The Coromandel Express!

Riding the rails in India...

(Written July 1, 2011) 

"Chennai wants the moon, Chennai wants the moon, high ho the cheerio, Chennai wants the moon.

The moon wants the sky, the moon wants the sky, high ho the cheerio, the moon wants the sky.

The sky wants the stars, the sky wants the stars...."

 The voices of two little girls singing softly in the berth opposite us went on and on. ...the rhythm of the wheels on the track giving a strange yet steady beat as a counterpoint to their young voices. Our train sped through the moonlit night across the eastern plains of India. Outside the countryside slept. Inside... "good night," "night-night," "sleep well," "as-salaam alaikum!" ...the girls finally settled down to sleep, allowing the rest of us in the compartment to do likewise. It had been a long day, and even though the upper berth required me to carefully organize myself so as to fit, it was still a peaceful night's sleep on the whole. 

We shared our compartment with a young Indian family who were traveling back home to Kolkata after visiting family in Chennai.  The girls sat in their upper berth the next morning, playing some electronic games. The father spent a good bit of his time surfing the internet on his notebook computer, connecting via a mobile modem. Mother sat staring out the window, lost in her thoughts as she listened to music on her I-pod. Occasionally one of their phones would ring and the resulting conversation would ensue in a mixture of languages - English being the most predominate.

As the landscape outside the windows changed from rural to urban we passed an outdoor "laundromat," where clothes were being washed by hand and hung out to dry on long swooping lines. The mother took her earphones off and pointed out this "dhobi ghat" to her young daughters, explaining: "this is like the place that our girls take our clothes to have them washed."

Computers; I-pods; cell phones; ...and house-help that has the laundry done by hand! As we slowly came to a stop alongside one of the fifteen long, slender, platforms stretching out from the century old Howrah station in Kolkata, we were once again struck by the amazing juxtapositioning of old and new, modern and ancient, rich and poor that is India today. We said our goodbyes to the train and our fellow passengers, made our way through the quiet Sunday morning streets of Kolkata to our hotel, and early the next morning left India behind after a fantastic ten days of total immersion into this great country.

The Road More Traveled...

Why did the cat cross it?

(Written 15 June 2011)

It was another one of those death defying, unbelievably chaotic, pell-mell, twisting, turning, horn blaring, constant gear shifting, kind of evening drives. In the face of near impossible odds we were still alive and getting ever closer to the train station in Visak, where we had to catch the 10:10 pm train to Calcutta. We had left the Asha Kiran Hospital at a little after 5 pm... just one hour after our workshop there had come to a fabulous close. Supposedly it was a 4½ hour drive down the mountain to the coast and the train station, so if all went well we would get there just in time. So far, due to some apparent magic performed by our driver, everything was still going well. As we sat in the front seat of the jeep, we watched in wonder as he somehow drove through one object after another! There just was not enough room for us to slip between that cow and that trishaw. No way could we get past that truck before the oncoming one swallowed us up. Even for veteran travelers like us, it just seemed that the odds were too much for us to keep forging ahead.

Then it happened. With a low mutter, the driver pulled halfway off the narrow road - turning off the engine and lights. Was the jeep overheating? Had we hit someone or something? We hadn't felt anything.... He sat there silently until one of our team asked him what had happened. Apparently a white cat had crossed the road, and that was a very bad thing. The driver would not continue our journey until he had waited several minutes and several other vehicles had passed by in front of us. Then it was back to the twisting, turning, horn honking, gear shifting, chaotic dash to the finish line.

We arrived at the station a few minutes before ten, and by the time we were fully settled in our allocated seats, the train was pulling out of the station. Once again we marveled at the expertise of the driver and praised our Father who is in control of every aspect of our lives - cats or no cats!

"Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."(James 4:13-15)

No Friend Left Behind

(written April 1, 2011)

  "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left." Matt 24:40,41

The last night I was in Thailand was a short one. I had an eight hour layover in Bangkok, and my host had organized a room for me at a hotel close to the airport. I got in quite late, and then needed to check out in time to catch the 5 am shuttle back to the airport. As I was checking out, another American guy came to the front desk and asked if anyone had seen his friend that he was traveling with. Apparently there was a small group of them traveling together, and one of them was nowhere to be found. His room was empty; his bag unpacked on the bed. The last they had seen of him was when they came in late the night before. The folks at the front desk had not noticed him coming or going... time was slipping by... the group needed to be on the 5 am shuttle in order to catch their flight... there were others of us who had to get back to the airport to catch our flights, and the shuttle could not be delayed. The man at the front desk asked the travelers what they were going to do. One man said: "Well, I will have to stay and miss my flight... I can't just leave my friend here. Who knows what has happened to him."

Just as we were loading up on the shuttle bus the lost friend showed up, and the group of travelers quickly joined us on our way to the airport. It was interesting to note that they were on my flight to Tokyo, and I saw them waiting to board the on-going flight from Tokyo to Seattle. To have to reorganize a long and complicated flight like that would have been no small matter... and probably would not have been cheap. But the guy never hesitated when faced with the need to stay back and find his friend. For him it was a no-brainer.

