Up and ready to go again at 9am.
Exhaustion apparently covers a multitude of sins and we all felt rested though with the addition of a few mysterious bug bites after our night in the hotel.
I sat with Saloni in the foyer of the hotel while we waited for the others to get up and for the bus to arrive. Each hotel we've stayed in has had some form of idol in the foyer and this morning they were burning incense to the idol. I can barely stand the smell of incense, especially while drinking my tea, and I was relieved when we were ready to go.
We went to the missionaries' (Amu and Joseph) house, where Robyn had stayed the night, for our breakfast. The house is also a boys hostel and we got to meet all the boys. This room they are seated in is the room that all 30 of them sleep in at night but they have recently begun building another room onto the house for them.
They were all dressed up in nice shirts as they prepared to go home to relatives for the 9 day holiday beginning today. We were glad we'd arrived before they headed off.
They sang for us and did a special welcome song which these two boys repeated 8 times gesturing with their hands so that we were greeted individually. Some recited passages of Scripture and one boy even shared his testimony with us.
We did the usual singing routine and then Bill got up to speak.
Bill tried a new tactic for the boys and began with a skit, which became an illustration for his short talk. The boys laughed as Bill pretended to speed along in his car, darting in and out of traffic and honking his horn just like Indians drive. He was in a hurry to get from Hyderabad to Chinnoor to see the boys in the hostel, but he got pulled over by the police for speeding! The policeman (Luke and his siren noise) told Bill in his best Indian accent that he would have to pay a fine of 250,000,000 rupees (about 4.5 million Australian dollars)!! The boys were absolutely enthralled with the story and gasped at the impossible amount. Bill made all sort of excuses and tried to convince the policeman that he had done lots of good things like going to church, giving away money to the poor and driving under the speed limit most of the time. The policeman was undeterred by all these facts and Bill even said "but I'm a pastor!" (a title which is respected by the Indian people). Of course, the policeman would accept no excuse, and Bill had to admit that he had no way of paying the outrageous amount. The policeman gave Bill another option; go to jail instead. How long would he have to go to jail for? The policeman looked at Bill for a moment (with dark glasses over his eyes and a very stern expression) and said "250 million years". What!? The boys again could barely believe the punishment. There was no other way though; Bill would have to go to jail.
Just as the stern policeman was dragging Bill out the door and off to jail, Alex jumped out of his seat and said "wait!". The boys eyes never left the scene and they all seemed to take in every detail, as Alex got down on his knees and begged the policeman to take him instead. Bill asked, "could Alex really take my place?" The policeman agreed and Alex was dragged off to jail.
Bill hopped back in his car and was able to make it all the way to Chinnoor thanks to Alex!
Bill explained that he could never forget about Alex but instead would live his life in thankfulness toward him for what he'd done.
You've probably worked out by now what the story is a picture of. Bill went on to explain that Jesus did exactly that for us. No amount of good things we've done can ever make up for our sin. We have a huge fine to pay which will cost us eternal death and there is no way out of it. Jesus stepped in a experienced eternal death on the cross so we could go free! Do we shrug our shoulders and say "thanks Jesus!" and continue on with our lives? No!! Our lives are filled with gratitude toward Him and all He has done for us. We don't obey Him out of a sense of duty but with an enthusiastic thankfulness!
Even the missionaries and Kumar, who interpreted for us, were enthralled by the whole story and I doubt that they'll ever forget the vivid illustration of salvation.
We said goodbye to the boys and headed off to visit a missionary family a short drive away.
Sitting inside their little house and talking with them as their young daughter slept on the bed in the corner, they explained how many poisonous snakes lived in the roof along with the rats. They smiled and declared how good God is, as they shared how many they'd caught this year and nobody had been bitten.
Just a few minutes down the road is the village church that they minister in.
On this Thursday morning, when usually everyone would be working on their farms, the church was full of people ready to worship together. We were told that many were missing due to recent outbreaks of malaria and typhoid in the village.
