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At Chennai Airport
Posted by Ronnie Worsham
As I write this, it's Monday afternoon and we are at the Chennai Airport awaiting our flight to Delhi (I have no clue when I will be able to post it). I spent some time with Sugumar this morning drilling down to see what his specific needs, desires and dreams really are. It's all really isn't unreasonable or aggressive, although we are not exactly a rich church and some of it would be a challenge for us to help tackle.
Sugumar is a 55-year-old Indian who after completing a B.A degree and a Law Degree, practiced law for a few years, before answering a call to full-time ministry. He was officially ordained in 1988 by the International Christian Church (They're here in India and I know nothing about them.). He spent several years in evangelism, having helped start a couple of village churches. He started his present ministry, Compassion Action Mission Charitable Trust (Yeah, a mouthful, I know:) the last few years. He is now an independent Christian church minister and fellowships with a loose-knit network of similar ministers and churches.
India enacted a no-evangelism law a few years back and in order for Sugumar to continue his ministry he began using the only open door available to him—working with the poor. Although various governors loosen up on the Christians from time to time, as it is with the present one in Sugumar's state, he suspects the present leader is weakening and will be unseated by the previous, more oppressive one, who is hostile to Christianity and who is building power within her party right now for another run at power. The Hindus are very aggressive and powerful here and the government pretty well caters to them. Just today, Casey and I went to the mount where it is said Thomas, the Apostle, was murdered by the Hindus. (I'll say more about that in a moment.) Sugumar said an Australian missionary was murdered a couple of years ago by some Hindus and none have yet been punished for the crime.
India will not allow foreign money to come into the country for a church or for evangelism purposes. And, it is impossible for the very poor village churches to really operate without foreign money. Many churches are pretty set because money flowed in years ago to build their churches and so forth before the ban was enacted. The Charitable Trust allows Sugumar to receive money from the US. Also, India does allow personal gifts to come to individuals.
Seven years ago, Sugumar bought land and built a small church in the poor village of Vattambakkam, Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu. The population of the village is 3-4000. He purchased the land for $3000 and built the building for $15,000. Think about it, a church of about 100 people meets in a building with about an acre of land that cost $18,000! It is obviously very modest with a small stage and lecturn, a small, old speaker system, open air windows with bars and shutters (everyone's windows seem to have bars over them in India), some straw mats on the floor and a few plastic chairs in the back. There's a little building next door with a thatched hut that he conducts training for the village women in sewing and so forth.
He then bought another acre (They don't measure in acres here but that's about what it is.) of land and built a small building to serve as a rural clinic. It too is a very simple masonry building with concrete floors and a sheet metal roof. It has furniture really. The clinic has a camping cot in it and one old plastic chair. Really. You can't imagine. We would call this building an old abandoned shack. He has a poor village man who serves as a “caretaker,” which as best as I can tell, means he keeps villagers from misusing the building, stealing everything, or tearing it up. A couple of years ago, some stole the electric wire serving the building to sell for money. A doctor is supposed to come by twice a week for half a day or so, but often does not come because Sugumar cannot pay him enough for his services. It is the same problem with getting and keeping a nurse. We have pictures of both of these facilities. It is very sad.
He bought enough property with the church to also build a small elementary school whenever he can get the funds. The children currently have to walk miles just to catch a bus to go to a school in another village. We're talking about walking down some roads that have snakes, like cobras, and scorpions along them, as well as the other perils of Indian country life. There are so many people here that it seems the value of the lives of the poor, and I suppose others as well, is not very high. Caste-ism, the institutionalized culture of segregation and discrimination that has been officially banned, is still alive and well culturally, and villagers are seen as “less than” important to many. Sugumar believes he can build the school for $15,000 and operate it for $600 per month! I told you it wasn't “unreasonable.”
We worked through his own expenses and it seems he can live reasonably well for $2000 per month in supporting his family and church ministry (Remember, any money sent from outside India has to come personally as otherwise he'd have to report foreign money being spent on ministry and he'd be in trouble.). I think the daycare needs another $500 or so to operate adequately. These numbers do not include money for his two children's college education. Moses, his awesome son who basically serves as his assistant pastor, will finish engineering school next year, so his undergrad is almost finished and paid for. His daughter, Priscilla, a beautiful, bright, motivated 17-year-old is set to enter the university next year. Sugumar needs $15,000 the first year to get her going! I'm amazed at what he has been able to accomplish on a pauper's budget. He is creative, sly, and resourceful. He's also bold and determined. He's certainly had to be. One of weak constitution would have never started what he has in the first place let alone stay with it long.
Sugumar and his family also need a new laptop, which he did not request. Some of the keys on his present one do not work and the machine is on its “last leg.” I believe it would be helpful in getting American support for him to have a website, not for his church which has no access or ability to use it, but for those who might be looking to help and for those we might want to send to it for information. He would need a digital camera to upload pictures and so forth. The camera and laptop would be $1500 or so, and I have leverage with a local website design company that I can blackmail for a website should we decide to go that way:).
The other need involves the network of village preachers. There are about 100 of these guys who've been associated with him over the years. Currently, about 50 are a part of the “fellowship” that meets monthly and tries to support each other. Sugumar is the unquestioned leader and for good reason. Sugumar helps support about four of them and tries to do something for the rest when he “has a little extra money.” Now, we're talking a few dollars here and a bicycle or scooter there, not any real substantial funds. Each of these guys needs $25 a month to feed their families; $50 to do alright. Unbelievable by American standards. On Saturday, we gave each of them about $22 or so plus a food packet, a gift from the Northeast Church. There were more than 50 that showed up on Saturday.
