In this video, the speaker shares about their recent travels to Oman, Dubai, and India to spread the word of God. They mention the challenges faced in reaching out to Muslims, who they believe are the largest unreached people group in the world. The speaker also talks about the importance of perseverance and wisdom in sharing the gospel, despite the difficulties and dangers faced. They emphasize the need for prayer and support for the ministry, as well as the rebuilding of the audiovisual department.

Romans, let's just look at Romans chapter 1. I want to keep in mind as I share with you this evening, and it's so great to have so many of you here from different teams, that I want to keep in mind this little tape that goes out to teams. Because of the expense we don't send so many of these tapes out, but this one will go out to some of you, who knows, South Africa, Argentina, Dulas, Lagos, New Zealand, back to India. We trust it'll be an encouragement to you. I'm just gonna speak for a while, then we're gonna pray, then I'm gonna speak a little more on, especially focus our praying on the Indian subcontinent. Romans chapter 1, starting in verse 13. Now I would not have you ignorant brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, but was prevented thus far, that I might have some fruit among you, also even as among other Gentiles. I am a debtor, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as is in me, is I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. But the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even as eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So they are without excuse. Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. And we can read on. I think we know the passage. Something very real happened to me on this trip to Asia. I hope I don't say this lightly. I know how weak I am and I can only say it in faith, but I don't think by the grace of God I'll ever be the same after this trip to Asia. I think the climax came, a very deep experience came, in Pakistan when I was out in the streets just selling books. I went in, Mike Wakely and I were selling together and I was dressed in my newly purchased Punjabi outfit that most of the people wear there. I was in a little typewriter shop. The man knew fluent English. One of the things you must understand about the subcontinent is that you can be effective to a degree even if only you speak English. All you speak is English. I can't even speak it right. This is the thing that the body of Christ has not grasped, that there are areas of the world where you can minister even with English language. I saw this again at Oxford this weekend when someone was making an announcement about working in France and really the announcement was only aimed at the super A-level linguists. It was clearly communicated that you were a French linguist and there was a place for you. So I got up after this announcement and I said, well all the rest of you who don't know any languages, we can use you on a limb. I think I may get some more recruits even out of Oxford. And here this man in this little typewriter shop, he bought almost every book I showed him and he knew fluent English. He said, why don't you have English books? I didn't even have English books with me. And then one or two others came in and then they sent for tea and pretty soon, you know, we had all kinds of conversation going on and in came the man who was the holy man from the mosque next door. He wanted to know what was going on. I didn't realize at that time this was a Shiite mosque. Shiites are a minority group in Pakistan. They are, many of them, in favor of the present regime in Iran. And the Sunnis hate the Shiites, generally speaking, and there's been some killing and some tension over that even recently. But they soon were inviting us over, or I think we hinted that we wouldn't mind going over and looking at their little mosque, and they invited us over and more tea was flowing. And I don't know how it all happened. Wakeley was sort of more in charge than I was. And we ended up there in this mosque just praying with these holy men. And we were giving him books and they were buying books about Jesus. And they were interested. Mike Wakeley's Urdu is growing. So he was conversing. I only have about seven phrases. So I eventually ran out of steam back quite soon. But they knew some English terms. The man in the typewriter shop, he was, knew fluent English. He was, he wasn't with us when we went there in the mosque. And somehow, after I left that place, that little Shiite mosque, I sensed that something had happened. And the next day when I went out again in the streets, just selling books, I sensed there was something more real in me. Something that maybe over the past years has drifted away. Just the lack of personal compassion for individuals who are, without Christ, so much of my ministry is to Christians. I'm not abandoning that. But I just sensed that I am an evangelist, that I must make reaching unsaved people the absolute priority of my life. And not get sidetracked from that. The next day when we were out selling books in Rawalpindi, again, it was just amazing. I sold almost every single book I had in my book bag. Must have been 70, 80 rupees in an hour and a half. I couldn't believe it. I kept running back looking for the other men on the team and grabbing their books and going back to these different contacts I was getting. One man said he wanted everything I had. Could I come the next day? I was unable to do that. We were leaving for the next place. But the openness in Pakistan, the distance you can go with English, the way they buy books, these weren't just packets. In India, so often, they always just sell packets. These are books for 10 rupees, 20 rupees, and people were happy to pay. It isn't always that way. I'm aware of that. Well, something happened to me there in the streets of Pakistan. I don't have all the pieces together. I knew I should wait until I get back here and get enmeshed before I can make any objective decision. If you're my type of person, when you're in something, you get subjective. I have to face a lot of realities before I make any interesting decisions. But God has set before us a great open door in this land of Pakistan. There are 93 million people here. I always appreciate people writing and correcting my wrong statements. Gary wrote me a good note saying that I once corrected him about this comparison between India, Africa, and South America. I don't actually remember that, but I'm sure I did if he said it. I've always gone around saying that there's more people in India than South America and Africa together, and it's always been true up until a few years ago. Gary's note today helped me to realize that with the rapid growth of population in both Africa and South America, I no longer can say there are more people in India than South America and Africa together. But I can tell you it isn't that much, and all I have to do to rectify my statistic, which I've been using for many, many years, that now is in error if I say it that way, is simply say subcontinent. There are more people in the Indian subcontinent than all of Africa and all of South America combined, according to the statistics that I have and just happen to have with me, the world population statistics for 1982. And Pakistan has 93 million, and unless this is in error, Bangladesh has 93 million. And India has 713 million, and this is the estimate in mid-1982. They haven't stopped production since. The fact of the matter is there will soon be a thousand million souls in the Indian subcontinent. Now, we don't like you to go around spending a lot of money on flicks. We're not against you going to good films, but they are expensive. But you better get up and see Gandhi, even at £2.20. Now, I don't know where you're going to get £2.20. Go sell something, and you'll have your little pocket money. Forsake your ice creams. I saw it