India Report #12, Nov. 2, 2011 at 4:39 a.m. from Calcutta (Kolkata=airport sign)
Dear family and friends:
Greetings from old Calcutta. Now they spell it Kolkata, at least at the airport. We get so many different spellings of things that we hardly know which is most accurate. It doesn’t really matter to us, if we don’t miss a flight or something because of it.
The email and phone have been great blessings to us. Without them we would not have known that our flight had been changed from Hyderabad to Calcutta. We managed to connect and got here by 1 p.m. Had to go through rigid security check at Hyderabad and then Raipur for our connecting flight to Kolkata. We brought a lot of batteries that still had life in them, intending to use them up on this trip. We need them for my electric razor, our tripper device on the computer to change slides from a distance, on the video projector remote control, and Mary Alice’s camera. When the camera will no longer trust them, I use them up in the razor. So at Raipur, security questioned why so many. It took a lot of sign language and elementary English to get past that one. I refrained from telling them that I intended to use them to blow up Delhi Airport, with tongue in cheek. You just don’t use humor even in USA at airports. World-wide terrorism has changed everything to serious business.
I also use batteries on the Bose earphones that with the IPod bring “home” music and Bible and EGW writings etc. right with us. In some of the long sleepless nights the IPod creates a friendly environment. We also used it this morning for breakfast music (Marj Carlson whistling her bird songs accompanying familiar hymns. It seems such a waste now that she is dead and all that talent is silent.)
We had a free meal on the connecting flight, “such as it was and what there was of it.” But we had brought 2 tangerines left from breakfast and that with some nuts and apple rings gave sufficient till we got here. With two slim meals before Calcutta we did choose to eat a small supper here at our familiar room in the SDA School at 36 Park St. in Calcutta. We walked to a nearby shop that sells milk and bought some English biscuits (crackers that are mild and with only a hint of sweet) we had known before. A little further we saw a small street fruit stand and bought 4 bananas for Rs. 15 and they were more to the unripe stage than the overripe. So, with soy milk from home (powder mixed with the new water), biscuits and a banana, we did quite well for the day.
Even before all that, when we first got to the SDA School and our familiar room, we just stretched out on the clean beds and slept for about 2 hours. I did get a little sleep on the plane since they do not interrupt so much with “treats” as USA planes.
To our dismay we discovered that the Internet connection that we bought that “works all over India” does not work here at Calcutta, even outside the school building. We will try it again in Aizawl in Mizoram, and if it does not work there either we’ll phone Paulson and see if he can recover from the seller any money since we paid until November 20. He is welcome to the recovery if there is any.
In our relationship with Paulson we see how devastating it is to try to carry on a strong work without sufficient resources. We don’t know all the ins and outs of how funding comes to them via the Division etc, but the local tithe is so small from the villagers who are so poor that it only covers about 30% of the pastor’s salaries. In the larger cities it will be 200%, but most of our work is in the small villages. That is what hones the “begging or requesting “skills. The pastors and other workers have not been paid for the past 3 months in Paulson’s West Andhra Section. I didn’t learn enough detail to see a solution. The money we bring or send is a great help but we have many unfulfilled requests though we did meet many extra needs.
One example is the Volunteer who is on a very small stipend from the 1000 missionary movement. He also helps with cooking when all the pastors are together as in our series last year and this. We learned that his wife is about to be delivered of their 3rd child and it has to be by Caesarian Section as were the previous 2 daughters. The cost for that will be about $400, an impossibility to meet on his salary scale. So we were privileged to help significantly toward that. Shyan is a great fellow with an infectious smile. And they are so grateful for the help they receive.
Then there is Samuel who is an ordained pastor and supervises several churches. He is being asked to move from Zyheerabad where we had the week of prayer last time, to the newly developing Hindu area of this year’s meetings (Pedda Kodapgal) where we will have more than 300 new SDA now and are trying to build some small churches for them. We cannot wait until Maranatha gets around to doing that, and the churches they build will not be finished, just a foundation and roof with supports. Some of the villages will be able to fill in the rest, but some will not. And Maranatha told me that full churches for small congregations that they build in India cost about $11,000 each now. So they expect help in doing it. Paulson says the Maranatha churches do not last more than 5 years, but the ones we help them build with local builders last much longer and stay in better condition.
We observed that when we saw and dedicated (after repairing their metal roof) a church built by Quiet Hour 26 years ago in the traditional way. The church being built right now in Murkanjal village from the $5000 we sent ahead, will be well-built and strong even though on low ground. They need about $2000 more to get it complete. We were impressed with the quality of their work and the fact that the local labor is being donated to do it. We assume the one to be built in Pitlam when the land can be purchased (from last year’s series) will also be of good quality and less cost than a Maranatha church. Schools are desperately needed also, but funding is just not there at this time.
