India Report #10, Friday, Oct 28, 2011 (still at Pedda Kodapgal) at 6:42 a.m.
Dear family and friends:
Power just went off again but we were glad to have it all night to keep the ceiling fans going and the mosquitoes more away. They have a hard time flying in the wind. We have very little power during the day.
This morning I have prepared in the computer the visuals for tonight’s sermon “Why I am SDA” and the health talk on Cancer Prevention by Mary Alice. She is preparing breakfast which we eat in our room. The noon meal with the Paulsons on the roof of their building gives a pleasant breeze to enjoy. Shyla is adding more “heat” to the meals now. Maybe she thinks we are building up a tolerance for “real” Indian food, but we still much prefer our food more natural. We can control that at breakfast by what we purchase and have brought from home.
There is the tension between wanting to save some from home for the rest of our trip (the larger portion) and wanting to get it gone so our suitcases will be lighter for the next two flights where different luggage restrictions apply with accompanying extra charges. We will have to pay extra for the Rear Projection Screen we brought, but it will be worth it because of the picture quality and greater visibility of the texts in their language on the screen. We plan to leave it in Mizoram for them to use and also for us to have if we should return.
Yesterday we spent most of the morning under a tent pitched on the lot Gangarum is giving for the new church. He has a burden to lift the downtrodden poor. He is from low cast but worked himself up to a financial strength and notes how much differently he is treated by people now. He has a clear vision of stewardship. It all belongs to God and we are just channels through which His blessings can flow. His wife, daughters and their husbands are all Hindu, but he gave his heart to Jesus 10 years ago following the example of a Prime Minister in India who was Christian but was killed by his Moslem helicopter pilot who flew right into a mountain. Apparently the pilot had been bought by rich merchants who didn’t like the policy of the Prime Minister.
The new church to be built in just one year will have a strong wall around it and seat 500 people besides those who sit on the floor. It is to be a house of prayer for all people, as I suggested in the remarks at the Ground Breaking yesterday. Gangarum wants us to come back when it is finished and hold meetings in the church. He will pay our way. Otherwise we probably would not do it, depending on how the Lord leads. Every trip we think is our last. Gangarum has 100 villages under his jurisdiction and wants SDA churches in all of them.
Ten years ago SDA tried to enter these pagan Hindu villages and the pastors were put in jail. So they pulled out to work elsewhere. Last year we did penetrate 19 of them with the meetings we had at Pitlam and this year are adding more. So, this is a new day for evangelism in this part of India. We feel so fortunate to be a part of it opening up to SDA. There can be a strong work here. The pastors are committed to it. Gangarum wants to give the pastor of the new church an apartment to live in while the church is being built. It will probably be the one we are staying in now. He really likes SDA and wants us to be the Christian presence here. Right now we don’t see other churches in this area. He built a temple for the Hindus and they encourage him to attend but don’t let some of the poor come, so he will not go either and makes a big point of it. He also built a mosque for the moslems but has nothing to do with their religion. He has read the Bigva Vedas, the Koran, and the Bible and clearly sees the superiority of the Bible and Jesus. So, it was in the providence of God that we could not get the same ground as last year in Pitlam for our meetings this year. All the extra moving and uncertainty and late beginning now falls into place in God’s Providence. We need to learn to completely trust Him, and we did. Now we see the fruitful results.
Gangarum expects heavy pressure over his building the big church for SDA and needs our united prayers in his behalf. We gave him a photo of our Hill family and assured him we would be praying. So, family, we have an assignment.
This morning at 9 Paulson plans to pick us up and take us to dedicate the Quiet Hour church we saw a few days ago that needs a new metal roof. It is 26 years old and have never been dedicated. People from there are coming to our meetings and some have just been baptized. Then we are to visit two other villages and see the ground they want to give for a church in each place. Our challenge will be to help them get those churches.
As I was writing the above, Paulson phoned that plans have changed. Someone has “got expired” in that QH village and we cannot dedicate the church today. So we will have a Friday to recoup a bit. Plans have changed also for tomorrow. Rather than have the people come for the morning service and communion and then eat here and stay all day through the evening meeting, they will bring those baptized only to the morning service and take them back home after the meal. Then they will come again by truck with all the others for the final meeting Saturday night. So we will probably go tomorrow afternoon to dedicate that church.
It is amusing to us that the meetings are sponsored by the QUIET Hour. Music in this part of India is not quiet by any definition. They sing their heart (and vocal chords) out to empty seats before the trucks arrive with the full congregation. That is when we start the Jesus Video and Health Talk and Children’s Story before the offering and giving of Bibles to the newly baptized before the sermon begins. I try to send them home immediately after the sermon, but it is often intercepted by special things they want to do.
A couple of days ago I wrote that Dwali (Duvali) had happened, but as it turned out we had only witnessed the preliminaries to it. The past two days saw the full force of sound with zillions of firecrackers going off including some the size (and sound) of a 12 gauge shotgun firing. The smaller ones are strung together in a long row and sound off for a long time. It sounded somewhat like pouring a truck of heavy gravel onto a tin roof. It was like an avalanche of rapid- fire explosions. We could have thought we were in Afghanistan or Iraq.
We still get the daily procession of kids (some respectful and some NOT) at our windows. Yesterday one of them tried to reach in through the bars at our bedroom window and gather things we had on top of the non-working air conditioner. But I confronted him and he left. I was tempted to grab his arm and hold him there until he got uncomfortable in an effort to discourage future incursions. But, better judgment prevailed and I only admonished him. They can morph from adorable to abominable in a few seconds. We know that love is a principle not necessarily based on feelings of the moment.
Sunday we are to leave by 10 a.m. in a car owned by Gangarum, for Hyderabad. That will certainly be much more comfortable than our vehicle getting here from Sangareddy. Good thing too because Hyderabad is 110 miles from here rather than 60 as from Sangareddy.
We are in the difficult stage now of selecting which additional projects we can support with the money we brought. Since we don’t yet know the challenges of the next 40 days, it can be perplexing to know just what to do for each.
In spite of all the challenges, our health seems to be holding up well. My voice is better most of the time than when at home in Gentry. I am of necessity eating less and that is good. Hope it carries over into home cooking too.
Thank you for your brief notes in response to the barrage of our India Reports. You are not under obligation to read them all. Just enjoy what you can and pray for the success of the work here we are privileged to be a brief part of.
With love,
Dad and Mom (Glenn and Mary Alice)