Tuesday morning, I had the opportunity to lead the daily Bible study for the Living Hope staff and students. Apparently, they do one chapter a day, starting in Genesis and working through to revelation. Tuesday the passage was Jeremiah 19, so I zeroed in on the hardened pot image and talked about being willing to allow God (the potter!) to mold us into shapes that are acceptable to Him. God can really redeem pretty much anything that we come up with, but only if we're willing to repent.
I had been praying earlier on Tuesday that God would give me some chances to begin developing relationships with people here, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when a guy that I hadn't met yet randomly latched onto me as I was wandering around campus, said "where are you going?" and started walking with me, haha. His name is Samson and as it turns out, he's one of the teachers at the school and supervises the men's dorm. He gave me a tour of the dorm and then showed me his room. His roommate happened to be Arudrage, the Greek teacher who I subbed in for the other day. Anyway, I got to hang out with them for a while, which was cool. Arudrage shared with me some of his heart about studying the Bible using Greek. Apparently, he wants to eventually write his own Greek text in Tamil (native language of south India), so that Indian students can have better access to the tools of Greek for Bible study. Good times...
The principal for the school arrived today, and we've begun to work out some scheduling stuff, trying to fit everything in. I actually taught my first Hebrew class today, with some first year masters students. We only had about an hour due to some scheduling kinks that are being worked out, but I walked them through the whole alphabet and final forms (for you Hebrew scholars out there). They seemed like they were getting it, but English isn't their first language, so it's kind of hard to tell sometimes. Interesting side note - almost all of my students in that class are from northeastern India. Indians from that region don't look like what you would expect Indians to look like. They are actually of some sort of Mongolian/Chinese descent, so they all look very Oriental.
I got to hang out with some of the little guys from the primary school/orphanage today, which was fun. Here are some things that I've found that interest them: watches, muscles (especially biceps), spiderman fingers (like you're shooting webs), and pale skin, haha. Anyway, I hung out with them for a while and helped one of them with some reading in his English book. They're really a lot of fun...great attitudes. I just wish I could speak their language, although a few of them do speak a little English.
Lets see, prayer requests:
-Sleep schedule: I'm still struggling with jetlag issues, but I'm really hoping to be able to adjust fully in the next few days. In the meantime, I'm being pretty productive in my insomnia!
-Relationships: Just want to keep building connections with students, teachers, and the kids. I think there's a lot more potential for God to work in and through me in this area than I had expected.
Busyness: We're still working out the schedule, but it's looking like I could very well be teaching 5 hours a day (2 Greek, 2 Hebrew, 1 English), which I'll definitely need God's help to do and still perform well.
Well, that's all for now friends! Thanks for checking in and I'll be in touch.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Mount Zion!
On Sunday afternoon, Joel Kumar and I caught a flight south to Madurai. Once we got there, we hopped in a Gospel Friends van with a couple of guys from the college for a 2 hour trip to Mt. Zion, the town where Living Hope is.
We were driving along and suddenly stopped because there was a big crowd of people doing something in the road. Some of them were lighting some fireworks in the middle of the road. After a few seconds I figured out that not only had we reached our destination, but that all of the people were part of the Living Hope family who had turned out to welcome me there! They had a little fireworks show and then we hopped out of the van. Somebody threw the Indian equivalent of a Hawaiian lei around my neck and then I got mobbed by about 50 kids who all wanted to shake my hand, ask my name, and say, "hi, how are you." It was a pretty awesome welcome. They had a prayer and then took me to my room. I'll put some pics of my room up on facebook, but it's pretty nice to say the least. I've actually got more room there than I do at home, haha.
Well, I woke up the next morning at about 3 due to jetlag, I guess. I figured since I could sleep, I might as well do something useful, so I went ahead and did devotions, some reading, etc. At about 6, I thought I heard someone knocking, so I went to the door and found two Indian girls who had brought me coffee. I came to find out that they do this for you at least twice a day. This is just a small example of how these folks will bend overbackwards to show you hospitality. It's still taking me some time to get used to all the stuff they want to do for you.
