In August of 2011 I traveled to south India for a week of visiting with fellow Christians in the India Evangelical Lutheran Church and my friends Dr. Indrenath and Mrs. Henritta Stanley and their son Ernest. This page has Sightings and notes from that trip. (The pictures are in no particular order - sorry about the randomness!) Enjoy!
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| Dr. Indrenath Stanley joins me at the top of St. Thomas' Mount, Chennai, Tamil Nadu in South India. Dr. Stanley has been a professor at our Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, and was my host and teaching partner for this trip. |
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| The shrine at the top of Saint Thomas' Mount, Chennai (formerly Madras), on the east coast of India. Saint Thomas (sometimes called "Doubting Thomas") was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. He was the one whom Jesus invited to put his hands into the wounds of Christ on the second Sunday of the Resurrection. After Pentecost he traveled eastward all the way to India, speaking of Jesus to the people along the way. Here on the top of this mountain that overlooks the city of Chennai, while in prayer, he was martyred when a local tribesman attacked and killed him with a spear. This building contains a chapel and museum. The inscription on the door reads "My Lord and My God." |
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Saint Thomas' Mount overlooks the city of Chennai, as if Saint Thomas were still in prayer over the whole city and over the whole country of India even now. This altar at Christ Lutheran Church in Vaniyambadi, where we worshiped on Sunday and taught on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, is inscribed in the center panel in the Tamil language with the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What a great invitation to have always before the eyes of the people of God!  Mrs. Henritta Stanley is on the left in this picture. The Pastor and Elders and the members of Christ Lutheran Church in Vaniyambadi welcomed us warmly into their fellowship. Sadly, their building has been sold and as of the end of August 2011 they will need to find another place to meet to worship and carry on their ministry. Still, they appear to be a vibrant and excited congregation. Please keep on praying for them.  One of the men at the conference, Suresh, a professional artist, drew this portrait of me. While in India I always wore eyeglasses, but I insisted on not wearing them for the portrait. He insisted that people would not identify the portrait if I took them off, but I told him that people at home would not recognize it with the glasses. This was the result - and when we showed it to the Indians, at first they did not recognize it as me. Several of them at first thought it was a picture of Jesus. Since I had told Mrs. Stanley that some of our children at Christ the King have called me Jesus already, she commented that this adds to the burden for me to be Jesus, and I agreed.  One of a number of small churches in the Vaniyambadi area started by Dr. Stanley early in his ministry. This church, combined with several others, comprise a multi-point parish served by one pastor. These multi-point parishes are common in the IELC. Please pray for these pastors, who work hard to meet the needs of all these congregations.  Years ago missionaries were headquartered at the mission compound year Vaniyambadi. The compound had several buildings including bungalows, this training building, offices and a school building. Since the career missionaries have left, almost all of the buildings are abandoned. This building is occasionally used for worship by displaced congregations. One other building houses Concordia Press, which publishes hymnals and other materials for the India Evangelical Lutheran Church.  The dogs in the doorway at Christ Lutheran Church in Vaniyambadi. Just neighborhood dogs - not really feral, but not really belonging to anybody - they just hang around all day, and snooze in the open doorway of the church. Since one of our teaching points was about the things we do in the church that act as unintentional barriers that keep people from Jesus, the dogs were a good visual. The church people knew the dogs were harmless and usually stepped over them; but what of a visitor? Someone coming up to the church for the first time might not know that, and might be afraid that the dog might be there to keep them out. So, what are the dogs in the doorways of your church? Should you just let them be, or chase them away?  Lutheran monkeys at the mission compound near Vaniyambadi. I'm pretty certain that these monkeys are Lutheran, because (1) they have found their way to some Lutheran property, (2) they have made their way inside, (3) they seem to live there, whereas we were just visitors. Isn't that how people become Lutherans (or Methodists or Baptists or . . . . )? I'm not too sure whether any of these monkeys believes in Jesus or not, or whether they are being transformed into His likeness by the power of the Holy Spirit, but it seems likely that they are good Lutheran monkeys in any case.  The grave of the first Lutheran missionary to India, Rev. K.G.T. Naether, and his two daughters in the mission compound in Krishnagiri, a little west of Vaniyambadi. Naether worked in India beginning in the late 1800s, and died there. While Naether was in Chennai, on the coast, it is said that he would go down to the shore while the fishermen were returning with their catch and play his violin for them while they were sorting their catches. He and his wife would sing songs of Jesus for them together.  This is the Naether Memorial Chapel in Krishnagiri. It is small in comparison to the much larger Christ Centenary Church, but in this picture it calls to mind the versicle "Jesus Christ is the light of the world." In this dark world, the lights over the doorway of this church look as warm and inviting as the inscription over the altar that reads "Come to Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  These neighborhood kids hung around all week at the end of each day, eager to say "Bye-bye" as we were closing up. I'm not sure that I would say they live in the extreme of poverty in India, but for me they represent a realism of India that is often hidden from us. With the possible exception of "Slumdog Millionaire", we in the US have a romanticized notion of India and the Indians. It's my impression that the vast majority of Indian women do not wear silk sarees and many jewels all the time. The vast majority of Indian men are not devastatingly handsome and wear silk brocade kurtas and turbans. Most Indians do not do yoga - at least, not the "yoga" skinny American women do at health clubs. It's my impression that most Indians spend their lives walking in dirt and mud, sometimes wearing sandals but often in bare feet. Most Indians eat rice and variations on it, and not much else. Most Indians don't do yoga for excercise because they work on farms, in factories and in other kinds of manual labor. Most Indians don't drive cars because they can't afford them. And most Indians (the Hindus) are resigned to their lot in life because Hinduism teaches that their only hope for change and improvement is to wait until the next life. India is a place of almost magical wonder, and a place of absolutely stark reality. Every day I found myself responding to some new thing by saying, "and why are we worried about this back home?" Like the picture below.  Lunchtime during our seminar at Christ Lutheran Church in Vaniyambadi. People are seated on palm mats. Food is on stainless steel plates on the floor, water is in plastic cups. Lunch that day looks like it was rice with something like a chicken stew and maybe a vegetable stew. Big helping of rice on the plate, some of each kind of stew on the side, and dig in! A spoon if you want it, but I was really the only one using a spoon (I just get tired of chasing the grains of rice out of my beard) - just use your fingers to scoop some stew and some rice together, then scoop it into your mouth. Finger-lickin' good, as they say. And you don't have to worry about things like, do we have enough silverware? Do we have enough napkins? Do we have enough chairs? Do we have to get the tables repaired? Who is going to vacuum when we're done? All those things we worry about at lots of council meetings here in the US, just aren't a bother at all in India. Leaving time and energy for the good stuff - like fellowship! |
The Gospel of Jesus Christ came to India with the Apostle Thomas almost 2000 years ago, and it is still being preached and taught among an ever-growing population today. The need for preachers, teachers and workers in the Gospel is great; the need for prayer for the churches is greater. Please continue to keep God's people in India in your prayers frequently, that they would be protected, encouraged, and empowered by the Holy Spirit and that the Name of Jesus may be glorified throughout this land.
