April 28, 2008 – 14:30 (GMT +5:30) – 30oC (89oF) – San Thome Rd, Mylapore, Chennai, India
Every once in a while my sister will make comments that seems to indicate she believes me to be a reasonably intelligent guy. Well I can’t let my sister get away with being right, so I continue to do things that prover her wrong. I have now melted both my water bottle holder ( I don’t know what else to call it) and my coffee pot. Since the water here isn’t safe to drink, I buy the big 20 liter bottles of water and have a clear plastic bowl type dispenser that they sit in. Having run out of water one day I went to get more. When I came back the dispenser was full of ants. I couldn’t wash it out with the tap water since that would contaminate the very thing that was there so I wouldn’t have to drink the tap water. So my bright idea was to boil the tap water first. You really think and I would have seen this coming. But no, the boiling water melted the back part of the bowl. It didn’t melt all the way through but just enough to distort it so the bowl leans back a good 6 to 7 degrees. Amazingly enough it still works even with the large water bottle on top. I also left my coffee pot on the stove and forgot about it. The water boiled and was gone. What surprised me is that even though the handle melted, and the plastic top melted, covering the bottom of the pot in dripping black plastic, the glass pot itself, didn’t even crack. Good as new, I just need to get that plastic off the bottom. Reminds me of the time my Dad had to use a chisel to cut the brownies and then actually thought we would eat them.
A friend of mine recently asked me a number of question about life over here. Since I thought maybe some of you had similar question I figured I would post them up here.
How long have you been in India?
Since February 2nd – which doesn’t seem like it was that long ago. Minus about a week of time when I was in Germany and England
Nice beaches in India?
I haven’t seen too many of the beaches, the one right by me is split. If I head south it is all homeless people camped out on the sand. If I head north it’s a fairly nice tourist beach. I actually just went out for a walk along that beach today. It was jammed full of people. The beach is not a good one for swimming, since there is a very strong under toe and a quick steep drop off, but the Indians were out in full force enjoying the day. The air was filled with kites. There were vendors of every kind all up and down the beach. And there were numerous carnival type attractions. I’m not sure if it was some type of holiday or if that is simply how the beach normally is. I’ve never seen it like that before, but then I have never looked either.
How did you get all the way to Tirupathi?
We drove. We pay a monthly fee to use out landlord’s car when we need to. We also then hire a driver and pay him a fee per day. We pay him more when go on overnight trips like up to Tirupathi. Around Chennai we use auto rickshaws, best described as scooters with roofs. The traffic isn’t usually too bad. There are 7 million people in Chennai but the vast majority of those who use vehicle use motorcycles, it is amazing how many more people can you can squeeze unto a single street when they are all on bikes and don’t care about traffic rules. I have also at times used the trains, that is an experience let me tell you.
How do you preach in India when they don’t speak English?
I preach and D. Paul translates
Do you have a translator?
Yes
If so, what’s is like to have someone else talking when you’re preaching?
He doesn’t talk while I’m talking. I say a sentence then he translates it, then I say another sentence, so on. What ends up happening is that I have plenty of time to consider what I am saying and my sermons become more terse. At the same time they also tend to get longer. And since I use the same sermon multiple times, sometimes they just keep growing.
Do you see people become believers often?
I’m really not actually a missionary, I do very little missionary work. Far more often I am simply teaching pastors. So no I don’t see that a lot. But I have seen people fairly soon after. I go to a church or meet with some people and am told about how so and so was just in their village preaching and that village had never heard the word before. We believe that the natives are far better suited to the actual work of missionaries, especially since they can actually speak the language. We are here to help and equip them for that work.
What is your typical sermon about?
My typical sermon is about God. I don’t know it depends on whom I’m preaching to what the occasion is and what I think they need to hear. Mainly we need to keep sermons over here simple, since many of the people are uneducated. I had one Muslim tell me that Christians never speak about God the Father, we just always talk about Jesus. I told him that wasn’t true that I preach about the Father all the time. He wouldn’t believe me, he just kept saying, “no you never preach about the Father, you just always talk about Jesus.” I found it odd that he apparently knew what my sermons were about better than me since he never had heard one. Generally I like to preach from the Old Testament when I get a chance, because especially over here, it is so often neglected. One man thanked me once and told me straight up that people often preach about Jesus, but the Old Testament gets neglected.
With all this preaching and teaching of other people you do, how do you sustain yourself?
Do you ever get so tired from giving and giving and forget to look after yourself?
You mean physically or spiritually? Either way it is the Lord who sustains me. I find it very significant that although the Lord again and again tells us not to worry about food or clothing or shelter etc the one thing he never tells us that we shouldn’t worry about is His word. It’s like He is saying to us, okay I’m going to take care of everything else you only worry about the preaching and teaching of My word. Not that He doesn’t help us out there also, but it is the only thing that He gives us to concentrate on. That doesn’t necessary always stop me from complaining of course, or spending more time on my personal “needs” rather then studying as I should. Also I should note the question seems to imply a work ethic on my part that is a little more intense than my actual performance.
When you preach to these people, is it mostly in Christian churches already, or is it to people who have never heard the gospel of Christ before?
When I preach it is always in already established Christian churches. There are a number of reasons for this. Dave and I are here to assist and help the locals in anyway that we can, but they are the ones best suited to reaching out to their communities. Also for us to engage in activity with the purpose of evangelism can be against state laws. It is better to do the work of the kingdom within the laws of the land whenever possible. Although there are times when we must obey God rather than men.