Busy Days…

I don’t even know where to begin today, it’s been crazy.  We left just before 8 am to another city named Virudhunagar or ‘V’ for short.  I can’t pronounce it but "nagar" means city.  So, there you go, I know an Indian word.  I also know ‘Nandre’ which means ‘thank you.’  That’s about it for now.  In ‘V’ we worshipped at Pastor David’s church.  It’s somewhat of a rarity for Pastor Samuel to visit church’s a long way from Madurai because it cost a lot to rent a car.  We paid $50 USD for the van we rode in.  Doesn’t sound to bad?  Well, that is 5 months rent for Pastor David!  That is why Pastor Samuel usually holds the pastors conference in Madurai and brings all the pastors that he sponsors to him rather than visit.  We witnessed a wonderful service with the same great fellowship we have enjoyed since arriving here.  All the people are very friendly and it has been an honor to pray for each person – literally – at the end of the service.

On the way home I saw that one image will always be with me.  You see, on each trip I have taken, there has been that one thing that I can’t let go of and this was it.  On the last trip to the Philippines it was the woman making Nepa roofing for less than a $1/day.  Today it was the woman in the second picture.  She is filling up her water bottles which, I assume, she does multiple times every day.  Not a big deal, right?  They do it all the time in every country I have been in so it’s nothing new.  The new part for me is the ditch running just to the left of the water spigot.  That is the sewer system.  Let me say it again…the sewer system.  Oh, there is not ‘pure,raw’ sewage.  It’s gray water with ‘filtered’ black water.  Yes, you can smell it very clearly.  Given the proximity to the fresh water, I would say that at a minimum many illnesses are directly caused by this crazy combination.  There is no infrastructure to handle this situation.  The city has grown up this way and it will be hard to change.  These sewer ditches ran through the city streets on many blocks over and over.  It really blows my mind.  You know that young children are exposed to this everyday and probably some will die as a result of exposure to the bacteria growing around it.

Still on the way home:  We stopped at Pastor Daniel’s church.  He is a neat guy and Pastor Samuel’s #2 man.  While there, I took the third picture.  Ahh those wonderful cows.  Aren’t they beautiful as they graze through the mountains of garbage that litter any and all empty lots in the city (and, my friends, there are a LOT of empty lots)  You’ll also want to notice that there is not a curb in front of the lot, but another sewer channel running down the street.  Oh great, now that I saw what one looks like, they are everywhere!!

Later that afternoon we attended a second service by another pastor that is sponsored by Pastor Samuel.  In the service a young girl did a neat dance that replaced one of the worship songs.  Again, the people were very friendly and it was a fun worship service to be a part of.  Afterword, we met with the woman that owns the building and discussed the possiblility of her giving Pastor Samuel the building when she dies (she is 83).  He is very bold and it was interesting to watch him try to convince her that the Lord could use the building for mighty works.  We will see.  It was a late return home and late supper at 8pm.

Finally for today I wanted to share a shoe picture.  I also wanted to let Mery know that I think my picture of shoes has more shoes than her picture of shoes from the Philippines. (I guess you and Josh will need to come and see if you can break the new record)  The problem with my picture is that there is no color in any of these shoes – how boring.   I wonder what tomorrow will bring….