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Day One—Coming to Grips with a Strange New World
Posted by Ronnie Worsham
Our plane safely landed in Chennai, India at 11:45 p.m. on Thursday night in India (India is 10.5 hours ahead of CDT). After going through Customs and getting our luggage, we walked out of the terminal to this huge throng of Indians, I mean a whole lot of people, lined up at this railing waiting on people. There were bunches of signs for various individuals and there was quite a roar among the crowd. We felt we were on the red carpet at the Oscars or something. We finally spotted Pastor Sugumar and together we set off to find his car. Sugumar doesn't drive but rather has a young man who drives for him. Help is very inexpensive here so Indians often have others who serve and/or work for them. Sugumar doesn't know how to drive. It turned out to be an interesting experience as we wandered through a parking lot after midnight looking for a car. I think Sugumar talked to the driver on the phone and located him because after a bit we finally found the car.
As Brandon, Brad, and Joe told us from their trip last summer, driving/riding in India is a real trip (pun intended). First, it is proper protocol to honk to let everyone know you are there. Hence, one tends to feel as a goose must feel during migration—constant honking. Second, there's no order to it though. Those of you that know me well know I like things neat and orderly. How do you pronounce “panic attack?” This chaos called driving here is the norm. There are vehicles of all kinds and sizes, plus lots of motorcycles, plus some oxen-led carts, plus throngs of pedestrians, all sharing the streets. I mean the drivers drive pretty fast too. They just constantly jockey and compete for position on the streets. And, the trash is everywhere. There are no trash cans anywhere that I can see. However, we did successfully arrive at Sugumar's house and crash at about 2 a.m. local time.
We met Sugumar's wife Retina last night and got to meet his two children, Moses and Priscilla, tonight. They are all very kind and friendly and committed to the Lord. We are being treated royally here.
The first thing we did after a breakfast of a sort-of chicken stew, boiled eggs, bread, and some pita-like bread, was go see the children in the day-care center, attached to Sugumar's home. The children are incredibly cute. The annex that houses the daycare, which was paid for by a Northeast member, is a fairly large single room. There is a teacher and a cook, and Retina oversees the operation. These are all children from Hindu families who are taught Bible stories and songs while their parents work. These families are very poor families who cannot afford daycare and whose children would have to play on the streets if not for the daycare. We played with the children for a time and then went downtown to the money changer to get some Indian money. Sugumar then took us to the Sheraton Hotel to eat "Americanized" food before we headed out to a Hindu village about an hour away to meet with them and see the effects of the tsunami on their village.
I could tell from Sugumar that they were planning a greeting (he said they'd “built a stage”), but we were not ready for what ensued. As we exited the car, we were greeted royally by the leaders of the village and then a long line of firecrackers began exploding down the lane we were to walk. These exploded for a solid minute or so. Then two drummers and a guy with a bike with a large music player blaring, led us down the central lane of their small, thatched-hut village. We were led to the stage and two different garlands were placed around our necks. The band continued for a minute or so. Then a couple of the village leaders spoke, Sugumar spoke (All spoke in Tamal, so we couldn't understand a word. They could have been saying awful things about us ugly Americans and we wouldn't have a clue!), and then I was asked to speak. On behalf of the Northeast Church and America, we were able to present the village with enough money to buy another fishing net ($350). Well, Sugumar interpreted the things I said, and I hope he got it right. Casey was also asked to speak and he greeted the village people as well. After that, we were led down to the ocean to see the remnants of their old village that had been completely destroyed by the tsunami. It was all really sad and I had to work to keep from crying.
The masses of people, mostly pagan Hindus, and the poverty are overwhelming. The sights and the smells and the strangeness and the masses of people and the seeming chaos keeps me mostly on overload. We saw a bunch of women at a park with smoldering ashes around. Sugumar said this was a ceremony where these women, who had not been able to bear children, ate sweet rice mixed with mud and walked on the hot coals shouting the name of their fertility goddess, in order to seek help in bearing children. There was another scene in which a group of about eight men were bunched beside the road out in the country. As I looked around, there was one man knelt in the middle of them. That's all I saw. However, Sugumar said they were probably beating him for something. He said it was common for people to be killed for various reasons down in this rather ruthless region. I can't get out of my mind the mental picture of the man on his knees in the middle of the others. I wonder if he was like the woman caught in adultery? Or, was he like the Jew who “fell among thieves” who was ministered to by the “good Samaritan.” I can get out of my mind the superstitious, pagan worshiping women who were walking on hot coals and shouting to their goddess. These brought to my mind the prophets of Baal who, in their contention with Elijah, were calling out to their silent, inactive “gods” as well. The thing that pains me the most though is the children—their sweet, beautiful faces, their big dark eyes, and their innocence—in a poverty-laden country wrought with paganism. And, with all the people, they are as Jesus noted of the Jews, “like sheep without a shepherd.”
Tomorrow we meet with the pastors from the churches in the region. Here, in a world where the total number of Christians of any kind comprise about 2.3% of the population, denominational and doctrinal concerns seem to subside. The only concern must be helping these understand that there is “only one Lord, only one faith, only one baptism.” We will be giving each pastor a gift from the Northeast Church family and expressing our love and assuring them of our prayers for their labor here. These are men who labor under the constant threat of persecution and harm.
Pray my broken heart can bear up under the overwhelming sadness I feel.
Posted August 08, 2008
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Reader's Comments
I've been reading 2 Corinthians Chapters 1 - 7 over and over and over again the past 10 days. One phrase that is repeated often is "do not lose heart." 4:1 - "Therefore, since through God's mercy, we have this ministry, we do not lose heart." It also says several times that things happen so that we will rely on God and not on ourselves. So, I would encourage you in the same way...do not lose heart and rely on God.
Posted by Leslie Rowe on August 09 2008, 08:50 PM
Ronnie,
Before you even began this journey I began to pray for the broken heart I knew you would experience. Coming face to face with a poor, lost society brings about our sadness for them as well as a sadness for ourselves as we began to realize how greatly blessed we are as we watch others suffer. I know your heart will bear up because it is only a heart of compassion that will bear up and not become hardened or hidden. That heart compels us forward in His service. Glorify His Name.
Posted by Gilda on August 09 2008, 09:29 AM
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