India

Greetings from this beautiful country. God has blessed everything so far! Pray that he will continue this. I have not had time to get to a internet cafe until today. The below is just stuff I quickly typed here and there. It is not intended for a spiritual article, that will have to wait for time.

The below I typed earlier with the very limited time that I have. Please do not mind the mixed up dates. However, maybe this will give you a little flair of what India is like.

It is my second full day in India. I have been advised to leave out names of people and towns until I leave the country for safety reasons, as there are radical factions amount the 98 percent of people that are not Christian.
My senses are overwhelmed from my first day and a half here that I felt I had to write some of it down.

My days here have both started at 3 45 AM This is probably or a number of reasons, not the least of which are our neighbors very noisy roosters, I would say next door neighbors, but the row of homes just over the fence, are thatched roof and adobe structures with no doors or windows, just some openings, At 5 AM the alarm for our complex goes off. It is a piece of steel which is used as a bell.

This morning as that went off, I got up to come to type out this note. I am sitting on the stoop of the house. Already some people are milling about. At 5 after 5 the children in the orphanage break into song. The first song I hear during the girls morning devotion is This is my commandment that ye love on another. I can now hear the boy singing songs as well. However that is currently being overtaken by the very loud Hindu music that is broadcast over large speakers so the whole village can hear. Our complex plays Christian music in similar fashion, but they cannot start theirs until 6AM because of all the complaints from the Hindus.

The mosquitoes are quite bad as I type this. I have been assure that they do not carry malaria. I trust this is true. Now the girls have come to the well to draw water for their bathes and the ladies of the kitchen are drawing water for the kitchen duties.

This pastors conference that is its second day know, has about 50 pastors in attendance. It is now about 5 15 and the pastors who have slept on the concrete floor of the church are now singing praises to God in their telegu language. Quite beautiful it is I must say, even though it is very different from my culture. The instruments are only a set of bongo drums. The rest is singing.

The level of church dedication here is unheard of in America. I see a man praying on the church step. I inquire from our host of this man. I am told that in 2002 there were church burnings in the area. Our Pastor announced in church that they need a guard to stand by overnight to guard their church. A man got up and stated that he will spend every night for the rest of his life guarding the church. 7 years later he is true to his word. HE arrives at 9 at night and stays till 6 am. He prays for at least the last hour out loud in the kneeling position. What dedication.

Yesterday I climbed to the roof of the church just after 5 am. From there a beautiful view of the sky was to be found. The same moon, stars are above Gods children here. Right around the house here are many palm trees and there is water on 2 sides of the property. I have been told I can swim in the canal, but my doctor strictly forbid that so I will hold off. Also, after seeing the 3 foot long fish that were caught yesterday that to me looked like catfish, but I was told they were sharks, this also takes the urge to swim down a bit.

These fish provided lunch yesterday for all 75 or so of the people present. Standard fair is a plate full of white rice, along with fish or chicken. The ladies work so hard. Imagine doing all of this prep on a fire or gas grill. The power here is off and on. It goes out at at least 3 times per day for 20 minutes to 3 hours a day at this time of year. In the summer it goes off for 6 hour stretches because the rivers are low and they cannot produce enough. This is for the fortunate ones that have power at all.

At five thirty now that fire is being lit. The well is now very busy with people coming from all over the compound to draw water. They have recently modernized to a hand pump from the water bucket and rope days. They still have that well for backup though. My host has just delivered me tea. It is good,, but it has caffeine which I do not use in America but I cannot argue with the kindness. It is still every dark.

This is the cool time of year, so it is only in the 70;s at this time of day. Very humid and misty also. It gets up to about 90 during the day, but I have yet to see a thermometer. I am not sure they have those here. The every morning sweeping of the sidewalks and courtyard have begun. The brooms they use do not have handles. I inquired as to why, and am told that it is easier for the people to use on without handles. It is also interesting how they sweep the dirt courtyard every day. They want things neat and in order.

Curious children have now come over to watch me type, Probably have never seen a laptop before. They are most beautiful.

It is still long before 6 and there is very much action here now. Yesterday
as I sat a little later that this when it was light, I see the neighbor carrying two small pigs by the feet. I inquire as to why this is. I am told that they are about to get whacked, butchered. This neighbor butchers pigs and he is from the lowest of the cast system. This is the same one that has the cock fighting roosters that are my welcome to the day. The cast system is different for us. One cannot marry into another cast, or they are totally cast out from both families. Pear pressure is great.

I got so into telling you this story now, that I forgot to let you know how I could tell we were getting close to our destination. I am the first American of the people we know to land at the close airport. When we land, the plan turns around and taxis on the same runway that we land on. I was hoping that no other planes were coming. I look out the window and construction is being done by a group of men with baskets that carried sand on their heads. The luggage was unloaded into hand pushed carts to the baggage claim area, which was a spot near a small building out in the sun. Interesting!

Then began the task of finding my hosts. There were about 100 men around, but none looked like our host to me. I figure he would find me by asking all of the few white people he saw. Sure enough he did, although he was just a few minutes late in getting to the airport.

Then starts the ride in the car. This is about one hour fifteen minutes or 2 hours if driven by an American. The driving is the the wrong side of the road, by our standard. For the feint of heart this trip is not. Constant horn beeping and high speeds, three wide on a two lane road, there are no traffic laws, stop signs, or police. Not seatbelt, helmet laws or inspected vehicles to be found anywhere on the roads. I could see very few if even one that would pass our pollution or safety standards.

The Lord watched over though, and we arrived at our final destination after traveling for over 30 hours from home with no real sleep. I think I got one hour total sleep after Monday AM US time and before night here on Wednesday. Then the roosters. Boy this is getting long and I have not even touched on so much. I will quickly list a couple.

After the walk through the village, the girl who cannot talk acting our her story of faith. The crippled girl I was able to hug that maybe seldom gets a hug because the handicapped here are not held high. My friend Jonathan a teenage boy that tries English and has taught me 3 Telugu phrases. He loves life and can climb palm trees to pick coconuts. The seminars for the pastors. Pray hard for these. Our trainer and teacher is Dennis Hilman. Then I am required to have a sermon each session. 3 per day. I need your prayers very much. 2 more girls just come up to say good morning uncle. I am now an uncle to 35 more children. Lovely. Well I have to run now to read, pray, visit, eat and shower before our first session starts at 9 AM. God be with you. Love John Internet is non existent, so when you see this I know not, but will try my best John

This is now the end of Sunday February 15th. All the pastor training was over yesterday in this area. There will be more of that in another area starting Tuesday. Today was very busy. We had 3 different church services before noon. We visited I think 4 churches in the afternoon. So very interesting. At one service the people in the community go door to door during the week, and sure enough new people came to church today. Most of these were Hindus. Several are beginning to convert to Christianity. Pray that this continues. At another service a Hindu Communist was there. He is searching.

At all services, people afterwards ask for prayers for various illnesses or problems. On young lady wanted me to pray for her because she had just received her first bible ever. She wept a lot during the prayer. This girl was a fairly new Christian also. What a joy this is.

As we walk through the villages, very often people come running and they want us to pray for this one or that one. Day is so interesting. I cannot continue now. Leona and Amanda and Milo Matson have been with us as well for the past few days.

God’s Peace to all! John