The people of the BFLC

Our friends from Bible Faith Lutheran Church and Moriah Home and School.

Photo Memories from Chennai

Great to see posts from Pastor Mike with photos from northern India, and hear that the group arrived home safely yesterday. Seeing Mike's photos from Chennai (from the previous week) reminded me of a few more....

After we arrived early Saturday morning (1/26), we had the day to wait for the rest of the group to arrive at 1am Sunday. So Rajesh and I took an autorickshaw into town -- that's when I was able to get online and post from Chennai. In the afternoon, though, Dad went through all of his digital photos and Ragesh helped him identify the people in each of them. They also compiled a list of pastors from each congregation we visited.


The refreshment stand at St. Thomas Mount sold "Diet" bottled water. We all had a good chuckle over that one. Maybe that's why I lost so much weight? ;)


We stayed at the Guest House at St. Thomas Mount, located about halfway up the hill. This is the view from the Guest House, looking down the single road that winds up the hill. In the mist beyond those trees is the flight approach to the international airport, so you could stand here at an altitude of about 200' and watch planes approach the runway at 150' a few miles away.


And turning the other way, this is the view looking uphill from the Guest House. There are statues everywhere, donated by groups to commemorate visits by VIPs like the Pope.


Further down the hill, I found this lone statue overlooking the city.


I think this was when we were all loading up to head to Evans Beach. The plan was to head directly to the train station after the beach, so this was goodbye to the Guest House.


After our disasterous collective travel experience, it seemed like it was in everyone's best interests to get new nicknames. This is "Bagless Bob" getting ready for sleep on our overnight train to Guntur -- proud owner of the only nickname that stuck.


A tired "Broken Mike" Weaver next to his sleeper compartment -- no, that name didn't stick.


Look at Aaron's eyes here and then take my pop quiz: does Aaron look a) well-rested, or b) like a guy who was on a plane from Thursday night through Saturday 1pm, then stayed up a most of the day Saturday only to wait with me at the Chennai airport all night Saturday night, then take on a jam-packed schedule all day Sunday?

Some of our work with BFLC

Bob interviewed pastors from the Bible Faith Lutheran Church for a story he's writing for the Columbus Dispatch. Here's he's interviewing Sudheer, the pastor at Nachugunta.

Aaron found himself playing volleyball with some of the kids from the Moriah Home one afternoon.

At one of our island church visits, Eric greets the church that gathered that evening to meet our group.

Regularly we'd find Jim engaging in conversation with people. Here he is with a group of seminary students and pastors.

And me? I taught at the seminary the first week we were there. Here I am with John Babu one of the BFLC pastors.

Pictures from St. Thomas Mount, Chennai, India

Here are a few pictures from our visit to St. Thomas mount where, according to tradition, Jesus' apostle Thomas was martyred in 72 a.d. We were able to walk where countless pilgrims from across the centuries, including the likes of the explorer Marco Polo, once walked.

Place where Thomas died. He was speared at the bottom of the hill, but crawled to the top of the hill to die. There is little historical record of Thomas' visit to India, but there is evidence. In an Indian antiquities museum is a carving mentioning Thomas' visit to one of the rulers of India in the first century.

Catholic Church on St. Thomas Mount

Our group on the mount, our first full day in India. Notice the beautiful view of the city of Chennai from the mount.

Back home again

"Hey it's good to be back home again"

John Denver

We made it safely home today from New Delhi. As was the case with the Whiteheads last weekend, our flights home were uneventful. We said goodbye to Zakkiah last night and headed to the airport from the hotel. Even as I write, Zakkiah hasn't made it back to Guntur. His train was to leave at 11:30am, New Delhi time and arrive 24 hours later in Vijaywadda and then another hour drive to Guntur by car. Most likely he'll get back to his house sometime Sunday afternoon with will be the wee hours of Sunday morning for us. Zakkiah and the others in Guntur we met are friends to us. We return richer, not only for the experiences and places we saw, but more importantly for the friends we developed as a gift from God.

Thanks for reading.

Mike

Delhi

Our last full day in India...in New Delhi. It has been quite a remarkable trip for all of us. Last night we had a moment as a group to reflect on our time here. I asked, "What is the first thing you will tell folks when you get back to the U.S. What stands out in your mind?" We all had different answers: taking communion with the Christians in the village of Upumalaguru celebrating our unity and God's grace for us all, playing volleyball with the kids, the church visit to Rompercherla where 63 people greeted our group in the middle of the day on a Monday, the smiles of the children at Moriah Home and School that warmly greeted us many days...and on and on. Our experience was blessed and rich and full of signs of God's gracious love.

For me, this third visit to Guntur and the BFLC has been great. My visit to churches and understanding the mission of the BFLC wasn't new to me as it was to Aaron, Bob and Jim. This visit for me was renewing and continuing friendships here. Friendships with people like Zakkiah who has traveled with us to Delhi to see us on the plane, and Rajesh, a young and emerging leader within the BFLC. I count these two men truly brothers in Christ among many others not named. We learned a bit of Telugu along the way as well from our friends here. By the way, the Telegu word for lizard is bali. No go impress your friends with that one!

We arrived in Delhi yesterday by train from Agra. Our visit to Agra was good. We were able to see the Taj Mahal and other historic sites from India's past (12-14th centuries). All of the sites we've seen thus far in Agra and Delhi yesterday were buildings and palaces built by Muslim rulers when they ruled India during that time period. They are quite impressive.

Today, before we leave, we'll see a bit of old Delhi as well. Aaron is feeling much better.

While it's been a great experience, we're all looking forward to seeing our friends and family in the U.S. again. We arrive Saturday morning in Columbus. Please pray for our safe journey. I'll post pictures on this blog once I get back to the U.S.

