another...

...article that points to the injustice in India

here.

giants in India

I hope I don't get squished.

I'm starting to feel like we've been called to capture the actions of giants. To use an analogy in our training materials: I feel bit like a mouse in a ring with elephants. And getting squished is a real possibility.

The more I learn about India, the more I meet giant men of God who have been faithfully obeying the Lord for years. Men who have received big visions from God. Men who are putting everything on the line.

I've been frustrated with my inability to cast the vision of what God is doing in India. I just don't know where to begin. It always seems like my mind goes to the small individual stories.

Here's one story on Newsong Live, from one of the giants I mentioned.

The Journey Continues "A Cry..."

A Cry…
I almost brushed “Sonja”, not quite touched, as I leaned over to get water from the kitchen sink, in Hyderabad India. The servant girl “Sonja” pulled back with perfuse apologies and stretched her hand toward me and then putting it to her bowed head in utter submission time and time again. I did not speak her language yet it was unmistakably clear she was seeking forgiveness and acknowledging submission and accepting my superiority.

I was embarrassed, shocked and taken aback. I did not know how to respond especially when nothing wrong was done. Even if there had been a mistake it was a shocking response. I was visibly surprised and quickly I sought privacy in my room to get a handle on it. Why was this normal hardworking young woman so distraught by the possibility of a slight brush of another human?

I was daunted that ‘Sonja’ was conditioned in her social and belief system that she is not equal but less of other humans in her world. I remember Sunil Sardar explaining that, Hinduism as taught by the Brahmins and believed by the vast population that the few were created from the head to rule and the others from shoulders, side and the leg or the foot to be servants and untouchable. They believe Brahmins are higher cast being created from the head, rest are to slavery of the mind to believe in their fate.

Latter that week David Lall from the Madhya Pradesh, India, in a meeting was relating to us the terror of a woman from one village who was forced to sleep with the Hindu priest, a spiritual leader before she would be allowed to be married in his village. He said the lower caste woman submits without resistance regularly and they take the place without question because of the Cast slavery in India. Even though this practice is outlawed and illegal, no protection of any kind is provided and hence the practice goes on even now.

I was so incensed and visibly upset that I had to excuse myself to get it together before I returned. I wondered how could we be talking about it so matter of factly? Is there any ounce of outrage left for justice and human dignity in us any longer? I could not sleep that night. Sorrow engulfed my soul and anger and rage within me began to build as I imagined what would I have done if this girl were my own precious, fragile and beautiful daughter?

I could not contain myself and I cried and sobbed like there was no end, and asked God to help me in any way to bring His freedom to these 850 million backward caste caught up in the cross road of slavery and awful abuse. It was not easy to own up to this about my own country. I with intense grief questioned how could I be so free while so many of my innocent brothers and sisters were being raped by these ruthless religious hooligans.


I keep asking why me? I am not ready for a task so impossible and I don’t trust myself to keep my cool, if I am ever to encounter face to face such gross prejudice and human indignity. I know the afflictions of these people have taken apiece right out of my heart for sure. I can’t wipe them out of my mind, and my soul is perpetually heavy. I am for the first time beginning to grasp why my master has been called ‘a man of sorrow’. He is showing me the plane delays, discomfort of flying long distance, jetlags, being alone at times and mosquitoes, are nothing in comparison to people’s suffering in their abject poverty and cruel discrimination.

Ecclesiastes 7:4
“The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of merrymaking.” This is a heard lesson for me to learn that I must seek to be connected with suffering Indian people and not disengage or mask the grief of their pain. It is my prayer that, I rather have my heart in the house of morning with those who weep than be elsewhere.

Lot of questions: How will my family deal with the call of this intensity and magnitude? Will the churches see this as a call or be lost in its own agenda? Will friends see this as hype or a heartfelt cry of the people in slavery for help? Will people abandon us because this is too out there for their comfort? Will the free world respond with compassion? Will there be coming together or splitting apart on this call...? I don’t know about you but as for me please pray that I will do as “He will” and will not excuse myself...

Hopefully a faithful seeker,
Jaipaul

what time is it?

Out of curiosity, I decided to check the local time in New Delhi. It's currently 2:17am here and 2:47pm there. I never knew a time zone could be a half hour off. Interesting...

Please keep praying. It's come to our attention that there may be individuals who might not like what we're doing over there, and might try to sabotage or interfere. Please pray for protection. On the flip side, people keep telling us how blessed we'll be on our trip. So we can choose to think about our fears or the blessings... Sure, we may come into contact with opposition, but I am confident (in the Lord) that the blessings will far outweigh any trouble.

2 weeks to go. Then it's 11 hours to London and 8 more to India where it's 12 1/2 hours ahead. Trying to figure out what book to buy for the plane....

articles

a pair of recent articles on India

this one involves monkeys.

the one below was forwarded to peter by his sister.

The New York Times
September 27, 2007

New Delhi Journal

Picking Up Trash by Hand, and Yearning for Dignity

By AMELIA GENTLEMAN

NEW DELHI — After a bad day at work, Manorama Begum can hardly keep from vomiting. After a good day, she is merely disinclined to eat for a few hours, until the stench has receded from her nostrils and her fingernails have been scrubbed clean.

