Nandi Hills, Comes Calling Once Again!

This year, within the last 3 or 4 months, I have visited Nandi Hills three times! What is with Nandi hills and me! I really do not know! But this time it was at the foot hills of Nandi Hills and it was for a church retreat.

Adonai church at Cox town had organised a week long “Healing and Deliverance ministry.” It was at Glorious Promised Land, a few acres spread at the foot hills. Lovely place, with lovely fruit bearing trees and plants; place brimming with fig trees and fig fruits hanging from the stems and branches! There were other fruits too, of course, forbidden to pluck and eat!

There was a mini zoo too, with a beautiful black cocker spaniel, reminding me of my own Sally and Cindy, mother and daughter pair, jet black and so loving, but passed off with five years apart. There were goats, ducks, geese and turkey birds! Well, I missed seeing the bunny rabbits, which were also somewhere in the premises.

To be fair, the proprietors of the property, rent out this beautiful place mainly to Christian organisations, who want to hold conferences, workshops, retreats and camps. Also for weddings, family gatherings, picnics, concerts and meditation camps, but strictly Christian.

Isn’t that beautiful! Who even bothers about Christians these days in this country, except to admonish that one is a ‘rice Christian,’ or a ‘chocolate Christian,’ and to force ‘gar vapasi’ on them! Of course, not everyone says that. Still the ruling elite and the village level workers of the governing party say that! That is bad enough.  

Moreover, the proprietor and his sweet wife, both stood personally at the food counters and served the food with lot of concern. They, I think, have taken this as their personal ministry to the Lord. How wonderful! Oh, before I forget, we got chicken every day! And on the last day chicken and beef biriyani too!

Well, coming back to the ministry by Adonai church, the Senior Pastor Victor was there full time, so also his wife Mrs. Annie Victor, both together admirably conducting the classes, starting from Saturday the 12^th to the next Saturday, the 19^th August 2017. There were others from their church to help them with praise and worship, the devotionals and music.

They taught about the foundations of the healing ministry, the creation and the Fall, God’s solution to the situation and the model of healing as shown by Jesus on his earthly ministry. Promises of God became reality on earth as man agreed with God in faith.

The next session was to introduce the concept of man being created whole, with soul, body and the spirit, an undivided and unbroken completeness, to engage in a fruitful relationship with God the Creator. Man lost it all due to disobedience and in the consequent Fall, lost the connection between him and God, which was though his spirit. This must be restored. That is all what healing is about, bringing in restoration in the relationship with God.   

Soul consists of the will, emotions and the mind. Here is where all the decisions are made and executed by man. He thinks, decides and feels. Right now, all these are in disarray. How to bring these in alignment with God and His will, is what will bring back restoration and healing.

There were lot of practical examples through during the lectures and there was plenty of humour, especially in Pastor Victor’s classes. One enjoyed it all. Many a times the whole class roared with laughter at his antics! 

Rejection and the cure for it, acceptance, especially by God, who loves us so much that He went to the cross for saving us, were taught beautifully. The unconditional love shown by the heavenly Father is what would really heal our rejection from our earthly families.

Importance of forgiveness, letting go of those who had hurt us, were emphasized in the class. When we are not able to forgive, it not only festers inside us, leading to bitterness and diseases, but also leads us being critical and judgmental about others and the world in general. It is in our own good that we forgive and release such resentments.

Dealing with emotional pain was another of the topics given importance to. Belief systems, the need to have right beliefs in our minds, relationships and soul-ties, were all beautifully expounded. Root causes of fear and overcoming fear were taught with examples from the Scripture and everyday life.

Blessings and curses, dealing with supernatural realms, restoring the human spirit, how we give access to demons to play havoc in our lives, were all taught with many examples and biblical quotations.

All these teachings opened a new vista and one understood many issues related to the spiritual realm; how to get close to the Lord and how to safeguard ourselves from negative forces in the world and how to get relief from such oppression, if one is suffering from it – all these were real minefields, full of information and practical examples and testimonies after each of such topics.

It was wonderful to have attended this school for eight days. There were 170 participants. Many had come with small children, husbands and wives, parents, mother and daughters, and so on. Some had come from Dubai, Doha, even Ghana, Africa! There were 15 children, some of them just babies, still parents had braved the difficulties to come and attend the classes.

The topping of the cake was the two days kept for individual ministry. Everyone had a one-to-one ministry time with two of the very experienced ministry team that had come specially for the purpose on the last two days. There were 20 such ministry teams and all were attended to, some of them twice or thrice even.  

While a person was being ministered to by these teams, the other participants spent their time in praying for those who were being ministered unto, and wrote down the messages or Bible verses that came to their minds in cards, which were given later to the persons concerned. Well, these are to be treasured for ever. What words of encouragement and solace!

On the whole, it was a beautiful experience. I personally had a lot of time to introspect and bring out many of my faults, which needed rectification and unconfessed sins, which were brought to memory during the sessions. Almost everyone walked out with huge burdens lifted off the shoulders. Many healings and deliverances happened. Praise be to God alone!

