Archive for April, 2008

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India, Day 1–April 17

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

Today was our first full day in India. One meeting we were going to have this afternoon had to be rescheduled, so our day consisted of going to a travel agency and then a train station to buy train tickets for several legs of our trip, spending a couple of free hours having lunch and checking out a market area in Old Delhi, and then going out to dinner at a restaurant with our hosts and their family. Tomorrow will be a busy day as it looks like we will have about four meetings with various workers here in Delhi.

Below are a few photos I shot today.

In a separate post I will share a few initial impressions.

The view off the balcony of our hosts’ second-floor apartment.

Trains are an important mode of transportation here. The station was jam packed with people sitting all over the floor waiting.

There was a strong police presence in the center of town today, because the Olympic torch was scheduled to pass through this afternoon.

The market streets in Old Delhi have a lot of character. In many places they were crowded and quite narrow.

A large Muslim mosque in Old Delhi.

We had lunch at a hole-in-the-wall that seemed to be a place where lots of roughly middle class types eat. India has lots of dishes that are comprised of vegetables and sauces and often spicy. Lunch for the 3 of us was the equivalent of just over US$5. That’s our friend and church planting coach, Rob.

A typical street in Delhi, lined with shops.

Posted in India, Photos | 2 Comments »

Made it to India

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

A fourteen hour flight from Newark later, we made it to India. It’s now Thursday morning here–India is about 12 hours ahead of U.S. time, depending on what time zone you’re in. We’re planning to stay in Delhi, the capitol of India, for the next couple of days with a couple from California named B. and E.

We’re scheduled to meet with a couple of other workers in the next couple of days who are doing ministry here.

So far, the weather is really nice. I expected it to be really hot, but when we got in at 10pm last night it was really comfortable, and so far this morning is fairly cool. It should be getting hotter, though.

I had my first cup of Indian chai tea this morning. Chai tea is very common here and is often offered to one’s household guests. It was really good! When I was growing up, my mom always drank her tea different than about anyone I’ve seen. She put a ton of milk and sugar in it, so that by the time it was prepared it was a milky light brown color. I always liked it a lot. Well, it turns out that that’s exactly what the chai tea I had tasted like. Not bad!

Well, that’s all I have to report for now, but I’ll continue to update my blog as I’m able to.

Until next time…

Posted in India, Photos | 5 Comments »

Can a movie really save a life?

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

Jaeson Ma points us to the Bella 10 movement. I have not had the opportunity to see the movie Bella, but I know just a bit about it from my dad, who works with Dennis Rainey’s organization, Family Life. It’s exciting to hear how God is using this movie for His purposes. Check it out and spread the word!

Check out Jaeson’s blog to hear about a number of other exciting things that God is doing. On that note, for those who are burned out, disillusioned, or worried that the Christian movement is very slowly dying in North America, don’t despair! God is moving in many powerful ways, although He’s not always using the traditional structures that we might expect. You might have to look in some unconventional places to find Him. Instead of griping about His bride, pray hard, seek His face, and find out what He wants to do for His kingdom through YOU!

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Off to India!

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Well, this is it! I’m sitting in the Newark airport, less than two hours from boarding the plane for our 8:30pm departure to Delhi, India. Grant should be meeting me anytime, and Rob Thiessen, our missionary friend and church planting coach, is already in India and should be meeting us at the airport when we arrive tomorrow night.

We plan on spending a few days in Delhi and a few days in Chandigarh, and beyond that we’ll follow leads and go wherever it sounds like there is someone we should meet with. I’ll keep my blog updated as best I can, as long as I can find an occasional internet connection over there.

Thanks for your prayers!

Posted in India, Photos | 3 Comments »

Overnight office

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Well, I’m on my way to Newark now to meet up with Grant and then head to India! Last night I had an overnight layover. I’m trying to go ahead and get my body adjusted to Indian time, so I just hung out in the airport and got some work done for most of the night. Here was my work station:

Airports aren’t too exciting at 2am:

A seasoned world traveler advised us to not eat during hours that we will normally be asleep in India for a day or two before the trip. I guess it has something to do with your liver putting out stay-awake juices when you’re eating things (to put it in the technical terms of medical professionals). Something like that. So I started that up yesterday, fasting from about 10am to 6pm each day.

We had a good time in Idaho the past few days. We shared for about 10 minutes at one of our partner churches on Sunday morning, then hosted a Mexico night Sunday evening at Erin’s parents’ house and had about 20-25 people come. I enjoyed the Mexico night a lot. Erin and her mom cooked a great Mexican meal of tortilla soup and quesadillas for everyone. We shared for a little while about how things have been going with the ministry this past year and then opened things up for Q & A. It was a lot of fun. Everyone had great questions, and it was neat to give them more of an inside peek at the ministry in southern Mexico.

