India Report #9 Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 11:31 A.M.
Dear family and friends:
Yes, the power is out but we have a little battery left to work for a while. For a while this morning we had no water either, but Jeff found some nearby outside and we had a bucket full to work with. Then Jeff went looking further and found a fountain by the nearby Hindu Temple. There he met Mrs. Gangaram (wife of our Congressman benefactor) and she took his bucket and went to the front of the line and filled it. Then she went back to the end of the line to wait for her turn. So, you see, the American is not ugly everywhere.
Mr. Gangaram is back from Hyderabad and attended last night’s meeting. Afterward he spoke for about 15 minutes (so much for letting the people go home early). It was all in Telegu but the pastors later told us that he spoke very favorably of us and told them to listen carefully to what we were saying. He compared Christianity favorably against Hinduism. That should help some in making decisions to change. Paulson thinks he will be a great help to the new church here (Nicodemus?)
Today Paulson plans to take us by 3 wheeler taxi to a baptism about 2 kilometers from here. The bumps will not be helpful to back pain but it should be tolerable. I learned yesterday that Paulson has had back pain also for about 2 weeks now. He fears the rumbling over bumpy roads on those two Jeep trips quite some distance may have done us all harm rather than good. Also the extra dust from being in the open in the back exposed us to more dust to breathe. The Lord never promised that mission trips would be easy whether short term or long term.
Multiple garlands again last night revealed continued appreciation and also less sermon time. Too bad we don’t have the ability given to Joshua in O.T. times when in a battle needing more time for victory he said, “Sun, stand thou still in the valley of Ajalon…” The sun obeyed but our clocks don’t.
Yesterday was the Hindu holiday of Divali—festival of lights. However, having experienced it now I think it has more sound than light. They have marches and string lights around the roofs of the more expensive homes. I wonder how it compares with the Hebrew festival of lights so well described in Desire of Ages.
The baptism was very nice today. The tank (lake) seemed more clean than many. There were cooks with huge kettles preparing rice and curry for the group afterward. We were fed at Shyla’s apartment just prior and glad for it. I was to give a sermon to the candidates. It is an opportunity to share with them once more what the Christian life involves and the privileges that are theirs as “sons and daughters of God.”
Wednesday, Oct 26 at 6:32 a.m.
Mr Gangarum (not ram as I thought) attended the baptism and said many good things again about SDA. Paulson offered to buy from him some land for a new church in the village of our meetings, but he offered to give an acre or more for church and also valuable roadside property for a school. So the one-day-school should bring new opportunities here.
We got back from the baptism in time for a nap before meeting. That helps a lot when the night is always short due to the after meetings following when I try to send the congregation home for some needed rest.
At the evening meeting we had two visitors from the local SDA Union. Of course, they had to be welcomed with garlands and elaborate introductions and then speak in response. There were two groups baptized yesterday in separate places totaling 24 for that day. We gave them Bibles at the meeting. Also showed 15 photos of the baptism we attended. Since it was already past 9:30 when I got to start the sermon, I skipped the parable they want before the sermon.
Former Congressman Gangarum was there and at the end made the announcement that he was giving land to build a church and added that he would pay for building one within a year. So that is a real boost. We need to tell him that he needs to make one more gift—himself for baptism and membership. He wanted the group not to tell about the gift of land right away because some hearing it will press him to make it a community center rather than an Adventist church and he wants the church. So, there will be a land-breaking on Friday morning they want us to attend.
We were given gifts of garlands and fruit by the people who were baptized. Gangarum’s wife sent over to our apartment some really good fruit (better than what we see in the local market and buy). It included some wonderful grapes from USA and plumbs possibly from “home” also. We had a session of “laundering” the fruit by wiping them with disinfectant wipes and drying them with CleanX. Even though they came from USA, there is a lot of India they could pick up along the way.
The small baptisms are better than one huge one at the end. We are not here for show but to see the people who are ready safely gathered, like the rice harvest now going on, and nurtured into further spiritual growth. There will be less baptized this year than in our series last year with about 900 taking their stand. Some of them have returned to hear it again this year. As we are able to build churches in each village without one (from those entered this year for the first time and some backlog from last year) the growth in numbers will continue. We are so pleased to see how the people have faithfully stayed without all we wanted done to follow up last year. We are convinced that our meetings are more than an interesting “flash in the pan” but the beginning of a new life entirely. Yes, there is still room for growth in them as in us who have known better than we habitually do for many years. The Lord expects us to grow but He doesn’t rush us as we are finding our way. It is the determined resistance against His new light that is so dangerous.
Three pages is enough for this time, so will close and head into the new day with our “family worship” and breakfast of cereal and fruit. Our cereal is bread from the local bakery and fresh fruit from the market. The tomatoes this year are very small and do not have the rich flavor we remember from prior years here. We are glad we came anyhow.
With love,
Dad and Mom (Glenn and Mary Alice)