Baptisms by a Rice Paddy

Today we attended the first of 4 baptisms of people in our villages. We gathered at the church for a brief meeting, then the candidates and church members climbed into a tractor wagon with some of our team for the ride through the rice paddies to the baptism site at the canal. Several of us walked along the red dirt road with the peaceful green rice fields spread out in every direction. Colorful birds, butterflies, and dragonflies flew about. It was so beautiful! Seven people were baptized from Potlapadu. We gave them new Telegu Bibles as a special gift. You can see from the smiles, the joy they felt!

Krista the Preacher!

Last night was awesome! There is a big 3 day Hindu festival going on in one of our villages (Lingala), so we were expecting a sparse turnout--even had to leave early for the meeting R/T all the traffic. 1.5 million people were expected to be in that little village! Not only did we have all the villages present, but our 16 year old Krista preached her first sermon (on baptism) under a full moon in a dusty Indian village on a platform made of scrap wood. She did a wonderful job, and gave a call at the end to the people to come forward if they accepted Jesus and wanted to be baptized. About 15 came, including the young mother with cancer I mentioned before! God is so good! Teenager, middle-aged, older--it doesn't matter--God can use everyone if we are willing!

Pictures of Village Visits

Here are some pictures of us visiting in the villages!

Sabbath Adventures

Our team split into 3 groups for different Sabbath activities. Phil and Brenda drove 3 1/2 hours to our 3 former villages near Guntur. The ladies who always dressed her in a sari, had one all laid out, and promptly wrapped her in it! They had a great time seeing old friends and touring the church buildings built in 2006.
Harry and Brian drove 4 1/2 hours (that's a 9 hour round trip for a 1 1/2 hour visit!) to dedicate our church re-build of the old falling-down one in Vattigudipadu, near Nuzvid. Ask Brian how he enjoyed that ride! They barely got back in time to wash up, change and head to the evening meeting! (Another 2 hours round trip!)
Nancy, Krista and Judy had Sabbath School and church with the children at the new school in Miryalguda. They recited Bible verses for us, and sang with such joy and enthusiasm! We told stories and took pictures and videos of them.

The Pig-Napping!

Our team member, Brian, has twice witnessed a unique event in our town of Miryalguda, where the hotel is located. Hundreds of pigs of all sizes and color variation roam the streets, vacant lots, and garbage piles of this "fair" city. To his amazement, in broad daylight, several men jump from a three-wheeled autocab and pounce upon a hapless pig. Amid screaming and shouting, the animal is quickly hog-tied and thrown into the back of the vehicle squealing bloody murder! In seconds, the men get back in and drive away with their fresh pork dinner! That's not something you see in downtown Freeport or Barre, Vermont!

The Lord Needs To Come

We are into the last week of the meetings. Tonight is number 10. Attendance has grown to about 400, and we have been having wonderful fellowship with the villagers. They love to sing the English action songs, and the kids are really into answering the Bible story questions. Our Pastors and Bible workers have done such a great job of keeping the crowd quiet and orderly! Brenda has been showing a slide show at night of the village visits we make during the day--they love seeing themselves on the screen! The sermons have been well received, and there will be some baptisms starting Tuesday.
The reality of the poverty and desperate needs of the people of rural India is again sinking in. In Dacharam today, an elderly man was sitting on a dirty cot with a leg cast to the hip. Outside, his wife squatted in despair--she is unable to walk, and he usually cares for her. The poor man cried, "There is no one to take care of us!" They are temporarily at their daughter-in-law's house. In another village, an old lady is homeless and lives off the goodwill of the villagers--she also cried. A woman follows a water buffalo, down the dirt road catching fresh poop in a basket to dry for fuel. Children play with old bike tires caked with dirt and manure. The children smile and wave, dressed in torn clothes held together with safety pins. The home of the Bible worker we had lunch in today has 2 tiny rooms and no windows, a dirt floor plastered with cow dung, and a little house sparrow that kept flying in to build a nest in a niche near the roof!
About this time you just want to sit down and cry, or get as far away as you can to try to forget. It's a helpless feeling--we have so much in America compared to most of the world. The Lord needs to come, so all this pain and misery can stop for those we have grown to love.

The Bridge!

Remember the bridge where we got caught in traffic on the way to the meeting for 20 minutes? Well--you "ain't heard nothing yet!" You have to know how the Indian mind works to fully appreciate this, but I'll try to get it across (though far be it from me to infer I fully understand the Indian mind!!) On Wednesday night we were stopped for 1 hour. Last night, it was 1hr and 45 minutes! This is how traffic works in India (to the best of my limited experience!). A large vehicle (too large for it to pass the same size vehicle on the narrow space) starts across the bridge at the same time another one starts at the other end. They meet in the middle. Neither driver will back up. In the mean time, other cars, trucks, scooters, autocabs, tractor wagons, etc. proceed across behind the big truck. Everything stops. Other vehicles see the jam and think, I'll just proceed in the wrong lane and make matters worse, (but at least I'll be ahead of you!) Now picture the narrow 1 1/2 lane bridge solidly packed bumper to bumper with all vehicles going whichever way they want! Many of the drivers get out and hold a loud conference on the bridge. Other drivers are blasting the horn (because that is always so helpful!) About an hour into this frustrating fiasco, some one finally decides to back up. Others follow suit, and after a half hour or so, the driver starts our van, and we are off as if nothing happened! This happens nightly!! Are we just critical, or would it be easier to post a policeman at either end of the bridge with a walkie talkie, and let each lane go for 5 minutes and then switch?
Picture key: 1-the team visiting in the village (Phil was sick), 2-Judy, Brenda and Krista in a rice paddy, 3-the students of the new Miryalguda SDA School with their Beanie Babies!, 4-the ladies in the village.