I got to do a bit of fishing with Erin’s dad and brother. That was cool, because I hadn’t gotten to do any fishing to speak of in about 2.5 years. It was pretty slow with the cold weather, but I did catch one decent brown trout in the Clark Fork river, and Erin’s dad and brother caught a couple, also.

Thanks for everyone who has been praying for our car problems and encouraging us with that. We have our van in the shop now to get the engine rebuilt, and it should be ready by the time I get back from India, just in time for us to drive to Colorado. So that’s good news!

Being in a foreign country most of the year, I’m amazed sometimes at the efficiency in the U.S. For example, this morning I went to get breakfast at McDonald’s here in the airport. I walked up, gave my order, swiped my credit card, and by the time the receipt had printed off they set my entire breakfast in front of me. I’m not kidding, the entire transaction didn’t take more than 15 seconds. Now that’s fast food!

Okay, this is me signing off until next time. I’m going to try and get some blog posts up about the trip while we’re in India, so be sure to check back, or even better, subscribe to the newsfeed or to have new posts automatically emailed to you (see the right sidebar of the home page of my blog).

God bless!

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Interesting cultural distinctives of India

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

As I’ve been preparing for my trip to India, I have been reading up on India’s culture and trying to learn some dos and don’ts. Here are some of the more interesting things I have read about India’s culture:

  • The feet are considered the lowest part of the body. Showing the bottom of your foot, moving something with your foot, pointing at someone with your foot, or placing your feet on furniture is a sign of bad manners. Be careful when you cross your legs and never walk over someone or the Bible, other religious books, musical instruments, etc. Keep feet tucked underneath you as much as possible when sitting on the floor.
  • The left hand is considered unclean because it is used for unclean things. Avoid giving anything to others with the left hand, especially food. When eating without utensils use the right hand only.
  • Because Indians live in a ‘collective’ culture, honor and saving face are very important – often the guiding factor behind relationships. This is often the reason an Indian will not admit a mistake – even when the mistake is obvious to everyone. It is very important to avoid causing others to lose face or even to lose face yourself. To help others save face, do not ask questions that will require the other person to admit a mistake. Do not set up competitions. The one losing will undoubtedly be embarrassed – and lose face. Do not ask questions implying the other is in need.
  • Men’s Clothing: What you wear expresses not only your own social position, but more importantly, is a reflection of the social position you perceive of your host or guest. By wearing neat, clean clothes, you express honor and esteem for your host or guest. Indians even in the slums rarely leave the house without a pressed shirt. Never wear shorts in public. Pants and nice shirts are acceptable. A Kurta Pajama is good to wear, also.
  • Women’s Clothing: A typical Indian suit is called a salwar camise. It consists of baggy drawstring pants called salwars, long tops called kurtas, and scarf-like thing that covers the chest called a dupatta. The sari is the traditional dress for a married woman. In most village areas, after a woman is married she only wears a sari. When foreigners wear saris, they generally win great appreciation from their Indian friends. There is more to wearing a sari than just wrapping it properly. A female writer of a newspaper article expressed that what a woman wears affects how she should behave. She wrote that she wears certain clothes for sports and a salwar camise for other activities as well. But, when she wears the sari, she is quiet and sedate. The sari calls forth a certain mental attitude and a specific type of demeanor. This is often the reason we look unattractive to Indians when we wear a sari. The sari is a very feminine, graceful garment. But we are not always feminine or graceful when we are talking and/or laughing loudly, shouting, walking fast or in a heavy, masculine manner, acting in a very dominant or authoritative manner, etc. These would be inappropriate behaviors when wearing the sari!
  • A man should NEVER touch a woman’s dupatta. A dupatta is considered a woman’s virtue.
  • A woman should never brush her hair in public, especially in smaller cities. This can possibly lead people to think you are a prostitute.
  • People of the opposite sex do not show affection in public. It is very common for men to hold hands and hang on other men in public. Women do the same thing, but is not seen as much.
  • Indians do not typically date. Marriages are usually arranged through their parents. A man and a woman seen alone together are assumed to be married.

Posted in India | 4 Comments »

Through the windshield–Texas to Idaho

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Here are a few more through the windshield photos from the U.S. leg of our roadtrip:

These windmills all over Texas and Colorado were pretty impressive. Nice to see us doing something about alternative energy sources. Have you seen these things? Anybody have any idea how well they work? They’re pretty impressive. In Lamar, Colorado they had one fin of one on display, and it looked like it had to be close to 20 feet long.

Crossing into Oklahoma

The reason Oklahoma has a little strip of land between Texas and Colorado–no one else wanted it :)

Crossing into Colorado

Wyoming at night

We enjoyed some beautiful scenery while driving through Montana. The photos don’t do it justice.

