Arrived!
Late Friday after a long day that was really two days traveling. Greeted by helpers of Emmanuel Ministries Calcutta at the airport and taken on a bumpy and frantic minibus trip (the first of many) to the YWCA where we're staying. Yep, the YWCA. I've got a single room. It's basic. I"m getting used to shaving and showering in cold water.
Already seen a couple of projects that EMC are working on, and already seen the kind of conditions in Kolkatta that makes it necessary.
A very brief summary for now, since I've not much time.
We went to a school for young recovering addicts, who after rehab are taught and encouraged to find their particular God given talent and enjoy it. They seemed quite excited when I said I enjoyed playing football. They insisted on me returning for a game, once I've acclimatised to the local conditions obviously. They were also keen to know what I put in my hair. I was David Beckham for an afternoon.
Today we've visited a day school for children of sex workers. Given a chance for a different life to their mothers, right next to the slum where their mothers are working.
Everywhere you can see poverty and then extreme poverty and then wealth. Life is on the streets, cooking, eating, talking, sleeping. Traffic is manic and noisy and like a jostling crowd. Food is great.
Emmanuel Ministries are a fantastic organisation I'll try and tell you more about it on a later day, now that we've found an Internet Cafe. Suffice to say they've already shown us significant examples of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has radically transformed lives.
Not much time at the moment. I'm keeping notes so that I can fill you in on the details.
I"m excited that this filthy, noisy, raw and glorious place is home for the next month.
Thanks for the prayers.
Monday, 30 July 2007
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
A tie and the Kolkata telephone exchange
So I've just been thinking how to deal with occasions where I need to be smart. I don't want to look like a slob and give a bad if accurate impression of British standards in dress, but I also need to avoid the slippery slope that ends up with me squeezing smart black shoes and cummerbund into my ruck (though the irony is that 'cummerbund' has an Indian etymology, hmmm). Strictly, a tie comes as part of an entirely separate outfit, that I simply wasn't planning. I tend to have just the two settings: smart or slob.
No, it's serious.
So I've established a half-way that accommodates the incongruity of mixing a tie with trainers via a subtle transition from head to toe. A fashion crime, but needs must. It's also fair to say I'm not a complete stranger to dressing like an engineer.
This is really quite a simple matter in comparison with issues others in the Team are having. Some are dealing with health and family matters which have been complicating their plans. To be fair this correspondence was also mixed with mention of things like hair straighteners. I'm praying for the health and family matters, but I guess a little home detail can be a big help to get us settled.
Other issues include the floods here which have the potential to delay my trip to London.
Then there's the fire in the Kolkata telephone exchange. Apparently last week all the Kolkata land lines and Internet connections were wiped out as a result of a faulty connection somewhere causing a fire. I'm hoping it'll be all up and running by next week so that this blog doesn't die before it's born.
Many have assured me of their prayers for the coming month, which is a significant encouragement. Even got a couple of hugs at church.
General points for prayer would be:
- Health and Safety - one can't Carpe Diem whilst remaining no more than 30 seconds from the nearest facilities
- The Team - that we would get on: cope with one another, look out for each other, and work well together; and please do remember Claire and Becky the team leaders
- The Opportunity - that we would both contribute and learn
- And do pray for Emmanuel Ministries Calcutta in their ongoing work for God's honour
Funny how even the big things of life get complicated with a mix of the small. But then I guess culture is made up of so many minor details that the adventure of crossing cultures necessarily includes all these apparently trivial things.
I'm almost off. Ruck's nearly packed. It's becoming real and I'm getting excited and maybe nervous? or maybe just plain curious as to what's going to happen over the next four weeks. My niece is in the Philippines at the moment doing a similar thing as it happens. She's having a great time with lots of evidence of God's grace. this is good news and an encouragement for my trip.
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121)
I hope my next entry will be from Kolkata.
