farewell to village

It’s Sunday night as I’m writing this and we have traveled all day. We got up at 5:30 a.m. after I went to bed at 1:00 a.m. and I’m really tired. We are in Delhi tonight but we are leaving for Jaipur tomorrow where the palace is located. We leave at 6:30 a.m. and take a four hour bus ride. We will stay overnight in Jaipur and then leave for Agra on Tuesday for the day. Agra is where the Taj Mahal is. We return to Delhi on Wed. to spend the day sightseeing before we leave for home. We fly out of Delhi at 3:30 a.m. on Thursday and arrive back in the states around 2:00 p.m. Thursday. Remember there is a 10.5 hour time zone difference and our air time is 17 hours. I won’t get home till the late hours of the night on Thursday.
Let me tell you a little about what transpired yesterday. It was a full day to say the least. I went to the English speaking church with another Pastor yesterday morning not expecting to preach, but to sit back and relax. When I got to Sabbath school, the Pastor of the church asked me to preach. I had met him earlier in the week and he was more than willing to give up his pulpit to me.
I want to tell you the whole story about what happened in worship that morning but it might be better left to tell in person. But there was a reason God asked me to preach. And there were people in the congregation that needed to hear what I spoke on. I spoke on the cross of Christ and its importance in our preaching and evangelism. AND, I didn’t need a translator!
Right after church I was escorted to the home of one of the team members for a farewell party. I ate home cooked Indian food and was treated like a king. They gave me gifts and I gave them gifts for their support of me at this village. We took lots of pictures and there were speeches. When that was all over, I was informed that I needed to visit each home of the group members (eight of them) and to say a blessing for each home. That took the rest of the afternoon.
We then went to site for the last time. I was tired before I got there. When we arrived at the site, our host wanted to have a tea party for me and the team. Needless to say I did no visiting in the homes last night. We finished the tea party just in time to start the meeting.
We set up the equipment and there were more speeches. I was honored again with a shawl and a necklace. The team gave me an engraved plate as a memento of this experience along with a national Indian flag. I was wondering where I was going to pack all of this stuff they gave me? When we finally began, we were late. We showed the Jesus DVD in its entirety. It was longer than I expected and we didn’t finish the video till 9:15 p.m. We normally ended at 8:30 on other nights. Then it was time for me to say goodbye. I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to how I held up.
Then we had another round of goodbyes and pictures. Many from the village wanted to have a photo taken with me. Kanatha and Ambiga had tears in their eyes when they came to say goodbye. They even shook my hand which is the closest thing of physical contact between men and women that is allowed in this culture.
The driver took my translator and Bible worker and I back to the hotel. There I asked the two of them to come up to my room where I had another special gift for just them. At the room, Pastor Prince my translator stuck out his hand to shake mine then fell into my arms hugging me and I think he even wept a little (like all good strong men he hid it well). My Bible worker, Amani, couldn’t hide it. She cried like a baby. Once again, I wanted to hug her but it was not going to be. Amani always bowed low to me when she met me or said goodnight but never really spoke to me in English before last night. She said: "goodbye pastor and thank you".
I was really exhausted and emotionally drained after they left. I then started to try and pack all the stuff I was given plus some souvenirs. Even with leaving some stuff I brought along, I had a hard time closing my bags; plus they were really heavy.
I hope to get this posted before we leave the hotel tomorrow. This will be the last post until I get home. I can’t wait! I miss my wife and I’m ready for some home cooking, my own bed and to play hockey again. I’m even ready for some snow! (sorry Jack but I like the stuff) I am going to hibernate for a couple of days when I get home to recover from the jet lag. I may or may not see you on Sabbath depending on how tired I am.
May God bless you and keep you.
Pastor Kevin

Kanatha's goats

This will probably be my last blog from Madurai where we are doing evangelism. There may be another one Monday, but it will be touristy in nature. Tonight was my last speaking engagement and I spoke on heaven. It was well received. I have another story to tell you from tonight’s meeting, but before I do I want to explain the picture.

