We had gone there because my uncle and another missionary from the US, who resides in Delhi, were invited to speak at an AG Youth Camp. Unfortunately, he couldn't come, so that left just my uncle to speak at the entire meeting (4 days, 3-4 sessions each...). Because the other missionary couldn't come, my aunt and my uncle's nephew (who is staying with us now... I've mentioned him before) also decided to come on the trip. Anyways, so we left last Sunday after the second session of worship service. After traveling for about 8 hours on some terrible roads and amidst horrible traffic... we reached a place called Bareilly in the state of Utter Pradesh. Originally the plan had been to just drive straight to the camp in Nepal, but luckily we decided to break some where in between. The pastor that we stayed with in Bareilly we were meeting for the first time. My uncle just randomly called some of his friends and asked if they knew anyone who lived in Bareilly and luckily this pastor came up. We reached their house around 11:30 and they received us very well. We left Bareilly around 6:30 the next morning and drove another 9 or 10 hours to reach Tikapur. This time the roads weren't terribly bad, but we picked up some extra passengers, and well... long story short... the driving part was not all that great. This was taken around 7 in the morning as we were leaving Bareilly.
Driving into Nepal is a whole different experience than driving in India. There are a few National Highways which run from one end to the other end of Nepal and which are pretty much the only roads in that country. The Highways themselves are not too bad, with only the occasional pothole. The big difference was the checking every few kilometers. Guards with big guns would stop us and check our papers. They inquired about where we were from, where we were going, what we were carrying in the suitcases... everything. In Nepal currently the Maoists are in power. They have been doing the country some good in terms of infrastructure, civility, and some social development. But the country is still very VERY far behind in everything else. One thing you notice is that once you get off the highways, cars and trucks are almost nonexistent while even motorcycles are somewhat rare. Though, everyone has a bike. It is by far the most common mode of transportation... save for maybe the bull-carts. Nepal is so far back, in fact, that India has been for some years investing in them to raise them up. India has helped them so much that now anyone coming to India can also freely enter into Nepal... no visas or anything required.
This is the Sarda River... the border between India and Nepal
Skipping ahead to the camp, we got there around 6 pm, even though the meeting was supposed to start at 4pm. They were treating us with a lot of respect. They even sang us a song welcoming us to Nepal and the camp. It was really cool. The hall was filled with people and they had benches outside for the overflowing crowd. There were about 300-350 attendees.
The organizers arranged for us to stay at a hotel nearby. Construction was still going on for most of the building, but it was still a nice facility. Unfortunately for me, I started developing some sort of chest infection which, coupled with the dust,etc from the construction, caused my asthma to flame up the moment I got into the room. Sleeping on the bed was the worst part, the first night I barely got any sleep. Even taking the inhaler was not doing any good!! It was pretty terrible. Second night also same thing happened. The third day my chest infection was getting worse, with coughing and congestion and all. So that night I took a couple Advils before going to sleep. That really did the trick, and I slept pretty soundly that night.
Me in the room... fighting off evil spirits! =]
The second day's first session was given to me. Can you imagine speaking in front of 300 people? How about speaking for an hour in front of 300 people. Or how about speaking for such an extended period for the first time in your life, in front of 300 people, after getting little to no sleep? :-) In happy to say that it went relatively well. I spoke on the topic of a Purpose Driven Life using the life of Joseph as my key topic. It went well enough that my uncle told me to take the second session of the 3rd day also. That went even better, and I spoke on the Cost of Following Jesus. It is God's grace (and I know that at least some of you prayed for me following my last post) that I managed to pull through. Here is a clip of me speaking... don't laugh! The person next to me is Pastor Joel. He's translating right into Nepali for the people.
The day sessions were fine, and even the power outages didn't affect the meeting much. In night sessions, however, which were from 4:30-6:30, the power outages caused a problem, especially during the altar-call. On the third day to get some light into the hall, we pulled up our SUV in front of the hall and turned on the headlights in highbeam mode. The light streamed through the door and the windows and ... it was better than nothing...
Eating dinner after the meeting was still a harsh experience. It was pitch black as we were eating, the only light coming from a few candles. Being someone who needs a lot of light when eating... this was a bit difficult... but we managed.
Me just tired and taking a nap:
The spirit of God was being poured out in that camp. So many people were filled with the Holy Spirit. Lots of people decided to take water baptism. Many demons were cast out and in the Mission Call, almost 30 of 40 young people submitted their lives to full time ministry. It was such a spectacular camp. The last day was awesome, this is a video of part of the worship.
The drive back to Delhi was just as intense as the drive to Nepal. Instead of breaking it up into two sections though, we decided to drive it straight. We left Tikapur around 6am on Friday morning and after hours and hours of driving, we finally reached Delhi 11:30pm on Friday night.
I should be in Delhi and the vicinity the next few days. Today (Sunday Nov* 2) I got to visit a local slum. I have to say, the conditions are pretty extreme there... and there are a ton of people. We went to a small classroom session where a kid who lives in that slum itself is teaching younger kids stories from the bible like a mini-Sunday school. Today there were about 30 students. Keep that small ministry in your prayers that God will allow it to grow and that it may become a deliverance in the lives of the people of the slum.
The next big trip is to Hatras, Utter Pradesh for a 3 day convention. That is next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Keep that meeting in your prayers.
My little chest infection//cold is dwindling down, but it still there a bit, so please keep me in your prayers also.
Thanks for reading and God Bless!
Some pictures:
My aunt and I at the hotel
Me sitting in a small Nepali house:
A bridge that was washed away by flooding in the area... notice the amount of water remaining... (barely any)
Oooh, sounds exciting.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're okay after all that dust and such.