Revival Hymn

The Revival Hymn Video is an audio compilation put to video with words on the screen for easier understanding. This is a powerful compilation and reminds us what true revival is all about.

Created by Host at Sermonindex.net. Speakers: Ian Paisley, Leonard Ravenhill, Paris Reidhead, Duncan Campbell, A.W. Tozer and T. Austin Sparks. Music: Last of the Mohicans soundtrack.



This video is called, "Revival Hymn" and you can find it at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uwbps9k5Dj0 .

Under Construction

This site is currently under construction, but will hopefully be up and running soon.

When it rains, it pours!

The plumbing work was supposed to fix the backed up drains in my bathroom but when it was done, we found that the rainwater from the roof didn't drain off like it used to anymore and it comes under my bathroom door now. At least it's rainwater instead of sewer water! When the storm started, the power went off and then the water came in so we had to work by flashlight and candles to mop up the water. The only reason you can see what's happening in the pictures is because I used the flash on my camera.

Here is a slideshow of the flooding in my room.

Bonnie

Plumbing problems

I've had quite a time the last few days. Every time it rains here (which is almost every day lately) the water has been backing up into my bedroom. They had a problem with the plumbing in my bathroom backing up because some rats had gotten into the pipes and dragged laundry and trash in there. So over a period of a week, they dug up the pipes and redid them and then recemented the sidewalk holes so the rats couldn't get in there anymore. That works fine now but the water from the roof doesn't have adequate drainage anymore. Whenever it rains hard now the water backs up at my back door. (My bathroom has two doors and one goes outside.) The water comes through the crack underneath the bathroom door and flows into my bedroom. It gets about an inch deep in some places. On top of that, the power has gone off for hours each day and the water supply has been cut off in the neighborhood. I have water on my floor but no hot water to take a bath with! During this whole ordeal, everyone kept coming and looking at the work being done right outside my bathroom door. I had no privacy that day or the use of my bathroom because the door was always open to the outside. People took turns coming to my room, discussing what was being done, how it was going and what they thought should be done next . It was quite a show for them. I'll be keeping you updated on more soon.

Bonnie

Prayer request for Pastor Kumar

For any of you who don't know already, my mom is currently in India as a missionary for 6 months. She just informed me that her pastor there has been in the hospital for a week now with a fever and the doctors don't know what's wrong with him yet. She says he's really sick. Please keep him in your prayers. Thank you!


This is Pastor Kumar and his wife Salomi.

Melissa

This is my favorite Paul Washer video. A must see!

This video is called, "Paul Washer Project" and you can find it at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=AYsClDclvf0

Mary, did you know? - Video

This video is called, "Jesus - Mary Did You Know Video - The Passion" and you can find it at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=IfpK6cNPF7Y .

August 2007

This was originally written in August 2007

Hello from Bonnie in India!

It's hard to believe this is my fourth newsletter already! Since I wrote Newsletter 3, a lot has happened. This month we had a big celebration at the church to honor Pastor Kumar and Salome's 25th wedding anniversary. I spoke at three Friday morning Sister's meetings (Lady's Fellowships) and at two Hindi Children's Services on Sunday afternoons. I also went to four funerals and two new housewarming parties. (This is a big church.) Every Tuesday I go with Salome and some other women from the church to visit 3-4 homes of church members. We just show up unannounced and when they open the door, they're happy to see us. They prepare coffee or tea for all of us and run to a nearby store to get cookies or other snacks. If it's lunchtime they want to prepare lunch for all of us. They feel it's an honor to have us come to visit them and I find this an amazing and wonderful part of their culture.

This month we also took a day trip to a new house in Husur which was about a three hour drive away. It was given to the church rent free to use as a Bible School and retreat center. When we went inside the house, I could really feel the presence of God there. We dedicated the house to the Lord, had lunch and went for a walk in a park nearby. All the way home we sang songs to the accompaniment of a homemade drum (which was actually a big plastic water bottle).

