Agra: 15th - 16th

So we decided to take a couple of days and be the tourists. We called Mr. Singh and we make the 4 ½ hour taxi ride from Delhi to Agra. On this drive I was able to get most of the Varanasi post typed out and learned two things. One is that there are A lot of temples in India, basically every building with a domed roof or steeple is either a mosque, or a temple. The second thing I learned is that whenever you see something too cute to believe Make Sure There Is No Owner!!!

I hope you enjoy these pics as much as I did while taking them, cause immediately after I snapped the photos two men who owned the monkeys began harassing me and banging on the taxi window. They were very intimidating and I wound up slipping 200 rupees ($5) out the window to get them to leave, and then it came to the window. I do not mean to sound hateful or disgusted, but a transvestite came to the widow and began banging on the window saying things I could not understand. Thankfully Mr. Singh came shortly and we left that place.

On the remaining time to Agra I spent the first time this trip listening to familiar music and letting my day dreams take me to a place with no monkey men or transvestites.

We stopped at a McDonalds where dad apparently had some bad Ice or something so he did not feel well the rest of the day.

We arrived in Agra around 2:30 pm and to our surprise our driver arranged for a guide to take us through the Agra red fort. Overall the man was a bit of a nuisance and gave all story and legend but little fact. Plus the fact that he left our many details, like the Jewish and Christian wife’s the emperors had, and other things. But other than that the trip to the red fort had a definite WOW factor.

From the time of Indian independence 80% of the agra red fort has been occupied by the Indian army, so we could not see much of the palaces that we saw in Delhi, but even still this place was Amazing. We passed many armed posts with turrets and machine guns on our way in. We walked by the moats (yes they kept alligators in the moat) and we walked up a ramp that opened into a courtyard where the throne of the emperor was able to see anyone entering the court and we came to the place where the Emperor would hold court.

We wandered through many passages and by a yard where on three different occasions emperors changed the yard. At one point the area was where elephant and lion fights would be held, his son turned it into a fishing pond, and his son made it a garden.

We were taken to a place where the Emperor would also make decisions on a black marble throne.

Other details of this place I can tell you later, or you can crack open a book and read for yourself. This place oozed history and once again I marveled at the fact that this great kingdom was once the mightiest in the world, but it like all others fell. The kingdoms of men are like a castle in the sand, they will eventually topple and all we have are the ruins.

We finished and made our way to our hotel, the hotel Kamal. A very nice place (by Indian standards).

The best part of the hotel was definitely the restaurant. The food was average, and the view was Spectacular. We literally eate dinner watching the sunset on the Taj Mahal. Epic stuff :D

Sitting next to us was a British couple who quit their jobs and have been roaming through India for the last two and a half months. Very interesting conversation, very refreshing to have a in depth conversation with a new friend, in English J

We got up early the next morning, and after much difficulty we managed to get through security and went into the complex of the Taj Mahal. Now the men who created this place were pure artists. We came into a wide open courtyard and made our way to a second gate that led to the Taj. Through the arch the Taj Mahal was perfectly outlined and gave us the much photographed stunning image of this 7 wonder of the world.

We walked past dry pools up to the marvel herself. I cannot describe the sheer awe of standing in front of this place. The scale is not exaggerated in the stories, this thing is Huge, and beauty in architecture like none I have seen. It’s said that the man who designed the Taj made the towers surrounding lean slightly outward to create the illusion of the towers being taller than they really are.

We put these shoe covers on our feet and made our way to the mausoleum where Taj Mahal is buried. So in case you didn’t know the Taj is a tomb that one of the Mughal Emperors built in memory of his favorite wife who died in child birth.

So we saw the tomb, then we walked through the chambers surrounding the tomb, these chambers had extravagant carvings of flowers into the white marble, and all throughout the Taj Mahal there is inlaid into the marble all sorts of semi-precious stones in beautiful patterns. Breathtaking stuff.

On either side of the Taj there are two matching mosques. In one of these mosques there was a man who came up and was very helpful in helping us take pictures and see the best angle of the Taj from the mosque. We slipped him a few rupees for his trouble and began to work our way back to the front of the complex away from the Taj.

While we were walking through a walkway of sorts the verse from psalms came to mind.

 Psalm 84:10

Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

Here I was in arguably the most beautiful of manmade creations, and I was dwelling on the fact that this place was sooooo wonderful, and yet but one day in the courts of the Lord our God then thousands elsewhere. I know that you likely have accepted this truth, but to see the grander of this place it hit me more than ever how great the Kingdom of God is. We are but mortals, but He is limitless. I can’t wait to dance in the courts of the Lord when he calls me home. :D

Anyways we then were picked up by our driver, I picked up some goodies for my friends back home, and we set out again on the long haul to Delhi.

On the drive back I realized that I was going to speak at a church the next day on the topic of Palm Sunday. So the whole drive I listened to all of Britt Merrick’s sermons on Palm Sunday and Easter. I tell ya, few things in my life have helped me grasp the power of Jesus sacrifice then to listen to sermons from a man who loves Jesus with every fiber of his being J I love Jesus So much, and this celebration on Easter is so wonderful, so full of joy, I can hardly contain myself as I write this. I cannot be the same after this trip, God has shaken me time and time again. And now, who knows what the future holds? Only one, and I wait for him to reveal to me the way in which I should go.

