Traveling Andhra Pradesh

By the Lord's grace I have meet up with Keith in Andhra Pradesh and we have been spending the last several days traveling around to different assemblies teaching and encouraging believers from the Word of God. As always it is of great encouragement to myself to see how other believers live in the mist of difficulties and how the Lord's hand continues to work.

Map of the southern state of India called Andhra Pradesh and some of the places we are visiting

The heat and humidity levels in Andhra Pradesh are extremely high with an average temperature of 34 degrees each day. The crazy traffic and heavily populated roads in Vijayawada make traveling around very difficult. I have never seen so many people before, I really don't know how this city can function.

Meetings at a Village north of Vijayawada called Mucherala where Elisha lives

We had an encouraging time with Boaz and Ruth on Thursday and Friday last week. Their humble hospitality and their dedication to furthering the Lord's work in remote areas amongst the Koya tribes was great to see. Boaz took me out on the back of his motorbike to visit some of the villages which was really interesting. It was like going back in time as places would have very little road access or if any and they simply survive off the land. Unfortunately some of the children had huge bulging stomachs from malnutrition. We had a meeting at Boaz's place in the evening with about 60 people from the surrounding villages. Keith gave a good message on 'Working out our salvation' from Philippians 2:12 and I had the opportunity to share my testimony with everyone.

Celebrations at opening a new room with Boaz and family at Bhadrachalam

Sunday meeting at Narasaraopet (2 hours south of Vijayawada)

Evening view of the sunset and paddy fields at Boaz's place

Lord willing we plan to get onto a train at 11pm tonight (Monday) from Vijayawada to Nandyal which is about six hours south. There we will meet up with Emmanuel and again visit various assemblies. There is a large youth conference planned for this weekend in the area which we are hoping to take several messages at.