RIMI Missions Trips Blog

This year the friends from US who were assigned to Gulburga were J. W., M. H. and M. T.  They arrived in Nagpur from the US on March 18^th, and spent time at the Mission India Theological Seminary in Nagpur.  Then we went to Gulburga in the State of Karnataka which is about a 14-hour trip from Nagpur.  These friends were passionate about Mission India and they are looking for ways to partner with us as a Church.

We stayed in Gulburga from 22^nd Monday and left on the morning of 29^th Monday.  The main activities were house prayers, teaching at the Bible College, Graduation Ceremony, Pastors Conference  and preaching at the Church on the final day.

In the Bible College, J. lead a class on from “Overview of the Bible: Peaks and Valleys of the Bible – A Basic Study of the Bible”, which was attended by the Bible College students and the senior mercy home kids.  At the cottage prayer J. spoke on Col. 1: 7-8 and 4:12-13 about the qualities of a Godly leader.  The first quality is complete surrender and the second is the quality of prayer.

The day of the Bible College Graduation was a big day. Key note speakers were J. and Sister P. F. from Canada.  Felicitations were by a couple of local leaders. Sister C. T. from Canada, M. H., M. T., and Anish John represented the Mission India national office. The program went quite well. In spite of the heat, the graduates and the guests on the dais wore the graduation gowns and crown which made them look like the Maharajas of Mysore.

J. was the main speaker at the Pastors Conference. After the first session M. H. and M. T. gave their testimony.  Anish John preached on John: 21: 1-5 about Peter leaving the ministry for fishing and working hard but without getting any results.

The first session J. talked on God’s plan for missions:  Five Aspects of Missions based on Acts 13:1-4

1. Worship the Lord:  The church in Antioch got the call to missions when they were fasting and praying
2. Core Method of Missions: Apostolic Cycle Acts 14:21-23
3. The primary tool of Missions is the Local Church: Church planting journey started from the local church.
4. Word of God is the foundation of Missions Acts 14:24-28
5. Fundamental work of Missions is the spirit-led prayer.  Acts 13:1

In the second session J. talked on the six core values of Christian Discipleship.

1. God alone is the ultimate value.
2. Word of God and prayer are the foundations of discipleship
3. Body of Christ is our relational value.
4. Everyone outside Christ is of value.
5. Joyful suffering is inseparable part of Christian life.
6. Training more Christian leaders is the duty of a disciple.

The program on the whole went quite well, in spite of the scorching heat. P. suggested that it might be better to have the graduation service and the visit during January when the weather is moderate.

In the discussions with P., J. and the 2 M’s asked whether the local church is really benefited by their visit and teaching, or the opportunity to teach was given only to make them happy.  There are local pastors and teachers who could teach well. For a team to come from US, takes quite a big amount of money, and the local church might be benefitted more if they give the money directly.  Pastor P. and I said that though it costs money, it was a great experience that you came here, and it will help your church to be more convinced about the ministry in India and the needs in India. These friends who had the first hand experience will share their experience in the church and it is of immense value.

One of my purposes for coming to Orissa is to record the real life experiences of persecuted believers; their stories are almost unknown by the church in the west.  Here are some of the things I’ve heard in the last week by victims of the persecution and violence.  These are not overly-dramatized.  I’ve seen their battered buildings, their meager living arrangements and the anguish in their eyes as they relate the stories.  I offer these short bits because these voices need to be heard, even before I get back to the states and edit a documentary.

DG from Chandrapur Block, a tribal man: “miscreants (Hindu militants) went to the Catholic mission of Chandrapur town and entered into the campus. They burned three vehicles and started to enter Priest’s house.  Some Christian people told the priest to flee for his own safety.  He refused saying he would rather die as a martyr.  The miscreants tore the clothes off several nuns and went into the girl’s hostel and raped and hurt the girls.  They looted all the costly things inside the campus.  They beat and kicked the nuns and the priest.”

SN from  Baliguda (Khondamal District): “On Dec 23 2008, hundreds of miscreants with swords, spears and guns entered the worship service and started to mistreat the girls and women…. We had to flee to the mountains three days and nights without food in terrible cold with no warm clothes, no food or water, and no fire. Little children were crying, nobody was there except Jesus… we are living in tents, no schooling, no market because there is no money.  Our sisters were raped, some were attacked to death.” ”.

