Miscellany

As promised, here are some little tidbits, many of them not related to the actual mission itself.  For instance, how about the traffic?  It's organized mayhem.  My friend Mark likes to say that Indian traffic disproves the physics rule that two objects cannot occupy the same space.  As an added bonus, I've found a translation of the official India Drivers Manual.  It's quite short.

1. Stay left.  Mostly.
2. When in doubt, honk your horn.
3. Try not to die.

Not sure if I'm helping, or just getting in the way.

It was rice processing time while we were there.  The harvest was complete.  Now most of the residents were busy getting the rice ready for storage and use.  Getting the rice off the stalk involves whacking it on a board.  Then it has to be spread out to dry.  I jumped in to see what kind of work it is to do the whacking.  It isn't hard at all, but I can't imagine doing it from sun up to sun down.

Spreading the rice to dry on a rooftop patio.

If you can see this picture and not smile yourself,
consult a physician.  You may be dead.

This is the poorest state in India.  Each time I'm in India, it's a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me.  I spend half my time being extremely happy to be there and to be doing what I'm doing.  The other half of my time I spend fighting back tears as I watch the hardships these people face.  God is good, however, and it seems that whenever I'm at my lowest, he sends some kids to me and their infectious smiles bring me back to my joy.

I learned a little more Hindi on this trip, thanks to my coaches, a troop of young ladies that are the daughters of some of our national team members.  They loved teaching all of us Americans simple phrases and words and laughed when we would screw them up.  They also love to have their pictures taken.  I think they are the prettiest blooms in this garden.

I Am Second Follow Up

One of the impressive things that e3 Partners does is the way it partners with local native churches and pastors to provide follow up with people who have accepted Christ as their savior while the American team is there for their mission. In many areas, including our trips to India, this is done using the I Am Second method of bible study to create small groups that will eventually, with God's grace, become house churches.

The I Am Second method is brilliant in it's simplicity. As a study method it offers a lot of advantages, including:

1. Nearly anyone can lead a group, whether they're a new believer or quite seasoned.
2. The format is conversational in nature, building bonds between the participants.
3. Since it relies only on the scripture passage at hand, you don't need a vast amount of scriptural knowledge to participate.
4. Accountability is built into the study, as is sharing with others outside the group.

The basic outline of an I Am Second study is very simple and is as follows:

1. Read the scripture.
2. Ask the following two questions: What do you like about this scripture? What do you find confusing about this scripture?
3. Read the scripture a second time.
4. Ask the following two questions: What does this scripture tell us about people? What does this scripture tell us about God?
5. Read the scripture a third time.
6. Ask the following two questions: What will you apply from this scripture in your life? Who will you tell about this and when?

This is the basic outline of the follow up sessions that the Indian pastors and volunteers will do with the new believers that started groups during our trip. If you will take note of the questions in step six, those become the first two questions for the following weeks study. This makes for great accountability and also lends iteself to the group spreading as the participants share the stories with others.

For more information about I Am Second studies, free downloads and information, and whole slew of resources, visit www.iamsecond.com

 

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The Final Days

Our final evening at the location was spent as a time of celebration with our nationals.  There was plenty to celebrate.  Over the course of four days we had shared the gospel with 1,937 people.  581 of those people had professed faith in Jesus Christ.  16 I Am Second bible study groups were formed and it is a hope that these study groups, given time and nurturing, will become house churches.  Due to the structure of the bible studies, and I'll go into that in depth in a later post, there is a great possibility that those study groups will spread to make many more.

As you can tell from the video, Indian style worship is pretty dynamic and a real joyful thing!

We spent the next morning in more training with the nationals, making sure they were 100% in their understanding of the method of their follow up studies with the home study groups, call "satsangs" in India.  Satsang, translated literally, means "discussion."

This was the team that I hit the field with everyday.

We spent some time saying our goodbyes.  Over the course of four days you spend a lot of time with your team, at least eight hours a day, driving to and from the field, in the field, and at meals.  There is a fairly good chance that I'll never see any of them again and I will miss them all.

We loaded up our bus and started the four hour drive to the airport for our first short flight back to Delhi.  Unlike our bus drive here, this one is in the daytime and the traffic is incredible so the trip takes longer.

We finally arrive in Delhi and it's bedtime so we crash for the night.  The following morning is a bit of free time.  It's election day in Delhi so many of the shops are closed.  Five of us decide to take a hike to the ruins of a sultan's tomb that is about a mile from the hotel.  We walked through some pretty interesting and perhaps dicey neighborhoods and attract plenty of attention, but there aren't any problems.  The ruins are pretty cool, but even here there is trash everywhere.  I'll never understand the practice of just throwing all your trash onto the ground.

Inside the actual tomb.  While we were there someone came to worship.
I really wanted to tell them that our tomb is better because it's empty.

