The Chittoor Postmortem

It is over. The chairs have been put away, the tarps stored, and the sound equipment packed. The evangelistic meetings have concluded. It was not an easy four days, but it was deeply meaningful. I think that we made the most impact with the children of the town of Chittoor. Coincidentally, I believe they also made the biggest impact on us as well. At least, I know that they made a significant impact on me.

From the very first, all of the kids would crowd around me, wanting to shake my hand, talk to me, or have me join their coloring group during the VBS activities. To my surprise, even after the initial excitement of having a foreigner amongst them, the kids still wanted to hang around me 100% of the time. There were especially two brothers who loved to be around us (Quinston, Vandeman, and me) and help us in whatever way they could - by carrying our things or going to get us something we needed. In fact, on the last night of the meetings, Sridhar and Joy (the brothers) honored us with "one small gift." It was some sort of display ornament made out of a CD and some plastic decorations. We thanked them profusely and "snapped one photo" (Indians often use the word one instead of the indefinite article a) of us, them and the imparted gift. We also went to their house to visit them the next day after having breakfast, which they were greatly excited about.

To support the view that these children were very excited about having us visit their town, I will relate a story that I heard. Apparently Joy, the younger of the two brothers was so taken with us that one night, after the rest of the family was in bed, he had risen from bed and sneaked out of the house. Making his way out to the main road, he hoped to see us on our way back to the hotel from where we ate supper at the Principal's house. Of course, after hearing a story like this and receiving such a fine gift we had no choice but to visit their home. Their hospitality was exemplary and they offered us all Fanta (which Joy purchased from a nearby shop while we were talking with his mother).

Speaking of talking with the people there, one thing that made it possible for Sridhar, Joy, and S. Mohan Raj to be our little buddies is that they could actually speak English reasonably well. This was not the case for many of the people there. At every house we went to visit the conversation was carried on in Telugu and I just sat and watched the people's expressions and body languages and thought about whatever came to mind since I had no idea what was going on. Every once in a while everyone would start laughing and look at me which would notify me that I was the topic of conversation. The funny thing was that they all seemed to expect a response, but I would just stare dumbly back and shrug. At this point, Dr. Wilson would usually say, "The comment is on you, how do you respond?"

"I have no idea what the comment was," I would reply. Then someone would relate to me what had happened and I would try to come up with something witty to say in response (which would inevitably fail). One thing that I started to notice about not being able to take part in the conversations is that it takes a lot of social pressure off. I enjoyed doing the visitations because all I had to do was sit there and reap the rewards of the Indians' hospitality and be off in my own little world, or try to guess what everyone was talking about.

The meetings themselves went well from what I could tell. We had a good turnout -- we almost filled the venue every night. Hopefully the meetings will help to jumpstart the growth of the church in Chittoor. The membership at present is VERY small. On Sabbath we had a grand total of five adults show up for the service -- the attendees were mostly kids. Not even the people who were baptized at the end of the meetings bothered to come to church on Sabbath. We did have over ten baptisms at the end of the meetings, however -- hopefully these will add to the foundation of the church.

Chittoor is a decent sized town and not at all hostile towards Christianity so the church there should definitely be bigger than it is. Unfortunately, the Seventh-day Adventist church there has gained a reputation for being both a poor person's church (there are no prosperous members at present) and a fighting church (the previous pastor and principal of the school did not get along). Please pray that these false impressions will be laid to rest by the new leadership there and that the people of Chittoor will be lead to the truth.

Chittoor: First Impressions

The following entry was written on April 10, 2009, the first full day that we stayed in Chittoor.

Well, the first part of the journey is over. We arrived in Chitoor yesterday after about three and a half to four hours in the car. We also stopped in Vellore for probably close to an hour to visit both Dr. McGees. The visit was very pleasant and we all felt much more able to continue our journey to Chitoor after a cold drink and a couple of cookies. Once we arrived in Chitoor we barely had enough time to shower and get dressed at our hotel before we needed to head off to the evangelistic meetings.

