As we go to bed at the
end of our first day of the L-5 leadership school we are over-loaded with the
new personalities we’ve met and culture shock.We’ve been securely separated from the outside world in our gated and
guarded complex since our taxi-van pulled in at 2 AM last night. The noise
though, has been constant.
During the past 20 hours there has
been the constant sound of honking horns and traffic. I don’t believe Indian
drivers have any patience, courtesy or turn signals. Add to that constant
honking, the train station that we back up to and the sound of big trucks
changing gears. We are all starting to adjust and block it out somewhat, even
though the windows do not.
We are on the 4th floor
of this multi purpose block wall apartment type building. Lori and I have twin
beds in a small tile floor room. No A/C but a nice ceiling fan. It was actually
a little chilly at mass this morning. The children are across the hall. We are
blessed that each room has its own bathroom with a cold only bucket
showers. They felt great after the 20
hours of fly time we had logged.
We did not realize the
high altitude until the taxi started going through tunnels and a steady climb
for about an hour. I have not looked it up or asked but it feels like at least
5000 ft.We could feel it in our
sinuses and when we started lugging 20 bags of luggage up four flights of
stairs.The air is more constant brown
that LA on its worst smog alert day.
We began with a sparsely attended
Mass at 6:30 in an echoing concrete church building.
We soon met YWAMers from India, Germany, Belgium, Papua
New Guniea, Australia, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Canada, Holland and Seattle, WA.
The kids are happy having a few young children to chase around. James has
Canadian teenage girls from his YWAM Tyler SST here. He got a quick dose of
what a small world this is.
Even on the plane the food has been
Indian. (What did you expect?)There’s
lots of neat sauces, mystery meat, seasoned rice, tortilla type bread. We were
a hit at morning tea break with our gallon zip locks of American chocolate chip
cookies.
They said the sweet fellowship matched the cookies. The lady from Ghana
said, “Your cookies were beautiful.” Thanks Amanda for the last minute
baking tizzy!
Our bodies have not adjusted to the
time. Lori and I laid down at 2:00 for a nap and woke up in time for supper at
6:45 pm, but the kids never woke up the rest of tonight.
Our speaker today was Romeo Fernando, an Indian, who
definitely has a grasp on why different people groups clash. We had a
roundtable discussion on how different cultures are uncomfortable around each
other and the need for forgiveness of attitudes and actions toward specific
nationalities. Because of the many nationalities participating, we are all
aware of the need for reconciliation and unity.
We discussed the Catholic charismatic renewal and how we
have left the young people out. Therefore our sons and daughters are not there
to prophesy (Joel 2:28-29).They’re
segregated off in youth group or at home while we have our prayer meetings.
When they get older they don’t want to be a part, because it was not a habit
for them.
Lori already has a vision of including the diocesean youth groups in our monthly Charismatic meeting in
Tyler.
We wish we could share
everything we did, with you at home, and this is only the first day!Please continue to pray if you are to
participate in financing our time here.You may contribute online through our website.
Pray for
us. We will bring so much information and experience back with us, and maybe a
few staff members for our new K-Teams base in Texas!
In Christ,
Alan
Harris Update January 24, 2009
We were so spiritually prepared to
come to India. I remember praying on our couch at home with Lori, ”God we don’t
belong here. We’re already in India.”
Our bags had been packed for days. I felt like our spirits had already
come here and our bodies just needed to come here to catch up. Now that I’m here I feel that same feeling,
except now I’m really here.
I knew when we came to India and
would be around Indians. I thought only if we went out we would cross paths
with some Indians. My main emphasis would be learning the K-Team way. Now that
we’re here, if you want to see the people, look out the window. When you go in
our courtyard, they stick their hands through the bars, and sometimes wander
in. They think we’re all rich people. They follow you down the street with
their hands out. How do you talk to these people, Lord? How do you relate Jesus
to them? How do you live Jesus to them?
I thought
the heat would be a problem or water. I just didn’t realize how immersed we
would be in noise. It is totally insane. It’s like we’re in Max Headroom or
Blade Runner or the Terminator. I never in my life expected to live in an
environment like that. It’s so filthy. At Mercy Ships I constantly sorted
through images of poverty in Liberia.
Not even that could prepare me for this. This is so urban. It’s almost a nightmare.
I was not prepared for pollution.
We’re trapped in it. It always smells like someone just set off a large package
of firecrackers. We somewhat have blocked the smell in our room, but as soon as
you walk into the hall you are knocked over by it.
