Delron and his traveling companion, John Bullock, “hit the ground running.” After arriving late Thursday night, they started Friday morning with a leadership conference for the Nepali Christian Fellowship. Conveniently, they scheduled it in the same facility where Delron and John were staying. Delron taught from his Maximum Impact book and gave each person a copy. One of the delegates at the conference testified that he had recently been in Nepal and visited the Bible college in Pokhara and found that everything is going well and that the facilities have been fixed up nicely. He also reported on the political conditions in Nepal and how they were affecting the Christians – the anti-conversion law in place, but not one person from the anti-Christian party was elected in the last election; therefore, evangelism and baptisms are continuing as we have known. The Nepali meetings went all day Friday and Saturday morning.
Saturday afternoon was the promotion for the Bible college. Since this is the first year that the school has been open in Delhi, they don’t have a graduating class – just the recognition of the ones who finished the first year of studies. In his message about destiny, Delron spelled out each of the letters: D stands for direction, E stands for endurance, S stands for success, T stands for truth, I stands for intensity, N stands for natural, and Y stands for yourself – showing how each element leads to the next. If you have direction, you can endure whatever comes your way. If you endure, you will succeed. He emphasized this point by quoting Greg Mohr’s famous line, “We win if we don’t quit.” Success is based on truth, not false dreams. At this point, he quoted Jeremiah 29:11 that God has good thoughts concerning them (thoughts that would bring them to a success).
ul end) and Joshua 1:8 that they would have good success if they would continue to meditate on God’s Word. Intensity is also a product of direction because we know that what we are doing is destined for success. “Natural” is related to the concept of fruit-bearing as a natural product of being in God’s will. Finally, he told them that they could be themselves without having to imitate anyone else – not even becoming an Andrew Wommack clone – when they understood that they had their own unique destinies while everyone else had his own personal destiny. He closed this point with the Philippians 2:13 that God was working in them to will and to do His good pleasure. Delron then suggested that if they wanted to implement the practice that the campus in Colorado has of a class name that they adopt “The Class of Destiny” for themselves.
The director of the school there was one of the students in the class in Chennai when Delron and Peggy went there several years ago. He got baptized in the Holy Spirit in that meeting, and he testifies that Peggy prophesied over him and gave him a spiritual name, “Jeremiah.” The AWMI director who is running the operations is also from that class and was with Delron when he came back to Chennai and also when I lead the group to Hyderabad. He still remembers the lessons that he taught and the sermons he preached.
On Sunday, Delron preached in two churches – actually, two congregations of the same church. Interestingly, the church was founded by a gentleman who got born again when he was studying at Colorado State University. After finishing his engineering degree, he came back to India and started a church rather than becoming an engineer. The morning was the traditional church with the regular mix of people; the evening service was a youth service with a lot of the people that you wind up talking to when you place an 800-number call. Everyone has been very receptive to the messages. The leader of the Nepali ministry said that the teaching was “a revolutionary revelation,” and in each service at the church, someone came up and told me that the message was a direct answer to his/her prayers. The gentleman in the morning said he had been praying the whole week for a fresh word and that the message was exactly what he needed. The lady in the evening service said that she was praying on the way to church about a specific issue that was answered in the sermon. A couple days later, one of the leaders of the church came to Delron and shared with him that he had never seen the people and pastor so responsive to any other minister. He said that the pastor and members of the congregation are never very expressive or emotional but that everyone was visibly moved by the messages in both the morning and evening services. He then added that even the interpreter was crying as she was translating.
Monday was a ministers’ conference put on by Charis and AWMI. They invited in all the pastors that they have a connection with in order to help promote the college and the ministry. On their flier, they have billed Delron as a “world-renown speaker”; they used this kind of advertising because they couldn’t put his name on any printed material in order to protect him from possible charges of violations of his tourist visa in case the poster was to fall in the hands of authorities who are opposed to Christian work in India. Delron shared from the Maximum Impact book and presented each person with a copy. One pastor commented that the teaching was “simple but not simplistic.”
