One Handful of Rice

We are relaxing into the rhythm of this place. Yesterday we toured the part where they teach worm compost making. We had seen it before, but it was good to see something so simple requiring just a few worms, some cow dung and leaves to produce in 90 days a salable product. They sell a lot of compost and teach both the men and women to make it with just a minimal cost to begin and then it is entirely self-sustaining.

I finished interviewing the four women from Orissa. I mentioned before the atrocities committed against them and the government camps that some of them still live in. Several of them came here with no clothes or possessions but were given what they needed. One is going home to a hostel for 90 children that keeps being destroyed and rebuilt. Another is caring for 30 children in addition to her own son and three cousins after a horrendous experience with deaths in her family and going from one family member to another searching for a safe place to live. Most gave them some food and sent them away to protect their own families. It reminded me of the Nazi attempts to eradicate Jews and how some people stepped up to help and others turned their backs on them.

Today Roger has gone by bus to Jangaon to visit Dayanilayam . Our friend Gordon Goering from AIM in Kansas is there and Roger wanted to visit him. He also will pay the English Medium School tuition for Krupa, a girl we support and who was Akanksha’s best friend. She is a very bright girl. She was going to be married at age 15, but her elder brother was murdered in the forest and for some reason related to that she was allowed to come back to school.

Today I taught the women on Psalm 23 and ways to make it come alive for women and children as they teach them. I have some little books on Psalm 23 and Psalm 139 given me by David and Helen Haidle of Seedfaith Books. I will give them as presents to the women at their commissioning service on the 21st. We are also doing inductive Bible Study on Philippians. I thought I was going to teach every day, but that isn’t turning out to be true. However I find that I need to be ready to jump in whenever they say I can. So today I had three hours and some days none. They are all finishing up a strategic action plan which they must complete before graduating at the end of next week. It is crunch time for them.

Tonight I will interview two women from Assam who have a ministry to women. You should hear them pray–right from their heart. I seldom see such dedication and resolve in America. Not to be critical of our own bad selves, I just think our life is too easy to be as desperate and driven as these women are. I want to learn from them as I teach them and come home with a new resolve to serve too.

Both Roger and I still marvel at what we have been allowed to do and how we came to be in India. It is a constant source of both joy and pain. We learn more each time we come and I think it takes time to be effective in a new culture, getting ourselves out of the way, seeing clearly and knowing how to come alongside and support.

Last night it was cool enough to turn off the fans. As I drifted off to sleep I heard lots of birds, trains off in the distance, the guard who blows his whistle as he walks the circumference of the grounds, it reminded me of when I was a little girl and I heard the trains far away in the night. We are at peace here and are just living day by day seeing what God will teach us before we come home in two weeks.

It is raining here and the beginning of their winter. It is still in the high 70’s or low 80’s and the humidity is so high that the pages of all our books are curling and when I took out a piece of gum to chew, it drooped and felt wet!  Bugs galore–we slather ourselves with Odomos, a bug cream and spray with deet and still get lots of bites. But—that is just the little stuff. There is BIG stuff happening all the time.

Yesterday we attended the three hour service held here for students and faculty. It was so sweet, the time flew by. Roger preached on faithfulness and it was powerful and well-received. We are both teaching morning devotion times. Roger goes to the men’s part of the campus although we live in the women’s section. I have lots of lessons prepared and the schedule is on Indian time so I never really know when I will have another teaching time until it happens. Good thing I prepared before coming or that would be upping my adrenaline levels. As it is I love the women and bonded with them instantly.

Last night I sat with three of the women who come from Orissa. Their stories are heartbreaking. In one church thirty of the members were killed during that uprising in August of 2008. The persecution continues, although it is not openly violent right now. One of the women was a teacher. She can have her old job back if only she will pretend to be a Hindu. She would need to wear the red dot or the red line down the part of her hair, and everyone would allow her to come back. But if she stands up for Christ, she has no job. She lost her mother, her aunt and uncle in the killings. She had to identify their bodies. Many of the women had been raped and then their breasts were cut off. Would I have the faith to stand for Christ in such circumstances? These women do. They all say it is not their ministry they return to, but God’s. One of the women has 90 orphans in a Christian hostel that keeps being attacked and destroyed, then they rebuild. The other one has thirty orphans she has gathered up after their parents were killed. The government has given her 40,000 rupees to rebuild a home, but when that is gone she doesn’t know how they will live. It took me a long time to go to sleep last night after hearing their stories.

