What I Learned

On Friday night, August 3, we ladies were invited to give a presentation of our India trip to Fair Haven Primitive Baptist Church. After our presentation, Fair Haven's pastor, Brother Matt Strevel, asked each of us what we learned from our experiences in India. That was a very thought provoking question and one that I had pondered even before leaving for the trip, among others. My main question was: Has God called me to make this trip? Also, what is the purpose in going? What am I to learn from the trip and in what way am I to teach or to help the people of India? I believe that God called me to make the trip. I don't know that it was for one very important purpose or if it was for multitiple purposes - which is what I highly suspect. I believe that the main thing I learned was that we as American Christians need to be more involved with the worship services. We need to make a greater effort to assist and support our pastors and be less dependent on them to do all the work. Brother Guna is driven to serve Christ - that is obviously his main goal in life. He does it by prayerfully spreading the gospel and serving others. But Bro. Guna has a tremendous base of support. The people of India have very little but they are a very generous, giving people. They are a hard-working, prayerful people and they reach out to help others even when it would appear to our eyes that they are the ones in need. Bro. Guna, as dedicated as he is, could not do what he does without the help of those around him. He also has a tremendous amount of help from American Christians - and I know that God blesses us in those efforts as well. I also know that God is in control of all things and without Him we can do nothing. It is my prayer that we as American Christians would strive to do more with the many blessings God has bestowed upon us. When I say this, I condemn myself most of all. I need to pray more. I definitely need to visit the sick more. I need to study my Bible more. I need to be more active in worship services - come with a prayerful attitude ready to sing and pray and meditate on God's word. Every time I enter God's House, I need to ask myself, "Am I an active participant in the worship service, or am I here only as an observer?" That is an important point American Christians could learn from Indian Christians: to stop thinking that church growth and duty is solely the pastor's responsibility. We (that is, I) need to be striving for growth and opportunities to serve as well. If we worked as we should alongside our pastors, through God's grace we could truly turn the world upside down.

Wednesday 7/25/07

Wednesday morning we woke early and started packing for the return trip home. We drove to Salem and then boarded a train for Chennai. The train stops for only short periods and during this time all luggage and passengers must exit or board or get left behind. (Poor Suganthi told me she once had actually fallen underneath a moving train in a desperate effort to catch it.) Bro. Guna and Bro. Nixon rode with us – Bro. Guna all the way to Chennai and Bro. Nixon to Vellore to return to his home. His wife Jody is currently working at the Christian Medical Center (the large hospital located in Vellore) and he was returning to his wife and small son, named Chris. Bro. Nixon sat in the seat across from me and we took turns talking for about an hour about our Christian experience and how God had blessed us and our families. Bro. Nixon’s father had been Christian but he died when Bro. Nixon was just 3 years old. His mother raised him and she was Hindu. He became Christian as a young man and belonged to another denomination until about 2 years ago when he first heard the message of sovereign grace preached by Bro. Guna. He told Bro. Guna, “I do not believe that doctrine.” Bro. Guna gave him a copy of Bro. Zack Guess’s book on sovereign grace doctrine and Bro. Nixon read and studied it. He is now a very able Old Baptist minister. He told me that when he first became Christian, his response was more outward actions but little inward change. He believed in the Christian God, but knew that the doctrine he was being taught was not what the Christian Bible taught. When he came to the knowledge of God’s sovereignty, he said he finally had joy in his heart because he knew that doctrine lined up with everything in the Bible. Today he is a very happy man. I wish our church members could all meet him. I was surprised that Bro. Nixon spoke pretty fluent English because I had not noticed him speaking much English before that time. At the end of the conversation he told me it was a miracle we were speaking because he usually did not speak or understand English very well. When he left me and came back a while later we tried to make idle conversation and could barely communicate with one another. What an interesting conversation indeed!
We arrived in Chennai (a city of approx. 6,000,000 and formerly named Madras) at around 11:00 p.m. Indian time. (It had been a really LONG train ride – approx. 7 hours, although I did sleep a while with a migraine headache). We came in from the train station and saw a much more beautiful side of the city than the side we saw upon arrival. The airport is in a more rundown section of town and I wondered when we arrived that I saw almost no traffic lights in a city of 6,000,000. The traffic in the rundown section of town we were in on our first day in Chennai was AWFUL, but it wasn’t so bad on the return trip – nicer area with traffic lights and a more modern city. Anyway, we shopped in the Chennai airport for some beautiful Indian handbags, jade hand-carved elephants, and clothing items and then we left by plane at 2:00 a.m. for an almost 10 hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany. In Frankfurt, we had breakfast at McDonald’s (oooooh, wonderful!) and then really pigged out purchasing German chocolate – oh boy! There was not time in the Chennai airport to convert over my remaining rupees and I tried to convert it in Frankfurt, but against the Euro, I was going to lose about half its value. I told the cashier no thanks, but it wasn’t a lost endeavor because a young American serviceman was standing beside the cashier and Jill, Ashley, and I struck up a conversation with him. We found out that he lived only about an hour away from Jill in Alabama. Home was getting closer! Next we boarded the plane from Frankfurt to Charlotte, NC. I do not sleep well while traveling – whether by train, plane, or car – and the flight to Charlotte seemed to take FOREVER! We also had a lot of turbulence over the Atlantic and were told to remain in our seats with our seatbelts fastened for quite a bit of the trip – it made me quite sick at my stomach – actually, I think about all of our group felt pretty lousy on that flight. We arrived in Charlotte and it was actually ahead of time – no delays like we suffered on the trip over. We went through customs since this was our port of entry. We had to receive our luggage and re-check it for the short flight to Atlanta. On the flight to Atlanta, I think we all finally slept before we actually got off the ground and we were in Atlanta before I realized it where we were met by a bunch of warm, loving family members. We loaded up our luggage (no lost luggage this time) and Leah rode with Karen and me to exit 201 to pick up her car. We arrived home midnight Friday night and thank the Lord for a wonderful, safe trip and a comfortable bed on our return!

