India/Nepal Report #9 (Really #10): Sun, Oct. 28, 2012 at 6 a.m. from Saiha, Mizoram
Dear Family and Friends:
The meetings are building momentum in spite of Satan’s efforts to disrupt. Some distractions to attendance are the major conventions right now of four of the denominations represented here. Also the electricity goes out each night about sundown when it is needed most by the people in their little homes. Our generator at the hall serves well, but the people are handicapped in getting to the meeting.
Yesterday a man who lives near our East Saiha Hall ended his life by hanging. I don’t know all the details but it does affect attendance because the Mizo custom is for many people to come for several days to comfort the family. Burial must take place within 24 hours here and the funeral will be today. David thinks we should attend even though we will not have opportunity to speak. Our presence alone will speak for us and we can give some money to the family, as is the custom here. We remember that last year in our meetings at Laungtlai there were eight deaths during the series and it affected the ability of many to attend. One death was a drowning in the swift river not far from the tributary that we had crossed on the way here.
Apparently there are no life insurance policies in Mizoram, unless for the wealthy and advantaged. What happens is beautiful. The Young Mizo Association (includes many older people as well) has a strong organization that does wonderful things for people. They are the ones who were having organized sports on the school playground when we first came to India in January of 1998. They relinquished their games three days early so we could pitch our tent three days late to conduct the evangelistic series that resulted in the Maubawk church. In a later citywide series in Aizawl that resulted in more than 200 baptized, the YMA prepared the places at the river where the candidates could change clothes to be baptized. During that series Dr. Phillips was killed when one of the parked buses let loose and ran over him. The YMA helped with arrangements for his funeral. The YMA is composed of various denominations including SDA who often take a leading role. Well, here in Saiha the YMA is active and cares for the funeral expenses for the family. They get the raw materials for the casket and build it the same day as the funeral. The body stays with the family in his bed until the casket is ready. We are impressed with the compassion and loving service of these young people. We were delighted to hear that the youth of the Lunglei church are one of the strongest in outreach in all of Mizoram. Because so many SDA’s are in leadership of the YMA, business meetings are not held on Sabbath.
The pastor of the Saiha SDA church (also the Circle Leader) is energetic and is trying to increase lay people involvement to evangelize the area. There are two main tribes represented here (Lei and Mara) and they each have different languages but do understand some or most Mizo words. Our meetings are in Mizo. Right now our members are meeting in private homes, but a church building is in construction. We so wish we had the funds to complete it and bring the group together along with the students that live in the Hostel (dormitory) of our large school. The school has about 700 students this year and most are not SDA. We are to speak to them this week but don’t have details yet about when or where. Since they have no auditorium we will work in the various classrooms. Mary Alice brought a set of Bible Felts to give them if they will be able to use them effectively in Bible classes. We probably will leave one of our suitcases to keep them nicely stored.
One request we are planning to fill with funds that were given to our evangelism account shortly before we came this time, is for six laptop computers. One will be for the pastor and circuit leader of Lunglei. Another is for the pastor and circuit leader of Saiha. The other four will go to evangelists here who will use them in meetings and individual Bible studies in remote places where they have no electricity at least in the evening. The computer battery will serve well to make the visuals available to these people. We will leave our sermons and materials for them to use in producing their own sermons and studies. The total will be about $3000 and we feel it will be money well spent in helping them to do their work. We can get the computers in Aizawl and they can be repaired there when necessary. Of course, the computers are made in China. Picture rolls are no longer the item of choice in these rapidly developing countries.
We don’t have enough cash with us to do that now and still have funds for use in Nepal. Pastor thinks the school here could advance the funds so they can get the computers while we are still here. Then we can send that money via regular channels of the GC, Division here, Mizo Conference and then to the project. That will save us from being too tight in funds with the unknown costs (and opportunities to give) in Nepal.
