When No Means Yes

During my time here in India, the thing that I've had the most difficulty adjusting to hasn't been what you'd expect. When people talk about cultural differences, they usually mention things like food, weather, dress, etc. For me however, it's a certain non-verbal signal that Indians use. Let me explain.

When we Americans want to say yes without actually speaking, we nod our head up and down. When we want to say no, we shake our head side to side. Well, when Indians want to say yes, they do this thing that to the untrained eye looks almost exactly like what we do when we want to say no. It's not quite the same....a little more of a side-to-side bob.

So, when I'm talking to someone or teaching in one of my classes, I constantly have to remind myself that they're not disagreeing with me when they're shaking their heads, haha. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but when your American mind is reading their non-verbals, it sure seems like they're always disagreeing with you.

That's just one of many small differences that I've been getting used to since I've been here. Others include: intermittent electricity, elastic time (everyone's late for everything), and the normal ones like food, weather, etc.

However, for all of the differences, I've also noticed that there are quite a few things that cross the barrier between the American and Indian cultures. Here are a few:

1. Smiles - nothing says "I'm happy and I like you" like a flash of the good ol' pearly whites, regardless of culture.

2. Names - In How To Win Friends And Influence People, Dale Carnegie says that the sweetest sound in the world to a person is their name. I've found that this is true both in America and India. Using someone's name lets them know that you care about them. Since I've been here, I've tried to memorize my students names, and all of the kids from the orphanage are constantly asking me their names because they want to make sure that I remember them.

3. Sugar - No duh, right? Although, quantity and location (what things you like it on) may vary, everybody like the sweet stuff.

4. Games/Competition - The competitive spirit is alive and well here in India. The students like to do volleyball and soccer whenever time allows. I've also got a little finger game that the kids really like, even though most of them have figured out the trick to it by now.

5. Coffee/tea - they drink a ton of both, and will try to bring it to you about 3 times a day whether you want it or not.

6. Muscles - More particularly, biceps. Although it's one of the less useful muscles in the body, it seems to garner the most attention....don't ask me why. As in America, bigger is always better in this area.

So, despite all of the cultural differences, there are also similarities, and they are what allow us to find common ground despite differences in background, skin color, language, etc.

Reading Backwards Upside Down

Well, after 3.5 weeks of classes, some of my Hebrew students finally took me up on my constant offer of out-of-class study help. The three guys that were interested came over to my room and we all sat down on the floor and got to work.

Since I don't have a chalkboard or anything in my room, I quickly came to the conclusion that the best way for me to illustrate stuff was to direct my book towards them and point at and read the relevant items. Since they were on the business side of my book, that left me reading things upside down. Okay, right? I've been reading English for almost my whole life, so that's not too big of a problem.

Well, the thing is, a Hebrew textbook tends to have not only English explanations, but also Hebrew examples (big surprise, right?). For those of you that don't know, Hebrew is written right to left, the opposite of English. In other words, backwards for a native English speaker. So, I was having to read/think not only upside down, but also backwards, hence the title. It actually worked out surprisingly well, but hit me as a little funny, so I thought I'd post it, haha.

Ebed-melech

Every morning at 8:30 (except Sundays), Living Hope has a service with all the students and faculty to start off the day. Each day, they read a chapter of the Bible, working through the whole Bible one chapter at a time. After they read it, someone will do a short devotion from that passage. Well, the whole time I've been here we've been in Jeremiah, and the passage for yesterday was Jeremiah 38. For some reason, I noticed something in there that I hadn't before - let me show you the passage, and then I'll explain.

At this point in the book, Jeremiah has been thrown into a cistern, where he will surely die. In verses 7-13 we see this:

7 When Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern—the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate— 8 Ebed-melech went from the king's house and said to the king, 9 “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.” 10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, “Take thirty men with you from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.” 11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to the house of the king, to a wardrobe in the storehouse, and took from there old rags and worn-out clothes, which he let down to Jeremiah in the cistern by ropes. 12 Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Put the rags and clothes between your armpits and the ropes.” Jeremiah did so. 13 Then they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

The thing that caught my eye was the name of the guy who got Jeremiah out of the cistern - Ebed-melech. In Hebrew, "ebed" (it's actually pronounced eved) means servant, and "melech" (pronounced melek) means king. So, what they call this guy in this passage is literally "servant of a king".

