Dave’s return and the advent of my winter retreat to colder climates, what would January be without negative weather and ice storms, has spurned a group of visits that are shorter per district but more densely packed together. Next year we are talking about visiting the districts separately so that we can each get two days of teaching in. However in an attempt to visit them all one more time before my November departure we are visiting them together each taking one day. A normal day of teaching is approximately 10:00am – 12:30pm, Lunch Break, 1:30pm – 3:00pm, with the morning tea break thrown in sometime around 11:00 or 11:30. Generally I have been going through Ephesians in the morning and using the afternoon 1 ½ hours for a more dogmatic review of the Church, or Sabbai1. This way we review many of the same things we are discussing in Ephesians while at the same time allowing a bit of break from the intense mental gymnastics needed for following the height and depth of Paul’s saturated prose.
Yesterday and today the plan was to visit Tiruttani, a new district which we only just started this last April. Dave went on Friday and this morning was my turn. I was already planning on reducing the depth of my teaching in an attempt to finish the first section of Ephesians and of the Sabbai booklet since this would be my last round of visits before my return in February and since I only had a day instead of the normal two days. When I got there I was reminded that it was Saturday and therefore the schedule 2 was a little different so that the pastors can get back to their churches and prepare for the coming Sunday. Class was scheduled from 10:00am – 1:00pm with a tea break at 11:30 which is a good hour shorter than normal. This means that I spent most of the morning trying to teach thoroughly but quickly.
In this I succeeded reaching the end of the Ephesians section I wanted to cover about 12:35 with 25 minutes left to go. As it turned out the task went for naught3 since when I reached for my pamphlet on the Sabbai4, it was not there. Actually considering my propensity for forgetting it is rather amazing that this is the first time that it has happened. But then considering the distance which we travel to teach these classes I tend to be extra careful when leaving home. As it was I was without it after I had worked so hard to make sure I would have a chance to teach it. I offered to run home and get it if they would wait but they seemed disinclined to take me up on that offer considering that it is a 2 ½ hour drive one way.
In the end we just reviewed the Ephesians selection and talked about some of the things that I had skipped over. I realize that this is a long article to tell you I forgot my lesson plan, but at least you learned the Telugu word for Church.
Thought for the Day – Studying the word of God is like picking beans. If you finish the row quickly with relatively little pain it means you missed most of what was there. I f you laboriously strive to move every inch quickly filling up your pail, it will feel a lot worse at the time but the harvest will be bountiful, and during the winter you will find plenty of fresh frozen beans in your freezer. This of course does not bode well for me since there is no job on earth I despise as much as picking beans, talk about child abuse.
– Matthew
Down below are a few pictures of the men at Tiruttani and the building where we meet. We meet on the first floor of that building which is both the church and the home of the pastor.
- Telugu word for church, I find it easy to remember because it is so close to Sabbath. It is pronounced the same way too, except the last letter. Start to say Sabbath then substitute “bye” for the last syllable but make sure the first syllable receives the accent. ↩
- of all the words that the British insist on mispronouncing I find this one the most humorous, try pronouncing it as if you were British. I can’t do it. By the way it is okay to poke fun at the British on here since the only British person I know is I suspect too busy running after kids to have time to read a blog about India. ↩
- A word the Indians use with considerable profusion. My hotel room is not “Two Zero Eight” or “Two Oh Eight” it is “Two Naught Eight” which at first leads to the confusing question, Why are they telling me it is not eight? Why don’t they just say two? ↩
- Remember Telugu for the Church ↩