These churches are not much into doctrinal minutiae. They can't be. Jesus is Lord and people are asked to accept him as savior and they are baptized. Their preacher is rudimentary—Jesus is Christ, the Bible is God's word, come to church, live godly lives, share with others, and stay faithful. Theirs is a ministry of help and prayer. They cry out to God in spiritual warfare in prayer. Demonism is rampant. From the Christian perspective, it is institutionalized in Hinduism. Hinduism is a constant magnet pulling the converts back into paganism because of the cultural force it is and threats applied. Many, if not most, of the villagers are illiterate so they're completely dependent on the pastors to hear and learn the Word. Sugumar's little village church is what one might picture the first century church as looking like.
I believe that Sugumar and the other pastors are open to learning more although Sugumar clearly doesn't want to get caught up in inane doctrinal discussions that have little pertinence in his situation. I have been amazed at the things Sugumar has not really studied out and thought through. We were talking about the women-wearing-veils issue, which is in no way a demand or a fellowship issue to him, but rather an endemic Indian Christian culture, and it was obvious he'd never discussed it with any other preacher or anyone knowledgeable enough to discuss it sensibly. He's really pretty open, but these issues are irrelevant to them compared to the more significant survival issues the Christians face here.
The reality is Sugumar is the only game in town for us. He has to make this work under some huge challenges from government oversight and intervention as well as the specter of persecution from local Hindus. I believe he is trustworthy although he's had to “bend” some rules to operate under the radar screen. We discussed the importance of honesty and integrity and I believe we're on the same page. It is much easier to operate prim and proper in the United States than it is in some countries. There's no way we could connect directly with the other preachers as only a few speak any English at all and most speak only Tamil. Any help for the other pastors would need to be distributed through Sugumar in a high-trust relationship. Obviously, there's a lot to talk through with the Northeast elders before much more feedback is requested from the church. However, Northeast has always operated on a principle of openness and empowerment, and I want as many in the church as possible to have the facts as I know them, so that in our upcoming discussions, we are all working with the best information possible as we dream and pray and plan together as a church family.
Before we came to the airport, we went to the small mount where tradition records Thomas was murdered by the Hindus. It is said that he came to southern India to do evangelism and establish the Christian church. After some time, the Hindus became incensed at conversions and a group of them pursued him up the mount and martyred him there (I would surmise that the mount was probably the place he had established as the “lonely place” he “withdrew often” to pray on, in imitation of his Lord.). The Catholic church maintains a church and a convent and a cemetery and such on the mountain. The site is indicative of Christianity in India. It is indicative of India itself. It was hot and dry and the place was not pretty, being covered with a kind of what to me would be described as scrub brush. There were gates and fences, often broken down. There was litter and trash all around outside and some even inside. It was a very “Catholic” memorial area. The view of Chennai was good but was depressing to me with the smog and the reality of what actually lay below and the institutionalized persecution here of Christianity and truth that it still reflected.
My stomach has been acting up again and I felt pretty badly all day. I don't think it's anything from here as it started at teen camp. On Wednesday morning on the way to our whitewater rafting trip I started feeling pretty badly and ended up not going on the river, but rather staying back and resting on the bus. I trouble with it off and on even through the subsequent trip to San Diego. It seemed to subside before coming here. It came back with a vengeance on Sunday though and I've been pretty miserable at times. I can't much eat at all and the smell of the spices here is more than nauseating. I feel sorry for Casey, but he is such a trooper and wonderful support. I don't know what's going on so I really don't know what to do other than to avoid eating altogether. I'll have Dr. Tom check it out when I get home. I'm editing this blog on Tuesday morning and just added this blissful note. I still feel pretty sick this morning. Northing seems to be working right inside me and my body seems to be saying, “don't even think about eating.” I haven't thrown up or had the other malady though, so it's really kind of a strange, new illness for me:).
So, after that, we were off to Delhi. We will spend Tuesday with the staff of the Church of Christ in Delhi that used to be a part of what was once the International Church of Christ (Yeah, I know many considered it a cult and all, but, hey, I still have white cone hat and dog collar, so I'll fit in). My friend, Mark Templer, works out of that church in his role as head of Hope International in India. This is the charitable organization supported by the network of those churches in that fellowship. Tana and I spent a summer in London working with Mark and his wife, Nadine, back in 1987. After that, the church we led in Phoenix, supported Mark and Nadine as they started a church in Bangalore, India. Mark asked me to share with the staff in Delhi on Tuesday morning. Casey will also be sharing some about our campus ministries. We will then spend some time touring some of Hope's ministries and then visit the Ghandi Museum and memorial area later in the day.
We are currently reconsidering our trip to Taj Mahl scheduled for Wednesday. The road has apparently been getting shut down regularly due to some terrorist activity associated with the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan (fun thought, hey?) and there might be some issue of us being able to get back to Delhi in time to fly out in the middle of the night (actually, Thursday at 1:30 am here). So, I'm not sure. We will talk with the church leaders today and evaluate the situation. We might even try to fly out a night early if the trip doesn't seem wise. However, this may be a mute point by the time I'm able to get somewhere to post this writing.
Posted August 11, 2008
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