Life Changing Words Ministry
President's Journal
3 Dec 2006 – Mulund – 9am
Friday, we did some shopping, getting a few needed supplies, plus some souvenier tea to take home. There was a friday evening church service at IPH (Immanuel Prayer House)—which is where Paul Joseph and his wife Flori live and pastor, in West ↗Mulund. We were invited to a birthday dinner at a nearby house.
I call Saturday my "ministry tour" day. We started with the jaunt over to the "Life Changing Words Training Center" in the Ghatkopar village [aka, "Ghatkopar school"]. This had a very different feel to it than the part of the poorest-of-the-poor area I saw outside Gorgaun [Delhi region]. This area was an assault on my senses, with the visuals of the ultra-crowded and the tin-roof shacks, the people and animals and .... Suffice it to say, I was psychologically and emotionally overwhelmed at this point. I got to "tour" the one-room building, and see the results of Georgene's teaching-painting in person; I got to meet some of the villagers.
As if Ghatkopar wasn't enough, we continued on to visit two tribal villages; something interesting I learned: Ravi, who was a tribal-born member who goes to IPH, was with us, which was what allowed us to enter these tribal villages, since you can apparently only go into tribal land with a tribal member. The first was in the center of the ↗Borivali National Park (aka "Sanjay Gandhi Nat'l Park"). We also saw the ↗Goregaon tribal village, where Ravi was born, and got to meet some of his family.
As a respite from the culture shock, we went to McD's for lunch, and did a quick run-through of the mall, trying to find an elusive souvenier. Still no luck on the souvenier, but I had a chance to decompress in a slightly less-foreign environment.
Next up, the "famous"–at least well-known to someone involved with LCWM for any length of time)–Wadli Pada [aka "Warli Pada", depending on transliteration mood] tribal village and English-language-teaching "school". I got to see some of the English phonogram teaching in progress. There was a Bible study in the village afterwards—and I discovered that I was the guest speaker at the study. Oh my! I gave my testimony, of how God prepared me and called me to engineering, and used that journey of preparation as a sneaky back-door to eventually get me to India. God got me through the fear and trembling part of "public speaking"... and I found the whole process of "being translated" quite intertesting. I spoke a sentence or so, then Pastor Paul, would translate, and so forth; it was hard to remember to pause for the translation—when I'm nervous, I tend to speak quickly and ramble, which made for an interesting combination with the frequent pauses. Somehow (ie, God), I made it through, and I think I said what God wanted me to. I had known, going into this trip, that I'd be given opportunity to speak, and that my testimony would be the easiest for me to do—I am not a preacher like Bill, so coming up with a sermon or other exegesis on short notice is not something I am proficient at; but most people know their own story, and God helped me relate it in a meaningful and almost coherent way. :-)
Sunday morning, we discovered that there was another rat-attack on a (different) suitcase; this time, it found a nice stash of chocolate, which was no longer there when we got up. After a prayer of encouragement after that disturbance, we were off to IPH for the Sunday morning service.
[Editor's Note: This one was originally in short, almost-outline form, so I "filled in" based on memories that it evoked a few months later.]
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