Back to Samuel. We had a phone call from him when we arrived at Calcutta. He has three children in school and no way to pay for their education. So he is looking to us for help. I don’t know how much is needed now, but he will be contacting us in USA about it. So, mission trips leave an imprint that is lasting in many ways. It is a privilege to help and we wish our resources were larger, but we are determined to do what we can with what we have that will bring multiplied blessings to those who need them so much.
We are running tired because of little or no sleep several nights in a row and the difficulty of any sleep “make up” during the day. It showed up on our connecting flight to Calcutta. We were in the waiting room at Raipur and then made the rush to the bus that would take us to the airplane. I was on the bus with our carry-on luggage when a woman asked Mary Alice about a little blue bag left in the waiting area where we were. It was her camera. We shouted to the driver and he opened the door to let her out to retrieve the camera. The bus moved on to the plane without her. I made diligent inquiry of the crew and they assured me that she would be brought out on the next bus. She was, rejoicing over the retrieved camera. So, the Lord does watch over us even in those ways. She usually has it around her neck but had taken it off briefly to get relief from that pressure.
We said good-by to Jeff in Hyderabad. He flew the same day, just a little later than we, to Delhi where he had a long wait to his connecting flight to USA. It was much longer than the 5 hours I reported earlier. So we and he had made arrangements for someone from our SDA Union there to meet him and take him around to see some things in Delhi. There was not time to make it to the Taj Mahal, but there is much within his range of time to see. We’ll learn more about it when back in USA. Jeff was a great help in many ways and caught a real vision of what is in India, the good and the bad. The people related to him very well. He took off some of the pressure of the children clamoring for our constant attention even when trying to prepare for the meeting each day. They will long remember “uncle Jeff.” We trust he makes it ok through his 15 hour flight from Delhi to Chicago and on to XNA and home. The friendships forged in these mission trips are long lasting and fulfilling.
Our “son” Biaka will meet us at the Aizawl airport and has arranged for where we stay in Aizawl prior to our long trip by car or bus tomorrow to the site of the meetings at Lawngtlei. He is filled with anticipation. His little daughter Melody shows our photo to her little friends and says, these are my American grandparents. We have a little Teddy Bear to give her. It was given to us as we left Pedda Kodapgal by a relative of Gangarum who wanted to make a “deposit” in USA for when she might follow us there.
We caught more insight into Hindu worship when we visited them just before our last meeting. The one niece of Gangarum (Ashwini) had asked Mary Alice to pray that her Hindu god would arrange a good husband for her. It had worked just that week and the wedding is to be in December. Her sister, Arauna, also wanted prayer for the same reason. Now she is expectant of fulfillment also on the strength of Mary Alice’s prayer. But the first sister was bowing before a picture of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess and had made an offering of two bananas and a coconut along with some flowers and candles burning. She knows about the true God but has not yet made a complete change in her worship patterns. So I asked her, tongue in cheek, about when Lakshmi would eat the bananas. Apparently, she did not hear the question because there was no answer about that detail.
We have 3 hours before time to leave for the airport. I’ll carry our six bags down the 50 steps to the landing where we meet the taxi. (Much easier than hauling them up yesterday when so tired, even with the extra helpers. The steps here are even and regular, unusual for India. The drive this morning should be more relaxing than the full hour dodging here and there through impossible traffic yesterday afternoon. At the airport we had to wait in a long line to arrange for a pre-paid taxi to the school where we are staying. Then we had to go to Air India to confirm our flight this morning to Aizawl. Then work your way back through the eager helpers (for a price) to the police desk at the airport where they assign the taxi for you. Our driver was very helpful and we didn’t really fear all through the “near death experiences” via back alleys as well as the main streets. We are always shocked by the little colonies of “barely homes” we pass and the sidewalk dwellers. We did manage to give rupies to two beggar ladies who confronted us along the way when the car was stopped amid the traffic standstill of the various vehicles ranging from rickshaws pulled by humans, to the bicycle rickshaws, regular taxis, 3 wheel motorcycle cabs, pedestrians, animals, busses and trucks. Life goes on, such as it is, day by day in the squalor. We gave extra to our taxi driver and he was almost ecstatic when beaming his approval. It is so nice to help where it is not demanded.
If our Internet connection does not work in Aizawl we will probably be able to send this from the Mizo Conference office before leaving tomorrow. If there is no connection at our meeting site, we’ll just write as we can and send them when and from where we can.
With our love,
Dad and Mom (Glenn and Mary Alice)