Yesterday afternoon we had a women’s craft time. We continued to learn to crochet, and I had brought some materials to make bookmarks and verse cards decorated with stickers and pens. They were all over that project and the materials quickly disappeared. The women from the Northeast, Assam and Manipur, made beautiful bookmarks that they will save for Christmas gifts for their women and children.

They always worry that we don’t eat enough. This morning they made french toast and fried eggs for us. We didn’t eat the heaping bowl of rice or much of the peanut chutney that was also on the table so I suppose we are still in trouble! We always get better food than the rest of the people and we struggle with that, knowing there isn’t a thing we can do about it. Culture– you both love and hate it.

I am fully adapted now to being in India. My hair is stick straight, the eye make-up is a total waste of time in this humidity, it just runs all over the place. The lights are so dim that even looking in a mirror you can’t see the latest zit or the gray roots–all in all it is very freeing and relaxing. The clothes are loose and most women my age have ample tummies. I know I will suffer when I get home, but right now it seems very unimportant to be thin and worried about looks.  They women say I look good to them and Roger has gotten his usual remarks about looking like he is from Hollywood. Ahhhh, life is good!

The fourteen women here at TENT now are two weeks from finishing their six month’s training in practical Christian evangelism. They have been studying cross cultural evangelism, Bible, contextualization and also learning several “technologies” such as laminating pictures to frame and sell, making detergent, worm composting, mango tree grafting and others. In this way they will have a skill to do themselves to raise money and will also have a life-sustaining skill to teach to others. During the six months they take several trips home to do profiles of three or more people groups living in their areas. Each group will have its own language and culture with their stories, life views, mythologies, superstitions, etc. Knowing all these things will help the women find ways to share the gospel with them in a way that makes sense to them. These women are perfectly serious about their ministries. Some of them already have training centers (might be an 8 X 10 room) or orphans to care for. Many will begin new women and children ministries. I am taking some of their class times, and some of the devotion times. I am also teaching about half of them to crochet and they are loving it. It has been easy to build rapport with them and I find I have missed teaching. Not enough to take another job however:)

Yesterday Roger went into Hyderabad while I stayed out here on the beautiful campus. Roger bought some long pants that are cooler because he can’t wear his “knickers” in formal meetings here. This place is clean, well-kept and a model of how India could be if everyone had the vision for order, hygiene and godly living. Hopefully it will be the India of the future.

The girls are on a field trip into the city today. A bus tour, picnic at the Fort and some time to shop and then tea at the home of the director. They were very excited. We almost went along, but thought better of it. They will climb the fort steps, eat outside on the grass and the thought of managing 14 women shopping in the crowded markets was enough to make us want to stay home.

Last night the women skipped dinner and had “fasting prayer” from 8:30 – 12:30. They were excited about doing it and reported this morning that it was a good time. They are up at 6:00 a.m. each day and their days are busy with classes, study time, devotions, prayer, worship. I think being here would be like attending a women’s retreat for six months solid. Life becomes focused on God and His purposes and everything else retreats into the background. I feel very fortunate to be here.

This morning Roger and I ate our breakfast at our special guest table and then took our tea to sit with the women. This shocks them although they know that Americans don’t really like the separation of higher and lower. They have been trained in respect of anyone in authority and feel that they are disrespectful if they don’t follow those ways. We feel it is perpetuating a master/student model that isn’t God’s best. It is a cultural thing and not right or wrong. But we took our tea over to their table anyway.

TENT is an amazing training center about 15 km from Hyderabad. It feels like being out on a farm somewhere in the midwest with weather to match. It is in the low 90’s and very humid. The last few days have been cloudy with a little bit of wind which helps keep us cooler. Halfback is a little lizard who lives on our wall and hunts in the evenings. He somehow lost his tail and it is slowly growing back–thus his nickname, Halfback.  We like him better than the huge spiders.

Today I attended a devotional teaching by an elderly man named P.George. He is a retired English professor from Osmania University in Hyderabad and a long-time personal friend of the director here, Dr. Vijayam. He spoke about Mary of Bethany pouring out her love for Jesus by breaking the alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. He went on to talk about other people who have sacrificed in the same way and how Jesus finds that personal sacrifice very pleasing. Mother Teresa, Watchman Nee, Jim Elliott, and more. It was a very peaceful and powerful teaching. The girls were riveted to it. Later I sat in on a three hour class on communication across cultures. It was hot and sticky in the room and the material was college level, but the girls hung in there. They are just a few weeks from leaving this place to return home and put into practice all they have learned. They have researched the people groups of their home areas, and have five year plans in place to begin ministry when they go. One of the girls is from Orissa where the persecution has been so devastating. She lost most of her family including her parents last year in the killings. She is going back to help believers who are in hiding and who are too afraid to profess Christ anymore. I will interview her before I come home.  Their plans include practical business projects which they can share with women at home. That will provide help to their neighbors and give them opportunities to share their faith as well.

