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“Beautifully Jesus' Baptismal Journey Becomes Jahweh's Base! ”

Ramesh C. Reddy
Publisher

Hugo Cheng, my senior pastor at Pittsburgh Chinese Church Oakland (PCCO) and Oakland International Fellowship (OIF) had sent me a picture from Israel of a base where Scriptures were written in different languages relating to Jesus' baptism that took place 2000 years ago at the Jordan River.

It was very exciting to receive this picture especially because the picture had the Bible verses relating to Jesus' baptism in Chinese and Hindi side by side.

Photo by Pastor Hugo Cheng from Israel

"At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." (Mark 1:9-11, NIV)

These verses have been exposited in the devotional archives based on what I learned from the Lord.

I will be sharing my testimony of how this simple but profound picture sent by Pastor Hugo to me and our cell group Living Acts has made such an impact in my life right now. It reminded me of where I came from, where I have been, where I am, and where the Lord will take me.

Any other language next to the Chinese language would not have been that significant to me but this became significant to me because just looking at this picture made me, an Indian whose national language is Hindi, feel like I am at the right place of worship seeking the Lord at PCCO-OIF even though I am going through some difficult situations that Pastor Hugo has been helping me with.

WHERE I CAME FROM:

Also, the picture reminded me of how I got into the ministry of reaching students with the love of Christ.  When I was young, I had gone to a Muslim school for one year and a Catholic school for 5 years in India. While at a Catholic school, I would bring home Bible stories which my mom would read to us every night. I was so fascinated to hear about Jesus and His miracles even though I was not a Christian but a Hindu.

Anyway, later we came to the United States and one day I saw a biblical cartoon's credits where Jesus was in the river kneeling down and a dove resting on His head as the Heaven's opened. I knew this cartoon was about Jesus and wanted to watch it remembering the bible stories my mom would read to us when we were in India.

I found out that the New Testament cartoons were called Flying House and the Old Testament cartoons were called Super Book and started watching them. Just as the Hindi writing on the base was sponsored by Christian Broadcasting Network's (CBN), so were the religious cartoons. As I watched it with my brothers, I learned more and more about Jesus but I had never given my life to Jesus to make Him my Lord and Personal Savior.

On Feb 14, 1985, I saw my mom watching a television program where a man was talking about 'accepting Jesus into your heart'. I did not know the man's name but he made me think about Jesus and the cartoons I had watched. I came to find out later that the man's name was Pat Robertson.

I had severe asthma and was very limited in the foods I ate and the activities I did at the time being subject to either Vicks or an inhaler most of the time.

I told myself if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow as the Bible states then what He could do then, He could also do now. I knew Jesus could heal me completely of my asthma and had so much faith in Jesus so I went to my mom and asked her, "Mommy, what does it mean to accept Jesus into your heart?"

My mommy took me to my bedroom, sat down with me, and explained to me what it means to have Jesus in my heart. She then wrote down a prayer for me on a gray cardboard type of paper the size of an 3x5 index card and told me that it was the 'Sinner's Prayer' that she wanted me to pray with if I understood and believed it.

I repeated the prayer with my mom something to the effect saying, "Lord Jesus, I am a sinner Lord. I am so sorry for all my sins. I confess to you all my sins. Please forgive me of all my sins. Thank you for dying for all my sins and coming back to life to save me. Please come into my heart and make my heart your home. Live in me Jesus and I will live for you and serve you the rest of the days of my life. Thank you Jesus for coming into my heart and making my heart your home. Thank you for living in me Jesus. I acknowledge you as my Lord and Personal Savior. Please be my Lord and Personal Savior. Thank you Jesus. Thank you for being my Lord and Personal Savior. Thank you that you have heard my prayer and answered me. In Your Name I Pray Jesus! Amen!"

My mommy gave me the Gospel of John to read which I would read everyday diligently and eventually started reading 'The Book' and continued to watch Flying House and Super Book right before I had to be at school.

At the moment, I felt I became a follower of Christ and my dad noticed a tremendous difference in me. My asthma was healed too completely which was a miracle. Later, I found out that Feb 14, 1985 was Valentine's Day in America and it's significance when I was asked to write something about love in the Valentine's Day issue of our school paper.  My first evangelistic message that was printed was, "Jesus Loves You! Jesus Loves Me! If you want to know more about Jesus, please watch WPCB, Channel 40" The first person who loved that message was a kid named Sean.