Tuesday 7/24/07

Tuesday morning we ate once more at Shevaroy’s. Per Karen’s recommendation, we had masala omelet which was out of this world. Bro. Guna and Bro. Nelson ate a more traditional Indian breakfast in their room, but then came to join us. Per Indian tradition, nothing is left on the plate and Bro. Nelson ate what we did not want so it would not be wasted. (I don’t know that he really wanted to eat again). Then we held church services in the home of Bro. Baboo (pronounced bob boo). The Old Baptist Church on Yercaud Mtn. began in his home and we had a sweet service with his wife being extremely gracious to us. (She fed us another breakfast and Bro. Nelson ate what she gave him. I think by that time he was looking a little green. We teased him about having his 3rd breakfast for the day). The church is meeting in 3 homes on Yercaud because their congregation is too large to meet in one place. They are currently building a church which will seat approx. 200 people but they think that will be too small. Bro. Baboo has a reputation for being an excellent minister and local response to the gospel has been tremendous. After an able service with Bro. Jeff preaching from Hebrews and Bro. Nelson translating, we visited a tourist attraction nearby called the Lady’s Seat because a British woman had supposedly once jumped off the cliff to commit suicide there. It was a pretty awesome place and we were actually in the clouds looking down (WAY down) below. Then we returned to Bro. Baboo’s home and had a wonderful lunch of fish, fries, and fruit. We were given gifts of bangle bracelets and earrings. It seems we were given gifts and really honored everywhere we went. We women did not have gifts to return and I felt really humbled about always being just on the receiving end while in India. We then visited a remote village where we walked and walked and walked some more up a mountain side to view a small but beautiful church. We sang How Firm a Foundation in the empty building and prayed. The minister, new to the Old Baptist Faith, wants to start a congregation in this building although I believe there are currently only 2 or 3 Christians in the entire village. This young minister has a doctorate in divinity and his wife has a master’s in divinity. He was converted to sovereign grace by Bro. Baboo.