The shops were allowed to open after 5:00 on election day so the bus loaded up and we went to a shopping area to buy souvenirs for our loved ones at home.  Then it was off to a final dinner together.  There happened to be a real Baskin Robins ice cream store next to the restaurant and we all loaded up on some great ice cream and then posed for a shot of the American team, minus Leotta and Lyle.  They had a friend in Delhi they had left to spend a day or two with before heading back.

We had our rooms for the evening so we were all faced with a choice: try and grab some shuteye before our bus to the airport at 1:00am or simply tough it out and spend the next several hours with little sleep.  Maybe it was unwise, but I opted for the latter.  Little did I know that, due to cramped flights and bad timing, I wouldn't be sleeping again in any real meaningful way for a total of about 40 hours.

The American team, minus Leotta and Lyle, along with Charles
and his wife Rohini.

It was with great relief that I finally walked in the door of my home to hold my wonderful wife in my arms.  I'm still struggling a bit with jet lag and both Matt and I caught some sort of bug on the way home so we're a bit miserable, but it's all worth it.  I can't wait to get back.

In the following week or so I'll have a couple more posts for you.  One with some miscellaneous info and fun stuff, another with some details on I Am Second studies and the method the e3 Partners has put into place for helping the satsangs thrive and hopefully grow.

Final Field Days

(NOTE: I'm actually back in the States again after some grueling hours in airplanes and airports. I didn't get around to posting while more while I was there because of scheduling and the lack of good internet access. There'll be a few more posts to follow concerning this trip so stay tuned.)
It's been a couple of really good days in the field here and today we will wrap things up.
Yesterday took us to three different villages and we shared with about 200 people. The first home was a second visit for us and our first chance to start an I Am Second bible study. For a large part of this and all of our visits today, we Americans don't play much of a role. That's just fine with me as the whole purpose of these visits is to equip these new believers and the local pastors with the tools and knowledge to learn and study about God on their own. After all, the commandment is "Go and make disciples", not to simply make believers. The Americans make their introductions, sharing about our country, participating in small talk with the people, and then sharing the gospel or our testimony with them.

The nationals then take over and lead the group in an I Am Second bible study. When properly done, these studies really do a great job of doing what most every teacher would agree is about the toughest thing to get a student to do: actually think about the topic at hand. The format encourages discussion and participation and for the most part, there are really no wrong answers that a participant can give.
At the end of our study time we asked for another appointment to study again. A young lady, mother of four, quickly volunteered her home for the next day. What was great about this was that you could tell from her enthusiasm and the way that she participated in the study that she wasn't volunteering her home simply for the honor of having Americans visit, but because she was eager to learn more.

Charles leading a group of interested young men in an I Am Second study.

Today we as Americans will do the last of our visits. The nationals will continue the studies in the homes that we've started them in. We will also be installing water filtration systems in six villages, a pretty desperate need here. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the level of poverty here is unimagineable to most Americans. Last night Matt, Jeff, and I were in the hotel room and the TV was on in the background. A commercial for one of the aid groups like Feed The Children came on. Jeff said "I never would have thought that I would be seeing one of these kids." referring to the haunting images on the screen.
I replied "You haven't seen one of them. You've seen thousands of them."

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That lucky old sun

One thing about the celestial design of our Creator: Each day is a new day.

Within minutes we had quite a following. Mainly children with the few adults coming along to see what the fuss was about. I visited with the men digging a new connection line from the well to their village. I got to help just a little with seperating rice kernels from their grassy stalks. Alicia learned how to properly tie her scarf into a headcovering from a young girl, one who would not let go of her hand for our entire stay.Today was a much better one. We took off this morning and the plan was for three of the nationals to go the village where the man had died yesterday to see how things stood. Kajul (pronounced Ka-jewel), Alicia, and I were to be dropped off at a village we had also visited that day, just to walk around, see the village, and pray a bit.

We ended our tour in front of a home and chairs were put out for us. Alicia and I wondered what to do next. Looking at all the young ones around, we decided to pick one of them and act out the story of David and Goliath. Being a giant here among the Indians, I was the natural choice for the part of Goliath. We picked a somewhat shy David from the crowd and Alicia started telling the story. Yes, I hammed it up quite a bit. The kids laughed as the young David was coerced into throwing a pebble at me and I took a dive on the courtyard ground.

A few adults had gathered by now so we decided to share the malaria and HIV prevention information we had. We had previously been told to only share the gospel in a more enclosed setting, but an adult from the crowd must've heard about our previous visit and asked us to tell about Jesus. So how could we refuse? I gave a presentation and ten adults accepted Christ. We were telling them that we would be back on Thursday so they could learn more when a stranger showed up in a rather new red car. We got just a bit worried because with the BJP government, anti-christian sentiment is a little bit high and there are certain provisions concerning proselytizing in India.