Roger went into town this morning to get cooler pants to wear. His “knickers” are not acceptable in the formal class and church settings. We’re having a good time. We’ll go off campus several times to visit people and to go to the orphanage for a day or so. Lots of people we’ve already seen want us to come back, but I think our time will fly away quickly. It’s hard to believe that at home it is approaching the winter holiday season as it is so hot and humid here.

Right now the dhobi (clothes washer) is pounding away at our clothes. Well go rescue them from the roof later on. I’ll tell you this: clothes really know they’ve been through something when the dhobi gets through with them! Now I’ll go and see who is free to talk with me and maybe give some more crochet lessons. There is time to read and write too. I want to start working on the Bible women stories while they are fresh in my mind.

Send us some comments to let us know you’re with us! We’re praying for Marc and Ted as they get ready for their trip to Sierra Leone. They’ll also plunge into another world as we are now. Nothing like it!

As we continue to meet with our friends in India I have been thinking about the relationships we form and how they come about. We all know God is in control of everything, but we often think that our friendships are just accidental crossings of paths. Our Hindu friend, Rao has us over to his humble home every time we are in Hyderabad. If we can’t go to his place, he packs up food in the layered metal dishes they use and brings it to us in the hotel. His wife has made clothing for Sharon and I and they never fail to help us in any way possible. We pray for Rao and his wife, daughter and nephew and they, we just learned, go to Hindu temples and pray for us. May the God of all be revealed to them. We love them.

We had a wonderful visit with Akanksha, her husband Kalyan (recently baptised and now known as Thomas) and Akanksha’s cousin, Onesimus. They are all from the Buduga Jangam people and we see God beginning a work in that group through house church plants. Our good friend, Nehemiah, though a Banjara (Gypsy) has a strong ministry to Buduga Jangam people in his area and is interested in reaching out to that same group in other places. Thinking back on the way we adopted Akanksha those years ago, losing her when she married, finding her again, and now seeing her in Bible school, we marvel at the way God works.

Yesterday we got up early, checked out of our hotel and drove to Cherial, about 140 km. away. We met with the girls who live and train there in Bible and all ways of serving the church, and I interviewed six Bible women. I had seen five of them before, so got more of their stories. I also interviewed the lady who was my translator as she has a very interesting story of ministry to Banjara people when she was a young woman of 17. We spent the whole day there and were blessed and exhausted when we left in the evening. We drove the several hours back to the TENT facility outside of Hyderabad and fell into our new bed there. We have amazing facilities here, large clean room, bathroom, the whole enchilada as they say. Of course there is the usual wildlife to contend with— lizards, bugs and frogs, plus a spider the “size of New York” as I screamed to Roger. I did my first teaching this morning as the wife of the director, Mary Vijayam is ill. I had to dive in early and it went fine. We will probably be here and make day trips out when I’m not teaching. The girls are very sweet. They range in age from 15 to one lady who is 54. They are speaking up quite well and are a joy to work with. I may not teach as much as I thought as they are at the end of their term and have their strategic action plans to finish plus various other guest speakers. But I will be ready “in season and out” and just dive in when they say it’s time. Indian time, you know.

Our time is flying by. It is in the low 90’s and very humid here. It is their winter. Today is cloudy and windy so it’s not too bad. There is no A/C here, but the fans work well. I’m nearly as good as new although yesterday there was a seatbelt in the car (amazing in itself) and it hurt to have it buckled up against my side.

Looking forward to returning home to our winter holidays and family. Love to everyone back home. See you in a few weeks.

We are busily meeting with the people we missed seeing last week. We had a very long train trip from Secunderabad to Peddapalli yesterday where we met with Uma and Sampath. She has been ill and we have been worried about her pregnancy, but she seemed fine yesterday. Nehemiah traveled with us which makes the whole experience feel safer and easier. We actually found the A/C car. Secret: look for darkened windows. Who knew?

Some of the things we see in India still become burned into my mind: a man laying in the street on the way to the Delhi airport. I’ll never know if he was drunk or dead. The way his limbs were lying it seemed he was dead. No one was paying any attention. Three little children, filthy, no adult with them crying in a little phone area. People passed them on all sides. What could be done for them? A man crawling to the train on hands and knees. His knees “”walking” on that hard cement. So much misery and despair. I think if I lived here all the time I would understand better how people access help and who really needs help. It’s hard to see though.