PG of Chandraour block

“The Hindu association Secretary gave kerosene and petrol to people who went and burned a car and furniture, a fridge and three sound systems.  The Catholic Father went to the forest with the children of the hostel…  They threatened to kill us.  We were in a panic – they said “if you deny your Jesus you will be saved.”  In spite of the warning we never denied Jesus.”

PD of Khondamal: “The Bajang Dal and the RSS (Hindu militant groups) want to erase the name of Jesus. It was terrible cold weather Hindu militants were burning a nearby village.  We came to know that and fled to the nearby mountains.  Nobody took anything. No food.  No water. No money. Women and men fled with only the clothes they were wearing.  We stayed in the jungle three days and nights. The miscreants came and burnt our homes, looted the things, murdered some people, some of our relatives in the village were raped… ”

PS a rural pastor:  “On August 25, 2008 I heard that people from Bhatapala were coming to kill me.  I ran away with my family members to the mountains.  During this time the demolished the church building and boundary walls and the gate too. When we stayed on the mountains we had no food… Today we still live in a terrified condition.”

DK a tribal village pastor: “… we heard some miscreants were coming to damage the church so we fled to the jungle for some days.  Now the situation is OK, but in this broken church we are serving the Lord,  Thirty-two people now know the Lord and have received Jesus as their personal savior and Lord…  We hope and believe someone may come to help save the church we would be very much thankful to them if they come to help us.  It is very difficult to worship under the scorching heat.”

I expect to return in a week with more stories like this.

I’m traveling back to the tribal areas tomorrow, and will not blog.  What follows is self explanatory – a long email to a family member who was concerned about my welfare.  It is as good an expalanation of what and why I’m doing as I can write.

Dear brother Marty:

I have been silent as the emails flew back and forth, but I have looked on with amazement and been humbled.  The passion with which my family loves me is impossible to miss in these messages.

You have heard some of what I’ve written below before.  I do not wish to just throw words at you, I want you to know my heart and my faith.

I leave at 2 am for Orissa and may not be in regular contact with the whole family.  In the meantime, here is a (long) response:

It could be said I go to India to make the world a better place – and certainly that is true.  If I make a small difference in the lives of a few people, bringing seeds to orphanages, training to rural schoolteachers, support to rescued prostitutes and their children, then I am doing some small good.  I suspect it is my nature to do these kinds of things.

But I go for another more important and strategic purpose.  Not to make the world a better place, but to make eternity a better place – for those people who can embrace the concept of a God who cares for them will face eternity with more certainty than those who don’t.

These efforts are based upon a few fundamental beliefs, which you might call religious beliefs, but I’d rather not.  See, “religion” is a word with a lot of negative baggage; wars have been fought with both sides claiming “General God” as their leader, numerous deaths are the result of religion and its persecuting avengers.  If you will give me one paragraph, I will summarize my beliefs for you – it is an important summary, for all else hinges on it.

I believe: There is a Creator who started this whole shebang (Big Bang?) going.  For reasons which I think relate to a kind of omni-big version of love, God took a personal interest in a minute part of His universe – the human race.  We humans have a systemic flaw – sin, which separates us from Him – as His nature is “Holy” in ways we can only guess at.  To build a bridge between sinful man and Himself, God sent Jesus to earth to pay the price of our sin, thereby making us worthy of spending eternity with Him – if we choose.  The third part of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit resides within us and guides us when we seek Him.  This is Christian theology in one paragraph.

If my beliefs are true, then I have an urgent obligation to do what Jesus commanded just before He left earth for the last time – to spread the word of His love, sacrifice and salvation – for they carry eternal consequences.

There are many, many objections to this kind of thinking, but as both a rational and spiritual human being (these aren’t contradictory!), they do not dissuade me from what I know to be true.  You see, I’ve encountered God and evidence of God many times in many ways: from the simple “peace that passes all understanding” before my open heart surgery to life-changing encounters, miracles, and physical and spiritual manifestations of God.  I’m certain of the good and evil in our world because I’ve experienced it.  Evil so dark it took my breath away and good so beautiful it left me breathless.

So why do I go where I go and do what I do?  Because I have no other alternative – for I cannot disobey my Heavenly Father.  He has placed a deep conviction in me to do what Jesus told us two thousand years ago.  The last command Jesus gave His disciples was this: Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:   teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you… Matthew 28:19-20a

In the military, one is supposed to obey the command you have been given until it is rescinded or a new one is given in its place.  Because He has not given us another command, Jesus’ “Go ye therefore….” is still the “order of the day”.