A garbage collector in India's capital, Ms. Begum is one of 300,000 little-seen workers who perform a vital role for the city: rifling through the detritus of modern life, recycling anything of worth and carefully disposing of the rest.

More than 95 percent of New Delhi has no formal system of house-to-house garbage collection, so it falls to the city's ragpickers, one of India's poorest and most marginalized groups, to provide this basic service. They are not paid by the state, relying instead on donations from the communities they serve and on meager profits from the sale of discarded items.

But after centuries of submissive silence, the waste collectors are beginning to demand respect.

On Oct. 2, Gandhi's birthday, the Delhi state government will make a small but significant concession. In response to pressure from a ragpickers' union, it will supply about 6,000 with protective gloves, boots and aprons.

For now, though, they still pick through refuse — shards of glass smeared with the remains of yesterday's dinner, broken shoes mixed in with rotting meat — with bare hands.

This is the first time the government has made any effort to recognize this band of essential workers, and the moment will be marked with a celebration near the city's Gandhi memorial.

"Looking after rubbish, anywhere in the world, is not dignified," said J. K. Dadoo, the secretary of Delhi's Environment Ministry. "The very fact that we have acknowledged that we need to look after their health is a tremendous acknowledgment of their dignity."

The waste collectors are underwhelmed by the move. They do not want gloves, they say. They want wages, pensions, health care, uniforms that they hope will discourage police harassment, education for their children and decent housing.

The waste disposal system here is informal yet highly organized. Its capacity to recycle plastics and paper is efficient beyond the dreams of the most progressive recycling nations in the West. In a society where hundreds of millions live in desperate poverty, everything has a value and nothing is redundant. Most strikingly, the city's neglect of those who perform this service is typical of a much broader blindness toward those excluded from India's blossoming economy.

Ms. Begum, 35, learns much about humanity during her daily rounds of 350 government apartments occupied by low-ranking state employees in south Delhi. Sifting through the onion peels, chickpeas and half-eaten chapatis, she can tell which families are struggling and which are feeling flush. From her fleeting encounters with them every morning, she knows which households consist of good people and which she would rather avoid.

There are the hard-up families, who save their plastic milk cartons to sell to passing dealers for a few extra rupees. There are the generous ones, like those who recently donated money for Ms. Begum's 16-year-old daughter's wedding. There are the mean-spirited, who never give the expected monthly donation of 10 rupees, or 25 cents, she needs to feed her four children.

"If everyone paid me, I'd earn 3,500 rupees," she said, about $88. "I never even get 1,500," about $38.

She has other ways of gleaning a return for her work. Finding good food discarded among the litter, she transfers it to a separate plastic bag. Later she will give it to one of the dairies whose cows wander the streets of Delhi, in exchange for milk for her younger children.

The work is exhausting, but she said that after 14 years she had developed stamina.

Her husband, Muhammad Nazir, who works in a more affluent area, said he could see the city's transformation in the trash he handled. "People are earning more, they are spending more, they are throwing more stuff away now that Delhi has got rich," he said.

But it remains hard to scrape an existence from the refuse of middle-class life. The couple separate the vegetable matter from plastic bags (about 2 to 3 cents per 2.2 pounds), newspapers (2 to 3 cents) and glass bottles (about 18 cents), then take the salable items for sorting in their nearby slum, where the middleman is based. On average, they each earn 30 to 50 rupees a day, about 76 cents to $1.26.

In a home made from items salvaged on their rounds (the walls lined with flattened cardboard boxes; the ceiling patched with automobile floor mats), they express bitterness about their lives. "It is the poverty that makes us do this work," Ms. Begum said. "If I had an alternative, I wouldn't be doing it. Who would like to collect garbage?"

At a meeting of ragpickers organized by a support group called Chintan, the government's plan was met with little satisfaction. Several people told of beatings by police officers suspicious of their presence in residential areas in the early morning. Some said the city authorities refused to grant them space for sorting recyclable goods, and constantly harassed them to move on.

"They are providing us with gloves and boots just so we don't get sick and stop working," Mr. Nazir said. "If we stop, who is going to do this work instead of us? They know they won't find other people who are willing. Within two days the whole city would be stinking and filthy."

Ironic

Isn't it ironic that the Cleveland Indians are doing so well in the ALCS and we're going to India.  It is definitely a sign.  

I think the most interesting part of this trip was how spontaneous it was from the start.  It was just Pastor Adam coming up to me and asking if I wanted to go to India.  Then I pull Peter into the conversation and then BAM!!!!.   Its on.  I think its Legen.......  wait for it....... dary.  Phone five.

I'm really looking forward to what this video can become.  A tool to spark people's interest.  To make people aware of the crap that these OBC's (other backward castes) have to endure in India.  When I say crap, I mean it literally for some individuals in India.  Hopefully, this will make more people want to do something about the injustices not only in India but in our own backyard.  I have to say that i'm ashamed at the lack of voter turnout in the U.S. to change things.  

In the immortal words of Michael Jackson from the song, Man in the Mirror.  Make that change. 

