India - Day Two

Its 4:00 in the morning and we’re in a Delhi hotel. Jet lag is a killer. I can’t go back to sleep. So I quietly type.

I don’t think India ever sleeps. Already the streets are filled with noice. And I can hear birds outside my window. Its a surreal thing to wake up on the other side of the world, while everyone in the States are going about their busy days. Doing their thing. I think I forget how connected we are. I’m reminded of how we are right now. What I do affects others. What I’m doing in the States has an impact on other people. My own personal empire I’m building. My government’s empire that they’re spreading.

It’s a humbling thing to realize that everybody in the world is moving and building. It’s a humbling thing to realize how often I’m building things in my world that aren’t even on the radar of the rest of the world. And yet I keep advancing. Refusing to be connected.

We met Ameet around 10:00. He’s 25 like me and a local pastor in Delhi. Most churches in India are high church. Meaning very Anglican and liturgical. Its really a white man’s church. Ameet’s community is different. They are one of the few groups that could be considered “missional”. Meaning, they care more about people than numbers. They care more about the education and health care of their people than making converts. But at the same time, are promoting a different way of doing things.

He’s from the Punjab province. Which is in the northwest region of India along the Pakistan border. The Punjab people are a very proud group. The best way I know to relate it, is kind of like Texas. Texans are very proud of their Texas orgins. And we all know that Texas is really its own country. Its the same way with the Punjabi people. They are proud to be Punjab. Its the first thing they tell you when they meet you. “I’m Ameet and I’m Punjabi.” Don’t mess with Punjab.

Anyway, Ameet works with the only Punjabi church in Delhi. Now you have to get this . . . there “building” is in the middle of one of the biggest slums in Delhi. 3,000 families live in this slum. Their houses . . . are made of tarps. And they’re about the size of a mid-sized car. So entire families live underneath these tents/tarps that are the size of a mid-sized car. 3,000 of them. Sewer is in the little pathways. Bugs are flying everywhere. Kids are walking around naked. They’re cooking with cow feces (I’ll explain later). And in the middle there is this building. Where 350 people meet to center their lives around God.

The building is about 20×60. Four walls. Thatched roof. Concrete floor. No musical instruments. 6 plastic chairs.

This is their church. And it was beautiful.

We met with a couple of the leaders. And they sang us a Punjabi song. That’s Ameet on the drums. And his nephew, Mykel.

We then took a drive around Delhi. Saw more slums. People everywhere. Rickshaws. Scooters. Motorcycles. Bicycles. Cars. Taxis. Vans. Horns were going off every half second. Dipping in and out of traffic. There were also cows just walking around everywhere. In the streets. On the sidewalks. In the median. In the picture below, there are probably 20 cows in the middle of the street. Just laying down.

We went to one of the nicest shopping districts in Delhi. It would be like 5th Avenue or Rodeo Drive or some other uppity place like that. This is where all the nice expensive stores were. It was right next to our hotel and was basically one of the nicest places in Delhi. This is what it looked like.

We leave about 5 to fly to Amristar. Where we’ll stay the rest of the week. I watch cricket at the airport while we wait for our flight and fall in love with it. It may be one of the best games ever. We get there at 9:00. And meet up with Veshal, another 25 year old pastor. I eat my first Indian meal, albeit at a nice hotel so it was much different than a typical Indian meal. But I ate it. Survived it. Then went to sleep on my 2 foot wide bed.