Tea Tales

The second day in Coimbatore we woke before the sun to travel to Ooty, a hill station located about three or four hours north. Ooty is a popular attraction for tourists as well as locals. It offers a beauty and escape that can only truly be experienced to be fully understood. Reaching an elevation of just under 8,000ft, Ooty was an adventure to drive up and down. Tea plantations cover the landscape as you ascend and it is beautiful! Monkeys and colorful flowers beg your eyes to be diverted from the nauseating roads. There is a mountain face that takes your breath away, especially at sunrise!

D’Jonna, Katie and I got to bunk in a very cute British hotel that had a heater we all thought looked more like an overhead projector, and only found it after a night spent under all of the covers with our jackets on, lol! Yes, it actually gets cold in India! It was a lovely stay and our hotel made us feel extremely spoiled with all of its amenities.

In among these hills rest several churches that we had the pleasure of visiting. Our first day we attended five churches and were delighted in each by their warm hospitality and genuine worship! I was lavished with gifts at almost every stop and was humbled by the joyful and selfless generosity that overflowed from these precious and content hearts. In the evening we were able to attend two house churches and my spirit felt very close to Heaven; being around Jesus in people makes me want to be with Him in person!!

Tea has a way of making me miss my Mom! She loves to drink tea and often :) She and I have enjoyed sipping the tea that I bought while in Ooty and sharing stories of the ways in which God continues to grow our faith in Him, not too different than the way that tea grows and is then exposed to the harsh conditions (heat, pressure or both) which arouse its flavor and prepare it for use. I came home with a deeper appreciation for my family. My parents and I have always been close, but while in Coimbatore I was inspired and convicted about how the west seems to view family compared to the east. I will say, as an American, that I have much to learn with regards to relationships. Blesson and I were able to have a discussion about arranged marriages one afternoon and I was struck by the blessing of parental involvement and the essence of prayer, trust, and dependence on the Lord and wisdom from our family to heed His direction in choosing a mate. He gave the analogy that dating can sometimes be like tape stuck and unstuck continuously, leading to, over time, the loss of its stickiness. I was thankful to listen and learn from his wise counsel. I am extremely grateful that God has blessed me with godly parents who are praying for the Lord's will to be done in my life! I know He answers those prayers, because He says so: John 14:14 and 1 John 5:14, and He can be trusted :) It is easy to want my will instead of His; I am being taught what obedience looks like in this area currently.

Chili Pepper Sneezes

The sun was happily half way through its morning stroll as we drove into Pollachi on Wednesday afternoon. Jim, Aaron and I were excited to see where the new church would be built-but little did we know that we would begin by seeing where its members met at present. In-between two rough walls sat a beautiful congregation of brown eyed brothers and sisters! The little roof was a patch work of bamboo sticks and straw, and maybe a little tin too. A young boy played a simple beat on his drum and their Tamil worship continued, but with a little white skinned distraction interspersed. I was invited to lead an English song, and Jim found it necessary that I use the tambourine happily quieted at his end of the table in front of the church. So I very Pentecostally shook it and led them in “Every Move I Make.”

The Pastor of this humble church began to express to us the measure of their gratitude for our commitment to fund the building project. He explained that just outside of the curtain hanging behind him was a wash area for clothes-which in India is quite a loud process. Clothes are first soaked in water, then scrubbed on a sheet of metal with a brush or just hand and rinsed. The whipping action for drying the clothes is what is so loud though. Little concrete squares are lashed with the clothing to beat out the water. This was cause enough to need a different location in my mind, but he continued. Chili peppers were gathered in large baskets just outside and were popped and divided by workers daily. He explained to us that often his congregation would sneeze and cry because of the potent and irritating scent. The rent for their small space was high and did not allow for room or functionality for any type of celebration, growth in numbers, or sustainability. The heart that spoke to us, as a leader in his congregation, was humbled and blessed by the visual and tangible expression of grace being given in the financial gifts of those we were simply their to convey as Ambassadors from Hope Church, and ultimately our Savior!

I was the only American woman on this particular journey, so I was already singled out without much trouble, but at the end of the service I was especially noticed because little camera phones were boldly desiring to capture my image for keeps. I was asked to pose with the young and the old, so I did with pink cheeks! It was about the third picture in when I noticed a burning sensation in my eyeballs and little pools of tears started to leak out the corners of my eyes. I think they must have thought I was really touched by their love, but then my throat began to feel thick on the inside and I knew this was not normal. Then the worst part began, loud boy sneezes came rifling through my nostrils before I had much time to react, and there were not just one or two folks, I mean these were like 12 in succession! I walked out from under the little roof and saw the culprits being popped into baskets, bright and colorful red chili peppers were boasting their fragrance something fierce! I had never experienced a reaction quite like I did in Pollachi that afternoon, but it made me even more grateful for Kleenex and a new building being built for our sweet brothers and sisters.

After meeting with the congregation we were taken to the location where the building will begin being constructed. The plot of land that has been purchased is nestled up close to plenty of opportunity to reach their neighbors for Christ. Pray for the pastor and the church as this will also cause potential confrontation to have a church built in a staunch Hindu area. It is a blessing to know that our church in America has been able to collaborate with a church in India to simply obey the desires of our Lord!

While we were looking around the land, some of the villagers came up and wanted to see one of the guys in our team, Vince. They began calling him Tom Cruise and wanting his picture. At first it was funny and we all enjoyed a laugh, but then the crowd increased and it became a bit more aggressive. Jonathan asked that we get in the bus and we all obliged without much hesitation. The door of the bus was even crowded with villagers trying to reach out for one more touch of famous flesh! It was a really interesting experience, and I think that "Tom Cruise" will now be known in that village where the church is being built. Vince does not really resemble Tom Cruise, but Aaron, who is definitely not Asian at all was called Jet Lee, and that made us laugh really hard!!!