last night, and it is a very moving film. You realize, of course, when you see that film, when we talk about the Indian subcontinent, that before 1947, this was all one area, except, of course, Nepal has always been a separate country, and Sri Lanka, a little separate raindrop island there to the south. So, Pakistan has 93 million people, that one country. It's basically one major language group. There are a lot of Punjabi-speaking people. There are Pashto-speaking people. There are various language groups, but as a whole, basically, if you speak Urdu, you can go with a good percentage of the people. One of our leaders found out today, who I was talking to, that Hindi and Urdu are as similar in spoken terms as English and American. If you learn Hindi, you can go to Pakistan and speak. You have a few changes of words, just like we do English and American. Script is a different story. Hindi script is totally different from Urdu script, but the spoken language, the phrases I use to sell books are Hindi phrases. They understood quite easily what I was saying. What an amazing challenge. The Urdu or Hindi language, because there are now 300 million people that speak that one language. Some of you have been wondering what was the next language you should get into. How ridiculous to bother with a language, unless you get very special guidance, that only 20 or 30 or 40 million people are speaking. Some of you, I know, already have special guidance for such languages, but here's 300 million. I understand that it's not that difficult compared to, say, Arabic or some other languages. So I brought back my Urdu tapes, 18 tapes or 12 tapes, I forget, big album and a big thick book, Spoken Urdu. And I'm now objectively trying to decide what I'm supposed to do with it. But the Lord knows my heart that if I were 15 years younger, that's the country I think I would be in, Pakistan. Well, I think we ought to go back to the beginning of this trip and then return to Pakistan, because I would like us to especially pray, first of all, for the work in India. My first reason for going out on this trip was to meet with the leaders of the work in India. India, a land of 714 million people, where without any question is the most, or the greatest is a better word to use, open door that OM faces anywhere in the world. There are countries that I feel are more important in many ways, I would put in that category, but we have to face facts that Turkey is not an open door in the full sense of what OM can do and wants to do. Turkey is a land that takes specialists, it takes people with definite preparation, who are going to immediately enmesh themselves in the Turkish language, and probably we'll discover a few years after they've done that, they've been kicked out. Because there's no way that we can pretend that Turkey is the kind of open door that we face, for example, in Pakistan. Dale Roton, writing about Turkey many years ago, suggested people go to India, the subcontinent, get some training, and then come back to Turkey. In many ways, Pakistan would be more suitable than India for that, in that Pakistan is mainly all Muslim. So, I'm not saying in any way that in my mind all of a sudden Pakistan is more important than Turkey, because it isn't. But I am saying that the subcontinent area, in the light of what God has given OM, in terms of the people and the kinds of people, and where they are spiritually, and where they are in terms of their life work, and in terms of language, and in terms of the very distinct vision God has given us for mass evangelism. You know, a lot of these countries I went through last year, the last thing you can do is any mass evangelism. We had one OMer in Morocco who tried just a few tracks on the beach two years ago, and boom, the police were on him, and boom, the missionaries were involved, and I never heard the end of it. Still got another letter about it, not so long ago. In fact, I had a letter also from Greg Livingston, saying not a single veteran missionary of the North African mission is left in North Africa. That's what he said in the letter. Not a single veteran, longer-term missionary of the North African mission left in North Africa. I mean, in these countries, we have got to face realities. The obstacles are coming from every direction. And here is a Muslim area, and remember now there will soon be more Muslims in India than in Pakistan. This is the amazing thing, especially when you see that film Gandhi. Think of all the Muslims supposedly leaving India to go to East and West Pakistan, and now today because of population explosion, there will be more Muslims in India than in Pakistan. Amazing. And if we are going to have a thrust into the Muslim world as we are having with NOM, then we have got to consider more intensely than we have up to now the Indian subcontinent. Soon, 1,000 million souls, 1 billion, the Americans say. One-fourth of them, over one-fourth of them, Muslim. A quarter of a billion Muslims. 250 to 300 million Muslims. And in India, we would have trouble finding a few dozen people working in depth, follow-up, speaking to people, revisiting them, that kind of work in depth among Muslims. As far as mass evangelism, probably Muslims have been reached in India more than almost anywhere in the world. Through OM teams, through Every Home Crusade, through different groups, films, literature, the Muslims get, they get something, New Testaments, Gospels, tracts. But we are not going to see living fellowships of Muslims established just through that kind of minimum evangelism as important as it is. One of the decisions, one of many decisions made in Nepal was the decision to give one-seventh of our time now to reaching Muslims. We are aware this is only a beginning. We have had Muslim specialist teams in India for quite a few years. We also had a large-scale specialist campaign among Muslims. The new campaign coming up in West Bengal, an area where there are many Muslims is aimed at their direction. And we hope that in the future we are going to have more such specialist teams, greater training, more literature geared toward the Muslim mind. But meanwhile, everybody in India is going to do something. And so we have decided to give one out of every seven days to working among Muslims. How do we do that? You see, in India it is a simple matter of going to the part of the town where they live. Some of the teams are going to choose Friday. They are going to go within range of where the mosque is. Other teams may choose another day. On that day, they are going to make sure they put the right literature in their shoulder bag. You can't always take all the literature. Just like when I went out, I forgot the English. And so on that day, they will take literature more geared for Muslims in their language. And they will go to the area where the Muslims are. And when they preach, they will preach with the Muslims in mind. And when they do their personal work, they will look for Muslims. And I believe, considering we have 300 people committed to the work in India, that this is going to be a tremendous forward thrust in reaching Muslims with the gospel. Let's pray, because that will take some changes of gears and some action to become a reality. We want to have films and film strips geared for Muslims. We want to have cassette tapes that have testimonies of converted Muslims who have found Christ. We hope that through cassette tapes and through other methods, we can really begin to see a greater harvest among the Muslim people of India. Of course, in Bangladesh, and that was the first country we went to on this trip, the main thrust of our whole strategy there is among Muslims. It is unfortunate that sometimes people don't listen straight. And we have asked people to keep out of our prayer letters information about what's happening in Bangladesh among these Muslims. And lo and behold, in one of the main international letters recently, was a detailed description