Fall trip to Williamnagar

It has been almost  a month since our trip to Williamnagar, Meghalaya. Sometimes I wish I’m better at meeting my own expectation. I allowed time to drift till today to write what I thought I will since I arrived back at the office. The only comfort I can derive is at somebody's quote which I noted "better late than never".

So many things overlapped in three weeks but I would try to write as lucid as I can remember what God did through us and in us. It would be unfair to write about the trip without mentioning the joy and pain of traveling in the train. Our train was initially 1.5 hours. Wait a minute, did I say 8 hours? Yeah it was late by 8 hours when we arrived at Guwahati. It not only screwed up my mood, but everybody else's and more so our itinerary. We were to meet one of the volunteer at the airport. Instead, he had to wait for us at the train station for 3 hours. How cool is that? 

One of the ramifications of being late was getting a taxi driver willing to drive us 250 km at night to Tura. Sounds doable but practically hard especially when there had been a communal riot killing couple of people just the other day on the route we were supposed to make our way through. I haven't told any of the interns about the incident as I didn't want unnecessary paranoia especially when God is in control. After 1.5 hours of searching, I found the 'chosen one' who taxed us for almost everything apart from normal fare. I guess the skin tax for my American friend was a windfall for him. We arrived at Tura at about midnight and we had our latest dinner in a long long time. 

We slept like logs. Next day we went to my home church. It was good that my family the church saw my team which kind of prove I'm not running a bogus business, after all they're one of my supporters. One of the volunteer preached and I translated and others introduced themselves. The interns later got a taste of hot Garo cuisine which is undoubtedly the best in the world (in my opinion) and a taste of Garo chilly. I think they swore in their hearts never to eat green Garo chilly again. 
Well, we haven't even reach Williamnagar yet. We left Tura in the afternoon that Sunday and met up with the church pastor and elders of Ku'simkol Baptist Church (KBC) in the evening.    We were welcomed like VVIPs and we uncomfortably enjoyed it (I've never been a VIP). 

The next day, we met with about 10 people including pastor, elders and some government officials who attend KBC. They shared their need and the vision in the project.  KBC presently supports 2 local missionaries, 5 missionaries in Orissa and 1 missionary in Sudan, Africa. We were overwhelmed by their commitment to mission and the way they have been doing that beyond their means. It reminds me of the church at Philippi which Paul acknowledged in his epistle. Williamnagar is a small town with small population, and it is amazing to see such a small church with a big heart. So we were excited to do our best to support this church with our expertise that when the project is done, they could do much more. We were happy to play that small role of designing a master-plan so that God can fulfill His incomprehensible, immeasurable, timeless plan. We all exist as Christian to play that role in whatever we do, isn't it?

It was not at all a smooth ride all along. Devil tried to play a spoilsport in our work by making some of us sick. One of the interns was bedridden for 2 days with fever. Thank God it wasn't Dengue. In addition to that, one of the volunteer's father was so sick with Dengue that his wife and brother called him back on the same day we arrived. I really appreciate his courage and his trust in God. I was more worried than him. He told his wife and brother that God is in control and they should do whatever they can do. It sounded more irresponsible than faith. But God smiles at people who have reckless faith. His father was admitted to hospital in emergency case. Dengue usually takes at least 10 days to recuperate, but the doctor released his father on the third day. How amazing is that! 

t was my first time as team leader and all these things happened simultaneously and in a short span of time and I felt so helpless. I cried out to Him. And He answered. 

We worked the whole week, some of us on the table and some at the site. God showed us the reflection of His image and His character in different people we encountered and interacted. The volunteer and interns were overwhelmed by the love and hospitality the host ministry showered on us. It was so simple and genuine with no expectation. 

We presented our design scheme on the last day of the week. There was almost a small multitude. Everybody was excited to see the design. We met at the bamboo gazebo. Architects talked first, then the client and again architects and then engineers and again the client and then we all talked.  It was not chaotic. They were all happy to see the glimpse of their vision.  The next day in the church, they honored us with bouquets and long introduction of each one of us with 80 percent accuracy. We were happy and interns and volunteers sang 'special songs' and I preached. 

