Pastor Buford's Asia Trip

Thurs. October 30th

We are on our way home from Asia!

Are at least we will be by the time you get this today. We were in London for an overnight stay at the airport, and then we fly on in tonight to Pensacola.

I can't wait to share with you all that God has done on our almost three week international ministry trip to Asia. I call the trip our “Apostolic Adventure to Asia", because it certainly was. We have traveled thousands and thousands of miles. We've been on, we estimate, more than 20 different planes and we've slept in 15 different beds! We've gone from one day at 32 degrees in the North India Mountains of Himachal Pradesh, to 95 degrees on the beaches of Andrha Pradesh in South India! We have spoken to churches of 11 people in North India where so few Christians live, to hundreds in South India! We have preached, taught, ordained, baptized, counseled, and led meetings and crusades, with one day off the entire time we were there. And we would to it all over again for the fruit of the ministry we saw during these weeks!

This Sunday, Pastor Jim Mather and I will share a message together reporting on our amazing journey and the fruit of our trip. Saturday night, in fact, you will gain an hour of sleep, so, get some good rest, and get on up and come to church. I believe you'll be glad you did. Not to mention, I am really looking forward to seeing you all! Plus, given that we have lost about 25 hours of sleep, it'll be fun for all to see if can we stand up right and pull it off! Seriously, pray for us as we are going to need it.

It has been such a joy to have so many of you with me on my daily blog. It's really been something special. I felt you right there with us. And your prayer and your notes along the way were incredible. If you haven't seen my Asia trip blog you can catch it on the church website. The photos alone are worth the effort.

We couldn't have made the trip without you. Thanks so much for your love, and support. It's such a joy to be your Pastor

See you on Sunday! 

Until He comes, Pastor Buford

Tues. October 28th

Praise God for a break in our apostolic adventure here in India. This is the first full day off we've had off in the 16 days we've been here. We had one other in Delhi but we spent 3 hours of it meeting with two local pastors. It has been really good. Chennai is a huge, beautiful, coastal city on the Bay of Bengal. They actually have a Pizza Hut and KFC! Haven't had any yet but hope to before we leave.

I've always heard that Thomas, Jesus' Disciple aka doubting Thomas, actually came here to South India and preached the Gospel and was martyred here for the Gospel. We discovered that his burial place was here near our hotel. So, this morning, we visited the tomb of St. Thomas. Of course the Catholic Church has built a church over the top of it, but it was pretty interesting and we hope accurate. He did preach the Gospel here and was killed here. I've included some photos.

It was a lot of fun. Pray for us as we begin our very long journey home. Tonight we leave the hotel at 2:00am in the morning, that's right 2:00am to catch a 4:45 international flight to Dona, Qatar. From there we fly to London. We will spend the night in London Wednesday night have breakfast with one our men in London and fly home. Please pray for us and pray that all of our flights will be on time and that we make our proper connections.
 
We have met a big new part of our Christian family here in Asia. We have gotten connected with some amazing men and women of God that are paying the price and preaching the word. We have enjoyed time with many of our missionaries here on the field it's encouraged them and us greatly. I couldn't begin to account all God has done on our trip. We are sure excited about coming home and seeing everyone. We sure have a lot to share on Sunday. And we have a lot to pray for with the election next week. Love and Blessings to you all!

Mon. October 27th

Man has his plans, God has His! Today our plans were to fly from where we had held the crusade on Saturday and Sunday onwards to Kerala, which is across the southern to the west coast of India. This is the home of Shajan, our Missionary, and where they plan to move to next year for a home base. We flew from Rajamundry to Chennai to change planes to fly on to Kerala where we were to finish our trip; meet Shajan's parents and meet with some pastors that did not make the trip to our weekend meeting. When we landed in Chennai, we were told rather abruptly that our flight to Kerala had been cancelled. We were really surprised and were simply told that it was a national holiday in India and the flight had been cancelled because of the holiday. It was 11:30am in the morning and the next flight wouldn't be until 6:30pm, putting us in Kerala late. We were to fly back the afternoon of the next day, (Tuesday) to Chennai to begin our flight back home and would have less than a day in Kerala.

So, Jim and I decided just to stay here in Chennai over night until our flight would leave Tuesday. We were disappointed to not have the opportunity to be with Shajan and Dede and meet his family, but we really did need the rest. We went into a hotel had lunch with Shajan and Dede and spent the afternoon together until they had to leave us around 5:00pm. Pray with us that God makes a way for them to move here permanently this next year. The ministry is really growing here and now with Liberty Network Asia being established here so strongly I really need him here to help oversee the pastors and ministry here.

We are making plans to install a computer in 3 different sites across South India for them to be in contact with us.

Sun. October 26th

As many of you know, persecution of Christians in India has been severe in recent times. This has been one of the things that have touched my heart so much for India. I will share about this more in my report to the church next Sunday. But, two of our pastors that have become apart of Liberty Network Asia had their churches destroyed this past year in the persecution.

