Our original plan was to hop in a van and drive 6 hours southwest to Wayanad just over the border into Kerala State, however, we found out 3 days before heading for India that our plans were going to need to change. A group of missionaries in Kerala had run into some opposition from an extreme Hindu group. They ended up being run out of the country. The pastors we were to work with in Kerala felt it was not a good time to have more missionaries in the region.
Our team leaders did a fantastic job of rallying and completely rearranging the plans in such a short window of time. We were now headed 1,100 kilometers north of Wayanad to the city of Aurangabad in the Maharashtra State. What made this extremely cool was that a group of pastors in Aurangabad had been getting together for some time to pray that missionaries would come to the area to work in the villages around the city. Even though this change of plans was news to us, God was not caught unprepared!
If all were to go completely perfect, a drive from the Bangalore airport to Aurangabad would take 15 hours. And driving in India generally doesn't go perfectly. So we opted for more flights. We were to fly from Bangalore to Mumbai and then from Mumbai to Aurangabad but we had a 6 hour wait in Bangalore so we spent the time getting to know our team members better and learning more about the work that we were going to be doing. Here we are in the Bangalore Airport:
The airport had a hop scotch area taped on the floor right in the middle of the ticketing area as part of a campaign for active kids. Our team found the hop scotch irresistable and quickly partook. I don't think people in the airport quite knew what to think of us. We had a huge audience gathered around us and even people standing at the windows to the airport staring in enthralled by the crazy people jumping around in the middle of an airport. We eventually lured some Indian kids over and got them to play as well. It was a ton of fun! Here is Am playing hop scotch (look at those ups!):
Our flights from Bangalore to Mumbai to Aurangabad were fairly uneventful but we were getting pretty tired by this point. When we arrived in Aurangabad, we were picked up by the local pastors that we were going to be working with. We took a short bus ride to the hotel that would be our home base for the trip. From the time we left Richmond to the time we arrived at the hotel was a whopping 44 hours! And Am and I can't sleep on airplanes so this was one LONG day! Here are Am and I right around the 44 hour mark in the bus en route to the hotel (still looking pretty chipper if you ask me):
We received our first introduction to real Indian food at the hotel before crashing for the night. We had some amazing tomato soup that quickly became my favorite meal over there! Before leaving Mumbia, one of our team leaders mentioned to me that we were not going to be going to as many churches as we thought the following morning so I needed to keep my message to 15 minutes. I must have looked like a deer caught in headlights! Somehow the email mentioning that I was supposed to preach at church didn't make it to my inbox so I hadn't prepared anything! This meant a pretty late night (after 44 hours of travel) as I came up with something to speak on. Eventually I did get to sleep and despite being in a foreign country, I slept like a baby!
The following morning we split into three teams and hit three different churches. We had the opportunity to witness an awesome worship service. The worship in particular was fantastic (the drummer in the praise band turned out to be one of our incredible translators). The service was actually in English so we could understand everything that was said. Each team member had the opportunity to talk about why they were excited to be in India and I had my opportunity to do a very quick sermon on how God used Gideon. Here I am preaching at the church:
After the church service we met up with the other two groups and headed out for a nice lunch at a local hotel. The food was excellent and the hotel was extremelly fancy. I think we ate up a pretty massive chunk of our food budget all in one lunch! Here we are outside the hotel:
After lunch we headed for a local tourist attraction, the Ellora Caves, which were dug starting around 500 AD. They were absolutely massive with extremely intricate stone work. We had a blast exploring. We were slightly limited in time by the number of teenage boys wanting to have their picture taken with Annmarie (and all of the other American girls). I even had a line wanting to have their picture taken with me. We had to actually be kind of rude to finally get to leave.
One of the real experiences at the caves were dealing with the hawkers. A young man met me immediately after getting off the bus and started to show me all he had to offer while we were walking toward the caves. He had rocks for sale as well as postcards and books about the caves. I explained that I would think about it while we were inside. I expected that he would go back and search for another customer but instead he waited for me right outside the entrance! We were in there for a solid hour so this was quite the commitment. He explained as we walked back to the bus that we were visiting outside of the tourist season and they end up quite desperate for money during this season. I admired his dedication and walked away with several books and two cool rocks that now adorn my office. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Here are Am and I at the caves:
The evening was spent preparing the team for going out to the villages the following day to begin our work. We had the opportunity to meet with the local pastors who were coordinating our efforts as well as some of the translators. We learned more about the area and some of the cultural considerations that we would need to keep in mind as we interacted with the villagers. After a good meeting, we were off to bed for some beauty rest before our first real day of ministry. We were extremely tired but excited to see what God had in store.