We had a full length church service with prayer and singing and Bill did his sermon and repeated the skit from the morning. A few boys from the hostel were there and giggled expectantly, knowing what was coming next in the story. The story seems to really work well and the people show much more understanding than they did with some of Bill's other sermons. I think a lot is lost in translation and the simplicity of the story along with all the action going enables them to understand more. Of course, the depth of truth in the story is also so great that they have many questions for Bill afterwards. One man asked the exact same question that one of the boys did this morning, "why were you speeding?" :)
A young Christian man shared his testimony with us as Gracia interpreted. We were encouraged to hear that even as a young christian he was heading off to study at Bible college in order to become a leader in the church.
This lady stood up and was introduced to us as they explained that today was her first time coming to church, a big step for someone in this kind of community.
It was a hot day, reaching around 40 degrees and Bill was dripping in his long sleeved shirt. He has to dress the part as a pastor, and the people often look a little strangely at the boys when they wear shorts as it as seen as extremely casual.
The couple in the foreground to the right are the missionaries at this church and cooked us all a yummy lunch to share along with the congregation. We begged the right to dish up our own plates in order to avoid being given mountains of food and then feeling rude when we can't finish. I love the way they deep fry fresh river fish, but find it painful to pick out all the tiny bones! The advantage to using your fingers to eat everything is that you never burn your tongue and you can pick out bones easily before finding them in your mouth.
We were taken back to the hotel after lunch to rest for an hour in the heat of the day. Of course, being crazy foreigners, we decided we'd prefer to take a walk and explore the little roadside stalls nearby. Saloni, Samuel, Bill and Robyn took the opportunity to nap and us four remaining set out on our walk. Gracia came with us to keep us out of trouble. She's like our lovely tour guide, interpreter, protector and little sister all rolled into one very gracious young lady.
We very quickly got mobbed by people wanting to know who we were and why we were there and have pictures with us. We have to be careful not to cause problems for the missionaries in the community and so avoided elaborating on why we were there. Gracia said that they become so interested because they can hear our accent. If they had heard an English accent among us they would have had nothing to do with us. As it is most of the village people have no knowledge of Australia at all, and the few that do know only cricket:). We became uncomfortable with all the attention after only a few minutes and so headed back home with Keaton being the only one to make a purchase of few pomegranates from a stall.
We walked down to Amu and Joseph's house, a slightly more relaxing walk amongst the little houses of the village. We had coffee and tea with biscuits along with Keaton's pomegranates. Amu and Joseph are very hospitable and make us all feel welcome, along with Kumar, Crownie and Gracia.
The sun began to set over their garden as we headed off to visit another church.
Colour is such a huge part of India that it hardly seems unusual to see the churches decorated so brightly.
We did the usual church service; singing and Bill's sermon with the addition of the skit, as well as Keaton and Alex both sharing their testimonies. We sat up the front again, facing the congregation and were almost eaten alive by mosquitoes and various other bugs. I was thankful for Robyn's scarf that I've been using as a head covering and wrapped it securely around my neck to stop the endless amount of moths that delighted in flying down my neck and the front of my t-shirt. Aeroguard seemed to have no effect at all on the creatures. We must have looked funny as we tried in vain to protect ourselves from the bugs and sporadically began whacking ourselves to kill those that landed on our skin. Saloni left to use the toilet at the beginning and came back more than a little disturbed after the experiencing of "going bush" as we would say in Australia. I've had to "go bush" in Australia before, but can imagine it would be an entirely different experience in India where it is significantly more populated and where it's difficult to walk in the dark because of the danger of walking into one of the many open sewers.
We all enjoy meeting the congregation after another service. Even if I can only shake hands or greet someone with a "namaste" and a smile, it's enough to see the light in their eyes and feel like family amongst them because of the same God we serve. As much as most of you know I love my words, and I've spoken in a previous post about words meaning more to me than pictures, I also believe that gestures or actions are worth more again. I don't know any of these people personally, I don't even know their names; and yet as I shake the hand of every person that reaches out to me, I feel like somehow we have welcomed one another, met with one another, and accepted one another. I don't need words, so long as I can reach out a hand in greeting and a smile in friendship and love.
We went back to Amu and Joseph's house for dinner together and were fed till we could eat no more and still the food kept coming. We ended our overflowing day with prayer together and then walked back to our hotel by torchlight to avoid the sewer trenches.
I managed to get to bed just before midnight.
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."
John 10:27-28
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