We took a rickshaw downtown Friday
during our half-day off. I was telling
Lori about all the scrawny dogs I had seen living on the street. “I wonder
where the cows are?” We pulled up at our destination at the clothing district
and there were two cows nuzzling through the street garbage.
Downtown there were more
predictable streets than right next to our property. It reminded me of Chinatown in San Francisco or of St. Martin,
Virgin Islands. In the V.I. Lori and I wanted to get off the beaten path and
see the real people on that vacation. Here you don’t have to leave the pretty
tourist area. There isn’t one. Its like Honolulu mutated into a horror film. I
have seen not one patch of grass. There is no beauty. There may have been
mountains we passed through on the way, but that was in the middle of the
night.
We walked downtown for over an
hour. There were deformed beggars sitting on the sidewalk with no legs. People
were staring at our blond haired children You had to walk through rubble and
dirt in the gutter and against the buildings next to the sidewalk. People sweep dirt up that will only return
the next day. I thought the Canton, TX trade days were nuts. That’s orderly
compared to here. There is no order here. There’s religion all over the place,
but it’s a mess of religious articles. How to you talk to these people?
We did meet one cute little old man
in a tan leather jacket who approached us after 6:30 Mass yesterday. We said we
were from Texas. He said “Oh, Texas like Audey Murphey is from? I like Old
American movies, like Burt Lancaster.” He said two of his sons were autistic
and the other was dyslexic. One had a detached retina that he had to take into
Mumbai today. His children are probably ill from all the pollution.
We’re bonding quite well with the
L-5 people. Some are the Pune DTS students soing the L-5 as part of their
discipleship school. I ate dinner with the girl from Seattle last night. She
says she’s engaged to a Canadian. (I say that because we are fishing for
YWAMers to bring to Texas) The Walker family from Canada has everyone
impressed. The two older daughters are 14 and 17. They hang out with 19 year
old Alex, who did her DTS at YWAM Tyler in 2007. James is quite taken up with DTS staffer, Zeger (rhymes with
eager) from Holland who, like our Charlie back home, turns 22 during this
school. Zeger is an expert at
negotiating with the Indians for rickshaws and other purchases.
Yesterday in school I learned of
“Community.” We heard testimonies of convenant communities in India and Uganda.
I don’t have the total feel for that concept yet. There’s one young man who has
given his life to a community, like a seminarian, but he’s not going to be a
priest. He just serves the community. These African and Indian ladies are so
reserved in our school. I must dig into them. They’re more open with Lori. I
was so used to the Teen Mania girls who would talk to you.
Robert the Aussie is a hoot, very
proud of his country. Big, tender-hearted white- headed man. Damacias has
stolen Lori’s heart. She’s finishing an article on him.
As I close, the day school behind
us across the barbed wired wall is having an outdoor Saturday performance for
some of the parents complete with dancing. They’re banging a large drum throughout
their presentation. Its been going on for over an hour, to the harmony of the
cars and motorcycles honking from all directions.
We do still need your support to
pay for our school tuition. We also have to pay to get online. Yesterday I paid
80 rupees (about two dollars) to be online for 1.5 hours to post my first
report. If any readers can help us out
with $10 it would really help.
We’re off all day today, Saturday,
and tomorrow is a lot of classes, with an old fashioned YWAM “Love Feast” in
the evening. Have a great weekend. Alan
Happy Birthday, Baby!
by Lori Harris January 26, 2009
Twenty-five years ago today my life was forever changed by
the birth of our first baby, a huge-eyed, blue-eyed, curly headed, cotton
topped baby doll who chose to disturb our peace and side track our plans to
make her own. She hasn’t stopped yet.
We planned her and named her without the help of a sonogram.
We found a wonderful midwife to birth her at home with us and we were anxious
to get the three of us to our new life and business in California.
With weeks to go before this little lady was due, Alan was
to go ahead to LA and be back before said baby came. We drove to Dallas to put
him on a plane and I spent the night with my aunt before I would drive back to
our apartment in Nacogdoches, TX. Oh, not so!
My water broke during the midnight hours. I walked around
the bedroom praying and asking the Lord to let me know when to wake my aunt to
head back home. About sunup I called my midwife to warn her of the change in
plans, called Alan (who had stopped at my sister’s in West Texas on the way to
California), and then gave my sweet auntie the wake-up call.