Now, although there's a possibility that this was indeed his real name, I personally kind of doubt it. I mean, for you parents out there, does "servant of a king" make it into your top 5 baby names? Didn't think so. So, although Ebed-melech is what the Bible calls this fellow, it probably wasn't what his buddies down at the synagogue called him.

Through this realization, the Lord really showed me something that I shared with my Hebrew class yesterday. In this passage, Ebed-melech is pretty much the sole reason that Jeremiah doesn't die in a pit, and we don't even know his real name - just his title and what he did for the Lord.

For us, it may often be the same way. We can minister to others and live our whole lives for the Lord, and many people will walk away only knowing us as "pastor of a church" or "director of an orphanage", "that nice person who shared Jesus with me" or "the person who fed me when I was hungry". There's a good chance they won't even remember our real names. However, like this passage in Jeremiah, what they will remember is what we did for the Lord in the position that we were in. That takes a lot of focus off of us and puts it back on the Lord, where it belongs.

There's also a little bit of poetic irony in Ebed-melech's name. You see, the king in "servant of a king" undoubtedly refers to Zedekiah, the guy who allowed Jeremiah to be thrown in the cistern. However, the king that Ebed-melech is really serving in this passage is the Eternal King. Regardless of the "title" that the world gives you, always remember who you really serve.

One jar down, one to go

An important event in my trip occurred the other day when I finished the first of the two jars of crunchy peanut butter that I brought with me to India. Now, I realize that this may seem fairly insignificant to you, but it is quite important to me. You see, everyone has a weakness - for some people, it's popping their knuckles, for others biting their nails - you get the point. Mine happens to be the consumption of large quantities of crunchy peanut butter. I'm pretty sure I could go anywhere in the world and still feel somewhat at home as long as I've got a jar of it with me.

Anyway, since I had so many books and stuff for the students on my way over here, I was only able to bring two jars of peanut butter with me. I've been pretty conservative with it so far, thus the first jar has lasted for more than half of the trip. However, the longer I'm away, the more I feel a need to eat the stuff, so I'm not sure that the second jar is going to last as long as the first. However, I was reading the other day about how the Lord used Elijah to give a woman an unlimited supply of oil and flour during a famine, so maybe He'll do the same for my peanut butter! Or maybe the multiplication thing like with the loaves and fish!

All right, I'm done....let me get my tongue out of my cheek and I'll tell you what's really been going on...

Well, all of my American friends are officially gone as of today. Jean headed out on Saturday, and Jacob and Christi just left today. Jean got home fine, but pray for safe travels for Jacob and Christi...they'll be in Bangalore for a day or two and then fly back to the states. It was really great to have them here...there's just something about having Christian people from your own country to fellowship with.

Classes are going pretty well - we finally got all of the copies of the Hebrew text printed, bound, and distributed to the students last night. It took almost 2 weeks (India time!), but it's done. Hopefully each student having their own copy will help them to learn a little better/quicker. Before Christi left, she showed me how to do some stuff in Microsoft Excel, so I've been catching up on my class attendance stuff the last day or so. I think I'll be giving my finals a week from this coming Saturday, so be praying for us - that both the students and I would finish strong and that they'd really come away with a desire to learn more and an appreciation of how much Greek or Hebrew can help them.

Umm....yeah, I think that's about it. Thanks for reading, and thanks for the prayers...keep 'em coming!

All you need to know about Jesus in 5 minutes

Yesterday evening, I got to go out and do some village evangelism with some staff and students from Living Hope. Earlier yesterday, Joel let me know that I was going to be the designated gospel-giver for the event. No biggie, right? I mean, I've been immersed in the gospel story my whole life. Well, I asked Joel how long I was going to have to talk, and he told me like 5 minutes, maybe 10 if I'm lucky. Apparently people start leaving if you talk for too long.

So, yesterday afternoon I sat down to figure out how to fit the most important message people are ever going to hear into 5-10 minutes, with translation. Witnessing to Vairavan on the way over here actually proved to be very helpful, because talking to him made me realize some things a Hindu would need to hear that I take for granted. Things like why Jesus came to earth (salvation), which ties into the nature of sin, Jesus divinity, etc. Also, Jesus being the only way to God is a very new idea to Hindus, because they are big-time polytheists. They don't mind admitting that Jesus is a way to God, but the idea that he's the only way is pretty far-out to them.