One problem with my leaving the sermons is that I don’t use notes. The notes are in my head, so they will have to remember from the visuals what messages we shared. They do listen intently and have good memories. The advantage of not leaving notes is that the sermons will become theirs and not mine. The visuals will help carry the theme.
The Saiha pastor (Hlua by name) had us come to his house for the noon meal twice and would do it every day. We have declined because at our new location in the Tourist Lodge we can get a good meal and it saves the problem of getting us to the Pastor’s house and back each day and fitting into their varying schedule. They eat heavy in the morning and again at supper before the meeting. We do not eat supper and can have a good breakfast in our room here with things from the market and from what we brought with us from home. They would have to do something special to feed us at the right time for us. We don’t want to cause them any more extra work. They are busy enough already and we are quite self sufficient in those things.
It is interesting to us to see some of the hairstyles among some men and boys here. One man at the meeting had long hair and it was gathered in tufts all around his head. It resembled a caterpillar we had seen somewhere. We learned that they watch the TV programs out of Korea with those outlandish hairstyles and think it is cool to duplicate them in Mizoram. We also see otherwise sensible women trying to get around gracefully on extremely high spike heels on rough ground or sidewalks. It reminded me of an assessment one of our Portsmouth, Ohio members made once. “She is about as graceful as a cow on crutches.” Such is the power of worldly fashion! If wearing something like that were a requirement for church membership we would probably not baptize anyone but they will do it for the sake of not being different.
Sabbath morning I preached at the Hall for our church members and some who had attended our evening meetings. They met at the hall because they do not have a regular church auditorium, as mentioned before. I also taught one SS class that speaks English only. We held it under the canopy of a nearby neighbor’s house. The lady attended our meeting, but the husband did not. She is 87 years old and he is 88. He said he does not sit well and hopes we will preach loud enough for him to hear at his house. An additional benefit from that nearby neighbor is that they let us use their toilet. Otherwise at the hall there is no provision—just the outdoors wherever you can find a place and there are no places not under observation by those coming and going. It is a matter of little concern among Mizos.
One lady at the hall gave us a bag of really nice commercial raisons. We remembered that she had done that last year also when we visited Saiha during our Laungtlai series. She was amazed that we remembered her from last year. Well, not everybody gives you a bag of raisons! They were and are of good quality. We will share some with our translator, David.
David is making DVDs of the sermons and taking them to the local TV station for broadcast a day later. He is having a lot of trouble doing it because of the fluctuating current even when it is on-- just part of life in the mission field.
We think this will probably be our last trip to Mizoram (we have been here 7 times now). Others can take over where we have left off. We have been privileged to help open up areas that were closed to foreigners before. If we leave our sermon materials, there will be many sharing the same message we would if we returned. Saving the cost of airfare to get here can enable us to provide more needed things for them or others. David wants to interview us about memories from our various trips to Mizoram. He wants to pull together from that a DVD as a heritage item for them and perhaps we will get a copy also.
Our “pour” this morning reminded us that you don’t get everything in one place. The room here is much better than where we were and will be again after we leave. The losses here are the hot water we had on demand and the clothesline in back of our former room. The temp in the room is not really cold now but the water certainly is. So it helps develop discipline to pour that cold water all over your body. We didn’t mind that in the Philippines where the temperature in the room was more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. At least we don’t waste much time getting our bath. At home we use the cold AFTER we have showered with warm or hot water. Here we just save that first step.
In spite of the mosquito netting around our bed we have been getting some bites and we don’t know when or what bit us. It could be mosquito, ants, spider or a variety of other bugs. We just see the welts later. We think the bugs may prefer to dine on imported flesh. They are like stealth bombers that come and go silently leaving their load of mild poison behind. At least we do not have the overwhelming cloud of bugs surrounding and all over the computer when we preach, as in the outdoor meetings in Andhra Pradesh and in Africa. Each trip has its unique blend of specialties. We certainly don’t get bored!
