The following is the first e-mail that Kevin Olson (Ambassador Institute Department Head ) sent to family and friends while he was on a mission trip to India with Jim Rasmussen (AFLC Head of Evangelism) in late January and early February.
Life in India
It is interesting how life can be so similar from culture to culture and yet so wildly different.
Some things you have to block out of your mind to adjust to life in the new culture so that you don’t burn out or some other variety of emotional responses.
Indian culture puts a very high value on personal cleanliness as opposed to the public cleanliness that we worship in the U.S. to often the sacrifice of personal cleanliness.
India has a mass of people and so although the infrastructure is much more developed than Africa, it is still pushed beyond the limits.
Driving is one way that the infrastructure gets pushed beyond its limits. People walking, ox carts being pulled, trucks, buses, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and animals all share the roads, all at the same time. It forces the top speed to a limit of 30-40 mph and means most every moment something unexpected might happen.
This morning I was floored and humbled when I came across the students who live at this school coming out of their morning prayer and group devotions at 6:00 a.m.
These students meet every morning at 5:00 a.m. for devotions. Their ages are 8 to 16. No one forces them to get up. It is just part of their daily routine.
Later in the day we were at a church that I have been at 3 times now. They, like every church, gave us as guests a large flower necklace. In fact today we received two. The guests are always given the seats of honor, given special food and special treatment in every way. The church was packed because of this large celebration that they were having. Yet, with all of this honor and respect, as I was about halfway through a short story that I was sharing, one third of the people got up and went outside to eat. They were eating in shifts which was somewhat understandable, but the worship of the person in contrast to the message of the person was sharper than I had experienced before. Then again, after the meeting, the people flock up to have the guests pray for them.
Tomorrow will be a slower more personal day in town and at the beach with the kids.
Saturday will be another 9 hour day in a village that may look very similar to today’s events.
Sunday we will split up and go to two different churches, then Monday we will start the training.
It is a joy, a struggle, humbling and irritating plus a whole range of emotions all at the same time.
Block out the things that are too difficult to deal with at any one moment, focus on the people and pray to the Lord.
A blog from down under,
Kevin
Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!
