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| Plateau High Up In The Mountains |
Thank you for praying. By God's grace the trip went well yesterday. It was a trip with a single purpose, to fellowship with and encourage our dear brothers and sisters who are serving faithfully in the remote mountain areas of the state.
We started first thing in the morning with several brothers and drove for about an hour on level ground before reaching the mountains. From then on our trajectory was vertical. We wound our way up though the mountains for two hours before arriving at the village which was tucked away in a small valley.
The mountain driving portion of the trip was slightly harrowing since following the road meant the vehicle's direction would change constantly as we zigzagged our way up the side of the mountain as fast as we could - all the while dodging oncoming traffic because the road was one lane wide.
That was pretty exciting stuff, and consequently one of the brothers lost his lunch a few times on the way back. After the last time he was moved to the front, and I ended up taking his seat and discovered that the seat was still yellowish and moist since all the mess hadn't been cleaned up.
I faced it like a man, and after an hour or so, it reminded me (in an incomparable way) of my sin, which reeked infinitely more, yet Christ valiantly took it upon Himself and bore it on the Cross, along with the sin-stench of countless multitudes of others whom He died for. In life sometimes taking up my cross has meant taking the seat no one else wants to sit in. It's messy business.
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| Christ Came To Take Our Filth To Himself |
The time at the village was wonderful. The director was blessed to fellowship with a few pastors and their wives from the area. I really enjoyed seeing them all as well as breathing the relatively fresh mountain air and soaking in the majesty of God's creation.
I was basically along to pray, take pictures, and smile at the people. And I definitely consider it time well spent.
For your viewing pleasure, I created this four and a half minute youtube video which will rapidly take you all the way though yesterday's exciting journey in less than five minutes. I am still experimenting with Google soundtracks, so please bear with the audio selection.
Enjoy!
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| Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ |
5 comments:
Josh,
I was thinking about your journey to the mountains and thinking about and praying about all the possible events that might have taken place. Glad you are safely home! These scriptures came to my mind when you speak of your sitting in a wet seat. The apostle Paul writes:
2 Corinthians 11:24-27 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. (25) Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; (26) on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; (27) in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
Jim,
That's a good passage - so many dangers, though danger is always near, I really can't say I have experienced anything close to Paul's level. My experience has paled by comparison.
Josh,
thanks so much for posting this video. We thoroughly enjoyed watching it together. It gives us much to discuss and really has the girls talking as well.
You've done a nice job with your video. Thank you for sharing your trip. What a beautiful country.
I'm curious about the church. Do all Indian churches have the practice of men and women sitting on opposite sides, or does it differ by province? Also, in this particular church there seems to be so few women relative to the number of men. Do you know of any particular reason for that?
Laurie,
Excellent questions. Most churches I have visited have the men and women sit separately.
The occasion at this church in the mountains was different. It was not a Sunday, and was just a meeting for some of the local pastors and some of their spouses. For that reasons the men to women ratio was substantially off. Also there weren't a whole lot of pastors that were able to make it.
A normal Sunday at that church would be packed, and usually there are more women than men coming to church.
I will have to show some more footage from other churches.
Thanks for the good questions, keep em coming!
Josh
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