passion @ uwa

Peter's India update (part one)

I left Perth at 6am and arrived in KL in good time. After checking in for my next flight I realised that the plane to Kolkata was delayed by about 2.5 hrs so I arrived in Kolkata just as my flight to Mumbai was due to leave. Fortunately nothing in India departs as scheduled so I ended up making the flight and having about another 2 hr wait. I got out of the airport for a short walk and smelt the smells of India. The air is heavy with woodfire smoke, petrol fumes, refuse and an indescribable mixture of unique smells. I also managed to purchase the most precious of rare commodities in India- a coca cola. The flight to Mumbai was great, awesome food and awesome service and I ended up landing in Mumbai at about midnight before the experience of a 30 km ride into the centre of town in a taxi. This was my first experience of the Indian roads and my driver was both extremely skillful and extremely crazy. There don't appear to be any road rules and people overtake and cut each other off with only centimetres to spare. And there are bikes and motorbikes everywhere sneaking into all the little gaps in the traffic they can find. It seems that the most polite thing to do while driving is honk your horn as much as possible to let everyone know that you're coming past. You don't wait for a gap in the traffic to turn or pull out from the side of the road but just pull out and expect the other drivers to slam on the brakes or swerve to miss you. I must admit that instead of being scared by it I was actually thrilled by the risk and skill displayed in the very quick journey. Upon arriving in central Mumbai I found a hotel for a few hours sleep.

I was woken in the morning by the sound of the 5am call to prayer blasting from a loudspeaker just outside my window (the sound came in via the air-conditioner which in my drowsy state had me confused for a little while). There was no sleep after that and I made the short trip to the train station at 7am ready to board the train to Surat. It turned out that the train had been delayed for 5 hours so my taxi driver took me to see the Gateway to India which is just outside the hotel that was bombed last year. He was a nice guy and was going to take me to see most of the sights in Mumbai (and probably make a lot of money from it) but I really had to get to Surat asap to meet Ziech so I could join the rest of the team. So it was back to the station where I managed to buy another ticket for an earlier train which took about 5 hours to get to Surat passing through some beautiful country but also some slum areas. It seems to me that there are very few buildings in India that have finished being constructed. Most building either look half finished or in a state of disrepair. I wonder what will be left in another 10 years from now. My train trip was kept interesting by the constant stream of vendors walking up and down the carriages selling Chai, different foods and weird odds and ends like toys and locks. I also managed to be propositioned by a couple of transvestites and a group of child beggars sat next to me for half an hour tapping me on the arm and pressing their foreheads against my legs after I gave one of them some money. I had paid a little bit extra for a 2nd class sleeper ticket but most of the time different passengers came and sat on my bed so the few minutes when I could lie flat were a luxury.

If I thought the beggars on the train were bad the beggars at the station in Surat were terrible. I had about a 45 minute wait for Ziech who was coming by bus and a crowd of young kids crowded around me poking at me and touching their fingers to their lips asking for food. The tragedy is that most of them will be working for someone else so any money you give them will go straight to someone who is making a lot of money. I gave one of them some popcorn and was shocked at their cheek when they said that wanted my coke as well! Anyway, Ziech arrived soon enough and we just made next bus to Navapur which was about a 3 hour drive. The bus driver was nuts. We were driving on a road with one lane in each direction and at one point he overtook a car which was overtaking a truck with oncoming traffic. Imagine three vehicle side by side heading in the same direction on a road with just two lanes and with cars and buses fast approaching from the other direction. Ziech and I were thankful that the driver was in the worst position but there were many times that he just swerved back onto the correct side of the road with a split second to spare. This is driving with no margin for error. We were spooked after passing a truck on the side of the road with the whole front end buckled inwards but we made it to Navapur safely. Ziech was due to preach that night in a village church and we were running late so we quickly got in a tuktuk (a small 3 wheeled motor-rickshaw that is less powerful than my little postie-bike) and made the 10 minute journey to the little village where we were staying. Almost immediately we were on the back of motorbikes and heading to another village where the rest of the team were already leading worship. During the 15 minutes on the bike there was a stream of tears flowing from my eyes which I don't know whether to attribute to the smokey, dusty air or a sense of peace from God knowing that I was in the right place with a group of beautiful people. Although we were late Ziech and I had to have a cup of chai with the village pastor before joining the team for the last worship song. The team then did a drama performance (the Lifehouse 'Everything' skit) before Fenny and Cindy did a dance to Casting Crown's 'Who am I' telling of how unworthy we are that we have a God who cares for us individually. Then Ziech preached an awesome message challenging the local believers and encouraging some of the non-Christian visitors. It must be hard to be a non-Christian in the villages surrounding Navapur because 90% of the villagers are Christian and strong and passionate in their faith. More than 30 years ago there was a great revival so many of the Christians are second and now third generation believers.