I did not come to this belief by some form of brainwashing, or some coercion, or even by an intentional act of my own will or thinking. It came about from wondering deeply about issues of good and evil, whether truth was subjective or objective, the notion of an unchangeable moral law, and more.  More than thirty years ago, in the latter part of my quest my wife Beverly introduced me to her “take” on God, and I began to read the Bible to find out more.  Now Bev is no great philosopher (and would not claim to be), but she had something that I did not – faith.  Not “blind” faith, but one based on evidence of a loving God at work in her life and the lives of others.

As I thought, and as I learned to pray, I recognized my thinking was evolving – and it still is – or maybe maturing is a better word.  This God I came to know is not some puppeteer forcing His will on us, in fact, one of His gifts is the opposite of coercion – it is free will.

That is why I can confidently talk with Muslims, and Hindus and agnostics alike about God.  If they come to similar conclusion to mine, it won’t be the result of some kind of forced conversion (as the Hindu radicals in Orissa claim), but rather soul-deep change in their understanding of the nature of the God, of right and wrong and of love, and in their relationship with Him – in an exercise of their free will.

True, religious tyrants have forced people to convert to “christianity” (small ‘c’  intended) with a sword, but an involuntary profession of faith is NOT what pleases God and not what makes one a Christian.  It is the voluntary surrender to the logic (yes logic), and/or to the Spirit of God available to each of us (the Holy Spirit); and/or a response to one of God’s miracles (yes, they happen).  For some it is quick, for others, like myself, it is slow.

I’ve used much of your time, but not wasted it, I hope.  But what I’ve said doesn’t address the issue of going to dangerous places to do dangerous things.  Why would I do that?

1.       There are people in this world who will not let Christians exercise God’s gift of free will, they want to stop these Believers from choosing Christ over Hinduism, or Islam or ???

2.       In Orissa these “anti-conversion” hoodlums kill and maim, burn houses and churches, and drive Christians (often subsistence level farmers) away from their ancestral lands.

3.       There are two kinds of pressure that may stop this.  One is from people – nations, if you will.  The other is Divine in nature.

4.       I’m bringing a high quality, very small video camera with me.  I’ve extensive experience making documentaries, some of which have been translated into different languages, and which have helped people take action on important issues.

5.       It is my expectation that videos I shoot in Orissa will inform people of conscience who will then take some action to help the people of Orissa. This is pressure number one.

6.       The second kind of pressure is a powerful one: if followers of Christ pray for the people of Orissa, change is inevitable – because God the Father hears our prayers and responds. Getting the word out is vital to both efforts.

Finally, if you’re not asleep, let me add part of a letter I wrote to one of the church the leaders in Orissa

Hello Pastor:

I will depart from Nagpur to your area at 2:00 am on 24 March.  It is my intent to stay in Orissa until 9 April.

Saji and I have agreed that I should encourage the pastors and conduct some trainings in different parts of Orissa.

I think you may be worried about me, so let me tell you I am not new to difficult circumstances.  As a young man I fought for two years in the war in Viet Nam.  I was a Christian television producer and worked as a television news reporter.  For six years I was a missionary in the Middle East.  Along with others, I smuggled Bibles and did other undercover work.  During that time I made a movie about our work there. The film was translated into several languages and shown around the world, and encouraged believers around the world to pray for the Middle East.

When I travel in India, I travel by myself only on trains.  At the MIBCs I eat with the students and eat what they eat.  I am happy to sleep in humble circumstances and do not need to be in a hotel.  Can you find me a place to sleep at the school?

Saji and I also talked about my second important purpose for coming to Orissa.  I intend to travel to the places where there have been troubles.  I have a video camera and will record pictures of the burned churches and houses and have interviews with some of the Believers there.  When I am back in the US I will make a movie about the problems.

There are many Believers around the world who do not know of the troubles.  This film will help them learn about it, and when they learn they will pray.  When they pray God will move.  RIMI will distribute this film in the US and Canada.

It is only through the power of prayer that we can expect changes to come to Orissa.  People will not pray if they do not know what is happening.

I need your help to travel to the Kandhamar region and meet believers who have suffered, and to travel to places which have been burned.  I will not put myself or other believers are risk.  As always, I pray for the Holy Spirit to be with us.  And if God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:31).