Because of this, our water Baptism service took place at daylight Sunday morning to not call a lot of attention to those being baptized. Water Baptism, to us as Christians, is very sacred. To the Indian Government it means conversion from Hinduism and has to be registered.

Those doing this are marked. It was a very bold stand for Christ for these to come and be publicly baptized. It was a beautiful service and one that I will never forget and was privileged to take part in. Let's continue to pray for our Indian Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

So Sunday started very early. The Crusade had run very late followed of course by tea and fellowship. We were able to rest for a few minutes following the baptism service and before Sunday Worship. We continued the crusade onto Sunday morning and met under the tent again. It was even a bigger crowd than the night before!

Sunday morning was our big laying on of hand service for those coming under Liberty Network Asia in South India. We had 14 men licensed or ordained. These men have been known by or working under Shajan for many years. It was such a joy to spend time with them and now to lay hands upon them recognizing their call of ministry. The Lord ministered to all of them. And we are so glad to have them apart of our Liberty family.

They don't wear watches and time is no big deal in the Indian Church. Following the ordination service I was ready to preach. But the pastors had prepared a special tribute for Jim and I. We were greatly blessed as they draped us in their traditional shawl and put flowers around our necks.
The village president came forward and honored us on behalf of the vision. The people loved it and I loved the people. It was something really special. The hospitality of the church there toward us, and there passion and faith toward the Lord is something I'll never forget.

It was so easy to preach and the presence of the Lord was strong. We prayed for and ministered to scores of people. Many people just coming in from the village for me to pray for. It was a great day!

Sat. October 25th

Thanks so much for all of your prayers while I was sick, I refused to give in to it. I really believed it was a spiritual attack trying to hold me back from what the Lord had brought me to accomplish for the Kingdom. The meeting could not have gone better! God gave me grace and strength, and I really felt the power of prayer from everyone that was praying for me. I really had symptoms of being out of commission for a few days. But God!

Saturday night was the big crusade service! There were hundreds of believers that came from the various churches and were held right in the middle of one of the villages. So, everyone was a part of the crusade whether they wanted to be or not. It was very powerful. I mean, very powerful, like it was 3 and a half hours into the service before I got up to preach! It was about 10:00 before I got up to preach and people were still coming! I preached with translation over an hour and prayed for people that came forward for probably another hour! It was really something.

There were as many people outside the tent as under it! It was great to be with all the pastors and believers and reach so many from the village. God blessed the meeting and the anointing upon His word was strong. The village has a population of 20,000 people. In fact, interesting enough, the village president is a born again believer and had us for tea before the service and participated in the service!

Fri. October 24th

I'm back online after a weekend of ministry I'll never forget. Thanks for standing with Jim and I as we have been in Nepal and India. Your prayers have kept us going these past days during some rough times. Words could not express our appreciation!

Let me catch you up on our apostolic ministry adventure to South India!

We traveled much of the day on Friday from Delhi to Chennai to Rajamundry, South India. We had a flight cancellation at the last minute and arrived two hours late. A pastor's meeting had been set up from 4:00 to 7:00 at a hotel for us to meet the pastors connected with our missionaries, Shajan and Dede. Shajan is a spiritual son to me and doing a tremendous job in the Indian state where he was born and grew up. We were amazed and highly honored by the welcome especially since we were two hours late. Just over 70 ministers and their wives were invited to be with us and more than 150 showed up. The room probably held 100! It was so hot. It was standing room only, with people everywhere filling all the doorways. I can’t begin to express how we were greatly moved by the honor and love shown us. We discovered that very few western pastors visit this part of the world, and they are so excited about our plans to work with pastors and leaders under Shajan throughout the area through Liberty Network Asia.

Following the big welcome service, were taken to our hotel where we ate a large Indian dinner together, or at least, I ate a large Indian dinner! We were so tired from travel and recent days of intense ministry, not to mention not eating all day, so it came at the right time. I was hungry and I love Indian food so I enjoyed it thoroughly. I don't know if it was the heat, traveling so much, the food or a combination of them all, but following dinner we went straight to bed with me waking up an hour later very, very sick. I was up and down all night; it was miserable. I couldn't sleep at all. I decided to just spend time in prayer during the night, if I couldn't sleep. I don't know whether it was a dream, vision or what, but I remember the bed seeming to turn around and around. Hindu faces were flying into my face threatening me, with much anger trying to make me fearful. It was very, very strange. I knew then that God had great plans for us. So, in India, I was and am more determined than ever. Later in the weekend, I would hear of one of the Indian pastors having a very similar experience that same night. Though there are a lot more believers in South India than what we found in Northern India, it is very dark spiritually.

I continued to be very sick Friday night. I was able to call Ann early Saturday morning to pray and get others to pray back home in Pensacola. I had an important meeting Saturday morning with some of the key leaders to talk about Liberty Network Asia so I was going, regardless of how I felt. I was still in pretty rough shape, but by faith went on.