Only God could have allowed me to be with this aunt. She was
the only one who was brave enough to trust me. We loaded her back seat with a
bucket and blankets and headed off on a 3-hour drive from Dallas to
Nacogdoches, just so her favorite niece could have her baby at home.
She broke speed records while I mooned truck drivers. To
avoid bearing down, I used the two clothes hanger hooks to pull up on. God
bless dear Aunt Jean for talking to herself the whole way. Every time she
looked back and saw me she threatened to pull into the next town’s hospital and
dump me. I told her I would never forgive her if she did that to me and
reminded her she had been born at home and turned out just fine. Just drive!
We pulled into my little college town apartment building
looking like a scene straight out of a Keystone Cop caper. I barreled out of
her old boat of a Pontiac and headed up the metal stairs in my floor-length
maroon velour robe and into our little frozen apartment. Being the good
stewards that we were, we had cut off the water heater and the heat and it was
about 30* outside. (Really, we couldn’t afford the bill!)
While my aunt unloaded the car, I lit the water heater (yep,
I did… picture that in that huge bellied maroon robe with me up under a water
heater and in labor) and then turned on the furnace.I was glad no one was home in our little four-plex apartment as I
finally got to let it all hang out and be me.
My midwife’s timing was great. Carol walked in and sat Aunt
Jean down in the corner.
“Now Auntie, you just sit right here and watch. We are about
to have a baby! We know what we are doing and you don’t have a thing to worry
about,” declared Carol.
At this point what could she do but believe her?
I had laid out newspapers around the floor of our little
studio apartment where we had previously set up a twin bed to birth on (our
king size waterbed not being real conducive to a homebirth), while Carol was
busy trying to set up and convince Aunt Jean she didn’t need to boil water or
tear rags.
When Carol declared us ready, I mounted the twin bed and out
popped the “World Changer” in less than 30 minutes of our arrival into the
apartment. I think she had been waiting to make her entrance for a while. She
spared me the loss of face by letting me make it home.
Carol wrapped our big-eyed girl in towels and handed her off
to Drop Mouthed Auntie in the corner while we birthed the placenta.
The phone rang.
On the other end was my mother, sister and Alan who had just
landed in Dallas and were getting in a car to head to us. We handed the phone
to Drop Mouth while we cleaned up.
She found her voice.
“Congratulations Grandma, you have never seen anything like
this before in your life! Why, they just got down to business and popped out a
baby. I don’t even remember having my four because I was knocked out. She
jumped up, cleaned up the newspaper, changed the sheets on the bed and now
they’re in the kitchen just making tea. Them two are acting like people do this
everyday! They are naming her after Moma, did you know that?”
I’m wasn’t sure my aunt has recovered yet.
The fact that her name was Juanita was a cause for
celebration. I had the great joy of calling my 83 year old grandma and telling
her she had a new great granddaughter with her name. Her reaction: “Show nuf?
Whacha go and name her that for?” I told her that I didn’t know anybody else on
earth who could pray like her and that was good enough reason.
We haven’t regretted the decision.
She’s lived up to her namesake.
Thus my little World Changer made her spectacular entrance.
Her daddy wasn’t there for it as we had planned, but we survived. We moved to
California eight weeks later and there she became my only friend for the first months
of her life.
We were busy setting up a new business in a town where we
had no relatives. We lived in a little apartment and Alan would go off to work
everyday. I missed my family and friends but I had a new little person in my
life and she relished the role of being the Only One.
My whole life revolved around this little darling. She
commanded my every minute and I didn’t mind. She was my best friend then and
all I had besides Alan for quite awhile.
Twenty-five years later she is still a World Changer.She has turned into a beautiful woman of
God, who still has a mind of her own, just like we raised her to. She has made
excellent choices and has become a reflection of the praying woman she was
named for.
As I write this we are in different countries and I can’t
even tell her Happy Birthday. I can’t tell her that on the day twenty-five
years after my life was forever changed. She paved the way for six more to
follow but she will always hold the place of the first. More than likely, I
won’t get to hear her voice for several more weeks and I won’t be able to know
where she is or the conditions of her safety.
The only thing I can do for her is what she does best. Pray.
So here it is:
Holy God, who looked down from Heaven and sent your Only
Son to become human and live among us, suffer, die and be buried only to rise
again to bring us eternal life. Grant that wherever Juanita is on this very
special day in her life, that you will bring her comfort. May she feel your
love and the love and prayers of her family. May she truly understand the only
life worth living is the life worth giving so that others come to know what
forgiveness is.May she know your
peace in the midst of turmoil all the days of her life and may the Mother of
the Son, be my advocate and wrap her arms around my baby and hold her, rock her
and tell her how much her mother loves her on this very special day.
