Sironcha

Vandanalu! (Praise God, Hello, Thank you - Telugu)

I apologize for not being able to update this past week and half. My team and I have been staying at a very rural village, named Sironcha, where I did not have either Internet access or phone reception.

My trip to India started off with my flight in New York getting delayed and missing my connecting flight. God, however, still provided a way for me to go and catch up with my team before they went on the train to Balhashtra. Being in a car in Delhi was definitely an experience worth remembering. It was a little nerve wrecking at first, but everyone seemed to know what they were doing. Honking was not meant to taunt other drivers, but only to let each other know they were there. Road rage didn’t really exist in India. Some of us had to explain to our client, Benny, what road rage in America was. He was almost shocked by the idea of it.

The train station in Delhi reminded me a lot of the train stations in New York during rush hour, except for kids peeing off platforms and people walking across the tracks to get to the other side. Our team had seats in the AC sleeper car, which included bunks and food that we can purchase during the ride. Our train ride was about 20 hours from Delhi to Balhashtra. From there, our client met up with us and drove us to his hometown, Allapalli. We stayed there for the night before driving to Sironcha, the village where Gospel to All Peoples (GTAP) was ministering to. Sironcha is a very small village, completely different from the city of Delhi. Most people travelled by walking or by bullocks. To make a parallel to the States, it would be similar to going from New York City to a farm in the south? I might be sounding a bit ignorant about the South, but that is what I imagine it to be. There were cows, stray dogs, roosters, chickens, lizards, and pigs right next door.

In my previous email, I expressed my doubts in spending time with some of the locals. I did not realize that where I would be staying would actually be where the local people of Sironcha stayed. God blessed me with the opportunity to spend time with community already there. There was really no way around it actually.  Despite the language barriers between me and most of the children, I still felt strongly connected to them (yay for the Body of Christ!). I was deeply encouraged by their form of worship and seeing some of the young boys read their bibles while other kids were playing. I am so grateful that I was able to spend a lot of time in the village itself. I got to experience an Indian Christian wedding, eating food with my hands, bullock carts, squat toilets, and bucket baths! All quite an experience.

I was also deeply encouraged by Benny and Mary’s (our clients) hospitality and the great lengths they went to making us feel comfortable. They were worried that their accommodations would not meet our standards. The lifestyle in rural Sironcha is very different than living in New York or Delhi, but it was definitely manageable. We might not have had as many luxuries in Sironcha, but never did I feel I was lacking something. If anything, I gained much more by living simply.  Our client, Benny, came from a more well off state in India, and for him to move to Sironcha was almost like going backwards, not to mention a little dangerous due to some sensitive political issues going on there.

The first two days in Sironcha, half of us went out to the site to do some land surveying. We were at the site from 6:30am-1:30pm. Right before we got to Sironcha, the temperature was from 46-50 degrees Celsius (about 115 degrees Fahrenheit). God, however, was very merciful. I don’t think the temperature ever rose above 95 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m also grateful that we got to experience some rain. Surveying could have been very torturous.

Once the surveying was over, our team began to have daily devotions together in the morning at 7am before we started our day. Every night we had also been sharing our testimonies with each other. Both have been very good and encouraging. I think on some level, we were all able to resonate with each other’s testimonies. It’s awesome to hear how God brings people to Him. Through these times reading the Word and sharing testimonies, our team grew much closer. In addition to these more serious times, I think it was really easy for us to get along with each other and simply enjoy each other’s company.  

We left Sironcha on Thursday, June 24^th. We had completed a conceptual master plan of GTAP’s campus, which included a basic layout of the land, more detailed ideas of what the orphanage might look like, and a conceptual design of the water/wastewater systems. Some of the kids came out to see us off. I’m going to really miss them. I hope to one day return to Sironcha to visit the people and to see how the ministry is doing.

Now, I am in the eMi office in Mussoorie, located on a mountain (the view is absolutely breath taking!). I will be working on a portion of the report that will be sent to Benny and the rest of GTAP.

Please pray for:

• The ability to work efficiently
• Self-discipline with devotions
• The ministry of Gospel to All Peoples – focus is on Bible translation and a Children’s Home/Orphanage
• God to continue to teach me new things

 Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." - Philippians 3:8-9