Wed. just after breakfast, another pastor and I went to the local flower market. This is where the bulk flowers come in for the local vendors to purchase to make wreaths and other floral arraignments to be used primarily in Hindu worship. These flowers are cut no earlier than the day before they come to market.

It is an awesome sight of colors and wonderful smells. People are bartering all around to get the best prices. There is a large variety of flowers, greens and all the raw material to make the elaborate wreaths and garlands like the one you saw me wearing in an earlier post.

Since Trish loves flowers so much I couldn’t help thinking of her and wishing she were her to experience this. If we lived close to something like this, she would have fresh flowers everyday.

Tonight was a bit of a circus at my sight. Some Bigwigs from the Columbia Union (the boss of my boss) came to visit and they showed up at my sight with cameras and video. Needless to say, we had to recognize them and honor them by allowing the Union President to say the opening prayer. Then they were off the see other sights.

We got down to business (oh, by the way, did I mention that I had my fourth different translator tonight?) and started the program. Things went well and the sermon was well received. As I look back over the past 16 days, I wish I would have done a few things different as far as the sermon content and sequence of sermons. I should have gone with my heart instead of following directions. But tonight I really felt that many understood what I was presenting.

We are baptizing four more people tomorrow afternoon from this village. Once again, I’m being given the privilege of doing the actual baptizing. There are a few others that are almost ready but a couple of things need to be cleared up for them before they are ready.

One of those who have been coming regularly is an older lady who loves to sing with the children and do all the hand motions. She is just too cute. Her reason for not being ready tomorrow is that she had planned a special Hindu ceremony at her house called a Puja. She had invited friends and family and this was going to be a big deal. Well she planned this before she came to the meetings. With what she has learned, she now knows that her Hindu worship isn’t worshipping the true God and she wants to be baptized. She told my Bible worker that as soon as the Puja is over, she will be baptized and never do it again. I told you she is cute.

The real story tonight is what happened after the meetings. You may remember Kanatha. She was one of the first I baptized last week. She is the young, 28 year old, widow with four children and a collapsed roof. Well, I had decided I wanted to help with her situation. I was trying to buy her a cow or some goats so she could make a living.

This enterprise has been driving me up a wall. I have had a difficult time getting cooperation from the local church and my translator. Finally, I brought the subject up with our host who honored me on Wed. I told him he would honor me if he would assist me in helping get 4 goats for Kanatha (3 females and 1 male). I told him that I needed his expertise and influence to get me the best deal and to get the goats to Kanatha’s house.

He was proud as punch that I asked him. I did this in front of the local pastor last night while we sat on our hosts’ porch. I asked if the two of them would take Kanatha to market, help pick out and purchase the goats and then make sure they were delivered to her house. We got it worked out but I wanted the two of them to be there when I told Kanatha. I wanted a three way accountability connection so that no one could cop out on me.

Well having any conversation in India in private is nearly impossible. Not only are there too many people, but the people aren’t aware or even care about privacy issues. After the meeting and praying for my line of people who always wait for me, I finally got them aside (after out right telling people to leave us alone).

This is what I said to Kanatha: “My heart breaks for the people of this village. I hurt for them and want to help them but I can’t help everyone. I have chosen to help you because of your situation with your children and no husband. But with this gift comes great responsibility. This gift of goats is intended to make you independent in earning money to care for your family. But not only that, I am placing the responsibility on you to help others as you have been helped. I’m leaving this village after tomorrow and I am asking you to help your neighbors in this village by sharing Jesus with them.”

I then pulled out a new Bible in Tamil to give her as a gift. As I was handing it to her, she shook her head no. I asked what was the matter? She then told my translator that she couldn’t read. I’m not making this up. If my heart wasn’t torn up before, it was now. Here is a young woman without any real means to support her family, no husband and now I find out she can’t even read! (the local pastor said someone in his church will teach her)

As I watcher her face I had a hard time reading her emotions. She didn’t seem too happy with this news. My first thought was she didn’t want the gift because she may feel it was too hard to care for goats or she didn’t know how to care for them. She could have been angry, sad, confused or frustrated or all of the above for all I could tell from her expressions. I asked through the translator what was wrong.

