India Report #13, Nov. 3, 2011, 3:37 A.M. at Aizawl, Mizoram
Dear family and friends:
We are up early this morning because the hard bed here at the Conference Office guest room didn’t favor any longer in bed. Also we are to leave at 4 a.m. by car for Lawngtlei where our evangelistic series begins tomorrow night. It will be a distance of 300 kilometers but the road is not good. So we expect quite a shake up along the way. This morning I got the sermon ready for the first meeting and the health talk for Mary Alice in case there is one. It is still an adventure to know what is to happen next and where.
The flights yesterday from Calcutta to Aizawl were good and we slept some on the way. It is an almost automatic reaction now. We have to carry our two suitcases with computer and video projector equipment up the long stairs into the planes. Fortunately there were good helpers who assisted. We do all we can and the Lord provides the special help when needed. The lunch on our flight to Aizawl was small but acceptable. The supper which we usually do not eat but relished last evening was really delicious. The wife of the Mizo Conference President cooked it for us (as at last time) and it has no hint of the usual India spices that are so hard on us when we have to eat them. The surplus peanut butter sandwiches and bananas will serve us well on the trip this morning.
We settled with Biaka for the air tickets he purchased for us from Calcutta to Aizawl, and with the Mizo Conference for the $1000 we asked them to advance to Zosiama for food at the Tlangsang School. That enabled 70 students to return who had been sent home for lack of it. We also arranged for the Division to send the $1000 we sent them earlier for Tlangsang food, to Andhra Pradesh instead to sponsor a pastor who will help follow up the interest from our series there. That way, Zosiama will not have to wait a long long time for the money to get here. It is so discouraging to them when that happens.
It is interesting to meet the ones we have known before and enjoy their friendly greetings and gratitude for our return. We get a little picture from them of how the work is going here and results from our last visit.
Zosiama wants to reprint my Sanctuary book we had printed in Mizo some years ago. He wants to take it to Burma where he is conducting revival series and there is great interest in Sanctuary. Paulson also wants to reprint it in Telegu at the request of his pastors. We will see if the funds are available for that or not. One has to choose among many good things and pit one against another for the most effective use of available funds.
Our Internet connection didn’t work here but I got on line at the Conference Office and sent out India Report #12 which you have now. We don’t know what will be available in Lawngtlei, but will fit in whatever comes or does not come. Your brief notes in response to our India Reports keep us writing them with the understanding that the very busy people do not need to read them all. The tedious details are for us and we just let you look over our shoulder (from the comfort of your home) if you want to experience what happens on these mission trips.
By the way, the correct spelling of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi was educated by billboards on the way to the airport. Our computer dictionary doesn’t help much with names and exotic spellings.
Aizawl is still the ultra-busy and air-polluted city we remember with too many cars and trucks in a small space. But they cope well with it. The deep cough I exported from Arkansas (too many late nights there before leaving) is still with me. We hope that somewhere along the way enough water and sleep will enable the immune system to deal with it and conquer it.
Biaka just phoned our wake-up call at 4:02, but we are all ready to go. Last night we gave the Bible felt set we brought to Zosiama and also gave him one suitcase to keep them in. We gave him an updated Truth for Youth DVD also to use in teaching the students English and Bible at the same time. Following our series in Lawngtlei he will take us to Tripura to speak to four Bru groups. They are all in hopes of a church for their village when it can be managed.
We actually left Aizawl at about 5 a.m. and the ride took us 11 hours counting a few brief stops. The road was much like the one we described from Sarangeddy to Pitlam, only more so. Yes, Jeff, there are even worse roads here than you experienced. We passed several landslides where the people are industriously taking advantage of the large boulders that came down with the dirt, by chiseling them into smaller blocks that can be used in building or road repair. It is a constant thing here when the big rains come. So far we have missed them (and not been disappointed) because we did not have to cancel any meetings. We saw whole families engaged in “making gravel” by hammering the downed stones into smaller and smaller pieces that they can sell to the road crews. Income is where you can find it.
Along the way we met several of Biaka’s sisters and their families. We were cordially and enthusiastically received with smiles, handshakes and gifts of fruit for immediate and future use. They live in those little houses where one tip is on the road and the rest hangs over space, supported by poles from beneath wherever they can get a solid footing. I dropped one piece of tangerine (they call them oranges) peeling on the floor and was about to pick it up when I realized that all that was necessary was to scoot it by foot to the small hole in the floor that leads to the mountain below. The view out their open windows is spectacular. We hope the slides and video can show it accurately.
We also thought we were the mail service, because at many stops Biaka gave envelopes to the people who were expecting us and waiting for them. At one stop he gave some money to the niece of Van Ro Tlanga, our Mizo friend in Silver Spring, Md. He has worked many years at Washington Sanitarium and Hospital and feels he cannot retire yet because the money is needed over here. His wife recently had a heart attack but survived, we learned here. They saw our interview of 3ABN 3 times and were blessed by it. We have sent some funds through him in times past in order to expedite getting it to the project. Then it went through “Daniel’s Band”, a certified charity with tax receipts.
The place we are staying is a government Guest House. We remembered the one we stayed at in Aizawl before and thought it would be clean and comfortable. Not! Yet, we are blessed above so many and are very grateful for all that we have here (and at home that can never be taken for granted again). We find that blessings and curses are mingled. We don’t need to open the windows for fresh air because there are enough broken ones to let in all we need, and the mosquitoes we do not need. But the chilly air since we arrived has discouraged mosquitoes so far.
We didn’t expect the degree of chill that was here when we arrived and continues this morning (Friday, Nov. 4). Just think, we might have left our jackets and sweaters trying to save space and thinking of what the climate has been in past trips. But we managed to squeeze them in and are much blessed by them now. Last night we put our sheets over the ones on the bed here and I slept with my sweater on over the PJs. All that was under a heavy, Korean type, blanket that gives good warmth. I was glad for every BTU available.
