Getting Ready

We have a team of 5 Americans arriving tomorrow. I'd write about it - but I'm just too dang tired.

Conversational English

I was informed on Saturday that I would start teaching in the Bible College on Monday. Conversational English and Vocabulary.

Could have used a little more prep time but I searched on the internet and found some good ESL stuff and ordered a book from Amazon.* My focus is on getting these guys to really speak and understand the language, not just have a head knowledge of it. (They have grammar/English in the mornings with another teacher.)

I'll be teaching on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, possibly adding a Friday Morning class. I have 14 students ages 17 to 25, all boys. I'll take a picture one of these days and post it.

Today we worked on 5 conversational questions and their answers. "How are you?" "What is your name?" "Where are you from?" "How old are you?" and "What are you?" (I am a student.) We practiced asking each other all class and then I paired them into 7 teams of 2 and gave them the homework of practicing with each other and then they'll do their dialog in class in front of everyone on Wednesday.

Of course there are the bold ones who jump right up to try and others who are, let's just say, much more reluctant. It was amusing when they were asked their age and responded, "I am fine, thank you." or when they tried to ask a question and came out with, "How old are you from?"

There was the one boy who insited on saying, "Where are you?" instead of "Where are you from?" Even tho I explaned very clearly that they have two totally different meanings. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Well, I should get back to getting E. ready for her English midterm (ha, she's 4 people!) tomorrow. I wonder if her teacher will deduct points when she sings "Mary had a little ham..." or not.

* If you have any ideas for teaching beginners English or websites for it, let me know. The students seem to be especially interested in Phonics - you know, how to learn how to spell. I'm sure my parents are rolling on the floor laughing at the thought of me teaching anyone how to spell.

Birthdays

I had a birthday over the past few days and it was horrible as all my birthdays are. The "happy" in Happy Birthday doesn't seem to apply to me. I'm not exaggerating; I cannot recall a "happy" birthday in all my ... years.

Well, I've come to the conclusion that it serves to remind me that it's NOT all about me. You know, My Life. Ain't it the truth.

If you're wondering, 29 Forever, baby.*


*Not really, but shhhhh that's just between us OK?

Help

I have way too much to do today to spend this time adding a post. Ok, now that I got that off my chest...

Over the years I have had several girls come and stay with me to help aound the house or with my kids. They stay for a few months or a year or longer. O.'s sister, Martha, was the longest. She's at college now.

For anyone who has ever had someone come and live with them, you know how it is a strange transition from being just your family to having this other person there.

Yesterday, Phoebe came. She is the niece of a man who works with us. She came straight from the village. She's never lived in a city before. At her home there is no electricity, no running water, no gas stoves. So, we're starting from scratch. When Martha came to live with us she didn't even know Hindi, just her village language. Well, at least Phoebe and I can communicate. At least, I communicate. She nods. In two days I haven't heard her speak a work. Oh well, it won't be long til she's talking my ear off.

Her three sisters are in our children's home and her dad is coming to help us with our Bible College by making food for the students. Phoebe's mom died after giving birth to baby Zarina who is about 16 months old. Zarina is in our Children's Home with Asha and Keziah her sisters. Asha came when her uncle came to work for us in Dec. 2003. She had been living with his family since she was 3. Keziah came a few months after her mom died, Zarina about 10 months later and now Phoebe is at my house. (There are 2 brothers too who study in a children's home/orphanage in Rajasthan.) So I guess Phoebe and her dad should be happy here.

Her uncle came and saw me washing the dishes yesterday and said, give it to Phoebe, she'll do it. I said, we're just taking it slow. I just had her watch the girls for me last night while O. and I went to a meeting. I came home and there was red crayon scribbled all over , I mean ALL OVER, E. & C.'s bedroom. Arg. I said to Phoebe, "If she (C.) ever goes to do anything like this again, say NO and take the crayon away. She'll cry and scream and make a big scene but she's not allowed to do this." I doubt that will be the end of scribbled walls though.

She is going to be very helpful, I know. It's just going to be wonderful to not have to drag E. & C. everywhere I go. To be able to go shopping and not have to run home because we have to reach there before E. gets dropped off by the school van.