Monday morning there was a chapel service for a few minutes at 8:30, then a little while later, a guy named Muto Kumar started taking me around to see some of the classes. We walked into the first room and it was actually a Greek class! Apparently they've had at least a little bit of exposure to it so far. Anyway, we walked in and everyone automatically stood up like the president had walked in or something. Muto said something to the guy who was teaching. The teacher started packing up his books, which seemed odd to me. Muto turns to me and says, "Okay, you can teach for about 45 minutes." I was caught more than a little off guard...I mean, I've beem prepping for weeks to teach Greek, but I didn't have a Greek bible or anything with me. So, I ran back to my room and grabbed some books. When I got back, I worked through John 1:1 with them, breaking it down so that they could understand it. It really went pretty well, but I think some of them weren't quite up to snuff on their grammar, so it might have gone over a few heads.
After I got done lecturing in the Greek class, we took a break and then went and sat in on another class. In this one, the guy was teaching on the Psalms. After a few minutes, he looks up and says to me, "Okay, you can teach for 5 minutes." So, I got up and tried to act like I knew more than I did about Psalm 91 for a few minutes, haha.
Joel told me that Living Hope is a family, and it really seems like it's true. I was walking around campus last night and ran into a bunch of the kids who had greeted me when I got there on Sunday. They all kept asking my name, and the ones who remembered it called me "Uncle Friedeman", haha. They all tried to get me to remember their names, but there were at least 20 of them, so it wasn't really happening. I came to find out that most of these kids on campus are orphans who go to Living Hope's primary school. They're not around much during the day, but I think I'm definitely going to have to try to invest some time with them in the evenings and stuff. They're just too cute : )
Well, that's all for now. As far as prayer requests go, keep praying for Vairavan, the guy I witnessed to on the plane. Also, I'm meeting with Ghuna and the principal tomorrow to talk about class schedules, and will probably start teaching in earnest on Thursday, so be praying for that. Other than that, just pray that I'd be able to build some good relationships with the folks here. Later...
We were driving along and suddenly stopped because there was a big crowd of people doing something in the road. Some of them were lighting some fireworks in the middle of the road. After a few seconds I figured out that not only had we reached our destination, but that all of the people were part of the Living Hope family who had turned out to welcome me there! They had a little fireworks show and then we hopped out of the van. Somebody threw the Indian equivalent of a Hawaiian lei around my neck and then I got mobbed by about 50 kids who all wanted to shake my hand, ask my name, and say, "hi, how are you." It was a pretty awesome welcome. They had a prayer and then took me to my room. I'll put some pics of my room up on facebook, but it's pretty nice to say the least. I've actually got more room there than I do at home, haha.
Well, I woke up the next morning at about 3 due to jetlag, I guess. I figured since I could sleep, I might as well do something useful, so I went ahead and did devotions, some reading, etc. At about 6, I thought I heard someone knocking, so I went to the door and found two Indian girls who had brought me coffee. I came to find out that they do this for you at least twice a day. This is just a small example of how these folks will bend overbackwards to show you hospitality. It's still taking me some time to get used to all the stuff they want to do for you.
Monday morning there was a chapel service for a few minutes at 8:30, then a little while later, a guy named Muto Kumar started taking me around to see some of the classes. We walked into the first room and it was actually a Greek class! Apparently they've had at least a little bit of exposure to it so far. Anyway, we walked in and everyone automatically stood up like the president had walked in or something. Muto said something to the guy who was teaching. The teacher started packing up his books, which seemed odd to me. Muto turns to me and says, "Okay, you can teach for about 45 minutes." I was caught more than a little off guard...I mean, I've beem prepping for weeks to teach Greek, but I didn't have a Greek bible or anything with me. So, I ran back to my room and grabbed some books. When I got back, I worked through John 1:1 with them, breaking it down so that they could understand it. It really went pretty well, but I think some of them weren't quite up to snuff on their grammar, so it might have gone over a few heads.
After I got done lecturing in the Greek class, we took a break and then went and sat in on another class. In this one, the guy was teaching on the Psalms. After a few minutes, he looks up and says to me, "Okay, you can teach for 5 minutes." So, I got up and tried to act like I knew more than I did about Psalm 91 for a few minutes, haha.