Today we met with Krupal and his family. Their little girl, Rachel is two now and no longer a baby. Krupal will work with Nehemiah and Sampath will also, to continue to build house church networks.

I was reading the newspaper yesterday and looking at the marriage ads. In many of them it advertises the caste and adds the word “wheatly” or sometimes “fair”. These are ways of saying their daughter is not dark-skinned which is seen as less attractive. They would laugh at us paying to go to tanning booths to get darker.

On the train trip yesterday I saw that it was harvest time for both cotton and some kind of grain. I don’t think it was rice, but I’m not sure. The grain was all cut and in the middle of each field there was a round area where the threshing had been done. The grain was lying there in piles and women were filling pans of grain, dumping them in the bed of trucks and then it was hauled away. They have tractors in some places, but still do so much work by hand. It was beautiful to watch.

This afternoon we will have a visit with our adopted granddaughter and her husband and then tomorrow morning we will drive an hour and a half to Cherial where I will meet with the girls of the Bible School and then interview some of the Bible women. After that we drive another hour or so to TENT, the training center where I will spend the rest of our trip. All prayers for successful teaching will be appreciated.

I am feeling fine now, just sore and trying not to sneeze which still hurts. I’m looking forward to being in one place and not having to cross through the traffic as we do here in Hyderabad. If I were a cat I’d have used up about 8 of my lives from sheer panic as I walk through the cars, motorcycles and pedicabs!

We left Delhi this morning a mere eleven days later than we planned. We did have a little hitch in that we went to the international airport as our ticket said and needed to be at the domestic one. We still made our flight in time. Our friend Rao was waiting for us at the Heritage. Always good to see old friends. We will have breakfast at his home tomorrow morning. I am feeling pretty good although I sneezed the other day and that was a mistake! Just sore now. Roger has been having some back troubles too–seems our bodies are telling us that these trips are not for the faint of heart.

Nehemiah will come to be with us and meet with Krupal on Monday. Uma is in the hospital again and needs prayers as she is having problems with her pregnancy. We hope to see her, but may have to travel to Peddapalli to do it.

Last night one of the orphan boys that Rodrick has taken in had a birthday. Roger had bought baseball caps and potato chips for all the boys and I had lotions and soaps for all the girls. Neetu bought Sandeep a cake and a new shirt and pants. We had a party. I’m sure it was the first time in his 14 years that he celebrated like that. We were there long enough to become attached to the children. Rodrick and Neetu’s little baby, Avijit, is just the cutest thing. He always has someone holding him.

The next few days will be full of meetings and then soon I’ll be out at TENT trying to get the lay of the land. Hopefully I won’t scare myself to death trying to find ways to communicate well. Appreciate your comments, we know you are keeping track of us.

I slept for nine hours last night. Definitely on the mend. The second team from Seattle arrived home this morning after an all-night train ride from Lucknow. We had a nice breakfast with them as they told of the baptisms done up there in the training center at Lachimpur. The candidates are from the Ansari group. Earlier this week there were a group of people baptized here from Central Delhi. They have been well-trained in the meaning. Roger spoke to them about his own baptism experiences and they understood everything. The people from Central Delhi arrived standing in the back bed of a truck. About fifty of them!  It reminded me of the pictures we have seen of the Jews being transported in cattle cars to Auschwitz, but in this case the people were finding life rather than losing it. They were joyful and upbeat. The day was a celebration for them with a meal on the roof afterward.

We have our tickets for Hyderabad on Saturday. We’ll begin to see some of the friends who have been waiting for us. Short visits are better than none at all.

Rodrick has taken in a group of orphans and we enjoy playing with them. Roger was taking the boys to the little local store for ice cream last night, but didn’t tell them where they were going. They went follow the leader style, marching, skipping and being goofballs. Just as Roger was rounding a corner he ran into three businessmen and felt a little foolish. But they had their ice cream and it was a big deal for the boys. They are so happy to have a nice place to live, be in school and have clothes, food and all their needs met. Some of them may be adopted by families later on.

We did a little shopping today in the neighborhood where we are staying. Roger has friends all up and down the streets. He stopped at his infamous barber shop to have a trim so he can get the accompanying massage. No dyes this time, Mama was here to watch over things!

It was Diwali here in India just before we arrived. There are still lights strung around buildings, greetings posted, “Happy Divali from Dr. Pandit”, and at night some stray leftover fireworks.