Just preparing to present the gospel in such a condensed form was a really good exercise for me, because it made me think about what parts of the gospel message are absolutely essential for people to know. I basically came down to these: 1) Sin - why we need salvation, 2) Jesus - who he is, why he came, what he did, and 3) Our role - believing in faith, surrendering. I really think that the surrender aspect is absolutely essential, because so often we present the gospel as just being a way out of hell, without telling people that there's a sacrifice involved on their part.

Anyway, we all piled into a couple of vans and headed out to a village about 15 minutes away. We basically pulled up and set up in front of the one Christian home in the village. Apparently, in India, if you want people to come, you need one main thing - noise! So they set up a couple of amps, and started singing and banging on drums. After a little while, a crowd started gathering to see what was going on. A guy did a magic trick, they danced some, and there was also a skit of the parable of the good Samaritan.

As I was watching the village folks gather, it quickly became apparent that the majority of the audience was composed of kids. So, I quickly began reassessing my message and trying to figure out how to connect with them a little better.

So...after a little while, they pointed at me and I figured it was my turn. I started off by telling them how I got to go see some waterfalls last Sunday, and how there were hundreds and hundreds of people all waiting around for the same reason - they wanted to bathe in it so that their sins could be washed away. From there, I basically talked about how sin isn't a problem that can be washed away by water, because it's a problem of the heart, then went on to talk about Jesus, salvation, etc.

After I was done, Joel did some kind of a prayer with the kids. Once we were finished, all of the kids lined up so that Jacob, Christie and I could pray for them, which was really cool. Then, we all jumped in the vans and headed back to campus. Really great experience!

I'm not sure how much of what I said connected...pray that some of it takes root in their hearts and that the Holy Spirit will continue to work in them. Hardly any of the parents are Christians, so that makes it a lot tougher for the kids to commit.

Also, be praying for my roommate Jacob...he came down with something last night and has been feeling pretty bad today. God bless!

Good week, but time for a break

Well, I've gotta say, I'm glad it's Saturday. This past week has been pretty full, and I'm glad to have some time to just chill out a little. So, here's what's been going on:


Classes
Are going pretty well overall. This past week has been tough because as we're getting into some more difficult subjects in both Greek and Hebrew, students' efforts or lack thereof are starting to show. I've got some students who I can tell are nailing this stuff to the wall, and others who are a good week behind. The good students are the ones who keep me coming back every day....the others (the ones who aren't applying themselves) tend to drain my energy. I came to the realization this week that I'm probably going to end up failing several students who are just missing classes and quizzes left and right, which is kind of depressing : ( I keep having new students injected into the classes, even though we're like two weeks into it right now, and that kind of adds to the stress.

Because new students just keep coming to the school, I keep having brand new people injected into my classes. Between Greek (40ish) and Hebrew (33ish), I've got over 70 students right now! It's great to have the opportunity to impact that many students, but it's also presents a few problems. 1) Connecting with classes that large is hard, 2) Catching the new students up to speed is tough, 3) Grading - class attendance and quizzes both get a lot more interesting with 70 people! All in all, though, the students are learning, grades are looking good, and hopefully they'll leave the class with some good tools to help them in ministry.


Kiddos
Been getting to spend some more time with the kids this week. One of the nights earlier in the week, Jacob, Jean, Christy and I all sat down with a bunch of the girls and helped them with their English, read stuff to them, etc., which was a lot of fun. Up to that point, I'd mainly been hanging out with the boys, so it was good to get to connect with the girls a little.

Speaking of the boys, I'm making some good progress with them. I had been struggling up to this point to find a good balance between having fun with them and getting mobbed. You see, if you pick one of them up and swing him around, etc., you automatically have a line of like 10 other guys pushing each other to get in line so that you can do it to them. Well, this week I started playing this finger/number game with them. Basically, you hold up numbers and they try to guess what the number is (it's not usually what you're holding up - there's a secret they have to figure out). Anyway, they really like it, and I think it's a lot better for them than me just being a human circus ride, haha.

From day one, there has been this one little guy, Esaran, who has always kind of made a point to find me whenever I'm around. He's 11 years old, I think, and really seems to be mature for his age and has a great attitude...not really grabby like some of the kids can be. Anyway, I've kind of been trying to make sure I get to hang out with him a little more lately. One of the things that God's been teaching me in the last week or so is to really envision the potential in people, my own actions, whatever. I have no idea of what impact I could have on Esaran or someone like him, but God has great plans for him, and anything that I can do to invest in him is automatically worth it.