Ruth and Jemi are two 13 year old nieces of Salome who attend church here. I really bonded with them when I first met them and they both call me their "best friend". For a long time, they've been teaching Sunday School all by themselves to about 80 children in one big class. Just recently the class has been divided up into several small classes and other women are helping them out. So now, the girls have started an outreach ministry to Hindu children in the neighborhood on Sunday afternoons. They go out into the neighborhood and invite the children to come to their program. I went with them once to keep them company and see what they do. They just talked to the kids they met and told them what we would be doing, told them what time to come and asked them to bring their friends. They make it look easy. We've had around 50 to 80 children attend each week. We start each meeting with singing, sometimes we have a skit, and then I tell a Bible story or give a short message. (There are small prizes for the children who pay attention and can answer the questions.) Then we have a puppet show where Ruth and Jemi just make up a story as they go along. It always has a moral to it--like do your homework, or don't fight with your brother. Then there are more songs and we pass out a snack to eat at the close of the program. This week Ruth and Jemi also made up a dance to perform in front of the whole church on Sunday morning. They picked out a song they liked, asked for permission to do it and then made up the dance steps, motions and even created their own costumes from some sari material. They were really good, and you could tell they were having fun while they were dancing.

At times I wonder if Ruth and Jemi are extraordinary girls but they act just like ordinary children most of the time. I wouldn't even say they are overly mature for their age, but when they're in front of a group of kids, they really know how to work together, and keep everyone interested and in line. If one of the children starts to act up or misbehave they're quick to correct them. They aren't afraid at all and just take the authority when they're in front of a crowd. I guess it's a gift, but I also think the Indian culture of children obeying those in authority helps them even though they aren't much older than the children they minister to. I'm learning from them how to minister to children and they're learning from me whenever they need advice or help--so we all benefit.

I've been pretty busy every day. For example, one morning this week, I washed my clothes by hand and hung them up on a clothesline, went to a funeral at a church member's house, then the burial at a cemetery on the other side of town. That took all morning. Then in the afternoon, I went shopping with Hosanna, came back to the church and taught English, and went to a wedding celebration in the evening.

While we were at that particular celebration, it began to rain very hard. The reception was in a building next door about 50 feet away and we waited a long time for it to stop raining and it didn't. Some people had umbrellas and went in the rain anyway but we didn't have one so we waited. Finally, a kind man brought me an umbrella and led me away down a sidewalk. We walked around a car and then the sidewalk ended and there was a big puddle in front of us. I thought, oh well, I have plastic sandals on and it won't hurt to get my feet wet, so we went ahead into the shallow water. Then halfway through I fell into a big, slippery hole in the puddle and down I went! The man who led me that way started apologizing for letting me fall and I started laughing. When I was going down, it felt like I was falling in slow motion and I didn't get hurt at all. Praise the Lord! If you go to my website, you can see the picture of me at the reception in my wet and muddy dress. My camera and the front of my dress were the only things that stayed dry.

Some of you have expressed concern for my safety, so I would like you all to know that the area we're in is pretty safe. The church has been here for 25 years and has built up a good reputation with the Muslims and Hindus who live around here and everyone gets along peacefully. If Hindus from another area ever tried to attack us, our friends would come to our aid and have to fight them off as well. The Hindus usually only attack in areas they feel it's safe for them to do so—in remote areas or where there's a Hindu majority.

But persecution has been growing all over India, and just today I read an article in the newspaper saying that 54 Christians have been martyred in this state in the past year. Pastor Kumar has said many times that he used to get reports of pastors being beaten every week but lately it's been every day. A week ago, we got the news that a pastor about ten miles away had been kidnapped and beaten badly, but his attackers fled when they saw a motorcycle approaching. Then just a few days later we got the news that the same pastor had been kidnapped again. They called his family and said they would kill him by 6AM the next morning. His family immediately called us and several other churches to pray for him, and several of us asked the Lord to send confusion to the kidnappers so the pastor could get away. Later, we found out that his kidnappers had put him on a bus with only one of his kidnappers and the rest followed behind the bus in a car. The pastor ran up to the bus driver and told him he'd been kidnapped and the kidnapper who was with him got afraid and ran off. The bus driver drove the bus to a safe area and the pastor was returned home around 6A.M. in the morning--the exact time when he was supposed to be killed. The Lord had brought confusion to his kidnappers and they made a stupid decision to put him on the bus with one of them instead of keeping him in the car with the rest of them. So God answered our prayers!

Check out the new pictures on my website!
Go to bjenk234.shutterfly.com

I'm not in most of the pictures because I'm usually the one holding the camera.)

I have some more pictures showing outreach to a slum area but I'm having a problem with my files so I haven't been able to put them up yet. I hope to get it resolved soon.

Bonnie

July 2007

This was originally written in July 2007

Hello from Bonnie in India!