On Tuesday, there was only one meeting in the afternoon – a meeting with the leaders of the Discipleship-Evangelism groups; so, Delron taught on discipleship. Wednesday morning was a tour of Delhi since the flight to Mumbai wasn’t until later in the afternoon. Since the drive left early in the morning, there was very little traffic on the first leg of the journey – driving in spotty traffic on a three-lane road. However, there was a “lunatic” driver who was driving at “breakneck” speed, weaving back and forth from lane to lane, flying into any empty spot he could to get around the cars. It looked like he was actually making an obstacle-course game out of his morning commute. The car that Delron was in was in the center lane when the wild driver swerved from the left-hand lane, zipped past into the right-hand lane in order to get into a little space that would allow him to then dash back into the center lane after passing the car ahead. The big problem with this – other than the fact that he missed all of the cars involved by millimeters – was that there was a jaywalker in the spot that he was aiming for in the right-hand lane. The pedestrian had to jump back to the curb to save his life as the raging driver missed him by a hair’s breadth! From his vantage point in the front seat, Delron witnessed everything at such close range that he said he could literally see the whites of the man’s eyes as he experienced this brush with death.
At two different places he was visiting, total strangers – in both cases, young guys in their teens or early twenties – come up to Delron wanting him to pose with them for selfies. Chuckling, Delron surmised that this is what happens when you are a “world renown speaker.”
The director of the school in Delhi grew up in a children’s home. He wasn’t exactly an orphan because he had a mother; however, she must not have been financially able to raise him. As a form of “payback,” he is sponsoring children in the same situation. One of them – a young man – named Mark lives with him. The director calls him his brother so that people don’t know Mark’s story. Before leaving Delhi, Mark asked Delron to pray for him, and he fell out on the floor and was baptized in the Holy Spirit.
The ministry in Mumbai began with a pastors’ and leaders’ conference. Unfortunately, Delron and the hosts were actually half an hour late because of traffic. There was one place where they had to make a right turn at an intersection of two very busy roads. There was no traffic light or traffic police directing traffic; so, it was a giant gridlock of cars, motorcycles, auto rickshaws, and pedestrians in a huge bumper-to fender logjam. Think of the worst traffic jam you have ever experienced in the US, multiply that by a hundred, and then add steroids! As they were inching their way through the snarl of vehicles, they got a new revelation of the song about God making a way in the place where there seems to be no way. During the travels around the city, we did see a few signs of the India I used to know: a few temples and sadhus and a handful of people living – sleeping, washing, cooking, and even getting a shave – on side of the road. Basically, Mumbai is a modern city of skyscrapers and clean wide streets filled – in the most literal sense, you can envision – with new cars. At the pastors’ conference, one man told Delron that he had prayed just the night before for a book to help him understand more about the ministry of Paul; then, he received the Maximum Impact books at the meeting the following morning. Another man testified that he had been asked the Lord to show him if he was on the right path; then, Delron used the illustration about how Dr. Sumrall felt that the Holy Spirit told him to go around the left side of the mountain in Tibet, and it turned out that bandits who were hiding on the other side of the mountain ambushed and killed everyone who came on the right side. As soon as the man heard that story, he knew that the Lord was confirming that he was on the right path. Now, the amazing thing is that Delron has several stories that he uses to illustrate the point about being led by the Spirit, and generally alternates other stories at this point in the message; however, he said that he just felt impressed to tell that specific story on that particular day.
Friday began with a get-together with the students and alumni followed by a lovely graduation ceremony. Delron gave the graduating class a class name like he did in Delhi – the Class of Purpose. Of course, he spelled out the letters. P stands for prophetic, signifying that God had already determined a purpose for them long before they were aware of it. He illustrated the point with Paul’s testimony that he was called from his mother’s womb and even believed that the purpose of our lives was established before the foundation of the world. U stands for unity. Sharing from the fourth chapter of Ephesians where Paul says that we are one Body of Christ and we have to realize that we aren’t in this alone, he made the point that it will take full cooperation to fulfill our purpose. R stands for redemptive, representing the fact that nothing we do is for our own benefit or acknowledgment, but for the good of others. P is for power. Here, Delron pointed out that God gives His power to people with a purpose. (Acts 1:8, Mark 16:17) O stands for opposition. Quoting Andrew Wommack, “You don’t bump into the devil if you are going the same direction,” Delron added his own analogy, “When you swim upstream, you get hit by all the garbage that is floating downstream.” S stands for success, the end result of a life lived with purpose. He concluded with E that stands for eternity by quoting from the song “Thank you for giving to the Lord. I was a life that was changed.” The point is that our purpose has to always have an eternal perspective because we’ll never realize exactly what we have accomplished until we get to heaven. During the reception following the graduation, one of the previous alumnae came up and said, “You named the first-year students and the graduations, but what about those of us that graduated before this year? You have twenty-four hours to find our name.”
