10 Days in India

India Trip Report

Recently, a team of six 10 Days leaders traveled to five cities in India casting vision for 10 Days, making friends, and eating a lot of amazing India food.  This group included Abraham Sekhar, a leader of a large network of Indian churches, Sunil Gaikwad and Anjali Abbot, 10 Days coordinators and catalysts for India, along with Jonathan and Cassi Friz and Kirk Fraiser.

Tech Director Kirk Fraiser wrote the following account of the trip, highlighting a personal memory from each city.

 Kirk’s India Story

This is my first time traveling to India. And what better way to visit a country than by visiting five cities in ten days? I am traveling with a team of friends from India who, thankfully, set up the trip.  

All the team was together in Dubai before we launched out for the 10 Days Summit. It was great to spend some time together there and to get to know each other better. 

Since I was a late add on, I was on a separate flight from Dubai to Mumbai. But this was probably a great way to help me get into the right mentality. I was able to live in the moment and enjoy the people, sights, and smells, instead of being purely focused on the team. 

So let’s get something straight. Many people (both westerners and Indians) told me to prepare my nose for the assault of smells. But now that I have stayed in country for ten days and in five different cities, I can say, they overhyped it. This was barely a skirmish of smells. 

In fact, the atmosphere was significantly different than I was expecting. I believe there is one major underlining factor. 

We didn’t visit India to visit India. We weren’t there for the sights and smells. We were there to talk with established praying communities and passionate disciples of Jesus.  We wanted to extend an invitation for them to join us in 10 Days of Prayer.  Some of the groups were already doing 10 Days, and some of them were new to the vision.

So while we visited five different cities, I think we saw the best parts of each one. They were the best parts because the presence of God was already there. We didn’t have to bring it with us. They were ready for us. These praying believers created an atmosphere of God’s presence in preparation for us coming.

When was the last time you prepared the way for someone else to jump into God’s presence? 

Mumbai 

Best friend: Raj

 I was blessed to be the only team member to stay with a host family. The rest of the team stayed at a hotel nearby. At first, they made fun of me since I was separated from the rest of the team. 

However, I had a much better experience in Mumbai than they did. So the joke’s on them! 

Raj picked us all up from the airport in a rented van. After dropping off the rest of the team at the hotel, the two of us rushed back to his house. Monti, Raj’s wife and supreme chief, had made us a feast. Food is a big thing in India, or so I came to find out. 

After a short night (in what I came to find out later was the best bed of the trip), we rushed off to our first meeting. 

Now I keep using this term, “rush” when talking about moving about in a car. We actually aren’t moving very fast. In fact, the one time traffic opened up and let us have freedom, I glanced over to see that we were traveling at the mighty speed of 40 kph (25 mph). 

The first meeting went smoother than could have been anticipated.  The space was packed so that we were forced to sit just inches from the worship team. Jonathan, the leader of 10 Days of Prayer, pitched the vision of 10 Days. Other team members jumped in to share their testimonies with 10 Days. We were off to a good start!

In each of the five cities, our team of six was able to share the vision of 10 Days of Prayer and pray with the local believers. Pastor Abraham would introduce and welcome the team.  Jonathan Friz, the leader of 10 Days, was able to share the history of 10 Days. Anjali Abbot and Sunil Gaikwad shared their testimonies. And I would round out the sharing time by sharing his story on how he came to work with 10 Days and share how people could get involved.

But the best part. After each of these meetings the team was able to pray with the locals. It was incredible to hear the testimonies. It was also amazing to see how the people flocked to the team for prayer. We were especially blessed to have Cassi Friz and Anjali Abbot as part of the team to be able to pray for the women—they always seemed to be a longer prayer line for them!

Mumbai held one of my favorite interactions of the whole trip

After the first meeting, Raj took the rest of the team to their hotel. Since there wasn’t room, I stayed back with Monti and the rest of the locals who were cleaning up. Again, I felt at home. I like being the first in and last out. It just feels right. 

I was chatting with Monti about how much I enjoyed the worship. I explained my take on worship leaders. Their job is to take the congregation by the hand, walk to the doors of the Lord’s Throne Room, open the doors, and welcome the people in. They don’t force people to worship. They also don’t worship by themselves.  

While I was talking, I saw a young man listening in. He joined us and asked me how I knew about this. To which, I explained that I had started leading worship with my wife at our house church. 