Joel told me that Living Hope is a family, and it really seems like it's true. I was walking around campus last night and ran into a bunch of the kids who had greeted me when I got there on Sunday. They all kept asking my name, and the ones who remembered it called me "Uncle Friedeman", haha. They all tried to get me to remember their names, but there were at least 20 of them, so it wasn't really happening. I came to find out that most of these kids on campus are orphans who go to Living Hope's primary school. They're not around much during the day, but I think I'm definitely going to have to try to invest some time with them in the evenings and stuff. They're just too cute : )
Well, that's all for now. As far as prayer requests go, keep praying for Vairavan, the guy I witnessed to on the plane. Also, I'm meeting with Ghuna and the principal tomorrow to talk about class schedules, and will probably start teaching in earnest on Thursday, so be praying for that. Other than that, just pray that I'd be able to build some good relationships with the folks here. Later...
Monday, June 28, 2010
Baptisms and Bells 'n Rings
Well, I did get to Chennai pretty much on time, which was about 3:30 a.m. their time. Got through customs without a hitch, and both bags made it through, praise the Lord! As soon as they came through on the belt, I grabbed them and headed out of the airport. There was this fence looking thing that had about 400 Indians lined up behind it waiting to receive passengers. Right then it hit me how hard it must be for international people when they come to America - everyone looks the same. I was looking for Ghuna in a sea of people that looked a lot like Ghuna to me, lol. Well, I didn't ever find Ghuna, but his son Joel grabbed me towards the end of the fence and we headed off to the hotel.
On the way over to the hotel, Joel told me that the next day his dad was going on a trip to do some baptisms and wanted me to come. Cool right? Absolutely. There was just one hitch, though....we were closing in on 5 a.m. at that point, and they were leaving around 7 a.m. Well, I figured that regardless of sleep deprivation, when the Indian version of the apostle Paul says jump, "how high" is a lot better answer than "I'm sleepy". We got to the hotel and I caught about an hour and a half of sleep before getting up to get ready.
The baptism trip was really cool. After driving for 4-5 hours, we finally made it to this little village. There was a canopy with a bunch of people sitting under it and people were taking turns doing a capella solos. After a little while, Ghuna and his posse (me included) got up on stage. We did some worship, then Ghuna introduced me, concluding with something about my jet lag, which was probably a nice way of saying that if what I was about to say didn't make any sense, they could chalk it up to sleep deprivation and clap at the end anyway. Well, I got up there and gave greetings from possible organization that I was connected with in the states and then said a little something about how God has grown my faith already through this trip. After that, we got to the baptisms. There were about 20 of them, which was awesome. What I didn't realize until later was that as Ghuna was baptizing them, he was giving them new Christian names to replace the their previous names which were from Hindu deities. Ghuna then had a meeting with his pastors, and we headed out.
For some reason, it took us a lot longer to get back to Chennai, so I hit the hotel about midnight and went to bed to get some sleep before church the next morning.
Church on Sunday was pretty cool. Ghuna was preaching at the church we went to. Most of the service was in Tamil, so I just sat there and read my Greek NT (gave my English Bible away) for most of the service. On the way in the door to church, there was this guy handing out what I assumed when I took them were programs for the service. Upon closer examination, I realized that they were actually ads for a Christian mating service. I guess it's kind of like a Christian e-harmony without the internet, if that makes any sense. Apparently you send them a profile and they find you somebody. Anyway, I thought some of my friends in the states might be interested, so I kept the thing just in case anyone wants the contact info, haha.
After church I went with Ghuna's family to this cool vegetarian restaurant. I had some kind of nine vegetable/fruit curry thing on rice. It sounds like a weird combination, but it works really well for me for some reason.
After lunch, Joel Kumar took me by the Shrine of St. Thomas, which is where the apostle was buried. We walked around a little bit there, and then they took me back to the hotel to rest a little before flying out again...more on that in the next post.
On the way over to the hotel, Joel told me that the next day his dad was going on a trip to do some baptisms and wanted me to come. Cool right? Absolutely. There was just one hitch, though....we were closing in on 5 a.m. at that point, and they were leaving around 7 a.m. Well, I figured that regardless of sleep deprivation, when the Indian version of the apostle Paul says jump, "how high" is a lot better answer than "I'm sleepy". We got to the hotel and I caught about an hour and a half of sleep before getting up to get ready.