Radical

I've been meaning to post about this for a while, but keep forgetting. On the flight over here, I read a book that dad gave me right before I left home. It's called Radical, by David Platt. Let me just say that if you are a Christian anywhere, but especially in America, then do not walk - run - to your nearest computer or store, buy this and read it immediately. This quote from inside the cover describes it pretty well:

“Sometimes people will commend a book by saying, ‘You won’t want to put it down.’ I can’t say that about this book. You’ll want to put it down, many times. If you’re like me, as you read David Platt’s Radical, you’ll find yourself uncomfortably targeted by the Holy Spirit. You’ll see just how acclimated you are to the American dream. But you’ll find here another Way, one you know to be true, because you’ve heard it before in the words of the Lord Jesus, perhaps most forcefully in the simple call ‘Follow me.’”
—Russell D. Moore, dean, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

I'd consider myself to be pretty "radical" in my walk with the Lord. I mean, I've grown up with great Christian values, try to live in a way that glorifies God, have a heart for our lost and dying world, etc. Shoot, I'm even spending 6 weeks in India teaching Greek and Hebrew - that's pretty radical, isn't it? Despite all of that, this book really challenged me to go deeper in several areas of my spiritual life. Platt is a great communicator, and has really pushed me to serve God with no excuses or "blind spots".

It really is a great book. Quick disclaimer, though - Platt is a little too reformed in his theology for my taste. However, that only affects about 10% of what he says, and at the end of the day he pretty much comes down where I do. So, definitely read it, but with a grain of salt...like everything else.

Yesterday, I just started on another book Dad gave me called Water from a Deep Well...it's basically about getting in touch with our spiritual heritage - all of the saints that have come before us - and trying to learn from their stories. It seems to be really good so far...I'll let you know what I think when I finish it!

House church and Waterfalls

Well, as it turned out, my fellow gringos (Jacob, Jean, and Kristie) joined Joel and I for the church visit yesterday. We also had a couple of Living Hope staff come as well. We headed out at about 9:45 for the 10:00 service. The drive was over an hour, so we arrived after 11:00 - fashionably late for India! I tell you what, driving in India always makes me thankful that I'm alive, because it reminds me that I don't have to be, haha.

Anyway, when we got to the house church the service had already been going for a while. There were probably 40 people or so there - it was pretty packed. They made room for us there, and made us sit in chairs even though the rest of them were all sitting on the ground. They did a couple of songs and communion, and then it was time for the preaching - my turn!

My message was basically derived from my spiritual vision for Asbury this coming year. It's from 1 Peter 2:9-12 - "Called Out". I talked about what I believe are the 3 main aspects of the calling God has on our lives - Salvation/Redemption, Holiness, and Outreach/Ministry/Evangelism. I think it went pretty well! About 45 minutes in all, with translation into Tamil and everything.

After church, we went to lunch and then headed out to do some sight-seeing. We went to a couple of waterfalls which were absolutely packed with people. Apparently, Hindus think that their sins can be washed away by bathing in one of these falls, so a bunch of people will come when it's in season. It was good to brush shoulders with the people and get a better feel for the culture. We also got to taste a bunch of cool Indian fruits that were really good. Mongoosa and Jackfruit were two of them, I think...wish we had these in the states.

So, another good Sunday experience. All four of us gringos had cameras, so we got a bunch of pics. I'll try to post some pretty soon. Later...

New Friends and Lots of Preaching

Well, the new guests got here Thursday night. Their names are Jacob, Jean, and Kristie. They're all really cool. Jacob is actually staying in my room with me, and it's been fun getting to know him a little. He's a pretty athletic guy, so he and I worked out together this afternoon...I think that might be a regular thing while they're here. Having them here makes it a lot easier for me to connect with the kids. Because there are a ton of kids from the orphanage, one gringo will usually get mobbed, but having four gringos tends to spread the joy around a little so that each of us can connect with the kids a little better.

Ghuna decided that he wanted Jacob, Jean, and Kristie to do some English classes for the students while they're here. That started last night, so I jumped in and helped out a little. We each took a group...I had some more advanced guys, so we pulled out some hymnals and I would read a phrase of Amazing Grace, have them repeat it back to me individually, and then help them with their pronunciation. We got done a little early, so I opened it up for questions and got to explain some English abnormalities like "gotta go", "psychology", etc. haha. The guys really appreciated it. I'll probably try to keep helping out with the classes as much as I can.