So that is about all from the trip to and from Agra. Definetly memories I’ll hold on to in the years to come.

See you next time,

Rick

Varanasi: 12th-14th

So after an uneventful train ride, and a momentary panic after I misplaced my wallet, we came into the city of Calcutta. This is a very old historic city that I regrettably was not able to spend any time in this trip except for a taxi ride over in which I saw so much. I saw hundreds of people who lived on the sidewalk with nothing but a tarp to call their own. I saw grand hindu temples with extravagant carvings all along the outside. I saw so many markets, and shops and all that you expect to see if you know India, but in this place what I gathered is that this place was just hard on people. I felt like these people had a burden on them. This place made me sad.

We had a few hours to kill at the airport and then flew out to Varanasi airport. Now from what I have been told by my dad all the airports 4 years ago were the type you might expect to see if you were flying in while India was still a British colony, but these airports that I have seen are all new, as in in the last two years new airports are popping up everywhere. As I type this I am in the Varanasi airport I am sitting on a shiny marble floor in a white near spotless airport. Interesting stuff.

We flew into the Varanasi airport and waited for a couple of hours for Randy to fly in and meet us. We waited in a very comfortable airport restaurant munching on butter chicken and sipping on limca soda’s. We eventually met Randy, negotiated a taxi price, and hit the road on our way to the Sirya Hotel. On the ride we saw a lot of typical India, lots of people, the same junk being sold in the shops as everywhere else, but there was one more element that I had not seen so far. Cow pie mounds.

A few years ago NASA decided to search and find out where a certain type of air pollution was coming from that was being noticed blowing into American air. They conducted a few years of study and finally found their solution. Here in India the sky is not blue, it is white from pollution. But there are not many cars, there is not abundant industrial parks, so what is causing this? Burning cow dung. That’s right. Burning cow dung. They take cow pies and slap them against the walls of the buildings, leaving a hand imprint, and let them dry, they then take them and stack them in mounds up to 10 feet tall waiting for them to be burned. Why do they burn the cow dung? Because wood is not in abundant supply, so they are able to burn the dung, mostly for cooking their food over. Yes, those that cannot afford gas stoves cook their food over cow dung. I saw dozens of these mounds as we worked our way from the outskirts and into the city.

As we drove I saw my first two elephants with their riders on top of them.

We arrived at the hotel which based on our experiences so far was4 star at a 2 star price, very professional, very clean. We checked into our room and called a friend of my dad named Jeremy, Jeremy is a CP worker in Varanasi and is on the extreme of the contextualization movement. Jeremy runs a business called Varanasi Walks and he does walking tours all though the city of Varanasi and he took us on a very unique experience.

Jeremy came to our room and walked with us out to the road from where we found a pair of auto rickshaws. Now I had not ridden in a auto rickshaw yet so I was a bit nervous at the prospect, from my perspective the auto rickshaws were death traps with wheels waiting to be hit by a negligent bus or fin the pothole in the road that a car wouldn’t give a care to. In fact RIGHT before we left my dad showed me videos of rickshaws being wiped out by larger vehicles soooo thank you preparing me J but in all actuality it was not that bad, these rickshaws are like motorcycles with a cover and a bench seat in the back behind the driver. All of our drivers have had 10+ years of experience so they knew exactly what they were doing thank God.

Jeremy had them drop us off at a alleyway opening that looking at it you would expect it to end 100 feet in, oh no. This was not the case by any extent. This place that Jeremy lead us through is the epitome of a labyrinth, twists and turns and shops and homes and cows and monkeys and shrines and temples and mosques, it would take me days to describe to you what I saw on this walk and I cannot begin to help you comprehend what I saw unless I were to walk you through the same streets. So in the interest of time and my sanity I will break the walk down to 5 experiences on this walk.

All throughout this area we saw shops of all kinds though the most common to see were the jewelry crafters. The man above was working of shaping incredible works on silver brass and bronze. There were dozens and dozens of these that we passed along the way, though most would not allow pictures.

The second of the interesting sights that we saw was Jeremy’s base where he works from. The building in which he operates is a 250 year old building built by a very rich sari merchant. The building was 4 stories tall and had a “self air-conditioning” function that Jeremy told us of, in the middle of the building there is no roof for a shaft going straight down. This functions to ventilate the entire building, and when It rains the house cools and the water drains out at the bottom, a very slick system.

In the house they have a ashran where they hold worship and teachings. I mentioned earlier that Jeremy Is on the frontier of the contextualization movement in India, this is where they do not at all “westernize” if you will the gospel of Christ. They have a ashran in the room that is common in hindu houses, they have a hindu lame, they blow the conk shells, many things that are hindu in origin repurposed with the gospel as the context so that the people that are being called to Christ do not have to feel that they have to abandon their heritage to follow the true God. This is attacked on many fronts from within the church as you can surely imagine, so they are stepping out a bit in this action.

From the top of the building you can see most of the city of Varanasi, the All-India-Radio tower (AIR), the Ganges river, the mosque overlooking the Ganges (which we saw on the tour). It felt almost like one of those third world cities you play in Call of duty or something.

From this building we once again entered the labyrinth praying we would not lose Jeremy in the crowd. The next stand out sight that we saw was a famous hindu temple, I have no idea what the name was but it apparently is many hundreds of years old, but the amazing thing was what lay beyond, Jeremy lead us past the door to a underground tunnel, and at the end of the tunnel we found a secret garden. Here of all places with millions of people around us and every square foot of land developed we found a serine garden where the greatest Indian poet would sit and write masterpieces.

