Greetings from Chandigarh

Hello everyone,

Greetings from the city of Chandigarh in northern India. We arrived here yesterday after a four hour train ride from India's capital of Delhi.

Our two days in Delhi were spent getting over jet lag, meeting some friends who live there and getting a taste of the local culture by going out to one of Delhi's biggest markets for an afternoon.

Connaught Place is an interesting place with anything from sidewalk vendors to fancy shops to McDonalds, KFC, and Subway to movie theaters and about everything that you can imagine in between. Oh, and thousands upon thousands of people, about half of which seem to be trying to sell something to the "foreigners" for about five times what it is actually worth. But with a little bartering skills you can usually get a few good bargains.

We went there by metro... Delhi has a very clean and efficient metro system. It is actually nicer than most of the trains in New York City. The biggest difference though... the sheer masses of people who were riding it. For those of you who have been in New York, imagine the fullest train you have ever been on, and then double it, at least! You literally could not move. We thought the train was full, but the officials kept telling people to get on. At every stop, a few people got off and a LOT more people got on.

Delhi is a city of over ten million people. Hinduism is the major religion here, but there are also quite a few other religions too. The hopelessness and despair in the people's eyes is something that is hard to forget.

And that is why it is such a breath of fresh air to meet with Christian people here in this country and to see that God is working in the lives of these people... and that is exactly what we witnessed last night after our arrival here in Chandigarh.

We were greeted at the train station by one of Bibles For The World's missionaries here. He and his family have been here for at least ten years and God is doing a great work through them. There have been thousands of Bibles distributed here in this area and God is at work. We had the opportunity to visit one family who came to Christ a few years ago and through their witness, eight more families have renounced their old religions and become followers of Jesus! Amazing things are happening!

Well, that will be all for now. More updates will follow, and hopefully some pictures too. We appreciate and ask for your prayers as we continue this trip.

Michael