Saturday evening was the meeting with the Charis alumni and partners who support Andrew Wommack Ministries. This was the time when Delron had to give a name to the alumni from the previous years. Feeling that “the Class of Faith” was a good choice for them, Delron received a confirmation when a lady came up to talk with him before the meeting began. She introduced herself as a member of the first “batch” – they refer to the classes here as batches rather than classes. She then told the story of how she and her husband had stepped out in faith to turn her rental apartment into a ministry hall for Bible studies, discipleship classes, and prayer meetings. Taking this as a sign, Delron announced the name he had given to them. F stands for follow Jesus because they had no one else to follow since there was no one before them. A stands for act on His Word because they were ones who acted by actually initiating the school. He said that when we follow Jesus He will lead us to places other than our living rooms to watch Andrew Wommack on TV and our churches for Sunday services. I is for internalizing the Word – the difference between just being in class and actually letting the teaching transform their lives. Delron then made reference to some of the testimonies from their mission trips and added that people who have not internalized the Word just take plane rides, but those who have the Word inside them go on actual mission trips. T stand for truth – the Word of the Lord is truth. H stands for history makers. He said that they were the pioneers that later generations will look back at as their founding fathers. After the meeting, someone shared that the alumni actually have a phone app that they use to keep connected – called “History Makers”! Since the national director had asked him to share his “Those Few Sheep” message at the meeting, Delron spoke about how the things that we might feel are insignificant can be God’s way of using us in important ways. Afterwards, a man came up and shared that he runs a ministry that supports widows and that he was so discouraged because he felt that it was unimportant that he was thinking of quitting just a month ago. He then said that the message had changed his heart and mind. The director closed the meeting with a time of prayer. When he asked Delron to share a word, he felt impressed to share Daniel 11:32, “The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” He then prayed for the people in the audience to do exploits and mentioned a number of different areas – including human trafficking. After the meeting, a lady came up saying that this was a confirmation of a ministry she was getting involved with. A second lady came on Sunday to tell Delron that she had missed the Saturday meeting but that she was also doing the same thing.
On Sunday morning, Delron was scheduled to preach at a local church. Just ten minutes before leaving the hotel, he received word that the pastor wanted him to speak on a specific topic – family and missions. Of course, he already had a sermon prepared – and it had nothing to do with either missions or family. After thinking to myself that he wouldn’t have a problem preaching about family or missions but had no idea about how to preach about both in the same message, he finally decided to preach on David and Goliath and apply it to facing the big challenges in life – whether they come in our families or in missions or ministry in general. At one point in the message, he mentioned the challenge of getting their own building for the church. After the service, the pastor and his wife both told him that they felt that this was prophetic since they feel that this is next step. The pastor also said that I was the second person to say that.
Monday was dedicated to touring the land that the ministry has purchased to build a residential campus for Charis and offices for AWMI. It is a drive outside of town, but in an area that is quickly developing as the city grows that direction. It is also an area that is designated as an educational corridor where other colleges already exist. Paulraj, the AWMI regional director shared a really exciting story about how he negotiated the land during a time of recession when the property value was down. He took out a personal short-term (three-month) loan for 4.2 million rupees to buy it. At an AWMI partners’ meeting four days later, he met a businessman who invited him to his office. When the businessman asked him if there was anything that the ministry needed at the moment, Paulraj told him about the loan and asked him if he could loan him the money on a longer term loan so that he could pay off the short-term loan. The gentleman replied by setting up a follow-up meeting. When they met the second time, the businessman said that this was the only time in his career that any Christian organization had asked him for money and offered to pay him back. He then handed Paulraj a check for the full amount as a donation! They have planted trees all around the property except the area where the building will actually sit. When Delron saw that some of them were mango trees, he said that he wanted to pick one. After eating his mango, Paulraj told Delron that he was the first person to eat the fruit of the land.