After we made our way the next on the list and we came to a huge mosque overlooking most of the river and the stone steps that lead to the shore. Apparently the place where the mosque stands was once a great hindu temple but the muslims came and destroyed it all the way to the foundation and built the mosque in its place.

From here we wandered through the labyrinth and eventually popped out on at the Ganges and ate dinner in, of all places, a authentic Italian pizzeria called Pizzeria Vatica, a little place on the steps of the ghat, cool stuff. Really good pizza and some apple pie.

We hitched another ride on an auto rickshaw to the hotel sirya. Now to fit three big corn fed American men into one of these tiny rickshaws we had to put two of us on the bench in the back, and the third person would squeeze a cheek onto the seat with the driver and hold on tight. I really enjoyed this because what I was doing every time I got to sit up front is I would hold on with one hand and lean out of the rickshaw seeing all I could, taking in every possible sight, sound, and smell. When we got close to a cycle rickshaw or a pillar or something like that I would quickly pull back in and then lean far out again. I do not recommend this to others but I had a blast doing this :D

So the next day we got up and headed out to meet with some of the YWAM (youth with a mission) workers in the neighboring city of Sarnath. On the way though we were caught up in traffic. If you have never been to India you need to look up on youtube some footage of Indian traffic, there is absolutely no rule of the road that is kept to. So when we came across a sewage system being put into the road blocking 70% of the road so as you can imagine there was gridlock, and this is not at all uncommon in India.

Well we eventually got out and walked and got to YWAM’s Varanasi base, they were having a worship service with about 20 of their church planters. My dad was here in the YWAM base last year so he knew many of the people that where there. We shared a bit and afterward we met with the two men who are head at the Varanasi base, great doorways were opened at the meeting. I can describe later if you want but it would take too much time to type.

After the meeting was finished we got a auto rickshaw and made our way back to the Ganges river. The rickshaw could only take us as close as ½ a mile so we walked through the crowded market towards the river. I tell ya, walking through a Indian market is one of the most stimulating experiences I’ve ever had, the sights, the smells, the people, everything comes together in a random chaotic symphony what leaves you wanting more.

Was came to the river and was met by a sight of boats on the river, beggars laying on the side of the walkway, peddlers trying to make a easy buck, and as always, a lot of people. We negotiated with a boatman to take us on the river for 2 hours.

In Hinduism the stretch of the river that goes along side Varanasi it is believed that the bend in the holy river wards off the god of death, so if you die on the shore of the Ganges you will achieve nirvana, that is, that you will pass into eternity and have no more reincarnations. So at the shores of the Ganges there are buildings full of people, this is where men and women come to die so they will achieve this goal of Hinduism. This place is bondage, I was struck more than ever before of the fact that there is freedom in Christ, we are not bound to our sins, we do not have to be sure to die here, or be buried there, we are free in him. Jesus had made us free.

We were guided by our boat to a place just off shore of the burning ghat. This is where the hindus who die are cremated by their families. I saw 5 or 6 people burning at once at this place. At one point one of the family members of the deceased went to shore and threw into the river the ashes and remaining bones. I cannot fathom the amount of lost people crying out into the void in vain from this place. There are so many people in this country, and most of them are lost. It breaks my heart that these people are so devoted and do so much all in vain.

After the burning ghat we made our way to a place where we watched a fire dance preformed by 7 hindu priest. It all seemed to me to be just a lot of noise and senseless movements, but to the boat with 20 Europeans behind us it was like they were seeing the red sea part. We did not stay for the rest of this ceremony, but rather we made our way to the shore and worked our way back to Pizza Vatica for once again some of the best pizza and apple pie I have ever had.

On our way back we caught a ride from a auto rickshaw driver named Supha Monkeith. To give some perspective to the Indian mindset that permeates the lower classes, Supha believes that in his last life he was a cycle rickshaw driver, and because of his performing well we is now in this life a auto rickshaw driver, and he believes that he will in the next life be a taxi driver and own many auto rickshaws. Do you see what this means? In America we have a problem that because we believe that we deserve better we have a entitlement mindset. But here in India because of the caste system people in lower castes are not allowed to think they deserve better because they are where they are because of how they performed in the last life. Therefore it is bad dharma to try to get ahead, the American dream is totally contrary to this midset, so it is hard for us as Americans to see why they would rather stay where they are. But it is all they have known, they do not know that there is a better way.

The next day we got rolling a bit later then the previous day. This day we went to the city of Sarnath, this is a very important city in the buddhist religion. This city is where Buddha gave his first sermon and gained his 5 disciples. In this place We saw many temples, we say many prayer clothes, and we saw a tree that the seed of which was brought supposedly by Buddha himself from shrilanka and planted here. So this place can be described as the birthplace of Buddhism.

The most impressive thing that we saw in Sarnath was a massive brick and stone mound. This mound stands over 300 ft high and is dated all the way back to 300 B.C.

The whole of the area in and around Varanasi is filled with rich and dynamic religious history, and I was amazed that the level of care for these holy places was so low. I mean when you contrast places like St Mary’s cathedral to this place, its night and day. The Ganges was literally filled with bones, sewage, and garbage. The buddhist temples were not particularly clean and certainly not well polished. But its all they have known, by Indian standards I suppose the temples were very nice, and the gangese was just about the location more than anything, but for this their ‘holy’ place, I just expected them to have a higher standard for their gods.