As it turned out, he was a businessman-cum-politician and was curious what we were doing. I told him we were sharing information with the people about malaria and HIV prevention and other health issues. (Christianity is a health of the soul issue, is it not?) He then went on to tell about a factory he was opening that would make fertilizer and soap and how he would provide health services to his employees, etc., etc., etc. He invited us to tour his office whenever we were in Delhi yada, yada, yada. One can only hope that he was at least half telling the truth.

My two companions are blessing. Kajul really is a jewel, intensely quiet until she laughs and smiles and then the world around her explodes in lightness and joy. Alicia's love for the children here is intense and it shows in every breath she takes in their presence.We had two more presentations today and they both went well. The second one had a lot of children so we again did our David and Goliath routine. We'll be back to these two villages tomorrow and Thursday to do I Am Second bible studies, distribute reading glasses, and install water filtration systems.

Sorry there's no pics today. The internet is being a pain and pics are clogging it up.

 

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Mobius

There is poor, and then there is Bihar. None of us can imagine the struggle it is to simply survive here. There is no thriving, simply surviving. I'm not really sure that there is anything I could write that would explain it. I remember my first time, three years ago, witnessing the poverty in Assam. At times it was almost crushing to ones spirit. The second year I was able to keep that steam from coming to a boil. I hadn't gotten hardened to it. I had just learned to accept it as something that simply is. And now, seeing an even deeper poverty, something I couldn't have fathomed even existed............. well, it's just hard. At the end of the day you are emotionally drained from the strain of not breaking down in front of the people you are here to serve.

Today Alicia and I were on a team that visited the home of a man that was suffering badly from tuberculosis. We shared with his family in the humble courtyard of their home. There were about 20 present from the extended family and neighbors and even though we were the big attraction, so to speak, you could feel that the concern for their father was really the only thing on their mind. We prayed over him before we left.

Indian believers have a way of praying that can seem odd to us Americans. It's often their habit for everyone to pray their own individual prayers out loud, everyone at the same time. This is what we did at this mans bedside today. I don't have much Hindi so I can't be sure what my brothers were praying. Besides, I was concentrating on my own prayers.

For whatever reason, I'm always hesitant to pray for a healing. My prayer today was, if it was in God's will, this man be healed, but whatever the outcome, that God would be glorified. I prayed for his family as I know that having the man out of commission, whether due to sickness or due to death, would make life even more of a struggle for this family, as hard as that is to imagine.

By the time we got back to our hotel about three hours later, we found out he had passed away shortly after we left them.

I can't say that I have a lot of spiritual gifts but the one my friend Mark has accused me of is empathy. That has proved helpful a lot of times when I'm trying to negotiate a situation as it helps me to see things from other peoples points of view. Other times, like tonight as I sit late at night in a dark hotel lobby, typing through tears and feeling the pain of a desperately poor and struggling family who has just lost their father, husband, brother, and breadwinner, this gift to feel others pain really sucks.

 

 

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Sunday

Today was Sunday here and we broke up into five teams to visit and teach at five churches in our area. As with almost everything here, things started out immediately behind schedule. The official designation of the time zone in India is IST. We swear it stands for "India Stretchable Time." Anyway, after a 23 kilometer ride on bonecrushing roads, we finally arrived at our destination almost 90 minutes later than planned. It didn't matter. The humble house church, which usually numbers about 15-20, swelled to about 40 and they were waiting anxiously for us.

We assembled in a room that was about 15 x 15 feet. The congregants were spread out on the floor and the Americans, our native pastor, and our translator were all seated in plastic stacking chairs, the ubiquitous furniture of rural India. The pastor led us in an opening prayer and then a couple of acapella hymns, sung with great enthusiasm and rythmic clapping. Alicia then led off with a reading from Psalms and Marilyn followed up with her testimony using the evangicube. I finished off with a brief message focused on Isaiah 1:18-20. By the time we had finished our time together there were perhaps 60 people surrounding the little house. Word that Americans had arrived in this little village had evidently spread.

We were escorted back to our vehicles and I was disappointed that we didn't have more time, expecially when a sweet village elder asked us to stay for tea. My experience with the rural Indian people is that, no matter how poor they may be, they are incredibly hospitable and will share anything they have, no matter how little it is.

This afternoon and evening we spent about four hours in training with our nationals. Charles Golla, pictured here with Matt, is an amazing teacher of both the word and in how to share it. He has a contagious enthusiasm and a smile that makes you immediately take him into your confidence. The training was indepth and I think we all feel well prepared for our time in the field starting tomorrow.

Training was followed by dinner with our national volunteers. This is one of my favorite things, not just because of the food, but because of the fellowship with these people. Most of them have amazing testimonies and all of them have sacrificed to be on this mission with us. By the way, if you are ever at a table with rural Indians, do yourself a favor: skip using silverware and eat with your hands as they do. It's a liberating experience.

Tomorrow we hit the field and we're all excited to do the work we came here for.

 

 

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