Saturday, 21 July 2007
Nelly the elephant packed her trunk
The EMC India team 2007I've started laying out my stuff for packing, ironing the clothes, gathering the toiletries. This is the earliest I've ever started packing before a trip. I usually leave it to that optimum period of efficient panic the night before, but for some reason I'm actually contemplating having the ruck all zipped up several days in advance, so that come the morning of departure I just need to dress, pick it up and catch the early bus. I don't want to be faffing and miss the bus, then the train and so on. Lots of slack in the timetable in reality since we're meeting at Tearfund in the morning, spending a day there, then heading off to Heathrow for an early evening flight. Packing now will also help me check I've got everything. Who knows what I'll need, who knows what's too much? I started making a kit list, something else I've never done. Of course, once I'd chosen the font and formatted the bulleted list the interest dwindled.
Did some last gift shopping for EMC today. Got a few soft balls and pens and things. Not sure I'm the best judge of what's handy to have when helping Indian street children, but I guess children like doing pretty much the same stuff all over the world. Or maybe there are at least some common themes.
I applied for this trip about six months ago with the aim of contributing somehow, but I'm getting the growing sense that I'll be the one who gains most. Tearfund made this clear, and I'm starting to feel it. These few gifts and my limited talents, I'm wondering just how naive I'll discover I am.
And it's also struck me that doing this for a month is significant for me. The team of people I'll be visiting make this their life.
I'm short on toothpaste.
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Thank God, he’s a perfectionist
Thank God, he’s a perfectionist.
Why else would he go to such lengths to correct things? He knows things can be better, should be better. He’s not satisfied that people live lives less than he originally gave.
Thank God, he’s a realist.
The solution he provides is not a case of wishful thinking, rather it deals with life in all its raw reality.
A material example:
God says to his people “There will be no poor among you.” And then “There will never cease to be poor in the land.” (Deuteronomy ch15 verses 4 and 11).
That is, the nation operating within his commands should have no poor because his laws make ample provision for all. Conversely, in an imperfect world such laws will always be required, and significantly, the condition of the poor matters to the King of the Universe.
Read the Bible and you’ll see the poor are high on his agenda. His laws to the Israelites on tithing and gleaning, Sabbath and Jubilee years all make provision for the poor. His book of wisdom, Proverbs (a fantastic book), reveals his heart repeatedly. ‘He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honours God.’
This is a priority for God. Even to the point that divinely appointed religious duties lose their value if they come without social justice. In Isaiah chapter 58 the people ask
'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?' God replies ‘Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?... if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.’
A chief characteristic of the early Christian community was their care for one another. Read of it in the book of Acts ‘Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.’
This is all possible for those who have their hearts set on treasures that are literally out of this world. Everyone one can exercise a good and beautiful concern for the poor, and it’s great when they do, but there’s something about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I believe, that has the capacity to untie the heart from the earth and free it to love as God loves. So that those commended in the New Testament for their giving are those who gave beyond their financial ability. I’m thinking especially of the widow and her two small coins, and the Macedonian church. While we may argue about 10% here or there, God has commended those who give beyond their ability. We might be tempted to suggest these people were being simply irresponsible, but God commends them and holds them out as examples. Their hearts were elsewhere.
The thought of a life like this excites me. Excites me because of its beauty, and excites me because it is possible.
I’m far off from being anywhere near this. My life is too full of stuff and material priorities. But God the realist tells me to aim for perfection.
C S Lewis’ book The Great Divorce is not one I would recommend in all honesty. However, the major image, and a valuable one, is of heaven being fundamentally more tangible than anything else, to the point that the visitors feel themselves to be mere ghosts who hardly bend the blades of grass on which they walk.
Oh, for a life that has its reality in the right place.
Why else would he go to such lengths to correct things? He knows things can be better, should be better. He’s not satisfied that people live lives less than he originally gave.
Thank God, he’s a realist.
The solution he provides is not a case of wishful thinking, rather it deals with life in all its raw reality.
A material example:
God says to his people “There will be no poor among you.” And then “There will never cease to be poor in the land.” (Deuteronomy ch15 verses 4 and 11).
That is, the nation operating within his commands should have no poor because his laws make ample provision for all. Conversely, in an imperfect world such laws will always be required, and significantly, the condition of the poor matters to the King of the Universe.
Read the Bible and you’ll see the poor are high on his agenda. His laws to the Israelites on tithing and gleaning, Sabbath and Jubilee years all make provision for the poor. His book of wisdom, Proverbs (a fantastic book), reveals his heart repeatedly. ‘He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honours God.’