We got to the meetings and I saw that it was not going to be a large affair - which was a relief to me since I tend to get nervous in front of crowds. At the meetings I basically had two responsibilities: give the health talk and pray for the people. I was a little apprehensive about the first one since I had not brought a hard copy of the script for the powerpoint I was supposed to work with. It turned out that I was able to use the soft copy on my computer for the script and use Dr. Wilson's computer for the actual slides . One interesting thing about the talk was that it was my first time talking through a translator. I believe it went well - I can't really be sure what the translator was saying so he could have been telling them anything, really. The only problem was that we arrived late so I had to cut the talk short, which was rather awkward.

The real interesting thing about the meetings was what happened afterward. They had me pray for everyone. This may sound perfectly normal, but the reader must understand that this wasn't just a public prayer that lasted for a minute and then was over. I was expected to pray for two or three people at a time as they left. I am not sure how I feel about this. I suppose Jesus would have people gather to Him so that He could bless them. However, the people could actually understand Jesus when He blessed them. I do not believe most of the people could understand me, but fortunately, there was someone there who was able to translate some of the people's requests to me so I had something to pray for other than "Please stay with these people as they leave this place" or something like that. The only thing I am sure about is that everyone was sooo excited to have "Brother Steve" pray for them. Which brings me to my next thought. About half way through the meeting I noticed that there was a big banner on the wall behind the podium. It proudly announced the meetings and the two biggest attractions that would be there: "Dr. Wilson - Speaker, Radio Speaker, Hosur" and "Brother Steve - Family and Health Talks, Hosur." That cracked me up. They sure know how to make someone feel welcome.

After some delicious Indian food we headed back to our hotel and got some sleep (after watching a short episode of Mr. Bean haha). This morning, after singing happy birthday to Quinston "Ricky" Wilson who turned sixteen today, eating breakfast, and having worship at the hotel, we headed out for Vacation Bible School. This program was much more relaxed and turned out to be quite a bit of fun. Again, I had two responsibilities: tell a story (which turned out to be about Elisha) and lead out in the coloring activities. There are a group of boys there who have taken a special liking to me so I entertained them by taking their picture and also spent most of my coloring time with them. The story was quite interesting because Ricky was translating for me into Tamil, but apparently he's not completely fluent in it. It turned out alright though - his mother merely got up after we were done and explained the story to the kids again, to my amusement.

So far, I must admit that I'm having a good time. Resting up/preparing for the evening meeting is the extent of my responsibilites at the moment: can't complain about that. I hope the health talk this evening goes well...

Bananas... and Evangelizing

I just wanted some bananas!

I never thought that would have been a big request, but the lady wouldn't give me any bananas. I went to the shop right near the entrance to the gate specifically because I had been without bananas for the last few days and I thought it would be good to incorporate some more fruit into my diet. I went up to the counter and was greeted with the customary, "Sir?"

"Ten bananas please," I replied, gesturing to the fruits hanging behind me from the ceiling. At this shop, you ask for how many bananas you want and the shop keeper comes out and cuts them down for you. I saw that the bananas were particularly green, but that's fine -- it takes me a while to go through ten bananas anyway. I rarely get through ten before I have to freeze a couple, even if they are green when I buy them.

The lady frowned and walked out, but she did not have the knife in hand. She squeezed the bananas, frowned again, shook her head and said, "No." Then she said something in Tamil which I took to mean, "Too green."

I gestured to the bananas and said, "They're fine."

She shook her head again. "No, tommorow," she said. I tried to make it clear that I didn't care what color the bananas were, but she would not sell them to me. She even consulted her friend in the back of the shop who evidently confirmed her decision.

"So you're not going to sell me any bananas?" I asked, flabbergasted, but realizing that my arguments were not getting me anywhere. She shook her head and walked back behind the counter. I really had not planned on buying anything else, but I did not want to completely waste the trip and ended up purchasing some eggplants. The only explanation I can think of is that the price for bananas is cheaper when they're that green and she didn't want to sell them at that price. It was frustrating, but I got to enjoy my bananas a couple of days later.

In other news, I am going to help out with some evangelistic meetings near Vellore tomorrow. Pray that we'll be a blessing to the people.