India/Nepal Report #13 (really #14): Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 5 a.m. from Aizawl, Mizoram
Dear Family and Friends:
We left Saiha at 5 a.m. (we got up at 2 to pack) and arrived to Aizawl at 7 p.m. with several stops along the way. Our usual guest room here at the Mizo Conference Office had been assigned to two people connected with ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Association), one Indian and the other German. They were out until midnight and seem to be here now. We did not hear them come in and hope they have not heard our getting about this morning at 4:30 trying for a warm “pour” before breakfast at 7:30 with David (our translator) and his family. His wife and little daughter gave him a royal welcome home. Our usual guest room is larger and we need the extra space to do the repacking. They are supposed to leave this morning to get to points South to discuss some building projects.
The road though not as bad as when we went down to Lunglei via a “shortcut”, did have some challenges. At two places we saw front-end loaders working to clear away the recent landslides that made the road impassable. We stopped at several roadside markets for David and Mahooa to buy cheaper fruit and vegetables than at Aizawl. We used to call him Mahoo but learned now that you use that name when addressing him personally but add the “a” when telling someone else about him.
Some of the stops were to visit briefly isolated SDA members in some villages and have prayer for them. The visit accomplishes at least two things. It is an encouragement to the family and lets them know they are known and appreciated by the church they so bravely stand for amidst opposition. And it also gives them some status to have Americans stop to visit them. In these small villages the people swarm out to shake our hands and inquire where we are from. Some have never seen a white person before. Some do have cell phones and take pictures of us with them.
One stop at about 8 a.m. was at the home of one of the evangelists that worked with our meetings at Saiha. He had phoned ahead for his wife to prepare breakfast for us. It was a bountiful spread. I was relieved to know that she did not have to buy much if any of it since they have a large garden that produces continuously throughout the year. It takes hard work but they are used to that. She was profuse in telling us how they appreciated the laptop given her husband. It will help their work so very much. They rent their humble home for RS 700 per month. That is about what we paid each night when at the Tourist Lodge and we thought ours was a bargain. Our photos will show you around their house and how they must live.
Another stop was to pray for a very sick woman. She was lying on a mat on the floor and sometimes able to watch television which now is available to many even in the small villages. She had worked so hard throughout her life in their garden in the zhum (jungle) and had to carry heavy loads up the steep mountainside to their home. Many feel she just worked too hard and her health broke down under it.
We also stopped to climb the mountain and see the construction on a new church at the village where Pastor Hluna, comes from. He is the Saiha pastor and Circuit Leader. We met his aged father and some siblings that still live there. They have an orange grove and several avocado trees planted from seeds they got from Burma. David and Mahooa wanted to buy tangerines (oranges) from them and did get several boxes even though the fruit is not good. Some disease has hurt the fruit so that it is not juicy and is small. There is some worm that has killed off most of the avocado trees also. The purchase was more to help the people than to get good fruit.
Before we left Gentry one of our members gave me $100 and said we should use it for whatever was needed, personal or otherwise. Well, we gave it to Pastor Hluna just before leaving Saiha. He has a motorbike he rides to visit remote villages for evangelism and to encourage the few SDA who live there. Some of the roads are so bad he could not get there by car. Sometimes he has to sleep by the roadside since he cannot make it there and back in the same day. There is a small tent available that he can carry on the cycle with him and keep more dry and warm on these trips. That $100 can buy that tent from Shillong or elsewhere that David can find on line.
Our final Saiha meeting was on Wednesday night and was well attended. People are saying how much they will miss us and assure us of their prayers. We have made an appointment to meet them in heaven. We have made so many of those meeting appointments over the years that the Lord or one of His angels will have to help us keep it all straight. At least there will be eternity in which to make it happen.
On that Wednesday we had planned to rest up for the trip to Aizawl on Thursday and to study more toward the evening closing meeting. However, one of the evangelists helping with our series comes from a distant village where he operates a school for the Mara. That tribe has not had the advantages of many Mizos and the school is a way of opening them to our message. I have previously explained the division between those tribes normally and how difficult it is for Mara people to accept new additional truth. Well, the evangelist was so eager that we see his school and let his 100 students see white people for the first time, that he kept asking Pastor Hluna if we could come. We didn’t want to tie up David who is so busy with the DVD making etc and Mahooa needed sleep before the long drive back to Aizawl.
Long story made shorter, we went with Sabbathanga driving. He was a driver for many years before he became an evangelist and pastor and we trusted his driving more than if pastor Hluna drove. He is inexperienced and is just learning where the side of the road ends before the precipice begins. The “two hour” drive in reality took more than three hours each way and we also had many stops along the way. The school group was so happy to see us that it well made up for any inconvenience.