Happy Birthday, Baby.
I love you,
Mommy
Harris Update, January 27, 2009
By Alan Harris
It’s very intense here. The noise,
the smog, the spicy food, the sea of people everywhere.
I got overwhelmed
yesterday and deeded to shut down.
Even though
our sleeping is on schedule, I don’t sleep well. It’s warm. Even the locals are
complaining. We only use a sheet over us. We all sleep on our own twin beds. I
wake up every hour or two.
Bathing is
fun. There’s blistering hot water down the hall that we use to wash our clothes
in, or haul a large bucket full to our room. I stand in one bucket and pour hot
water over me with a large measuring cup.John likes it. Only James takes cold showers still.
We had a
love feast Sunday night. The food wasn’t much different. You’re never quite
sure what you’re eating here. What they call chicken has maybe a ½” square
piece of meat on one out of 10 hunks in the sauce. The rest have fingernails of
meat and camouflaged bones.I’m not
eating that again. That leaves the red curry sauce, which is tasty, but
protein-less. James wore his new punjabe. We haven’t found the right price for
Susan’s yet.
Today is James’ 14th
birthday.Lori picked up a cake at the
bakers that the L-5 paid 660 rupees for.That’s about $14. It was very light and good, with a pineapple filling.
A guy from
the very beginning of YWAM is here teaching this week, Bruce Clewett, of YWAM
,Austria. He’s way cool, from California, over 30 years ago. I’m going to try
to film “Live fro L-5” YouTube reports starting with him today.He thought it was a cool idea.
Yesterday
Bruce spoke about unity in organizations how we must teach first the history to
new people – how we got here. Then the Core Values and then the vision, in that
order. He said protestants and Catholics have the same core values, but in
different order.
Lori and I
discussed with each other the steps and lessons God used to bring us to this
point, from leaving Mercy Ships, joining Woodcrest with no promised support.
Then declaring we were going to India and getting prayed out by everyone and packing
our bags when we were thousands of dollars short of our airfare. Thus far the
Lord has brought us.
Bruce said
YWAM was established by prophetic people who would do things no one else had
done before. That’s part of YWAM’s DNA. Lori and I have always considered
ourselves prophetic, but we also do things no one else has done before, as we
are now.
This place definitely gives me a
new world-perspective. No wonder they think all Americans are rich. We are.
Living in Garden Valley makes a person long for mission trips. It’s in the air.
Being here in India now seems so completing. I understand the “fever” of “going
there fore.” We’re so safe in our little Christian World, driving 3 miles to
work on an empty paved, clean country road with grass and trees on each side.
Most of these people have never seen anything like it. How spoiled we are. You
have to leave to appreciate it.
I have no
idea how to begin to reach these people, but God does. It is so refreshing to
learn, pray and worship with an international choir of believers. Over half
speak with an accent other than western English. I guess Lori would be one of
those too, eh?
Bruce Clewett
Tell your friends to read our posts. Give us feedback.
Alan
January 28, 2009
Its 89 degrees as I try
to update my site outside
from the internet cafe.
Saw it was 31 in Lindale.
Don't have anything to tell
you about today.
Here's a video to watch. Alan
Live From L-5
Bruce Clewett, the Founder of Kerygma Teams, gives a humorous welcome to our leadership training in Pune, India January 28
Harris Update, January 29, 2009
by Alan Harris
Had a nice talk this morning with Zeger. He’s from a charismatic
Protestant fellowship in Holland. The two pastors have former YWAM experience.
Their church is very open to YWAM, and sends their youth to Kings Kids, a YWAM
youth singing ministry that operates all over the world. One YWAMer in the
church had his birthday party at the local YWAM base.Zeger attended and saw a YWAM base for the first time. He was
very interested, which led to him participating in GO Teams one summer during
High School. Go Teams, he says, is a four-week short term missions outreach.
Upon graduation, Zeger went to Pune, India for a K-Teams
DTS, because of his interest in ecumenism. Zeger now rotates sic-months of the
year in Holland, and six months serving as DTS staff in Pune. The DTS staff and
students are part of the L-5 participants. Zeger, who turns 2 during this
school, serves as worship leader at L-5, playing guitar.
