Ishu su hai (Jesus be with you)!

Greetings from Dibadhi Village near Ranchi in Northern India! It is another place that I’ve been longing to see since I first began working with Nijhar and Neeraj Ekka at Luther Seminary 5 ½ years ago. What an exciting welcome it was with them! Great to finally see them, their home and their growing kids! Immediate familiarity and non-stop conversation (not only am I being spoiled by lots of English being spoken, but even my Minnesotan English is appreciated!) has been going on since I arrived as we’ve caught up on the last year apart and as I’ve learned all about their lives here in Ranchi. And of course, it is a huge time of celebration here as well. Today is Maani’s 7th birthday (she is only a LITTLE bit excited and has mentioned it about every 15 minutes for the past couple days) and then the Christmas celebrations begin. Just after Christmas is also the big time to have WEDDINGS, so the next blog will probably tell about these things. So far, however, we have gone for Christmas shopping - which in India means buying a new outfit for everyone rather than buying gifts for exchange. We also put up Christmas decorations and birthday decorations. It’s much cooler here in Ranchi, but we all are missing SNOW. However, my parents tell me that it was still not white in MN anyway just a couple days ago. I’ll save the Ranchi stories for later, but let me review the past week.

From Sri Lanka to Hyderabad to Ranchi in just a short time! I really love getting to all of these places that are important to me because of their significance in my friends’ lives, but I must admit that the actual travel is often very stressful for me. As my dad would say, “It’s always, ‘Hurry up and wait!’” My last blog was sent from Colombo just before I received my new VISA for India!!! Yippee! I cannot tell you what a relief it was for me, but I really wished to celebrate and no one was there to enjoy the moment with me. I stuck my feet in the ocean as I wandered back to the YMCA, and I guess that was celebration enough. I realize that for most people, celebrating anything on the beach in Sri Lanka would be more than enough of a thrill, but I think many of you know that I have trouble enjoying things without someone to share them with me. Anyway, the following morning was SO long as I awoke before 4:00 am and got myself to the bus station where I WAITED forever for the right bus which finally came and turned off it’s engine as soon as I got on. We sat for 15 more minutes with me going stir crazy wondering what was going on. Then, we took the 1 ½ hour ride to the ‘airport’ which was actually just the bus stand nearest to the airport, but I had to figure out my way to the actual airport and no one seemed to speak English. Let’s just say that the auto rickshaw driver who helped me got a little extra money for getting me there quickly to make my flight.

How wonderful to return to Hyderabad, which somehow felt like ‘home’ even though I’d only been there less than a week previously! I settled back into the Bollam household (see photo of this awesome family) and went Christmas shopping with them as well. Over the weekend, I also enjoyed a wonderful evening boat ride on the lake near Lumbini Park, I sang Moses’s Telegu Christmas song at a Blind Home (and even got mentioned in the local newspaper for that!), visited Andhra Christian Theological College (ACTC) briefly (which is a place where my Hyderbadi friends from Youth Encounter and the teams I used to supervise at YE called home here in India), and participated in lots of church activities on Sunday. The Bollam family is super involved in their congregation, and I helped lead a couple of songs and a short sharing for the Sunday School kids (ENERGY!) What fun it was to watch the Bollams lead songs and help with the Sunday School competition (see photo) The kids had a quiz, memorization of verses, and even a Biblical character competition in addition to the singing and sharing. It’s a bit more intense than in Sunday Schools in the U.S. The kids actually study like they do for regular school! In the evening, there was an English candlelight service and I got to enjoy singing with the youth… “Soon and Very Soon” complete with an East African jive.

It was even possible to meet my friend, Sunitha for a quick visit on Sunday night. The circumstances were less than ideal as we had such limited time and we ended up at a very loud club where we couldn’t really talk, but I was thrilled to see her and collect some much needed hugs. Sunitha is visiting home for Christmas after many years of being away from home, so her schedule is packed… and so is mine. It was just so strange to meet with her in India finally… and also to see a very different side of Hyderbad by going to a club rather than all the church visits!

Next, it was departure day again. It turned out to be more emotionally draining than I anticipated, but luckily that helped me sleep well on the two nights and one day on the train to Ranchi. I was pretty darn proud of myself for navigating my first train journey on my own here, and fortunately, the trip was uneventful. Collecting more hugs from the Ekka family on this end was so wonderful. (see photo - sorry for sideways!) Maani has already given me a tour of everything important in this area and around the house. Urbas (4 yrs) is a charmer, and Puna (2 yrs) warms my heart with his table prayer: “Jesus, num-num, Amen.”

Advent has kept my mind and heart focused on WAITING and PATIENCE in all sorts of ways. I’d like to expand on my thoughts here, but I’m afraid that it is not possible at the moment. It feels like I should have so many Christmas wishes and thoughts to share, but I honestly have not had time to pull all the pieces of my heart and mind together to articulate them well. I will certainly be thinking of you all over the holiday and hope to connect with some of you by phone. Enjoy your celebration of Immanuel, God with us… wherever you are! I’ll reflect on Christmas in my next blog.

Ho! Ho! Ho! -Sara