He then hit me with his God Need. “How can I feel God’s presence?” 

As it turns out, this young man wasn’t even invited to our meeting. He had been walking down the side street by our building. Raj had seen him outside the gate and assumed he was supposed to be in the meeting. (See? Raj is one of the wisest men I know.) 

This young man and I spoke for the next 30 minutes until Raj returned. After being in the land where the term “guru” originated, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I am no spiritual guru. But what I do possess is a set of lungs and vocal cords. God wanted to speak into this man’s life. 

It’s awesome when you step out with only a “yes”. It’s incredible where God will take you. 

 Delhi 

I will be honest with you. I was a bit worried about traveling to India. I feel it is easy to fall into a fear based mindset. We hear the horror stories of when the one-in-a-million event happens. We assume since it has happened once, it will happen again and will certainly happen to me. 

While I was still in Dubai, I heard from a new friend that the Indian government has started locked down the borders. They mentioned that everything in and especially out of the country was being checked. This also means all my footage and computer files would be reviewed. 

Again, it is easy to fall into a fear-based mindset. 

I’ll be honest. I acted out of that mindset. At the same time, I thought I was a pretty brave dude to run into a country like India. After all, I’m convinced I would have an exit interview that wouldn’t end well. 

In Mumbai, I made sure I didn’t collect any footage or photos of the locals. I didn’t want to endanger any of them when I left the country. 

Now that I am sitting in my office at home, I’m really sad. I’m sad I made a decision out of fear and missed an opportunity to celebrate the people I got to meet in Mumbai. 

In Delhi, Jonathan came to me and mentioned that he felt that we wouldn’t have an issue getting out of the country with the footage. I felt a similar prompting from God.  

With that out of the way, I was able to start collecting some footage. In fact, we met and interviewed a local pastor and his daughter. They had amazing stories about seeing the power of God replace the power of Hinduism. 

Pastor Sam and Shalom’s Stories

Pastor Sam moved to Delhi many years before. When he first saw it, his spiritually attuned eyes saw the darkness. He described it as a dark blanket that had dropped over the entire city. (Talk about a wet blanket.)  

As he started to pray, he saw God work. First others joined him in prayer. Then after many hours of prayer over several months and years, they have seen the darkness recede. Now there are pockets of light in a dark city. This is the power of prayer.  

Each time that I get to interview someone, I want to make space for God to ask the questions. Sometimes He gives me a list beforehand, and other times He springs them on me during. This interview went more like the latter.  

Near the end of the interview with Pastor Sam’s 22-year old daughter, Shalom Shirley, God prompted me to ask if she felt like she was one of the only from her generation praying faith-filled prayers. 

I’m not terribly old yet, but I already feel that the generation in their young 20s are farther from praying faith-filled prayers than the older generation. Maybe that is because I, in my early 30s, feel that my generation doesn’t pray many of those prayers. 

I was expecting to hear her confirm my feeling. Instead, she mentioned that she doesn’t feel alone. She has a strong group of friends that pray faith-filled prayers together. They had all been affected in an incredible way when a traveling worship team had come through. 

This was a reminder to me that when you need Jesus for daily living and safety, faith is second nature. Where life is more comfortable, faith isn’t required as much. 

 Kolkata 

I have never been much of an intellectual. In fact, my parents are and I think I decided at a young age to run away from that. Or it’s just the way my brain is wired. I’d much rather sit and have a good chat with someone (or play a sport with them) than read a book. Don’t get me wrong, I love stories. That’s why audiobooks are the best! 

Jonathan does not share my distaste for the monotony of one’s eyes going line after line in a book. 

And I was so happy he was with us in Kolkata. 

We got to visit two historic sites in the same day. One was a university William Carey helped found and the other was the home of the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa. Both had great museum-style exhibits.  

If I had been by myself, I would have glanced in each room and moved on pretty quickly. 

But I got to see how Jonathan took time on each item and showed reverence to the person by doing so. 

I slowed down. 

I sat down in Mother Teresa’s home, a few feet from her tomb. That’s when one of the most profound thoughts of the trip hit me.

What if the end-all, be-all of who I am is prayer? What if at the end of my life, only who I was in the place of prayer remains?  How would my life change? 