We did get back an hour before meeting and we had time to clean up and get the equipment ready. I opened that last sermon on “Our Place In God’s House” with a story gleaned on that trip. At one village we met and had photos made with a middle-aged lady with a unique experience. In 1974 she was about four years old and had a brother aged five. Her parents left them in the care of a grandmother while they went to work in the Zhum far down the mountain. The kids wanted to be with the parents and take them a drink of water held in a plant leaf. The grandmother was visiting with a neighbor and while thus occupied, the children started out to follow a woman down into the Zhum they thought was their grandmother. They could not keep pace with her and got lost. They wandered around the jungle and were seen by a hunter who tried to rescue them. They may have feared his gun and escaped. After about three months, the boy was seen alone by a fisherman from a nearby village who brought the boy back home. In spite of more searching the girl was never found. She and her brother had eluded several searching parties for many days until the searchers gave up thinking they were dead somewhere.
In 1910 she was seen naked in Burma and taken to a jail because the authorities thought she might be a spy. They soon discovered that she was not normal. She could not speak any language so they released her and a kind family took her to their home, clothed her and kept her for two years. Someone in Burma came to Saiha, Mizoram. The father of that woman had come from his Mara village (also in Mizoram) to Saiha. He and this Burmese happened to be at the same place eating at the same table. The Burmese kept thinking “this man looks like that woman who was found in Burma.” Then he began asking the Mara man about his family. How many children did he have? Had he ever lost a child? Than he told the Mara about this woman and how she looked like him. He wondered if she might be the lost daughter. Both became excited about the prospects. Then the father and headman of the village went to Burma to see the woman and knew with certainty that she looked like the family and brought her back. Her family recognized her likeness to family features and now have her. This happened in June of 2012. As the father and the Headman of the village with the woman neared the village, an NGO (non government organization) met them and carried the woman triumphantly. This woman now in midlife was jubilant when she saw us and gladly posed with us for a photo even though she could not talk with us or anyone else.
In the sermon I imagined how she must have felt after 36 years of wandering in the jungle (no one knows how she could survive as a child amid the dangers there) to have a home at last with food, clothing, shelter, protection from danger, and a real bed. I compared that to our wandering around this sinful planet for so long and how it will be to at last be with Jesus in our wonderful heavenly home. Needless to say, the photo I projected of her with us and the story really got the attention of our audience. We heard that the story had been in the newspapers in Aizawl and other parts of Mizoram. At our meeting the journalist was there and asked for a copy of the picture so he could put the story in his newspaper. We trust it was done.
One other curiosity is that when they found her she had Korean coins in her hand. No one knows where she got them (she can’t talk any language but makes animal sounds) or why she would keep them. I suggested that humans everywhere have a fascination with money!
Now it is time to head to David’s home for breakfast. I hope to get on line here and get this off before we head for Calcutta Sunday and on to Nepal. In the meantime I have two speaking appointments here in Aizawl tonight and tomorrow.
With love,
Glenn and Mary Alice (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)
AFTER BREAKFAST: The breakfast was special because knowing their cleanliness we could enjoy even the fresh salad. They always worry that they won’t have enough or food that we like. We were happy to tell them how much we enjoyed it. (Rice, kidney beans for the rice, green beans, mixed veggies salad, fresh tomatoes, and a special avocado David bought at market this morning for the occasion. It made a great toping for the potatoes.
While there we met David’s father who came to see us. He had heard of the successes at Lunglee and Saiha and wanted to talk about it. He is still a pastor and expects to retire after two years. David had told us of one experience he had while serving in a remote village. There were a husband and wife who wanted so much to be baptized but hesitated. At the first visit the couple were sitting not facing each other. Pastor Sailo sensed trouble and asked about it. Finally, David’s father inquired why and learned that some years earlier they had a sick child and went to the Devil Doctor for help. He sacrificed an animal for the child’s healing and told them that if they accepted the sacrifice and the child got well that they would have to serve Satan the rest of their lives, and if they ever turned away from him they would be severely cursed. That is what was holding them back. David’s father, the pastor, told them that he was not afraid of the devil and would accept any curse that might go to them. Now they were jubilant and were baptized.
Some time later David’s father got sick and progressively worse. The family feared for his life. Then David’s mother remembered seeing pools of water deep in the jungle and knew they were considered the abode of evil spirits. That reminded her of the curse and concluded that it was Satan who was causing this illness. She ordered Satan out of their life, invoking the help of Jesus and the father began to get well that very next day. Now he continues in active ministry.
Satan is still alive and well on this planet where he has proclaimed himself king. We meet him now and then at our meetings in the hindering circumstances that threaten to close us down. But the Lord wins in the end and that is what keeps us going.