This morning, the college had fasting and prayer...basically skipping breakfast. From 10-12, they had a special service. I was asked to speak at the English one, so I did : ) I spoke about some personal prayer experience, then looked at Daniel 6 a little, and finished off with Jesus' principle of praying "not my will, but Thine". I don't know how well they understood my English, but hopefully the Lord was able to speak to them a little through some of what I said.

Today at lunch, I was talking to Joel and he asked me if I wanted to go visit a nearby church with him tomorrow. Of course, I said yes. Once I consented, he told me that I was going to be preaching, haha. So...I think I'm going to be preaching at a house church tomorrow morning, and then doing a youth meeting after that. I guess I need to go write couple sermons, haha. Be praying for me as I try to seek what God would have me to speak to these two groups, and that I would express the message He gives me in such a way that they will be able to receive it.

I'll let you know how it goes...

Fido for Dinner?

I went over to the guys' dorm last night to hang out for a little while. You remember how I told you that some of the students that are here from Northeast India are very Oriental in the way they look? Well, it turns out that they 're also very Oriental in what they eat. I walked into the room and one of the guys was very happy to see me because he wanted me to eat some of the meat they had cooked. This was special stuff - more specifically, it was DOG.

Now, I don't know where or how they had come to possess this stuff, and because I'm in something of a position of authority around here, I didn't really want to know. Anyway, at first I just said I would pass, but the more I thought about it, I realized that it's just animal meat, and the dog's already dead, so I'm not helping it any, right? So, lacking any moral objections....I ate it. Now, I just ate a little piece, because I wanted to make sure that my stomach wasn't going to have a problem handling man's best friend (it was fine). It actually tasted pretty good, but not like chicken, haha. It was kind of like beef a little on the tough side. One of the South Indian guys who doesn't eat dog couldn't believe that I was doing it, haha. Anyway, I figure it was good missionary training...can't be picky.

In other news, classes the last couple of days have been a little tough. I think part of that's due to the fact that the "new" is starting to wear off of everything a little, and I'm kind of settling into life here. However, most of it is that I've been a little stressed because of the academic side of things. Since we started last Thursday, I've had at least one (usually more) brand new student injected into each of my classes every day, because they just keep arriving late to school. I've got like 35 Greek students now, and I think 28ish Hebrew students. However, the sheer numbers aren't the problem. The problem is that two thirds of my classe will be at one level of knowledge, and the other third of the students will be at different levels, depending on what day they got here. You can't just jump into an intensive language course a week late and understand everything. This Indian time thing is really something else. I think the student body has doubled since the first day of the semester, haha.

Anyway, we're starting to get everyone caught up, so I'm feeling better about that. Hopefully we can have the whole class at the same level by the end of the weekend, so we can all push forward together. Also, we're finally getting textbooks printed for everyone, so that's going to help a lot.

Oh, and another tidbit of info - there is a guy and two girls from the states that are coming in later tonight, so I'll have some Americans to hang out with for the next ten days or so, which ought to be nice.

All right...prayer requests:

-Classes...mainly that the students (especially the ones that got here late) really apply themselves to their studies. Students aren't used to doing a lot of homework here, so I've had to play the mean professor a couple times in the last day or two because people keep skipping classes, not doing assignments, etc. I'm hoping I won't have to push them like this for too long, because it's not fun for them or me.

-Energy...by the time I get done teaching at 3:30 or 4, I'm pretty whooped from standing up and talking for over 3 hours. I'm making myself get out and be sociable, but right now I just feel like going to my room and going to sleep, haha.

-That God would just continue to open my eyes to what He has for me here...outside of responsibilities and stuff. I am just really trying to be open to hear whatever He's trying to tell me.

I may not be Superman...

...but the kids here think I'm the next best thing! In the first couple of days I was here, I was talking with a couple of the little guys at the orphanage, and they were doing this Spiderman fingers thing like they were shooting webs. I just thought it was a cool hand thing for them, so I did it back and made sounds like I was shooting webs.

Anyway, come to find out that they recently showed the kids both of the Spiderman movies here on campus (kissing edited out of course - premarital kissing a big no-no for traditional India...we could probably learn a thing or two from them). So, apparently the kids here have accepted me as their personal, real life incarnation of Spiderman. I guess it's mainly because I'm white, have short hair, and am not morbidly obese, haha. I think it's kind of a compliment too...I mean, Toby Maguire is considered to be cute, right ladies? I haven't gone swinging from any buildings yet, but I might need to at some point to keep up my reputation.

