India Report #31, Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 9 p.m. en route to Tlangsang, Tripora
Dear family and friends:
We have not been able to send anything out but will keep track for memories’ sake. Yesterday, Monday, was a very special day. All the students and other helpers came to our Counsel Hall quarters in New Eden to share experiences and sing, sing, sing and pray. It was really beautiful as you will hear in due time if interested. I was asked to give a sermon (on the spot of course) and shared our sincere appreciation of their deeply moving singing of the old hymns and some in Mizo we do not yet know. One about “Send me” is especially beautiful. I asked them to sing one verse again so I could take video. They sang the whole song again and I’m glad they did. Mizo music is so very different from that in other parts of India. In some songs they do clap but it is only a way of keeping time and seems appropriate. When we saw the depth of their feeling as they sang those words about God and what He is doing for us, it was a challenge to us to more fully enter into the experience in our own singing. The presence of the Holy Spirit was in evidence throughout the day in the way they related to one another as well as to the spiritual influences. It was like a mini Prayer Conference.
The memory of that dedicated group of youth will remain forever. We did learn a little of some of the stories. Two of them did not have parental permission to be with the mission to those newly entered villages. They phoned (yes, cell phones are used in some of these remote places even though ours did not work there) the parents and got the permission to stay even longer to follow up. We are impressed with the planning that went into this mission. A second wave of young people from Aizawl and surroundings will be coming to continue working with the interest and teaching the children. We are suggesting they teach the kids during the day and then have adult education classes for parents in the evenings. Most of them do not know how to read or write. The Bible is available in the Bru language and we will want to provide them when they can read.
We envision health people from Aizawl coming down to conduct a clinic and give health education that is desperately needed. Most other groups that have come to “help” are content with only preaching. As I pointed out to the Bru Counsel, SDA are interested in the whole person and want to see them develop and grow in all areas of life. And we at home can benefit from examining our own lives to see how we are progressing “on all fronts.”
As we walked to each of the previously unentered by SDA villages we rejoiced at the hearty welcome we received and at the willingness of the people to give and work to make their dreams of a church and eventually a school, come true. It was determined by the Youth Leader whom we respect greatly, that if we can send $1000 for each village to help with materials they can’t get free for the taking in the Jungle, there could be an SDA church in each in just a few weeks especially with the help of other Mizo SDAs who will come by busloads. The Adventist World Radio bus is there in Aizawl and was used to bring the first group down. A second wave will bring five young people for each village. They will need help in sponsoring them financially.
We spent this morning (Tuesday) visiting proposed sites for the churches. In the first village we visited, Tumpanglui, the clerk of the Council and his wife gave up their bed for us to stay in while they slept on the floor. Both of them are planning to be baptized in the next one, probably this coming Sabbath. The City Hall where they were preaching and we attended a meeting after just arriving in the village, was closed to them after the Salvation Army representative protested SDA using it. So the meetings had to continue by the roadside. I suggested that the SDA Chief of Police in that area take one of his soldiers and go to the ones controlling use of that hall and inquire into why SDA are denied while other groups are using it. There is no conflict in schedule. Of course, prayer will be the most powerful influence.
Well, there is a hill just above that hall and the owners were baptized last Sunday. They are willing to sell that choice piece of ground looking over the village for $2000. They have several houses of relatives besides themselves living there now but will cheerfully move elsewhere so our new church can be built there. An additional $1000 will buy materials and get the building up in short order. Hopefully, a school can follow sometime. Right now the urgency is to get a place where the new SDAs, one hundred in number, can meet and worship.
At the next village, New Eden, where we stayed in the Council Hall for four nights,
the Council donated a large and choice piece of land closest to their water supply and right adjacent to where the government said they would build a kindergarten. They have already cleared off a spot just since our group came and the children are now using it to play since it is level ground there now. We met with the group and agreed to accept their generous offer. I left the Rs 10,000 we had planned to use in buying the mountain of one of our new members there. He didn’t really want to sell it but since he was now SDA was reluctantly willing to do so. Now he won’t have to.
They planned to start gathering materials that very morning and clearing off the land for building.
The third village, Katholbari, where we walked so far on Sabbath to reach and preach, is also ready to begin immediately gathering and building. That is where the
Hindu Headman who was baptized on Sunday, gave the good land for a church and school. We promised $1000 there that I have in Aizawl from our “Emergency money”. So those two villages will be working hard to see which one gets a church up first, I think. There are 70 who were baptized in that village. The girls who worked there are staying by to continue. What sacrifice!
Then, at Chhimlaung where we witnessed the 35 baptized last year, they also donated a choice piece of ground and think they can get a church up for $1000 from us. Other Mizos will be helping in various ways. The preacher of the series there is a Phillips, son of the wife of Dr. Phillips who was the moving force in getting the church building in Maubawk (Aizawl) after our first series in India in 1998. Dr. Phillips was tragically killed during our City Wide series in Aizawl in 2001 at Vanapa Hall. He had left the meeting early to plan for a work bee the next day at Maubawk. A bus parked uphill rolled down and over him when someone accidently released the brake. It was a tragic loss to the church, but his son proceeded with the project and now the church is up and beautiful and very active in helping others. They will help with the church at Chhimlaung I’m sure.
