Things on the Way: Elephant!!!

Here in India, while driving along the road, we suddenly looked up to see an elephant walking down the road. It probably should have had a “wide load” sign on its back end, but the sheer novelty of seeing it caused other motorists enough reason to give it a wide path. This particular elephant’s handler was receiving alms (elephants are sacred animals in India) from passers by, and actually just walked right up to the bus in this photo for some quick cash from the bus’s driver. In addition to being a sacred animal, elephants are used for a variety of “heavy labor” functions as well, including tree trimming, hauling, and excavating.

Things On the Way: Tamarine Plant

There is a spice called “Tamarine” here in India that grows on government subsidized trees that grow along the road. Raj pulled the car over and got out, and encouraged us to follow along. Then he climbed a tree and plucked several little bundles that look an awful lot like flat peanuts (in their shells) from the branches. After dropping several of them down, he showed us how to “crack” them open and pull out the pulpy fruit inside. It has a large seed, so you can only really scrape the fruity part off with your teeth before spitting the seed out. According to Raj, the tamarine plant is used extensively in Indian cooking, and the government usually collects and auctions off the fruit of these trees on a regular basis. How does it taste? Well, it’s a little sweet, but mostly sour. We thought it was pretty tasty. Well… at least some of us thought it was tasty. Jodi shown here trying one, and then her subsequent reaction to it.

Ready to Rock!

With the exception of Stephen and Don (who left at 6 a.m. to head to the train station to make their train to Chennai), the rest of the team met downstairs at the Sangam at 8 a.m. after eating a quick breakfast at the Cascade (gear pictured here all ready and loaded up for transit to villages). The TBL staff and planters who were traveling with us gathered in the lobby to meet us, and after a quick prayer, we disbursed with our gear into a small squadron of taxis, cars and SUV’s.

Pictured here as well are several of the team ladies dressed in their new skirts and regalia after our shopping venture on Wednesday night.

Also, as I have been travelling with Jodi, Brandy, Gene, Raj and “The Professor”, what follows for the next several posts will largely focus on that team. When we all gather back again on Sunday from the field, I’ll try to get pictures and stories from each team and post them then.

Quick Note...

Hey, guys, just wanted to let you know that the dates for the posts here are a little "off". I write the blog posts first and then post them en masse when i get a decent Internet connection. It's Friday, for instance, but all my posts thus far only catch us up to about Wednesday night. I'm having to use Raj's computer to post, and will try to do so more as i get the chance, but trying to draft, post and picture everything while still doing all the visiting and things that we're doing as well makes for a tough trick sometimes. Anyway, thanks for your patience! Know that your prayers are felt, appreciated and powerful here! Know as well that your loved ones over here are doing GREAT!!!

-samurai jack

"The Plan"...

We returned to the hotel and explained “the plan” for tomorrow. Here’s how it was going to work:
Sub-Team 1: Jodi, Brandy, Gene, Jack
Location: Kavundampadi
Distance from Trichy: 5 hours (west)
Method of travel: car
TBL staff: Rajendran and “The Professor”
Notes: Our church planter contact is an extremely successful pastor, and currently is planting a single church with over 400 members, with other daughter churches and cell groups in development. Most of the current work he does is within villages that surround the church building, and there is a fairly high instance of persecution among the people with whom he works who come to Christ.
Sub-Team 2: Josh, Hayley
Location: Kalavai
Distance from Trichy: 8 hours
Method of travel: car
TBL staff: Prema & Clorinda
Notes: They will be staying in a smaller town, but will make periodic ventures to surrounding villages to assist the church planter with whom they will be working.
Sub-Team 3: Jeanna, Courtney, Allison
Location: Panamarathupatti
Distance from Trichy: 5 hours
Method of travel: car
TBL staff: Aroma & Raj
Notes:
Sub-Team 4: Don, Stephen
Location: Vidaioor
Distance from Trichy: 10 hours
Method of travel: train, then car
TBL staff: Annanraj
Notes: Don & Stephen had to leave the hotel at 6 a.m. to catch their 6:30 train connection. (Later: When I last talked to Stephen, he said that they had reached their destination, but literally had to run with all their gear to catch the train as it was pulling out of the station.)

Fresh Jasmine for Your Hair!

In India, street vendors will sell strings of fresh Jasmine flowers for ladies to put in their hair. In addition, fresh flowers are just a large part of regular and everyday life. The little guy in this picture was selling Jasmine on the street, and Raj purchased several strings for the ladies of the team to put in their hair. It smells wonderful, and looks pretty too.

No Comment!