Just now we are waiting for a phone call to tell us when to be ready to attend the funeral. Also, one man said he wanted to come to our room to give us a book in English telling about Mizo customs and history. We do not know when to expect him and have no way of reaching him to tell when we will be gone and when we expect to return. They are used to hit or miss efforts. “Que, sera, sera, sera…”
Mary Alice just finished doing some more laundry for us in the bathroom. Since there are no good places for us to attach a line, we have an alternate plan. She puts the wet clothes on hangers and we drape them over pipes at the shower and door handles etc. Whatever works is all that matters. There is usually another approach to solving a problem than just the standard one. Adaptability!
Here is more at 4 p.m. As it happened, we left here at 11:40 to go to the expected 12 noon funeral. On the way we learned that they had moved the funeral up to 10 a.m. and it was now over. The walking procession to the grave was already begun. We went on anyhow to be with those who remain at the house of the deceased. There were about 40 people there. We sat and were greeted one by one by various friends and relatives. When the procession returned, we met the mother and father and several other relatives of the dead man. They asked me to give them some words of comfort and it was a privilege to do so and tell them of our meetings and why we had come from USA to Saiha to share the things that we are. They were intensely interested and some said they want to come to the meeting. Unfortunately, the five days of usual time spent with the family of the dead will put them late into our series—into the heaviest subjects without the preliminary preparation for it. The Lord will intervene as He sees best. If we had gotten to the funeral on time I would not have been invited to speak. By arriving at the home later, we were able to answer individual questions and speak to the whole group. If we had been to the funeral and walked the long way to the grave in the hot sun in my suit and then back uphill all the way to their house, I would have been sweated through all layers. It worked out for the best. We got back to our room in time to order lunch at 2 p.m. and met the man who wanted to come and give us the book. He came just then. It pays to leave everything to the Lord!
8:45 p.m. We just got back from the meeting (Sunday) and have not been able to get on line to send the above, so will keep on writing for a bit. We don’t know what is wrong with Internet connection unless the power outages lately have affected it.
The meeting was very full in attendance (best yet) even though the students from the Hostel were not there because of preparing for exams. Many who we had met at the house of the dead man came to our meeting tonight and plan to continue. They say that tomorrow’s service should be very well attended. We are planning to visit the bereaved family again tomorrow morning at 7:30. Our work at the school will not begin until Tuesday. Another new school about 60 KM (an hour drive) from here also wants us to come. We leave it up to David to work out details of what can happen within our schedule. We are ready, but there are other logistics to consider.
We learned more about the one who died. He was 29 years old and still living at home. He had a problem with alcohol and got released from it when he joined a church. Then he fell back and drank more than ever and became very depressed. After my talk today at their home, the father gave a speech saying he appreciated what I had shared and told about how he had scolded the boy for his drunkenness and felt that maybe he had come on too strong. The boy had told others about his inability to overcome and how bad he felt about it. Then, on an impulse, he went into their small bathroom and hanged himself. The room was so small that he had to get on his knees in order for the rope to suffocate him. He could have stopped it at any time but was committed to the end result.
It is generally believed here that suicide forever precludes the victim from salvation. I tried to show how there can be mind-altering things that lead people in that direction and how God considers all the circumstances when giving judgment. We can trust a loving God to do the right thing. Jesus understands how strong problems can be because He lived among us as one of us. The father was grateful for that attitude and said so to the people. We must keep that family in prayer.
We are thankful to be helpful to all that we can. David said that many Mizos get depressed because they see on TV the affluence of the rest of the world (artificially portrayed) and know they can never acquire those things no matter how hard they work. So they get discouraged and brood over it until depression takes over. The suicide rate in Mizoram is greatly increasing in the last year or two. We wish we had time to conduct a depression seminar here on the Dr. Neil Nedley style. They surely need it.
Tonight at the meeting was a pastor Colney we had met in 2003 in Tripura. He is now in Shillong and heard we were here so determined to come and see us. That is a very long trip by car just to see us. We were glad to hear that the Hezechora school and church we had helped build (With Evans) are still going strong.