We grabbed some McDonalds on the way to the airport and flew out to New Delhi again.

So that is the bare minimum of my experience in Varanasi, as always more details are available upon request, but the details are far too much to paint a picture for here. So feel free to ask for more, but for now this is all I can put into words.

See you next time,

Rick.

Days 5, 6, and 7...I think... the 9th-the 11th: The tea states

Sooo, I’m losing track of the days here so I’ll post the dates from here on out, this is what went down the 9^th through the 11th

The three days we spent in Siliguri were very humbling and I am proved once again that God seems to be teaching me something every day here in India.

On Saturday we woke up early and met Mr Singh and travelled to the airport. My dad has been telling me all along the way that things are much nicer now then a year ago, but I tell ya, the airport in Delhi is Very nice, far better than Boise, and almost better then San Francisco. All new buildings and smiley personnel. After seeing the long line in the domestic side dad decided to hop into the first class line which had no one in it.

Passing through was uneventful for the most part, and we came into a food court area that puts most of the airports I have been in to shame. Just the quality of the area felt very high class.

We found the most familiar restaurant food so far, subway. It was 80% there but still, like everything else, it was just different from home. While having breakfast God sent us a meeting we did not expect. We were sitting near the elevator on the second floor of the food court when we saw an American women with her three kids, my dad leans over and says ‘May I ask where you are from?’ She replies, ‘We are just moving to India.’ ‘Where in India?’ he asks. ‘Siliguri.’ ‘Do you know Nathan  Shank?’ ‘Yeeeah we’re staying in his house.’ ‘No way, so are we!’. It turns out that her family has been house sitting for Nathan Shank while he was out of town caring for his wife and her newborn baby. They had no idea we were coming so us being able to run into them gave them a warning that they were about to have company. What a “coincidence”.

On our flight we were able to see out of our window the Himalayan mountain range, Very cool. Our flight was typical for any domestic flight, except because they don’t have stewardess unions in India the stewardess’s are actually attractive and nice. Very different then i am used to back home.

 

We landed in a town outside of Siliguri called Bhedogra, in the state of west Bengal. This area is a few miles away from Darjeeling where the famous Darjeeling tea is grown. We were picked up by a guy named Keith, but because Indians have a hard time saying the ‘th’ at the end of his name he goes mostly by his middle name, Robert here in India.

We passed dozens of plantations where bushes that are quite literally hundreds of years old grow. In the tea bushes the top three leaves of new growth are what is needed for tea, and since they have not yet invented a machine that can pick only the top three leaves of growth tea can only really be grown in areas with extremely low labor costs.

We got to know Keiths family while we were here, Keiths wife’s name is Susan, his daughter Natalia, and his son Judson, Great kids.

We stayed in Nathans house and met again the family we saw briefly at the Delhi airport.

The next day we were picked up by a guy who drive us around named Lim Singh (no relation to the other Mr Singh in Delhi) and we set out towards one of the villages in the middle of the tea gardens at the base of the Himalayas. Along the way we picked up a man named Rejesh who is one of the Master Trainers. The church that we went to was one of his first church plants 6 years ago. To get to the village we had to cross a dry riverbed past 15 kids playing cricket.

We were a bit late getting to the church so they were finishing their time of worship by the time we got there. They had us sit at the front of the church in plastic chairs while everyone else sat on the floor on blue tarps.

Were given these silk lays if you will that were symbols of honor and welcome. Dad was invited to speak and he spoke for about 45 minutes with the help of Rejesh translating, and them I got up and spoke for 10 minutes. I guess you could say that this was my first sermon. I spoke on Psalm 23 and how God brings peace, I was very brief and direct with what I taught, and things went very well, the spirit was definitely at work there. Afterwards we talked with the pastor, Rejesh, and a young man who was at the beginning of the spirit using him, I saw in him the potential to become a church planter and likely a master trainer one day. The holy spirit has done amazing things in this village, 6 years ago there was not one Christian among them, but now in a village of 70 families, about 250-300 people, 75% are now followers of Christ. Praise God.

After we went to Rejesh house which is build on top of cement stilts because at night the elephants would come and knock down his house. ( I have an awesome elephant story if you want to remind me when I see you next, just ask me about the ‘Avenging Elephants’ ) We had lunch at Rejesh and we talked about his vision and he told us about how he has trained people and through him and the work of God through him 52 new churches have been planted in the last 6 months! So with an average of 20 in each church (which is a conservative number) at least 1,000 people have been reached through him in the last 6 months. How many people have been affect through your church in the last 6 months? Food for thought.

After we left Rajesh we went and met with a man named Chandra, he has planted 66 churches in 1 year, he shared with us his goals and his plans, these men have incredible vision and ability to reach tens of thousands of people with Christ.

Later that night we met with Surajit, Keith, and another guy i don’t know the name of, a lot of talking about strategy and vision in that meeting.

The next day we met with a couple who are in a Journeyman program, that is they are kind of ‘feeling out’ so to speak the idea of them being missionaries. The couple were named Emily and Nick, they do a lot of videos and promotional stuff for the missions things going on over here, if I find some of their work I will post a link later in the comments.

