India – Day Four
An Attempt at Describing Things
India is an incredible place to visit! I consider it a blessing to be here. At the same time there are just things that are hard to process. The sea of humanity is never ending. The vast divide between the wealthy and the poor is also extensive.
Every morning, with the exception of Sunday, we pray at 6:00 am and then walk for an hour or two. These walks are amazing, each walk talking on a little different feel. I guess some of the things that are hard to process have to do with the difficulty of what can be done to help in a situation where there are so many needs.
There is poverty, pollution and a large population of people. Things are also much more complex here. Muslims, Hindus, and Christians live in close proximity to one another, usually in relative peace, though sometimes not. A Christian church, Hindu temple and a Mosque may all be within a block of each other.
Public sanitation while present is inadequate to say the least. The street gutters (if there are any) carry garbage, animal feces and human waste. This morning we went to the wholesale market where every fruit, nut, and vegetable can be sold by the pound, usually in larger quantities to small vendors who then take it all over the city to sell on street side stands and market places. Stagnant water and gutters full of waste are within yards of sales blanket. We arrived late, around 6:30 am. If we had been an hour earlier walking in the sea of people would have been nearly impossible for us, not being used to it. When we arrived some marketers were already closing down. And still there were a several thousand people in a two block area.
It’s hard to imagine much less describe!
So what can be done to encourage and show the love of Jesus in the midst of such complexity?
Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit three churches and the orphanage again. Each visit teaches us something about ministering in situations of poverty. Yesterday morning we went to a village church (a small village of 100,000+ thousand people). The pastor of the church walks with a terrible limp caused from polio when he was a child. A few days earlier he traversed with great difficulty the stairs of where we are staying to meet with us and receive the fabric we had earlier purchased for a new suit for him and a new dress for his wife. He is a college educated man, formerly a gold smith. He left his job to go into the pastorate. He might make the equivalent of $30.00 a month. His electricity costs $5.00 a month and the rent for his house, a 350-400 square foot concrete hut, is $10.00 a month. His remaining salary is goes to gas for his two-wheeler and food for his family.
What an amazing ministry he has though! There must have been 30 children present in the service. There were a number of Hindu’s who were present in the service. I asked Pastor Samuel why so many Hindu’s come. “Some come because they are curious,” he said, “but many of them come because they have seen answered prayer in the lives of believers.” I noticed that several of the Hindu women were very friendly with the pastor’s wife. It was both an honor and humbling to preach in the midst of such great sacrifice.
One the way home we stopped at Pastor Daniel’s church (40 minutes drive). Pastor Daniel oversees about 50 churches and pastors also. He has a beautiful family. Watching his daughters, he has three, do a worship dance was an amazing experience which I hope you get to see (we have some video which we hope to show later).
That evening we went back to the orphanage and then to a Pastor Michael’s church service. This church meets in a room of a school run by and 85 year old woman. Most of the congregation converted from Hinduism. Preaching was again an honor and humbling all at the same time!
Pastor Samuel has said that when the world sees the church taking care of the needy it becomes a compelling witness for Christ and the love of God. When the widows and orphans are cared for others take note who it is that is caring for them. They notice Christian taking care of others and when they do they get a picture of the love of God. Here we see the most vulnerable, the most needy, the most poverty stricken being taken care of and as a result many people are coming to know Jesus. The pastors often survey the needs of those they live near and minister to and are able to minister to their physical and spiritual needs. Not only is this Biblical, it’s real.
I remember the Apostle Paul saying in Romans that he ministered among the gentiles (non-believing pagan world) to make the Jews jealous
(i.e. curious) in the hopes that they would be open to the gospel. Maybe something like that is at work here. When the church ministers well others are more open to the gospel message. I also think the church here in India has a lot to teach us in America. It’s not that we don’t care about the widow and orphan in America (and it seems like there are less of them), but there are needs all around us and learning how to “see” with new eyes those needs is an essential part of us “being the church” in Big Timber or wherever else we live.
Yesterday I was reminded again of the greatness of our Savior who stepped out of the majesty and glory of heaven to be born, in the flesh, in a village, and in poverty. He left heaven so we could experience heaven. He stepped down so we could step up. He left it all so we could have it all. Wow!
Bryan,
Julian the Apostate, in the fourth century exclaimed, “These godless Galileans (ie. Christians) feed not only their own poor but ours: our poor lack our care.”