India April 29, 2013

The first part of this day was a day of rest. We had nothing planned this morning, so I had time to write the entry for the website for April 28. (It is now midnight here, April 30, and 1:30 p.m. April 29 Central time as I write this update. Sometimes it’s a little hard to remember.) After I wrote the entry this morning, I took another walk around the area. I made a mistake and waited until noon; it was 107 degrees. My camera was so hot it was hard to hold. I could only walk around for about an hour, it was just hot! When I returned I had lunch and did some studying before Viji picked me up around 5 p.m. to go to a church in Watrap.

When Viji picked me up we were supposed to be at the church at 6:30. I had asked him if we could stop somewhere so I could buy some sandals. Whenever we enter a church or someone’s house, we take our shoes off. My shoes and socks are not only very hot, but also inconvenient to take off each time when I could just slip sandals off. We found some at the first stop, and afterward we had some tea on the corner. It should have only taken us 45 minutes to get to the Watrap Church, but there was a Hindu festival in progress that blocked the street. It took us over 2 hours but, after going down some very rough, dark roads, we finally made it after 7:30. This church was, as usual, not what we would call a church. It was a room down a very dark alley, as you will see in the photos. There were about 40 people there, and they had waited patiently for us. Most, if not all, of them have never seen a foreigner, so I think they were excited to have one come to preach! After we prayed with many of the congregation, Pastor Shiyam Kumar and his wife served us food. I thought Baptists ate a lot, but it is their custom to feed you, so everywhere we go we eat afterward, and sometimes before.

When we had finished eating, it was time to head back to Madurai. We tried to go back by the main road, but the Hindu festival was still going on. This time we had to take a small detour, so it didn’t take quite as long, but we didn’t get back until about 11:30 p.m. Early in the morning we are going to the Bible College that Viji has, and I look forward to talking to his students.

Thank you again for all your prayers. God bless.