When we left there was again a small multitude to see us off and some weak hearted women cried. The women also gave lots of food for us to eat on the way. We travelled in cars and then in bus and then in the train. We met for the last time as a team in Guwahati and talked and prayed for one another before we all head in different directions. It was good to hear what God taught or instilled in us during this trip. This is my seventh project trip serving different ministries, and I've seen that each trip is unique and every time God never miss to unfold His glory and character in many different ways. My respond is just to wonder in awe and watch Him in silent amusement how good, faithful, wonderful He is. 

All well that doesn’t ends in a well

Consider one day “you don’t get up at the first ring of your alarm, instead you shut it off and go back to sleep. When you finally awaken, it’s too late to have a quiet time. You hurriedly gulp down some breakfast and rush off to the day activities. You feel guilty about oversleeping and missing your quiet time and things just generally go wrong all day.” That was Jerry Bridges’s start-up scenario of a ‘bad day’. That scenario isn’t bad for me because it’s an everyday thing. Today was different. It is Saturday.

Friends could be irritating. So! Mr. Persistent rang me up 7am for some men’s breakfast that he initiated a couple of weeks back. Sometimes sleep is all you ever want in the whole world and you wouldn’t care if the whole world around you is crumbling. Reluctantly I woke and I went. Not surprisingly I found no one. “It was just an hour late! Not done!” I thought.

Last week, he made a plan to go for a ride with three others to a beautiful mountainside village. I agreed as everybody else. In fact, I was exhilarated by the plan. However the hand brake of my Bullet  broke last week and it was still unfixed. Mr. Persistent offered to help fixing it while fixing his. He’s a married man. He can’t go to somebody else’s place to fix his bike, so I decided to go to his. The problem? Well his house is at a terribly steep side of the hill. Bikers are

supposedly tough and care less and I identified with it. Preposterous? Maybe! So without the front brake, I ventured out with one hand holding a range of tools. Now Mussoorie is a beautiful place with cliffs and abyss everywhere. Our garage is 7000ft msl and the road 6990ft in a span of hardly 10ft. I moved the bike, sat on it and pushed it forward. Like a good machine it moved but it didn’t stop where my will wanted it to. Footbrake generally stops it, but my short leg couldn’t reach it or maybe my reflex was still sleeping. I moved my body at the direction of the ramp, but the bike didn’t. It headed straight to the mini cliff (thank God it was). But suddenly two poles appeared and I managed to catch hold of it literally looking as if it’s all set up. “Oh, I fell” I thought laughing at my own stupidity. But my friend reminded me later “what if I smack my head on the concrete road or even worse what if the 200kg machine fell on me?” Anything could have happened. I just thank God right there looking at my half-somersaulted machine which my friend later termed as creative parking.

When someone involves you in their plan, you either jump in or jump out. Our mood is capricious and it doesn’t need any external force to put it off sometimes. Well, I had a reason today. So when my friend talked about how we could still go for the ride, my mind strongly revolted against it. “Can’t you see what I’m in now? How can you even think of continuing with the plan?” I thought. Friends sometimes prove that you’re not the lone power in the universe and that they are not just shadows. They possess some supernatural power such as persistence, patience, practical solutions to problem when you’re blinded by ego. A display of generosity by another friend ameliorated my screwed up mood with some pancakes he made for himself, but shared. A small show of favor or generosity could change a sea of wavering moods, and even better if they look at your eyes and listen to your sad but incomplete story. I’m telling you only some people can do that! I wish I was better at that.

Feeling of stupidity, self-pity and hurt ego started to peel off one by one as I allow myself part of the life of my friends; in small parts like going for picnic. How I wish it’s not just a one day play and I’m a protagonist. Yes picnic. We hung out at the lawn of the famous church at Mussoorie, St.Paul’s. We chatted, played Frisbee, run the dog, washed the car, and played again. By this time, my stunt in the morning has been an entertaining story for those who didn’t witness it.

Today I developed one philosophical truth: playing with kids is better than transcendental meditation. You don’t have to feel you’re out of this world by pretending you’re out there. We can still see you, hello! Isn’t having nothing in your mind as good as death? At least fill it with some good thought, or better still God’s word. Why do you want to be out of this world when life could offer you so much. Feel the love, try being content and count your blessings and feel blessed. They are more powerful fuel to get you at least to the breathable layer of atmosphere than generating vacuum in your mind. For me, having children around is like launch pad when I’m fettered by heavy chains of life’s reality to fly a little higher and feel the air. I’ll tell you why! Children think you are real. They don’t have a second opinion when they laugh at you-that is if you can make them laugh. If you win their trust, you win some who is real- a maskless being. I understand why some people turn to dogs to achieve that. Dogs will always be dogs! I can feel why Jesus commanded His disciples not to stop children from coming to Him. I believe its more than “Oh he/she is so cute, adorable, such a doll” kind of feeling. I believe He might have felt much loved, trusted, unsuspicious, unpatronizing with these children after dealing with mob of masked men. I thank God for my friends with kids.