On the tomb rested a small box labeled “Prayer Intentions Only”. Think about that for a second. Even after her death, Mother Teresa’s deepest goal was for people to pray and to be prayed for. Many would have placed a small donation box near the exit. But donations have no lasting effect on our souls. And that lasting effect on our souls is what Mother Teresa strove for in India. 

And William Carey and his compatriots were just the same. It was through prayer that they persevered through unimaginable hardships, and that India has a Christian population today.

How would your life change if the end-all, be-all of who you are was prayer? 

Hyderabad

We have now reached part of the trip where things start to get a bit fuzzy. Tiredness started to replace lucid thoughts. A good reason for this was we tried to fit as much into each day as we could. 

When my wife, Honour, was a kid, she spent a good amount of time in India. One of the dear friends that Honour and her mom, Liz, made was Madubala. In Dubai, we were blessed to spend some time with her and her adult son, Moses. 

And once in India, they invited Jonathan, Cassi, and I to speak to their early morning prayer meeting. Every day of Lent they were meeting before work and school to pray. They had such a large turn-out that they needed to borrow space from another church. 

By this point, Jonathan and I had found our groove when it came to our public speaking. Jonathan would preach about Jesus’ prayer for a united church from John 17. He would lead into how 10 Days was pursuing this unity with one another and with God. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17: 20-21) After he cast vision for 10 Days, I would take over to share how my life was changed from spending time in prayer as encouraged by 10 Days. Then I would extend the invitation to the congregation to join us. 

It was probably good that we had practiced this a dozen times already. We were tired. Also, we had to leave our hotels at 4am to reach the church on time. 

But the tiredness created space for God. And that’s what our lives should be all about anyways. 

This morning, Jonathan felt the need to share a sermon from John 12. But as he took the podium, he opened his Bible to John 13. The dude didn’t notice! He just started reading and preaching from a totally different passage.

If you’re like me, you’re trying not to laugh at the dude. (Well, he’s one of my best friends, so I’m laughing at him. You’re only allowed to if you are close to him.) 

But what happened was God needed to share a message from John 13 to those gathered on that early morning. And Jonathan, through his tiredness, provided the voice for God to use. 

I’m sure you have heard me say it before but it stands to be repeated. God desires only a “yes” from us. And when we give God a “yes”, he gives us the rest.

Bengaluru 

As someone who grew up in the Philippines, I’ve done my share of traveling in Southeast Asia. I’ve been blessed to be a guest of honor many times. But none stick out as much as the church in Bengaluru (whose old name was Bangalore).  

Again, our team was up before the sun to join a body of believers. We had to catch a taxi at 4:30am. Oh, it was so worth it. 

The first of two services was held in English. While we had been in church services for nine days at that point, we hadn’t heard much worship in our native tongue. Blesswin, the worship leader, brought it! We found out after the service that he is one of the founding members of India’s only Country-Western band, “Mud Road.”  And he brought some country guitar riffs into the worship. Jonathan and I both lead worship for our local house churches. And we were jamming out that morning. We might have only been half awake, but we were welcomed into The Throne Room by Blesswin and loved it. 

Ever seen two white dudes singing like crazy people in the middle of an Indian church? 

Between the two services that morning, we were welcomed with a massive plate of food and some chai tea. This is a big thing in India. If you haven’t been welcomed by an Indian with chai tea and some food, I don’t think you have really lived yet. Also, the bit of caffeine in chai does wonders for the tired mind. 

During the second service, Jonathan got to give a sermon. He doesn’t call himself a pastor, but the dude can preach. 

We were surprised when they asked who had heard about 10 Days that around five people stood up. We were excited that already five people had heard. Then they corrected us. No no. These were the coordinators. The entire congregation was already participating and had been doing 10 Days for three years. Let’s just say the vision casting session was really short. It was more of a “thank you” for praying with us session.

This was our last church on our last day. And it was so fitting that they were the ones that lavished gifts on us. 

I felt awkward (and that’s saying something). I even feel awkward writing this now. I don’t feel that I deserve that treatment. 

But the people felt differently. 10 Days had impacted their community powerfully. It created space for God. It continues to create a rhythm for that space to be created again and again.  And maybe that’s something that’s worth honoring.

How might God be inviting you to honor other believers who have been a significant blessing in your life?  Or to receive honor even if makes you uncomfortable?