Thurs. October 23rd

We've returned to New Delhi for the day for some much needed and well deserved rest. Jim and I leave very early in the morning for our trip to South India, and the final leg of our India ministry trip.  We fly down to almost the tip of India to Chennai, where we will connect up with Shajan and Dede for the final 4 days of our India trip. It will probably the busiest part of our time here, and believe me we have already been busy. We have preached and held meetings day and night since arriving in India on Monday. We are very tired but overjoyed with what the Lord has done and how He has used us these past few days. We continue to be amazed at the grace of God that has been upon us because of all of your prayers. God continues to give us strength, protect us and keep us healthy. It's not been easy along they way, but God has been with us. As you can imagine, we are indeed very tired. Please pray for us when you get this, and continue over the coming days. We've logged a lot of miles and expended a huge amount of energy. And we have a lot of ministry yet before us. I miss my family and miss all of you! See you soon!

Wed. October 22nd

We spent the night Tuesday night in a guest house in Manali. It was very cold. In fact, it snowed the day before in the higher elevations overlooking Manali. That morning, we met with the pastors and leaders from the valley for a small pastor’s conference. It was a great joy to share with them and to get to know them. The meeting went longer than we had planned; with a lot of questions. But it was great to pour into and encourage these faithful men and women of God. I told them that they should be the ones speaking to us, not visa versa. They have had such faithfulness for years with few coming to Christ. To them, one here and one there, over the years coming to Christ, is worth all they endure and go through. And isn't that true and shouldn't it be that way for us all. I was very inspired by all of them.

I had the great opportunity of spending time with Pastor Tweeter as he traveled with us. In fact, he traveled 12-14 hours just to be with us and brought much excitement with him that we were there. Pastor Tweeter ministers in a village way up in the high elevation that is cut off for the entire winter each year. In fact, the government has to bring supplies in weekly by helicopter during the winter months. The village of 11,000 people is made up of mostly Tibetan Buddhist. There is no Christian witness or church for miles around and the Tibetan border is not far from him. An amazing man of God, doing an amazing work for the Lord. He and his wife have started a Christian school to reach the young of the area to bring Christ to them. I was greatly inspired by my time with Pastor Tweeter, and I so look forward to an ongoing relationship with him. 
 
Following the pastor's meeting, we returned back an hour and a half to Kullu for an evening service. Jim spoke and did a great job. We had tea with the believers following the service as we did after every service. We had the great opportunity to go to the pastor's house for a full Indian meal, which started about 10pm each night. We stayed over night at Pastor Lucas' house and stayed up very late answering his questions until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer. What a great time we had in the Lord.
 
Pastor Lucas, there in Kullu, was a great blessing and we will never forget his love for the Lord as well as his commitment to carrying the Gospel to an area where there is little to no interest.

Tues. October 21st

We flew from Delhi to Kullu, which resides in the mountains of Northern India. Kullu happens to be the most northern city with an airport in India. What a beautiful place, but spiritually very dark. There are only a few Christians in that part of the world. At the most, 7 churches, in the entire valley, with most of them being small house churches. It's probably one of the most unreached areas I've seen. They have over a half a million or more living in this very rugged area. The area is steeped in ancient Hinduism, but God's people are God's people everywhere. They were wonderful and warmly and received Jim and I with much love. It was a delight to see how very excited they were that we were there with them and very responsive. There's only been very few American Christian leaders come to the area so this was truly a great gift to us all.

After arriving in Kullu, we had the opportunity to have Pastor Lucas meet with us. We then drove an hour a half to Manali. One of the most beautiful drives I've ever taken. It was like driving inside of a post card. The snow covered mountains were breathtaking, but the presence of Hinduism and Buddhism was everywhere. The Kullu valley is considered holy among the Hindus and they call it the “Valley of the gods”.

Tuesday night, we ministered at the church there that the missionary leads. The lady, who had the house where we met, has been greatly ridiculed and persecuted for being a Christian. She's not allowed to get water where everyone else does because of her faith in Christ. It was a great joy to share and be apart of the fellowship meeting. As American believers, we have no idea what our Brothers and Sisters in Christ have to endure for their faith. Their purity and sincerity in their worship is something that I'll always remember.

Mon. October 20th - trip to Delhi

We left Katmandu, Nepal where we had been for 6 days of ministry. What a great time we had with all the missionaries. It was so good to be with Sudip and Anne Lise and our Nepali Liberty family.

We flew in to Delhi this morning, arriving here in the afternoon. We had “our plans” and then God changes them to His!  At the last minute, I was asked to speak at the “Last Resort”, a Christian drug and alcohol treatment center near the airport. I gave my testimony and we spent the night there at the center getting up very early to fly to North India. Pastor Thanboi and Bro. Muon are doing a tremendous job at Last Resort ministering to young men bound by drugs and alcohol from all over the region. Pray for this important ministry to India. I was very moved by what they are doing, and how God is so greatly using them.