India Report #29, Friday, November 25, at 4 p.m. from New Eden, Mizoram
There is a lot to share on computer battery only. We think we may be able to recharge it at the meetings where they have a generator. There is no electricity here even though the wires are strung to the buildings and there is a sub station. Therein is a story.
We left Aizawl and our guest room at the Mizo Conference Office at 6:30 a.m. with Zosiama headed for the Bru villages along the river—two on the Mizoram side and two on the Tripura side. The villages are all Bru. They are now open to the SDA message because of students from them attending our Tlangsang Training Academy. We have seen the wonderful results of that training in these students.
Zosiama’s car leaves many things to be desired, but he has modified it 4 inches higher to enable easier passage over the roads with very deep chuck holes and ruts where other vehicles have gone. The road is constant steep curves where you have no idea what is coming on the other side. They are mostly one-way roads with two way traffic including large buses and trucks sometime. It takes very special skill and precision to get safely by without sending one of the vehicles over the side and down into the ravine. Our angels are constantly busy on these trips. One very close call came when a big truck did not sound the horn and neither did Zosiama to warn of approaching the steep curve. When they saw each other it was a case of both slamming on the brakes and stopping with very few inches to spare. I was just dropping off to sleep and awoke just to see the close call in front of me. “An angel watches over me.” I like that song even more now.
Even though Zosiama drives slower than others, he hits the harsh chuck holes too fast with the result that we had a flat tire on the way (his new one) and had to put on the spare. Another front tire was also leaking air slowly, so we pumped that one up and continued. Fortunately, there is a place near here that fixes tires and probably has a brisk business considering those roads. The fixed tire was down again this morning. So the fixing business will be ongoing no doubt.
Our first night was at the first home in Tumpanglui village. There are about 120 houses with 600 people. The home where we were is one of two very good ones in the village. It is inhabited by the vice president or chairman of the village who is planning to be baptized SDA this Sunday along with his wife. They gave up their bed for us. We expected to be on a bamboo bed frame with a thin pad over it. But then Zosiama and his wife decided we needed more and gave up their thick foam mattress that he brought along in the car with new sheets and pillow cases just for us. It is hot during the day but very cool at night. So we really enjoyed the thick blanket (Korean type we used to think were too heavy for us) and had the best night of rest in a good while. We slept in our clothes minus shoes because there were not good arrangements for us to bathe before changing into PJs. Not much privacy either and no room to unpack from our big suitcase.
The public bathroom is a hundred feet down the road and across a damp area where you walk on rocks to avoid getting feet wet. Then past a water catcher for the laundry use to the two stalls with eastern toilets and not much water to use in the process. Fortunately, we had adjusted somewhat to the toilets by prior use under better conditions.
Even though I avoided drinking a lot of water, considering such outlets for it afterward, I had to get up at 10:30 p.m., 2:30 and 5 am and with flashlight sneak past those sleeping on the floor to open the door that was latched and made a sharp snapping sound when opened. None seemed to awaken or else were just polite and pretending.
Our second meal yesterday afternoon was of fruit and tomatoes that went well along with a bit of bread we brought. Then this morning we ate our food in “our” bedroom on a small table using soy milk, bread, fruit, tomatoes, nuts and crackers. No reason to complain.
We took a hike through the village and did a lot of photographing before returning to our host home. Our host and his wife just work in the jhum (jungle for slash and burn agriculture) but they seem better off than most and are most gracious. They have a TV but can use it only to see Bru DVDs. The government has provided solar panels to each home in place of normal power. Only two in the village have TV. Some have cell phones and use them to take photos of us.
We also hiked down to the river where most go to do their laundry and get water for other uses. They carry heavy loads up steep hills with some steps just carved out of the hard soil (until the rain washes them down).
Now for some history. The Mizos and the Brus have had long animosity between them. Mizos look down on the Bru as inferior and the Bru consider themselves downtrodden and held down. In 1997 some roughneck Bru killed a 16 year old Mizo boy. There is a monument to him along the road. The Mizos (“Baptists, Presbyterians, and Salvation Army but not one SDA”) retaliated by burning down all the houses, taking the animals and valuables, in two villages, Tumpanglui and New Eden where we are right now. This happened again (burning all the houses) in 2009. But since then the “underground Bru” who had melted into the jungle and into Tripura and then came out suddenly to attack the Mizo soldiers etc. have surrendered to the Mizo government and promised not to fight anymore. So they are all (600 of them) living in New Eden, a village provided by the government for them. We will see many of them tonight at the meeting.