See you in Ohio.

Thanks again for reading and your comments to the blog entries.

In Christ,
Mike

Nachugunta Photo Memories

The new church at Nachugunta at Dawn.

It's far easier to upload photos to the blog when you are here in the U.S. using a fast connection. So here are some photos that I haven't posted yet from our overnight in Nachugunta.

On our way to Nachugunta Thursday (1/31), we had to wait for a ferry to take us across to the island. A nearby Catholic prayer tower provided this view of the Krishna river flowing toward the Bay of Bengal.


My dad's journal described how our car got stuck on our way back to Nachugunta, but what he didn't mention was the herd of goats that had to navigate their way around our dirt-digging project.


Deciding on a plan for the day. (Dawn, Friday 2/1. L-R, Mike Weaver, Jim Sexton, Aaron Shank, Bob Loomis.)

Wishing Aaron Good Health

Bummer to hear about Aaron's illness during the trip ride. 24 hours of being sick on a train with Indian restroom facilities? Yeah, that pretty much blows.

My dad was sick Monday and Tuesday after he got back, too -- pretty wiped out from the flights. We all got a decent sleep last Wednesday night, but from there on we traveled all day Thursday and spent the night in Nachugunta, traveled all day Friday, left Saturday on the train at 1pm and were on the road until 3:30am Saturday, at which point we boarded the plane. Then he (we) got whatever sleep he could for the next 8 hours, followed by another 8 hour flight.

So that's really 1 good night's sleep from Thursday morning to Sunday night -- no wonder he arrived in Minnesota and went straight to bed. Mental note to avoid such scheduling next time.

Wednesday, Feb. 6--Agra

We arrived in Agra by train at 3:3oam and taken to our hotel. Unfortunately, Aaron was sick the entire trip from Guntur to Agra. We all said however, if there was a day to be sick it would be the travel day. He slept almost the entire 24 hours on the train.

On Tuesday morning at 2:15am we were awakened by what sounded like a party by the neighbors of the BFLC seminary where we had been staying. The loud dance music served as our alarm. We were supposed to be up by 2:3o anyway to take the hour journey to Vijaywadda to catch the train to Agra. Turns out, the music we heard was from the Safari the BFLC folks had rented to take us to the train station. Greeting and seeing us off were Rajesh, Bishop Shalem, and Zakkiah's family. Pastor Zakkiah had never been to Agra or Delhi so he's been our traveling companion on this leg of our journey. I think the music was Rajesh's idea. He's a 22 year old pastor of the BFLC and very fun loving. Many times he greets us with a smile and a hearty laugh. He's one of our favorite guys. Karuna Dasari also got up early to say good-bye as did the ladies who cooked all our meals for us (Nirmala, Neloni, and Susthi) and gave us a big bag of food to take on the train. It's was a nice send off from friends made here in India. Karuna is such a wonderful hostess, genuinely warm and welcoming. When you stay with the BFLC you feel like family with Karuna. We said our good-byes and off we went.

We left Guntur with mixed feelings, satisfied with the work we had done, encouraged by many people, and a bit burdened by the many, many needs facing the BFLC churches and the Moriah Home and School. The list is long, with needs ranging from general maintenance and upgrades to the school, challenges in paying a competive wage to qualified teachers at the Moriah School, and need for a new worship space in a couple of congregations. The needs are great but the finances aren't always there. For example, when the Moriah School recently needed to replace one of their two school buses, Karuna sold a piece of property she owned to pay for it. It was great sacrifice on her part because she understood that unless another bus was bought, 60-70 kids wouldn't make it to Moriah School at all. Parents just couldn't put them in the car to drop them off. They don't have cars to drop them off. Why did Karuna do it? Her deep belief in the mission of the school and the reality that the current BFLC budget wouldn't cover it. Much prayer is needed for this worthwhile mission that God continue to provide generously to this mission so that poorer kids are educated well and the gospel is preached effectively in rural villages.

Since we arrived so early in Agra today, we took a short two hour nap and jumped in a taxi to see the Taj Mahal. Truly it is one of the seven wonders of the world. Unfortunately, it was a big foggy/smoggy here today so most of our pictures of the Taj are shrouded. Getting there early aloud us to fight the crowds, but we sacrificed good pictures for it.

Mid morning we picked Aaron up from the hotel because thankfully he's feeling better and we were off to the Red Fort, a gigantic complex built by various Moguls in the 16th century. After lunch we drove an hour outside of town to see a royal palace and religious area built by Akbar in the 15th century. He ruled the area for nearly 50 years. At five foot three, he was a small man in stature, but he made up for it in the size and granduer of his royal palace. The interesting thing about Akbar is that he had three wives, one Hindu, one Muslim and one Christian. Only one of the three gave him a son to carry on the family name, the Hindu. Guess which one got the biggest palace on the grounds?

It's nearly dinner time here and we're all hungry. We looked into celebrating Ash Wednesday in a local Christian congregation, but we didn't return from Akbar's site until late. We'll have a worship together as the six of us in our hotel room marking the beginning of lent for all of us.

Tomorrow off to Delhi. More from there. Thanks for reading.

Mike

My Return to Columbus

I'm back (Eric) in Columbus now, but the rest of the All Saints group continues on to the city of Agra in northern India. Since my Dad and I have both visited Agra and the Taj Mahal before, we headed back to the U.S. while Aaron, Mike, Jim, and Bob caught the 24-hour train north.

Hopefully Mike will be able to post some pictures with his blogs from Agra.

Our flights home were uneventful, much to my surprise. We even got our luggage. As I return to "normal" life this week, I'll continue to post my thoughts and photos from my experiences in India.