So...as I walk across campus I am greeted by cries of "Friedeman" (pronounced fry de mon) and "Spiderman", with all of the little guys shooting imaginary webs at me, haha. I enjoy it, thought you might too : )

Sunday in Mount Zion

Yesterday was my first full Sunday here (arrived Sunday evening a week ago), so I thought I'd post what goes on here, and some thoughts.

Since Living Hope is always operating in English and Tamil, there are two services every Sunday, one for each language. The English service starts at...get this: 7 a.m.! And you thought you were getting a special place in heaven making it to your local 9 a.m. Ha! 7 is actually a late start for a morning around here, because the prayer meeting that the students are required to go every weekday starts at 5. I'm usually up that early, but I haven't made it as of yet. I usually try to be up and hoppin' by 6, because that's when Magesh, one of the girls who works in the kitchen, brings me coffee, rain or shine. She'll wait for me until I answer the door, so I try not to leave her hanging.

Anyway, the English service started at about 7 (time is "flexible" in India, which means everything starts late!). The students from the Northeast make up most of the people who come to this one. We sang some hymns, and the chorus "He Is Lord". They also had a prayer time...this was especially interesting, because in the states when we have a prayer time, that usually means that everybody who wants to be prayed for comes forward. In this case, it was everybody in the service praying for stuff outside the service, which was interesting to me. Interesting side note: when it's time to pray in the service, everybody gets down on their knees. Also, everybody prays out loud at the same time, which is really cool even though I'm not used to it.

There was also a time of testimony, then Ghuna preached a message on how to be overcomers, from 2 Chron. 20:15-24. He gave three things we need to do: 1) Bow your head to the ground - vs. 18, 2) Trust in the Lord - vs. 20, and 3) Praise the Lord - vs. 21-22. Then we put it into practice and got down on our faces and prayed. It was really good.

The Tamil service started at 10. Not surprisingly, since this is a more Indian service, it started at about 20-25 after the hour, which I'm betting is right on schedule : ) Anyway, since the whole thing was in Tamil, I couldn't understand a word of it besides, "hallelujah", "Iesu", and the occasional time that Ghuna would say something in English to keep me in the loop. It was kind of funny, because at the beginning of the service, I thought there was a chance that Ghuna would introduce me and have me say something, so I was trying to look alive and interested in case he was talking about me. His typical spiel about me seems to always include something about Dad's involvement with radio, tv, and internet stuff. All of those are pretty American concepts, I guess, so whenever everybody started staring at me and I heard those words start popping up, I knew to smile and start thinking about what I was going to say whenever he got done introducing me, haha. This service followed about the same outline as the English one, but was probably 30-40 min. longer.

Okay, so some observations and thoughts. First off, music. I'm a musician, so I probably notice these things more than most, but bear with me. From what I've seen so far here, the keyboard is the instrument of choice for folks here. They usually have a drum loop going from the keyboard and then do some kind of a pad on top. Occasionally there's a guitar, and the Tamil service had a percussion guy, but the keyboard is usually it. Whoever's playing it is quite often embarassingly unprepared. For instance, in the service this morning, a girl started singing, and the guy who was playing apparently didn't know what key she was in, so he just started hitting a major chord and walking it up chromatically until he found where she was...this was while she was singing, btw. Speaking of singers, Indian singing is really kind of interesting. Everything's pitched pretty high, and the only time you hear any harmony is when they pull out a Western hymn. Most of the guys and girls who lead the singing would never even make it on stage at a church in America.

So...the music itself is less than impressive. They've also got zero powerpoint, no AC, and the electricity for the fans and sound system only works about 75% of the time. Oh, and they've got this gender separation thing going on...guys on one side, girls on the other...not cool, right? So basically, by American standards, you've got three strikes against your service before you even start.

Well let me tell you something: despite all of the technical problems, old school gender standards, etc., I felt God's presence in those services as much, if not more strongly than in just about any service I've been to in the states. These people walk into a concrete building with none of the externals that we consider to be essential, ready to worship God with everything they've got. They don't need all of our "hip" and "cool" stuff, because God's prescence is enough for them.

The question is, is it enough for us? Great music, bright lights, cool graphics, etc. are all great things, but I wonder if they haven't distracted us from the real point - God Himself....no frills, no facades, just His prescence in His people. Just something I've been thinking about...