Since we women had not been to the bathroom since the hotel that morning, we then asked for a bathroom. We walked and walked and walked some more further up the mountain to where the new minister was staying. Indian bathrooms consist of a hole in the ground that you stand over with a tread on either side where you’re supposed to put your feet. It was also very dark in this place when you closed the door. It was really funny to hear the first one of us to use the bathroom call out asking how do you use this contraption? We gave instructions thru the door as best we could. Afterwards Ashley told her Dad that in the future he should just point us to an available bush. No need to walk way up the mountain for a hole in the ground. (Oh, the joys of “roughing-it”!)
Afterwards we drove down the mountain (this huge mountain was an all day drive) and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. We arrived back in Salem and held services in a local home of a former Hindu priest. This was a poor section of Salem but we were told the inhabitants were members of a higher Hindu caste than the dalits. It was a sweet service with Bro. Jeff preaching from Luke 4:16 – 18 about Christ the healer. (Once while Bro. Guna was translating what he said, Bro. Jeff turned to me and said under his breath that some of the blind were driving on India’s streets). Afterwards, a Hindu woman who had been very attentive the entire time asked how she could get to Chettipatty to attend regular services. We told her that the homeowner would be happy to let her ride with him and his family for Chettipatty services. A high government official had planned to attend the services and provided the money for all the food – snacks before the service and dinner afterwards. But we arrived early (not knowing he was coming), and unfortunately by the time he arrived, services were over and we were leaving. It was then we were introduced to him and informed that he had provided the meal. Bro. Guna is beginning to preach in this area also, and hopefully, he can hear Bro. Guna preach there next month. He was very gracious.

It was on this return trip back to Shady Grove that I witnessed first hand what Bro. Jeff termed the "definition of a traffic fine in India." We were driving through Salem when a taxi driver had tried to enter a main street from the wrong direction and caused a traffic jam. The police officer didn't issue a ticket, but he was so angry that he took out his billy stick and knocked the side view mirror right off the taxi! I think this method at least saves a lot of red tape.

Monday 7/23/07

Monday morning during devotions Ranjanny came to see us. She was very excited because her biological father had come to see her. When her mother died, her father had to give her up because in India a man does not raise little girls. It is a very separatist society with very little interaction between the sexes. But Ranjanny’s father had heard that she was sick and he came, I don’t know whether from a distance or not, to see her. It really meant a lot to Ranjanny because her father had come to see her. We were having our morning devotion when she asked us to come meet her father. We told her we would come in just a minute and she said in a very respectful, sweet little tearful voice, “No, you come. My father here.” We stopped our devotion and went to meet her father. You just don’t put off a sick, upset child when they’re pleading with you. Her fever was better that morning but I believe she was taken to a doctor anyway while we packed up and left for Yercaud Mtn. This mountain rises 5000 feet above sea level and is a famous tourist resort in India. It is right outside the city of Salem. There was once a British hospital on the mountain top because it stays very cool there, more like British weather, and when a soldier was wounded or suffered heat exhaustion, he was taken there to recover. When India gained its independence, the Indians took over the mountain and turned the hospital into a hotel for tourists. I believe Yercaud Mtn. is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. As we went up the mountain, monkeys and chipmunks were all along the walls. The vegetation is extremely lush and there are many remote villages on this huge mountain but most are located pretty far apart. When we reached our hotel (very NICE but with COLD mountain running water, sorry - no hot shower here folks), we ate at Shevaroys, a nice Indian restaurant. It was interesting in eating with our Indian brethren because we were told they were allowed in the restaurant only because they accompanied Americans. Most of our Indian brethren are dalits (pronounced dah leets) which means they are lowest Indian caste and are not generally allowed in restaurants. I noticed the Indian brethren were not given menus. I offered them mine and they said that’s o.k. they knew what they wanted anyway. The restaurant served some of the best soup I have ever eaten and I had a delicious dish called chicken strongoff which closely resembled chicken and rice cooked in cream of chicken soup. After lunch we took a walk and took cover under a long, beautiful arbor while it rained heavily. Later we rented a rowboat and toured Shevaroy Lake. After that we toured the park around the lake and saw deer, peacocks, rabbits, parakeets, and various other animals in a small zoo. I mentioned to Bro. Guna that many of the trees looked like our oak trees back home and he said that’s exactly what they are – Silver Oaks. We were also shown a tree unfamiliar to us and told they were eucalyptus trees. They had smooth, white trunks that resemble our sycomore trees. We purchased boiled peanuts stir-fried with nuts, mango, and cayenne pepper that was very good. We also had some roasted corn. The Indians have a can of hot coals that they pump air into to heat up the coals and turn the ears of corn over it. Halfway through the process, they rubbed cayenne pepper all over the corn and continued roasting it. It was very good also. The food was served on rolled up newspaper, which served as a plate and when you finished, as your napkin. That night we visited the orphanage on Yercaud Mtn. – Paddypatty. There are only 11 orphans staying full time at this orphanage because of lack of space. But I think around 25 additional local village children come daily to receive 2 meals (breakfast before school and dinner after school) and to be taught English – which is taught from the Bible. Same program we saw earlier at Veppamarathur. These Hindu children then go home and tell their parents about the Bible and their Hindu parents request a Bible in their language. It is a very ingenious and successful program – so successful that there is mounting opposition from the local Hindus to the work on Yercaud Mtn. and several of our Indian brethren there including old women (Sister Esther, Sister Grace) have been beaten. The Hindus have tried a similar program to reclaim the people, but with little success. Feeding hungry people, providing medical attention, or any other form of assistance is foreign to the Hindu religion since they believe in karma – that if one has misfortune, it’s because he was bad and being punished by the gods. To help the unfortunate is to bring the god’s wrath on the provider. That’s why the orphanages that do exist in India are Christian-based and many more are needed. As I said they have only 11 actual orphans staying at Paddypatty due to space restrictions. Directly behind the orphanage there is 3/10 of an acre available for purchase (at a cost of $7500 U.S. dollars) that would allow the orphanage to greatly expand as this would provide sleeping space for additional children. I pray to God that this need will be met. We held services at this location on Mon. night. These people are very poor and very loving. One of the members gave us a large plastic bottle filled with homegrown honey – his livelihood – and it was absolutely delicious! It tasted like honey flavored with the slightest hint of citrus juice. I wish we could have brought it back with us, but customs would not allow it so we left it in the kitchen at Shady Grove. We stayed later than anticipated that night and after services, the men brought the cars around to the front door for us. We were told to get in the cars and lock the doors as a precaution against local Hindu opposition.