Today he led us in a Hindi “budgin” or spiritual song, but with Christian
lyrics. He has become quite knowledgeable about getting around Pune and
negotiating with local merchants. He has become James’ buddy and is a safe
companion for my son who likes to wander of to interesting things. They’ve been
going out at night with the big girls for beverages. Last night it was milk
shakes at the train station for 40 rupees, or about 80 cents U.S. Watch out Dairy Queen!
Alan wrote something new: Feb 8, 2009
Here we are at the mid-point of our trip. We’ve made our
adjustment to the humidity, the noise, the smell. Actually we don’t hear the
noise anymore or notice the smell. When we lived in Fillmore, California,
everyone who came said,” Wow, what’s that smell – like perfume?” It was the
orange blossoms. Our olfactory senses had become numb to those odors. Same
thing in India. We can’t smell the pollution anymore.
Today in
class, Bruce Clewett, one of Kerygma’s leaders, said if you were asked to name
10 good things about Pune and ten bad things, you could name the bad things
instantly. Is that our nature? I’m sure I’ve named that many in my web
postings. But ten good things? Lets see.
The
beautiful clothing on the women, and some of the women in those clothes.
It
never freezes here. I got a suntan in late January.
I
haven’t seen a television here.
My
wife is not on the phone
The
cost of living is as low as 1/20th of the U.S. or even less,
especially involving services. But food is way cheaper too.
Perfect
strangers are willing to help you – even if they have no financial gain
from it.
Everybody
is trying to make a buck. There’s not a lot of dead beats. They’re hard
workers, even if its begging
They
accept their condition. They don’t sit around and whine about it.
They
love getting their picture taken.
People
dress modestly. Men never wear shorts. I’ve seen no homeboy low crotch
pants. Women cover their bodies –to the ankles.
Indians are very religious, whatever it might be. The Catholics
in our host church. Our lady of Perpetual Help, are not charismatic, but they
sing better than any American parish I’ve been to. They’re singing old Agape
Force songs from the late 70’s. The Steadfast Love, Glory to God in the
Highest. And they sing good. They’re wrapping up a nine day Novena tonight that
we’ve listened to during and after dinner. The preaching is good. I’m going to
check out some Indian priests in Texas We have a lot of them.
Our vision
for Kerygma Teams in America is re-shaping. It seems we are not Catholic YWAM,
but ecumenical YWAM. We give Catholic doctrine equal space. WE are
knowledgeable about Catholic beliefs, respectable of them and encourage our
Catholic members to keep their beliefs. We learn to work together for the
common good. Were on the same side.
It’s not
lie we’re joining with the Hindus or the Muslims. We have the same Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
So pray for
us as we figure all this out before we return home for the next chapter.
Feb 10 We heard from Juanita!
Our
oldest daughter, who turned 25 on January 26, sent letters to us from
her outreach location somewhere in Europe. The courier also had videos
from Christmas time and still photos that we have copies of. These
people were with us for about a week and are leaving today. We made a
special video for her and sent it back on a flash drive for her to
view, as well as a lot of the photos on this website, which she has
been unable to log onto. Pray for her. She's very homesick. Moreso than
us! She will not return to Texas until May 1.
God Change My Life
By Alan. Feb 11, 2009
To our loving supporters.
We feel you are all here in India
holding us up. Thankyou for your prayers and
encouragement.
Having
been here about 20 days, I felt it would be good to re-explain our
mission. I feel some of our sweet supporters still don't understand
what we're doing. First of all, we have not become permanent
missionaries to India.We’ll be coming home to dear old Texas at the end of February.We have been at a leadership
training for world wide Kerygma team leaders and members. It's going quite well.
We’re learning about:
Ecumenism,
working together with Catholics and Protestants, in society, in
charismatic worship and prayer, in communities and in YWAM
Kerygma
Teams – the ecumenical branch of Youth With a Mission, with a Catholic
focus
The
different options Kerygma has to begin a new work in Texas, including:
a.Full year weekly courses in parishes
b.Discipleship Training Schools with short term mission
outreach.
c.Two to four week Go-Teams of short term outreach
d.Weekend GXP’s for youth to have a God eXPerience.
Fellowshipping
with an international mix of believers.The accents are great – Slavic, African, Australian, Dutch,
Canadian, French, New Zealand, Belgian, German. We want to bring them all
home.
Indian
Catholics, priests and Bishops who can preach and quote scripture
better than our Protestant or Catholics teachers back home.
Hearing
Godand getting our eyes off
ourselves and. Letting him teach us and show us the right path and vision.
