One Handful of Rice » 2008 Posts

Scary Stuff

janpierce — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:45:28 +0000

I talked to Roger again last night. He was able to meet one of the most respected Christian men in Hyderabad. His name is Dr. B.E. Vijayam. He is well-known in India for his research and application of self-help projects in agriculture. His son runs a ministry called TENT that teaches young Indian men and women self-sustaining lifestyles. We are excited to get to know them and perhaps work with them in the future.

Here is the scary part. I will arrive in Hyderabad and go to meet these leaders and BOOM, they want me to speak to their women’s conference. Now, I don’t know what the women are gathered for. I don’t know the topics they are being taught about and I don’t have a clue what they would want to hear from me. But if I go, I have to be prepared to get up and bring greetings and a message of some sort. Yikes. This is good for me who would naturally want to hide in the background. I DO have a testimony of how God has worked in my life and I DO have things to share about becoming self-sufficient and how India’s future will depend on that. So now all I need is the guts to speak from my heart and maybe do a little preparation too. I know from past trips how it goes, but I’m always intimidated by it when I return. Time to get tough! You all can think of me and pray for me too. Thanks.

Ready or Not, Here I Come!

janpierce — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:29:47 +0000

Monday was officially named Get Out The India Clothes and Try Them On day. Time is ticking away and I leave in eleven days. Time to see if I can get those Salwar Kameez things on my body. No problem with the pants. I could fit my whole family in a pair of those, but the tops for which they studiously measure my body are always too tight EVERY TIME! So I have hauled out the old sewing machine and eased out the seams. Ahhh. Most of them are wearable.
Roger has been in India for nearly three weeks. It is quiet here. Time to get my writing projects done and a few other things around the house. Time to think and pray about the things we hope to accomplish in the way of new relationships on this trip. Every time I go shopping I come home with another thing to give the orphans or Krupal’s little girl. I try to put my head back into the culture, but I won’t really be able to do it until I land in the airport. THAT gets you back into it in a hurry. I keep hoping I won’t tick off one of the guards with the rifles or get in the dignitary line by mistake again. I’m thinking of places to carry the money. Wondering if I stuff it in my shirt will it show when I get scanned? Stuff like that.
I have high hopes that when I come home this time I’ll have a clearer picture of how to proceed with One Handful of Rice. Will it be scholarships, new orphanages, will we be considering living over there part of each year? Time will tell.
I’m excited about the trip. I am constantly amazed with the way God has led us into this new world. It’s a joy and its a little daunting, but whether I’m ready or not, here I go!

THE LEARNING CURVE

janpierce — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:13:06 +0000

Just this morning I found out a fact that gives all my understandings of the orphanage we work with a new perspective. It was a big “Aha!” and has to do with the particular caste that the directors and most of their pastors came from. Even though the caste system is illegal, it is still practiced and understood throughout the country much as we are aware of the heritage of many Americans and say, “Oh they are Norwegian or Irish or whatever. It never ceases to amaze me that there are neverending layers of understandings that we have to keep peeling away at and still we lack understanding of the culture. Some would suggest that we just stay home and work with needy people here. I agree that we should minister anywhere we live and all the time, but both Roger and I feel that God has opened the doors to work in India and that we are to persevere even when we make mistakes or fail to understand. There are needs to fill and good work to do.

Once in a while I see how we are being used. In this particular caste the people are very downtrodden and unaccepted by higher ones. They would not even be welcome to enter the home of a higher caste member. As Roger works to teach house church principles I can see that they would be very helpful since new believers would just meet in a family member’s home and not be expected to “mingle” with those of other castes in a traditional church setting. There are many ungodly attitudes that keep people from learning more about God and the caste system is undoubtedly one of them. But look around in our own culture and you will soon have another list of the things that get in the way.

So we’ll keep doing what we’re doing in India and will continue to tailor our work to the things God shows us over time. It would be nice if God would sovereignly reveal all we need to know at once, but it would probably overwhelm us. He knows our intentions and we trust He is also working His plan through us as we give up any need for approval or applause from others. It’s humbling to know that we don’t fully understand, but are called to respond to the things we do understand and then change and grow as we learn more. This is especially hard for a person like me who wants to be RIGHT! We may be slow learners, but at least we’re in there trying.

