Though I didn’t have much time to share reports in June, I wanted to put up a few pictures now from the Indian Southwest Brethren Conference in Dallas (June 9-11) where we had the special opportunity to share on purity with the girls and mothers.
There were over 1,000 in attendance. Most of these families have immigrated to the US from Kerala, India in the last 20-30 years.
We really enjoyed getting to know these sweet families. They were extremely warm to us and welcomed us as part of the family. And it definitely had the feel of one big family!
The highlight was the relationships made through good conversations with the girls we met.
The youth are in an interesting situation: their Indian cultural does arranged marriages, but they’ve grown up in the public school system in America, immersed in the culture here.
These families have the challenge of determining which cultural traditions they hang on to, and which ones they adjust. One father stated of his family, “We believe in BIBLE culture.” Amen to that. 🙂
I remember one conversation I had with some of the girls where I explained, “I grew up here, but our family does things VERY differently from American culture!” I think it was interesting for them to observe that.
This was a discussion time with the college-aged girls on contentment and the joy of serving the Lord in single years.
We were very grateful to have Nickie and Haley with us to help. The conference devotional time started at 6:45am, and things usually didn’t wind down til after 10pm. They really squeeze every hour our of the weekend!
We’re also extremely grateful to Elsa (left) for the instrumental role she played in “hosting” us, and helping us to understand some of the cultural struggles and how we could best minister to the girls and moms.
Grace (standing next to me) was also such an encouragement to us, and has a huge heart for girls’ discipleship. I just heard from her last week that the Lord has opened doors for her to start a discipleship group with some other girls her daughter’s age. Praise the Lord!
The conference was recorded and here are our two messages if any are interested.
First session
Second session
(The Audio starts during the 2nd minute)
See recording of the full conference here.
Praise the Lord! Thanks so much for sharing, Grace.
Wow! This is so encouraging to read! God has given me a burden for the people of India, and I had the privilege of going on a mission trip to Kerala, India a few years ago. It’s really neat to hear of His work in those from Kerala who have immigrated to the US ! Thanks for sharing Grace!
Hi Cheyenne, that is really neat to hear! Maybe you could get connected with some Kerala believers here in preparation for going over there again if that’s where God leads. 🙂