Sunday 7/22/07

Sunday morning Bro. Jeff and Bro. Guna preached at Cuddalore where the tsunami hit in 2004. There they constituted a new church. At Shady Grove services, Ashley, Leah, Jill, Karen and I sang Blest Be the Tie that Binds and For the Beauty of the Earth and Ashley gave her testimony with Richard translating for her. Then Bro. Nelson preached a powerful message on election in Tamil and English. He really is an awesome preacher! That afternoon we visited Bro. Boopithy’s house because it was his 3 year-old daughter’s birthday. Bro. Boopithy lives close to Shady Grove and I visited his home the prior week. During that first visit, his children (Hannah and Abigail) showed me their cat, whom they had named “Cat.” They wanted me to take a picture of their skiddish little cat and it was really funny when I tried to call the cat – Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. The children said, “That is cat. What is here, kitty, kitty, kitty?” Apparently the cat didn’t understand English either but I did manage to get its picture. At the birthday party, the parents provided us with orange soft drinks and we talked and visited for a while. The Indians are very particular about their manners and protocol and when Ashley would not take a chair, they insisted. “You sit here!” She said, “I think I’ll sit.” Later she tried to share her drink with the family members and they said, “No.” Then Ashley said, “I think I’ll just drink all of this myself.” (It was very funny). The Indians get highly offended if they think they have not given the very best of everything to their guests. Richard showed us some coin tricks and we watched CSI on black and white TV. Bro. Boopithy showed us a beautiful drawing of the Tabernacle with all the furniture in it that he had made. Then we went back to Shady Grove and checked on Ranjanny (pronounced ron johnnny or rom johmmy maybe?), Bro. Jeff’s foster child. She is 13 but like most of the Indians very small – in America we would think she’s about 8 years old. She had been running a fever for a couple of days and we decided to take her to see a doctor on Monday morning along with another child who also had a fever. I felt really guilty going to bed Sunday night on a comfortable bed while the children were sleeping on mats on concrete floors. I held a conversation with Bro. Jeff about this the next morning at breakfast and he told me that he had said the same thing once to Bro. Guna and volunteered to buy lumber and build the children bunkbeds. He said Bro. Guna laughed at him and told him that the Indian way of sleeping is on the floor. They think we are very strange for sleeping on beds. We do definitely have different cultures, but the same need for Jesus Christ.

