Tuesday Wednesday, March 31, April 1

Peter Abraham finally showed up. Had good talk. Converted in Charismatic Catholic meeting. He will open mtg tomorrow on transformation of India. Then I’m very next speaker. Told him I wasn’t sure what I had to say really fit in. shared basics of what I had in mind and he seemed satisfied? Pleased? pleased seems too favorable & satisfied too mild; so somewhere in between.

Peter Abraham (R) with translator Sandeep Kumar, opening the Thursday morning session.

This was billed as the "Tranformational Leadership Training" seminar. Well, transformation apparently takes many different forms. The messages and greetings from Wed night's opening session seemed to focus more on commitment and encouraging more work. There is certainly a time and place for such messages. And I am not one to say this was not such an occasion. But I am/was not the one to give such a message. So Wed night's session only magnified my concerns about my speaking time.

While this was processing, Peter and I had a miscommunication. When we talked on Tuesday afternoon, I thought he said he would speak in the morning (by which I thought he meant the next morning, i.e., Wednesday morning). And then I would speak right after that. So when I talked with BW that night, I asked her to get out an email to our prayer supporters to pray for my speaking time on Wed morning.

Wed morning came and went and nothing was happening. Actually, what was happening was that students and staff were setting up the seats and other equipment. That left me free for the rest of the day. I just realized that Wed was April Fool's Day. So maybe this was God's little April Fool's joke on me. (Don't blast me with theology on that one.)

Having the day free, I walked around a number of times. Talked with anyone I met who could communicate in English. Took pics, etc. In the evening, I caught a ride into the HQ offices of RIMI/Mission India. There I had access to the internet for the first time. While I sent out my first email, I noticed that the temp back home was 43 degrees. And I had already heard that there in Nagpur it was also 43 degrees. But home was in Farenheit degrees and Nagpur in Celsius degrees, which translates to about 120F. Thus, the pic of me guzzling water. Standard procedure for Mission India guests is to provide them with 2 bottles of water per day. No one kept count. And I suspect that some of those days I went through more than 2 such.

I'll draw this post to a close. Then in the next one, I'll post mostly pics of people and activities around the Nagpur campus.

ttfn