of what's happening in Bangladesh. I think even names. I can assure you this is very distressing to the brothers in Bangladesh. And I mention this because I think all of us who are in OM need to be more security conscious. We need to be a little careful of what we put into our prayer letters. And mentioning, especially naming the country and naming the town, and then naming individuals and then talking about Muslims being converted and baptized, gathering into a local worshipping group, believe me, that has the possibility of ending very quickly what those people are trying to do. So we hope that those who listen to this tape and I'm not going to give any of the details, and those who maybe read this manuscript will be aware of that. But the brothers there do want you to pray for their work out in the villages, among Muslims, witnessing to them, sitting down with them hour after hour, and seeing small, little small groups of heads of families, not just one here and one there. And when that happens they usually have to run for their lives or seek refuge in a missionary compound or go overseas or something. They're trying, and in many ways the brothers involved in this, it's somewhat described in Phil Parshall's book, New Paths to Muslim Evangelism, but not really in the sense that they are nowhere near in terms of adapting to culture as far as some of the ideas that have brought so much controversy in that book. They're not into some of these things that are so controversial, but they are adapting to the culture of Bangladesh to some degree and trying to meet these people where they are. And there have been a number of professions, just a couple of small experimental groups. And we want to cry out to God for the people working among them. At the same time, we continue our distribution teams, which are the traditional sort of blitz team, selling books, selling New Testament, especially Muslimani New Testament. As Mike Light comes back for sort of a sabbatical for some training and a change. Brother Marit and Joy will take over the leadership of those teams. And Roger Atkins and his wife Jackie will come in and help Marit and Joy. As Phil Bushel continues the general oversight. He won't be able to do the day-by-day running because he's actually living out in a village. So as we go to prayer in a few minutes, let's remember Bangladesh. We had some encouraging meetings there. I would like to get some more time in Bangladesh to feel out the church situation as I did in Pakistan. The church in Bangladesh is very, very different from the church in Pakistan. By the way, many of those people slaughtered this week in Assam, in Assam in India, were people from Bangladesh who had gone there as refugees. It's a terrible thing what's happened in Assam through that election. It's very much on my mind. Let me just mention a few of the people in India because I want us to pray for people. I think this was the greatest challenge of Nepal was to just be with these people. Hour after hour for 12 days, generally 15 hours a day, just meetings, fellowship, prayer, exhortation, endless walks all over Kathmandu. I explored more of Kathmandu than I did when I lived there. Some of the people, and I hope you'll write some of the names down just as I wrote them down in my notebook so that I wouldn't forget them, wouldn't leave them out. Their names we're familiar with. Sometimes we write things on the overhead projector and it looks like good old Daryl is doing that. But remember, we had prayer meetings even before the birth of the overhead projector. So when you're in a prayer meeting and you don't have an overhead projector, we hope you won't be totally discouraged and we hope you'll reach into your pocket and take out a pen and write these things down even if you can't copy them. Alfie, Alfie Franks, he was able to bring his wife. What a blessing it was to see her after many years. Alfie is carrying an enormous load, we all know that. And I hope you'll continue to faithfully pray for him. We're trying to get him to come to Europe. He's given us the possibility of 1984. It was so tremendous working together with Alfie, Ray, and the little board of trustees which includes Divakarum, Joseph de Souza, and Thomas Matai. We met for a day or two with Alfie and Ray, then we met a day or two with the board of trustees and then everybody else came in. It was just a great time of praying and talking through so many issues. And let's really offer praise for the way Alfie and Ray now have worked together as co-leaders for so many years and for the complement they are of each other. They're both very unassuming people in many ways. Some others I want you to pray for are P.M. John. I missed him last year in Nepal for various reasons. He has now finished his university course, he's got his degree, and he's back into the action coordinating Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. And Chella Durai, who works very closely with him, definitely has been decided will continue longer term with OM, getting married soon. He had his marriage date set and then when we shared with him that we didn't really think he could go from the wedding to this big study program and crusade, of course it took him about three and a half seconds to postpone the wedding. That's Chella Durai. He is an amazing brother. He is really one of the key evangelists. He is a teacher and loves to teach in the study program. I think he wanted to postpone the wedding for that too, the study program. But he also has a gift of evangelism. And the key of the work in India, the key are these people. And I hope you'll pray fervently for him. Also his brother Kumar is handling the lineup for this big coming push that we also want to pray for called ROK, R-O-K, Reach Out Karnataka. An effort to see a hundred people mobilize and you'll be getting some literature about that probably in a prayer meeting one of these days. So let's remember those brothers and the others who are laboring there. It's not possible we don't have time to give you all the names. There are so many people involved. Then Augustine, he is now the coordinator for Kerala. I think the biggest news of the time in Nepal was that Thomas Mattai feels the Lord is leading him in a separate ministry of launching a publishing house in Kerala. We noticed over the years both in India and in other countries that not only do individuals leave OM and go out and have an effective ministry but whole ministries are born within OM and then go out. And we saw this happen in Nepal. Two of the most strategic moves in Nepal were the birth of the Kerala Publishing House in the Malayalam language under Thomas Mattai when he finishes his sabbatical. He's been with us almost 15 years. We're going to help him launch that. It's a desperate need. And the birth of a sort of village church planting follow-up ministry under John Lee in West Bengal. In both of these cases after a lot of prayer and discussion and we haven't done this so much at least I haven't we felt led not only to pray for these brothers but we looked up several scriptures on the thing of laying on hands and we laid our hands on them some of us leaders and committed them to these new ministries. So let's pray for Thomas Mattai as he has this year's sabbatical. His wife is still very, very ill. Pray for him. The possibility of a publishing house in Kerala working very closely with OM and then for John Lee and his wife who remain in OM for several months but will eventually launch out with two or three men who are in OM at present for a very intensive type follow-up ministry and church planting ministry in West Bengal. Another key name for prayer is Devakaram who has been leading both Orissa and West Bengal. From John Lee and wants to continue the more traditional OM India vision of emphasizing training individuals two or three years training and then sending them out into different ministries. There is going to be a church planting