Saturday 7/21/07

Saturday morning we continued classes. We had no running water Fri. afternoon and night and Fri. night when I went to bed I stank. I got up Sat. morning – still no water, so I opened my bottle of Aquafina and took a “shower” with it. This was my drinking water and I didn’t bother to ask for another bottle of water to drink until about 4:00 p.m. that day. I had used my drinking water to take a bath with, but I didn’t care – I thought it was worth it. Simon’s little boy, Franklin, followed his “aunties” Karen and Leah all over the compound that day and had the other children all calling us “aunties”. Franklin, who is 5, brought his 2 year old sister, Shella, upstairs to the roof to visit us. We fed them some of our breakfast – I thought Franklin was a bottomless pit! He opened his mouth and looked like a little bird that we would put little pieces of cereal and granola bars into. The roof which is right outside our door has a low protective wall around it and it was really funny when Franklin started pointing at something (actually I don’t think it was anything) in the distance and excitedly telling Shella to look, look! She couldn’t see over the wall and she had her little hands on the top of the wall and her toes dug in to the sides and she was grunting and straining trying to see over the wall. Franklin kept telling her to look, look! She never could get up to see and finally gave up. Then he went down the steep steps and left her. She stood at the top of the stairs and cried for help, so we took her down to her mother. They are quite a pair! That morning Karen and I also got to play frisbee with Deva and Sathish. I think they liked their frisbees and were a little disappointed when they fell on the ground and got scuffed up. Sathish tried to polish his off when he took it back to his room. Karen also taught the women how to play hopscotch and I think they had a lot of fun with that. This was Lee’s day to teach classes since I had taught Thursday and Karen had taught Friday. Lee gave an excellent explanation about diabetes with Karen’s assistance on the nutrition end and I threw in my 2 cents worth about wearing shoes outside and then Lee and I both taught about cancer and diseases common to the area such as typhoid and cholera. That afternoon we said good-bye to the Eureka Children’s Home orphans. We handed out balloons and suckers and jump ropes. They danced again for us and got us to dance a little for them. We all laughed and had a really good time, but I think Grace cried a little bit. Sindersen was leaving the next day for 6 months Bible college. He is to return home just once a month. After the singing and dancing, Bro. Sindersen drove us back to Chettipatty. (Patty means village in Tamil). It was really hard leaving Sathish. I have sponsored him for 5 years and I was so excited to meet him! I felt like I was leaving my child and I might never see him again. It really was a difficult thing to do.
One thing I saw that was really interesting on the way back to Chettipatty was a brick kiln. Suganthi explained to me the way bricks are made. A woman takes an ordinary bread pan and fills it with the red mud mixture and dumps it out to dry in the sun. Then the bricks are stacked on a high pile in a particular fashion that leaves large holes (spaces) between them. Tree branches are pushed into the spaces and the pile is set on fire for 3 days out in the open – not in an oven like I would have imagined. The fire is continually fed with wood. After 3 days the bricks are allowed to cool and dry in the sun, then tarp is wrapped over them until they are ready for shipping. I thought this might be the same way that the Tower of Babel was built way back in Nimrod’s day. We drove through some really remote villages where the houses were thatched huts. It was interesting to see modern day tractors with plows parked beside the huts. I think the houses were probably owned by tenants and the tractors by their landlords – what a contrast! Anyway, we got back safely to Shady Grove and….Praise the Lord! Running water!

