India: Day 8 – The Lord’s Day
Penguin August 28th, 2007
Bombing
Even though we don’t have a TV, we have Wenhai’s Blackberry. The first thing that we talked about was the bombing that happened in Hydrablast.
Hamadri and the girls were surprised that we knew about it already. How this will affect our flight, is still uncertain.
Hamadri’s Church
We had the option of going to an English speaking church, but it didn’t seem appropriate while we were in India. When Hamadri asked yesterday, I asked if we could go to his church. His church was in downtown Kolkata. Service starts around 9 AM, so we would have to get picked up around 8.
The driver picked up the girls and then swung by the apartment to grab us. Just as we were leaving the gates of Peerless Nagar, I was reminded that we were going to try and change our flight time. But I had forgot my ticket back at the apartment. Luckily, we hadn’t gone too far yet. I grabbed the envelope with my ticket in it and jumped back in the van. The humidity had sealed the envelope closed.
It was about an hour’s drive into the city. Even on a Sunday, the traffic was really bad. Hamadri said that during the weekdays, the traffic was even worse. Tons of smoke and dust was kicked into the air.
We arrived at the church around 9:20, the service had already started. The entrance was this short hallway breached by large double doors. The hall opened to a large assembly room with a platform at the other end. In the center of the platform was a small podium, where the MC stood and lead us in the program. Lined up in front were rows of green chairs occupied by worshippers. Just in front, and to the left of the platform sat a small female chorus of 6 or 7. To their left was the pianist on a Roland. In front of them was the electric drummer and the bongo drummer. To their left was a woman operating this odd box piano. We later learned that it was similar to an accordion. The left hand operated a lever that pumped air through the machine.
We hadn’t learned the words for Jesus or Lord in Bengali yet, so it was a little hard to pick out what they were singing about. But the music was lovely. Looking around, even though the hall wasn’t physically full, the room could hardly contain the hearts of these worshippers.
After the singing, there was a time of sharing, where people would stand and give thanks to the Lord for things that had happened during the week. The electric drummer surprised us all by sharing in very good English. He shared about how he went on a long trip by train. Normally, the trip would take about 20 hours, but there was a flood and the train before them had derailed. Luckily, they were safe, but there were no detours they could take. They were land locked and were stuck on the train for close to 56 hours.
During this time, they were in a portion of the jungle that was really dangerous. They gathered some of the larger guys and spent the night patrolling the aisles. And praying. There were no roads to reach the train, so they couldn’t be supplied with food or water. But thanks to the Lord, he was able to make it to his destination. When he was done, he grabbed the redeye back to Kolkata, got a good nights sleep, and made it to worship that day.
After the sharing, there was some more singing. And then the speaker. The man that spoke was the same man that presented while we were at the orphanage. He spoke with such passion and heart. As he spoke, I thought about my own life and how this could be one path. I thought about Power Point presentations. About Pastor Tim’s one point sermons. And about the stories that pastors tell. What would be my preaching style? What would be my signature?
Everywhere we went, we were greeted with such hospitality and generosity. We’re just students and office workers from the states. There’s nothing special about us. Yet we’re treated almost like kings. If every church treated new comers this way, I think our churches would grow like crazy. Instead, we’re so eager to meet up with our friends or get stuff for our ministries done. I can imagine the look on a visitor’s face if they were treated like a king. They would have to ask, “What is it about these people?”
Before the message, we had gone to the front of the congregation to introduce ourselves. The electric drummer was kind enough to translate for us. They were surprised when we spoke a bit of Bengali. To give back a little more, we decided to sing the Bengali songs we knew after the message.
We stood before them again, staring with the English version of “This is the Day”. When we got to the Bengali version, music and drums accompanied us, and the rest of the congregation joined in as well. It was awesome to sing with them. When we sang our second song, we were at their mercy as they repeated the middle line twice, when we only did it once. We closed with our action song, which was really weak.
After the service, we greeted some people, shook hands, and were greatly blessed. The electric drummer came over and introduced himself to us as Kokesh, aka Joy. It turns out, that he was the worship leader for the church. He also worked in IT, so was very interested when I said that we were hear to help CSS with their software. It’s nice being able to connect with people solely on profession.
His wife motioned for Michelle and Alice to come to her. She was a fashion designer and wanted to adjust their saurees for them. This was the third time in three days they had to have their saurees adjusted. It just goes to show how difficult it is to put one on.
We talked to Joy for a bit and he was extremely gracious. We talked about some sight seeing opportunities in Kolkata. Victoria’s Memorial, of course, and the museum. The museum was the biggest and best museum in India. He also talked about the zoo, but suggested that we probably shouldn’t go because it’s really dry and hot there.
Emmy mentioned that we needed to get our tickets changed. The airport was a good 20 clicks away, so it would be a bit of a trek. Luckily, Joy travels a lot on Jet Airways and told us that there was an office only 3 clicks from the church. What a blessing!
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