This is a priority for God. Even to the point that divinely appointed religious duties lose their value if they come without social justice. In Isaiah chapter 58 the people ask
'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?' God replies ‘Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?... if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.’
A chief characteristic of the early Christian community was their care for one another. Read of it in the book of Acts ‘Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.’
This is all possible for those who have their hearts set on treasures that are literally out of this world. Everyone one can exercise a good and beautiful concern for the poor, and it’s great when they do, but there’s something about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I believe, that has the capacity to untie the heart from the earth and free it to love as God loves. So that those commended in the New Testament for their giving are those who gave beyond their financial ability. I’m thinking especially of the widow and her two small coins, and the Macedonian church. While we may argue about 10% here or there, God has commended those who give beyond their ability. We might be tempted to suggest these people were being simply irresponsible, but God commends them and holds them out as examples. Their hearts were elsewhere.
The thought of a life like this excites me. Excites me because of its beauty, and excites me because it is possible.
I’m far off from being anywhere near this. My life is too full of stuff and material priorities. But God the realist tells me to aim for perfection.
C S Lewis’ book The Great Divorce is not one I would recommend in all honesty. However, the major image, and a valuable one, is of heaven being fundamentally more tangible than anything else, to the point that the visitors feel themselves to be mere ghosts who hardly bend the blades of grass on which they walk.
Oh, for a life that has its reality in the right place.
Sunday, 8 July 2007
Have life and have it abundantly
“Have life and have it abundantly”.
Words of Jesus on the eternal life he came to give (John chapter 10 verse 10, the Bible). We are commanded, enabled, equipped, and instructed by God to have life and have it abundantly. He ordered history itself, then sent his Son who came to die a horrific death in order to make this abundant life possible, and then sent his Spirit to spread the message to literally every part of the World. God in all his ineffable Trinity is serious about this. Seems that God is passionately concerned that we have life and have it abundantly. “Abundantly”: Meaning beyond, superabundant in quantity or superior in quality, by implication excessive, preeminent, exceeding, very high, beyond measure, more, superfluous, even vehement. Big words. Does my life match up? I’m still trying to figure this all out. Work it out in real life, and not just Greek dictionaries.
Understandable that our Creator, having made time and space with such capacity for wonder and richness of life, should be concerned that we don’t waste life. But to pursue our joy with such a passion. There’s more at stake. God’s creation is made to show his greatness, show his “Abundance”, his “Beyond-ness”. God is ultimately and uniquely Abundant and Beyond. That’s what Glory and Holy mean.
Make the connection. An abundant life is a life with, in, toward God. A life Beyond is a life with God, and frankly nothing to do with 4x4’s. To quote Jesus again “this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John ch17 v3).
So what to do? The Creator who made the capability for an abundant life knows how it’s achieved. First and foremost one needs Jesus, his life and death and resurrection, to correct our hearts and get us into a working relationship with God. This means passing over control. And so it begins. Fundamentally an abundant life is self-less-ness. It begins by accepting that God is God and I’m not. Then it works through to all relationships as one learns, in humility, to “count others more significant than yourself” (Philippians 2:3).
I’m rambling, but the point is that the potential in the Christian life excites me.
That life is worth it. It matters.
That a holiday can be more than a break from work. A holiday can be a significant and valuable time.
That real satisfaction is in selflessness. Test that. What is the most satisfying thing you’ve ever done?
I guess the trip to India, getting to the point, comes in part from that. An opportunity to straighten my shirt, look out into God's universe which is so much greater than I, and say “engage”…
Words of Jesus on the eternal life he came to give (John chapter 10 verse 10, the Bible). We are commanded, enabled, equipped, and instructed by God to have life and have it abundantly. He ordered history itself, then sent his Son who came to die a horrific death in order to make this abundant life possible, and then sent his Spirit to spread the message to literally every part of the World. God in all his ineffable Trinity is serious about this. Seems that God is passionately concerned that we have life and have it abundantly. “Abundantly”: Meaning beyond, superabundant in quantity or superior in quality, by implication excessive, preeminent, exceeding, very high, beyond measure, more, superfluous, even vehement. Big words. Does my life match up? I’m still trying to figure this all out. Work it out in real life, and not just Greek dictionaries.