Well today, the challenge for me was to make 4 kids (1-4 years old) pose for a photograph with 1 adult.

The highlight of the day was the bike ride. Yes the bike ride!

Honestly at the back of my mind (I do have), I was still reasoning I wouldn’t have fallen had he not call me. In spite of fantastic lunch I was so sure I’m not riding let alone sitting at the back when someone else is driving. You would understand this if you’re so used to riding your own. Good friends persist, but a best friend irritates you by their persistence till you have no choice but give up. I thought he had the right because I agreed earlier. So I acquiesced. It didn’t take me long to realized he did a good thing and I too. My grudge and consciousness of it left bit by bit with every kilometer we left behind. Soon I was the happiest and the most content man in the universe. The wind was cold and the fog so thick that 100ft in front of you was almost invisible. The fog was as fleeting as human feeling- now its here, now it’s gone. But in between those passing cloud the sun, mountain and vehicles appeared from time to time. I could hear the David echo from Psalm 19. Someone so gynormous must have left this finger marks among these mountains beyond mountain. It was so perfect. It made me think how big this ‘Someone’ would be who left the finger prints all over as a proof of His existence.

As we ride, the kuchha road made me ‘look up’, while the paved road allowed me to look around. We sang, we laughed as we wave at people. I was happy I had a great day.

As I write this, I’m curled up in the blanket and my arm and legs are still hurting from the fall. This seemingly eventful day, which started off as ‘bad day’ reminded me of our walk with God in the frame of eternity. God’s people are tempted people, a tried people, often they are suffering people but they are people with eternal hope. We are still under the same sun, rain and storm as everybody else and we are exhausted, tossed and torn. But we have a hope. Having this hope may appear for others as brainwashed or bamboozled or something or a sample of a deceived mind, detached from reality. It looks like it because faith requires you to be sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see. Not everybody can see the other side of reality, unless the One who invented the faith-lens put that lens in our eye. Only then can you see clearly and hang on promises like, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. Sometimes when you’re hanging on the last finger, and you’ve taken your last effort to look up, He sends those ‘friends’ or even angels to pull you up. He will not leave us nor forsake us.

If you have this hope no matter how bad you’re life is now or has been, your end is going to be glorious. We might think eternity is out there, but it starts here. At the end of the day when we took our last breath, when we step on the threshold of eternity, when we see that great light, when we see people wearing strange but amazingly graceful robes, when walk on the gleaming street, when we are greeted by some familiar voices and faces of the once-loved ones, when we gaze at the most beautiful face of Jesus and when we are greeted by the Father saying “Well done my child”, we’d be happy that He kept His promise. I don’t know if I’d remember all the good things on earth, let alone bad things, but I’d like to remember ‘friends’ who pull me up that day. My day has already started, and it’s not always been good, but since I have this hope, and since the One who gave me this hope is faithful, this day will enter into eternity glorious.

A Bottle in the Ocean, AW Tozer

...To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. --Ephesians 3:19

Pentecost means that the Deity came to mankind to give Himself to man, that man might breathe Him in as he breathes in the air, that He might fill men. Dr. A. B. Simpson used an illustration which was about as good as any I ever heard. He said, "Being filled with the fullness of God is like a bottle in the ocean. You take the cork out of the bottle and sink it in the ocean, and you have the bottle completely full of ocean. The bottle is in the ocean, and the ocean is in the bottle. The ocean contains the bottle, but the bottle contains only a little bit of the ocean. So it is with the Christian."

We are filled unto the fullness of God, but, of course, we cannot contain all of God because God contains us; but we can have all of God that we can contain. If we only knew it, we could enlarge our vessel. The vessel gets bigger as we go on with God.

"Enlarge my vessel, Lord, and fill me with more and more of the fullness of God. Amen."