Jesus. See Genesis 30-50
• The key prophetic details of the lamb’s blood in the tenth plague in Egypt are omitted. See Exodus 12:6-7
• In part 1, God is never referred to as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob even though this is one of His names in the Bible. Even Muslims recognize God as the God of Abraham. See Exodus 3:6, etc.