India Report #28, Also Wed. Nov, 23, 2011 at Aizawl, Mizoram
Things went well this morning. I recorded the final two sermons for TV in the Conference studio in spite of the electricity going off half way through the last sermon. They have a strong generator here and the problem was fixed in short order. Good thing, because our neighbor from Manipur has many more sermons to get on tape before he can go back home to his family and work.
While I was doing that, Mary Alice went to the Hospital and got a steam bath and fomentations. Hers were much shorter than mine. I urged her to get the massage but she chose not to. Sabbathanga assured us that there would be no cost this time either because he had cleared it with the hospital. But they didn’t seem to know about it when Mary Alice was there or else did not recognize her in spite of unique American features that are rare here. Communication! We wanted to pay anyhow and do not expect free because of our service.
I chose not to get more hydrotherapy because of the time involved and we leave tomorrow morning at 6:30 for Tripura. We and Zosiama got together some more food for the trip and we are allowed to leave the suitcases in the room while we are gone. We did get permission to take the two pillows to help smooth the way in Tripura sleeping. They won’t have to ride on the top of Zosiama’s car.
He has warned us that the buildings we sent money to put cement roofs on at Tlangsang are not all completed yet. The roof is on the Classrooms and they are being used. The crew that did the classrooms was to also roof the larger Worship Center. Here is why it is not yet done. The diesel station where they get fuel to pump the water from the dammed up area 1,000 feet down from the school, caught fire and burned. They did not get it open again for business for 3 months. So the students and faculty had to carry by buckets all the water used by the school during that time. Building takes a lot of water—more than they could carry up in addition to the other for necessities.
Then the chief worker for the cement work got sick and had to go home where he died shortly after. The other workers did not know how to do the special work involved on the next building. Now they have someone who can do that and should proceed soon to complete the work. The doors and windows in the school are not yet installed because the timber used to support the cement roof on the larger building will be used when they complete that roof, for making the door frames and window frames. Nothing goes to waste here. They are patient and we must be too in view of all the hardships that stall and postpone the work we would like to see done “yesterday”. At least they were not held up because we delayed in getting the money to them.
We had a minor upset in our guest room. After we had our lunch here in the room we decided on a nap to try to catch up from lost sleep last night. As Mary Alice was getting into the bed with her clothes on, she somehow sat on a portion of the drapes to the large windows by the bed. So as she swung into bed the drapes including mounting to the wall came crashing down. We investigated and saw that we could not fix it since there was only one small nail holding one end and the wood was not solid that it was to go into. We found Daniela Sailo, the Treasurer who was coming to visit us and told him about it. He summoned the workmen who had it up on a solid basis very soon thereafter. Mary Alice did not get any sleep after that, but I did get a little which helps a lot. And this afternoon I got a nice hot “pour” finishing with cold—a health benefit. The cold water is really cold so there should be a good reaction conducive to health improvement. I seem to be doing better with the cold battle but Mary Alice is not so sure about herself.
Zosiama’s wife did find some good tomatoes and bought 2 Kg. They are small but tasty and will go well on the trip. Biaka gave us 4 apples and 2 loaves of brown bread that will also come in handy. We still have a little soy milk to mix for breakfast to use as cereal with the bread. We have found it is easier to just eat a tomato with a chunk of bread rather than trying to slice that fluffy bread and get tomato juice on things as we cut them to make a sandwich.
Sabbathanga told us that he stayed up late last night showing his host, the retired printer who sends out the messages to the bereaved and others, the sermons (mine) he will be preaching with the visuals using his new video projector. Sabbathanga said the man was constantly wiping tears from his eyes as he saw how much more in depth the message can be preached with the visuals. So, blessings multiply in unusual ways.
We may not be able to send this email until we return December 1 to Aizawl and the Conference on-line connection. We will just add here and there as special things happen so it will be recorded for our diary that you can read if you wish.
With our love,
Dad and Mom (Glenn and Mary Alice)