We’ve invited everyone here to pray about visiting, teaching
or joining our Kerygma Teams work in Garden Valley Texas. Were excited about
what God is about to begin.
We’re in the process of collecting,
filming, and writing down much of the information we’ll need to shared and
promote this work to Catholics and Protestants in the U.S.
Pray for us
Please remember to pray for us, Right
Now. This trip to India is not over. We need God’s covering and the
prayers of you faithful back home.
·Pray for our sustained health. The kids are frequently
eating street vendor food with their local Indian friends whose stomachs are
used to the local “crawlies.” We’ve had a lot of short-term fevers, mainly
James and Susan, not John.Lori asks
prayer for Susan’s immune system.
Remember to pray for our other four older children.
·Juanita is still on outreach in an undisclosed
location. Pray for her safety.
·Charlie is at LeTourneauin Longview, TX he keeps Sam company at home some weekends.
·Sam is working fulltime this semester at a special
needs school in Tyler and covering our Catholic youth group while we’re gone.
·Charlotte is in Ft Worth at College of St. Thomas More
and working.
Global Gathering
Our Global Gathering went to the Botanical Gardens on Feb 6,
last Friday for a fun-day. We enjoyed playing on the hard dirt with no grass in
sight. I saw gardens far away, but not under the trees where we played. Just
small yellow leaves peppered the ground.
We did church picnic type relays:
sack race, bocce ball, egg race and reverse tug-of-war: That old American
tradition “Push the Bambo” (only in India!). My team of Rosemary and Jessica
lost 7 out of 8 games. I did two sack races and nearly had a stroke. I was dead
that night.
Like the
homeless park I wrote about before (A Different Light), the locals just
sat and stared the whole time. Our team had great fellowship, silliness and
relaxation. That’s an important part of learning to be a community. Taking time
to lighten up, so we don’t burn out. I liked that. It reminded me of church
picnics back in the Methodist church. We rode there on a real Indian bus with
no air conditioning. Look for the Picnic Photos in the Photo Album.
Contextulization
The Global
Gathering wound down with a special Indian worship band. Jose Josephs
ministers through a YWAM school of worship her in India. We last saw him five
years ago at YWAM Tyler when he encouraged our son Sam to come to Pune to teach
arts in India. Jose plays “budgins” or Indian worship songs. It was very
different music. Not exactly Paule Baloche or even Credence Clearwater. It’s a
conceptwe’re learningcalled “giving the Indians a cup of water in
their own cup.” Put it in a form they recognize and they’ll receive it. Jose
was tickled to see us.
I would
encourage all reading our posts, of any age, to pray about coming on a short
term.mission trip with us. We’ve got all ages here, from babies to senior
citizens, experiencing the Indian culture.
I read
another YWAM missionary’s email newsletter yesterday and I have to admit: I
just scanned it.So if you’ve made it
to the end of this letter, God Bless you for your diligence.Some people just read our stuff, and others
are really our support team. We love all of you. Continue to dream dreamsof God and not be afraid to act on them!
Alan & Lori Harris
We wanna go home
by Alan Feb 17, 2009
What does it take to be equipped to be a leader? Good
teaching that makes you think about and discuss all the factors of leading. We’ve
studied the history of YWAM and Kerygma Teams, the core values unique to our
branch of YWAM,and our vision. We’ve
looked at the structure of how we get it done – the various schools and
activities we offer to the ecumenical world. “Thus equipped, we go back to our
homes and God puts us to work. That’s what we’ll be doing at the end of this
month. Will you still stand beside us? You were so good to get us here. The
work’s just beginning. What will your participation be?
We’re not in Pune anymore Toto.
February 25, 2009
We
left Pune after 32 days and headed to the west coast of India in Vasai.
Our trip here passed through the mountains that we couldn’t see in the
dark when we arrived a month ago. John sat in my lap and the other four
squeezed in the second seat. Our new friend from Nairobi, Kenya, Rosemary, came with us.
Vasai is beautiful, cooler, quiet, and has the ocean.
It reminds us of San Clemente California, complete with Spanish Tile
roofs and coconut palms. We have bananas at every meal because they
grow right outside the window.
We’re being treated like kings and queens in gorgeous marble floored
homes. We are staying in a lovely three story and have visited several
others.
