Sunday, March 29, Samastipur

Mike and I slept at Manoj house (checked out of hotel in a.m.). Evening drove to Samastipur—Manoj & Subodh’s parents live and pastor there. Arrived after dark. Dinner at parents’ home then “Hotel Sagar International.” By the time we experienced this hotel, we knew we had truly gotten away from the tourists’ beaten pathway. We were definitely away from where foreigners usually visit.

There is a reason I don't have pics of "Hotel Sagar International:" I would like to forget it! Well, that's an exaggeration. It wasn't too bad. But it does not qualify as an international hotel. I'm guessing that it's only claim to being international came from the 1970s, when a pack of hoboeing hippies accidentally got stranded there overnight. Since the hippies were not greatly concerned with showers anyway, it did not occur to them that the streams of water sprayed so far apart from each other that we had to run back and forth to different streams to get the various parts of the body wet. But we slept just fine. And it only lasted 1 night. Still, it was not the kind of place I would recommend to any traveler. On the other hand, if they had housed us in a private dwelling, we would not have had as nice accommodations as we did at the hotel. But at the same time, we would not have expected nice accommodations in a private home. We would have expected primitive bathing arrangements and primitive sleeping situations, etc.

Sun. 29 March, Samastipur. The hotel: king sized bed for 2 men to sleep in. Compared to hotel in Muzaffarpur. Shower never did warm up; sprayed every direction. Confusion about what info and documents needed upon registering. Slept fine and it’s just another story to tell. :)

At any rate, the next morning, Sunday 29th, we worshiped with Manoj and Subodh's father's church: Samastipur "AGP," i.e., Assembly of God Pentecostal. Sounds redundant to me. But that's the name of the church. Are there Assemblies of God that are not pentecostal? I wasn't aware of the option.

Preached “Seeing Jesus Seeing Our Church” from Rev 1 – 3. Manoj trans instead of Subodh. When he first introduced me, I asked him how long I should speak; @ 40 min. Actually last 50+. But: I had spoken only a few minutes when I picked up my papers (with extensive notes) and walked down toward the audience. As he translated, I could sense his voice trailing off. I turned [and saw him standing there gaping at me. The look of disbelief he gave me surprised me.] and indicated for him to follow me. I was showing the audience the IXTHUS sign. After that demonstration I returned to platform and he followed. Later, I stepped down from platform again and he followed promptly. After service he explained that he thought I was finished speaking already the first time I stepped down. Good laugh over that. I had only spoken about 5 min or so and he thought he would have to improvise for another 35. He needn’t worry.



Front of the church, Kanchan Kumar from the Bible college on left with 2 of Manoj's relatives.

Manoj's father seated far right. Under his long sleeved white shirt, he wore a WOOL SWEATER! It made me sweat more just seeing it. I showed the others on the team and Rev. Paul just laughed more. It had been chilly by their standards that morning.

Inside the church after service. A couple ladies are praying with another lady.

During the church service. I felt sorry for the guitarist (barely visible here). Every time a song was going to be sung, he would plunk very obviously the starting note--several times. Then the singer(s), whether the song leader or soloist or trio, would invariably start on a different note. He was left to try to find what key they had chosen. As often as not, they chose a tone that was in between any pitch on his guitar. But I had to give him credit, he never gave up and kept trying to contribute. It wasn't his fault. He was/is a good guitarist. They just weren't listening to his help.

Our route to Patna and the airport (so the other men could depart) took us through a very rural area on very narrow roads. We crossed the Ganges River again of course--this time in daylight. So we saw the dirty water. But we were on a very busy bridge at a very busy time. So we could not stop to get good pics. Don't know if the other guys' pics came out at all. But mine basically just show the guardrail.

When I watched them go into the airport, I felt a slight twinge of sadness. I wished I could join them. But other arrangements had been made. And I would fulfill my commitment in Nagpur. So Subodh and I went to the train station where we caught an overnight express train. It made only a few stops along the way. It was supposed to take 23 hours to get to Nagpur and we were only 2 or 3 hours late, which is pretty good for an overnight train.

ttfn