Phoebe does seem to run on village speed (slow). This morning I said to her, "This is the city. We do everything fast here." I think she caught on.

Hopefully she'll start speaking to me soon.

Christian Colony: Part 1

When you wait a little while to post something that is on your mind, you kind of lose your momentum. I’ll do my best to get it back for this one. It’s kind of a follow up to my post on Sept 14th, Not Benign Cultural Tradition, but it stands alone as well.

The other day I heard O. sharing with someone that he (and some co-workers) were thinking and praying about one day building a Christian colony (neighborhood) where we could all live and other Christians could join us. My first reaction was, oh no way, we must be a light among the darkness, even where we live.

But the day after hearing this idea was Saturday. Saturday was the day that the ganesh idol was dunked in the water. I was out for Ladies Visiting and E. and C. were with me. As our vehicle wound it’s way through the muddy streets filled with dancing people and the beat of drums E.’s eyes took it all in.

All Saturday and Sunday she was repeating the chants the children said while ganesh was carried down the street. Then when she saw the pictures of ganesh and the festival on the news she was full of questions about him. She called him the “children’s god.” At first I didn’t get it and then it hit me – he’s an elephant. Of course he looks like a children’s god to a 4 year old.

E. has been fascinated by all things Hindu for as long as I can remember. It is a constant prayer of mine (and others) that she be protected from the evil all around her.

So, after this happened with E. I started to think differently about the idea of a Christian colony. At least there our children would be isolated from these festivals. Here’s an example of what happens right at our own home. On Saturday a man came to my door and gave me a packet of Prasad (sweets offered to idols) and a small plaster ganesh idol. Gee, thanks. Just what I never wanted. In a Christian colony that would never happen. E. and C. would have all their little Christian friends on their street to play with, sounds ideal? Read Part 2.

Christian Colony: Part 2

Sunday night I opened a book I’ve been reading called, “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things” by Beth Moore. Good book.

I hadn’t picked it up in about 10 days since I tend to read non-fiction off and on and fiction straight through. This, being non-fiction, gets picked up and read at intervals. It’s a hard cover book and I am loath to bend the pages on hard cover books so I usually use the dust jacket flap or a bookmark to save my place. However, I also have 2 small children so invariably my place is lost.

So was the case on Sunday. I had to flip through the end of the book to find where I left off. I opened the book and looked down and my eyes fell right here: “We’ve been sent to the very world the church will probably grow increasingly tempted to avoid. The huge irony is this: we still wouldn’t avoid unhealthy relationships because so many of us lack wholeness, having never allowed God to perform His work in us through and through. Here’s the shocker: we wouldn’t even avoid demonic seductions by shutting out the world and limiting our relationships to those within our church communities. Do you know why? Because so much of it takes place right there.” Pg. 149.

Hmmm, well, that hit home.

I don’t know what will happen in the future. It’s all in God’s hands, but I do know this. We battle not against flesh and blood and it doesn’t really matter where we live, there’s no avoiding the battle.

I've been thinking about writing some updates. Since it's nearly 11PM and I'm beat, I think I may mentally only be up for one entry and since this one doesn't require much thought, it's what you're gonna get. Basically, I just want to show off a picture of my (best) tomato plant.

Isn't it just gorgeous.
The seeds that were planted directly in the soil have not done as well as these that were put into pots. I have a total of about 10 plants that will eventually have to be replanted. Advice still welcome.

Onto other subjects. Remember the boxes? We got 2 MORE in the mail today. Wow!

OK, now onto the bed for E. and C. Well, C. has taken to it like a fish to water. I think she sleeps better there than she ever did with us. E., however, seems to be planning to sleep with us until at least her marriage. I put her in her bedroom after she's asleep and within minutes she wakes up and is back in bed with me. Sometimes I wake up and she is there next to me and I didn't even hear her come in. I'm going to let her go for little while because we have guests coming next week and she'd be kicked out of her bed and back with us for a week anyway. But after that...

I had a request for a close up on the monkey of a few weeks ago. I tried to enlarge the photo but to no avail. It was too blurry. I'll have to get a better one next time. Monkeys tend to show up in the winter.

Well, I'll leave you with one last photo of my favorite plant on my balcony. I don't even know what it is.