In my last newsletter I said I was planning on going to Hyderabad for ministry with my new American friends Ed and Kathy. Well, we went a few weeks ago and had a wonderful trip. We made new friends on the train with a couple who bunked near us and shared our dinner with them. Even though it was a sleeper train, I wasn't able to sleep very much because of the constant noise and motion of the train, so I had a long night. Finally 6AM came and it was time to get off in Hyderabad. That's when we found out that a train had run off the tracks right before us, and during the night we had been rerouted around the accident. We were still seven and a half hours away from our destination, but we were thankful that we weren't on the train that derailed! We finally got to the Hyderabad station at 1:30 in the afternoon and were driven through heavy traffic to our hotel. There wasn't any time to rest or freshen up because we were scheduled to be at a church service by then so we just dropped off our bags quickly and left. The church was an hour away but when we finally got there everyone was still waiting for us and didn't seem to mind that we were late. We had a great time of worship for the first hour and then Pastor Ed gave an inspiring message. After the service we went to the church pastor's home where we enjoyed a simple dinner and more fellowship and prayer.

When we left there that night, we were looking forward to a hot shower and getting some rest in our hotel rooms. After another hour's drive we finally arrived at our "hotel". (That's in quotation marks because it wasn't what you would think of when you hear the word hotel.) First of all, we had to get past a barrage of beggars in the dirt parking lot and carry our luggage up three flights of stairs. Then we saw our rooms. Oh! They had dirty walls, dirty floors, dirty sheets, and dirty towels. (The laundry is done by hand by local people instead of using washing machines and dryers.) Ed and Kathy's room was full of roaches so they moved in with me. We found out there was no hot water even though we had been assured there would be some when we checked in. I took a cold shower anyway and used some clean towels I had brought with me. We put up a fuss with the management and got some brand new sheets, made our beds and finally got some rest that night. In the morning we found out we had hot water but it only lasted a few minutes so Ed and Kathy had to take quick showers and rinse off in cold water. Apparently when they say they have hot water they mean only in the morning and as long as it doesn't run out. What an adventure! We found out later that there was a convention in the area and the hotel we were in was the only one that had any vacancies left. It was easy to figure out why.

We visited several more churches in the next two days. Each time Kathy and I gave a short greeting and message and then Pastor Ed gave the main message. At the end we all prayed for the people who came forward. Once after Ed preached about claiming the promises of healing, I gave a ten minute testimony about the many times I've been healed.

We had an uneventful trip back to Bangalore, and I settled back into my regular routine again. Four days a week I teach English to children for 2-4 hours a day. Then whenever I'm asked to, I preach, pray for the sick and visit people in their homes with Salome.

I've really enjoy the experience I've been getting here in public speaking and praying. Just this afternoon I thanked Salome for the ministry opportunities they've given me since I came here. I commented on the fact that they even let two 13 year old girls teach Sunday School and they sometimes have small children get up and pray in front of the whole church. In response, she said the church was like a soup and I asked her what she meant by that. She said, everyone adds a little of their own flavor here and we all enjoy the results.

Speaking of food, (sort of) I was asked to make some American dishes and so far I've made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet and sour meatballs, chocolate chip cookies and iced tea. Tomorrow I'll make brownies and later in the week I'll make some coconut pies. I've found the Indian substitutes for some ingredients are different than what I'm used to, so I've had to make some adjustments in my recipes. For example, their brown sugar is made from a palm tree so it's sweeter and their salt is stronger so I have to use half the amount. Also, I'm not used to cooking for forty people at a time so I have to multiply every recipe a lot. They use different spices, cooking utensils and methods. Sometimes you have to be careful of walking on a slippery wet floor in the kitchen and there's a gas stove instead of an electric one. They usually cook on top of the stove so they hardly ever use the oven here except for storing pans. Once, when I was baking cookies I found out someone had turned the oven off, not knowing it was actually being used for the first time in a year.

I took lots of pictures on the trip to Hyderabad. Check them out at my website.

bjenk234.shutterfly.com I hope you enjoy seeing them!

If you want to write, my e-mail is bjenk234@juno.com

Half the time the e-mail doesn't get through, but if I get your letter I promise to write back. Regular mail is more dependable, but try to make the envelope look like it's from a business if you can. That way it's less likely to be opened and thrown away by someone who is looking for cash in a personal letter from a rich country.

