There are always a few interactions with people that stand out as highlights of the trip. Over the next few days I'll try to relate a few. Some of them aren't mine, but ones related to me by fellow team mates.
First off, I'll try and describe what our typical mission day was like. The Americans and three of our Nationals (Charles, e3's Regional Director for this part of India, Hemante, our head translator, and Uttam, the follow-up coordinator and pastor that New Hope is supporting for a year) would meet at 7:00am for about a half hour of devotions, normally an I Am Second study. Then it was off to breakfast which includes, lightly boiled fresh vegetables, dhal, and, oddly enough, french fries. I think the hotel staff is trying to recreate hashbrowns.
Our teams then split off into three or four vehicles. Eventually, each vehicle will contain two Americans, two translators, and four follow-up workers. Sometimes there is an extra person or two per team, making it as many as 10 people in a vehicle designed for 7. There is no such thing as personal space in India.
Our vehicles spread out to different areas for appointments set by the nationals the previous week or day. We'll get out and share HIV/AIDS and malaria prevention information, the gospel using the Evangicube, and distribute reading glasses. It's much more than that, really. Those are just the written instructions. The best stops are those where we can spend a little time getting to know our hosts and they get to know us. We'll share information about our homes, families, and vocations. It's a cultural exchange and fascinating to both parties involved.
One of the key things one has to keep in mind at all times in India is the caste system. Technically made illegal several decades ago, it is still unofficially in force. In short, it is a cultural system that categorizes people in strict social classes based upon their jobs and heritage. Brahmans, the Hindu spiritual leaders, would be at the top. People that do the dirty work like leather workers, farmers, and people that dispose of the dead, would be at the bottom. In some ways the people we're dealing with, tribal farmers in a remote part of India, are lower than the lowest of castes. Mainline India doesn't really care about them at all.
George Cheek related a story about a man's reaction when George was sharing the story of the woman at the well found in John 4. George had made it clear that Jews didn't talk to Samaritans as they were considered unclean. When George finished the story, one of the men from the village said with enthusiasm "Jesus doesn't care about castes!" It was a revelation to him that Jesus, the son of God and a man who would be of the highest of castes, didn't acknowledge that the Samaritan woman was "lower caste." It opened a whole world to the man that God loves everyone equally.
I witnessed something of the same effect on our last day in the field when we were hosted by the lady pictured with her husband, mother, and ailing father. We had set up at in the courtyard of a house and about 50 people came to hear us. At the end, 32 people, including our host, accepted Christ. As always, we were treated to tea before we left. Now, to fully understand why the following meant so much to me you have to understand that we, as Americans, are considered of the highest caste. A low-caste Indian would never think of approaching us without permission. Well, as we were leaving our hostess noticed that we left a few cookies on the tray next to our now empty tea cups. She kidded with our Indian follow-up workers and picked up cookies and quite literally forced them into their mouths, laughing with them. Then, in a most unexpected turn, she did the same to me.
She got it. It doesn't matter whether I'm a (relatively speaking) rich, white American and that she is a poor, humble farm-wife: We have equal value in the eyes of God and she can approach me as an equal. That she would consider me her equal is the most flattering honor I've ever recieved.
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