Dr. Rob,

The battle is the Lords! (2Ch 20:15)

= = =

I think, Marty, that God would be pleased, if you so desire, to have you talk to him about your worries concerning me.

Robbie

Even at 10 am, the hot wind heralded a scorching day.  I’m told this region is the hottest in Orissa -  I won’t dispute it.

If yesterday’s village was very poor, some of the ones I saw today are so far below the poverty line they’d love to be desperately poor – as it would be an upgrade.  No road for 5 km (at least), no electricity, no reliable source of water, no possible income (because of the water problem).  The only income producing activity I could see was the drying of wildflower pods that can be used to make a beverage.  These are sold to passing traders, and I bet they get next to nothing for them.

I saw five churches today, former churches really, that were made unusable in the violence of late 2008. No one worships in them, and many of the believers have been chased off and live in the mountains or have moved away from their ancestral tribal lands. I talked to families who fled their villages, only to return and find their meager possessions pilfered, and their houses smashed.

It has been a long time since I looked for a second exit when I entered a building, but these churches in Orissa have been targeted on numerous occasions, and it pays to be careful.  So I found myself thinking of exits.  Some had second and third doors, others had only one door and the widows were barred against thieves. When they rebuild, a back door ought to be included.

In one village we were so remote that even if help was called it would take forever to get there.  To get there we followed progressively narrowing blacktop roads that gave way to dirt roads that progressively narrowed, until we were on a track only penetrable because of the skill of our driver. At one point we forded a river, on the way back I insisted on getting out and crossing on my own – and the water was delightfully tepid!

Abject poverty.  Debilitating circumstances. Hopeless condition.  Complete scarcity. Desperately poor.  Pick your phrase, but none of them adequately describes the village I saw today.  Now to your thinking add generous, joyous, fun-filled, smiling and laughing, interested in the Word of God.

I’m told I was the first white man to ever come to this village.  True or not, I was certainly celebrated and wonderfully treated.  My host runs the Mercy Home for Mission India in this village.  I met his extended family, the villagers, believers from other villages, missionaries and pastors from the region.  All came to celebrate our shared faith.

They met us on the road just outside the village with songs and drums and tambourines, and we proceeded in a dancing celebration toward the meeting area.  The women shrilled a piercing shout, not unlike the staccato trill of Arab women celebrants.  We came to a large area that had been set up as a kind of tent, with colorful fabric around four sides and overhead. At a raised area on one end, Pastor A and I, the two honored guests, sat on stiff highly decorated matching chairs.  Thrones, really, probably used in wedding celebrations.

Then speeches, singing, the presentation of flowers and a prayer were offered, and I was introduced.  It was getting astonishingly hot inside this makeshift tent, and I was glad to learn the hosts only wanted me to speak for a half hour before we took a break for lunch.

Astonishingly hot?  An understatement.  The tent became an oven as the BTUs of over a hundred people added to the blazing Orissa sun.  Like a camping tent set up on a hot summer day, this one captured and held all heat. When we broke for lunch, I asked if some of the sides of the tent could be opened to let in a breeze, any breeze.  “No,” I was told, for the authorities had banned all Christian open air meetings, and the fabric sidewalls had to stay in place.

Lunch was at my host’s house, with mama and sisters cooking.  I’m afraid I hurt their feelings, because the house was also very, very hot and I could not eat much.  I excused myself from the makeshift table and sat in a doorway where I could get a little relief.  I taught the afternoon session sitting down, the first time I had done so since I fell off a roof a number of years ago.  The crowd was gracious and receptive.

Shortly after I finished up, a stiff breeze blew in and was followed by a short, heavy downpour.  The air temperature dropped twenty degrees, I’m sure of it.  What a relief.

I’ve had a night to reflect on a conversation I had with one of the leaders in the village.  Only two km away, a church had been burned by the Hindu extremists, and the roof from this villages’ church had been removed. “Do you ever feel safe?” I asked.  He selected his words cautiously.  “We don’t leave our houses alone,” he said, “and we are careful.”

It is 2010.  We have cell phone towers blanketing the globe and instant communication is available almost everywhere.  The two most populous countries in the world, China and India, once considered backward, are contending with the US for world dominance.  On this computer the other day I saw and heard my grandchildren halfway around the world, and students at the Bible College were able to see and hear them.  We have the global resources needed to eradicate hunger and disease.

