Wedding Photos Part 2

This is one of our neighbors who just moved into our building. A funny thing happened right before we took this picture. I tried to ask her where she was from. And she looked at me and said"I AM YOUR NEIGHBOR" in very slow Hindi.....HA! I got so tickled, I couldn't spit my words out. I finally was able to manage "no..no...I mean....originally...where do you come from"?

Wedding

Last night we went to the much anticipated wedding of one of our neighbors.

striking a traditional South Asian pose

our neighbor wanted her hair "pressed" (straightend) like ours

neighbors

sister of the groom and one of my first friends I made here

one of the tents that was set up

the welcoming crew as we entered the wedding. Makes just signing the guest book seem kinda tame- huh?

the bride and groom stood up on a pivoting stage. And we all threw confetti on them

remind me to order one of these creepy mask guys for my wedding

Auntie's son- the groom . The first time we ever met him, he asked us if we had swine flu. And I promptly sneezed on him of course..for good measure ;-) j/k

Sweet Auntie

Contentment

Sometimes, when I get tired of myself and my own empty prayers, I turned to a little book called The Valley of Vision. Its a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions. And I am not saying that the Puritans had it all together (although Charles Spurgeon came from that gang and he was a pretty cool guy). As I read through their prayers of long ago, I am always blown away by their spiritual depth. They testify to the richness and color of thought that I often don't find these days. There is one prayer in particular that I turn to. Its about contentment. And it gets me... every time.

O Heavenly Father
If I should suffer need, and go unclothed, and be in poverty
Make my heart prize thy love, know it, be constrained by it
though I be denied all blessings
It is thy mercy to afflict and try me to wants
for by these trials I see my sins, and desire severance from them
Let me willingly accept misery, sorrows, temptations
if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil, and be delivered from it with gratitude to thee, acknowledging this as the highest testimony of thy love
When thy Son came into my soul, instead of sin, be became more dear to me than sin had formally been
His kindly rule replaced sin's tyranny
Teach me to believe that if ever I would have any sin subdued
I must not only labour to overcome it
but must invite Him to abide in the place of it
and He must become to me more than vile lust had been, that His sweetness, power, life, may be there.
Thus I must seek a grace from Him contrary to sin, but must not claim it apart from Himself.
When I am afraid of evils to come, comfort me by showing me
that in myself I am a dying, condemned wretch but in Him I am reconsiled and live
that in myself I find insufficiency and no rest but in Him there is satifaction and peace
that in myself I am feeble and unable to do good but in Him I ability to do all things
Though now I have His graces in part, I shall shortly have them perfectly in that state where thou wilt show thyself
fully reconciled
alone sufficient
efficient
loving me completely
with sin abolished
O Lord, hasten that day

Amen

Ladies Sangeet

This is a big week in the life of one of my neighbors. Their only son is getting married. This morning, we got invited to take part in one of the pre wedding events called a Ladies Sangeet. Its basically a party strictly for the ladies. They all get together and sing songs about married life. This picture is of some of my friends playing the drum to the beat of the song. One of song's lyrics went something like this

"now your life will only be about making potatoes and peas" wow..how encouraging...

It's a light hearted event with lots of laughing and joking. And I was certainly glad to be apart of it.

Stay tuned for more pictures of the wedding events....

Talent Show

This week, we had several birthdays to celebrate so a friend came up with the idea for a birthday talent show. And I must say, it was pretty good night. It seems like life around here is usually pretty busy and semi crazy. So, it was nice celebrating, relaxing and having fun together. Each person had to do a talent and then at the end, a judge determined 1st...2nd...etc....

some friends doing a skit

the two birthday girls. I LIKE it that they each got their own birthday cake

no talent show is complete without a puppet show

a solo and dance

three little ballerinas

two of my buddies

Is This An Idol?

The longer I am here, the more I can understand. However, there are still big huge gaps in my perception of reality. This week has been an example of that. So, in my living room, I have a shelf. And I have taken the time to put little nick knacks on it, just to make this place seem more homey.

I really like collecting those Willowtree angels. Right in the middle of that shelf, I have about 5 of them. Over the past few weeks, I have heard several comments about them. So, I asked my house helper about them today. And it turns out...people think the angels are idols. What?? NOO!! She that she had been thinking this whole time that the angels were idols. It just made sense to her. No, we don't worship angels. We worship in our hearts. No.no....we don't worship OURSELVES...in our hearts...He is in our hearts..... UGH. So, I went through an inventory of the things I have. Is this an idol? How about this?? She assured me the rest of the house was idol free. Ugh, so sad.

Today served as a physical reminder that I DO have idols... in my own heart.