Blame It On The Rain

Well, not really. I've just been busy. What can I say? I have this urge in me to keep my blog updated, at least every other day, but - obvisouly - that's not happening. I guess I can best describe the urge as a responsibility - to post.

Well, I've got ideas for at least 3 entries. One being about Ladies Visiting, which is one of the reasons I've been short on time to write. But I also have pictures to download with that one and that's what holds me back. The stinking pictures.

I also want to write a follow-up to my last post and it's all there in my head but I feel a little drained today and I think I need to be fresher for that one. So it will wait.

Finally, I want to write an upate entry, where I give updates on some of the previous posts, like my tomato plants and the girls' new bed. But they can all wait. I'll probably get them up all at one time. eventually, maybe tomorrow. Until then, you get this really boring pseudo-entry. Sorry.

NOT Benign Cultural Tradition

I’ve just finished digging through three dusty boxes of books to find what I was looking for to help me write this entry.

The idea for it came to mind yesterday when my house was reverberating to the loud beat of drums from outside. This went on for about an hour. I had an idea what it was about but it wasn’t until I actually saw the 6’ high, big fat, elephant headed, ganesh idol in front of my house that my suspicions were confirmed.

It’s rainy season, time to make ganesh idols and put them up on little stages in every neighborhood. Time to worship them and sing and dance and throw pink powder on each other, time to take the expensive, sometimes gold, silver, and even diamond covered idols and throw them in the river. Yep, that’s the festival. Ten days of worshipping and then on the last day, the idol gets dumped into the river.

The noise of drums that was bothering me yesterday was increased by the shouts and yells and cheers of teenage boys. They danced and banged the drum and shouted. And that is what had me digging through unpacked boxes of books this afternoon. I was looking for Breaking Strongholds in Your City edited by C. Peter Wagner. I read it about three years ago and something from the book stuck with me, mainly because I had personally experienced it to be so.

The book deals with idea of spiritual strongholds over certain areas of the world and why this is so and of course, what we as believers can do about it. On pg. 41 it says, “The question that plagues many people is what sustains them (dynasties of darkness). If the misplaced choices of earlier generations allowed demonic forces into certain neighborhoods, how do these evil powers maintain their tenancy rights across centuries or millennia?... One major answer to this question is found in the authority transfers that occur during religious festivals, ceremonials and pilgrimages.” He goes on to say on page 42, “These celebrations are decidedly not the benign, quaint and colorful spectacles they are often made out to be. They are conscious transactions with the spirit world. They are opportunities for contemporary generations to reaffirm the choices and pacts made by their forefathers and ancestors.”

And lastly, here is what brings me to my point (pgs. 41-42), “Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of children a day are born into these enchanted systems around the world. Nearly all of them grow up hearing about the lie, but it is during puberty rites and initiations that many of them feel its intense gravitational suction for the first time. The power of the lie, fueled by demonic magic, is called tradition; and it is tradition, in turn, that sustains the territorial dynasties.” (emphesis mine)

Man, is that so right on. I looked out and saw these 13 and 14 year old boys, totally caught up in the frenzy yesterday. And not only yesterday but month by month as “cultural traditions” continue to come. That original contract with the devil is being signed over and over and over again.

The Kind of News You Love To Hear

On Thursday and Friday our local pastor, our pastor from the next city over, and two musical guys went on a short preaching tour to the state of MP. The spoke at two locations in the villages where our MP pastors work.

I spoke with the guys who went and one of them told me that, although it was pouring rain, people were coming through the fields, walking on foot to get to the meetings. At both meetings combined there were about 450 people.

Our pastor was so overwhelmed by it all he could barely get up to speak when the time came. Later when he shared the testimony about the meetings with us his eyes teared up at the greatness and goodness of God. After the meetings there was prayer and then a time for the people to give testimonies. Over 15 people stood to testify how God had moved in their life. The first woman who stood to her feet shared how her eyes were cloudy and she could barely see any more, but God had healed her and she could see clearly for the first time.

There were more people who wanted to give testimonies but there wasn’t enough time.

Here is a picture of the team of men working in our city at a meeting at my house on Saturday. The pastor who shared the testimony of God’s greatness is on the left in the striped shirt.

That's a funny picture.

Anyway. Praise the Lord!