And yet, evil abounds.  These villagers contend with it each time they leave their homes; in a few days, I’ll take a tour to see the shells of several burned houses.  These prove that even in your home, a Christian is not safe in this region.  I’ve had the good fortune to meet dozens and dozens of good people, Indians who happen to be Hindus.  Their nature is helpful and generous.  The radicals are a tiny minority.  My many Muslim acquaintances in the Middle East were equally warm and generous.  Osama bin Laden and those other whackos are only a hate-filled handful.  This important perspective is necessary for me to keep my thinking straight.  On the way back from the village last night, I found myself looking at ordinary people along the roadside, wondering if they put on their radical costumes at night and looked for Christians to hurt.  I had to shake my head at myself.  My suspicions could easily morph into fear.  And fear is the beginning of a slide down a slippery slope I want to avoid.

The idea was, I would ride the motorcycle back to the MIBC campus to save the Principal another round trip, for I was to come back to his house in the morning.  The idea needed work.  First, the roads are terrible, and I’d not driven his motorcycle before.  Plus one of the students was going to be riding behind me.  Plus he was carrying a television.  Plus my legs are pretty long.  Plus it was dark and my night vision isn’t so good any more.  Plus the sacred cows in the road loom up out of nowhere.

We realized at the same time it wasn’t going to work.  And that turned out to be good.  Because on the way back from dropping me off, he was stopped by the police and his registration and drivers license was checked!  How would I have handled that?

—

We leave for Kandahar today.  Except for a brief return to Rayagada for a Good Friday service, I’ll be up there a bit longer than a week conducting Pastor’s conferences, teaching, preaching and doing some other Kingdom work.  Eighteen months ago as many as 75,000 Believers fled to the hills to escape persecution.  They left everything behind and can’t come back.  I don’t know how many are still there.

Certain kinds of Indian hospitality makes it rough to be a westerner.  For instance, where I come from, and the way I grew up, one of the reasons you invited people over for dinner is so you could talk with them at the dinner table.  To me, this kind of conversation builds relationships like no other.  The Indian way (and Pakistani and Bengali), is to invite people over, serve them a wonderful meal, but talk with them afterward.  Often, the host family eats after the guests have left, or at least are in a form of post meal repose.

Both cultures are generous, but there are inherent difficulties.

Like when my lunch hostess insisted I take more rice, even though I’d eaten so much it is coming out of my ears.  I said “no thank you,” she piled it up anyway.  Or when my dinner hostess set me up in a room by myself so I wouldn’t be distracted by human contact while I ate the huge piles of food she placed in front of me.  “I’ll not bother you,” she said.  And then she and her eldest daughter wandered in to see how I was dong no less than a dozen times – often replacing consumed food with new items.  Finally, at the end the whole family (except the dad) came in to watch me graze.  And they just stood there and watched me eat!  I’m sure this attention has the kindest motives and is meant to show the best sort of hospitality, but I felt like some kind of zoo animal on display and I said so, in the gentlest possible terms.  They tittered appreciatively as they do at all my jokes, and stayed on.

I first came to Asia in 1969, but I still can’t get used to some of these cultural discords.  All of these wonderful people want to do things for me, to show their appreciation and to make me feel comfortable.  But I’m a fairly independent guy.  If I wasn’t, I could not come to India and travel alone as I do.  It’s downright un-American to take on a subservient attitude or to allow others to do so.  I think that’s what it comes down to.  Now there may be a few selfish Americans who bask in, and expect, the serving attentions of others, but that doesn’t describe my friends and family.

Still overflowing from a wonderful graduation day, the boys are up early to cut palm branches as decorations form their assembly room.  The banner from yesterday is still up “Mission India Bible College Graduation – 2010” it shouts.  And up there in the banner’s corner is an enlarged photo of yours truly, the guest speaker.  Imagine!

In their morning chapel service, there is heartfelt praise and worship, testimonies and prayers, all in Oriya.  I don’t know the words, but I understand.  Now it’s my turn and I teach.  “The people wanted an earthly king,”  I say, “but Jesus came as a heavenly King.”

Afterwards I fill my water bottle in the kitchen with good well water and look at their food stores.  Not much is left after the big bash yesterday.  So I give them 300 rupees, about seven bucks, so they can go buy chicken dinner for themselves, all fifteen of them.

Definition: Cattle Drive: Our tiny “Ambassador”, an ancient but serviceable auto drives toward Rayagada as I review my notes for a sermon in a Baptist church.  We slow down and nearly stop.  I look up and discover we are surrounded by 60 Indian steers, all ambling placidly down the road, filling it from side to side so we cannot pass.   So we move a while at their speed, hence, Cattle Drive.