ONE STEP AT A TIME

janpierce — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:37:15 +0000

The Christmas holiday is done for another year. This was an especially nice one with all of our family together. We opted to buy gifts for only the little ones and instead made our way down snowy roads from McCall to Boise to serve a Christmas Eve meal at the rescue mission. Elijah, 6 and Jacob, nearly 4, had little mission aprons on and served bottles of water to the guests. It was a great experience not because we did anything of much value, but because we made a conscious choice to serve instead of consume. Elijah had asked his mom why we always say we will help the poor people but we never do it. Pretty astute for six.

Roger left for India day before yesterday and our son Josh left for his life in D.C. yesterday. Now our house is quiet and I am in it. Strange when you have lived with a spouse for 41 years to be all alone. The hours are long and I’m in the transition from responding and cooperating to initiating, BUT I have sole oversight of the TV clicker:)

We have learned that our “granddaughter”, the girl we have sponsored for the past six years at Dayanilayam and who we have had such high hopes for has left the hostel and is marrying a cousin from her tribal group. We are so sad that she has made this choice. We don’t have a lot of information about who came and got her, but in her people group it is very common to marry at 14 or 15 which is about her age. The school system doesn’t do much to encourage children to stay and so now we may lose her. We hope that the Christian influence in the hostel has taken root in her heart and that she will have a life filled with meaning and hope.

My living room is strewn with things we are taking to India when I join Roger in a few weeks. I wish that we could distribute things like wisdom, hope, joy and understanding instead of toothpaste and toothbrushes. I often think that the transitions from being downtrodden and poor take several generations to take hold and grow even when all the components of the change are available to the people. Instead of saying, “I am poor and I need help”, they will begin to think, ” I am poor, but I can learn and improve my life,”. It takes an inner change, not just the physical materials being available. I see our role as being encouragers and facilitators– ones who connect people with resources and who encourage the independence and responsibility so desperately needed in the hearts of the poor of India.

DEALING WITH FEAR

janpierce — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:09:42 +0000

Even before the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai I have been dealing with some fears about this trip to India. Strangely I haven’t been afraid, or at least not very often, on the other trips. Even the night when armed police banged on our door one midnight at the good old Heritage I was concerned (and clueless), but not frantic. But this time I notice little flickers of fear going through my thoughts from time to time. They are often triggered by news of bombings, accidents, etc. but as I think and pray about them I seem to be facing a fear that goes deeper than my personal safety. When you think about it, we would have to be extraordinarily unlucky to be at the exact site of attacks in that great big country. More likely we will just stand longer in lines going through lots of security checks. But below the surface fears, I find my basic need to please people rearing its head. We are exploring new directions in our efforts to make a difference in lives in south India. We’re taking control of the expenditures in country ourselves and not just giving money to ministries over there. We are taking the risk of offending people and that makes me very uncomfortable. It helps to name the fear- and that would be fear of man. It is fear of anger, accusations, disappointment, and all the range of emotions one human can attach to another when they don’t like the things done. So I ask myself, “Are we hearing from God as we make these decisions?” and I believe the answer is yes. At that point I can turn fear into something more like resolve. I still don’t like it, but I can deal with it. I love the people we know and work with in India. Pray with me that I can fully embrace the love and focus on that in our short visits togther–making the most of our time there. Pray too that we’ll continue to keep our ears open for guidance and that all of our steps will follow God’s “good path.”

What’s Your Identity?

janpierce — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:07:01 +0000

We just returned from a long Thanksgiving weekend in southern Oregon with our close friends. We spent the days in cattle ranching country and with a cattle ranching family. There’s open space; wildlife–deer, elk, hawks, pheasants to be seen and cougar, snakes, coyotes, and more unseen. There are homes dwarfed by the huge numbers of acres surrounding them. It reminded me a little bit of my farm relatives in North Dakota–houses and outbuildings and lots of land. It was beautiful, but I wasn’t “at home”. Home to me is tall green trees, dark rich soil with flowers and shrubs. It’s forest and trails and water somewhere nearby. It’s access to the ocean and the sandy beaches I love. My life is one generation off the farms and ranches and a step from the rural toward the suburbs. Being there amongst the large, extended family and listening to their talk of kids and grandkids, hunting and cows and fences, I knew I was visiting a friendly, but foreign land. I loved it but I was a visitor. One day we hiked up into the rocky hills and found some indian petroglyphs. I needed a sawed off shovel handle to help stabilize the steps through the rock. It was a clear sunny day and once on top of the hills we could see through a large part of the Langell valley. One of the discussions over the weekend was about how three main families homesteaded and developed that valley. Some of their old homesteads and outbuildings are still standing, leaning over from years of wind and snow beating away at them. People around the valley know its’ history and they’re mindful of their place in the ongoing saga. As we sat around large dining tables I looked at the older generation and then at those closer to my age and the young couples with their little families growing around them and finally the little ones who are going to grow up in cattle country. They’ll understand all the nuances of country life and they’ll have a good life too. They’ll know who they are and they’ll be sheltered by the older ones, eventually becoming their caretakers. There is a strong sense of belonging in that family and even though some of the fold have moved to the cities to make their lives, they know their beginnings and go home when they can.