Now I have been married to a woman for three months shy of 29 years. You would think that would have trained me for a moment like this. I came to find out from what my translator told me that Kanatha thinks just like my wife and I assume most other women. I’ll bet that the women who are reading this blog already know what every guy who is reading this is still guessing at. Kanatha was thinking about her life with her husband before he died how her life had changed at his death and now how she was getting a second chance. She was sad, happy and confused all at the same time. As she was explaining her feelings I saw her eyes well up with tears, she had been fighting them back for the whole conversation. It’s at this point you want to hug her, but as a man in this culture I couldn’t even think of it. I just bowed to her as is the normal greeting and watched as she bowed back. Now I could see the gratitude in her eyes.

It will be along time before I can get the images out of my head from this trip. I have seen the wild, the grotesque, the sad and the disgusting. I have seen the physically deformed, the starving, the begging, the sleeping on the streets at all times of the day in all kinds of places. I have seen houses that wouldn’t qualify as barns in America yet people are living in them and sleeping on either block or dirt floors. I have seen what a mass of humanity lives like when it is forced into too small a space to handle it. I witnessed extreme religious rituals and ceremony that resemble the pagan worship that God warned Israel to stay away from. But I have seen God’s kingdom here and the working of the Almighty to call His children home.

May you be blessed this Sabbath and remember to keep me in your prayers as we begin our journey home. We leave Sunday morning early to head to Northern India for a few days of sight seeing before heading home to Ohio. The weather here is quite warm and I understand that you’re finally having winter. Hopefully I can bring some warm and sun with me when I return.

Pastor Kevin

I glory only in the Cross of Christ!

Just when you think the well is drying up for stories, something else happens. I am winding down and didn’t think there was too much left to talk about, but God had another surprise for me tonight.

I went prepared to preach the next assigned sermon; Holy Spirit and the Unpardonable Sin. It wasn’t the most exciting sermon I’ve ever preached, but it would have to do. My interpreter changed again tonight and he was late picking me up. We didn’t go visiting because of his lateness.

The meeting started on time and went according to the normal pattern so far. After prayer and song we normally play a short segment of the Jesus DVD with Tamil language. Tonight’s section that we played was on the trial and scourging of Jesus. The response of the crowd was amazing. Normally there is chatter by the kids and lots of movement and noise. Not tonight.

It occurred to me as I watched the crowd that even though I had spoken of Jesus death for them, they had no idea what that really meant. I have felt all along in these meetings that we needed to start with the basics. All the sermons we have preached seem to imply some knowledge of Christ but the reality is they don’t know anything! They don’t even have access to the Bible in their Tamil language in these villages.

As I stood up, I felt impressed to drop the whole sermon and share with them the whole story of Jesus, including the great controversy theme of the crucifixion. I explained to them that the cross wasn’t God’s idea, but Satan’s plan to get Jesus to give up which would then mean Satan would win the battle for earth.

I preached freely and at times I felt goose bumps as I spoke. I really felt this was from the Holy Spirit. No notes, the Bible texts flew from memory, the story flowed even with a translator. It was the best sermon I preached since I started. It was from the heart, it was my thoughts and my words, not someone else’s sermon. Instead of preaching about the Holy Spirit, I preached with the power of the Holy Spirit.

I asked them to make a choice between the God who was willing to give up everything for them; or the enemy who was all about their destruction. I don’t know what the outcome of this sermon will be; but I know God led tonight and Jesus was lifted up.

To switch gears a little, we went to a new temple today. It was the new moon festival and pilgrims came to this temple to pierce themselves with hooks and spikes. We weren’t able to see many because we came too late. We found a couple of women with serious tongue piercing. Hence the picture attached.

Might be one or two more posts before I get home. Can’t wait to see you all, especially my wife!

Pastor Kevin