The Clark Fork river in Montana…and bugs on the windshield

And finally, our destination–Erin’s parents’ house in the Idaho panhandle

Total mileage from southern Mexico to northern Idaho: 3,040 miles
Total drive time: 53.5 hours

Posted in Personal Happenings, Photos | 7 Comments »

You know your car has problems when…

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

…you burn 29 quarts of oil on a 3,050 mile road trip. That’s right, that’s just a hair under a quart of oil every 100 miles.
Gas economy: 20 mpg
Oil economy: 400 mpg

The good news is we arrived safe and sound this afternoon at Erin’s parents’ house in northern Idaho. For that we are very grateful. Our trip got held up a couple of days ago when we broke an engine coil. We picked up on this at a gas stop in Plainview, Texas, when the car began to idle roughly and then the dreaded check engine light came on.

The good news was there was a Toyota dealership literally across the street (we have a Toyota minivan). The bad news was it was Sunday afternoon. Being a small town, by the time the dealership opened Monday morning, diagnosed the problem, got the part in, and made the repair, it was Tuesday afternoon before we were on the road again. We managed to entertain ourselves for two days, though, and then we made good time on the rest of the trip.

The oil loss, unfortunately, is not due to the engine coil. We bought our van used back in December, and it has been a great blessing to us. Turns out the previous owners, though, did not take care of the engine at all. So it has broken down at a very premature age, and it looks like we’re facing a rebuild of it before we head back to Mexico in a few weeks. I’m very partial to Toyotas (our family driving one to 330k miles sold me), but the lesson for car owners is this: It doesn’t matter how good a car you have if you don’t take care of it!

We would appreciate your prayers that we will be able to get the van repaired and ready to go for our drive to Colorado in early May and then our return trip to Mexico.

And those are our car adventures on our trip up here. We’re in good spirits and thankful to God for getting us up here safely and for the fact that we have a car to drive. I’ll share photos from the latest leg of the trip in a separate post.

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Through the windshield–Veracruz and Tamaulipas

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

We get to see a lot of really cool stuff on the road trip up from southern Mexico to the U.S. Here are a few shots of the view through our windshield and windows:

Veracruz has some gorgeous landscape…

We spend a couple of hours driving right along the Gulf Coast in Veracruz

Content travelers

Shrimping boats in the mouth of a river emptying into the ocean

The numerous small towns are very picturesque

Roadside pottery stand

The hilly coastal lands of Veracruz are covered with orange, banana, and pineapple plantations. Town after town is lined with roadside stands selling fruit and honey. A bag of 100 oranges goes for under US$2.50.

This statue is in a small town located in an area called The Golden Valley of the Orange

Crossing the Tampico bridge over the river into the state of Tamaulipas

Entering cooler lands–crossing the Tropic of Cancer

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No room in the inn

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

We’re currently on a road trip up to the United States (Idaho, to be exact), and then I will be leaving for India in about a week and a half. Yesterday, we drove up to the U.S. border and crossed into Texas. We took some photos, which I will get posted as soon as I can.

We had planned to spend the night in McAllen, TX, but since we made good time to the border, we decided to continue on to San Antonio. We rolled into the south end of San Antonio about midnight, exhausted from a very long day of driving and ready to get some rest. I went into a Motel 6 to see what kind of vacancy they had.

“We just have the suite,” the girl at the counter says.

“Okay, how much does that go for?” I asked.

“$299, plus tax.”

“Oookay,” I said, “I think we’ll keep looking.”

I hopped back in the car and commented to Erin how Motel 6 sure seems to be moving up in the world of lodging.

Next stop was the Super 8 Motel across the street.

“Do you have any rooms with 2 double beds available?” I asked the guy.

“Sure, we have one. It’ll run $189 plus tax.”

“Wow!!” I said, wondering what on earth had happened to motel prices while we’ve been in Mexico. “Is that how much they normally run?”

“No, they’re normally about $50, but it’s because of the Final Four.”

Who knew. I haven’t kept up with college basketball at all lately, so I had no idea we would be hitting San Antonio the same weekend the Final Four was hosted there.

Knowing that would be the situation all over town, we continued on to the next town, about 40 miles past San Antonio. When we saw parking lots at the first couple of motels full of motorcycles, I knew we were in trouble. A long search determined that all 9 motels in town were booked completely solid. There was nothing else to do but to keep driving. The next town, another 40 miles up the road, had just one motel, which was also full. They had a sign on the door, though, recommending a Motel 6 ten more miles up the road.

Success! That place had a room free. It was going to be $59 plus tax, but I bargained the guy down a full $5, since it was now 3am our Mexico time, which was actually 4am local time. We got a few decent hours of sleep (Molly’s sickness explosion all over the bathroom notwithstanding), and now we’re ready to hit the road again.

On a side note, when we got into our room, I realized the guy had already been giving me a deal, because this room apparently normally goes for $105 plus tax. Which still leaves me with the question, “What on earth ever happened to Motel 6 being a good deal when you’re traveling?!”

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