I was in 7th grade then and was failing almost all my classes for 3 report periods. But after becoming a Christian, I made Honor Roll for the fourth report period and barely went to 8th grade.

In 8th grade, I excelled and received the Presidential Academic Award for Excellence from the late President Ronald Reagan. I also came across a booklet on 'How to Lead Inductive Bible Studies" put out by the United Kingdom's InterVarsity Publishing company. I kept that book safely even though I did not use it at the time. I spent most of my time watching Flying House and Super Book.

From 9th grade to 12th grade, I tried to use every opportunity to reach students with the love of Christ through God's Word and deeds.

WHERE I HAVE BEEN:

Little did I know that 10 years later in 1995, I would feel a calling to do ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship-USA (IVCF-USA) which is part of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). I did ministry with them for 7 years reaching out to University of Pittsburgh & Carnegie Mellon University students with the love of Christ.

More fascinating than that is God's timing for everything. Just as God had a perfect timing for Jesus to be baptized, God's timing to use the booklet 10 years later made a tremendous impact in my life and in the lives of the students I ministered to.

I used this comprehensive booklet on how to lead an Inductive Bible Study step by step which  emphasized an 'Approach Question/Introductory Question' before opening Scriptures with chapters on Observations, Interpretations, and Applications including the importance of knowing the purpose of each study.

God already knew 10 years earlier in 1985 before I even began my ministry with IVCF in 1995 that I would need that booklet to emphasize one of IVCF's strong point of helping students to study Scriptures inductively to bring God's Word alive into their lives whether in USA or overseas. I did that for 7 years until 2001 encouraging students to go learn more at our Harvest Fall Conference and Mannafest Spring Conferences.

After not being with IVCF anymore, my church life suffered the most until I started checking out Asian Christian Fellowship and PCCO. There I found the church leaders emphasizing the importance of Inductive Bible Study, Prayer, Community, Worship, Outreach, and Missions. These were everything that I had experienced in IVCF so I started going to PCCO because of Pastor Hugo who has spoken at an IVCF retreat for our students.

Eventually, I became a member of the church and became a cell group leader for Living Acts. When I became cell group leader of Living Acts, I wanted to emphasize heavily the four components of small group: Nurture (Inductive Bible Studies), Worship (praise songs, prayer, etc), Community (Sharing lives with one another), and Outreach (Mission oriented locally and Evangelism oriented locally) based on Acts 2:42-47 which became our theme verse and inspired the purpose statement too.

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:42-47)

The purpose of Living Acts is  to SEEK Christ in God's Word so we can be NURTURED by our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ who equips, enables, and empowers us by the power of the Holy Spirit to become a COMMUNITY of believers who are WORSHIPING the Lord, serving one another through praying, caring, and sharing so we now become MISSION oriented to engage the international community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I trained Bible study leaders briefly on using an approach question (introductory question to assess our own reactions that deal with the study before opening Scriptures for the study), observations, interpretations, and applications.

When I became cell group leader of Living Acts, I knew the benefit of IBS for our students so I emphasized that approach at cell group and mostly did it that way until I messed up. It went well for awhile until I messed up. Months later, I stepped down from cell group leader for personal reasons and asked my co-leader Kristen to take over. She continues to bless Living Acts with her co-leaders Josh and Brian.

WHERE I AM NOW:

I feel like I am in the wilderness dessert waiting and waiting for the Promised Land except for me the Promised Land has been different signs from the Lord, His Word, His community, etc that one day I will go back into direct student ministry instead of just indirect student ministry that  I have been blessed to do with Pittsburgh Standard (http://www.pittsburghstandard.com) and Facebook (http://www.pittsburghstandard.com)

One of the main reasons I stuck it out with PCCO-OIF is Pastor Hugo's vision of having a student ministry for Pitt and CMU students who live so close to campus. I wanted to do that through the church or in partnership with a college ministry.

I have seen years go by and my training not being used directly to impact student's lives because of different reasons for which it has been very discouraging. I have learned through this wilderness experience to be content and wait on the Lord as John Waller's song, "While I am Waiting' goes.