My address here is:

Bonnie Jenkins
Shekinah House of Prayer and Praise
#7 First Main S.K. Garden
Bangalore, 560046 India

To call me direct use: 011-91-990-226-1821
The church number is: 011-91-080-2333-1637

(A land line has a different amount of numbers than a cell phone)

Call me anytime and share the number with others who might want to call. I would love to hear from you!

I send my love to you all!
Bonnie

June 2007

This was originally written in June 2007

Hello from India,

Well, I've been in Bangalore for a month now and so much has been going on! We finished our three weeks of prayer and juice fasting which ended with the fifth anniversary celebration of the church building's construction. Literally one thousand people attended the Shekinah House of Prayer and Praise and were fed lunch that day. The twenty eight children who usually live here have come back from vacation with their relatives and started school so the house is full again. During this month I went to the Global Day of Prayer, an engagement celebration, a wedding, a funeral, and saw six new believers baptized. We've visited many members in their homes, and gone to several different villages to visit pastor's families and see where new churches have been started recently or will be built in the near future.

We've also had several guest speakers at the church. Two of them were from Africa and one lady was from England. The lady was Rachel Hickson and she spoke about Christians in history making a difference in their society. She encouraged us all to do the same thing here in India. It was very inspiring. I've been asked to speak here many times as well. I spoke at the church's anniversary celebration about the foundation of the church being built on the word of God. I also spoke at the Ladies Bible Study where I gave the first of several messages I have planned about spiritual warfare. I taught a children's Bible study last week and spoke at a home fellowship Tuesday night. Wednesday night I spoke for an hour to the church about coming up higher into another level of intimacy in worship and holiness. It blessed me so much when the Holy Spirit moved on the people at the end of that service.

Pastor Kumar's wife Salome asked me to help some of the older children with their English lessons and every day we pray for people--in their homes, when they come to visit, and after the church services. Everything is wrapped in prayer here.

A few days ago a group of us went sightseeing in the neighboring state of Tamilnadu where we saw some wild monkeys and the beautiful Hogenakkal Falls. It was fun stepping into the waterfall with our clothes on! It helped us to cool off from the summer heat and it felt like a soothing massage. When it was time to go we changed into dry clothes and got back into the van. We stopped for a picnic later on, fed some wild monkeys and then drove to another village. While we were there, we saw people working in a field, visited the family of a girl named Jotee who lives here at the church, and dropped off two young women who will stay to plant a church.

A few weeks ago I met Ed and Kathy Bowers. They are pastors and apostles from Virginia who moved to Bangalore four years ago. They invited me to go sightseeing with them around the city, and then we went back to their home where we had lunch and a great time of fellowship and worship. I spent the night with them, and in the morning we went to the English speaking church they attend here in Bangalore. They invited me to come to Hyderabad with them at the end of the month where we will be doing some ministry in a church for several days. That will involve a trip on an Indian train--something I haven't done before.

If you go to bjenk234.shutterfly.com you can see the new pictures I have posted. You will even see pictures of me riding a camel and wearing a sari. I've taken a lot of pictures, but some of the most memorable images are only in my mind because I wasn't able to get my camera out fast enough. I remember a beggar girl about nine years old with her face pushed against the car window in heavy traffic. She held a picture of a monkey god and had a metal pan to collect money in. As she made a sad face to make us feel sorry for her, a large bus passed by behind her and we gasped as there were only a few inches to spare. She was almost crushed and didn't seem to notice or care. Her mother was on the other side of the car holding a baby and making a sad face too--she was more concerned about the possibility of getting a few coins from us than the safety of her own daughter! It's against the law to beg here and if we give them money it only encourages them to beg all the more, but my heart was crying out to help the little girl in some way. I wanted to pull her into the car and take her home with me! There are so many needs and so much work to be done here, so please keep me in your prayers as I seek the Lord to find His perfect will for my life.

I send my love to you all,
Bonnie

May 2007

This was originally written in May 2007

Hello from India!

I finally got an Internet connection today so I'm writing a general newsletter to all who might be interested in my trip. My plane was late coming in from Frankfurt, but I arrived here safely after a long and tiring flight. Pastor Kumar and his family met me at the airport and after a twenty minute trip we arrived at the church about 2AM. Many people live in the building, but they gave me my own room with a private bathroom and shower. I have to turn the heater on to get the water hot and I learned the hard way that I should have an extra bucket of clean water on hand just in case the water gets turned off unexpectedly!