Friday 7/20/07

Friday morning Karen, with Leah assisting, taught nutrition classes to the local village women while Lee and I sat at the prayer mound and talked. I believe it was during this day's classes that Leah also taught the local village women about massaging tired, achy muscles - a major relief after back-breaking labor. Ashley and Jill had already returned to Shady Grove to teach the children there as it was thought that Jill needed to stay in a more comfortable location. That worked out well because Jill and Ashley were awesome with all those kids at Shady Grove. When we returned, I was really impressed with all that the kids had learned. Many of them are teenagers and I think that it really encouraged the Indian teenagers to meet a Christian American teenager and interact. God moves in mysterious ways and I believe Ashley and Jill were where they were supposed to be at Shady Grove while we were at Eureka Children's Home. Anyway, when Lee and I were finished visiting the prayer mound and touring the field that she hopes to cultivate, we took a walk down the road and visited a family with a 3-week old infant. Right after lunch we took Karen and Leah to see the baby and we found out that the mother had attended Karen’s maternity classes in Dec. while she was pregnant with him. The parents actually asked Karen to name the baby! I was standing beside Karen and she asked What? in disbelief. Did you say you want me to name him? They told her yes that’s what they said and she named him Elijah! Talk about a swelled head! We got pictures of this beautiful little baby boy with the red dot between his eyes and a white slash over the dot – which I believe indicates the caste he belongs to but Karen says it just means he had been blessed that morning with ashes from the temple – I don’t know. Anyway, the baby’s uncle then climbed a coconut tree and the family treated us to fresh coconut. We took pictures of this and the stone mill that they use to grind their grain. While walking back to the orphanage, there was a huge mound like a fireant bed with several large holes in the top by the side of the road that we had walked right by that morning. Brother Simon (the orphanage warden) said, “Sisters, move away from the mound. That’s a snake home.” I jumped about 5 feet sideways but Leah got close enough to take pictures. Simon said the local villagers worship this cobra because they fear it. Ughhh! That afternoon we took the mobile clinic out to the villages. Pastor Borris (Simon’s brother) is very active in this area and he is great with the kids. Karen and Leah helped attract kids with the stick-on vest and candy and Pastor Borris taught them Christian songs and dances. The parents as usual followed their kids. I saw a beautiful little girl there who had goiter. It was strange to see a skinny child with a huge neck. At the 2nd village we attended, Karen was really excited to see Diane running with the children. This was the 15-month old little girl she saw in Dec. who could not walk. Her mother had never fed her solid foods and Karen told her she needed to feed her solids to help her walk. It had obviously worked! I really enjoyed visiting this village also – there was an old woman there with a beautiful countenance who was very attentive to us. She seemed to radiate love and appreciation for our efforts. Also, it was at this village that I learned about the mysterious village people who lived on the mountain top. They were mysterious to me because I looked up the mountain and saw nothing but rocks and trees, but was told that the mountain was full of primitive peoples who spoke different dialects and earned their living mostly by the illegal drug trade. We were told that we would definitely not be going further up the mountain. I think I will always wonder about those invisible mountain people and pray that some day the gospel of Jesus Christ will reach them as well.

There are many superstitions among these people. The women believe that wearing a black bra causes breast cancer – a harmless superstition I guess, but they also believe that eating purple grapes will cause a mother to deliver a blue baby, and this is a belief that needs changing – also pregnant mothers who eat eggplant give birth to dark babies. We were supposed to be teaching against superstition and ignorance, but I’m afraid we brought our own bad habits to share. On the way home, Brother Sindersen (a pharmacist who travels with the mobile clinic to the mountain villages and , along with his wife, Grace, runs the Eureka Children’s Home) nearly hit a chicken and we teased him about finding a good one to hit for supper. (It was really interesting that at one time we ran over a huge stack of corn in the road. It’s piled in the road deliberately to be run over so the kernels will be separated from the cob. When I was little I shelled corn by hand for the chickens. I wish I'd known I could have just put it out in the road and let the cars run over it!) Anyway, after dodging chickens in the road, Karen and Leah taught Sindersen the American game of playing chicken on the road with oncoming traffic. Sindersen humored Karen and Leah (who both thought it was great!) while Lee and I (I guess because we’re older) just kind of put our heads down and refused to look. That earned Bro. Sindersen the name “The Crazy Doc” and I thought to myself that he would fit in very well with some of Tift Regional’s doctors. After dinner they sang and danced for us at the orphanage. Simon is an excellent dancer and some of the older boys are, too. Grace pushed a reluctant Sindersen out on the floor and he danced a little. Afterwards we gave Sathish and Deva and Leah’s foster child the gifts we had brought for them. Sathish and Deva received caps and family pictures and frisbees. I also met my sister and her husband’s foster child – Chandramohan (pronounced Chondra morgan). I told my sister she should just call him Morgan. He is a very sweet child and small-built for his age like most of the children of India - compared to American children that is.