I wanna thank God for the entire trip, which was signed by HIS Presence. For me, if God doesn’t get glorified in a meeting, no matter how many people come, it doesn’t give me fulfillment. Years back i told the Lord when i was praying at St.Thomas mount, Chennai, that in all my meetings i want some soul to come and tell me that God spoke to them, or they were touched by the presence of God. And by God’s grace, this has happened in all my meetings, and i am just humbled.

My last trip to the US was in 2004, and i was not too keen on going back becos i was not too happy with a church set up that has 20-40 mins for a sermon and then 2 hours for fellowship………people meeting and eating. Looked like people came to church more for social reasons other than spiritual reasons. Hence i didn’t have an inclination to go back, inspite of the fact my sister was in Chicago. But for sometime in the past 2 years especially, i had been hearing that things had changed for the better, and that there is a genuine thirst among people for God’s presence, and God’s leading was for me to go this year, and hence we started co-ordinating meetings. Ps.Visu……or Visu annan as i call him………who knows me from the time i was 12, is pastoring a church in Pennsylvania, and we started working out a schedule and by God’s grace, the dates were taken immediately. Almost 4-5 months before my trip, i had a family camp to preach in switzerland. So i clubbed both the countries, and by God’s grace right from my 1st meeting in Chicago, i saw the change in the thirst factor. Invariably, it was a coast to coast ministry trip. So i got to minister atleast in 70 % of the tamil congregations and some malayalee and english churches. I am greatly encouraged to see where the churches are now, and the Pastors are genuinely making an effort to bless their congregations. I was deeply touched by their commitment and stretching themselves in a field which is not very thankful…..or fruitful, as there are very few families. It takes a lot to draw people out of their comfort zones and bring them to a discipline of wanting to grow spiritually. While as usual, there are people who are petty minded, for them their church is their little kingdom, they have no idea or desire for God’s kingdom overall…….. i guess in that area most of us have to come to terms with the fact that God is bothered about people and not how succesful individual ministries are, when we get that perspective…….our ministries will become fruitful and meaningful………there are also those who love to split a church over petty issues……..as long as the LORD allows a split as happened in Paul’s ministry which contributed positively for the kingdom of God, other such splits bring only a curse on the person or a group who do it for their own selfish reasons…….in my years of travelling to different countries and different congregations i have seen groups which had split genuinely, grow spiritually…..and there are those who don’t have a sense of purpose to their existence…….but these are teething problems in churches, while everywhere the positives outweigh the negatives, my desire is people would grow deeper in their relationship with God……..both in WORD and the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

May we grow personally in the same manner,

fred