They do have a western style toilet (kind of) here and it will be very helpful. And, wonders of wonders, the manager also had toilet paper for us which will extend our small supply brought from home, for use in Tripura where it is very hard to get.
We were able to close one window in the bathroom area by standing on tip toe on one of the heavy chairs here, and cut off that strong source of cold air draft. But the one in the toilet and bathing area, has a water pipe going out and so could not be closed. Then I remembered we had a cardboard box that our bottled water came in. We tore it up and I stuffed it in and taped it solid, thankful for the Duct tape we always bring for just such emergencies. So, our morning “pour” (no shower here) was somewhat more comfortable. The heavy rubdown with towel after didn’t need cold water for a cold mitten friction. The air was more than adequate for the cold part.
The hot water tank doesn’t work here either. We have an abundance of outlets for plugging in, but only one has electricity to it. So it serves us well for all things needed, like current now to the computer. We have had power here most of the time so far but heard that the town does not. There is some special arrangement for this place, apparently. We pay Rs675 per night. That works out at the rate we exchanged dollars when we first arrived in Hyderabad, to $14.06 per night plus tax. We are certainly getting that much value out of what is here even if it does lack some of the niceties.
Our hot water source for pouring is a plastic bucket we fill with cold water (and we have plenty of that so far) and then immerse an electric heating unit into the water carefully suspended on a stick that goes across the bucket to keep the heating unit from touching one of the sides and burning a hole through it. The last time we used such a unit to heat water was in Siberia. There we also had to use it to boil our drinking water and so had a metal bucket.
At our sink in the bathing/toilet area there is actually a mirror to help in brushing teeth and flossing. The cold water from the tap does heat up somehow during the day. This morning I discovered it’s heating source when walking on the roof to warm up a bit in the great sunshine at 10 a.m. They have a water tank on the roof that is painted black and the sun does the rest. But in the early morning the sun is not as active as the cold wind and the water reflects it. I did think again of Siberia where we saw one man washing clothes in a hole he cut through the ice in the river Lena. We haven’t come close to that yet.
Because of the power outage in town our driver has not been able to refill his car with diesel. We trust it can happen sometime before we must head back to Aizawl on November 20.
Along the way here we stopped to visit one of our schools. It was at Lunglei, the second capitol of Mizoram. There are 380 students and we video-taped one of the classes in action. Our time there was brief but enough that they fed us delicious fruit and more for the Mizos. We were able to use their indoor toilet—just in time for me. Even the eastern squat pots can be managed if there is something to hang onto, and there was! I continue to be amazed at how the Lord provides the necessities when we go out in faith and trust Him. If there is still anyone who thinks we go on these trips for the adventure, I would like to have a few words with him. We go for the light we see ignited in their eyes when they hear, some for the first time, that there is a God who made them and loves them in spite of whatever they have done in the past. And He offers a clean slate for today and the future.
They at the school, and the pastors of the 4 churches there at Lunglei asked if we could come back next year and conduct a city-wide series of evangelistic meetings plus have a week of prayer for the students at the school—many of whom are not SDA. What a rich evangelism field! They have a good plan for personal work for a year ahead of the series. We could not say “yes”, but we did say we would pray about it and look for the Lord’s leading. It takes a lot to pull it off, but the Lord is adequate to that if He sees that we are the ones to do it. Hopefully, our home time will enable me to get a better handle on the back problem that is a burden now.
At the meeting last night there were several songs by young people from Aizawl. Some have beautiful voices, somewhat dampened by the loudness of the sound tracs they now use. Part of the problem was the P.A. system was not balanced out perfectly. They have all of today to work on that. I gave a short sermon on Psalm 23 as a foundation for the unfolding of God’s character we plan in the series. Most of the people in attendance were not SDA. Our last series was almost exclusively for Hindus. This one will have hardly any Hindus but many from various denominations started here a hundred years ago by missionaries from England, Scotland, and Wales. We will acknowledge the good work they have done and encourage them to continue learning more truth that God has for us today in the continuing reformation. The meeting got off to a late start because of the technical problems, but all subsequent ones will be much shorter. The plan is to get started at 6:30 with a song. Then have the health talk by M.A. followed by another song and then the sermon which ends the meeting except for the closing song and prayer. That will be a major change from Andhra Pradesh.
Two hurdles will make the larger attendance here delayed. Last night, two people died in this village of maybe 2000 families. One was a much-loved member of the Assembly and there will be a big funeral for him. Also many families will visit his family to give condolences. Also the youth, LEI tribe, not Mizo, are away until tonight attending a convention at a village near here. They would usually make up the largest segment. We have very few SDA here as a base for attendance. The pastors have worked hard in preparing and we know their vigilant prayer groups will make a large difference. We are not here for specific numbers, but to harvest any whom the Lord has ready, large or few in number.
They are offering “steam baths” for those who sign up, after the meeting. This has been very well received in the past. Our accent here is on total health.
Our own total health will depend on not eating at the restaurant of the Guest House. Biaka told us that too. So we eat our own things for breakfast and then one of the evangelists who lives here with his wife will prepare a hot meal for us at noon. They understand our need for food cooked in pure water etc. We skip supper, so that takes care of food for the day.
Following the meal we will visit the bereaved family and then go to the Internet store and see if my unit can be activated for here. Also we will recharge the phone for this area. It means so much to be able to communicate with family and friends in the midst of all that is going on here.
Well, five pages is too much but I thought I’d better get it down before it blends into the mists.
With love,
Dad and Mom (Glenn and Mary Alice)