9:50 a.m. Monday, Oct. 29
We still can’t get out on Internet so will keep on writing until we can. It will become a book instead of a report. Maybe it will be a book report as in school days.
This morning we were to be ready at 7:30 to go again to visit the bereaved family. So we were having breakfast after our cold pour when Pastor Colney arrived at our room. I skipped the rest of breakfast to talk with him until the 7:30 time we were to leave for the home. Then I quickly got into my suit for the occasion and we left in haste though the arrival time was not critical. It was built around the expected breakfast time of David and Mahoo, our translator and driver.
Now we know why Pr. Colney drove all the way here from Shillong to see us. He has a vision of reaching the “unreachable” wild tribes in North East India where they have not grown much over the years. It seems they are very closed even to the Mizos. Even our Kasi and Naga leaders do not show hospitality to visiting Mizo Union officers. Colney’s plan is to get many sermons in English to broadcast on the local TV outlets. The people who will not come out to meetings will watch TV. It has to be English because there are so many local languages and dialects among them (16 in Nagaland alone) that the only way they can understand each other is via English. The British rule here had its influence.
The bottom line is that Colney wants me to put all my sermons of every kind in English on DVD without translation into any other language. Then he can release these as he gets openings. He wants to put them all on a computer pen drive to be used by the various TV stations. That is a tall order. It will take some time and will depend on my voice being clear as it is here. That does not always happen in USA. Just when we think our ministry here may be drawing to a close, now it seems to be more open than ever and demanding of time commitment. If the Lord is in it He will open the way and make it possible. At first I thought Colney was wanting us to come to his area in the N.E. and conduct meetings as here, but recording the sermons is an easier and less costly assignment.
Visiting the home again today was a great blessing. They asked if I would share some more words of comfort for the family and friends gathered there. I talked with translation for half an hour on Psalm 23 and they related so well to it. They wanted us to eat with them but we gladly told them we had just eaten and avoided the necessary rejection of the food items that could have been dangerous for us to eat. Yesterday they brought out a bucket (like the ones I used to milk cows into when a child) filled with tea for the group. There were several metal cups coated with enamel passed around to the group. When one was finished another took the same cup without benefit of washing and dipped again into the bucket for their tea. We were glad to tell them we did not drink tea. That was easier than to say we didn’t want to share their special variety of germs.
Today they wanted pictures with us including all the family and wanted our address in USA where they could call on us for more prayer. We left amid deep appreciation for our coming. No doubt many will attend our meetings because of these timely visits in their time of need.
The father is a leader in his church and his wife leads the women’s ministries. We are not clear just what denomination they belong to. This area has many others than Baptists. The whole family is involved in their church and seems to know their Bible, but appreciate our approach to the Bible messages. We will see how far this will go.
Our Circle Leader and Saiha Pastor was waiting for us at the Lodge. He had found some ripe papaya to give us. They are hard to find ripe here because the people pick them green to feed their pigs. It took an effort on his part to do that for us. They are looking for ways to show their gratitude for our coming so far to minister to them. We accepted two smaller papayas and insisted he keep the larger one for his family. It is hard for us to preserve them here once they have been cut. (No refrigeration in our room.) We do want to eat other things at our meal also rather than load up on papaya.
We just had a phone call from Pastor Liana of Lunglei. He wanted to tell how much they all miss us there. He and his wife think of us at their parents and if we come again they want to do more for us with food etc than was possible this time with all their added guests on the way to Daniel’s Band Convention. The good news is that they are following up the interest from our meetings. The helping evangelists and pastors have returned to their stations, but the lay members at Lunglei will conduct meetings and bible studies in 15 areas until December 1. They say our coming has brought a great revival among he members and they are willing to work. It is very humbling for us to realize how the Holy Spirit was able to work through us in these ways. Life can not be just as usual again.
With love,
Glenn and Mary Alice (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)