Well, the days since Wednesday have been a real blur. We arrived in Aurangabad, said to be the fastest growing city in Asia, around noon on Wednesday. We met with a pastor and his family for lunch and to hear their amazing story of heartache and sorrow and how God turned this into new joy and a new church. We also met with a group of women and children who meet in their home for prayer and worship on a regular basis.
That evening we joined a youth group at another Nazarene church, who had invited Dolphy to come and present information with them about the Nazarene Youth International in the rest of the country as well as the rest of the Eurasia Region. Their hunger to be part of something bigger than themselves, to join in with their peers across the region, inspired a bunch of ideas that Dolphy and I will talk about in greater depth this Sunday.
Thursday, a young man from the church was kind enough to take Dolphy and I on a worldwind tour of the Ellora Caves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora_Caves), a cluster of 34 caves with Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples cut out of the rock between the 5th and the 10th centuries. The ancient sculptures and architecture was absolutely amazing.
After this, we enjoyed a drive through the dry, sandy plains, surrounded by high mesas and lots of Moghul ruins to get back to the city.
In the city there is a large monument that was built in the 17th century, intended to be a copy of the Taj Mahal, which is in the north of India in a city called Agra. However, the funds were too limited and eventually they built the monument with less quality materials and made it a little smaller. However, this is as close as I may ever get to the Taj Mahal, so I really wanted to see it. I loved it. :-) I
t was beautiful and impressive.
We rushed back to our hotel around 5:30 to meet a young woman who had volunteered to share her testimony for publication. All I can say right now is that after 2 hours of listening to her, I was shocked, emotional and in awe of what God can do in making someone a brand new creation, transforming them utterly and renewing and reconciling broken relationships. I can't wait to get this story written up to share.
Every day of this past week, when I've gotten back to my room (around 11 p.m. or 12 a.m.), I've then worked online with our intern communications team back in Germany to assist them in putting together their first edition of our regional monthly newsletter, Where Worlds Meet. I felt badly that they only got started working with us a couple of days before I left for India, and I hadn't had much time at all to get them oriented and trained. They've done a great job managing on their own, and so I just spent a few hours each evening in the room editing the stories and advising them on the newsletter. That generally kept me up even later every day.
Friday, we flew out of Aurangabad to the farthest east side of the country to Kolkata (Calcutta) which is Dolphy's home town. Her family helped me get settled in a hotel about 5 minutes from their home last night. I was so relieved to be able to sleep from 11 p.m. to about 9:30 a.m. today, however I didn't sleep well at all. I woke up about once an hour until maybe 6 a.m. and after that I began waking up every 15-30 minutes. Finally about 8 a.m. I gave up and got up. I've been relaxing in my room and got some breakfast.
I'm really looking forward to my first full day off since I arrived.
Dolphy and her mom will be meeting me about 11:30 a.m. and we'll first stop at the Missionaries of Charity, where Mother Teresa gave her life in ministry to the poor of India, which spawned branches in 133 countries.
After that, we're going to New Market, a famous, historic marketplace with over 2,000 vendors selling everything from jewelry and saris to home decor, vegetables and foods and even raw meats. It is said to be an amazing experience, where you bargain with sellers and just take it all in. It was first established by the British in the 1800s.
If there's time later, we'll go to see the Ganges River and a few other sites in the city.
Tomorrow I'm looking forward to worshipping with Dolphy's family in their church and just resting. Then, Monday, I will be flying from Kolkata to Mumbai (Bombay) where I will catch my connecting flight at 1 a.m. local time Tuesday to Zurich. I am thankful that it's a direct, 8-hour flight, as the first flights we were looking at booking would have had me doing anywhere from a 9- to 18-hour layover in one of several Middle East countries. At this point I am too tired to consider something exhausting like that.
I expect to arrive in Zurich at 6 a.m. local time where Andrew will pick me up (man, I have missed him!!!!). I plan to go home and sleep for the rest of the day!
Thank you so much for all your prayers. I realize God has done even more through this trip than I ever expected. I thought I would simply be offering some training and gathering lots of stories. Not that these are in any way insignificant objectives. However, I did not realize how encouraging and inspiring our visit would be to young Nazarenes in these corners of India where they at times struggle with feelings of isolation and disconnection with the greater Church of the Nazarene. Dolphy tells me that these amazing young leaders are feeling really boosted, empowered and inspired for their ministry. I really loved hearing their testimonies for how their eyes were opened to all the ways that God can use their stories and the stories of Nazarenes in India to touch the lives of Nazarenes all the way across the world in the United States, or in Europe, or in Australia or Asia or Africa.
Meeting with and talking with these young people has gotten my creative juices going and I'll be going home with more ideas that I hope to develop in consultation with colleagues both in Europe, in India and in the U.S.
The communications leader for the South Asia Field, which includes Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, has been communicating with Dolphy and ever since we met in Turkey last October, has been talking about conducting a similar training there to establish their own field communication team. They are consulting about setting a deadline to establish this by November. I am excited to see how India may be an inspiration and model for other fields to follow their example and establish field and district level communications teams.
Thank you for your all your prayers for this trip and for me and Dolphy. I think it is impossible at this point to anticipate all that God has done and will do through our time together and your prayers.