WHERE I AM GOING:

I don't know where I am going regarding student ministry but this I know that God's timing is not my timing. In 1985, the Lord already put the pieces into place for me to use the booklet I got then to do student ministry 10 years later from 1995-2001. From 2001-present, the Lord Jesus has been using the Pittsburgh Standard in many student's lives and has let me be part of PCCO-OIF.

The picture by Pastor Hugo showed me where I was, where I have been, and where I am going because of the memories it brought back.

I am still confident regarding student ministry and will not give up because there are signs that I have seen as special to me that may not mean much to someone else.

The picture sent by Pastor Hugo was taken as a sign by me not to be discouraged to be involved in PCCO-OIF even though what I am hoping to happen for me has not happened yet. I trust my senior pastor and know that the Lord will use him, Edwin, Living Acts, etc to know when I can play a role in student ministry again if that's the path the Lord has for me.

It is here that Pastor Hugo's counsel and Edwin Chan's counsel have been very helpful through the pain. I know I don't have to be sad but CONTENT where the Lord has placed me in PCCO-OIF, Market Central, and with Pittsburgh Standard.

Pastor Hugo sending me that picture also reminded me of the link that Kristen, my cell group leader sent to me regarding Hindi worship songs sung at Urbana 2009 Missions Convention which is InterVarsity's triennial conference.

This in turn reminded me of the wonderful job Jason & Andrea Huang have been doing with Pitt-Asian InterVarsity as they spoke at our Sunday school and their students shared about their Urbana experience.

Seeing the excitement in their faces as students experiencing God in profound ways reminded me why I decided to go into ministry with IVCF from 1995-2001 as my life was changed by IVCF when I was a college student.

At the time Kevin Leibach, IVCF-Pitt's staff volunteer would come from very far just to mentor me, disciple me, pray with me, and most of all give God's promises to claim and study with me the Gospel of Mark verse by verse.

Now years later, I continue to study Gospel of Mark on my own inductively and share the insights that the Lord has shown me with hundreds of students through Pittsburgh Standard.

What he did for me, I wanted to reciprocate in other students lives instead of going to law school.

Recently, I am also reminded of the software that I had to install on my computer. The software would not work without the serial number which was a combination of numbers and letters. It is the letters that encouraged me because I had to type IVCFOIF as part of the serial number for the software that I had bought.

To the random person, they won't mean much but to me it reminded me of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship-Oakland International Fellowship. This reminded me of being the OIF Librarian where most of the books that I have cataloged and maintain are from InterVarsity Press on prayer, evangelism, missions, discipleship, and Bible study.

Because God is in control, I can be confident, He will raise me up in His timing to do student ministry once again even through my flaws if that be His will. This reminded me of Pastor Paul Bucknell's sermon, who has been a missionary to India, when he preached this past Sunday at OIF.

He preached something to the effect that there should be no better place to be than the place the Lord takes us because He knows what is best for us at all times.

I have a passion for student ministry but I will leave that in the Lord's Hands and wait for Him for He knows my strengths and weaknesses and in Him shall I abide.

Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River in God's timing! Jesus also began His ministry in God's timing after His baptism and being 40 days alone in the wilderness. I don't know how long my wilderness will last but I want to be content in the Lord and keep waiting on Him.

It is God's grace that led me to PCCO-OIF when Pastor Hugo was the only pastor at the time and it is God's grace that has kept me there right now. I thank the Lord for that.

I hope my testimony encourages you about God's timing and how God can even use a picture to reflect on our lives. I hope you also are encouraged to know that a simple thing we do that does not take much time at all could have ripple effects and profound impact in other people's lives.

I don't think when Pastor Hugo sent this picture addressed to me and Living Acts, he would have imagined my reflection in ministry from 1985 - 2010 and how it has encouraged me. I don't think Kristen realized that when she posted the link on my facebook wall regarding Hindi worship songs at Urbana that i would see it at the same time as Pastor Hugo's email and picture. Both impacted me.

So, when you feel led to do something good for someone to encourage them, no matter how small or big, continue to do that.

Another encouragement I got was from Antonia Chen, our cell group member, who reminded me how good I would be to minister to college students. She told me that few months ago not even knowing how discouraged I was. That did encourage me along with Pastor Hugo, Edwin & Marie's, and Calvin's responses regarding student ministry.

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