October 29, 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
Right after sending India Report #2 we had more things of interest to share, but no time to do it. These details are really for our diary and we are letting you in on them if you enjoy such detail. Otherwise, you have a delete button and are welcome to use it.
One episode came early yesterday morning. Glenn was up and preparing for meeting when a sleepy hotel clerk came to the room and said in broken English, “Your car is making noise.” The car that takes us to and from the hotel for the week of prayer meetings is owned by a man in our SDA Section office 100 km from here in Hyderabad. They hired an experienced driver (Hindu) to drive it, but he lives 50 km (31 miles) from this village. So he rides the bus each day for two round trips (125 Miles) Just to drive us the short distance to the school and back and of course we pay for all that. When we discovered it we asked our friend Paulson (Section Director) why that inefficiency? Wouldn’t it be better for someone at the school to just drive the car for us and leave it on campus in between? Then we learned that no one at the school knows how to drive a car since they can only afford a motorcycle at best. We couldn’t very well get all our equipment on a cycle. They have the 3 wheel taxis but they are often bulging. If we had it to do over again we might have tried to arrange for a private taxi. Not knowing the language (even their pronunciation of English) makes it a task to do anything.
We would never try to drive it ourselves. That could be a death sentence. The laws of the road in India are “just go?” They pull right out into heavy traffic without even looking at what might be coming. It is understood that if you see someone come in front of you, just stop or slow down proportionately. They seem to have a 6th sense of where there will be an open space by the time they get to it and maneuver in every direction to make some progress forward.
Walking the rough and muddy road in good clothes carrying all our equipment is not a good solution either. We need the exercise, but also need to look decent when we get there. It might be two miles from here.
Back to the car making noise. Our driver parks it out in front of our Minerva hotel for the night and leaves the keys with us. Well Glenn went down to check it out and thought it was an attempted break in triggering the security alarm. So he got in and pushed every button available without any stopping of the noise. Starting the engine didn’t help. Finally he found the lever to open the hood and with the help of hotel clerks (sleepy at 4 a.m.) disconnected a cord to the battery and the noise stopped. When the real driver arrived and we reconnected that cord, the noise continued. He just banged on the horn a few times and it stopped. Apparently for no good reason known to anyone the horn periodically does that whether they are driving or just parked somewhere.
This morning (Friday) Glenn was up early again working on the meetings materials when he saw a mouse in the bathroom. In the chase it came into our bedroom where the food is kept out on counters or on top of the TV we aren’t watching. The mouse just disappeared, and try as we might with the help of flashlights we could not find it. Then we noticed that just below the windows by one outer wall there is space they could come from the room beneath. But where do they go in their getaway? Everything seems tight and secure. Maybe they come up the outside wall and enter through the partially open widow with the mosquitoes.
We say “they” because while we were eating breakfast in our living space we both saw a bigger one—a rat enter and run to somewhere and disappear. It is still a mystery but we are glad that the cobras don’t (yet) come on in the same way to get the mice or rat.
This morning Mary Alice talked with one boy student who told of his grandfather who was out gathering sticks for the fire when a cobra bit him. They got an ambulance that took him to the hospital in time to save his life, but he still has a problem with the foot swelling from time to time. He is SDA.
The meetings are being well received. We appreciate the eagerness of the students and their discipline. They are so appreciative of everything we do for them. When Glenn made the call last evening after the sermon for them to come forward if they love Jesus and want to give their hearts to Him etc. they ALL came forward one by one and the Principal was so touched that they did that. When hearts are tender is the right time for decisions for Jesus.
Today we had a tour of the school campus and rooms. It was built in 1991 and some of the buildings have seriously deteriorated in the heavy rains etc. There are 15 on the staff and all but 3 are SDA. This area we are told is one of the Strongest Moslem areas in India. The Hindus drove the Muslims out from control of Hyderabad and they moved and formed what is now Pakistan. But very many remain in India , especially around the Hyderabad area. Moslems are about 10 % of the population.
Tomorrow Glenn will present the Sanctuary during the church service and we will dress one of the older students or a faculty member in the High Priest Garments to illustrate the message. The students have appreciated the pictures that accompany the sermons.
We gave a small CD player to the school along with the Old Testament CDs of “The Bible In Living Sound.” We left a little speaker with them and a music CD of Steve Darmody. (He gave us some a few years ago to share on our trips, but many of the people we met didn’t have a means of playing them then.) It works well. We brought another CD player and speaker to give in Tripura to the Tlangsang school we helped to build (along with help from some of you.) They will get the NT CDs (the other half of the set.) We hope that later the two schools can exchange and hear it all.
Well, today Glenn was trying to use the speaker we still have to give to the Tlangsangschool and the sound was garbled. We tried everything we can think of to remedy it, but have concluded it is just a bad speaker. So now we have nothing to leave at Tlangsang to multiply sound beyond earphones. Satan has so many ways to make difficulties in our efforts to bless others. The video projector is not shining as bright as it should. Glenn tried to increase the brightness manually with no result until he used the remote. That brought the light up to maximum. But today the light reverted to its old dimness and the remote does not seem to have a way to change it again.
The computer is working well but does not easily interchange between power point and the Mac version called Keynote. We have presentations in both formats. When using one the projector displays what should be only on the computer screen. But in the other format itis reversed so the audience would see the notes and the speaker would not without looking at the auditorium screen. So we have to find a way to convert to just one system we will use for all future meetings here. We are grateful for the help the Lord provides to straighten things out. You see, even when our equipment is working well, theirs is not. Their microphones must not be grounded well because sometimes you can get a “shocking experience” when you pick up the microphone a certain way. It does keep the speaker and translator awake.
We both marvel at the Lord’s timing and direction to bring all the elements together that made this trip possible. Satan is working hard to cause technical difficulties and disrupt the presentations, but it comes through ok in the end.
We hope to send this on this Friday afternoon because we don’t know when we will again have good internet access. The one here is run by an SDA and he let us connect our computer to their on-line cord. Things went efficiently and well at only 10 Rupies rather than the 110 we paid in Hyderabad.
The faculty here have been very expressive of how much they appreciated our coming and the presentations we are sharing with them. It is a privilege to work with the Lord in blessing others in whatever ways we can.
With love,
Glenn and Mary Alice (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)