Christmas India style

After the first hectic few days of cruising around villages, having exciting experiences, meeting interesting people, sampling local foods and, a few hours later, getting well acquainted with the closest toilet, life for the Glenbrook Crew has slowed down somewhat. This doesn’t, however, mean that things have gotten dull!

The last time I posted we’d all reached a bit of a wall physically and mentally. I’m happy to report that we’ve broken through that wall . The PA boys made a quick dash back to the music shop, and while their Hindu friend wasn’t there to talk to again, they got the new amp to make the whole sound system fully functional and ready to roll. The last connection was soldered while the Christmas Spectacular Service was starting but the boys did us all proud and only a handful of people noticed that the keyboard was disturbingly quiet during the intro of the first song. The children’s ministry girls managed to avoid a riot and the only person that got mauled this time was me after I walked up to a bunch of excited young boys and exclaimed my latest Telegu saying which I’d learnt seconds before (Merry Christmas), which made them think I had presents.

The drama team had a last minute re-write and rehearsal of a pre-prepared gospel presentation after fears that the significance might be lost on the young audience, but the Good Lord sent us what felt like an angel disguised as an Indian drama visionary who saved the day by giving ideas as well an insight into making it culturally applicable. The actual outreach service went well too! It’s always a warming sight to sing My God is so big! to a crowd of Indian children and see that they’re singing along and doing the actions with you.

The team’s spirits have been lifted, and tonight the whole team is out caroling, bar Dave who is writing a sermon to present at church on Christmas Day, and myself.

So we praise our mighty God for coming to our aid in times of affliction.

Today, being Sunday, was taken up primarily with the running of the church service. Early in the morning a car load of boys went to visit a church in Hyderabad city - where the Colonel’s daughter (recently married) now attends with her husband. Inspired by an older man in the front row in a rather fetching pink shirt, and the lyrics in the song, Alan, Lockie, Tommy, Nathan and myself headed down to the first row and began dancing. We were joined by a few more people and we had a small party down the front of dancing men praising God. It reminded me of the song we sometimes sing at church. The bridge of the song goes:

And oh I feel like dancing,

Its foolishness I know,

But when the world has seen the light,

They will dance with joy like we’re dancing now.

The song is about how we could sing of God’s love forever, and how much it fills us with joy. It was extremely liberating to actually get up and just dance with joy and excitement (our normal stance is the hands in the pocket thing :) Afterwards Lockie and I had a chat with the pink-shirted man who said that he’d been a Christian for three years, before which he was a Hindu, which gave us some hope for our young friend Raj. The Lord has continued to work in Raj’s life. He’s had another dream and came back to us again which was exciting. We prayed for him, and introduced him to the local boys " the Colonel, Pete, Anil and Johnny (the church deacons) who were able to assist more in terms of language, and also because Anil converted from a strict Hindu upbringing and Johnny and Pete used to run with street gangs. He wasn’t able to make it for the Christmas Spectacular event that we put on for the community, but please continue to pray for Raj as he’s got a rough road ahead of him.

This afternoon (after days of promising) we played cricket with some of the local boys, Australia vs. India style (the score is still being debated) while some of the female members of the crew bonded with some local girls over some henna " a type of dye that is used as a temporary, decorative tattoo. I was talking to Tess about her afternoon’s adventures in the ornate world of henna and she was explaining to me how it was a great way to reach the women in the community. The Glenbrook Girls have found it a bit of a struggle to connect with the men in our outreach programs because culturally women still very much serve under men in India. The struggle has been almost equal when reaching out to women who tend to be very reserved " especially in the presence of men. So by engaging with them in an all-women activity like henna art it’s a chance for our girls to break through that cultural divide to bond with women and girls. In both the villages and the city, henna has enabled all the girls to go and hide away and talk about girly things that I’m not allowed to know about.

The team has also been adopting the local style. While most of the boys are reveling in their freedom when it comes to facial hair, one of the boys has decided to adopt a more local look. Jimmy, who left Australia earlier than the rest of the team to come hiking through Nepal with my cousin Henry and I, had a good 3 weeks worth of growth. He’s used to shaving every 3 days. When Johnny, one of our Indian friends from church, took him to a barber for a ‘tidy up’, Jimmy walked away with nothing but a ‘mo, a favourite among the Indian males.
An old lady approached Lauren in one of the villages and asked her, “Are you a boy or a girl?” Perplexed, Lauren replied that she was a girl, to which the lady responded, “Then why aren’t you wearing a sari?” Lauren was then escorted to a house and dressed in a sari. The rest of the girls were not far behind, and soon all of us males were looking very shabby in comparison. Not to be left behind, Dave has donned the Indian “kurta paijama” which looks a bit like he’s wearing an embroidered bed sheet, but he claims it’s actually really comfortable. He plans on wearing it while preaching on Christmas day.
Its drawing closer to Christmas day and unlike previous projections of this being a time where people are feeling homesick and over it all, we find ourselves looking forward to what surprises the day will bring. Tomorrow we will go shopping for our Secret Santa (150 Rupies to go wild @ the local bazzar) and probably let off a few fireworks as we set to mark the birth of our lord Jesus Christ.
peace & love
tom & friends