A year and a half later....we're in India

Back for another episode of this man's travelling post.....you're in luck! :) There's been a year and half hiatus at this blog, my apologies for not putting up a post in the meantime....!

As you may know, Kathryn (my lovely wife) and I are currently on a mission trip in South India at the moment. I am currently writing for Salem, which is a town 5 hours drive south of Bangalore. We've flew into Bangalore on the 5th of July and arrived in Salem on the 6th of July. Our team consists of 7 guys and 1 girl (Kathryn), and we've set out to India to help Indian leaders learn more about the Word by teaching them two Moore Correspondance courses, Paul's letter to the Roman's and Creation to New Creation (AKA Introduction to the Word). Kathryn and I felt this was a great opportunity to get some experience in cross cultural ministry, and we also saw the need to help other followers who need a hand with having a better knowledge of Word so they could lead their meetings effectively. After 14 weeks of preparation, immunisation injections, admin, raising awareness among our family and friends that we were going to India and learning how to eat with only my right hand with no utensils, we find ourselves in India.

Our flight was around 12hours from Sydney to Bangalore. We had a stop over at Singapore (thank goodness!) so we could stretch our legs and run around a bit. We had a little walk around Changi airport. We were captivated by the electronics stores, and Kathryn discovered a store that sold purple gold.

We arrived in Bangalore at around 9pm local time and got through customs OK. As soon as I stepped outside, the humdity and heat just hit me. Lucky I packed some shorts and lots of deoderant. Ken introduced us to Leader Abraham, who was one of the leaders that was planning on taking the Romans course. He's a really nice dude and was very warm to us all. We go ushered onto a minibus, which was pretty cramped and taken to a hostel to stay at the for the night.

Kathryn and I had a separate room and are pretty cosy. Breakfast, however, was a whole new experience! We ate around 9.30am (which is like after lunch in Sydney, so we were starving!) and had:
* french toast - I had never actually eaten french toast until this day, funny eating a Western meal in an Easter Country
* Boori - a bubble of deep fried wafer thin bread
* Porridge (ish) - I don't usually like eating porridge, but this was OK.
* "Yellow" (we called it yellow, anyway) - a gooey liquid potato curry eaten on the Boori
* Fried eggs
* Indian coffee (instant with goat milk, it was actuallly yum). John , Mike and I have had minimal coffee here and have had withdrawals...we're OK now.

We all got piled into our minibus again and headed out towards Salem. Driving through the streets of Bangalore and through the countryside was quite an experience. The smells that wafted through our van were full on...lots of pollution, waste, burning garbage...the heat and dodgy suspension also didn't contribute positively. The scenery however was awesome. The traffic is chaotic, its noisy, the buildings look all run down and people and bikes are everywhere...hectic.

Fortunately our driver is very skilled in the art of driving on Indian streets. We've given him the name of "Dangerous Dave" (i don't think if his real name is Dave though). He took every opportunity to overtake any traffic in front of him in our lane by driving onto the wrong side of the road. There were a couple of close calls with head-ons with bikes, other buses and trucks, Fortunately, the bus was equipped with a horn so the driver was utilising that feature the feature of the bus frequently.

After a mini-stopover at a petrol station and more driving, we finally arrived in Salem. We're staying at the "Sharon" (Grace in Tamil) Community Centre, which contains various facilities in and around the campus including accommodation (where we sleep), a school, a hospital, and convention centre (where we teach the Romans course).

Our first night here was very cool. We were welcomed by the kids and staff at Sharon where the kids performed some dances and items for us. Kids as young as 4 years old were reciting chunks of the Word and giving their testimonies which was pretty amazing!

We got a good tour of facilities on Monday. Tuesday we began the Romans course at the convention centre. Around 60-70 leaders travelled from around South India came to study the book of Romans. It was encouraging to see that they were keen to learn and be challenged from this book, and we were excited to be helping them. Ken gave the lectures on each unit while the rest of the team ran 'Discussion groups' to tease out some of the ideas presented in the lecture. The lectures were given in english and were translated into Tamil for the majority to understand. Lots of questions and discussion were had during the lectures, as there were lots of cultural issues raised, and Biblical misunderstandings that were needed to be ironed out.

A major highlight over the time of the course was the pr**er and singing at the beginning of each session. The leaderssang sitting down and always clapped along, tapped, and banged on tables to the songs. The leaders had incredible voices and everyone was so engrossed in it. P**yers were usually done standing up with plenty of hands lifted towards the sky.

My experience of the discussion group was interesting. I co-lead with Andrew and it would usually start with a question, translated into Tamil, followed by a lot of Tamil being spoken by the group for several minutes, then a one lined response/question for clarification. It was a fairly tedious but necessary task. Towards end of the course, the leaders were more open to asking questions and engaging in more discussions, which was the goal of what Andrew and I were encouraging them to do. The course finished on a high with a final exam that lasted for 2 hours and 10 minutes, the giving Certificates of Participation to all the leaders, and shaking the hands of each leader (with the occasional hugs).

Another highlight is that we've officially brought the game of "Hacky Sack" into India. Christopher (an Indian leader) joined us in our games and eventually got very good at it.

On Friday, Mike and I had the opportunity to play some volleyball with the students at Sharon school. Leader Kennedy told us that he usually gets together with the students a couple of times a week to play volleyball and basketball with them for fellowship and asked us to join him. The students were stoked to have us there. Mike is a giant and could spike the ball pretty well so we pretty much won 2 of the 3 games played. It was a pretty fun morning!

Where to next....

1) We're heading to a graduation ceremony for the leaders on Saturday where Ken will be speaking. We also plan to go to the markets check out the shops.

2) On Sunday, the team is heading out on another road trip to the South of India. The distance from Salem to the south of India is similar to the distance between Brisbane and Melbourne...hectic huh... :) We have a 15 hour bus trip (with Dangerous Dave) ahead of us

3) We will be visiting a Meeting on Sunday on the way down.

If you're a p**y-er, please p**y for:

* The team as we travel all the way south to the south of India

* The health and well-being of the team as some of us have become sick

* The Indian leaders that we've helped through Romans, and for the leaders we will help next week through 'Creation to New Creation'

* John as he will be giving the lectures next week on next week's course

Keep you posted for the next update!