The title of this book is “Do I Look Fat In This?” No further comment necessary. Nor requested.

I've Seen the Signs!

For some reason, the clothing store had a particularly large assortment of bizarre signs. I took pictures and thought you all might think they were good for a laugh as well.

Trial Room – I’m sure they meant “fitting room”, but I thought “trial room” sounded a little threatening. “I swear, your honor… I really thought I was an extra extra small!”

Nachas or Nachos? – I don’t know what Nachas are, but I’ll be they taste GREAT with Jalepenos and sour cream.

Blouse Bits! – What is that, like clothing shrapnel? Doesn’t sound very friendly.

Silk Cotton? – C’mon, make Up Your Mind! I figure that this is either some sort of hyper-lightweight but extremely soft material… or they just need to give each section its own space.

Shopping for Sari's...

After stopping at TBL HQ, we set out to do some shopping. Our first priority was to get skirts, saris and salwars (a 2-piece “pants outfit” worn by Indian women in place of a sari) for the ladies of the team, and so we went to a multi-floor department store to see what we could see. Once there, we explored colorful, hand-embroidered skirts, beautiful saris, and prettily patterned salwars (Hayley King shown here looking over the embroidered material of an Indian sari). One interesting thing about Indian “sales tactics” in a large store is that the sales associates will literally pull down “potential garment candidates” by the dozens in the hope that one will hit your particular preferences. Do you like blue? Faster than you can say “bling”, there will be 40 blue saris immediately out of their packaging and sitting in front of you. They do it happily and cordially, and it’s difficult to resist the urge to just “buy something” simply because they expended so much effort to pull everything out. But that’s precisely the point, and so you have to be willing to have a will of steel until you see exactly what you want to see.

After a couple of hours, each of the team’s ladies had enough skirts and other related clothing to last them for the remaining duration of the trip. We also stopped by a couple of souvenir stores to find some fun trinkets to bring home, but by the time we were finished, we were all a little too bushed to climb the 40 gazillion steps of the “Rock Fort Temple”. Maybe when we get back on Sunday or Monday… we’ll see.

Seeing "The Big Board"

We stopped briefly at the Bible League HQ again so that the team could see the “Big Board”. Our friends are really amazing, and systematically track all the data that relates to their ministry. At any given time, they know how many new contacts have been acquired through church planters and staff, how many people have been led to Christ, how many new churches have been planted, how many CORE class materials have been distributed and taught, how many people have been baptized, how many new cell groups have been established, how many Bibles have been given/placed, and pretty much anything else you might want to know. All that data makes the big board on a monthly basis, and is tracked over a 12 month basis so that totals can be easily tabulated. Pretty cool!

Bet You’ll Never Think of Coconuts the Same Way Ever Again…

A new friend of mine recently told me that in ancient Hinduism, human sacrifice was often practiced, and that a human’s skull was sometimes split as part of the process. She also said that in light of the fact that such sacrifices are now illegal, many Hindu priests will use a coconut instead. It’s roughly the same size, shape and weight of a human head, and so it is still often split as part of the priestly duties. She also said that in many instances even today, the Hindu priest will color the milky white “coconut milk” inside with red food dye to make it look more like blood once the coconut has been fractured.

I asked Raj about this historical piece of information, and he agreed that it was so. In addition, he said that covertly, even today, whenever anyone builds a bridge or a dam, there will be a small, hollowed out grave at the base where a Hindu priest has been invited (usually under cover of darkness) to sacrifice 2 to 3 humans to ensure that the bridge stays erect of the dam successfully holds back the water.

Nevermore!

Did you know that Indian crows have gray bodies, but black heads and wings? I saw similar crows in Russia, and am now beginning to wonder if we in the US are the only ones who have “just regular black” crows flying around.

Lunch!!!

We had a traditional Indian lunch today, and it consisted of the following:

Rice – Yup, white rice is to Indians what bread is to us Americans. They serve it as a “base” for just about everything.

• Sambar – Yup, the same “pepper water” from breakfast. It’s really good, albeit a little sharp on the tastebuds. But hey, they don’t call it “pepper water” because it’s bland, right?


• Chicken 65 – Yup, they actually do call it “Chicken 65”, even in India! It’s chunk chicken that’s been rubbed with a red mixture of (at least the legend says) 65 different spices to give it a “buffalo” sort of “dry-but-spicy” flavor.


• Chicken Curry – Yup, it’s tasty too. It’s “soupy” the way that Campbell’s Chunky Soup is, and you just pour it straight over the rice. Makes eating it with your fingers a little tricky.


