Leaving Nellore

Thursday, May 17 2012.

Hello. Or, as they say here with a bow and folded hands, “Wandanalu.”

This trip has been… I don’t know how to describe it. Nor can I describe India or my emotions about India. It is beautiful. It is a beautiful country. The people are beautiful. The culture, albeit weird at times to my American eye, is thoroughly beautiful as well.  

Today was mostly a travel day. We woke up early in the morning with the sun and heat already up and running. We ate breakfast (crepe pancakes with mangos and bananas. Mmmm.), did a very short devotional, and then piled into the vans to the train station to leave Nellore and go to Chennai. Three or four hours later we arrived in Chennai, piled out, went to an international place to eat (I had Pizza Hut; other people had Subway and McDonalds). Then we said goodbye to our escorts, now friends, and rode in our bus to Pondicherry. We checked in to our hotel and then went to dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant on the top floor. Buongiorno! It was delicious and super fun.

I want to tell you about our friends we met here at Alma in Nellore. Alma is the orphanage we have been staying at, and the letters stand for Abundant Life Ministerial Associates. From what I know, it is an orphanage, but also serves as a ministry to plant and support churches in villages in the surrounding area.

Let me introduce you. Bushan, Jobs, and Joshi are three pastors/mission coordinators that work at Alma in Nellore to oversee the churches and organize outreach to them. Suman, Anil, Deva, and Vijay are men that do not live in Nellore but came to help us and lead us in our outreach activities here. Lalitha and Veronica are women that do a variety of things including run the orphanage and support as hostesses.

These people made the chords of my heart even more attached to India. Before Nellore, we had interacted with people on a pretty impersonal basis, not in a giving relationship. Working with Alma, we got to go out to the villages and personally, caringly interact with the people, and we got to know our leaders/guides as well.

Yesterday, five of us plus two translators, Bushan and Vijay, went to a village to minister. I have loved going to the villages. I get to interact with these godly men who translate and lead us, and I get to see and interact with these beautiful Indian people. When we arrived, the people were singing, and they honored us with chairs at the front of the area. Then we talked and did a medical clinic (similar to the other days).

During the talk, Bushan was translating for us. He interacted with the people in such a personal and loving way. He added to what was said and changed it to be appropriate to the people and the culture. He, and the other translators, are so skilled at this. It is so beautiful to me. We and they have the same goal, for people to know Christ. Because we share the same goal, we trust that they will translate and add to our words as appropriate, and they trust that we trust them, and thus take the liberty to alter the translation as needed.

Each of we five students shared. Sometimes we did not know what we were doing. My portion was not very polished, and I did not know what to say at some points. But Bushan customized it and added to it, talking about not brushing their teeth with ash or eating old fruit on the side of the road when they travel—things that we never would have known. He knew what problems the people dealt with and in which ways they were exposed to sickness and how to prevent that.

And the people, the women sitting together and the men sitting together, and the children in the front, all listened attentively. My friend Jade said that it reminded her of Jesus and the disciples. Bushan was like Jesus, interacting with the people in such a personal manner. We were the disciples, not really knowing what we were doing. And the people were listening attentively.

I loved interacting with the people. We sang songs with the kids, in which we looked goofy and they loved it, and the adults smiled. A couple of us did medical care, and talking with the translator and interacting with the people individually, caringly, giving what we could offer to them—it was beautiful. I don’t really know how to describe it or how my heart feels about it without you being there, but know that it was a beautiful thing to see and even more wonderful to be a part of.

These three days in Nellore were the some of the highlights of the trip. I have established friendships with some of these people that will soon be facebook official (hehe). More seriously though, being around these leaders was so amazing. They have such passion and love for God, for the Bible, and for the people in these villages. They are actively living out their faith and sharing the good news with others. That’s what I want to be like.

So we said good-bye to them today, and to another chapter in our trip, a chapter that I will not forget. 3 more days till we’re home. I don’t know if I’m ready or not. I’ve grown to love India. At risk of being redundant, I must say it’s beautiful. But there is a time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3), and soon will come the time to say goodbye.

-Jeanette