We have shared before how these villages were closed to SDA (some to all Christians) but when they sent students to Tlangsang Training Academy the students came home so improved that the parents wanted to learn the SDA way. Evangelists were sent to Chhimlaung that we visited last year and witnessed the baptism of 35 students. So, a work was started and other villages were also interested. The Mizo Conference was taking notice.
A Mizo Youth Convention was held October 27-30 this year. Pastor P. L Thlenga, Youth Director, of the Mizo Conference was one of the speakers. He was our translator for the unplanned evangelistic series in Siphir village near Aizawl a few years ago that resulted in the new Siphir church. He made a strong mission appeal at the close of his sermon at the convention asking any youth who wanted to devote themselves to entering those villages, to come forward. He needed 40 to respond and 70 came forward. Well, forty of them were organized into 4 Brigades like an army and on November 16 they started 4 simultaneous evangelistic series (they still call them crusades here). Prior preparation work was done in those villages by the young people. They are living in borrowed bamboo houses where the people are away elsewhere. These young people make tremendous sacrifices to do this and we will tell more about that later.
We talk to each group in each village but the evangelistic preaching is done by the young people and I do not need too preach the series. We have made video interviews of several of the youth and have some great stories of personal sacrifice. Our being here is basically to witness the results of Tlangsang Training Academy in opening these villages where they were closed before. The response has been very wonderful. On Sunday we expect to witness the baptism of 250 or more in the same river at Chhumlaung where we saw the 35 baptized last year. Now they have the bridge completed and getting there will be less dramatic than last time. You remember our telling how we had to ford the river with Bru pushing and pulling along with the angels to supplement the feeble efforts of Zosiama’s car.
There are great needs we hope to help fill in some way when we get back home. They are doing what they can to get materials from the jungle and do the building work if we can help provide some money for foundations and roof. I am totally convinced it is a wonderful opportunity to make a solid investment for the Lord.
If we let this open door close for lack of follow through support it will be a great loss to the Kingdom.
We are currently staying in the newly constructed Council House in New Eden. Our bed is on the cement floor with the foam pad over it and quite comfortable, at least on our initial try. We eat our breakfast here and the noon meal is cooked by the students and shared with us here. We had rice, dahl curry, and French fried Potatoes. There is too much grease but even that is better than some other choices.
Zosiama and the Youth Director will be sleeping in the same building. There is a toilet (eastern style) and a barrel of water with it and a dipper and all are in the same building, a distinct advantage in the night hours.
The description we heard of it prior to our coming here led us to think it was a government Circle House for visiting government officials and would be comparable to what we had seen elsewhere. So much for that dream! We will be here for four days and it is much better than almost anything else around here.
To get clean water to fill our barrel, two cars went to Chhimlaung and took water from the river. They carried it back in woven baskets lined with plastic (no holes in it). It was a major effort to make life easier for us here. And we really appreciate it. Just now there was a knock at the door and some people brought us a lamp run by batteries so we can have light. While Zosiama and the Mizo Conference Youth Leader went for supper with the student group assigned to this village, we took our cold “pour” standing over the toilet since there is no other drain in that room. This is a place for discussion and voting rather than living. Hence, no bath room drain. In the heat we did not mind the cold water.
The Mizo government is slow in allowing electricity to be provided here. The people believe it will happen near election time. Sounds like USA to me. In the meantime they make do the best way they can and so do we.
We have no chairs in this building, only benches and floor. So I’ll shut this off for now and lie down to rest my back before meeting. I don’t know when we can send these off, but they are now on record for whenever that is possible.
With our love,
Dad and Mom (Glenn and Mary Alice)
P.S. The Youth Director just asked me to give him a copy of my sermons in English so he can use them in the Philippines where he is invited to give a series of meetings sometime in the future. We will do what we can to help him. The influence goes on!
Oh yes, the children here are also very curious and spend a lot of time trying to peek at us through the cracks. We have hung things over the cracks (like my suit) to block most of that, but human curiosity will prevail somehow.
This morning at five I awoke to the crowing of a rooster just under our bedroom. It was quaint to start but soon grew irritating with the echoes from others throughout the village. I will confess that I secretly wished someone would have a craving for chicken and that our resident rooster would be a candidate. I think Mary Alice just slept through it.
In our New Eden room we saw an enormous spider. After deliberation we killed it since we did not know if it was poisonous. We hate to do that because of their appetite for mosquitoes, but didn’t want to be on the menu also.