There is great strength to be drawn from knowing and understanding your roots. Where did you come from and where do you return to touch base with your personal history? Where do belong now and are you able to go home when you need to? Where is “home” for you? What’s your identity?

A Large Container of Words

janpierce — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:05:17 +0000

I ‘m a writer now and so I need to write. Sounds straightforward, but I am realizing that it’s not. I get all excited after I’ve written something, but the self-discipline it takes to sit down and actually DO the writing is another story. I sometimes read the blog done by a Mennonite lady named Dorcas Smucker called Life in the Shoe. She says that she doesn’t enjoy writing, but she enjoys “having written.” I agree. Writing is hard work. I do believe that God has gifted me with an ability with words. I was an early, avid reader, I taught reading and writing for years to little children and I read them thousands of books with lots of enjoyment. Now it’s my turn to use words for other people’s reading pleasure, enlightenment or whatever. The thoughts bubbling around in the pot spill over into little articles on things I know or things I am learning or just things I am thinking about. The purpose is to honor God by giving back to others some of the good things that have been given to me. I am sort of a large container of words and the task is to organize them into something valuable and send them out to others. Just call me the Emeril of words. Or maybe the Rachel Ray of words– she’s smaller. I enjoy it. I am wrapped up in it. Sometimes I’m sort of tortured by it, but still I don’t want to stop.

I just got my copy of the devotional quarterly, Fruit of the Vine, and sure enough there are my seven devotionals in print with my own name at the bottom. Very cool. But a writer is never done. There are more words stirring around in the pot. I’m pretty sure some of them will spill over onto a page very soon. Bear with me. I need you. A writer isn’t much without a reader. Yikes, the pot is beginning to boil over……………

Here’s to Courage

janpierce — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:55:27 +0000

I’ve been reading a great website for women on the mission field called Women of the Harvest. My favorite part of that site is a blog called Coffeegirl Confessions. It is written by a woman on the mission field somewhere Spanish-speaking and it is so insightful. It offers other women around the world in similar circumstances a place to share their experiences, whether they are good or bad, up or down. You know, it is real people on the mission field. They are just like you and me except they have made a commitment to live for Jesus in a different culture. In other words, they have courage. Right now some of them are preparing for Thanksgiving with the weather in the 100′s. Now that just isn’t right. Thanksgiving is supposed to be all orange and leafy red with crisp mornings and the smell of smoke in the air and….. NOPE. When you leave home you leave all those nostalgic things behind. It reminds me of Paul saying he had learned to be content in all circumstances–when there was plenty and when there was not. He could have also mentioned leaving the familiar and comfortable for the….something else.

As we prepare for our next trip to India I am remembering how strange my internal clock acted after the last trip. We had spent January and February in hot weather and came home to the end of winter and the beginning of spring. I never did actually get it straight. I kept thinking, “Okay, I had summer, now it’s about time for fall.” And then summer came again. It was weird and happened in my head many times; a sort of ongoing jet lag I guess.

So here’s to the courageous souls on the mission field. They are living in all kinds of conditions that spell uncomfortable. They are dealing with language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, and they are sometimes homesick for family and friends and the familiar. But they are also satisfied that they are living out a call that makes each day worth all their efforts. I call that courage.

Feast or Famine?

janpierce — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:05:38 +0000

Soooooo, the stock market went crazy. Most of us have lost about a fourth of our savings here in the states. We have a condo sitting empty with no renter in sight and a payment to make. However, I have a london broil defrosted to cook for dinner. Feast or Famine? Seems we are doing fine for the present and God is still in control.

