Dear Partner, We recently had a series of meetings at the Prayer Center where an evangelist from India was conducting the meetings. His name is P. S. Rambabu, but Pastor Dave nicknamed him "Rambo" because of his unwavering courage to declare the name of Jesus in the face of fierce resistance in his homeland. Rambo's own father disinherited him when Rambo turned from Hinduism to embrace Jesus as his savior many years ago. Rambo also faces physical danger as he ministers in India because of persecution from the Hindu and Moslem sects there. At the same time, God has anointed Rambo with a powerful ministry of evangelism that not only results in many souls saved by the gospel, but also many bodies instantly healed when Rambo prays for them in the name of Jesus. Rambo brought some video from India for us to watch where many people were giving their own testimony of how they had been cured from serious illnesses when Rambo prayed for them during one of his many crusades there. At the conclusion of one of Rambo's recent services here in Tulsa he asked for Sue and I to meet with him privately for a few minutes. He wanted to tell us about his brother in law who lives in Bangalore, India. Rambo said one day while he was home in India himself, his brother in law came for a visit. His brother in law said he had been receiving some teaching cassette tapes from a minister in America and that these tapes were really blessing him. The teachings on the tapes, however, were quite different from most of the teachings that come out of America. Since this brother in law knew that Rambo often visited America, he wanted to know if Rambo had ever heard of a minister there named … Gary Carpenter. Rambo asked, "Gary Carpenter who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma?" The brother in law replied, "Yes." Rambo said, "I don't just know of him, I know him personally. You have a set of his tapes here in India? Let me see those tapes!" Sure enough, it was one of our tape series. Rambo asked me, "Gary, there are one billion people who live in India. What are the odds that my own brother in law would receive a set of your teaching tapes in Bangalore?" I said, "Well, the odds might be higher than you think. We've been sending teaching tapes to India by the hundreds for many years. I'm sure we are a long way from sending a billion however." Then Rambo asked the pivotal question, "Gary, you send all of these teaching tapes for free around the world. How do you do that?" I paused for just a moment to listen and the Holy Spirit gave me the perfect response. I asked Rambo, "Well, how do you heal the people when you pray for them?" Rambo quickly said, "Oh, I don't heal the people. Jesus heals the people. All I do is pray." I said, "In the same way, we didn't send those teaching tapes to your brother in law. Jesus sent them. All we do is work for Him." Amen! Jesus is our Savior. Jesus is our Healer. Jesus is our Provider! One of my favorite passages in all of scripture to bear this out is Matthew 15:30-38. Great multitudes were following Jesus to not only hear His teaching, but also to bring to Him the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others … and He healed them! But then Jesus showed Himself to be their provider also when he said to His disciples: Mat 15:32 Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. The disciples responded with natural thinking saying that there was not sufficient bread in all of the wilderness to feed such a great multitude. Jesus was not moved by their unbelief. Instead He simply asks, "How many loaves do you have?" Mat 15:33 And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?
You know the rest of the story. Jesus looked to heaven and blessed the "not enough" amount of food and the food multiplied as it was fed to the people until there was "more than enough." The reason this story is so meaningful to me is that Jesus is always saying to me, "Feed My lambs." In my case, He is speaking of feeding His lambs from the Word of God. In the natural realm it always appears that there are not enough resources to send the teachings to everybody who wants to be fed from God's Word. Yet Jesus always asks, "What do you have? Bring it to Me." As we commit all of our resources and our energy to simply send "what we have" available to us today, somehow He always causes there to be more resources available tomorrow. By this simple process of trusting Him and obeying His instructions, we have been feeding the multitudes the Word of God in over fifty three nations for many years now … including Rambo's brother in law in Bangalore, India. You are a part of God's supernatural plan of provision to feed these multitudes around the world the truth from the Word of God. As you know, we have never sent you an appeal letter for finances and we never will. We trust God to do what He said by speaking to the hearts of the people He chooses to support us and the work of the ministry. Although every day when we look at what is available, it appears to be "not enough," by His supernatural intervention it always becomes "more than enough." Phil 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Sue and I love you and appreciate you. We thank God for your generous and giving heart. God bless you! Your friend and co-laborer, Gary Carpenter
Back « to the Resource page or on to the Next letter » Oct 2004
|
© All Rights Reserved. P.O. Box 9667, Tulsa, OK 74157 http://www.garycarpenter.org |
Gary Carpenter Ministries