First, I want to apologize for the lack of weekly
posts I promised. Between scattered wifi opportunities and a converter that I
did not know didn’t work until I plugged it into a wall for the first time, I
was unable to post in India as I had hoped. The following few posts are
recollections of India after I left for Nepal so they won’t be as fresh as I
would like. I still hope they give you a taste of what we experienced and what
God did in me throughout this portion of the trip.
All I can say is wow. Wow wow wow. India is a
beautiful country. The people are beautiful, the places are beautiful, and the
atmosphere is beautiful. Juxtaposed against this beauty is some of the worst
poverty I’ve ever laid eyes on, worse that the poverty I saw in Cape Town, ZA last
summer. These past two and a half weeks have been life changing, truly. I hope
I can convey a little bit of our group’s experience here.
This group is the most amazing group I have ever
traveled with. Every person sought to love and support one another and each
person was willing to share with each other. Everyone looked after each other,
made sure we were drinking enough, and encouraged everyone throughout the
duration of the trip. Each person was also willing to make sure they did their
part to make our ministry and class work here worthwhile. I saw different
characteristics of God in each person:
love, compassion, gentleness, creativity, flexibility, guidance, comfort,
joy, sacrifice, vulnerability, bravery. I am so thankful for such a wonderful
group of people I now count as some of my dearest friends. I look forward to
more seminary training with them =)
We started our journey in Hyderabad. We stayed here
for roughly one week. It is a bigger city than I imagined, although it still
contained some quiet spaces. We stayed in a Catholic retreat center in the
city. The nuns were a quiet, gentle presence of God that showed us much
kindness. Every morning on my way down to the basement for breakfast, I would
stop just outside the entrance to the nuns’ hallway. As the sun rose, they sang
beautiful worship songs. While I could not understand a word they said (other
than the occasional hallelujah), their voices carried a reverence and a love
for God that is absolutely beautiful.
Hyderabad is home to one of the largest Muslim
communities in India, which was surprising to me. It also has a strong
Christian presence. Just after our arrival, government officials released the
results of a major election in the state of Andre Pradesh, the state which
contains Hyderabad. If I remember correctly, it was the first democratic
election in the history of the state and is, arguably, one of the most
important democratic elections in the history of the world (which makes me
ashamed of the lack of news coverage U.S. media provided on the topic). The
party that won is known throughout the country as discriminatory against
Muslims and Christians. The future of Andre Pradesh is uncertain at this moment
and all of our Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters are anxious. Please keep
them in your prayers.
There is a very strong Christian presence.
Evangelism of any sort is illegal in Hyderabad, so any conversion to the
Christian faith happens through genuine relationship and discipleship. For this
reason, I think, the faith and passion of the Christians there is so strong.
This is the story of the pastor we worked alongside during our stay in
Hyderabad. His name is Pastor Phillip; he is truly a man of God. He invited us
to his church and welcomed us with open arms. As he told us his story of
salvation, I was in awe. Here was a man who started from nothing, was
discriminated by his family for his Christian faith, and started a church and
pastor training program from the ground up. All of us felt so blessed and
honored to meet him.
Part of our ministry was to provide childcare during
their annual conference (our professors also taught on their areas of
expertise). We got to sing to, play with, and teach the children and youth of
the church and they were wonderful! Even though many of the younger children
did not understand English, they welcomed us as their friends and played. Their
laughter is one of the most beautiful sounds, followed by their shrieks of joy.
None of us will forget how they affectionately call “Duck-Duck-Goose” “Duck-Duck-Juice”.
The youth also taught us some traditional dances they do as worship in their
church and spoke with us about fun girly things. It was a day full of joy and
laughter; we saw God everywhere.
We also had the opportunity to go the church of one
of the pastors who attended the conference. His name is Pastor Paul, and his
story is just as amazing as Phillip’s story. He taught himself how to read in
less than a month (as an adult) so that he could read the Bible and learn
ministry under Pastor Phillip’s tutelage. His church is in the countryside
outside of Hyderabad, roughly a four-hour bus ride from the city. His church
welcomed us with open arms and allowed us to worship with us. They then gave us
a feast of fruit fit for kings and showed great love to us. Pastor Paul’s
daughter sat with us and laughed with us. The women smiled at us and shook our
hands. We felt welcomed into their family unreservedly.
For that Sunday, Pastor Philip asked us to plan a
worship service for two different churches:
his own church and another church he helped start. Each group had to
prepare a service incorporating themes from a book we had read for class; the
sermons had to come from the latter half of Isaiah and focus on idolatry. My
group had the privilege to prepare a service for Pastor Phillip’s church and I
had the honor to preach the sermon. If we learned nothing else, my group
learned the art of improvisational leadership and flexibility. Come Sunday
morning, we had to completely change our plans and trust the spirit of God to
guide us. I was so impressed by the group’s ability to stay calm under change
and touched by the congregation’s hospitality to welcome us in worship. I was
also impressed by their willingness to welcome a woman preacher, even though
that is something that made them uncomfortable. There are few things more
affirming than a man who was uncomfortable with a woman preacher approaching
you and saying “You preach well.” It was a learning experience for all of us,
American and Indian alike.
While the first part of this trip is mission, the
second part is immersion and it is important to talk about the cultural
immersion we did as a group. Almost every day, we visited a historic site or
Hindu temple, sometimes several. Yes, we entered the temples without our shoes,
looked at the image of whatever deity was there, and saw the priest. We also
saw and interacted with the other people there. We saw everything from deep
piety to humble worship to open hospitality. They welcomed us foreigners in so
that we could learn a little bit about their culture and their religion.
During this portion of the trip, I gave my
presentation on the Mahankali Temple, or the Temple of the Great Kali. Kali is
the Hindu goddess of destruction. While her title seems barbaric, it is
symbolic of the fact that she destroys evil things. As we went into the temple,
I was surprised by the hospitable nature of the priests. They showed us around
and explained different things to us. They showed us artwork, a tree that
started growing inside the temple when it was built over 200 years ago, and
numerous other things. Two small girls approached me and struck up conversation
with me, asking me why our group was there and laughing a little when I told
them my name is Kali. This temple is a place of community as well as worship,
and they welcomed us warmly.
So many wonderful things happened this week, but I
would be lying if I didn’t say it was hard. I knew before I got here that India
is dirty and poverty is everywhere; no words can prepare you for seeing it
firsthand. No words can prepare you for children with matted hair touching your
hand saying “Auntie (a term of respect), food, food.” No words can prepare you
for a father and his child following you for blocks, touching your shoulder,
saying, “Please, rupee. Please, food.” We ignore it in the States because we
have the option to; the impoverished people here don’t give you the option. I
was so overwhelmed that it made me sick to my stomach. How do you ignore such
need when it is literally staring you in the face? This is something that I
will never stop processing. It is something I never want to become okay with.
By the end of this week, I was blessed by the
radical hospitality of our Christian brothers and sisters in India, shocked by
the previously unimaginable poverty, humbled by the openness of the Hindu
people, and touched by the commitment and unity in our group. As we packed up
our bags to fly to Patna, I prayed that God would continue to draw us closer
together as a group, teach us more about love, and teach us more about these
beautiful people.