The baptism trip was really cool. After driving for 4-5 hours, we finally made it to this little village. There was a canopy with a bunch of people sitting under it and people were taking turns doing a capella solos. After a little while, Ghuna and his posse (me included) got up on stage. We did some worship, then Ghuna introduced me, concluding with something about my jet lag, which was probably a nice way of saying that if what I was about to say didn't make any sense, they could chalk it up to sleep deprivation and clap at the end anyway. Well, I got up there and gave greetings from possible organization that I was connected with in the states and then said a little something about how God has grown my faith already through this trip. After that, we got to the baptisms. There were about 20 of them, which was awesome. What I didn't realize until later was that as Ghuna was baptizing them, he was giving them new Christian names to replace the their previous names which were from Hindu deities. Ghuna then had a meeting with his pastors, and we headed out.
For some reason, it took us a lot longer to get back to Chennai, so I hit the hotel about midnight and went to bed to get some sleep before church the next morning.
Church on Sunday was pretty cool. Ghuna was preaching at the church we went to. Most of the service was in Tamil, so I just sat there and read my Greek NT (gave my English Bible away) for most of the service. On the way in the door to church, there was this guy handing out what I assumed when I took them were programs for the service. Upon closer examination, I realized that they were actually ads for a Christian mating service. I guess it's kind of like a Christian e-harmony without the internet, if that makes any sense. Apparently you send them a profile and they find you somebody. Anyway, I thought some of my friends in the states might be interested, so I kept the thing just in case anyone wants the contact info, haha.
After church I went with Ghuna's family to this cool vegetarian restaurant. I had some kind of nine vegetable/fruit curry thing on rice. It sounds like a weird combination, but it works really well for me for some reason.
After lunch, Joel Kumar took me by the Shrine of St. Thomas, which is where the apostle was buried. We walked around a little bit there, and then they took me back to the hotel to rest a little before flying out again...more on that in the next post.
London to Chennai - Witnessing in the air
Hey friends,
Well, I obviously didn't make good on my intention to update while in London. The flight out of Denver got a late start, and then the London/Heathrow airport took a while to get through. I'm in Mount Zion, the home of Living Hope Theological College, now....just got here last night. A lot has happened since Thursday, so I'll try to just hit the high points for ya'll.
Despite the airport holdups, I got on my flight from London to Chennai without a hitch. I had a really awesome thing happen on the way over, though, that I want to let ya'll know about. I ended up sitting next to a guy named Vairavan. He's a native Indian who has been working in London for IBM for a few years. He was on his way to see his family for a few weeks, and then bring his wife and kid back with him.
Anyway, we ended up talking about culture, language, etc. At some point during the conversation, I asked him if he had started eating beef while he'd been in London (most Indians don't). Through his answer I came to find out that he's a Hindu, not super devout, but definitely committed. That launched us into probably an hour of talking about religion, theology, etc. Our conversation pretty much hinged on his "all roads lead to the same place" kind of theology, which is very typical of Hindus. It's really hard to witness to someone who is willing to chalk all theological and doctrinal differences up to variations in personal preference and cultural relativity and chooses to only concentrate on the similarities between religions. I tried to help him understand that Christianity doesn't allow for this sort of religious pan-theism, citing Jesus statement that no one comes to the Father except through him.
Well, my conversation with Vairavan died down after an hour or two. I watched a movie or two and tried to sleep some. About an hour or so out from Chennai, we started talking again. The subject of Jesus' divinity came up, and Vairavan brought up the point that in Hinduism, they also have "saints" - people who grow so close to God that they become gods in a sense. I brought up the being/becoming distinction - that Jesus didn't become God, he was God. I pulled out my Bible and showed him Jn. 1:1 - "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Then we talked about how Jesus didn't become God - he simply was. Vairavan (understandably) got a little confused when I started talking about the Trinity and how Jesus sonship pertains to his relationship to the Father, not to a coming into being after the Father. We also got to talk about why Jesus had to die and the reason that he came to earth (redemption - not just to perform miracles!). Anyway, at the end of it all, Vairavan was still interested, so I asked him if he'd read my Bible if I gave it to him. He said yes, so I gave it to him and pointed him to the gospel of John as a starting place.
