Jumping Right In

So many things to tell, I am just going to start at the beginning and work day by day. I think that will be easiest to get caught up. Thursday- My first full day in the city was spent exploring and getting used to the flow of things here. I went out with Jonathan, a national M that works with the H1ndus here in the city. He took me out get a taste of all the forms of transportation and show me around to a few places. Here there are 4 forms of transport; walking, bicycle rickshaw, auto rickshaw, and the city bus. That is unless you have your own vehicle (motorcycles are popular, easier to get through traffic), but most of us don’t so these are our options. We tried out each one and they all have their advantages depending on where you are going. Bus rides cost about a quarter/Rs.10 and rickshaws about a dollar/Rs. 40 depending on how far you are going of course. Yes, traffic is kinda crazy. Its every man for himself, so if you want to get past someone just blow your horn and go. Nobody even gets angry when they are cut off, its just normal. I have learned that its not as bad as it looks and sounds. Anyway we traveled around a good part of the city, went to the zoo (a nice break from all the noise and congestion), a couple of bazaars (markets), and just saw a lot of the sights. It seems like everyone has a shop of some kind. There are H1ndu temples everywhere and a few mosques too. Some people even have temples in their houses, in fact, my landlord does. It’s an eerie reminder everyday of the darkness that we are surrounded by. Other than that, there are people everywhere! This city is home to 2 million people in, give or take a few a hundred thousand. I’m not sure the land area, but its crowded to say the least. The census results just came out and 1nd1a has now reached over 1.2 billion officially. Also, I’m sure some of you are wondering if it is dirty and if it smells bad. Yes, but you get used to it. : ) The Weekend- I am just going to lump the entire weekend together because it was not too eventfully even though it was nice. A group from Andrea’s hometown came in on Thursday, so I was able to spend some time with them doing some orientation stuff. We learned some about the culture, how to share the Truth with the nationals, a little about what they believe, and some other things about this area. I really enjoyed the morning we spend learning the story of Legion from the Word and acting it out. People here are oral learners so stories like this are easy for them to follow, remember, and to share with others. Also during the weekend we got to eat some authentic 1nd1an food, and it was delicious! A lot of rice and fresh veggies. So I will not be malnourished when I return, plenty of good food! We also learned how to eat 1nd1an style, that is, with your right hand and you use your thumb as a little shovel sort of to push the food in. The left hand is traditionally unclean, that’s your “washing” hand. I was at the flat by myself all weekend; Brian had to go out of town. Saturday night was the big World Cup final between Ind. and Sri Lanka. I say Saturday night, more like all day Saturday. Cricket matches last forever. This one started at 1:30pm and last until after 11pm! I stayed at the office that night to watch 1nd1a bring home the cup for the first time in 28 years. They were lead by a solid performance by their captain MS Dhoni who hit a 6 run to end the match. GO 1ND1A! There was serious celebration in the streets; I’m talking music, dancing, fireworks, cheering, chanting, and who knows what else! For that reason they would not let me leave the office and go home since all that was going on and it was 12am. I slept at the office and got up early the next morning to return to the flat and try to get some rest. On Sunday I was alone all day, so I decided to try the restaurant down the street that Brian had showed me for lunch. The food was great, chicken fry (not to be confused with fried chicken) and france fries. However, no one spoke any English…because of this I got no answers to any of my questions, like is tip included. I found out later that it is not and VAT is tax. So maybe next time a will leave the guy a little extra. I spend the rest of the day trying to prepare my surveys that were to start on Monday. The Week- This is getting pretty long and I’m sure all of you are tired of reading. I am typing up a sweat anyway, haha! The joys of no A/C. This week I was to start my business profiles and surveys for the Chick-fil-A leadership conference at the end of the year. These are just to give them a snapshot of the current state of these organizations before they come to teach their leadership model in the fall. I did six surveys this past week and got to meet some really great people along the way. Every survey I did was in a Ch1$t1an organization. Talking to some of these people was so encouraging because there fa1th is so strong and they are so passionate about what they are doing. I know this isn’t all about me getting anything, but I am truly thankful that I was able to cross paths with some of these people. After I do my surveys, I make up a report so that all the information that I gather is in order and easy to be evaluated. This takes a little time, so I spend a good bit of time in the office working on that too. During the weeks I also spent some more time with the Cedar Creek group. We visited Kamakhya temple on Tuesday; I’m not going to talk much about that now because I want to make another post about that later. It was at the lookout on the way down from the temple where my FB profile picture was made. On Wednesday, we had a guest speaker, Joshua. He is a Musl1m follower of J. He shared with us his story and how he is now working in a village not too far from here doing d1sc1plesh1p training and how these new bel1evers are starting CP’s in many other Musl1m communities and how they are growing. It is so obvious that G is moving and working over here, especially among the national followers of J. It was so interesting how they are able to bring them to the Truth by contextualization. They are using the Musl1m’s own holy book to bring them to J, how awesome! I am going to stop here, I’m sure I missed some things but I will cover them later hopefully. I thank all of you for reading. I hope that I am relaying some of what life is like over here and my experiences. I also ask that you continue to be lifting us and the people of SE A up every day that the Sp1r1t continues moving throughout this land and the team so that we can find these persons of peace who are searching for the truth and will be receptive and become a light for their community in the midst of this darkness.