Pastor Lazarus

Imagine an old testament prophet and you'll come close to envisioning Pastor Lazarus. He has shoulder-length wavy gray hair and a gray-white beard and moustache, all of which he's not cutting until God so leads. His parents officially named him Lazarus just before sealing his coffin as a baby. He had been pronounced dead. As they were beginning to seal the coffin his mom heard a gasp and this once lifeless baby had been brought back to life. No kidding. And that's just the beginning of the miracles that occur  in the lives of Christians in Guntur.  Pastor Lazarus has been working in the same village/slum community for the past 30 years. Though he is a professor of zoology at a college in Guntur, he spends every spare minute with his church and in the neighborhood. People listen when he speaks and the congregation has about 500 people every week.

The Faithful

We were there to dedicate their new church building. It is beautiful and made of incredible people, like the elderly woman who hobbled to me with her walking stick and placed my hand on her head to ask for prayer. She was about four feet tall and carefully toted a tattered Telugu (the language spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh) Bible in a dingy plastic sack. I watched as she proceeded to Uncle David and then to Auntie Chaya for prayer. Chaya spoke with her and all the woman asked for was prayer for her daughter. She asked for no money but Chaya felt led to place some in her hand. We were later told that this 80 year-old woman has been abandoned by her daughter and spends her days begging. She has no home, no money and no food and all she asked us for was prayer. Pastor Lazarus also told us that of the money she receives, she tithes. She faithfully gives to the church.

I was so moved by the faith of so many that I met. I felt at home with the people I met in Guntur and the surrounding villages. Christ does that.

I was humbled and moved as I questioned the strength of my own faith. Realizing that many people I met would know God in a way I might never understand due to my circumstances, I was thankful for this chance to again see the relevance of scripture through a different lens. Praise be to a personal and living God.

Indigenous Worship

Unlike some churches I've attended in countries outside the United States that seem to import Western Christianity, God was real in a local and practical way in Guntur. The churches (Cornerstone Prayer Fellowship and its satellite congregations) have no denominational connection as we classify them, however, it is perhaps most similar to Pentecostal in its worship style. Actually, I just felt like I was living in the New Testament. Foot washing made so much sense there, as did putting your bed in the street (I was reading about this in Acts and it never made much sense until I went to Guntur where many people in the villages put their beds in the street). People changed their names after baptism, their new lives signified by a new name (many of the women had been previously named after Hindu goddesses).

The Call

As I worshipped by moonlight with a congregation of 30 in a village named Enamaddala, the Holy Spirit filled me. God promises that if we ask, seek and knock, He will meet us. If you've never heard God speak, this probably sounds crazy, but the Lord does speak. He spoke to me that night as I prayed, "Not my desires, but yours Lord. Not my will, but Yours." That is a hard and very powerful prayer. God wants to bless us, but He asks for obedience. He asks us to trust Him without telling us what that trust will bring. He doesn't say "Here's what's going to happen in the next five years. Now do you trust me?" He just says "Follow me." It's a daily challenge and I  struggle with it on a daily basis. If I'm not struggling with it, it probably means I've given up on being obedient.