After the meeting with Emily and Nick we met with another master trainer names Alok, he has similar vision and does work in India, the kingdom of Bhutan, and Napal. Here is his family, his wife Bandna and his daughter Niki. This man is a great man of vision and has incredible potential to reach the lost people in India and the Bhutan gateways to China.

When we had finished talking to Alok and hearing his vision we headed out and met with Keith and made our way to the train station. On the way we stopped at a vender to pick up some Darjeeling tea. Now this isn’t the regular tea as we think of, this place measured its tea in kilograms and this is the absolute best Darjeeling tea in the world that we picked up at this place. We got 2 kg’s of tea (4.4 pounds) at a rate of 600 rupees a kg ($13.5). We later found at the airport that they were selling the same tea, packaged, at 550 rupees for 20g, so we got 25 times the tea for our money and thats only at a indian airport, i wonder what the price per kg is the the US? Great deal, better tea :D if your nice I may share some with you when I get back J

Now of all the experiences in India few are as infamous as the Indian train system. We got to the station and after finding a parking space ¼ miles away we worked our way through the peddlers, rickshaws, cows and cow dung. We were on time but our train was very late, Keith was awesome and walked with us and helped us sort out where our train would be when I pulled in.

In this station there were solders Everywhere, in the booths, at nearly every corner, just walking around, they were everywhere at this station. The funny thing is, that half of the solders have guns from before WWI, I’m serious, they have ancient bolt-action single shot weapons slung over the shoulder. It’s little wonder the Mumbai terrorist attacks were so effective.

Anyway the train eventually came and we parted ways with Keith. We were lucky enough to have a sleeper car that was calm and not overly packed. These compartments were four fold out beds, two low, two high. My dad and I had only one little Indian man as a partner in this area. It was not too packed, and there was only really one complaint I would give, the AC with the top bunks blows non-stop right onto your head, so you step out of 85 degree humid weather and hop onto a freezing cold bunk.

The ride went all night and we arrived in Calcutta at 7:00am ish. But that day is for another post. I’ll fill you in on the next post. See ya later,

Rick.

Day 4 - Would you like some ruby? sapphire? emerald? (Revised Version)

Oh my goodness, what a day. So much to describe and so little time to describe it in. We decided to spend this day in and around the city of Delhi, do a little sight seeing before being whisked away to another few days of full meetings and relation building. My dad has had a very good driver in the past when has been in Delhi, so  we called him, Mr Singh is his name.  He drove us around all day today all across  the city. So we wound up leaving Randy’s house at 9:00am and went off in the direction of the red fort.

Now Delhi is the capitol of India and has deep history reaching all the way back to 300 BC, on our way to the red fort we passed the hub of India government, very much comparable to D.C. but… India style.  We passed the presidents palace, the avenue of embassies (we didn’t drive through, just near), the ministry of defense, the ministry of finance, and the gate of India.

We got to the red fort and once again I was blown away by the scale of this place. The red fort is a massive fort build by one of the mughal emperors in 1648 and was made the capitol of the mughal empire.

After we bought our tickets and passed 4 stations with armed guards and machine guns in pillboxes, we found a guide to walk us through the fort for 250 rupees ($5), we saw the British barracks from their occupation, we saw the throne from which the emperor would listen to arguments and pass judgment. We saw massive beautiful palaces built for the women, fountains where dancers would perform. There was one common theme all throughout the complex, these areas where the royalty would reign from were all at one time inlaid, incrusted, or covered in gold, but all has long since been looted. Just imagining this place in all its glory just takes your breath away. Maybe I’m the only one that’s like this, but when I see something that is in ruins or was once grand my mind thinks of what it once was, I see in my minds eye the glory of this place, and then I see that it is in ruin. In the end nothing that humanity builds for its own glory will remain, all will fall. One of the mughals once said ‘If there is anywhere on earth that is close to heaven, this is it’, though I wonder what he is thinking now.

Long story short in this place was filled with history at every corner from the throne room to the latrine, the imprint of greatness is all around.

 Afterwards we decided to take a bicycle rickshaw through the spice markets in Delhi, we found a man named Taslim, who I do NOT recommend you ever take a ride from, I’ll explain why at the end of the story, anyway we went through narrow alleyways with literally hundereds of power cords hanging everywhere, the type of place you would expect to see in a movie set of some sort. I’m not even joking, over head there were thousands of wires held onto the buildings by the absolute minimum of rope, nails, or whatever, we actually saw a man pull down a loose wire, strip it, and plug in his phone! Crazy stuff.

The buildings of the area are really facinating, the arches, the support collums, every aspect of these buildings felt anchient.  But the thing is they plaster over the amazing architecture billboards and advertisements, and all these posters so that you have to look hard to see the incredible design underneath. These buildings look like they would have belonged in a Aladdin movie set 150 years ago, but now they are very much run down and in disrepare. Anyway we passed through these 10 foot wide alleys in a 5 foot wide rickshaw until we popped out in a larger road in the middle of the spice market. This was obviously a hub of trading and activity, there were dozens of karts with 30+ big burlap sacks of peppers, and tea leaves, and any kind of spice you can imagine from saffron to cinnamon. When we passed the ally where they crush and process the peppers I could hardly breathe the smell was so strong and so wonderfull at the same time.

