God's Sufficient Grace

Delhi, India

For Spring break this year, two teacher-friends of mine, Kristi and Kim, and I struck off to India for 10 days. It's been on my list of places to go while in this part of the world and I've been wanting to go there for a while. We had quite the adventure! There's so much that could be said about it that it's hard to know where to start, but for the sake of clarity, I thought I'd divide our trip up into 3 parts - Delhi, Nagaland, and "transit" to and from Nagaland (including Kolkata - Nagaland is in the very NE part of the country and somewhat difficult to get to so it took us a while!). Here's some excerpts from my journal about Delhi:

We arrived in Delhi late Friday night and spent 4 full days there. I must say that India is not like anywhere I've ever been before and totally unlike Thailand or the other SE Asian countries I've visited this past year. In a word, I'd say India is nuts. Everything is different: the people, the religion(s), the clothes, the architecture, the vehicles and traffic, the food - everything. Many things are wonderful and I'm excited to experience it all - been wanting to for a while - but because it is so different, I've found myself rather overwhelmed and not able to process it all very well. Almost more than in Thailand, I've undergone a lot of culture shock the last few days.

So, because it's so overwhelming, I'll just form a random list of highlights, "lowlights" and observations from our days in Delhi:

~ the people: they're beautiful, albeit seem rough, aggressive and rude after living in Thailand. I LOVE seeing the women, though, dressed in their colorful, flowing sarees with long beautiful hair and lots of jewelry on. They are just very beautiful.

~ the food: definitely a treat. I haven't tried a whole lot I don't like - it's all wonderfully spicy and very different from anything I've tasted. We did have some street food one night with Sarah and Susie, one snack of which was a little odd: a shell/bowl-like crispy thing with a dollop of spicy potato mixture inside and then the remainder of the shell filled with cold water. You put the whole shell in your mouth at once and crunched. Weird texture, but interesting.

~ traffic/roads: they're nuts. I don't think I'll ever be able to call Bangkok's traffic crazy again! Constant honking of horns, rough pavement, way too many cars, "autos" (cute little cars, kind of like a Thai tuk-tuk - almost reminded me of something from Richard Scarry's children books!), motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles all crowded in whatever spaces were available on the streets, all with way-too-aggressive drivers. Oh, and throw in several cows, goats, a few camels and an occasional elephant wandering around. Makes for an interesting ride. (If you were able to move. A few times it was all too congested that we just had to sit there!)

~ one immense blessing was our very gracious hostesses in Delhi: Sarah and Susie. Sarah is a teacher and friend of Kristi and her roommate was working for a Christian business in Delhi. Their apartment was delightful - a haven of rest in the midst of the craziness! - and they were so generous and hospitable in their care for us. But these girls themselves were the greatest delight - immediate friends. We all really enjoyed hearing their perspectives on Indian culture, asking questions and listening to their stories, as well as "debriefing" after our full days. Great times of fellowship. They showed us around the city some and helped with our trip-planning. We definitely couldn't have done this trip without them.

~ Sunday morning worship at Delhi Bible Fellowship. The girls took us to their church for worship and it was a tremendous blessing in every way! I came to the service that morning with the prayers that God would speak the gospel to me through it (sometimes I really need others to remind me of the truths of the gospel - I don't always believe it in the same way when I read it or just tell myself). God abundantly answered that prayer. Christ was in every part of that service - from the Scripture and confession readings and preaching to the music, prayers and Lord's supper. And how awesome it was to see a room full (maybe 75-100?) of people, the majority of which were Indians, worshipping Jesus Christ and to hear several Indian men praying during the service and administering the sacraments. After just a day of observing (and hearing about) a level of brokenness, poverty and sin in this world that I had not known previously, it was beautiful to behold the One who has the power and love to redeem and restore it all (and is even now at work doing that very thing!).

~ the Taj Mahal. Definitely a highlight! As beautiful, majestic and awe-inspiring as any description I've read said it was - perhaps even more so. Also beautiful was the Agra Fort and Red Fort in Delhi and the Jama Masjid mosque we visited. What grand, amazing works of architecture! And I love just being surrounded by walls, towers, minarets and structures that are so much larger than I am - the feeling of being very small while surrounded by such architectural grandeur.

posted by Catherine Rogers @ 2:41 AM