Everyone here has been very kind to me. The younger ones call me "Auntie" (which is a sign of respect in India), and the older ones call me "Sister". The children are very well behaved and obedient. If anyone thinks I might need help, or a drink, or something else they jump up to get it, or an adult will ask one of the children to get it for me. I feel like an honored guest, but I keep telling them to treat me just as they would anyone else. Everyone is always busy. Pastor Kumar is speaking in other towns a lot and Salome entertains visiting pastors and guests. She also counsels people and prays for them and studies to prepare for her weekly ladies teaching. The girls and children who live here are always hard at work with cleaning, cooking, doing the laundry, Bible study or personal prayer.

May is their month of prayer to seek the Lord and this is the fourth year in a row that they have done this. Many are on a 21 day juice fast also, and a lot of them are skinny to begin with! Their stamina in amazing and they tire me out, but I'm so happy to be here. The daily schedule is:

5-6:30 AM morning prayer, 10-2 AM afternoon service, 7 to 9 or 9:30 PM evening service

(That means almost eight hours of church a day for a month!)

One morning last week they introduced me to the people of the church and asked me to speak so I said how glad I was to be there and that I just wanted to learn from them and to show them love. On Sunday they have an English speaking service. This past Sunday, Pastor Kumar's son Samuel led the English worship and I recognized most of the songs. There was about a ten minute time where everywhere was praising the Lord and praying in tongues. It was like a roar of worship. I got introduced after that and gave my testimony. After the service, there was a baptism at the house next door. A previously Hindu woman gave a confession of faith and was baptized by Kumar.

The services are mostly in Tamil, with a mixture of Kannada (kahn-ah’-dah), Telugu (tel-oo’-goo) , English and tongues thrown in. I don't know what is going on unless I can get with another English speaking person to translate for me. Although I can't understand much, I can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit here. Different people will stand up as they feel led to praise the Lord, pray, or start singing a song. There is so much love, joy, peace and unity here! The services go on for hours with loud praises, prayer and shouting. It's like a pep rally for the Lord. They also pray and intercede for those who are lost in Hinduism, their country, their government, other churches, etc. For example, one will get up and say, "Let's pray for the youth, that they will stay strong in the Lord.", and then they all start praying individually out loud for several minutes and then they stop and pray for something else. They don't ever seem to get tired of praying and praising the Lord. At times, the presence of God is very strong--whether in or out of the services and I feel privileged to be here.

There is no air conditioning in the building and the temperature varies from 75 degrees at night to 95 degrees during the day. Since they are in town and there is a Hindu family next door, they are required to shut the windows on that side so there is no cross breeze through the sanctuary. There are fans, but several times during a service this week the power went off and then they turned on the generators for the lights and sound system. There wasn't enough extra power to run the fans, but even in the heat and darkness, they kept praising the Lord. Many of these people have been fasting and getting up at 5 or 6 AM, coming to the four hour mid-day service and then to the evening service also. There are a lot of children and if they are old enough, they usually participate in the service or go to "Sunday school", which could be any day of the week. If they are small and tired, they just fall asleep on their mother's lap or on the floor without crying.

I love the Indian food. They eat with their fingers, which is fun. They keep offering me a fork or spoon and I keep refusing it because I want to eat like they do. The first dinner here we had dosas (flat rice pancakes), spicy scrambled eggs and coconut paste. You take a piece of dosa and fold it over, then use it to pinch up some eggs and coconut. I also had some mango juice made from "mango smash" (which is a concentrate) and tasted some "banana juice" which was a banana milkshake.

Salome, the pastor's wife and her sister Hosanna took me shopping to get four cotton salwar kameez . They are dresses with a long slit on the sides and baggy pants underneath. A matching scarf is draped over their shoulders and the scarf is used to cover their heads when they pray. I also bought some workbooks to help me learn Tamil and Hindi (the national language) while I'm here.

I've been taking many pictures and hope to get them up on my website soon. I've also been working on getting a cell phone so I will have a number for people to call me here. Many times the e-mail will not get through and that might be because of a government filter, so I have used a quotation mark to replace vowels in words that might be noticed. I hope that will help, but I won't really know that each one of you has received my letter unless you respond to it.

Keep me in your prayers.

I send my love to you all,
Bonnie