First Day Out
September 7th, 2007 | 
Author: The bible says that a man makes plans and the Lord orders his steps.
David May, Ron Herrod and I have had many changes and delays and we just got started on this mission trip to India. The Captain informed us that we had a little problem with the door as they shut it and someone must come to fix it. Then he announced that: “no they could not fix it” and had to get another door. Well, you know what that means in the world of business. Rush over to the hanger “Mack” and see if we got one laying around in the junk pile. They did, so they replaced it. I hoped for the sake of my wife that it matched in color. I know she would not want me to go down in a plane that the doors did not match! So then finally he revs up the rpm’s and says well I am so sorry but I can not get it in reverse we will have to wait for a tow truck. So you ask were we worried? No not really. By this time kids are crying or hollering, parent are disgusted. The pilot after some time, in a highly defeated voice say the tower is trying to work us in since we are so late. So finally after a mere 3 hours we were off into the wide blue yonder to do the work of the Lord with a good attitude… of course! The bible says tribulation works patients and the way I figure it either David or Ron must have really benefited from the experience… Honestly, David May and I really were not bent out of shape. Dave and I seem to have a great capacity for patience. I began to reason that many saints of God have been protected from disaster by delays in schedule. So we are to commend ourselves in to the hands of our God who sifts everything through fingers of love. So whether we needed to learn patience or be protected we were covered.
We arrived in India 9.5 hours into the future and thanks to a tailwind were not too late. You are probably thinking a sigh of relief is due now that our time of testing was over. Well lets not be too hasty with that idea.
When we arrived in India it was about 11:30 p.m. or so and we got through customs and looked for our contact.Their was only about 150 potential contacts standing in front of us with sheets of paper with names on it. So how long could it take to find this guy whom none of us had met? In about 1 hour we began to suspect that something had happened The guy did not answer his phone either. So Ron Herrod says we should get a taxi and go to a hotel on our own. We ask the guy if he knows a nice hotel ha ha ha. You know the drill Oh yes I know a very nice hotel a very short distance. We followed him to the car with about 6 guys who looked like gathering hospitality workers… yeah right, they about had a fight over our luggage and wanted a tip if they even touched it. The taxi brings us to a little car that would not hold our luggage much less hold the three of us! Ron was ticked off and told the guy to get a car to hold us all or forget it. He called his friend and got a bigger car.
So we are in the middle of Delhi the largest city in India and in the middle of some scary city streets and we are doing some praying by this time We get to this Hotel which looks good but looks like we might get mugged if any of the people sleeping in street wakes up. Ron says no way would we stay there and called his agent in the states to recommend a Hotel. So by about 2:00 we had got the driver to understand to take us to the Hotel Ron’s friend recommended. (on the last day we learned that Ron’s travel guy told the guy that we were his friends and that he was with the embasy and he would hold him personally responsible if anything happened to us while we were in his care. It was a little safer looking so we checked in. Were there cockroaches you ask ? Of course there were cockroaches but we did not have to pay extra for them so we agreed to stay. God had finally got us to a place where we could rest for awhile. I believe our journey to the hotel took about 22 hours but frankly I was catatonic by this time so do not Quote me. We thank God for getting us to a hotel. We had to fly out the next day on a domestic airline from the domestic airport. We were following a young man to an orphanage on the outskirts of Dehli. He was on a motor cycle. We told him we had to depart in a short time yet he assured us we would have plenty of time to get there. We reached the half time threshhold for boarding the plane and rushed back to the air port. We never saw the young man again. In fact he was the person who was supposed to meet us at the air port the previous night. For what ever reason we found his judgement to be lacking both the night before and on the way to the orphanage. We had just enough time to get back and then we discovered the flight was… you guessed it DELAYED! God must have really needed to work some patience in ole David Mays life, know what I mean. Our flight arrived in Goa where Jason Job a pastor and man of God who keeps his word was there to meet our every need. They met us at the airport with a bouquet of flowers for each of us and four young men dressed in ties who treated us as royalty. Guess it was because of who we were with, Dr. Ron Herrod. Ron is deeply respected in this country having served here since his 20’s. We are honored to be his helpers and I am sure God will impart to us, through him, some spiritual blessing or gifting. I want to take this time to say thank you on behalf of this team and these precious people for giving to the Lord. May we be to them all God has planned for us to be. You like Christ have paid something you did not owe to provide for those who can not pay. God will one day use the gift you have given as the seed for the gifts they will give.