• Chai Tea – Yup, even in 90 degree weather, the tea is awesome but straight from the boiler.

After eating, you simply retire to the upstairs porch to wash your plate and hands, and then wait for your scalp to stop sweating and your sinuses to re-close after the awesome Indian spices have still lingered on your lips.

Individuals vs. Communities...

Raj said a lot of brilliant stuff this morning, but one thing in particular that I thought was really great was what follows. He was describing why what we do as GCC church members coming to visit Indian church planters helps them so much in their ministries. However, in the process, I think he also said some great stuff about just the nature of the Body of Christ in general, and a lesson that we can learn from him about how true Community affects both us and those around us.

“Here in India, individuals are not respected… only communities. Many church planters are viewed as ‘operating alone’ or without the backing of any larger group. As such, they are easily dismissed. You see, you can dismiss an individual. But you cannot dismiss a community. And when we come (or GCC teams come), we show the people of the village that the planter is not alone. That alone gives him some instant credibility. But in addition, as Americans, that credibility is increased. You see, Americans are perceived as being very high in status. If Americans are willing to come and recognize this church planter as having something to say, and if this church planter is a part of their community, then he must really be something special and they will then listen to him.”

Let It Roll, Doc!

Dr. Don did a great job with the morning devotional, and spoke from 1 Kings about the story of Elijah, and Elijah’s hearing the “still small voice of God”. He mentioned how often we want to see God show up in big ways in what we are doing. We want him to crash with thunder, or overturn mountains in a giant earthquake, or split the atmosphere with a great wind, but more often than that, He speaks to us softly and quietly in our own hearts when we seek Him with untainted devotion. We were all encouraged by Don’s reminder, and so were our Indian brothers and sisters!

Worship Indeed!

One thing about Indians… they know how to worship! We arrived to meet our friends just after 10:30, and they were in full worship mode. Even if it’s in Tamil, the worship experience is felt to the depths of each person’s soul, and expressed aggressively and vehemently through their lips and their actions (click here for a brief sample). We sang, prayed, listened and followed along as best we could for the better part of an hour, and then introduced the team. Afterward, we sang, prayed, listed and followed along as best we could for some more time until Raj introduced Don Wolfram for the morning devotional.

Follow the White Rabbit!

Okay, here’s something new too (well… at least since the last time I was here). All of a sudden, these nifty little trash receptacles started showing up on street corners and shop entrances. Josh King is posing here next to this cute little bunny-guy with a “Use Me” sign on his little can. Go ahead… you can say it… “awwwww”. Plus, the potential humor of having Josh pose in front of a large white rabbit with “use me” scrawled in English across it’s front is also worth a smirk.

Anyway, we stopped for a quick second to grab some traditional Indian sweets before meeting the TBL staff, and we got to sample a couple before moving on. Mmmm…

All You Can Eat… If You Like Garbage!

I know I blog about this on every trip, but I just think it’s hilarious. Detail #1: See, here in India, people toss pretty much all their garbage on the ground (paper, plastic, glass, bio, whatever). Detail #2: Also, cattle and other livestock are allowed to simply roam free throughout streets, alleyways, yards, wherever. Sooooo then, if you put detail #1 with detail #2, what you get is herds of cattle that simply gather at trash piles ad hoc and feast on the mounds of garbage that collect by wind or dumping. Having grown up in Arkansas, I’m used to seeing cattle. What I’m usually surprised to see is said bovine creatures munching on a pop-bottle wrapper rather than lime-sprinkled hay. Nevertheless, the cattle don’t seem to complain, and in the long run, the garbage gets… uh… “recycled”.

Human Again!

Ahhhhh… a good night’s sleep, a hot shower, and a hearty breakfast complete with fresh fruit, toast, cheese omelets, and even some Indian pongol (I call them “Indian grits”) and sambar (“pepper water”) for those of us who wanted it, topped off with Chai Tea and thick, Indian coffee made the team seem and feel human again after all the travel. Then, at 10:00, Raj met us in the hotel lobby to take us to meet the TBL staff members and pastors who are in the area for some morning worship and fun.

In the Villages...

Hey, all! This is Sami, Jack's wife, posting not from India, but Indiana... : ) Jack was able to call briefly yesterday and let me know that their internet connection went out, so he hadn't been able to post. They were going to leave last night (our time) for the villages and everyone on the team was doing well! He wasn't sure if they would have internet access over the next several days, so if he doesn't post, know that it's just due to a temporary lack of access. He said that the team has thoroughly enjoyed reading your comments!! They should be back to Trichy on Sunday morning, U.S. time, Sunday night, India time!!