Makes me think about my own willingness to do whatever I need to do for my friends - whatever the cost. I guess... I hope... that I would cancel a flight home from Thailand if need be to help a lost friend. But, how much sacrifice would I be willing to make in another situation? Perhaps one less clear cut or dramatic? What if a friend needs a listening ear when I have other plans for the evening? What if a friend needs a little help around the place to do some spring cleaning when I have more than enough to keep myself busy for all my remaining springs on earth? What if a friend doesn't understand that God loves them so much that He gave His only begotten Son, and that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life?

For now, it may be easy to justify or rationalize not making too many sacrifices for others. How will we view our choices when we look back from a wiser place?

Faith Empowered Wisdom

Some years ago while traveling by train in India, we found ourselves on one of that country's majestic but aging stations. As usual the grand hall was filled with hundreds of people, and the hustle and bustle surrounding the process of travel by train in the world's second most populated country was exhilarating and unnerving at the same time.

As we crossed the wide platform towards our train, we became aware of a young boy, probably less than 10 years old or so, who was approaching us with hand outstretched..., one of India's countless child beggars. It was impossible not to notice that one of his bare feet was massively enlarged, probably a symptom of elephantitis. Our hearts went out to the little boy as he dragged his massive foot towards us. The sad truth was that he could have been cured from the disease if treated properly. Perhaps his parents were too poor to get help, or perhaps he was an orphan. Perhaps he was actually being kept the way he was just to gain more sympathy and thereby make more money for whoever was handling him.

We went sadly on our way, but the experience was burned into my memory. Often through the years I have thought sadly of that little boy, and wished that he could have been free to run and play like little boys should, rather than being used and abused because of his deformity.

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Goroka, Papua New Guinea

We have been here in PNG for over a week now and we still have a little over a week till we head for home. It has been a great experience for us and we have made many new friends among the people we are engaging with here.

We enjoyed part of a day in Port Moresby on the way up, and visited the national parliament building. It is a really fascinating structure and shows off the diversity of the PNG peoples and cultures.

We arrived in Goroka on this small Air Niugini aircraft. The flight from port Moresby was short and sweet, but rather noisy. We flew over lots of rugged terrain. In fact there are no roads linking Port Moresby with the rest of the country so one must either fly or go by sea to travel out of Port Moresby.

Goroka is the capital and main city in the eastern highlands. It sits at around 5,000 feet so the weather seems to be very mild and cool most of the time. Not too many people compared to many places we visit, but also much less developed.

We are having a great time staying at the Lapilo Guest House. This is a real missionary compound setting. Around 70 families live within the fenced off area, and have everything from their own gas station/petrol shed, to stores, church & school.

The view across the valley is modestly spectacular! The dry season is just coming to an end so we have had a few rains, but mostly it is clear and cool. We have had some pretty chilly nights but it really does feel good after the heat of a Nebraska summer.

We are spending most of our time facilitating workshops and coaching other facilitators. We have a team of three new facilitators here and they are doing very well as they get the opportunity to handle their first workshops.

We did make it into Goroka the other day to do some shopping. Gwen enjoyed it a lot, and I was along to make sure she behaved herself!

Gwen did some business at the local "purse shop"!

We are now in the process of preparing for our second workshop which will be held next week at a place close by called InterFace. We anticipate having folk from New Tribes Mission, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Missionary Aviation Fellowship and Pioneers International participating.

Contaminated

It had been a really long trip, but we had almost made it from Lincoln, Nebraska to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Our flight from Sydney landed in Cairns, and we made our way to the international terminal for the final leg of our journey. We were the only passengers in sight as we walked through the departure hall and made our way through immigrations. As we passed through security one of the men requested that I step across for the additional test that they sometimes do on passengers to "sniff" out explosives. I've had this done on me many times, and so I didn't think anything of it until the testing machine started blinking red! A second test and the same results.... as far as the official machine was concerned my back pack was contaminated with some kind of explosive agent.
 

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Kathmandu, Nepal

Two months ago, during the first week of May, we were in Kathmandu. It was a very interesting time as the Maoist party had called for a nationwide strike. No vehicles were allowed on the streets and roads; no stores or shops could be open; large crowds of protesters were bused into Kathmandu to provide the support and manpower for the movement.

We weren't overly affected, although we had to walk pretty much everywhere we went. One evening while passing through a large crowd of protesters, we almost got caught up in their march. Fortunately we were able to get clear of the crowd and stay ahead of them until we reached our hotel!

The strike lasted until the day we left, so at least we were able to get a ride to the airport!!

BCC Church Camp

A couple weeks ago we were in Malaysia at our Bethesda Christian Centre church camp. We had the camp this year combined with Glory Joy Christian Church. It was a lot of fun, and the teaching was excellent as well. We had a running competition between "families" and I was the "Grandpa" in ours!

We had to clear the pool of balls within 5 minutes, but only a select group could get in the pool, and no one else could touch the balls with their bare hands.

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

A few weeks ago we were in Bishkek and found ourselves walking across the main square in front of the government buildings. It was here that a large number of people were killed back in April when they had a revolution that overthrew the former president.

Here is the parliament building from which government snipers shot the protesters.

All was calm in Bishkek the day we took these pictures, but several hours later there was a significant encounter between the police & army and a group of demonstrators who marched through this area and it climaxed just outside the restaurant where we had supper that night. Fortunately we had left about half an hour before that happened.

Love those hats!