Life Changing Words Ministry

Missionary Journal

January 18, 2005

It has been already nine days since my last update it my journal. We arrived Saturday night safely in Delhi, but two hours late. We were met by our American businessman friend, Gene. With the hired taxi driver, we only had to pay one porter for one suitcase to be carried to the taxi. Before any bag is picked up, we have to negotiate the price.

By the time we got to Gene's place, settled into our room, and ate our evening meal, it was already one o'clock Sunday. We slept soundly and never made it up in time for church. The rest of the day was uncommitted to anything except visiting and encouraging Gene. Bill checked up on the BBC news if CNN was not available. He and Gene spent the time together like two brothers who had not seen each other for awhile. [Even though they had fellowshipped together when Pastor Paul Joseph was with them in November.]

On Monday, my dad's birthday, I worked on the laundry to get caught up again. Pastor Sam came. It was a nice reunion to see our brother in the Lord's service. His wife, Elsamma, and children, John and Jessy, brought Gramma to meet us later in the afternoon. Turns out that it is also Elsamma's birthday too. Gene had planned a surprise chocolate birthday cake for her. So we visited and partied until late.

Seems that my body clock to get up in the morning seems to be about 8:30 am. So far no one has indicated any need to be earlier. Bill here is free to get up and make coffee and read the newspaper first thing in the morning. It is the luxury that he does not take in the States.

I spent time helping Gene compose and type out test questions for the mid-term exam for the second year class on Spiritual Life that he is teaching at Grace Bible College. His laptop has been giving him problems lately and he may have to have it looked at again.

With the visitors that Gene has the days seem to go by fast even though we are not always part of meeting them. Gene squeezed in time to direct us to the cyber café that he uses at times. His laptop died so he would have to wait for the repair tech, who ended up taking it with him to the shop. Anyway, I took my laptop to get the IP/DNS number input just like in Mulund. However, the techs proved to have no idea how to help me; after an hour came to the conclusion that only the manager could help me. I sent only a couple emails from the website. [Bill was with and I really try to be considerate of him because he is not really interested in waiting around for several hours. He has been gracious and not said anything to me and has made a sincere effort to just hang out with me there.] We were instructed to come back tomorrow.I've heard that before. Gene arranged for us to be a couple of 'bodies' to go with him to the Ashoka Hotel, a five star hotel, for the National Christian Leadership conference that he is a part. There was a professor, Ray VanLaan, from Michigan as the main guest speaker. He presented the western thought vs. the eastern thought perspectives and then brought the historical Hebraic perspective on the Bible with a travelogue of the locations, as they are seen today, and visited in tours that he regularly takes with his high school students. He shared his passion in an interesting, informative, and entertaining presentation.

We packed to go to Chandigarh after church at V-20 Green Park Extn. We would be going to the train station by ourselves for the first time. I only wanted to take the minimum bags. We each had a small suitcase and a carry bag.

Arriving earlier than the train arrived gave us confidence that we would have time to get to the correct car and settled in. We easily found our place and Bill put our bags up on the rack above, along with his book bag that looked like a small briefcase. After some time, I looked up and noticed that I did not see the book bag. I asked Bill to check it out, but it was one of those moments, where for some reason, a husband just doesn't feel the need to respond to the wife's request. He assured me that he had put it up there and that was that. It was not proper for me to jump up and look myself, so I let it go. I knew that I had not seen the book bag, I just wanted assurance for myself.

Our trip was uneventful and quick.only three and a half hours. Since Angel was coming to meet us, we didn't jump and run like others getting down. Well, when Bill took the larger bags down from the rack, it was clear that the book bag was not there. I wanted to yell at Bill, but I didn't. He looked in several places, but nothing was left in the area. I was dealing with my own feelings and praying not to lambast him with my words because my only copy of Kingdom Living containing all my personal notes was in that bag. He lost his Bible of 20 years, his harmonica, and some minor things. He didn't say a thing.which was the best thing at the moment.

Angel was so gracious and gave Bill a Gideon New Testament to tie him over until we get home to the States. She also had arranged for us to be taken by a driver to see the famous rock garden and the city lake when we had gotten settled in our room. I waited until we got into the maze of garden paths before I asked Bill why he did not look when I asked him to look. He said he didn't want to. Afterwards, he apologized.

By bedtime I felt like I wanted to cry, but didn't as there were no tears to come. I noticed that I had a keen awareness that I had a strong peace when I thought about the loss of the notes that represented so many years of Holy Spirit taught lessons. As I meditated on it, I sensed that it was really an end to a season and that it would be something new again that the Spirit wanted to teach me next. I kissed Bill goodnight and slept very peacefully and confidently.