So now i've been in Pune for two weeks. It's been nice... It's been a mix of bliss and other things all in one experience... I've been pooped on by birds, had sleepless nights vomitting, yet have enjoyed good fellowship, made many new friends, and have had many different experiences--non of which could be preconcieved or expected... The mix of modernity and poverty is shocking...one family rich with flat screen tv's, laptops, nice cars and motorcycles, and another family scrapping their 20-40 dollar a month salery to make ends meat--or rather vegetables because meat would be too expensive...A place which streets are home to over 40 thousand street children living under unbarable heat, dust, and pollution...I was just talking with a friend the other day who lives off 20 dollars a month of support to do missions... Coming from a family that lives in utter poverty. It's hard to believe in the west...we spend 20 dollars on haircuts and ten dollars on movie tickets...without even thinking twice about it... Yet someone else, is trying to figure out how they'll live on that for one month... If we were to make relationships with the poor...to step out...into the broken places...maybe we would have compassion...maybe our vision would change...maybe we could start to see things from a different perspective...Today I was at Coffee Jar, a nice coffee shop here in Pune, and I met this guy Josh from the US...and he was asking me, "how do you support yourself...do you have what you need?" I stopped and thought to myself..."I have more than I need...I have shelter and I have food...but what about those around me..." There are people that suffer...There are people who struggle to have their needs met... Something in me says we need to say no to vanity and yes to relationship with the poor, the needy, and with those who are struggling to have their needs met... They are people too...They are people with dreams and visions...They are people with desires... They are people who have been hurt by the opression of unjust governments, corruption, lies, and deception... They are people with a name and with a heart...just like you and me...struggling to survive... So...Really, I've come to Pune just to visit friends. I came to visit my friend Christian before he went back to the States...but now i find myself here...looking around...meeting people along the way...realizing... there's something more going on here...I believe it is even more key than teaching. Not that teaching is bad, no...Teaching is good. It's that the teaching without fellowship is dead. Just like faith without works is dead... Fellowship with God and with others is center...and should be the center of our faith--our love for one another...If we go to church, or any religious activity for that matter, and we hear the sermon, watch the people, pray, and leave...yet have ignored those in need...should we even call it a church? Does our physical body forsake one member or another it's nourishment? Maybe we should venture out...maybe we should take a step...lend our hand...to the one who's caught in dispair by the troubles and heaviness of this world...to raise those up who have been trampled down...And give what little joy and fruit we have...give our heart...our love...our compassion...to turn the wastelands into habitable dwellings...and dry lands into fruitful vinyards To help others achieve their dreams and visions...to help others live and prosper ...to help restore this broken world to the way God intended it to be...
It's hard though...Literacy rate for women is less than 50 percent. Life expectancy is about 60 years...and political instability and corruption worry the minds of the people...
Here is a view from the top of our house in Dharamsala! It is quite a beautiful place! I have enjoyed my time here and to be able to stay here. I did miss thanksgiving in the states though... As they don't celebrate it here...It was hard... But the times have been good. I have enjoyed the daily home fellowships and to be able to share faith. Now, however, I'll be leaving Dharamsala. I'll be going to visit a friend of mine in the south of India. Now I am really starting to realize I am in India. It is a beautiful country with many different tribes and tongues. Yet, at the same time it is a country that is in great political and religious termoil.