Schedule in India

Our rough schedule in India. Thank you Steve Smith so much for all your hard work on this.

Mon, Nov 12- Team arrives, 1:25am. Sleep, rest. Devotions, visit Jama Masjiid (mosque) and Old Delhi to get a flavor for how the majority of urban Indians live. Goal- stay awake.

Tues, Nov 13- Day of interviews- Sardars, Smiths, and others as listed below.

Wed, Nov 14- Film Sunil’s cultural keys.

Thurs, Nov 15- Film Sunil’s cultural keys. Come to small group at Smith house (not for filming purpose, simply for refreshment and fellowship).

Fri, Nov 16- Day off- visit Agra.

Sat, Nov 17- Pre-visit to Delhi footwashing site for interviews of footwash-ees.

Sun, Nov 18- Orientation and Satsung

Mon, Nov 19- Footwashing Program- Uttar Pradesh site- 100 km away.

Tues, Nov 20- Footwashing Program- Dehli site.

Wed, Nov 21- Footwashing Program- Agra site- transport by train.

Thurs, Nov 22- Sleep in. Afternoon Worship and Thanksgiving Meal.

Fri, Nov 23 - Possible revisit of compelling footwashee, etc.

Sat, Nov 24 - Team departs, 6:55am

outings

we've had a few outings leading up to the trip.

one saturday, we took our cameras and went into downtown to take some pictures. here are some of them. It was downtown on a saturday so it was pretty dead. I imagine India will be a bit more crowded.

we also went to see the Darjeeling Limited. The opening scene is of Bill Murray in a speeding taxi, weaving through traffic, people and animals as he rushes to catch a train. Seeing India got me excited to go.. seeing the movie got me excited about filmmaking. simultaneous excitement.

we went to this place Pink Taco after. slightly overpriced. get the tacos.

our brothers in India

A few weeks ago, I said goodbye to my mentor and older brother Nitro as he left his position as Director of Creative Arts Ministry at my church: Newsong LA. On stage, I stumbled on my words as I struggled to find the right things to say thank you for all that he's done for me. My gratitude for all the love that God has poured through this man. Then the miracle of it all hit me.

Who would look at this skinny four-eyed Asian kid and this tough stocky black man and guess that we were brothers? And I mean REAL brothers. Who would guess that this former engineer from South Korea and this former music producer from South Bronx would be thick as thieves?

That is the blessing of my church. No... that is the blessing of THE church. That every week I worship with a little slice of what heaven will look like. Not just with people that look like me. And that I serve in the trenches with people I never imagined I would serve with.

And now that brings us to India. I am asked all the time, why we're going. Yes, we're going because of the 750 million Indians of lower castes who have been systemically oppressed for 3000 years. And yes, we will shoot a documentary that we believe will help the fight against that oppression. But above all, it is because our brothers in India are our REAL brothers in Christ. And we will worship with them. And we will serve in the trenches with them, as they fight and follow God's command:

Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Psalms 82:3 (KJV)

immunizations

im not sure if I'm allowed to post the same day as Peter, but I'll check on that later..

so when I went to get immunizations, I was unaware that meningitis was a problem in India.. Maybe it was a scam, but the nice lady described it this way - you can get it by just standing around and then you'll feel flu like symptoms. Then you'll go home and die. So I went ahead and got that one.. please pray for those of us who didn't..

the funniest comment I've heard about our picture was from a friend of Tracy (if you don't know her, it's not super important.. no offense, Tracy) who said something like this - They're letting that little kid go to India?

..or maybe it was the saddest comment..

letter

We hope all is well in your life as we would like to share some exciting news in ours. We’re going to India. “Why?” you ask. Well, keep reading.

The four of us have been invited to document an event put on by Truthseekers International over the Thanksgiving holiday. If you click the link at the end of this sentence, you’ll see information on the event from their Footwashing India brochure (link)…Okay, done reading?

As you know, we dabble in film, video and photography. Some of us are even lucky enough to make a living at it. As artists, we have a unique gift that can not only bless Truthseekers and the Indian people, but also you at home. We’re called to be witnesses of the gospel and this event is the gospel in action. What better way to demonstrate God’s love for people than through honoring, blessing, praying for and washing the feet of Indian peoples who have been rejected for centuries in India? And we get to witness this grand act of love. Not only that, God has blessed us with the opportunity to bring back the words and actions of our brothers and sisters in India back to you. This opportunity is tailor made for us to use our talents to bless others…and by tailor, we mean God.

Join us, will you? Here’s the help we need. Most importantly, please partner with us in prayer. Some things to pray for:

- God’s protection against spiritual and physical obstacles
- Sensitivity to His will
- A collaborative attitude
- That we can capture this event honestly and truthfully

Also, our goal is to raise $2500 each for airfare, food, production costs and other living expenses while in India. We will be leaving on November 10th and coming back on the 24th. Please send your support by November 3rd (checks payable to NewSong Church, tax deductible - write INDIA MISSION in subject line if you dont have a reponse card) to:

NewSong Church
5800D Hannum Ave
Suite D
Culver City, CA 90230

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it.

Love and Blessings,
Jenny and Gary, Peter, Yooch