So, if you could be praying for Vairavan, I would really appreciate it. I've got his e-mail, so I'll probably check up with him in the next week or so. Just be praying that he open himself to the Holy Spirit and that he'd start asking questions that will lead him to Scripture.
Needless to say, this was a really God-opportunity. What a great way to start out a mission trip...witness while you go!
Well, I obviously didn't make good on my intention to update while in London. The flight out of Denver got a late start, and then the London/Heathrow airport took a while to get through. I'm in Mount Zion, the home of Living Hope Theological College, now....just got here last night. A lot has happened since Thursday, so I'll try to just hit the high points for ya'll.
Despite the airport holdups, I got on my flight from London to Chennai without a hitch. I had a really awesome thing happen on the way over, though, that I want to let ya'll know about. I ended up sitting next to a guy named Vairavan. He's a native Indian who has been working in London for IBM for a few years. He was on his way to see his family for a few weeks, and then bring his wife and kid back with him.
Anyway, we ended up talking about culture, language, etc. At some point during the conversation, I asked him if he had started eating beef while he'd been in London (most Indians don't). Through his answer I came to find out that he's a Hindu, not super devout, but definitely committed. That launched us into probably an hour of talking about religion, theology, etc. Our conversation pretty much hinged on his "all roads lead to the same place" kind of theology, which is very typical of Hindus. It's really hard to witness to someone who is willing to chalk all theological and doctrinal differences up to variations in personal preference and cultural relativity and chooses to only concentrate on the similarities between religions. I tried to help him understand that Christianity doesn't allow for this sort of religious pan-theism, citing Jesus statement that no one comes to the Father except through him.
Well, my conversation with Vairavan died down after an hour or two. I watched a movie or two and tried to sleep some. About an hour or so out from Chennai, we started talking again. The subject of Jesus' divinity came up, and Vairavan brought up the point that in Hinduism, they also have "saints" - people who grow so close to God that they become gods in a sense. I brought up the being/becoming distinction - that Jesus didn't become God, he was God. I pulled out my Bible and showed him Jn. 1:1 - "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Then we talked about how Jesus didn't become God - he simply was. Vairavan (understandably) got a little confused when I started talking about the Trinity and how Jesus sonship pertains to his relationship to the Father, not to a coming into being after the Father. We also got to talk about why Jesus had to die and the reason that he came to earth (redemption - not just to perform miracles!). Anyway, at the end of it all, Vairavan was still interested, so I asked him if he'd read my Bible if I gave it to him. He said yes, so I gave it to him and pointed him to the gospel of John as a starting place.
So, if you could be praying for Vairavan, I would really appreciate it. I've got his e-mail, so I'll probably check up with him in the next week or so. Just be praying that he open himself to the Holy Spirit and that he'd start asking questions that will lead him to Scripture.
Needless to say, this was a really God-opportunity. What a great way to start out a mission trip...witness while you go!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Ready, set, board!
Well, I'm sitting in the airport in Jackson right now, with about an hour until I board my flight. All the bags have been checked, which is great. Because of all the books and materials I'm taking for the students, it was pretty tough to get the bags under the weight limit, but it all fit. I could have even brought one more jar of peanut butter....oh well.
Anyway, I'll be heading out shortly, and will try to update in London if I get a chance. Later!
Anyway, I'll be heading out shortly, and will try to update in London if I get a chance. Later!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
It's getting to be that time....
Hey friends, thanks for taking the time to check out the blog! Thursday afternoon is fast approaching and I'm getting really excited about this trip. God's hand has been evident in this whole process thus far, all the way from the Initiative Grant application process to finding Greek and Hebrew books for the students to use. I can't wait to see what He wants to do in and through me in the next six weeks!
For those of you who I haven't talked to as much about this trip, I'm going to be teaching Greek and Hebrew to ministry students at Living Hope Theological College, an outreach of Gospel Friends. In addition to teaching, I'll also be doing some ministry outside the school to orphanages, villages, etc. It's going to be a great time of growth and ministry...
For those of you who I haven't talked to as much about this trip, I'm going to be teaching Greek and Hebrew to ministry students at Living Hope Theological College, an outreach of Gospel Friends. In addition to teaching, I'll also be doing some ministry outside the school to orphanages, villages, etc. It's going to be a great time of growth and ministry...
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