We’re looking at November and entering into the traditional American holiday season. I saw a post on a blog written by a young couple who are friends of our son and it mentioned a movement called Advent Conspiracy. This group advocates buying just one less Christmas gift, especially the “obligation” ones where you buy something the person doesn’t really need just to cover your bases in case they buy you something, etc. Instead they encourage a gift to someone less fortunate here or abroad. Can we extricate ourselves from the Christmas crazies and do something simpler, something more in line with what we say we believe about Christmas? How long do we continue to be trapped in a six to eight week spending frenzy that wears us out and costs us money we can’t afford all the while worrying that we are letting others down or disappointing them anyway? I say we be bold and figure out a better way.

I’ve stopped writing a hundred Christmas cards that have no real heart in the message but just a signature and a promise to write when things are more settled. I am not buying gifts for people I work with or just know casually. I’m not spending money to decorate my home in ever more Martha Stewart ways. I am trying not to buy four presents for each family member. I am not trying to do less for the grandchildren— some things are sacred. Think of the day after Christmas–relief, exhaustion, level-headed thinking about spending and giving. You’re glad for family ties and time together. We should be like that before the big day.

On to ministry things. We are booking our tickets for our trip to India. Roger will go right after Christmas and I’ll join him at the end of January. I will be home for Benjamin’s second birthday since we missed his first birthday last year. We’re starting to plan where we’ll stay, who we’ll get to visit and scheduling important meetings to plan future ministry. One Handful of Rice will be doing a variety of practical work: buying rice, buying cots and other necessities for the orphans, distributing blankets to widows, etc. Roger’s work will be focused on training house church leaders both in the Delhi area and in A.P. It is really exciting to see how God has taken us from knowing next to nothing about India or about ministry and how He is leading us in the process of being useful. We don’t claim to understand everything, but we press ahead to do the very best He calls us to today.

How are you doing in your walk with God? Has the financial mess affected your peace of mind? I find I am praying specifically for our needs, which I should be doing all the time. Are you sensing your need for God in this up and down world? Are you able to continue being generous in a time when some of the bounty has disappeared? Is it feast or famine?

What’s the Difference?

janpierce — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:26:45 +0000

Our friend from Delhi, Rodrick Gilbert, just spent a week with us. He is a remarkable man in part because he is able to cross cultural lines with (seemingly) very little effort. I have visited the place in north India where he grew up. His father was an auto mechanic and he and his family of six children grew up in something like an open garage in conditions that we would think unbearable. He is now well-educated and is a successful church planter, but he still knows how to live with next to nothing. Though he is comfortable with American lifestyle, he doesn’t strive to gain all the things we have. He understands that while many Americans have much in the way of material wealth, they are “bankrupt” without God. He is gentle in accepting us as we are.

By contrast, it is very difficult for me to make the adjustments back and forth between cultures. I keep experiencing the shock of witnessing a world totally different from the one I knew. And to think that their poverty is more the norm than my comfortable American lifestyle exposes the fact that my world view has been so tiny and so incomplete. Traveling back and forth between cultures makes the differences stand out even more. Once again I see the deplorable housing conditions, the unbelievable health conditions, the broken infrastructure, etc. The longer I am there the more normal it all seems. Then, bam! I’m back in the states and can’t believe that I spent $20 or $30 for one meal when that amount of money could feed a family in India for a month.

What is God saying to me in these back and forth circumstances? What does it mean to be a good steward day by day no matter where I find myself? The key is in being singleminded about serving God wherever I am. I’ll be useless if I spend all my time berating myself for living in a rich culture. I’ll be useless also if I don’t know that there are millions hungry and in need. So now that I do know, I have the responsibility to live increasingly in response to the needs. True religion is to feed the widows and orphans, yet the poor will always be with us. I won’t solve the world’s problems, but I can be Jesus to those He points me to. I think the reason Rodrick moves between cultures with ease is that he absolutely knows his mission and his purpose in life. It takes a certain kind of serene courage to keep moving forward and not to get bogged down in “culture crevasses.”

As we prepare for our next trip to India, God is faithfully showing us people we need to connect with and new directions our ministry needs to take. I want to grow in being content in every circumstance whether here or there, rich or poor.