My travel plans are being firmed up.  As my hosts are getting to know me, they are learning I’m not some kind of pampered tourist.  When I tell them I’ve been coming to Asia since 1969, and they see my resolve in integrating with them, they are more willing to consider journeys into tribal territory.

I found a spoon today… and used it.  Not to eat (that’s what fingers are for), but as a mirror, as there are none here.  If you use the back of the spoon as a reflector, you can (sort of) get a look at your hair.  But if you use the front, its all upside down and confusing.  I wanted to look presentable today, for I’m the guest speaker at this graduation.

I asked God: “Is it my place Lord, to look into their eyes and encourage them?  Me Lord?  With my easy American life, big house, two, no, three vehicles to choose from?  Me?”

I spoke (through a translator) to one boy who has lost his father, a pastor, when the Hindu radicals attacked his village.  Killed in front of his family, he was.  Murdered in front of the whole village – a message, I presume, to the other Believers.  Another boy was once part of the Hindu radical mob, although his salvation is now assured, his life is probably at risk when he returns to his tribal area.

So Lord, I’m supposed to encourage them?  To stand there and tell them to be strong for their faith, pray, read their Bible?  Me?  It is their faith, their boldness, their commitment that encourages me!  They should be teaching!  God help me!

But God has a message for me, and through me, to them.  The power of the Holy Spirit is nearly tangible as I teach on the parable of the workers in the field (Mt. 20).  Its not when we start working for the Lord, but whether we finish.  And I tell them their reward is not in denarii or rupees, but their reward is better and its forever… it is heaven.

And God is gracious to me, I get to stare into their eyes and I realize I need not flinch, for whatever their future holds, they are in God’s hands, and He loves them.

The meal after the graduation service is attended by over a hundred people: pastors, missionaries, families, local church leaders.  It is a true celebration, and I suspect, a time of faith building in a hostile world.  Near the end, as we are saying goodbye to the guests, I ask about the Pastor who had to leave because of his sister’s condition.  I’m told she has survived and is in a hospital and I will get to see him in a few days..

Breakfast.  It was one of these times I wish I knew at least one of India’s 3300 languages. Two of the leaders were having a… “heated exchange”… about my breakfast.  I try to make it clear that I neither want nor deserve special food.  So I was eating rice and some pasty tan stuff with the Bible College boys when Leader #2 walked in with a plastic bag of something he had bought for my breakfast (this after at least three conversations with him about my same-same diet plan).  When Leader #3 walked in, #2 let him have it.  Poor #3 had been nowhere near when I’d walked into the eating area, grabbed a plate and sat down to eat with the Bible College boys.  But he caught it from #2!

The only words I caught were nay-nay (no no) stated numerous times by both #2 and #3 and “English” and “American” (which is one of the ways I knew it was about me).  Oh yes, “pani pani’ cropped up several times – a generic word for food throughout India.

Usually it takes a couple of days for my hosts to understand my policy:  1) It does not honor God for them to use money that others need to eat in order to buy me special food.  2) I (mostly) like and will (mostly) eat anything they serve.  3) finally, I tell them, “if Jesus came to your campus today, would he want to stay in a hotel downtown, be driven around in a fancy car and eat at restaurants?”

“No” they say “He would spend time here, with us, doing what we do and eating what we eat.”

“Precisely”, I state, and since I am a follower of Christ, I will do the same.

Lunch. The afternoon meal was Spartan.  That’s the only word I can think of.  The appetizer was rice, and the first course was rice.  For a change of pace, the dessert was…. rice.  I’m certain these guys are saving up for something……

Dinner.  The thirty or so men seated in the kitchen cum dining area agreed, the meal had been very good.  There was plenty of rice – the staple – it had been cooked to overflowing in a pot big enough to bath a German Shepherd in.  Add a curry made of spices and potatoes, along with a handful of small red onions and chilis, it was very tasty, indeed.  In some parts of northern India, the German shepherd would have stayed in the pot… and added protein to the meal!

I think to myself “this is why lunch was Spartan.”  Then I remind myself that for 300 million Indians, rice three times a day (with maybe a few spices to give it flavor) is an uncommon luxury.

Halfway through today’s program, one of the pastors had to leave early.  He received word that his sister was raped and stabbed.

This world is a dangerous place.