Before telling about our next and last visit to previously unentered by SDA Bru villages, I’ll say that we are convicted after much prayer about it that this is the time to move in all these places. The now open doors could close so very quickly if we “sit on our hands and hope” for an easy solution. As soon as we reach home we plan to send $10,000 to be administered by the Youth Leader in charge of this mission with the young people. We have assessed his abilities and commitment and believe he is the best one to follow through immediately. Of course, the money would be sent to the Mizo Conference to be released as needed. We will build on the funds that may have accumulated in Hill Evangelism the past two months we have been gone, and then borrow if necessary the rest to speed this money on its way via wire to the Mizo Conference. We know them well and completely trust they will follow through without the usual delays through the Division. We recall how Ellen White did borrow money on several occasions to use in building up the work strategically when others were dragging their feet on funding. Our decision is not just on impulse, but in prayerful and careful considering of the factors we face right now.
With the visits to sites and deliberations with new members and Council representatives (several have also been baptized) we got a late start to the last village, Lingthirpara in Tripura, we would visit this time before going to Tlangsang School. We heard that the road was very bad and soon found out they were very right. That village is far away and did not attend the general baptism. They baptized 65 (making a total of 273) at their village and have another 50 ready. They had hoped it would happen when we were there to see it, but some had to go back to work on their harvest fields since our arrival was delayed.
The “road” was beyond description. I tried to video a little of it but the scenes will probably be too shaky to see clearly. I told Zosiama that we were in the “shaking time” and he had a hearty laugh about that. It is good to keep him laughing rather than sleeping at the wheel. Vicious drive through potholes tore at his tires and the rattling of the car with all the bumps made us think of how the Lord holds together the world (Col. 1:16, 17). Zosiama’s car stays together in the same way. Yes, we had a flat before reaching the village and put on the formerly repaired spare tire. Now we had to travel the same 45 Km road back without a spare tire. So the district pastor came with us on his motorbike in case we had another flat so he could go for help. It is a good thing he did because just as we reached the town where we are now staying in the tourist lodge, another tire went flat. It was too late for the shops to be open to repair it. Some people nearby took Mary Alice and me to the lodge with our luggage while Zosiama and Evangelist helpers, repaired the tire enough to get them here also before midnight.
As I write this morning (Wednesday at 7 a.m.) Zosiama is working on the tires and will go to the shop when it is open for further repairs. That means he has had four tires go bad on this trip. He takes it patiently and explains that it always happens that when the Lord is richly blessing spiritually and raising up new churches, that the Devil attacks his car and causes all kinds of troubles. I think the Devil gets a lot of help from the quality of the roads he and we travel on. I could tell you a lot of good things about Zosiama and his consecrated and unselfish ministry as a layman.
Our trip to Lingthirpara village was memorable. We had to drive through one village (Dam Cherra) on their big market day, Tuesday. The shops were everywhere along the road and even on the narrow bridge that crosses the river. So we had to honk and deliberate inch by inch through the crowd (too dense to allow even video) in places with the help of a policeman. On the bridge they had to move some things back from their display area so we could just barely squeeze through. One good thing about it was that we did not meet many cars on that terrible road (to Khedam village) since they were already at the market and off the road.
Our welcome to Lingthirpara was very touching. The whole village it seems was lined up on two sides and they had a speaker stand all set up. Mary Alice and I each shook every extended hand on either side (she on one and I on the other) to get to the stand. We are the first white people most of them have seen. They can hardly believe that we would come to their village. Of course, we each had to give a talk. They greeted us with garlands of flowers and presented us each with a Bru shawl. They had planned to feed us a special chicken and rice meal, but thankfully, we did not have time to stay for it. We had to face that same 45 Km road back and mostly in the dark. We were surprised at how many cell phones were there and taking pictures of us. Many wanted their picture with the Americans who actually came to their village.
They showed us the choice piece of land (a whole Island) where the church and school can be built. The village will build a road to it very soon. It may take $1,500 to supplement what they can do, to get the church up here. We gave out the rest of our family photos to those who eagerly wanted one as a souvenir. The SDA young man who conducted the evangelistic series here is a graduate of Tlangsang school and a Bru. He will stay by to continue teaching them.
Yesterday was a day of rich blessings and superlative memories. The tourist lodge where we are staying is a pleasant relief. We have actual beds and a mini western toilet and electricity to recharge everything. We also had a warm water pour (heated in a bucket especially for us). The mosquito net was needed over the beds. The cost was Rs 1000 for each room (one for Zosiama) and that is about $20. The price had just gone up from the Rs 300 it would have cost the day before because now it has AC even though we did not need to use it. We were delighted with the respite from the past several days.
This morning (Wednesday) we plan to have breakfast here from the things we brought from USA and the market fruit we got yesterday, before moving on to Tlangsang School. After a short visit there and some rest, we will be heading for Aizawl (a day later than planned) to get ready for the busy weekend. I am hoping for another hydrotherapy treatment, steam bath, and maybe a massage to realign the muscles and bones after our extended “shaking time.” We also need to regroup our things in preparation for the trip home six days from now.
While I was writing this Mary Alice phoned Debbie in USA and it only cost about 40 cents for ten minutes. No Internet is available, but the phone does work here.
With our love,
Dad and Mom (Glenn and Mary Alice)