Understandable that our Creator, having made time and space with such capacity for wonder and richness of life, should be concerned that we don’t waste life. But to pursue our joy with such a passion. There’s more at stake. God’s creation is made to show his greatness, show his “Abundance”, his “Beyond-ness”. God is ultimately and uniquely Abundant and Beyond. That’s what Glory and Holy mean.
Make the connection. An abundant life is a life with, in, toward God. A life Beyond is a life with God, and frankly nothing to do with 4x4’s. To quote Jesus again “this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John ch17 v3).
So what to do? The Creator who made the capability for an abundant life knows how it’s achieved. First and foremost one needs Jesus, his life and death and resurrection, to correct our hearts and get us into a working relationship with God. This means passing over control. And so it begins. Fundamentally an abundant life is self-less-ness. It begins by accepting that God is God and I’m not. Then it works through to all relationships as one learns, in humility, to “count others more significant than yourself” (Philippians 2:3).
I’m rambling, but the point is that the potential in the Christian life excites me.
That life is worth it. It matters.
That a holiday can be more than a break from work. A holiday can be a significant and valuable time.
That real satisfaction is in selflessness. Test that. What is the most satisfying thing you’ve ever done?
I guess the trip to India, getting to the point, comes in part from that. An opportunity to straighten my shirt, look out into God's universe which is so much greater than I, and say “engage”…
as it were.
I hope to learn something of this from those in Kolkata. I suspect they’re more practiced in the art than I.
I hope to learn something of this from those in Kolkata. I suspect they’re more practiced in the art than I.
Monday, 2 July 2007
I’ve taken an unlicensed drug
I’ve taken an unlicensed drug. Cost me 40 notes and I went back again for another jab one week later. It was an immunisation for Japanese B Encephalitis, to add to those I’ve had for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio, Typhoid, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, and Cholera. Feel like Captain Scarlet.
All part of the preparation for a month in Kolkata.
I’ll be going with nine ladies to meet, learn from and hopefully help an organisation called Emmanuel Ministries Calcutta. They have a range of ministries in the city: providing a home for 50 children otherwise living on the railway platforms of Howrah Station, a pavement club offering food; hygiene and non-formal education to destitute children and their parents living in shelters on the streets; a Community Development Project serving the inhabitants of a slum area giving particular attention to the children of commercial sex workers; the Calcutta Emmanuel School providing formal education for 250 underprivileged children and a fellowship for the cities Rickshaw Pullers, extending God’s love to 200 members of this neglected community.
I’m going as a member of one of the many Transform teams sent by Tearfund into the developing world each year. The Transform Programme enables Christians to spend from two weeks to four months working hand in hand with Tearfund’s local partners in Africa, Asia and Central and South America. Transform Teams turn their hands to a wide range of work, from building houses for widows and orphans from Rwanda’s genocide, to working with children orphaned by AIDS in Thailand and working with street children in Brazil.
Tearfund is one of the UK's leading relief and development agencies, working with Christian agencies around the world to tackle the causes and effects of poverty, and last year dispatched 35 Transform Teams – over 400 people - to development projects in 27 developing countries throughout Africa, Asia and Central and South America. Tearfund is a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee. www.tearfund.org
Tearfund is one of the UK's leading relief and development agencies, working with Christian agencies around the world to tackle the causes and effects of poverty, and last year dispatched 35 Transform Teams – over 400 people - to development projects in 27 developing countries throughout Africa, Asia and Central and South America. Tearfund is a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee. www.tearfund.org
So at the moment I'm wondering what on earth I should be expecting. I've got some idea in relation to the list of immunisations I've needed. Tearfund have provided a fantastic orientation and preparation. But still you never really know until you're there.
I am, however, excited. Excited when I read the summaries of the work of EMC. Excited when I think of how earth shattering and compassionate and life changing the gospel of Jesus Christ is, for those in Kolkata, and for us who have the privilege of meeting them. And I'm excited as I approach the exit to my comfort zone.
A couple of links that have given me an inkling:
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