We had dinner Monday night at the Bishop Dubre of Vasai’s home where we
attended an ecumenical pastors fellowship and dinner. WE were very
impressed when the local Assembly of God pastor got up and shared that
he believed Bishop should be Bishop of all the churches in Vasai! He is
well loved by all because he has embraced the Catholic Charismatic
Community and ministries and attends and hosts so many of the
ecumenical events for this area.
This
is a large Charismatic Catholic community, spread out all over town.
There are 250 families and growing. They are very well discipled They
are very dominion minded and many own their own businesses and their
Christian community is growing.
Mostly we are resting before we head home at the end of this week.
We’re meeting sweet families with kids and grandparents resident. Lori
is learning a lot about Indian food prep techniques, since we didn’t
watch that in Pune.
Today, Tuesday we toured an old Portuguese fort near the ocean that at
one time held seven Catholic churches. This is the port where St.
Thomas came and established the church in India. These old church and
forts are now being restored by the government. My children enjoyed
climbing the stairs and exploring as we realized how very industrious
these old civilizations were.
We got our feet in the water at a boat launch on the shore line of the Arabian Sea.
We heard the movie Slum Dog Millionaire, filmed in Mumbai, won best
picture last night. We watched it here in India and plan to show it
some day in our home for an India party. It is very
representative of some of the lifestyle we have seen here. Actually it
didn’t shock us as much as it does most people. Mostly answers some
questions of what these people think on the inside.
We were able to get some photos and videos sent to Juanita and she
loved them. We miss all our big kids and all the rest of you too. Keep
praying for us. We are still loving on the Indian people. They
are very kind and generous. We’re not home yet. The next post will be
from home.
Encounters on the Testing Ground
by Lori Harris
March 10, 2009
In recapping the last six weeks of life in India I realized how very
much God desires us to love one another, not just the unlovable but
everyone we encounter daily. I should already be doing that, right?
Landing in Mumbai in the middle of the night after a 24 hour day of flying, I was assaulted instantly with
the total confusion and mass of people as we walked out to wait on our
ground transportation to the city of Pune, India and our home for the next five weeks.
A man held up a sign with our name and flight number on it but it took
an hour of haggling over price and contact information to find out if
he really knew where we were to go. Turned out he didn’t but he did get
us there and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride had nothing on what we experienced. The uphill drive for four hours coupled with
the constant honking, passing on both sides of the vehicle ahead of us
that we had just
tailgated, the loud Indian music blaring and the
smells of exhaust mixed with the heat from the open windows and pollution was enough to make a girl swoon! I prayed for
super sized angels to cover the too small vehicle we were in and closed
my eyes knowing God did not bring us that far to die in the middle of
the night.
I didn’t know there were so many
people who just like to hang on the streets at night. Bunches of men,
gathered around little fires built on the side of the street seemed to
be everywhere as well as the endless barrage of rickshaws, scooters and
dogs. It’s 2:00 AM in the morning! Where’s the party? These guys make
L.A. look sane.
Safely arrived at the Nav Sadhana in Pune and squared away, we
were ready for the early morning welcome. There we met the
personalities behind the sixteen nationalities we would be living with
for the next few weeks.
There is nothing quite as comforting or refreshing as worshipping with
old YWAM buddies. You may not know them personally – yet, but the
common thread runs deep and straight to the heart. One mind and one
purpose unite as we come together from our different worlds to center
on one thing: Knowing the Fatherheart of God and sharing that with others.
Here in these settings, purity and simplicity rule. No amount of glitzy
music can accomplish what plain, unadulterated worship and spontaneous
prayer can do when everyone is there for the same purpose.
The kids were ready to explore our very safe surroundings and we were grateful for
the compound feel to the facility. One of the great things about YWAM
has always been the family. Ten kids rounded out our group, so we were
never lacking for reality checks. Our mix included another full
family like ours, singles of all ages, some couples, priests and
teachers coming in and out and even grandparents. It doesn’t take long
to get cozy with a mix of YWAMers.
From the start we were there to learn and school it was. We were able
to ask questions and get plenty of feedback from teachers and students
alike. The depth and range of teaching was excellent as we learned to
minister to different cultures and be sensitive as well as to
contextualize the gospel. As Protestants and Catholics working
together, we should be about learning to grow into unity as we grow into Jesus.
As different nationalities expressed preconceived ideas of others who
were not like them, we began to minister to one another, pray together
and seek forgiveness for differences – real or perceived, that
might separate us from all that God would call us to be. There were no
denominational lines there. We were brothers and sisters in the Lord
who were thirsty for more of God. It is good to be with those who are
as thirsty as you are. Thirsty and hungry people want relationship with
each other and Jesus.
