Sunday July 20, 2008

We departed Hyderabad at 1:05am and are scheduled to arrive in Nashville on Sunday evening at 5:09pm. The picture is Howard purchasing souvenirs for Mr. Jimmy Lawson's hat collection.

Saturday July 19, 2008

We continue to meet with different preacher groups. In the afternoon we went to Joseph Gorpade for the inaugural ladies bible class. The class is now scheduled to meet each Saturday.

Friday July 18, 2008

We spent the day in Hyderabad meeting with different groups. We did go and visit, Charminar in Hyderabad , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charminar.

Thursday July 17, 2008

Traveling back to Hyderabad we stopped in Mothkur in the Nalgonda District and met with 8 preachers from the Nalgonda we support 5 of the 8 men there.

Wednesday July 16, 2008

We made a visit to Brother M. J. Suresh Babo in Vizianagram and then drove all day to get back to Vijayawada.

Tuesday July 15, 2008

We departed from Rajahmundry and traveled deep into tribal land where Naxalites are to visit Brother Y. Sudhakar Rao. After a visit there we then journeyed on to Vishakhapatam which is on the Bay of Bengal.

Monday July 14, 2008

In the morning we met with J V Sagar and made plans to visit Rajapudi on Tuesday in the East Godivari District . We then traveled to Kakinada to meet with James Gootam and toured his facilities where he produces a worldwide Church of Christ Broadcast and distributes Christian literature. We also met James Gootam's brother, Nehemiah Gootam, Director of the Kakinada School of Preaching. These brothers are doing a great work to spread the word.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

We attended church with CH John Babu in the West Godiavari District. There were over a hundred people in attendance and we had 10 baptisms. We ate with them and met many of the members. We then got in the car and drove for about 3 hours to Rajahmundry.

July 13, 2008

John Babu joined us as we traveled the Narsapur area. We visited with R. Stevenson and his family. We visited his church where 3 people wanted to be baptized. We took them to the river and baptized them. We then traveled to John Babu's house. The church is located next to his house. Mr. Babu has started a preacher training school run in the church and his house. We addressed the preachers and spent time there visiting. Saturday night we returned to dine with John Babu and his family.

July 12,2008

We continue to meet with ministers seeking support. Paul Kukkale, Director of Jack Nelle Institute came to visit and offered us a tour of his campus. The Institute is supported by Leoma Church of Christ in Lawrenceburg, TN. It is a bible training institute, widow home, orphanage, and English grammar school. They also print a number of Christian publications. One publication is a directory of Churches of Christ in India and neighboring countries. We departed Vijayawada for Narsapur in the West Godavari District where we met with CH. John Babu. There are 15 preachers in this area that we hope to visit. We will be in Narsapur through Sunday.

July 11, 2008

We continue to receive various preachers from the Vijayawada area. We went to the home of M. John Balasundaram and met with him, his wife Thulsie, and Krishana, a deacon in the church here in Vijayawada. John is a leader in this area of the country and works as a translator to many preachers. He has an extensive library of Christian literature and is an inspirational preacher. He is very knowledgeable of the history of the Church of Christ in India.

July 10, 2008

Today was a great day as we traveled to Krishana District. We met with all of the preachers there for one and half hours and had a good discussion with them regarding the work there. We gave each of the preachers a study bible and 10 bibles. We ate with them and had worship service with approximately 115 people in attendance. It was a long day which started early and we did not arrive back to the hotel until approximately 1:00 AM.

July 8, 2008

We began the day meeting with Ch Chinna Yeshaiah and his family. Around 9:00 AM we traveled to Pendana (Krishna District) to visit with K. Chandra Johan and K. Joseph. John Bala Sundaram joined us. This was an unannounced visit which allowed us time to talk in detail about the work in Pendana. At night we had dinner with John and his wife.

July 7, 2008

Traveled to Vijayawada, Krishna District, and a trip of 300KM (186 miles). It took approximately 6 hours to drive. Upon arrival we met with John Bala Sundaram. John served as one the early translators to Old Hickory and worked with Charles Scott and J.C. Bailey. He is a wealth of knowledge regarding the activities in India for the cause of Christ.

July 6, 2008

There were 2 baptisms today. The baptistery is located on the roof of the house. Attended church in the Rangareddi District, Solomon Ghorpade, preacher, there were approximately 85 in attendance. It was impressive the spirituality of this church and the diversity in age that were worshiping. After church we had dinner on the roof.

July 5, 2008

We spent the day at Joseph Ghorpade's house and met his wife, Jasmine, son, Tony, daughter, Miriam, and his nephews, Ken and John, and Dr. Bhasker. Joseph has constructed a church building on the second floor of his house complete with pulpit, space to accommodate 150 people, baptistery, bath rooms, sound system for church and speaker to broadcast to people on street.

July 4, 2008

Continued to meet with and welcome both preachers that we support and preachers that we might want to support. Traveled out of the hotel today to purchase bibles and research new bibles available. Past teams to India have only had the Old and New Testament in Telugu. This year we were made aware of a new study bible that has biblical history, cross references, concordance, and topical reference in back. Part of our mission goal is to challenge our preachers to study and get deeper into the Word. We purchased 20 of these study bibles that we will deliver to them when we visit their villages. We purchased 250 bibles that will be distributed to church members to encourage them to study more.

July 3, 2004

We met with over 18 missionaries at the Hotel. Today the missionaries have traveled from various districts, Nalgonda, Godavari, Mahabubnager, Rangareddi. Joseph Ghorpade, a preacher from Rangareddi District, serves as an interpreter from Telugu to English.

Our goal this trip is to work with the missionaries who have done a good job with first principles and baptizing. We are working to have the preachers execute the Great Commission as described in Mathew 28: 19 -20. We want to grow the church past the first principles and plant churches with faithful men who will be able to teach others. We are also stressing the need for Elders in these churches.

Travel to India July 1 and July 2

The trip began July 1, 2008 at 6:00 AM and we flew from Nashville –Chicago-Philadelphia- Frankfurt, Germany to Hyderabad, India arriving approximately 11:30 PM on July 2, 2008. All travel went well on the trip.

Overview of Mission Trip

Rick McClintock and Howard Watson are going to Hyderabad, India to check on the some 300+ missionaries in Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad, India is the capital of Andhra Pradesh a state in India composed of 22 regions or counties. Old Hickory Church of Christ has been involved in this mission work since 1975. The purpose of this mission trip is to visit with these missionaries and check on the progress of the work in India.
The primary goal of the India mission is to seek and save the lost. The financial support provided is to be a supplement to native evangelists in India. The mission efforts also include providing study guide bibles to evangelists and bibles to church members to assist them with the first principles and to assist followers with their study and growth in the word.