Yes, it was worth attending this retreat. In case you are interested, do contact Adonai Church, 080 2548 3335. I am sure you will get more benefit from it than you think you will!

God bless you abundantly! 

Homer and His World!

It is not easy to write on Homer! He is, after all, a great poet of ancient Greece, who wrote two great epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey. He might have lived around 700 BC. Recently I started to read the Odyssey, just for want of doing anything else, a book I had bought in 1975 and might have read it that time!

Basically, I reread Odyssey. The theme is the famed Trojan war and its aftermath. Paris, one of the sons of Priam, the king of Troy, had abducted the beautiful Helen, wife of Meneclaus, the ruler of Sparta.

Under the leadership of Agamemnon, the Greek overlord and the brother of Meneclaus, Greek princes, set sail with thousand ships, siege Troy for 10 years and finally contrived the Trojan horse, with which they tricked the leaders of Troy, entered the city and sacked it. Helen was retrieved and the story of Iliad ends there.

Now the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca and a hero of the war continues, who for the next ten years was driven hither and thither by a series of mishaps, on his return journey to his home, Ithaca. That is Odyssey!

The story is interesting, apart from the historical narration of epic proportions, for the insight into the habits and beliefs of the people of Achaea in that hoary past. The terms Greece or Hellas (Hellenes) were not in usage then, but to Homer they were Achaeans.

First thing to note is how in Homer’s time, people, especially the Achaeans, (latter Greeks) believed that gods in heavens were responsible for the good things or bad things that happened to them. They were either favored by a god or goddess and led to good pastures or having earned the wrath of a god or goddess, repeatedly were subjected to tragedies and difficult times.

Gods were responsible to whatever happened to the humans, was the important belief of the then Greeks. The leader of the Olympian gods was Zeus. He had three wives, including his own sister. Aphrodite, Artemis and Athene were his daughters. Apollo, Ares (Mars), Hermes (Mercury) and Vulcan were his sons. Zeus also had two brothers, Hades, ruling the underworld of the dead and Poseidon, ruling the waves.

Imagine gods having sons and daughters, that too from different wives! Well, to please them and not to incur their wrath, the Greeks offered many sacrifices, of bulls, goats, and lambs. Wine libations were poured out at their altars. Thigh of the sacrificial victim, wrapped in folds of fat was offered to the gods, blood of the victim was collected and offered to the heavens. Thereafter the people and the princes ate the remaining.

They believed on omens, birds, eagles, doves and others as sent by the gods, to indicate good or bad happenings to the humans.

And then men wept, copiously, for their dead, in remembrance of their lost homes, wives and friends and over their misfortunes. Wonder where the stiff upper lip of the English and the modern-day adage that ‘boys do not cry,’ came from!

  

When men of royal birth or a distinguished visitor came to a place, they were given bath by the maidservants. After bathing them, they were rubbed with olive oil, and given tunic to wear and fine cloak round their shoulders. They stepped out of the bath looking like the immortal gods! Wow! This expression occurs many times in the narrative.

When guests were seated for banquet, they were seated in high chairs, and a maid came with water in golden vessel and poured it out over a silver basin so that they can rinse their hands before eating the food.

The maid servants also drew a wooden table to their side, for the house keeper to bring some bread and set it by them with a choice of delicacies. Meanwhile a carver dished out for them on platters slices of various meats, like oxen, pigs and lambs and put golden cups beside them. Then the guests fell to eating!

Most striking thing is that Helen, whose face launched a thousand ships, and the reason for the destruction of Troy, and the loss of the lives of many warriors, was living happily with her husband Menaclaus, her small indiscretion of having run away with a Trojan prince not withstanding! Hmm, weird are the ways of men and women!

The games which took place in every city with events like running, javelin throw, disc throw, boxing, wrestling, jumping are the pointers to modern Olympics, and as such are fascinating.

It is interesting to read about the land of Lotus-eaters, where one forgets everything; the one-eyed monster Cyclops, who ate up some of Odysseus’ men; Calypso, who had kept Odysseus captive for a full 9 years, trying to entice him into marrying her; Circe, who transformed his men into pigs and penned them in pigsties;

Odysseus climbing down into Hades, where the dead souls were left to languish, to obtain oracles; the terrible monster Scylla, who fished his men with her six long necks and devoured them; Charybdis who sucks sea water and spews them out three times a day, Odysseus encountered them all during his voyage back home to Ithaca.

Finally, he reached home only to find several young men courting his wife Penelope, but who faithfully waits for his return and his young son Telemachus, who not able to handle these suitors, was waiting for his father’s return. Skilfully, Odysseus, with much help from his patron-goddess Athene, fights and destroys the suitors and gets reunited with his wife. Bravo!

A very interesting story of gripping events and imaginations describing the return journey of Odysseus. Worth reading at least once in one’s life time!