training program in which a brother Indian Subodh Sahu will help a couple of months a year in training brothers who are just about to leave OM about to leave OM about to go into church planting and he will help give them some training before they do that and then let's remember in prayer Linda and Manjula Linda and Manjula the women's leaders they stayed in Nepal for some extra days to get a little bit of a break and gave us some extra time with them and we now have the number of women in India down to a hundred they feel that's a good number to work with for training and to try to do a quality work so let's uphold them then Brother Marcos as he continues leading Uttar Pradesh that state has what 110 120 millions of people it's just staggering and we've reduced the number of teams not only in UP but most states because of the financial situation because of the need for quality because of the complexity of OM India we have come down to more like 300 people of course in the summer crusade and we have summer crusades all year in India there's always more people so that is a special challenge and then John Brown one of the few foreigners who continues in state leadership leading the work in Bihar where soon we will have this big Ganges 83 thrust that isn't just Bihar that's also part of Uttar Pradesh and you'll be getting more information about that down the line then Thomas Matthew continuing to lead the work in Gujarat this is the leader who has a totally paralyzed daughter apart from her her head surname Ruth little Ruth keep praying for her and they're on a sabbatical a year of change because he's living near the base he keeps getting dragged back into the action but there's actually another brother is it Chow Mark Chua he was not able to go to Nepal so I didn't meet him temporarily carrying the load there Mark Parsons who's been working with me traveling with me on this trip has gone to Gujarat to help for a while we felt going there was more strategic than going back to the states with me that covers the state area leaders except Joseph D'Souza who is now a member of the board of trustees overall leadership and leads the training and study program based in Lucknow I'd love to mention a lot of the team leaders but there's not time I'm a bit sensitive to the time but I would like to just mention brother Sham Shad one of the few converted Muslims we have in Orindia and a team leader a very gifted team leader in Uttar Pradesh I'd like us now at this point even if you're listening to this tape to spend some time in prayer if you possibly can and then we're going to pick up from here just a few other things I'd like to mention that come out of the time in Nepal that I would like us to pray about I've mentioned the thrust into Karnataka I've mentioned Ganges 83 I briefly touched on the push starting very soon sort of a summer campaign type of thing in West Bengal I think there's a concept that I would pray you might be able to grasp we often wrestle in OM with this whole thing of growth and expansion we hear certain terms get thrown around like cutback I think it's very important to understand that we can cut back financially and still grow do not think that financial cutback means less growth it may mean more growth because financial cutback can be part of God's pruning program if you want a tree to grow and I don't know much about fruit trees but from the little I understand pruning helps growth and God will be continually pruning a movement like OM in his own loving way but just in the subcontinent alone the scope for growth is just unlimited you know do not think this nation is being reached it is not being reached if this nation is being reached then bringing Luis Palau and Billy Graham here is an obscenity Britain is not yet reached and Britain has 100 times the witness of Uttar Pradesh 100 times get that in your head please get that in your head because somehow people think oh 300 OMers in India wow that is great work they are reaching India for Christ forget it we are just scratching the surface they are God's little advance guard troops that are just somehow holding out out there almost a bit like those that Gandhi sent to walk into that mill in his non-violence demonstration row after row tried to go into the mill a beat down with a stick every single row nobody got into the mill but it did make a big impact in the press and eventually brought the end of British India oh that somehow our little troops seemingly at times just being beaten down in every state somehow the bells of heaven may ring and the revival may come and one of the greatest goals of OM must be the strengthening of the work in India we must not abandon that work because other things look more interesting and attractive God never intended OM to try to evangelize every nation in the world he's given us specific direction and somehow though there are a lot of things we can do a little bit in we must keep the direction of the work toward this part of the world and especially toward those Muslims who represent the largest hidden so-called unreached people's group in all the earth so let's pray for these big efforts and the teams that go on and sometimes it is a grind may sound glamorous back here look glamorous in the slide show it's a grind and it is harder to live there it gets hot very hot and people get sick very sick typhoid malaria it's all there and we need to be more committed to continual prayer continual prayer and then also writing the brothers we need to be more committed to getting that money out there regularly we've made a new policy because when they hear in India that there's financial struggles the pressure is on them they tend to eat less we've all agreed as leaders in Nepal a few under pressure but most on a voluntary basis we've all agreed that it's only right for these men doing such an important work that they get a proper diet we've always agreed on this but now we've done something more about it every team is now required to spend twelve rupees a day on food per person that's if they're cooking it themselves if it's a restaurant which isn't the kind of restaurant you would think about but if it's a restaurant it's fifteen rupees now this was over I don't know how many, six, seven, eight hours of discussion to get this one through and it's got through and we're now trying to implement it by getting the money out there I think those of you especially working with STL should be dancing a jig in your shoes because you are the main financiers now of the work in India India has plunged suddenly twenty thousand into the red again within the OM family she doesn't have so many big bills so she's actually more healthy than maybe some who have a positive field credit to understand a field's position you look at where they are in relation to the rest of OM then you look at how many bills they have to pay both of those things will give you a more total picture but India's not promoting a lot of giving in Britain India's old hat India it's the nineteenth century and so it's going to be a lot of battle a lot of prayer and we sense that part of the money is continue to come the lion's share has to come from giving when I say STL is the main giver I'm talking about more than half I'm talking about the largest single giver to the work in India majority of the money still has to come from the money the young people pray in their own support gifts within India book sales in India and gifts from God's people all over the world but I feel that this is certainly one of the main things that I must do is put my life on the line to see finance prayed in for India and if I can't do that then maybe I shouldn't go back there anymore but I know this is what the Lord wants so let's pray as we go back to prayer in a little while for the finance I mentioned to you the new strategy for Muslims we're hoping as we meet again next year to take another bigger step but we need a couple of specialists at least one