I took my usual tour of the roof this morning. It never ceases to amaze me that there is so much to see from up there. Today I just sat down to enjoy the sunshine when a young man took two small catfish out of a tank, placed them in a round tin pan and proceeded to hose them off. Then he left them to die and later took them somewhere. I am expecting to see fish on the table soon. Then as I was watching all the construction work I observed a work crew for a time. They are laying brick as they add a new story to a building across the way. One man is down on his haunches and his job is to keep the cement mixed in a small metal pan and pass it along to the others. He gets out a plumb line once in a while and holds it up. I was on the roof for about 45 minutes and he stayed in that position all that time. I guess the economy is better in Delhi now and many homes are adding a new level. After the brick is cured they will cover it with a layer of stucco or something like that and paint over it.
Then I watched a woman climb out onto her rooftop with a 6-8 inch tall metal pot. She raised the pot up over her head, slowly poured out the liquid inside and then made some sort of sign with her hands. I suppose it was an offering to a Hindu god. Then my eyes caught a glimpse of a long ponytail of hair flicking out of a doorway on the ground floor. I was thinking of a young woman grooming herself, but it turned out to be the tail of a cow. Maybe it is one of the wandering cows, or maybe someone keeps a cow for milk.

I feel pretty spry today. I am sleeping now which I didn’t do for the first week. I even took a nap yesterday and those of you who know me well know that seldom happens. I still have pain, but so much less it isn’t important. I was so humbled by the literally hundreds of people praying for me. I think Roger called everyone we know. He was a wonderful nursemaid by the way. I can’t tell you how much it means to have that loving care when you really need it. I think I scared him half to death!

We fly to Hyderabad on Saturday morning. I’m looking forward to seeing friends, if only briefly. I am tired of sitting still and reading. I am able to do a little work on computers around here, even editing a piece for Evangel that they want revised for 2010. We may venture out on the streets a little later. I know the four walls of our room intimately.

During the darkest day of my injury I realized that out of desperation and need there was a door to God open in a way I don’t usually experience. I guess there are some good things gained from going through such an experience.

Most of you know by now that after an uneventful trip to Delhi I took a nasty fall on our first day here. We are at Rodrick Gilbert’s training center where they are taking good care of me. It will be a week tomorrow since the accident and I am able to roam around the building very carefully. If you are old enough to remember the old Carol Burnett show and Tim Conway’s little old man sketches, you will have a picture of me moving. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. Do you remember the old telephone game where people pass on a message around a circle? It never gets there correctly. Well my story has been told in several versions too. In Ohio they thought I hit my head and my daughter who got the message while asleep thought I’d fallen out of a three-story building! Here is the straight truth: I had taken a shower, gotten dressed and was returning to comb my hair and as I stepped back out of the doorway my foot slipped on a little puddle of water (on the marble step) and I landed on my right elbow and hip. I remember it happening too fast to try to catch myself and also the vivid pain as I landed. I got up, got that buzzy, ear-ringing feeling when you are going to faint and went down again. Up a second time, saw a bunch of blood and decided I’d better figure out where it had come from. So I stood up and looked in the mirror, saw it was my elbow and then fainted on the bed. Got up a third time and went down again. Then my brain decided that if I wanted help I’d better gather myself and go call for it. Luckily Roger was near enough to hear me. So they got me all fixed up with pain meds and muscle relaxers. The first few days were pretty awful. I had an MRI and CT scan and for 24 hours we thought I had a slipped disc and was to be on bed rest for several weeks. That thought was pretty scary because I couldnt find a way to be comfortable in bed. When the specialist read the tests he said I am just bruised and will be fine in a week or so. I am going today to have the elbow stitched as it isn’t healing up properly. I feel much better but our trip schedule is all a mess. I think we will fly to Hyderabad in a few days and then meet with people in town rather than visiting them in their homes. I feel fortunate to be able to keep my commitment to  teach at TENT.
Lots to process after the months of planning, but we have a God who knows all and we are just thankful for good friends and a safe place to recuperate. Thanks to all of you for praying and caring.

By the way my care included three home visits from two doctors and a nurse and an ambulance van ride today to redress my elbow and all of that was free. We only paid for our medications and they were only about $20. The CT scan and MRI cost $150.  The last doctor visited with us and treated us like old friends.  Who knows, he may visit us in Vancouver as he has a brother in the states!!  Just before we left for the trip we found out our medical co-pays are doubling next January, hmmm health care reform?