Arrival

It's hard to believe that I left Austin on Sunday at 7:30am CST and arrived in Rajahmundry, India on Tuesday 10:30am here (1:00am CST)! The flight went smoothly aside from a sore butt and a long layover in Hyderabad, India where we had to wait outside of the airport for 4 hours among the locals...who are primarily Muslim. Needless to say we turned some heads.

The best part was arriving in Rajahmundry at the small delapitated building they call an airport. We were greeted by 20 boys from the Rajah boys home, all holding signs with our names on them and huge smiles on their faces...unbelievable. This was very humbling as the boys sang songs on our bus ride to the hotel located in the heart of downtown Rajahmundry.
Later that evening Pastor Isaiah and his brother Ananth took us through the heart of downtown Rajahmundry. The streets were literally overflowing with people not to mention the scooters, motorcycles, bicycles and buses squeezing their way through. If any of you think driving in Dallas or Austin is bad, you aint seen nothin'!

We were then taken down to the banks of the famous Godavari River where every 12 years over 1 million Hindus from all over the world come to be "cleansed" of their sins. It is believed that the river and her god have the power to do this. While there, we witnessed several people being cleansed in the river by a Hindu priest. Sadly, this cleansing is something insufficient to relieve them of their sin as they come to the river over and over again.

The evening concluded by going to the Rajah boys home (the place Pastor Isaiah and his wife started a few years ago) and we were entertained by the singing and skits of the boys. There are about 20 boys ages 8 to 14 living here who receive a school education, love from Isaiah and his wife, and hear the love of Christ. It was very humbling to see the joy on the faces of these boys who are living in a city that is extremely poor and filthy by American standards. I sat at our table on the second floor of that home as we joined them in song and wondered if I exhibit the same amount of joy these boys have. I was overwhelmed by the reality that the same hope these boys have is the same hope I have, a hope that will never perish, spoil, or fade despite how filthy or shiny our conditions are.

Today will be going to the Deep Forest region (a rural area outside of Rajahmundry) to celebrate the completion of a new church building of one of the pastors we will be working with. This was not on our agenda and we were asked as to address the congregation during the celebration. I will be leading our group in this address so please pray that is a message of encouragment and well received by the congregation.