Memories of India

Well, here we are back in good old Oz, enjoying the luxuries of sandwiches, showers, steak and even moderate traffic (roads in Sydney yesterday morning peak seemed so tame compare to Chennai on Saturday evening). But India was great and we had a blast!

But this is not a report, more a memoir (how's that for a pretentious title!)

India is on the move, in more ways than one. Since my last visit (2002), the highway out of Vizag has become a four lane divided road, albeit with rather dodgy entries so you find vehicles going on the wrong side to get to a u-turn. Traffic is on the increase and people ignore such things as lanes. Vizag is expanding in all directions with nearly 4 million people, before long COTR will be part of a suburb and another 4 lane highway will go right past it, where once was a sleepy rural road. Everywhere is evidence of Progress as the emerging lower middle class drags itself out of poverty.

But alongside this is the old India: primitive village huts, beggars (not as bad as we think, but professional beggars are knocking on the window of your car in Vizag now), slums, smells and people sleeping in the railway stations. The train from Chennai to Vizag is a case in point: electrified all the way (850 km), a modest 14 hour trip, 2nd class airconditioned cars quite acceptable and less bothered by beggars and pedlars compared to last visit. But the new computerized signalling system at Vizag opened the day we arrived and plunged it all into chaos (mind you, Sydney can do tricks like that too!), so we arrived near to Vizag on time and spent 4 and a half hours finishing the last 40 km.

Christianity is on the move in southern India at least. E.g. 400 AOG churches in Chennai (pop 10 million), largest 25,000 and 50 others have over 1,000 people. Offically there are 2.3% Christians in India, seems understated to me. But to get your religion officially changed is quite an undertaking and "conversion" is quite a political issue. So there is lots of persecution too and the govt is getting more nosy. A large team of SDAs from Oz were thrown out while we were there for violating their tourist visas by conducting a high profile campaign of "science proves God" meetings. Police rang COTR to make sure we were doing the right thing.

Well we were! Most of our activities were on site and were no more scandalous than puppet shows, dancing (with scarf waving in Mum's case), prophesying, singing our heads off, etc. Even in the villages all we did was preach, prophesy, pray for people and perform amateurish skits (e.g. Mum as the Canaanite woman begging me to heal her daughter). Mind you Paul Mowen kept telling this gross story about a dog licking the leaking emissions from a dead cow! You'd have to be there to envisage some of the scenes. E.g. me preaching to about 20-30 people sitting on a mat in the middle of a village street, but we all had to move when someone wanted to ride a motor bike up the street. Or Paul Mowen competing with a rowdy bunch of Hindus broadcasting their "worship" while he was preaching. Or Paul and Margaret Warren looking for some "lost" ear rings through the villagers. One night we met Abraham and Sarah and they have 3 sons: Ramesh, Ganesh and Suresh!

My slogan from this visit is "Veg or non veg": this is the choice at every railway stall, hotel dining room, etc. since many Indians are vegetarians.

Some random memories:

St Thomas supposedly died in a suburb of Chennai, we saw the mountain. It has an ugly Portuguese church on top.
Mum trying to get a "normal" cup of tea.
The two of us trying to counsel a girl who wanted to marry for love instead of Dad's choice.
Watching the Aussie movie "look Both Ways" on a plane. Thoroughly recommend it.
Vizag's new coffee shop, where you drink good espresso, while listening to Indian rock and outside is a girl beggar with a monkey in tow.
The "black pyjama brigade". These are men in black pyjamas and bare feet while they go through weeks of ascetic preparation for their annual pilgrimage to see their god in Kerala (far south). Even some from overseas. I'm told this temple takes $US 1m per day! There is also a red pyjama group who go somewhere else. This is the dark side of Indian life.
A student in my M.Div. class challenging me on the Trinity, which proved I was getting through!
Meeting a lecturer I ministered to last time the day after I'd prophesied to his wife at church, not knowing who she was. And prophesying to a faculty member in front of the class, a bit risky but he said "every word was God."
Having a hair cut in one of the small shops next to COTR for the pricely sum of 10 rupees (= 3o cents).
Mum preaching on Shame in COTR chapel.
Anointing 20 students after preaching myself on the Holy Spirit and witness/martyrdom.
Students cheering when the two of us went out the front and modeled dancing for the Lord to a chorus we were teaching.
In depth theology discussions with Paul Mowen.
Mum filling in time one quite Sunday afternoon by inventing a board game for us to play.
Xavier, the young academic dean at COTR, a really great bloke, is doing his Ph.D. on a similar area to mine.

Hope you can absorb all this.