India '07 - Day One

Well, I arrived last night in New Delhi. That flight was a black comedy. First, let me say that I booked my tickets online with Aerosvit, a Ukrainian airline. They offer the cheapest flights from Kyiv to New Delhi. I took the same flight last year for my first trip to India. I paid the exact same fare. $608.70 USD

This is quite a miracle if you consider the way all prices in Ukraine are just exploding (ex. our rent went from $450 at the beginning of summer to $700). This type of miracle may be short lived however as Aerosvit is changing the standard currency of their flights from USD to EURO, due to the fast dropping valuation of the dollar. Though this is good for the U.S. trade deficit, and therefore good for our economy and the residents and citizens of the U.S., it is a killer for those of us who are living abroad with U.S. based incomes. So next year my fare will be 608.70 Euro which will be 50% more costly....but I digress...

I booked my flight with Aerosvit and requested a non-veg meal. Meals served between New Delhi and Kyiv are Indian Cuisine. Indian Cuisine comes in two basic varieties: Veg (vegetarian) and Non-Veg (with meat). I am a meat eater born and bred. It is in my DNA. If I haven't eaten meat...I haven't eaten. If that makes me barbaric...call me Attila. So I requested a Non-Veg meal and then I requested a Window/Exit Row seat. You get to pick your actual seat right online. That is great!

So standing in line preparing to board, there was a little, older, Indian gentleman standing behind me. Apparently he was raised someplace where personal space is undervalued if not outrightly abhorred. He kept pressing up against me until I made way for him to get by...at which point he began to do the same to a group of Hungarian tourists ahead of us. I was so put off I said very casually to the Lord, “ Dear Lord please don't let me sit by this little man!!!” No sooner had the words escaped my heart and mouth than the thought came...”what if I am?” and I ask you do I need to finish this story?

The little man showed his ticket to the flight attended who directed him where to go. The flight attendant took one look at my ticket and said “you are together, you have the window seat” and pointed to the little man. I had to laugh. I had to laugh even harder when I saw my window seat. The seat was next to the wall but were the window should be there was none. It was weird. The experience was reminiscent of a tour through the Winchester Mystery House.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Winchester Mystery House, it was a house that was built in Northern California by the Widow Winchester of the Winchester Rifle Company. She built it with stairs that led to nowhere, doors that opened to brick walls or 10 foot drops, all to confuse the ghosts of those slain by the Winchester rifles, whom she adamantly believed were out to take revenge upon her.

Not only had my window disappeared but so had my leg room. They had moved me out of the exit row I had reserved. Well at least I was getting a Non-Veg meal....WRONG again!!! They gave me a VEG meal, special ordered with my name on it. My laughter at this point, if not audibly, was becoming quite maniacal!!! Rabbit Trail...I love that word...maniacal. I also love using periods...for dramatic pause...anyway. Well the little man beside me was quite disappointed with the fact that they wouldn't give him a Veg meal so I traded him for his Russian Cuisine. I guess it worked out in the end as I grew in patience and flexibility and the little Indian got his Veg meal.

When I arrived in Delhi, Reggie, the primary driver for the I.E.T. (Indian Evangelical Team) who had picked me up last year, was waiting for me when I exited the customs area. It took me a few minutes to see him as I was unsure if he or someone I didn't know would be picking me up. It seemed half the male population of New Delhi was there to pick someone up and were holding signs with names on them. I was of course trying to read everyone...just in case. Reggie and I finally made eye contact and I could see he remembered me as I remembered him.

It was about 1:20 AM by the time he got me to the hotel that I has stayed at last year. Apparently I am more Christ-like than I imagined because there was no room for me at the inn. They turned us away and I could see Reggie was quite upset. So he took me to another place. We arrived there a little before 2:00 AM. I have to say I like my new accommodations better than the old. The room service menu is the same. I don't mean it has similar cuisine...I mean it is exactly the same. This is a little strange considering the fact that this isn't some sort of hotel chain I am staying at as far as I can tell. The food is very reasonable especially when compared to Indian food prices in Kyiv

Big bowl of white rice
in New Delhi $0.55
in Kyiv $8.00

A bowl of butter chicken
in New Delhi $3.25
in Kyiv $13.00

Tandoori Chicken
in New Delhi $4.75
in Kyiv $15.00

Sweet Lassi
in New Delhi $0.75
in Kyiv $6.00

Internet Cafe Prices
in New Delhi $1.25/hr
in Kyiv $3.00-5.00/hr

This year when the power goes off (which it seems happens all the time both last year and this year) I don't have a generator outside my window that comes on and wakes me up. That is BONUS!!!

