Heading for India

I need a break to clear my head a little.  I’ll return to the quandary of baptism later on.  Right now, I have a few other things to keep me busy.

In six days, I will be heading for India.  There, I will be attending a pastor’s conference, a Christian school graduation, and I will be working with a leper colony.  I will be gone for almost three weeks.

I am not certain what my role will be at the graduation and the pastor’s conference.  I may actually get to speak at one or both.  I don’t count on it, but I may.  In the down time between these two events I will be working with the pastors to encourage them, be encouraged, and to establish relationships with them.  At the leper colony, we will help build a large chicken house to help the community sustain itself.  Currently, this particular colony has to beg in order to get food.

This will be my first trip to India.  I am looking forward to this, and I am dreading it.  I dread it because I know that the needs there will be overwhelming.  I dread it because I will see the conditions of the pastors there, and I will know that I am spoiled and wretched.  This was my experience during the summer in Brazil, and India will be worse.  The pastor at one of the churches I will be going to has no front teeth: an angry Muslim mob knocked them out.  I also dread it because I will be away from my wife and my10 month old son for that long.  But the ministry there and the opportunity far outweigh the costs.  

It will not be ‘safe’ where I am going.  The area is about 80 percent Muslim, and they are hostile to the Christians.  The last time my friend went to speak at the graduation, he was booed down by the Muslims.  Oddly, the Muslims send their children to the Christian school, and then they boo at the graduation and sometimes beat up the church members.

I will be leaving on October the 18th, and I hope to blog from India.  After all, they are the computer wizards, are they not?  Every time I have a computer problem I talk to someone from Bombay, which is where I will land.  I will be posting some thoughts on missions over the next few days, and I would like to hear from some folks on some missions that they are involved with.