For the Team here in India,
Howard, Mission Pastor, The Gathering
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Missions to Guatemala
I first went to Guatemala, summer of 1998. I was attending church at New Covenant Fellowship in Knoxville Tennessee when a missionary, Jim Hillard made an appeal for drivers who could go with him over land from Knoxville to Guatemala. Our purpose was to to deliver a bus load of mission supplys and two pickup trucks to San Ignasio, Belize and then into Florez/San Benito Guatemala. Jim Hillard had a base camp in a little village called Macenche’, an this just outside of Florez. Along with Jim and myself were Larry Cannon, and Gene The Lord in his kindness allowed us to meet A group of Senior Saints from FountainCityPresbetarian, I could throw a rock and hit this church from my parent’s house. I believe it was at a rest area in Shreveport, La. where our paths crossed. I believe God allows little sign post along our paths to let us know we are connected to him and that He is guiding. We entered Mexico through Laredo Texas and skirted the coast . We went through the dry arid cactus and brush region, into the mountains where every one along the highway sold real vanilla,banannas, and oranges. I was almost taken to Jail in alittle town for speeding threw speed bumps, I was trying to keep up with the bus and the other pickup. Our other vehicles finally realized Jim and I were missing and came back for us. Jim was trying to drop some pollitical names and appeal to them based upon the good work that had been done for their people by his mission efforts. Jim told them that Hosea Alverez, said to use his name if he were ever in trouble. That seemed to motivate the officer to call his superior. He let us off with a warning and that next time I would suffer the full extent of the law. I was praying for mercy not justice to be sure! We are to be at peace with all men so far as it depends on us. We must with humility obey the law if it does not cause us to dissobey God. If we disobey we must recognize we will suffer if we are caught. Sometimes the prison gates are opened by angels and sometimes men suffer and are killed at the hands of evil men. Both are able to bring about the plan and work of God for our lives. The question is will we rejoice in all things or will we curse darkness and prision bars. I am reminded of a small poem. “Two men stare through prison bars… one sees pavement the other sees stars!” Which will you be when your time of testing comes? I pray you will remember Joseph and Peter and follow in their footsteps because they followed in our Lord Jesus way. Yes I have digressed from the mission story a bit. So back to it. We continued to drive all day and eat along the way in roadside cafe”s or snack in gas stations. A high point was the KFC across the street from the Walmart in Tampico, Mexico. We we searched at a check point at dust one evening. It was a check point with soldiers armed with machine guns. Only one bag seemed to interest them because it was highly secured with lock and bindings. They searched it and looked in the bus briefly and them allowed us to pass. Mexico and Guatamala had armed guards posted throughout our journey. Seven days after we departed the parking lot of East Town Mall in Knoxville, Tennessee we arrived at the border of Guatamala. Each country we entered we had an issue with customs and had to have a guarantor to insure our cargo was not for resale and was what we declaired it to be. I was amazed and the level of poverty I observed as we crossed the border of belize into Guatamala. Horses and pigs roamed freely as the foraged along the roads. The road was gravel and filled with potholes. The dust rolled into clouds from the vihicle traffic. We traveled for about 2 hours on the road till we reached Jim’s place. There a group of Guatamalians helped us unload the mission supplies. These materials would be for several teams which would do missions throughout the year. I met John Lamb a Belizian who became the full time missionary for New Covenant Fellowship Church in Knoxville, Tn. He has continued to be the man on the ground for Guatamala till this day. John was the recipiant of one of the pickup trucks. The other was a man named Francisco a pastor who had been faithful to help with translation and other ministry efforts. They are still faithful to the Lord till the present. I thank God for this first mission trip even though it seemed not very glamorous. I felt the presence of God and was introduced to a new aspect of The Great Commission. I realized that every army needs a quarter master unit cause the troops need supplies. Sometimes the enemy will tell you that what God gifted you to bring to the kingdom is not valuable or very spiritual. The body of Christ needs all it parts to function as it was meant to. So if you
in the beginning…
This is The Mission Journal of Howard Walker, mission pastor of The Gathering Church in Sevierville, TN. Please check back with us as we update this site and get you up to speed with the Ministry.