My mobile phone won't connect to the wireless providers here unfortunately so I don't have an expedient way to contact my wife. I did manage to get a hold of her through Skype last night while at the hotel's internet cafe. I use the title internet café quite loosely as it consists of a single computer in the hall of the hotel lobby and is operating at about half the speed of dial-up in Kyiv.

I thought I would try to purchase a local SIM card for my mobile phone to get good local rates and be able to SMS Natasha back home. After talking to my contact here that doesn't seem to be very likely as they don't issue SIM cards here with out a resident's contract because of terrorism. Nice.

The irony about the bad telecommunications I am experiencing in New Delhi is that I am surrounded by tech and non-tech companies that have made New Delhi their technical support and offshore software development headquarters.

By and by these “trials” aren't. They are fun travel experiences that I enjoy blogging and hope that you enjoy reading about. They are nothing compared to the the persecutions devote believers and disciples of Christ experience in India on a routine basis. I wrote about one such story last year that you may or may not have read. If not...I suggest you do. It was called Encouraged by Chains. I am blessed to be back here.

Tonight I will be going with Reggie to pick up Jonathan and John Haward at the airport. Tomorrow morning I will be leading the devotions at the IET office.

Encouraged by Chains

You know I always had a little difficulty with Paul's assertion that ^"Because of [his] chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly."

The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Php 1:14). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

It seems rather counter-intuitive. Why? Because it is! People shouldn't be emboldened by seeing others suffer, nor encouraged to do whatever the suffering people did to bring on the suffering. Right?

Recently...this last Fall, I was in India. I went to work with IET (India Evangelical Team) and Global Infusion. I was one of the Headline speakers for one of their annual pastor conferences. It was an amazing experience in so many ways. God really moved. But I want to share how God illuminated Paul's comment through my experience in India.

I traveled from Kyiv (the city formerly know as Kiev) to New Delhi, India. There I rendezvoused with Jonathan Haward of Global Infusion, and some other pastors he brought with him from the States. From there we flew to an Eastern State of India that I won't name. And then we traveled 8 hours in Jeeps on "roads" to the village that would host the conference. Before the conference began we were invited to speak at some "local" churches. Let me define local. Local is anywhere within a two hour jeep ride through monkey and tiger infested jungles. After one such ride we arrived at the village I would be conducting service in. No one in it had ever seen a Caucasian before.

The meeting was held in tarp covered area the size of a double-wide car port, butted-up against the pastors house. There was no floor and no back wall...but it was a holy place. The Lord had given me a special word for the Church that morning as I prayed, and He confirmed it supernaturally through two of my brothers on the trip. I knew what the Lord wanted to say and I delivered the message without fear or hesitation. In short the message was this...

^{ 33} Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’

The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Mt 18:33). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Are you willing to give your lives so that others may here the Gospel, just as other people gave their lives that you might hear it?

It was a small gathering with about fifty people in attendance. The only people who didn't stand when I asked them if they were willing to give their lives for the gospel to be heard, were the ten who were already standing to give their hearts to the Lord. The people even the new converts wailed before the Lord pledging their lives for the gospel.

It wasn't new for me to see people pledge their lives for the gospel, but it was new for me to see such a response percentage wise. Yet even this wasn't what inspired this testimony. Rather it was what I discovered after we were back on the road. The regional pastor informed me that two weeks before I had preached, a Hindu man from the village grabbed one of the Christian Sisters in the village, hacked her up with a machete and spread her body around the village as a warning to other Christians to keep to themselves. And yet in the light of that, these humble and yet passionate people, stood to their feet, and shouted with all their might, "We will give our lives that others might be saved!"

I have never seen the like. I was moved to tears I felt so emboldened in my faith and witness as I have never been. Now I know how Paul could say what He did, for I was encouraged by my brothers' and sisters' suffering to preach the gospel more boldly. I hope you are too.