who will be sort of the specific coordinator of the Muslim India thrust we got our eyes on one or two there are some that would like to but they already had major responsibilities we need to get somebody who can give the lion's share of his time to this not just lips service and then go back to his office to the 188 other things he's supposed to be doing but that he can give his time and effort to this and that it will be a catalyst within the church in India let me just say a word now about recovery from the fire this has been amazing and as I've looked over the inventory of literature now available in India I've just been staggered I don't know how it all got there in the midst of the big rush I think a few things got there that don't belong there they belong here certain books we had some pretty lively discussion on this a few people were indicted but not destroyed but it is complicated because really there are differences of vision the majority feel that the priority must be indigenous language literature Bengali Gujarati Marathi Hindi Urdu Malayalam Telugu Karnataka Canaries but there are others in the Bombay scene have a great vision for English which is important and English literature has the potential to definitely be a tent making work within India they would like to see the whole Bombay operation operate on the money they see come in from literature that would include the investment we put into the literature you know which you get back when you sell it so it's not like living off book sales we're not talking about that but at least to see that much literature turning over to cover the Bombay expenses not the state expenses and the food fund and vehicles and audio visuals but the recovery from the fire has been very encouraging the two warehouses are functioning the office is functioning the audio visual department is still being rebuilt again the reports back on the ministry with the films also is very encouraging now let me just throw in at this point that in everything we talk about in India there are problems everything we weren't in Nepal you know patting each other on the back and having a happy clap we were wrestling with every kind of problem you can think of and I don't want to go into great detail about it because of the time but when you're in a nation of this size and 714 million people you are working in in a major way in about seven languages smaller way many many other languages trying to do so much with so few and so many obstacles I mean you can imagine and I'll tell you I don't know if I can express this properly my commitment to OM is greatly deepened through this you know I can be OM's worst critic and I go through stages where I'm so fed up with this whole thing you know all the organization committees conferences board meetings discussions arguing for two hours on dimensions of the safety pin at least to me you might as well be arguing about that you know I just forget it I'm going to go out and set up a tower in the middle of the desert throw paper airplanes or something and really I think at times back here just going to conferences and taking meetings and being involved in discussions and finance committee meetings you can really lose not only your perspective you could lose your sanity I thank God I think I've gained both sanity and perspective through this trip that these committee meetings and conferences and board meetings and all this hassle back here it's worth it they had it in the book of Acts and if Paul had it and Peter had it and the deacons had it or the elders there in Acts 5 and 6 you know we're not going to get away with it we're not going to get away with that Jerusalem meetings and Paul Barnabas bust ups and women eating too much or not sharing with the women they didn't like or whatever other problems it's all part of the same picture and the fact of the matter is that through all these conferences and discussions and prayer a lot ultimately is happening that's what counts a lot ultimately is happening if you're in a manufacturing corporation you've got to have board meetings and discussion meetings and you've got to have fights and you've got to scream and of course as Christians we don't do that in God's work but just an illustration but if ultimately suppose you're with the Rolls Royce company ultimately you turn out another 10,000 Rolls Royces and sell them all and make 15 billion dollars profit what do you care if you've had some hassles in fact in the secular world even if you lose a couple of wives in the process of doing that which secular men are ready to do that they turn over the guys in the big business turn over a wife about every 10 years they figure as long as they get the ultimate product another thousand Rolls Royces and money it's worth it and I've seen that the hassles the problems the difficulties and what do we know compared to some secular people we generally keep our wives and operate a very different foundation we're getting the finished product people are being reached people are coming to Christ churches are being born there's revival small revival in some places and it's very very encouraging and so through this trip my own commitment to OM to what we're doing I'm a great one as you know for always talking about what other people are doing and the first prayer session I lead in most prayer meetings is let's pray for others praise the Lord I'm committed I believe in what other people are doing but I believe very strongly that God has given us a very unique open door in this subcontinent and others are not going to be able to do it praise the Lord YWAM has arrived in India we welcome them one team has arrived 714 million great YWAM has arrived and are praying about possibly starting up in Pakistan we met with them had lunch with them praised the Lord spent hours with Wakeley they haven't made a decision to go yet there's plenty of scope because most of these groups by the time they get out to the subcontinent you're talking about very small numbers very small numbers you're talking about very limited budget and every group that's out there minus the cults they're needed there's no competition in India you know 714 million so let's let's praise the Lord for this open door let's pray forth workers Matthew 9 this should always be a standard prayer request in every meeting even if we don't have prayer requests to pray out workers into the harvest field and I hope that every one of you hearing this tape every one of you sitting in this room will carefully search your heart carefully look at your diary you got your five year program carefully examine the world situation and to see if the Lord may not have you give a couple years out in this part of the world so many of the present leaders of OM working in every part of OM the ships STL you name it they got part of their spiritual foundation out in the subcontinent we don't think that should change and we're looking for feedback from you as soon as possible as to when you're planning on going you don't have to have a call to go into the two year training program in the subcontinent the call comes when you're out there and if you want a call I'll come to your house in the morning and call you now people get nervous when I speak like this they're afraid somebody's going to feel guilty some leaders get nervous that all their key men are going to resign and stampede out to the subcontinent that has never happened it's always the first time because there's so many obstacles the church has got to get behind you you've got to see support come in you've got to have at least some degree of health and the Lord has to put his seal on it and no matter what I say and even if I do stand out in front of your house and give you a cat call in the morning you know if the Lord doesn't put the seal on it we don't want it we don't want it and to get me to shut up all you have to do is walk up to me and say I'm 100% sure God has called me to Wheaton finish you're