I also had a cool little excursion with Ghuna on Sunday afternoon. We went to dedicate the site for a new church that's being built nearby. I took some pics that I'll try to post on facebook soon. The pastor and his wife have been working in the area about 3 years, and have a congregation of 50 or so, which might not sound like a ton, but Ghuna reminded me that all of those folks are converts from other religions, mainly Hinduism...not people migrating there from other churches. Exciting stuff!

Ain't Got Nuttin' But Jesus And A Chalkboard

Hey friends, it's been a couple days since I gave you an update. We finally got the schedule worked out and started classes full-blow on Thursday morning. I'm teaching two classes - Greek in the morning, Hebrew in the afternoon. Each one is about an hour and a half long, so I'm putting in a solid 3.5-4 hours in the classroom every day.

I'll be totally honest with you: I am absolutely loving teaching so far. I mean, I expected that I wouldn't hate it, but God has been really good to me in this respect, and it's really a lot of fun so far. It's hot - no AC in the classrooms at all, and there's no technology - just one chalkboard in each room, but it's really been fulfilling so far to get to work with the students. Because English is a 2nd language for most of them, I'm really pushed creatively to try to come up with ways to illustrate grammatical concepts for them.

All right, so let me give you a little info on the make-up of each class. I'll tell you about Greek first.

Because India does not have one common language, and Living Hope draws students from all over India, the school always has to operate in two languages - English for the students from the North/Northeast, and Tamil for the students from the South. For instance, at morning prayer (every day), the whole service has to be translated on phrase at a time, English then Tamil. Living Hope has different classes for each language. Well, as it turns out, my Greek class is composed of both English and Tamil medium students! You're probably wondering how in the world this works...

Well, thankfully, there's another guy here that teaches Greek, named Aruldrage. He's an awesome guy and I've been getting to know him pretty well. Anyway, he's interested in watching me teach, so he basically interprets to the Tamil students for me. I'll go for a few minutes on a concept, and then he'll explain it as quickly as he can to the Tamil students (they understand a little English, so this works pretty well). I'm really thankful for Aruldrage, because without him, those students would either not be able to take Greek, or they'd have to do so at an extreme disadvantage.

The Greek class is mostly composed of undergrade Bible-Theology students, with some Master's students mixed in here and there. and one faculty member who's wanting to learn Greek. We started on Thursday with about 22 students or so, but new people have been getting here every day, so it's probably somewhere between 25 and 30 right now.

My Hebrew class is all Master's students. I'm guessing that every single one of them is at least 3 years older than I am, but they're not asking my age and I'm not telling : ) This class is a little smaller, with probably 23 students. All of the students here have a lot of respect for the teachers. If I walk into class and some are already there, everybody stands up when I enter the room. If I'm already in the classroom and people get there, they wait outside the door until I look at them and invite them in. It makes for some really funny moments sometimes, because I'll be looking over my outline or talking with the students who are already there, and then I'll look over at the door and there will be like 3-4 student just waiting for me to acknowledge them so that they can come in. They even ask my permission to leave and come back, even if class hasn't started yet! It kind of puts me in an awkward position, because I want to respect the normal standards for the school, but I also want to get closer to the students, and it's hard to do that when they treat you like the Pope!

We had class on Thursday and Friday, and then at the morning service on Saturday, Ghuna decided we were going to have an impromptu extra hour for each class (they normally don't meet on Saturdays). So, I just did kind of a review session with each class over the previous day's material to solidify it in their minds. I could especially tell on Saturday that a couple of the Hebrew students had been putting in their time, because some of them were nailing the stuff to the wall, which is a great thing to see if you're the one teaching.

Both classes are through their respective alphabets right now, plus starting verbs in Greek, and the whole Hebrew vowel system in Hebrew. I'm really encouraged thus far, and am looking forward to starting working through some passages with them this coming week slowly so that they can get a taste of the real reason we're doing all of this not-so-fun grammar work - Biblical Interpretation! I think we're going to start in John 1:1 in Greek, and Psalm 23 in Hebrew, so just pray that God would continue to reveal Himself to me through these passages, and that I'd in turn be able to really open them up for the students, as this is really the heartbeat of Biblical language studies.

There's a lot of other great stuff that's been going on...I'll try to post some more tomorrow on my interactions and Sunday church experience this morning. Thanks for reading this, and thanks for your prayers!