The whole team made it to Bangalore late last night. (Actually it was very early this morning.) We got in our rooms about 4:30 on Sunday morning. We were given the option of sleeping in and recovering from the travel or heading to Pastor Babu's church at 8:15. It was neat to see that everyone decided to get up for church after just a short nap. :-)
Babu was really surprised to see us all downstairs when he arrived to picked us up and two or three of the people we met at church commented about how glad they were to see us all. They had been told that probably only one or two of us would come.
It is so cool to be reminded how big my God is. Even though I didn't understand the language being sung, I clapped my hands and joined in as best as I could with the music. I also filmed a bit here and there as I watched a culture so different from my own express their love and devotion to Christ in a way that is very foreign to me, but very special to God.
My dad and Russ both shared a quick message and it was so neat to experience the congregation breaking out into applause and cheering whenever they said big things about God. At one point in Russ's testimony he said, "but my God is a God of the impossible," (cheering,) and my dad quoted Jude saying, "to Him who is able to keep you from falling..." (cheering!)
After church we took auto-rickshaws to a local mall to visit the food court for lunch. The mall is actually very similar to something you might find in the states and I felt right at home winding up the escalators to the food court. I did the traditional traveler's "Point and Hope" when i ordered. Pick a dish, point at it and hope for the best when it is delivered. I was very happy with my choice. However, we are in India and everything is spicy, so we got some ice cream on the way out to curb the heat of the spice.
We loaded back into auto-rickshaws and headed home. Mine (with my mom and dad) made it back, but we are actually still waiting to see the rest of the team. I'm sure they'll be along shortly. ;-) Alice (the seasoned India traveler) is with them.
Next we will organize our vbs materials and meet with the team from the church who will be helping lead. Russ told us that this week's vbs will be focused on children who live in a nearby leper-colony. I'm excited to spend some time loving on those kids and filming the events this week. Today's post was a lot of details, I'll probably be picking stories for the next ones... Here are a few pics I snapped with my phone today. More and better ones will come after I've had some sleep. :-)
Children's "sunday school" type meeting after church. They sang a couple of songs with motions and then I assume they were being taught a bible lesson.
Young lady's "sunday school" grouping after the service.
It was really cool to see several men involved in this church.
At the mall for lunch.
"Chicken Sizzler." Very good! My rice was seasoned with some cinnamon and vanilla bean. Interesting combination with the spices on the chicken, but really quite tasty.
Ice cream in a freshly made waffle cone and a little bit of strawberry drizzle. Can't go wrong there. :-)
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