What a trip

Arrived yesterday, Sunday 27th at about 1:15pm. RT met me along with one of his co-workers. He is married in his late 20s and no children. They presented me with two floral garlands--similar but superior to the Hawaiian lei. He took me to the hotel where I'm staying. The lady receptionist called a co-workeron the phone. Apparently she was asking the employee to prepare a room for a guest. She listened a moment. Then I heard her respond (in Hindi), "No this was a foreigner." Actually, I wasn't sure what else she said, but I picked up on the Hindi version of the word "foreigner." Anyway a couple young men came and escorted RT, the coworker and me up to my room. Actually, it is laid out such that in the US it would be called a suite. Plenty of space plus a balcony where I can step out to view the very busy street below. As I saidin my other blog, I have some pics but I planned poorly for today and am not able to upload them in present context.

I think most people expected me to be so worn out from the long travel that I would not be able to function last night. But I had slept about 3-4 hours between London and Delhi. And all I asked RT for was time to wash up and then nap for a couple hours. So he agreed to come back for me at 6:00. I showered and set my alarm for 5:30, fell fast asleep and woke up about 10 minutes before my alarm.

He showed up and we rode an autorikshaw through the busy streets to a house on the edge of town. They sat me briefly in the entry room. Then they brought me around the corner of the room where I saw 14 children arranged from smallest to tallest. It turns out that 2 of the children are actually children of staff people. The other 12 are orphans--either their parents have died, or one or both of their parents have abandoned them.

Then we went upstairs where I was showered with I think 6 more of the floral wreaths/necklaces. Plus people sprinkled flower petals on my head. Everyone--literally everyone in the group, young and adult--came by to bow to me. They said "Praise the Lord" (Jai mashi). I repeated the phrase, while touching each one's head. This was taken as a blessing.

Then the children sang and danced. Meanwhile, the students I came to teach had snuck in behind me. RT directed my attention to that direction and I discovered them all standing stone silent, smiling, bowing and saying "Jai mashi." Then it was the students' turn to contribute. First they sang some songs and danced (Hindi style). And they capped it off with a hilarious skit that they use in their evangelizing trips to unreached towns.

At one point as a couple little girls danced, RT and I started talking about being rejected by one's parents. His story is similar to bw's, which is similar to some of these children (except that bw's mother remained faithful). It was an emotional moment and I felt moved (inspired?) to share with the group about bw's experience (briefly) and how God had so changed her life that she was able to win back her father's love and acceptance before he died. Then I contrasted human rejection with God's unconditional love.

Well, much much more to share. I expect to have capacity share some of my pics tomorrow. So I'll hope to see you back then!

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