right off I don't want to talk anymore no that's not what I meant to say no what I meant to say was that when people tell me they're 100% sure that's the will of God I say great that's all I want to hear but I can't stop giving challenges I can't stop giving the Macedonian call we're not talking about a missionary call now we're talking about people who are already involved in God's work they're already obeying God and we're challenging them to go over to another part of the world I can't stop doing that simply because a few may feel guilty a few more may get confused and somebody else may do something that's perhaps considered wrong in the eyes of some people because we say and we teach and we believe that people without Christ are lost and that eclipses so many of the other arguments that we keep coming up with and I just pray that if you can't go you'll send substitutes I had such a tremendous letter this morning from one of my prayer partners he said I feel a renewed commitment to make money for God's work amen I needed that letter this morning he can barely write, he has very poor handwriting but I can see that part and maybe God is leading some of you into that that's STL's ministry to some degree, STL is many things many things STL would be a valid ministry if it never sent a single penny to India without question but when you can do both it's always been my vision when you can do both why give out tracts when you can sell books and support a national worker full time just on your book sales I mean you know plus you can buy tracts at the end as well and so I think it's a double barreled cannon that we have here at STL so let's pray for workers let's be ready to go ourselves let's realize this is probably one of the most unique open doors in the whole world everybody today is talking about China and maybe if we're a little more faithful in reaching the countries that God has opened like a great budding rose in the springtime if we get off our pews and into these areas where there's a welcome and I'm going to talk about that in a minute the welcome of O.M. in Pakistan it's shattering I never fellowshiped with so many bishops I never had people so keen to have O.M. teams as in Pakistan God has done in Pakistan in three years what it took us 15 years in India the credibility the foundation the churches reaching out to us they've asked me to return to the Lahore convention the biggest convention in the nation the Karachi convention the biggest convention in the southern part of the country you know I don't believe they're just doing that to be polite because they don't they can't afford to operate that way but that is even irrelevant compared to the welcome the teams have received church leader after church leader we had three or four major leaders receptions church leaders came bishops came they said we're happy here we want you here we like the way you work we like this Mike Wakely we like these three little sisters in Raopindi plodding away a man comes and tells me how his whole ministry has revolutionized through these three sisters and how God called them into full-time work through something that happened through their ministry I think of the agony we're going through right now in places like Finland where the church is publicly announced against us that's great real encouragement 90% of the people in the Lutheran church the Lutheran church has gone on record as being basically against us and non-cooperation with the visit of the ship you know I feel like saying you know Finland go fly your kite I'm going to Pakistan but I'm going to go back to Finland in April and meet with the church leaders and bow yes sir yes sir I'm not a Lutheran but I love Lutherans yes sir but you know I'm not saying we shouldn't keep pushing into hard places where they don't like us I'm not saying that we're going to keep pushing in Finland we're going to keep dancing the jig in Norway we're going to keep crying out for tent makers for Saudi Arabia we're going to keep pushing people into Egypt even though they get thrown out we're going to keep sending a man to Turkey and watch him get killed and watch him get sent out but meanwhile for the great percentage of young people who are not ready for those situations especially at 20 years of age the average age group of the people who come in OM these blossoming budding roses reaching out their what do you call them? petals? to touch you and bring you in that's where we want to have the most action alright let's go to prayer again and pray for workers and pray for some of the things that Daryl will flash up on the screen let's pray two by two Amen be seated since I won't be with you on Friday morning as I'm on my way to Germany for the weekend I've sort of been trying to not only give prayer requests but just share the report that I wanted to share at that time I say that because normally I wouldn't want to use up so much of the time to share these things let's just say a word about Nepal I think it's good that we pray for Nepal OM is more than anything else a catalyst in Nepal there are ex-OMers in Nepal that God's using we praise the Lord for David Turner and his wife who really seem to be ideal for Nepal willing to grow slowly prayerfully I had time with two men that are going trekking out into the villages Urs and Heinz I think both of them are from Switzerland actually and it was very encouraging to hear about the word they were able to get out I also had time with the mechanics there it's really quite an amazing maintenance base that they have in Nepal at present and here again we need to see a few people at least raised up who have a specific burden for Nepal or who want to plug into Eastward Bound the program in the subcontinent for non commonwealth people with a specific vision that part of that time they would be in Nepal we had some very good discussion about Eastward Bound and feel in some ways we're more prepared than ever to handle people in fact we don't really have enough people because Tony Harrop down in Sri Lanka wants them and of course Mike Wakely in Pakistan wants them and Dave Turner wants them in Nepal and yet India is the priority they get visa extensions then they go out and get another visa and go back so that's another challenge for prayer when people ask about Eastward Bound it is a very unstructured program it's mainly how can you say it's a system of trying to give non-Commonwealth people a challenging and fulfilling ministry during two years in the subcontinent but it demands a high degree of flexibility and more than just as much as it's OM's training program it's God's training program which means be ready for anything like standing on a queue for a long time trying to get a visa and then being told you can't get one and being flown from one country to the other and maybe even ending up back on the Coventry immigrant team even though you were thinking you'd be in the subcontinent total flexibility anything anytime anywhere whatever the cost that's what Eastward Bound is and it will continue to go forward especially with the people we have out there right now and Nepal is part of that so is Sri Lanka Tony Harrop in Sri Lanka technically is not an OM field it's an area where we have occasional ministry comes under Roger's leadership but we would like to have a little more happening in Sri Lanka especially if Tony Harrop is willing to help oversee it I can't get into that right now now I'd like us to shift over to Pakistan my visit to Pakistan was very different from my visit to these other places because I was going there for evangelism I wasn't just going there to discuss things with leaders and we had about 30 to 35 meetings I'm sorry this isn't a little bit higher hold it up if somebody could just come up here for a minute hold this map up here put this up put that briefcase up there I've already mentioned that of course you're not going to say it over there that's for sure there's 93 million people