This day started probably the best way it possibly could:
Late. The day’s agenda had a late start,
so an opportunity to sleep was given.
Normally, I’d be against this, I have my whole life to sleep, but only
two weeks in this country, however, I’ve had a tough time sleeping most of the
trip, and 2-4 hours a night has been pretty standard, getting until 8:30 to
have breakfast seemed a monumental break here.
Then breakfast hit.
In an earlier journal entry, I waxed poetically about the joys of Indian
food. Well somewhere around day 7 or 8,
that joy began to fade. I miss beef, but
not as much as I miss a few other things I clearly take for granted. Chief among them is ice. Nothing is ever really served cold here. The drinks come out of a refrigerator often,
but they are still pretty close to room temperature, ice is virtually never an
option and I haven’t had a cold drink since I left Seattle. The other thing is fresh food. It’s not safe to eat anything raw here, so
everything is cooked, soft, and warm. I
miss cold and I miss crunchy.
At breakfast, we were offered sausage. We had chicken sausage in Delhi, and it was
delightful, so I loaded up. This chicken
sausage needs several words to describe, but delightful will not be one of
them. It tasted a little like someone
had soaked cardboard in water with just a hint of Tang powder until it was
completely mushy, then rolled it in crushed dog food for extra flavor, and
placed it in a cooler to harden. After
one bite, I figured I must have been missing out on something and needed a
second bite to adjust. I was a bit
headstrong on the second gulp, putting the remainder of the sausage into my
mouth in one large bite. That bite never
made it to my stomach. I tried so hard,
but eventually it ended up in my napkin, hoping our hosts would never discover
that it was found to be indigestible.
After breakfast, we had the opportunity to spend some time
meeting up with the students from the Bible College here. We had about three hours to spend with the
students, and I was beyond excited for the experience. These young students are truly something to
be admired, before they will even be accepted into the college, they must sign
an agreement stating that they are willing to die for the gospel. One semester of their studies is an
internship, wherein they are required to plant a church. No church plant, no graduation. That is commitment the likes of which is
completely foreign in western education, debatably even in western faith. I couldn’t wait to see what these men were
like on a personal level.
The idea was that the majority of the time would be spent
sharing testimonies with each other, but that didn’t work out for our
group. I heard later that for most of
the other groups, that is what happened, but for ours, the men felt like
blazing through their stories quickly.
We had about three hours, and had ten testimonies knocked out in about
forty minutes. After a short break, we
were encouraged to lead a short Bible study, and try to spark a small group
discussion.
Both myself, and the other member of our visiting group gave
a short study, and we jumped into a small group discussion. As could be evidenced by our quick burst
through testimonies, we didn’t have the chattiest group of guys in the world. The actual discussion didn’t last all that
long. What followed though was very
cool.
With about an hour and twenty minutes left, one student
jumped completely off subject, opting to ignore the discussion and ask me to
explain a passage he didn’t understand in 1 John. At this point, I should point out something
about myself that may or may not be common knowledge to my readers. I am by no means a biblical scholar. I know my gospels, Acts, Romans, and a
handful of Old Testament books pretty well.
I have read the entire Bible and have a good idea of how it all
completes and compliments each other, and a confident understanding of the
important aspects of my faith, however I do not have the ability to just pop up
with answers from Micah, 1 John, or Habakkuk on command. I need time to study passages, and I don’t
tend to absorb things to long term memory quickly. I have to study things in more depth than I
have with much of the Bible to have the ability to recall quickly.
Yet, surely enough, that’s exactly what the next hour of
time was comprised of. I had Bible
College students tossing questions at me left and right about passages I’ve
read maybe once or twice in my lifetime, looking for answers on what they
mean. Much to my surprise, I had answers
to all of them. Jumping them back and
forth all throughout scripture, often to passages I’m only vaguely familiar
with myself, for answers. From Micah to
Job, I referenced scripture all over the place and provided clarity to the
students in a way that I know I am not capable of. The Holy Spirit was guiding me and using me
to bless those in that room. It was an
amazing, one of a kind experience that I was not expecting or even slightly
prepared for, but it may have been my favorite part of the entire trip.
I made sure to share with all the students those exact feelings. I let them know that I’m not knowledgeable
enough to answer all the questions I had just answered, and we were all able to
praise God together for the learning that had occurred. We spent a few minutes in prayer together and
parted ways, with grumpy Taylor well behind me and encouraged by the morning’s
events.
Afterwards a lunch with the leadership staff occurred. This was our final interaction with the
leaders before we departed to another city, and I was disappointed to find my
white brother in arms was not a part of it.
I never did get an opportunity to reconnect with him, unfortunately. I’ll try to find a way to connect by email or
something when I get home.
I had been excited to visit the gift shop they had on campus
that afternoon, knowing that I could pick up souvenirs, A. without bartering
and B. with all the money going to support the mission. That turned out great for the ladies, because
the store was about 90% clothing, but for me, it meant buying two things
because I would have felt guilty getting all of it elsewhere. $20 to a good cause I guess.
In the evening, we hopped back onto a train for a trip to
Agra and some legit tourism. Unlike the
last train ride, I was not tossed into a train car with only two other people,
but rather with a group of several travel companions, most of whom, I really
did not know well at all. Instead of
writing or sleeping my way through the majority of the ride, I joined in a long
conversation getting to know them all.
One by one, seven of us listened in for an abbreviated life story of the
others. Starting with childhood in some
cases (long winded people like me) and others focusing on current life. In all cases, we got real with each other at
the end. Opening up about the people in
our life that need prayer and the challenging we are facing today.
I got to know those folks better in five hours than I know
several people I’ve known for years, and it was great. I’m a very relational person. I crave depth in my relationships, and this
train ride was a great encouragement for me.
I had the chance to open up about some current struggles I am having in
my own faith and with my church, and was listened to and encouraged by people
who were near strangers when I woke up that morning. I have learned that train rides are a more
conductive environment in virtually all ways compared to air travel. There is enough room to sit and converse, and
not an obligation to watch movies and sleep the whole way. I wish we could take a train back home.
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