On Tuesday, Delron spoke at the Hyderabad campus where he received a number of comments from the students who had seen the videos of Finally, My Brethren. The most impressive observation came from one student who said that all the students were “glued to the screen” during all the teachings. He went on to say that there is always some turning around and talking during the videos of other teachers. Again, Delron gave the students the class names that he had presented to the students at the other campuses. A comment from one of the students confirmed the name of Class of Destiny when he shared that he had grown up in a pastor’s home but that he had no idea that he would ever pursue the ministry. In fact, he said that even a year ago he could not have imagined himself in Bible school; however, now he can look back and see that all his life was moving toward his decision to join Charis. After the class, Delron toured the operations office of the ministry to see all the work that is going on with translations, publishing, dubbing videos into other languages, and software creation for all aspects of the ministry – grading, finances, recordkeeping, you-name-it. It is unbelievable all that is going on – and all without any outside funding! He even got to see a sample of his teachings dubbed so that it appears if he is actually speaking Hindi! There were also some very positive discussions about the possibilities of translating and publishing some of the Teach All Nations books for distribution in India.
On Wednesday, Delron spent the day visiting with the national staff of Global Action, a ministry that is dedicated to training indigenous pastors who have no other opportunities to receive biblical training. Since there is a direct connection with the purpose and ministry of Teach All Nations, Delron used this visit to the city of Hyderabad as an opportunity to connect the ministries and strategize ways for the two to work together.
The final day in Hyderabad was a pastors’ conference. Included among those who attended was the pastor and wife from Living Waters Church – the church where Delron had preached the last time he was in the city. They came up to share that he had given them a prophetic word to prepare for some persecutions that were to come against them but to also know that they would come through the difficult times unharmed. They confirmed that the word had come to pass exactly as he had spoken with two years of very challenging times that ended with their total vindication. They also requested prayer for the baby that the mother is presently carrying. When Delron prayed, he said that he felt led to proclaim that the baby would be born without any complications or defects. After the prayer, the mother shared that the doctor had suggested that she abort the baby because the prenatal tests showed that there was a possibility that the baby could have Down’s Syndrome. She went on the say she had declared that she would never give up her baby and was believing for it to be perfectly normal. Just before heading to the airport for the flight to Chennai, Delron, John, and Victor stopped at Paulraj’s home to visit with his daughter Rebecca. Delron had prayed for his daughter on a previous visit to India. At the time, she was a student in a college in another part of the country; however, she was going through some serious depression. Her dad flew her into Chennai so Delron could pray for her. The story that he shared was that he had originally booked a train ticket for her, but had a vision as soon as he confirmed the purchase. In the vision, he saw her jump off the train. He immediately canceled the train reservation and purchased an airline ticket. Later on, she told him that she did, indeed, have plans of committing suicide by jumping from a moving train. For a couple years after the prayer, Rebecca had been well but had recently slipped back into her depression. Her parents said that she normally runs away when they suggest prayer but that she was happy to hear that Delron was in town and was willing to come prayer for her. She eagerly welcomed him at her home and readily received prayer.
The last few days were spent in Chennai at a little less hectic pace than the schedule up to this point. On Friday morning, Delron taught at the Bible college to a very receptive group of students and alumni. One woman shared her testimony about how she got involved with Charis. It seems that she loved to watch Christian television but never watched Andrew Wommack because he just sat at the table looking “grumpy.” Finally, she decided to listen to his teaching and was “hooked” in just ten minutes. She started watching the program, then reading the books, and finally enrolled in the school. On Saturday afternoon, Delron spoke at the graduation. He opened his comments by quoting from an email he had received from Andrew Wommack, saying that – if it weren’t ungodly – he would be jealous of me because Delron got to go to India and see the campuses and the new property and his visa application was denied. He commented on how impressed he was with the caliber of the student body – with at least three doctors in the class. The fellowship time after the ceremony ran late into the evening as almost everyone wanted selfies with Delron and many asked for individual prayer. On Sunday morning, the day started very early since Delron was to preach in three church services – with the first one starting at 6:30 AM. In one service, the congregation was singing “God will Make a Way Where There Seems to be No Way” as he walked into the church – a confirmation of his message on the fact that the Christian faith was originally known as the Way (Acts 9:2, 19:23, 22:4, 24:14, 24:22) since focus was on walking with the Lord. Of course, it was also an excellent time to share the story of the traffic jam in Mumbai. On the last day in India, Delron spoke at a pastors’ conference sponsored by the regional office of Every Home for Christ. The local director said that he was surprised to see so many pastors come out for the meeting since the pre-registration count was seventy-five of eighty but the attendance was more than one hundred thirty.