We learned how very reverent many of the Hindus and Muslims are. They
have prayer rooms in their homes. These sweet and gentle people put
many Christians to shame with their reverence and devoted prayer time.
They are looking for God. They need a savior, and so do a lot of our
friends. Is what we do
and live making them thirsty? That is a good question to ask ourselves
anytime we have unsaved loved ones or neighbors. If we aren’t making
them thirsty, then we are not letting Jesus really use us. I don’t
think that I am salt and light to enough people, are you?
Bishop Valerian D’Souza of the Diocese of Poona, shared with
us that ecumenism based on love and prayer between believers should be
happening now. The division among Christians is seen as confusion to
the unbeliever. They will know we are Christians by our love but not if
we don’t have any! Christians have fallen prey to the enemy’s lies and
chosen to divide themselves instead of love one another. Pope Paul VI
states in his encyclical Announcing the Good News ( http://tinyurl.com/aw3q) that true evangelization must spring from true holiness and the Christian must be evangelized before they can evangelize.
Our times on the streets showed us people in every situation of life,
much more intensified and out in the open because of the millions that
were there living an urban life. It is so easy, even in five weeks to
become numb and lack compassion on the masses but Jesus looked on them
as sheep without a shepherd. Everyone needs a savior. We cannot save
ourselves. How easy we forget those simple words!
If the normal Christian life is defined by scripture, then most people
are satisfied being sub-normal Christians. Personally, I like to put
Jesus in a safe and acceptable box that everyone can relate to. Who
wants to be the weirdo that does everything different from other
Christians around them?
Our encounters on the testing ground of Poona, reminded us that
Christianity comes with a price for many. A Hindu convert shared her
conversion experience with
us. Jesus came to her in a dream. She finally saw the same picture of
the Jesus of her dream in a church. She began to find out who Jesus
was. She was willing to make the supreme sacrifice for a single,
Indian, Hindu girl from a good family to make, she was willing to give
up her family if
she must. She went through many trials and beatings by them but
eventually they relinquished and she was baptized. She had to go before
the city magistrate and register as a Christian. Her signature had to
be notarized by a witness as well as a statement from her that she was
not forced to become a Christian against her will.
Most of us have not gone through anything like that and prayerfully,
our children won’t have to either. We heard many stories like this
and also those of suffering in the state of Orissa, there many are
renouncing their Christianity out of fear of the Hindu extremists and
certain death. The extremes cause one to speculate which side of the
fence we would be on if this kind of persecution ever came to us here in America.
We saw Christians keeping a united front, no matter what their level of
spiritual understanding was. When people are in a situation where it is
Christian against non- Christian, most don’t ask which flavor you are,
The
Catholic World is not easy but we saw dedicated believers in India that
would put most people who claim to be Christians in America, to shame.
They know the price of their salvation.
We have
dedicated our lives to work in the evangelization of the Sleeping Giant
in America. We want to see American Catholic youth on fire for Jesus their Savior. Will you go with us?
We discussed the Catholic charismatic renewal and how we
have left the young people out. Therefore our sons and daughters are not there
to prophesy (Joel 2:28-29).
We took a rickshaw downtown Friday
during our half-day off. I was telling
Lori about all the scrawny dogs I had seen living on the street. “I wonder
where the cows are?” We pulled up at our destination at the clothing district
and there were two cows nuzzling through the street garbage.
James is quite taken up with DTS staffer, Zeger (rhymes with
eager) from Holland who, like our Charlie back home, turns 22 during this
school. Zeger is an expert at
negotiating with the Indians for rickshaws and other purchases.
Had a nice talk this morning with Zeger. He’s from a charismatic
Protestant fellowship in Holland. The two pastors have former YWAM experience.
Their church is very open to YWAM, and sends their youth to Kings Kids, a YWAM
youth singing ministry that operates all over the world. One YWAMer in the
church had his birthday party at the local YWAM base.
cooler, quiet, and has the ocean. 
It reminds us of San Clemente California, complete with Spanish Tile
roofs and coconut palms. We have bananas at every meal because they
grow right outside the window.
We’re being treated like kings and queens in gorgeous marble floored
homes. We are staying in a lovely three story and have visited several
others. 
The uphill drive for four hours coupled with
the constant honking, passing on both sides of the vehicle ahead of us
that we had just 
to grow into unity as we grow into Jesus. 