We hopped out at one point along the way and bought some spices, I got some chocolate tea along the way as well, I cant wait to try it :D We then wrapped up our tour of the markets at the original Karim’s restaurant. Great food, not so great service. This area that we had lunch at, the Karim’s place, is the place where I felt the most disliked so far this trip, and here’s why. Literally on the other side of the street from this place is India largest mosque. Every girl I saw was in complete black dress with everything but their eyes covered, and the men wore those odd skull cap things muslims wear, and everywhere I looked I saw disdain in the eyes of the men towards the westerners on their midst. Anyways, it just wasn’t friendly to a small town conservative white American boy.

Now we get to the part where I tell you why you should never take a ride from Taslim the rickshaw driver. When we set out from the red fort we agreed to 100 rupees ($2.22) a piece for the whole trip, which was supposed to be 20 minutes long, but it turned into 2 ½ hours, a very good 2 ½ hours but far longer all the same. When we sat down in Karim’s he demanded 1,500 rupees ($30), we wound up paying him 1,100 rupees ($24) to get him to chill on the issue and after lunch we went on our way. When we got to our cab driver he said that the normal pay for a driver like Taslim is 30-50 rupees. One dollar. To contrast this we paid our driver for a entire day of driving 2,000 rupees. $44.

Now I generally try not to make generalizations when it comes to people, but certainly when dealing with foreigners, never trust a muslim. I just look back and laugh at this, but this man not only set out to cheat us from the get go, but he screwed us over 5 times again. *sigh* just make sure if you’re in a situation like that, set the price in stone, or you may pay 25 times what you need to. Foreigners all have a big target on our backs to people who wish to have a big payday.

And that isn’t even the best part of the day, oh no not even close. After we went to a market called ‘Pahar Ganj’. Now this place is where Europeans come to get high and return home with all the dope they want, and it’s also where you can find great leather workers, pharmacies, and all sorts of merchants of any kind you can think of for a fraction of the price in the states. We got some amazing deals and saw some very high white people. One of the white ladies I saw seemed to be backpacking her way across India with a backpack larger than she was. I could almost see the thought bubble over her head saying “It was such a good idea at the time” J

Some of the deals I shall reveal when I return, but the one I will share is a exciting one, we stopped by a leather dealer and put in a order for a leather jacket for me :D for 3400 rupees (about $75) you can get a custom made leather coat made within 24 hours, all kinds of coats, biker style, fine occasions, old western style, and everything in between.

While we were in this place I was offerd at least 5 times some of the drugs they were selling the other white people there, the one that stuck out to me was when we were heading back to meet our driver and a man came and began walking along with me and said “Can I offer you some

There I saw what a great opportunity there is to importing in things from India, the cheap labor makes craftsmanship not hard to find and in abundant supply. I tell ya if the Indian government did not have the restrictions on foreigners doing business there that they do business men from the west would be running every angle imaginable.

After we had finished we called our driver and had him take us to a hotel near the airport, he highly recommended a place called the ‘OM palace’. Now this is something I have seen many times and it boggles my mind every time I see it, in India, certainly with hotels, the concept of location does not matter when building, this place was in the middle of slums 300 yards off the main road. I was a bit concerned when we stepped out of the car, but the hotel turned our actually being very nice, a clean well kept place with a TV and cheap room service. Of course everything feels inexpencive in India in comparison but it just felt good.

So that is the sum of the day, busy and filled with amazing sights, there is something I saw that shook me to the core but I’ll let you know about it later. For now here is what I did and what I saw, my deepest thoughts I assure you will come shortly.

Rick.

Days 5 and 6 (short version)

So i really dont have the time to collect my thoughts at the moment and let you know all thats going on, what i will say though is I am safe, i'm at the house of a guy named Nathan, we met with many church planters today, i gave a sermon at church, we met with two master trainers, and yeah, things are good, i will post in detail when i have a few hours to collect my thoughts

Also i left out a few details on the last post so i will post a revised version as soon as i can.

See you later,
Rick

Day 4 - Would you like some ruby? sapphire? emerald?

Oh my goodness, what a day. So much to describe and so little time to describe it in. We decided to spend this day in and around the city of Delhi. My dad has had a very good driver before and we called him and had him drive us around all day today. So we wound up leaving Randy’s house at 9:00am and went off in the direction of the red fort.

Now Delhi is the capitol of India and has deep history reaching all the way back to 300 BC, on our way to the red fort we passed the hub of India government, we passed the presidents palace, the avenue of embassies (we didn’t drive through, just near), the ministry of defense and the ministry of finance, and the gate of India.

We got to the red fort and once again I was blown away by the scale of this place. The red fort is a massive fort build by one of the mughal emperors in 1648 and was made the capitol of the mughal empire. After we bought our tickets and passed 4 stations with armed guards and machine guns in pillboxes, we found a guide to walk us through the fort for 250 rupees ($5), we saw the British barracks from their occupation, we saw the throne from which the emperor would listen to arguments and pass judgment. We saw massive beautiful palaces built for the women, fountains where dancers would perform, places that had at one time been encrusted with gold. Just imagining this place in all its glory just takes your breath away, one of the mughals once said ‘If there is anywhere on earth that is close to heaven, this is it’, though I wonder what he is thinking now.