We went back to the village where we were staying in a school bus so I had a change to catch up with all the happenings of the rest of the team. Then it was time for dinner and planning for the next day which was a Sunday. We were splitting up into three groups and preaching in three different village churches whilst also running the childrens churches. I was teamed up with Andre to preach in the local church so I definitely had some preparing to do. We were staying in a grand buliding owned by the missions organisation with three storeys with high ceilings and wide corridors. It stood out from the bark and clay huts that make up the village houses and the rough unfinished concrete building that was the local school. The building housed an orphanage and a bible college and we had rooms on the third floor where my room had light and power during the day but nothing at night. So after dinner I headed back to my room got out my computer and started preparing a message to follow on from what Andre was sharing. I planned to share about continuing on in faith and being like Caleb who at 80 years of age was still just as willing to fight for God as he was when he returned from scouting the promised land with the other 11 spies and encouraged them to be obedient to God and take the land. Unfortunately I fell asleep almost as soon as I started preparing and woke in the morning totally unprepared with my computer on my lap. In the 30 mins I had before heading off to the church I wrote down some scriptures and when it came to my turn to speak I just spoke as I was led and everything seemed to fit together. There were about 200 villagers packed into the little church which had a ceiling draped with most beautiful cut paper decorations of every bright colour imaginable. So beautiful. The message was well received and afterwards we went back to the college for lunch where gradually the rest of the team arrived back.

The rest of the 3 days that I was with the team in Navapur went by with a rush. We were busy with so many things. Each morning different members of the team would wake at 5:30 and do devotions with the orphanage kids and one morning I joined Andre for his sharing to the boys and ended up telling them the story of Jonah and the big fish. We also did sharings with them during the day and one time Fenny felt lead to teach them about how Jesus washed the feet of the disciples so then we washed the feet of all the kids who were old enough to understand. It was really hard because so many of them objected to letting us wash their feet because it went totally against their culture but we finally managed to have about 25 pairs of clean feet and were then blessed when they washed our feet in return. On the last night in Navapur we were invited to the birthday party of the young daughter of the overseeing pastor of the Bible college. We sang some songs in Hindi and then sang some of our loudest and fastest English Christian songs before Ziech shared a challenging message about going where God has called and taking advantage of the gift of our youth. It was an awesome evening and an interesting introduction to the Indian Christian culture of sharing a message during a birthday party. Afterwards back where we were staying we had a worship and thanksgiving session to give God the glory for what had happened during the trip. On the final day in Navapur Fenny, Simon, Cindy and I made a trip to the local school and taught a geography lesson and a back-care lessons to two of the classes. Fenny did a great job with the back-care lesson she had prepared. Later I was lucky enough to hear the last message in a three sermon series on evangelism that Esther had prepared for the Bible college students. We also had the opportunity to pray for them as they were coming to a time where they needed to decide in which area they were going to serve the Lord and they returned the favour and prayed for us as well. I then managed to find some time to explore the little village with Ziech and Andre before heading back to my room to pack and preparing to leave.

The kids in Navapur were so beautiful and really made it hard for us to leave but after some group photos we piled into two 4WDs and made the trip back into Surat where the team were boarding a train to Delhi. It was a fun trip for a few of us in the back seat who sang songs and made a nuisance of ourselves most of the way. On arrival to Surat the 4WD carrying Gagan and me had a detour to visit a local pastor who had booked us some bus tickets to Udaipur on the overnight bus. We made it to the station about 20 minutes before the train was to leave but there was a short lived scare when we got an incorrect report that the train had been delayed for 6 hours. Even though it was now about 7pm the child beggars were making a nuisance of themselves and again weren't pleased with the food that Gagan gave them. The team made if off ok but not before a brief moment of panic for Gagan and myself when she suddenly couldn't find the tickets for our bus trip. I made a decision to never let Gee look after any tickets or other valuables while we were travelling :-) Anyway, she eventually found the tickets and we were dropped off at the bus stop where we were constantly comparing the number plates of the buses arriving with the number on the ticket. We caught our bus easily enough and I had a sleeper compartment which is a 1.7 by .7 metre compartment with just enough room for me to lie flat with my feet touching one end and my head a couple of centimetres from the other end. Gee had gone budget and just had a seat so while I managed to get 9 hours of sleep during the 10 hour overnight journey she didn't get much at all. The streets in Udaipur were quiet when we arrived early in the morning and we quickly found a tuktuk who took us to the Bible college here and overcharged us a lot for the pleasure. Most people were still asleep so we sat on the verandah outside the main building softly playing guitar as it became light and people started appearing. There is such a peace in this place. It's hard to think that it's the hub of an organisation that has planted over 1500 churches throughout northern India. It's like a little oasis in the craziness that is India. It's such a blessing to be here...