A new Indian friend spoke of Indian meals presenting all six taste senses on your plate at each meal. That is how I am experiencing the Indian people and this larger than life place. All my senses are engaged continuously with contrasts and textures forming a tapestry that is rich and deep. One moment of my day carried the pungent sweet scent of flowers and fruit piled high at a street vender, while ten minutes later I step around fresh water buffalo dung. Every kind of decorated vehicle drives madly by honking in code and then later the Bay of Bengal washes my feet and my soul with peace and much needed quiet.
I have met many new and some old friends. Bishop Suneel and his wife Grace served us a beautiful Indian meal for the travelers visiting their home tonight and it was so good to be able to talk more closely about important issues that the church is facing. They are like family since we met at my home a year ago. They send greetings to Bemidji friends. New faces of friends came from beautifully dressed and cared for children at a school for the blind that the church is sponsoring. Greeting them hand to hand was more personal as assistants greeted us by tossing flower petals as we entered. I was so grateful there is a loving place, a refuge in the city, where educational and life skills are taught. I was also relieved to be seen only by my touch and interaction and not by the light color of my skin. Light and dark are woven into this tapestry too, but the ministries in action here are brighter than anything. Jesus on the road. Jesus in schools, in the children, in the staff...in us. Jesus in the family living in a palm frond home with thin children laughing and mother cooking at the fire outside. Jesus in the villagers pushing our bus through mud. Jesus in the man sleeping on the baracade between highway lanes. Jesus in some very tough situations and Jesus in joy. Lots of joy. Maybe sometimes without so much "stuff" and out of comfortable lives, we are freed to depend on Him, see him. There certainly is seeking going on here, and the church in us reaching out in love where they see need.
Yes, the plate is full, the tapestry complex. We are part of the texture. God is through all this. I'm trying to experience my color, my flavor, without knowing the meal, the pattern. So, on to experience pastors' day in church tomorrow and celebrate the light here.
Peace, Cynthia
I have met many new and some old friends. Bishop Suneel and his wife Grace served us a beautiful Indian meal for the travelers visiting their home tonight and it was so good to be able to talk more closely about important issues that the church is facing. They are like family since we met at my home a year ago. They send greetings to Bemidji friends. New faces of friends came from beautifully dressed and cared for children at a school for the blind that the church is sponsoring. Greeting them hand to hand was more personal as assistants greeted us by tossing flower petals as we entered. I was so grateful there is a loving place, a refuge in the city, where educational and life skills are taught. I was also relieved to be seen only by my touch and interaction and not by the light color of my skin. Light and dark are woven into this tapestry too, but the ministries in action here are brighter than anything. Jesus on the road. Jesus in schools, in the children, in the staff...in us. Jesus in the family living in a palm frond home with thin children laughing and mother cooking at the fire outside. Jesus in the villagers pushing our bus through mud. Jesus in the man sleeping on the baracade between highway lanes. Jesus in some very tough situations and Jesus in joy. Lots of joy. Maybe sometimes without so much "stuff" and out of comfortable lives, we are freed to depend on Him, see him. There certainly is seeking going on here, and the church in us reaching out in love where they see need.
Yes, the plate is full, the tapestry complex. We are part of the texture. God is through all this. I'm trying to experience my color, my flavor, without knowing the meal, the pattern. So, on to experience pastors' day in church tomorrow and celebrate the light here.
Peace, Cynthia
Thank you for your lovely description of the sensory feast that is India. I was taken back to walking in the street with the diesel fumes and flowers, the din of honking vehicles, the press of people around me, the peaceful beauty of a woman washing beautiful saris in a muddy pond and spreading them out to dry. It is an amazing experience. My love and prayers go with all of you.
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