in this country some of you are listening to this tape it'd be good if you could get a map of Pakistan you'll find one in your encyclopedia or on your world prayer map you can write us if you don't have a copy of one of those it started in Lahore I don't want to go into a lot of detail because of time but if you can remember the women's team there very small just a little team of two women then there's the base team they operate separately and it must be one of the busiest of the smaller bases it must be one of the busiest it's a book shop it seems to be a question and answer place hospitality center very very busy a very good book room there in Lahore that's where Mike Wakely lives he lives down the road the Harris's just had a baby when we arrived they've been having a lot of babies in Pakistan three in one week I think two weeks birth control has always been a big thing in this part of the world as you know but if you could pray also for the St. Andrew's Church where we have very good linkings we had a meeting there you could pray for the cathedral the Harris's go to the cathedral a young man who studied at Oxford I don't have his name Nazarius something like that he is the leader the vicar of the cathedral I didn't get to meet him I did meet the bishop who came to our little reception it's amazing the history of the church in Pakistan I've been reading a lot of it in the last few days an old book I found in an Oxford library a man named French especially who died in Muscat he started St. John's College in Lahore and that's now where the O.M. base is the college is I think finished we had a little reception and meeting a lot of the O.M. study programs take place in this chapel pray especially for those who are studying the language I think one of the decisions I wasn't sure whether Wakely agreed with me or not but he seemed to agree that one of the decisions is that we've got to put a higher emphasis on language learning I know he agrees we agreed also to move into stage two in Pakistan in terms of looking for people who are long term just like Turkey like all Muslim countries that O.M. works in we have the short term people one, two years, three years, four years but we want to see some long term people and praise God one of the sisters has been in Pakistan a couple of years the day after we left Karachi she went what's her name Qui she went to join a senior missionary lady not with O.M. in Quetta to work more on her language and really with the goal of being open to really long term work someone asked me in Pakistan if we do longer term work what are we going to be doing and of course the idea would be to focus in on the Muslims and really give the lion's share of the time and effort in discipling training working with Muslims short term people can continue both strategies that is they're reaching Muslims of course all the time and that's the thrust of the work but they also work a lot among the churches you must understand the work in Pakistan is very much integrated to the church the Lagos visit has made a real impact in Karachi that's opened up more doors with the church both the Catholic and the Protestant church and gives them a lot of work that is good we want to do that but it can become at times a side track from trying to reach the Muslims because so many nominal Christians are coming to the Lord and you want to disciple them in fact one of the team members in Karachi shared with me he said well really to be honest my main burden is the Roman Catholics which you know we can't oppose that so in the long run we hope that we can shift into seeing even more effort right among the Muslims and if there's any country in the world where you can just go and talk to Muslims and sell them literature and share Christ with them it's Pakistan there are praise God a number of other countries in that category we travelled from Lahore with the Pakistan travelling team down to a place called Faisalabad and it's only had that name recently but I think this is a relatively new name here it is Faisalabad named after King Faisal of Saudi Arabia excellent correspondence course ministry let us pray specifically for the correspondence course ministry half of all the students here thousands of students are Muslims there's a correspondence school based in Faisalabad there's a correspondence school based in Pindi and another one I think based in Karachi there may be others that I didn't find out about we had a very encouraging time there with students and I'd ask you to pray for the student work the Christian Unions of Pakistan we have a very close association with them they are very very small I went to their office in Rawalpindi former Bishop Chandu Ray one of the first persons I ever heard of in Pakistan fifteen years ago his son is the leader of the Christian Union movement not only in Pakistan but I think he has one or two other countries he is based in Karachi I think his name is John Ray brother Ray pray if you could remember one communist Chinese student that was in that student meeting it was an evangelistic meeting I shared a few thoughts about Karl Marx he was amazed just amazed that anybody when a Christian knew anything about Marx and I agreed with how religion can be the opium of the people and then I talked about how Jesus Christ brought the most radical new lifestyle the world has ever known and I tell you he just about came out of his seat I had lunch with him he said I've heard anything like this before started sharing all the problems in China this is not working talked about the cultural revolution how he was put on a farm for two years most unprofitable ridiculous thing he ever did his father was the top military man how can he get more books etc there are not many Chinese mainland Chinese in Pakistan but he's one of them and I got his name from my little mobile guest book Ki Lim Wang Ki Lim Wang and he went to Pakistan what a challenge with not a word of English hardly a word of English his first year he learned English not used to nor do English and he's going to graduate from one of Pakistan's universities some of you have been thinking about university studies this is the country Pakistan there you go to China ok from Faisalabad we went to Gujarwala which is the heart of Presbyterianism Presbyterianism in Pakistan amazing place just unbelievable and one of the things that makes it so amazing are some of the worst divisions I've ever seen in the churches anywhere in the world this extremist fundamentalist man from America named Carl McIntyre has just split the church there he's got I don't know if he's aware of it some of the most unbelievable rogues working with him there's law cases you name it they've got it and yet we met one of the missionaries who's in the midst of this he's been there 29 years and he's just plotting on he's got he's been in court and he's got bail on him he said people threatened to kill him he's just plotting on and I found out his wife was the wife of Horace McGill one of the first missionaries I've ever heard of after I was converted from White Grove, New Jersey Horace McGill who went to the Afghans working in Pakistan and died very young I think in his 30s polio and his wife then remarried this man who's still there Mr. Old pray for Mr. Old and Mr. Old very good friends of O.M. Ken and Marie Old there's a little seminary there I had enormous freedom in the seminary I just completely let loose I thought I was going out of my mind things I said to these seminary students and they accepted it the man's asked me to come back there I think it's next week I'm not going to speak at the main annual gathering at the seminary pray for that little seminary then the next morning we had an evangelistic meeting about 200 technical college students really from the villages Mr. Old because I'm a bit of a coward I don't always give invitations he said look give an invitation these young lads need an opportunity to make decisions for Christ the