Long story short in this place was filled with history. Afterwards we decided to take a bicycle rickshaw through the spice markets in Delhi, we found a man named Taslim, who I do Not recommend, I’ll explain why later, anyway we went through narrow alleyways, the type of which you expect to see in a movie of some sort. I’m not even joking, over head there were thousands of wires held onto the buildings by the absolute minimum of rope, nails, or whatever, we actually saw a man pull down a loose wire, strip it, and plug in his phone! Crazy stuff.

The buildings of the area are really cool, but the thing is they plaster all over them billboards and advertisements, and all these posters so that you have to look hard to see the incredible design underneath. These buildings look like they would have belonged in a Aladdin movie set 150 years ago, but now they are very much run down. Anyway we passed through these 10 foot wide alleys in a 5 foot wide rickshaw until we popped out in a larger road in the middle of the spice market. There were karts with 30+ big burlap sacks of peppers, and tea leaves, and any kind of spice you can imagine, when we passed the ally where they crush and process the peppers I could hardly breathe the smell was so strong.

We hopped out at one point along the way and bought some spices, I got some chocolate tea also J we then wound up at the original Karim’s restaurant. Great food, not so great service. This area that we had lunch at, the Karim’s place, is the place where I felt the most disliked so far this trip, and here’s why. On the other side of the street from this place is India largest mosque. Every girl I saw was in complete black dress with everything but their eyes covered, and the men wore those odd skull cap things muslims wear. Anyways, it just wasn’t friendly to a small town conservative white American boy.

Now we get to the part that you should never take a ride from Taslim. When we set out from the red fort we agreed to 100 rupees ($2.22) a piece for the whole trip, which was supposed to be 20 minutes, but it turned into 2 ½ hours, and when we sat down in Karim’s he demanded 1,500 rupees ($30), we wound up paying him 1,100 rupees ($24) to get him to chill on the issue and after lunch we went on our way. When we got to our cab driver he said that the normal pay for a driver like Taslim is 30-50 rupees. One dollar. Now I generally try not to make generalizations when it comes to people, but certainly when dealing with foreigners, never trust a muslim. I just look back and laugh at this, but this man not only set out to cheat us, but screwed us over 5 times again. *sigh* just make sure if you’re in a situation like that, set the price in stone, or you may pay 25 times what you need to.

And that isn’t even the best part of the day, oh no not even close. After we went to a market called ‘Pahar Ganj’ this place is where Europeans come to get high and come home with all the dope they want, it’s also where you can find great leather workers, pharmacies, and all sorts of merchants of any kind you can think of. We got some amazing deals and saw some very high white people. One of the white ladies I saw seemed to be backpacking her way across India, but the thing is her backpack was larger than she was, I could almost see the thought bubble over her head saying “It was such a good idea at the time” J

Some of the deals I shall reveal when I return, but the one I will share is a exciting one, we stopped by a leather dealer and put in a order for a leather jacket for me :D for 3400 rupees (about $75) you can get a custom made leather coat made within 24 hours, all kinds of coats, biker style, fine occasions, western style, and everything in between.

There were many many more things which happened here but I am too tired to remember the details right now, maybe I’ll fill in the blanks later, but for now I am signing off. Thanks for reading all the way through. I’ll see you next post.

Rick.

Days two and three

Its crazy being across the planet, i'm still having a hard time thinking that its morning here and evening there, though this is the smallest of the differences, here quite literally Everything is different, the cars, the roads, the buildings, the people, the soda, everything has a different flavor, though it all seems to have a western feel to it.

On my second day in India we went back to the Good Shepard campus and saw yet another way of how the spirit was working in ways we didn't expect. We came again in the middle of a session and from what a gathered what was happening is they were teaching on baptism, and it turned out that many ha not been baptised, so they gathered them all on stage and decided to baptise them that day. Now this sparked some controversy that i don't have time to go into detail on but long story short they could not baptize them on the campus. So they went a few miles away to do the baptism, it was awesome seeing the joy in the room when this man named Kumar called them to baptism. The baptism itself was video taped on my dads video camera and i'll post it as soon as i can :)

After that we met with Surujit, a master trainer, and talked with him for quite a while, he is going to be supported by a church in the states that my dad is associated with so we shot some video of him telling us what he was about and why he was doing what he was doing, very cool stuff.
One other thing that i have observed is that India seems to run on a drink called Chai, a very hot very sweet tea that they serve every day whether it be 60 or 130 outside they roll out the chai.


The next day was very uneventful, I woke up feeling like i had a flu, I wasn't too bad off, but i dint leave the house much that day, Except for lunch :) We went to a muslin restaurant named Karim's were their slogan is 'The secrete to good mood, a taste of Karim's food' and they were not far off. This was a hole in the wall place by any standard, and the food was amazing, we met a man there named Depok who is a pastor with a vision for church planting. We had food like Afghan chicken, and butter chicken, and a mutton stew, all very good, and as a cruel joke our friend Randy decided to get us a drink known as 'Lassi' its pronounced 'lussi'. He described as a 'Yogurt type vanilla drink, now to get the best flavor you need to really take a deep gulp' Thankfully i only had a sip, i can only describe its flavor as a sour cream and spoiled milk shake, i do not recommend this drink, Beware o.O

Later that day we had house church at Randy's with a few of his friends, it was good, very much different from what i am used to.

God is doing incredible things here in India, Every day he is showing me something new, i'll try to keep you posted, we are leaving Randy's house today and i don't know when i'll have Internet again but i'll keep you posted when i do.

