October 27, 2010 (India report #2)
Dear Family and Friends:
This is just another update to see if our new setup is working. We are now in the Minerva hotel in the little village of Zaheerabad in the western part of Andhra Pradesh (state) in India. Our mission is to conduct a week of prayer in our SDA High School here. It has 350 students but only 170 who stay in the dorms (hostels) are attending the services. The other students come at 9 a.m and leave at 3 p.m. because the come from a distance. So we are speaking mainly to SDA students. The others who are from afar are other Christians, Hindus, or Muslims. Most of the ones who live on campus are the younger students though the school goes up through the 10th standard.
We hear that 80% of the town is Muslim and are reminded of it each day as the Muezzin (call to prayer) sounds from the minrets. We also see it in the black chadores (coverings that leave only a slit for eyes and showing) and distinctive hats the men wear. But they are friendly to SDA here and appreciate the school.
Only 5 minutes drive brings us to the school, but the roads are very rough with deep potholes. The car that takes us is higher off the ground and doesn’t seem to mind. But even the road from Hyderabad that is only 100 km (60 miles) to Zaheerabad takes 3 hours to negotiate. Part of that is the traffic jams that are perpetual in India. Everything has a right to the road from all kinds of animals to the pedestrians and motorized things that range from heavy trucks and busses to bicycles. They have the three wheel motorcycles with enclosed sidecars and rear seats that serve as taxis, and bullock carts plus all kinds of variables. We can watch them from our 3rd floor hotel room window. It takes 42 steps to get to our room and no LIFT (elevator) is there for the feeble. We are glad for the exercise. Especially after sitting almost constantly for the last six days since leaving Gentry by car. That includes the Sabbath church in Chicago and fellowship meal that followed, the car to the airport and in the airport and then in the airplane and in the lobby for the ten hour wait to the next flight and then the “Mumbai Marathon” rush to catch our plane to Hyderabad and the ride to this village. Fortunately Glenn gets to stand during the presentations.
The students are very respectful and eager to learn. They all want to shake your hand and it is an important part of connecting with them in preparation to hear what we have come to tell them—the Gospel of Jesus. They love the visuals but so far the video on the life of Jesus has not worked. We project onto a white wall which seems to absorb rather than reflect. Tonight (our third meeting) may be better if they can get a good pure white cloth to cover the wall. We can count on Satan doing what he can to disrupt the presentations to make them less clear and forceful. Our confidence is in the Lord’s interventions and the Holy Spirit’s bringing conviction in spite of disruptions.
Today the electricity has cut in and out here at our room. We are wondering what it will do in the meeting tonight. I doubt that they have a generator for such eventualities. We hope to get video and still photos of it all, but so far have not had opportunity to do much of that.
The faculty is very kind and considerate and eager to do all they can to make us comfortable. Our eating arrangements have become our eating breakfast in the hotel room where we have local fresh fruit from the market and bread from the local bakery plus the powdered soy milk we brought and dried nuts and fruit to supplement. The bread we got in Hyderabad was brown but that is not available here. Mary Alice’s homemade crackers help fill in where there is a lack. Today for our noon meal they brought us the cooked food (rice, potatoes, greens cooked and all liberally spiced) fresh carrots, cucumbers, and beets. We had been seeing some fresh green fruit on the stands along the road. Our hosts brought us some today and told us how to eat them. They are called Custard Apples. You break them open and dig out with a spoon the seeds surrounded by a white meat that is very sweet and nice. In your mouth you separate the seeds from the meat and spit out the seeds in watermelon fashion.
We choose to skip supper though we ate it last evening after the meeting, in the home of the school dean. His wife wanted to serve us all three meals there, but we prefer to save her the work and to follow our usual timetable for meals. So now we get it all in our hotel room—they bring it. Compromise is not always a bad word.
When we get a little more ahead in preparation of the sermons to be shared in the two meetings a day, we want to hike through the village and check out the shops and get some photos to share with you. We don’t expect to buy much of anything that is not consumable. Our rigid suitcase limitations will prevent that at least until we can eat down and give away the things we expected to leave in India.
Today our faculty host plans to come early to take us to an internet café before going to the meeting at 5:30. We hope it will be on line since electricity has been uncertain today. We intend to send this to all on the list. Let us know if you are getting these letters so we can adjust what needs to be done to correct the errors. If you are too busy or not really interested in receiving these, let us know so we can adjust the list.
In case you need to reach us in an emergency we have a cell phone here now. The number is 918978358585. You may need to put 00 in front to reach India. (Country code). India is 10 ½ hours ahead of central daylight time. We are in meeting from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and wouldn’t be answering the phone then.
We will let you know our schedule when it changes from place to place. You are in our thoughts and prayers even though we are on the stretch most of the time here.
P.S. at 8 p.m. The electricity did not come on so we didn’t go to the internet. But when we got to church and set up the equipment by faith, the power came on and stayed on through the service.
When we had our first meeting of the series they greeted us in typical India fashion with leys made of white lilies that are very fragrant and sweet. Their shortcoming is that the petals fall of in huge volume shortly after they get around your neck. We brought them to our room to gather as much of the fragrance as possible.
This afternoon the cleaning lady was sitting on the floor and swiping the tiles with a wet cloth. She began to talk in Telegu and we tried to answer in English but neither knew what the conversation was about. We asked questions and got answers but neither knew the meaning. Glenn was at the computer working on the night’s message in powerpoint. He was testing the Jesus Video first section. It was doing well on the computer screen but not through the video projector. She sat spellbound by the scenes and sounds until her supervisor came and drove her back to her work. Before leaving, she prayed in her own way (not Muslim).
Tonight we had our “pour” not shower. Fortunately the water was a bit warm and comfortable. We do not complain about things that are not what we are used to. We have so much more than those we meet and are glad to give up some of it to help those who have not. We ARE glad we brought our own sheets. Their methods of laundry leave things less sterile than ours.
In His love,
Glenn and Mary Alice (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)