This is the school that the meetings were held in. It was just recently built by Maranatha about 7 months ago! It's on the campus of a school built back in the 70's that's in need of new structures.
Here is the inside of the school during the meetings on Sabbath. Quite an impressive structure.
I asked the girls to let me take a quick picture. It was a very hot that day. The girl above was friendly and introduced herself. Her name was Leelah, and she was in the 9th standard (grade) at the school. Indian society is so segregated that I'm still trying to comprehend the implications of it. I can't imagine not having the softening influence of female friends during my childhood, adolescence, etc. The lifestyle around the cities is more westernized but in the vast countryside traditional values remain. I've been told that the Hindu culture has led people to assume that if a young man and woman are alone together and aren't married that they are in an inappropriate relationship. When I asked where is courtship in Indian culture my friend burst out laughing, "There is no courtship!" The whole arranged marriage situation boggles my mind and I'll wait until I understand it better before I write about it. The other night, however, I learned from the director's wife, a very sweet woman, that Indian women will remain single until death if a relationship fails. They will not love another man. That's heartbreaking to me and is expressive of the very delicate female Indian's heart. I would quickly insert here that I am living in Tamil Nadu which I have been told is the most traditional region of India. This situation is certainly not the case in the big cities and in certain places.
I was speaking with the Kenyan brother on my left when a group of young men came over and asked to take this picture. Coming from affectionate Colombia to reserved India has been a unique experience. Not many people came up to speak with me and when they did it was very brief. They all seemed very happy to learn that I was from America. I tell you coming to India radically changes your perspective of America. Americans are tremendously wealthy, comfortable, and entertained compared to the majority of the world. There are three times more people in India than in the US and they live in less than a third of the land area.
This picture has quite a story behind it! We caught an "Air bus" and a sleeper bus for our overnight bus trip. When the bus would speed along and hit a bump we would literally jump feet into the air and hit our heads on the ceiling. The first smack on the ceiling sent me jumping out of my seat to the front to stand like the Pastor here. It was terribly, terribly, uncomfortable and we seriously considered changing buses and losing our money. We switched seats and found it was acceptable and soon fell into a deep sleep. I listened to The Bible in Living Sound during all these long, tedious bus rides. It helped so much! I purchased some $10 headphones before I came that turned out to be a blessing because they cancel noise! There's a LOT of noise in India (obnoxious music and blaring horns--they really like the horns here). I was astonished when I took out my headphones and had to yell to talk to the person sitting next to me on the bus. I spent $50 on the 52 hours of Bible stories in the complete Bible in Living Sound series. It's been one of the best investments I've made in a long time! I listen to it while falling asleep every night.
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