Day one in India

So we got to Dubai and New Delhi safely, our plane landed at 2:45 am local time, which is 3:15 pm Idaho time. We saw a Lot of interesting people Shaikhs, Sheik's, Muslims, allot of Hindus, and a monk or two along the way. Anyway along the way I got to hang out in the nicest airports I have ever been too. All of the airports were recently re-done, Dubai had a mall in the terminal which was very interesting to see. (btw the burger king menu is totally different internationally) 

When we got to New Delhi passing through customs was a breeze. Picking up our bags was a hassle but no biggie. After recharging our Indian cell phone we eventually found our cab driver to our hotel, the hotel star. He didn’t speak a word of English except hotel star, which we hear many times. He knew what he was doing, and other then driving down a one way street the wrong way for a 1/4 mile it was a safe ride.

Had an interesting experience the first hotel, nice place with.....character :). 

After a nice breakfast we were picked up by a friend of ours named Randy. We drove with Randy for about 30 min until we reached a place called 'Good Shepard'. 

Now I have to tell you strait that I have no idea where or when we are going on this trip, and what i saw today completely blew me away. We came into the compound called 'Good Shepard', about 5 acres or so of buildings similar to a campus of a community college from the 50's. We walked through the main gate and immediately the sound of Indian worship music filled our ears. We walked to the back of a large chapel building and saw 300+ Indians the building singing songs then listening to a lesson. From what I have gathered this was much more then a church service. What I was witnessing was the beginning of a 3 day long training conference for church planters, there are around 500 church planters being trained this week. After lunch they met and had a lesson on the parable of the sowers. They then broke into 4 groups and began more in depth lessons, now they broke into four groups because in the 500 + people there are 11 languages the people speak.

In India there are basically two categories, the first is engaged people groups where there is at least a 2% christian population. The other is unreached people groups. In India there are around 600 unengaged people groups, we are talking hundreds of millions of people who in there entire culture there is not a christian presence whatsoever. Now we as Christians have an obligation to help reach these people, what these people are trying to do is not to send missionary's from the west to India, but rather make the Indians themselves missionary's. The goal is to train church planters who will go village to village and preach the gospel starting churches. In this way the people that the west can help are the master trainers, some of whom I got to see in action today. The people known as the master trainers are the people who train the Indian Christians to be church planters and spread Gods work like wild fire, the ultimate goal of this is not simply church planting (CP) but to spark a church planting movement (CPM) a CPM is where after a church is started and has matured a bit that they would then go and start other churches in neighboring villages, and they would in turn start other churches. This exponential growth is not just an idea, there are church planters who have seen churches started beyond the 4th generation. I was honored to see some of these master trainers in action today.

Its incredible, in these people there was a group who I believe were at a conference like this one last October, in this group of 30 or so many had started up to 8 churches since! Its estimated that there are 10 churches planted every day in India and these people are how the Gospel is being reached to a dark nation.

So after lunch today we were all standing around not sure when the next thing would start so a Asian guy from Texas named Toni decided we should try to play a game, the next 30 min were filled with me and Toni trying to explain the rules of the 'human knot' game, after much confusion we finally unraveled and no one was hurt :)

On the drive to Randy's place we passed by many slums among the rising sky scrapers.

Shrines to gods on corners, and a few grand temples. The one above is the 'Hunuman' Temple, this deity is the monkey god in Hinduism.

So far the trip has gone very well, God has blessed us with friends and amazing opportunities to see what he is doing with men and women here in India, And this is only day one!

One down, fifteen to go. Please pray for the men and women being trained this week here in New Delhi, they are the men and women who God is using in India.

(More details of the stories shall be furnished upon request)

About to leave the US

Right now I am sitting in the San Francisco international airport about to hop on a Boeing 777 for a 16 hour flight, completely out of my comfort zone right now, but that's what this trip is all about so it good.

Today I am reading a book called 'God of the untoucables' it explains really well the Hindu mindset and tells the story of a young man growing up in Hinduism and becoming an amazing Evangelist in India. I highly recommend this book.

I have a very strong feeling that most of my posts are going to be in reflection of this trip after the fact, since I barely have time to give an update while waiting for a plane. so I guess expect a real time description of whats going down and I'll fill you in on the details after I get back :) till then please pray for God to show me things on this trip and grow my faith through this.

Time to get on the plane, next stop Dubai.

Getting ready

   So we leave home in 4 hours and Boise 19. Our bags are nearly put together, the netbook is running good, the batteries are charged in the cameras, ipods, and phones, so much yet to do and so many unknowns about what to expect. I confess that I am very nervous about leaving, not nervous that we might be hurt or anything, I know God will take care of us, but I think I'm afraid of not knowing what will happen, I'm nervous about not being in control or having a say about what will happen when we step out of the western style comfort zone and into the street with the masses of people flooding around us.
  
   I need to remember that God is in control, that I need to listen to him, I can get so concerned with the What-Ifs that I too often lose sight of what could be.

   If you could pray for me through this trip I would really appreciate it. For peace, for protection, for boldness and for courage. Thanks.
  
   I end this post with a song that will be my prayer through this trip, I ask that you listen to the words and dwell on, meditate on the words. Against the power of Christ no one can stand, please pray that power will be given to us as we enter into the largest mission field in the world