YWAM team is based there I had lunch with them after an hour of evangelistic message to all these young men in English Urdu I gave invitation about 20 of them stood I think quite a few for salvation pray for the YWAM team as they follow up on those young men we then had to get out of town or go to the next town and that meant Rawalpindi Islamabad where our three sisters Molly and Esther and Sophia Sonia are working they really would like to have a few more recruits Wakely is one of the few leaders anywhere in the world that I have talked to that goes on and on about not having enough women on the teams I mean that is a revolution most of them are always going about the same thing it's like a broken record we need more men you know the normal male chauvinistic types Wakely women we need more women I mean he wants men too but he knows where the action is in the 20th century I hope he doesn't hear this tape but we really would like to pray specifically as we go back to prayer for more women and you know it's amazing I think about 50% or 60% of the women there are from Malaysia and Singapore now that's good but where are the rest of the women where are the Canadian women are they all on the farms where are the British women keep in mind that Pakistan like India even more so is four times easier for commonwealth people you know those of us who are non-commonwealth we have some blood on our hands with Pakistan maybe on our finger but if you're commonwealth if you're Canadian it's up to here you've got to pray about this place you know I don't want to be too strong but the Bible is strong and you need to pray open door you know half the people in this country 93 million about half are women and men we can't reach these people a lot of them they come down the road they're like giant turtles they're covered right from here down big black mass peek-a-boo holes you know if you think you can just walk up to one of those and people are trapped you'll lose your head because the husband you've got to watch out for the husbands they're usually about ten paces ahead of them and they'll come back on you definitely you can't use that method of distribution this is why the orientation is so important but I really pray that we'll see some more women dressed out they have a men's team and a women's team in Karachi they sometimes find the street work very hard that's that's normal but they are having a lot of contacts contacts and they seem quite encouraged we were able to stay with a man who is the the responsible man for the British Council British Council is not British Council the council is a social services organization of the British Government you can pray perhaps for this man Norman and his wife Grace Willamott they were not interested in knowing back here when they were in one of my meetings and they just want to be a help to the team they were so kind to us welcoming us into their home and it's amazing the way the Lord has put some of these tent makers he wanted to go to London Bible College years ago and the door didn't open he had been in the RAF and now he's with the British Council with all kinds of contacts across from his home is the Karachi home of the sheikh of Abu Dhabi a little multi-million dollar cottage the house that the sheikh has just for his falcon handlers would make anything in Bromley look pretty dumpy unbelievable money has flowed into Pakistan from the Gulf and a lot of these sheikhs they like Karachi it's sort of their place they go I don't know all the reasons probably some of them aren't too good but pray for that man as he meets with so many people that somehow he may be a demonstration of Christ and as they exercise such a ministry of hospitality but I think we're looking in Pakistan in the future for people similar kinds of people that we're looking for in the Arab world and in Turkey long term people committed to Muslim evangelists and there's just a wide open door in Pakistan for that what more can I say time is gone we need to pray I'd like to just finish off this little report by asking prayer for the Arab Gulf there are many believers living in places like Dubai Oman Kuwait United Arab Emirates Dubai is part of that but they are most of them are not Arabs there are a few believers of Arab background but most of the believers are Indians or Pakistanis and I believe the Lord wants us to have a ministry of encouragement and to some degree teaching that somehow these people who are there working would know how to communicate to their Arab neighbours and I think we ought to pray because they are examples of mono-ethnic churches the Kerala people go to their Malayalam speaking Kerala church and that's where I preached I preached at two open brethren meetings in Oman among Malayalam speaking Kerala people but they are brushing elbows they are in contact with the Omani people there's more freedom in Oman than some of the other countries there's a pastor there with a Dutch reform church there may be Christian reform there are some who have professed faith very unique country very unique country we can especially pray for Joseph and Radha Kuruvilla former engineer from the ship he works for one of the most powerful sheikhs in the nation probably number two man in the nation who's married to the former wife of Lord Holmes I think this is fourth or fifth wife one thing I'd like to insert here for prayer is the use of videocassettes these Arab countries in that part of the world they are really into videocassettes everybody's got a videocassette there's a little landslide David Exo ever living in Dubai videocassette recorder he's unemployed right now actually he's sort of our key man in Dubai we left there five of our English Arab teaching cassettes each one of those cassettes has five messages you can get a lot on one cassette they were happy to get them and said they knew Arabs believers people of Arab backgrounds some of the Palestinians who would be happy to go through that teaching the Jesus film is there in Arabic videocassette some are using that but it's all very very small after the two meetings in Oman I went to Dubai and just had one meeting there that evening it was in the educational building of the Holy Trinity Church where the night before the elders were meeting with the possibility of kicking out the pastor and his name is Philip Sewell very dear brother the vote went in his favor and he's staying and God's really using him I was able to visit by the way John Donald Patricia Lee's brother used to live with him in Edelstead here in Bromley and his wife and she seems to have come into a real experience of the Lord and things are happening there in Dubai it's a very very very western place it would be wonderful if some of these people they're so limited so limited all these people live within a day of being asked to leave the country so you know they're a little hesitant to start speaking about their faith too much and in Dubai just before I got there a Pentecostal man who got a little bit rambunctious was arrested for evangelism supposedly he's also disgraced the name of Mohammed this has immediately brought a spirit of fear over Dubai people what's happening what's happening next and if we could pray I ministered my most blunt message in the whole trip was in Dubai that and that seminary thing I referred to but I just felt this was the last night and gave an invitation and Christian leaders stood to their feet to recommit their lives and I just shared with them what real persecution is some of the facts about China about the Soviet Union about how the church has grown and they understood it and I think we really that very night saw a spirit of fear broken in quite a few people's lives that even though there are dangers and problems and of course I emphasize being as wise as possible in the witness and maybe this man arrested wasn't as wise but no matter what we must and we studied Acts together we must speak for it let's just pray Amen Amen