Pull these idols out, from my heart's embrace, Rock of Ages...I need your grace

Not In Kansas Anymore

Although I have been here awhile, I still have moments when I can't believe I really live here. This evening, we visited a church out in a neighboring village. The service was suppose to start at 6:30 but of course didn't get going until an hour later. We sat on the floor in the dimly lit room. People started slowly trickling in. The pastor led us in some worship songs. The songs here are very repetitive and rhythmic, often times led by someone playing the drums. I sat with my head covered, clapping and swaying to the beat while shivering from the cold. This was not the typical Sunday night hymn sing at the First Baptist Church.

As more and more people came in, the more and more attention we got. If you can just imagine for a moment- sitting in your pew at church. Now imagine basically turning your body all the way around in the opposite direction so that you could stare at that guest sitting behind you. Be sure to look him straight in the eyes for the ENTIRE sermon. Now turn to your neighbor and whisper "oh look, a white person". That's what it was like visiting this little village church.
I guess that would be considered SO rude in another context. But I just laughed about it. Its just how it goes. What they don't know is I am not that interesting in America.

The sermon was on the passage describing JC as the Bread of Life and the pastor did a pretty good job. JC being the Bread of Life is brought up alot here. It is found in several worship songs and its a pretty common sermon topic. Maybe Him being the Bread of Life hits closer to home because they know what it feels like to truly be hungry.

After the service was over, we were quickly surrounded by about 20 women pelting questions at us. Where are you from? Where do you live? When can you come to my house?
The pastor had to basically call them off so that we could exit the building. It was pitch black outside. Someone let me use the light from their cell phone to find my shoes. The pastor graciously offered to escort us out of the village on his motor bike. Heather and I had to cling to each other for dear life as we made our way through the twisty brick roads to the outskirts of the village where our auto rickshaw was waiting for us. As we drove away, I thought to myself "Yup, I am definitely not in Kansas anymore".

Thread Bare Gypsy Soul

There are a group of gypsies that live around these parts. Some of them live right down the road from me. These particular people are considered the root gypsies of the earth. People believe that they are descendants from the Jews when they left Egypt. They live in houses made of tarps, wood, or anything else they can get their hands on. Most of them make and sell iron tools. But they are also professional beggars. Every time I walk past them, they want my shoes, my hat, my shawl. They are a beautiful people with olive skin and brown eyes. If you could be lifting up these people. Next month I have some friends coming from home and we hope to be able to work with these people.

Meat Locker

We are in the coldest month of the year right now. My house is made of concrete walls and has no insulation. My house is like a meat locker. The other day I didn't even bother putting the butter up right away. I knew it would stay solid enough. Heaters are expensive so I am just trying to wait it out since its only this cold for such a short amount of time each year. My parents gave me one of those Snuggies (the blanket with sleeves) . And MAN do I wear it. I safety pin it on so that I can still do things around the house. I get strange looks from all who enter my house. I would wear it outside if I could get by with it. Last year at this time, I was tucked away in a hospital burning hot with fever. Even after getting out of the hospital, I spent my days sitting by a warm radiator reading books and sipping coffee. So, I missed out on all of this meat locker fun. Well, I would love to stay under my covers all day but the day beckons. Getting out of bed these days is like ripping a band aide off. Its only painful for a second but you still kinda dread it. In the dead heat of summer, I will have to remember days like today.

Overview

These last few weeks have been busy but good. On Christmas Eve, all of us Americans who live in M Town met together. We had a gift exchange party with lots of junk food. The kids serenaded us with "Jingle Bells" and fun was had by all.

Christmas Day, Heather and I had a quite morning together. We read the Christmas story, prayed, sang and otherwise just spent time worshipping our King. We had a vegetarian Christmas lunch (it just doesn't seem right does it....) That afternoon, we had our neighbors over for a Christmas pooja (their word they use for worship) We sang some songs, told the Christmas story and prayed all in Hindi. My neighbors were all very attentive and very gracious. Afterwards, we had cake and fellowship. I am thankful they had the chance to see how we celebrate.

Christmas night, we were on the road again. We flew to a city that is to the south of us. We spent some time with my boss and his family. We had some meetings but also enjoyed each others company. We even had pecan pie with pecans from TEXAS.

We returned home for just a few days. But we were home long enough to celebrate New Years with our neighbors. They had a crazy party New Years night that included dancing, good food, a beauty pageant and Heather and I being forced to give a speech about what we thought of M Town. Good times.

The next day, we hit the road again. Now we are in another state to the west of us taking a Hindi intensive class. Its freezing cold outside, my head is spinning. But overall, there is much to be thankful for.