India Report #26, Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 from Aizawl, Mizoram
Dear family and friends:
This morning I was able to send out the last report from the Mizo Conference Office. I will not be renewing the unit I had since it may not even work in Tripura. While we are here I can just walk to the Office and check email.
My back seemed to do fine on the road back, but today I’m feeling it a lot all over. We went to bed last night at 6 and slept through till this morning. I did wake up refreshed by 2 a.m. and listened to Ipod music and Bible while Mary Alice continued to sleep.
They have a clean guest room here and western toilet in one of the units that serve the 3 guest rooms. There also we could get hot water from a tank and the floor was cleaner though also wet for the toilet after a bath.
We met a guest in another room, a pastor and Conference Departmental leader for Sabbath School and Personal Ministries for Manipur, another state of N. E. India. He is here to record for Adventist World Radio 100 sermons (15 minutes each) in the language of Manipur. They have very little in that state to forward the work. He invited us to visit sometime. It is a stop on the way to Mizoram from Calcutta by plane.
Biaka brought us a hot breakfast cooked by Gnetti, his wife. She says “we do not know if they (us) will come back another time and we want to do all we can for them this time.” It was potatoes, chapatti, and green beans. We supplemented with some of our stuff. They wanted to bring supper last night but we told them we don’t eat supper usually and would sleep better without it. We surely did. They also would have brought lunch but we insisted on eating our own in the room so we could get more done here. Mary Alice did our laundry and I helped hang some of it out in the high places after stringing the rope we brought on a nearby roof just outside our door. (This should be the last laundry of sheets before USA and machinery to do it)
Zosiama came to the room and we had a good visit. He is just back from Burma (Myanmar) where he conducted successful revival meetings among our churches. He would like to do more of that if his time allows. They are so interested in the Sanctuary and he wants to reprint my book on the Sanctuary in Mizo with a better cover than last time, to use there as well as in Mizoram. We are considering leaving the large painting of the Sanctuary area that was painted by a long-time-SDA in the Early 1900’s. It is a historical piece, but would get much more exposure that is meaningful here than if I tried to use it back in USA. We will loan it at first and see how well they take care of it, before making the gift permanent.
It seems that Zosiama is favorable to having the Mizo Conference take over the Tlangsang school and run it. They have resources to pay the teachers that he, nor we, nor Van Ro Tlanga back in Washington, D.C. can do. Right now they are back in teacher pay since September. The government was supposed to give food support for 50 in the hostels but has not done so for 3 years now. In some ways that is good. But the students cannot afford to pay in most cases. So it is strictly a mission outreach and has reached Zosiama’s goal of opening up 5 Hindu villages to the SDA message where they were closed before.
Zosiama will phone Van Ro this evening to check with him about it. The Committee here will be in session in December to make the decision if we offer the school. I am very happy to have the Conference run it IF they will preserve strong teaching of SDA principles in it. Van Ro’s wife is back in the hospital with heart problems. That will slow him down financially in helping here. We have not felt we should be involved with the operation funds for the school, but just help with putting up the buildings and doing special things for them. We are slowing down too.
The engineers were off today and so we did not try to record the sermons onto DVD for TV use, that had poor or no sound back in Lawngtlei. Maybe that will happen tomorrow.
There is a good SDA hospital here in Aizawl and they have a good hydrotherapy department. Some suggest I might get an appointment there to have massage, private steam bath and the fomentations before leaving here. It is not costly so I may do it if schedule permits.
Today we went with Sabbathanga and Biaka to buy Sabbathanga a Video Projector. We found a good one that is the right size for him to carry around and has a bright picture. It cost us less than we anticipated—29,900 rupies or about $625. We had almost enough rupies left from our original cashing in Hyderabad at the good rate. I had to supplement with a $100 bill US from our personal emergency fund. We think we have enough rupies left to get us back home. We checked with both airlines today to confirm flights and to confirm baggage limits and feel we can make it safely without overage charges. Unless we run into something heavy in Tlangsang we should be ok. Our expenses in Calcutta are easy to figure out based on past experience. We seldom need to buy anything in airports.
Sabbathanga tried to thank me again and I reminded him that all the thanks and glory belong to God. “Kalume’ Lalpa.” It will mean so much to his ministry and he will use it well.
Melody, our Mizo “granddaughter” walked over today to visit us. Her English is not large at 4 years old and our Mizo is not up to telling stories, but we enjoyed her company for a while.
While out doing the shopping Mary Alice spotted some red tomatoes in the market just at the foot of the hill where the Conference institutions are. So on the way back to our room after getting the projector, we purchased a Kg of them for Rs 70 (about 35 rupies per pound –about 70 cents). They surely went well with the brown bread we also bought. The flavor was better than we get in USA most of the time.
There is nothing scheduled for tonight that we know about, so we should get another good rest before the long ride to Tlangsang in Tripura on Thursday. (and back again). There will be a final Sanctuary Seminar in the Headquarters church on Sunday, Dec. 4, before we fly back to Calcutta on Monday and back home via Delhi on Tuesday. We’ll let you know of any special experiences between now and then.
This time we are not trying to visit the various churches we helped raise up around Aizawl on previous trips.
The “nothing scheduled” turned out to be a visit by Biaka and Sabbathanga to test the new projector. It works very well and is bright. We also paid the $170 to have his computer fixed after it blew up on bad current. Now he understands the necessity of electric stabelizer and surge control. He will be preaching my sermons like Biaka, around his part of the Conference. Of course, they will make them their own just like I have to do with the available visuals. He also wants to continue working like we do even after retirement, if that should happen before Jesus comes.
With love,
Dad and Mom (Glenn and Mary Alice)