vineri, 23 octombrie 2009

Life in India


Not much time to arrange the photos.
For text scroll down :)






Tea
































































We eat rice, sweat a lot, eat rice again and inhale the disel gas on the street. We do a lot of visits and every night we publicly preach and distribute tracts. Every day.
Today I feel exhausted and after two visits in the morning I came back so I can update the blog.
The Lord has a lot of questions for me during this time in India, a lot of challanges. Yes, my life is challanged a lot in this culture.

Life in India....
It's very hard for some people, hard for others. It's not a country of contrasts so far, there are no many rich people. Rich means you have a job - any job- you have a motorcycle and the richest have a small car and a house.
The canalization system is the same used by the romans 2000 years ago!

We visited Darjeling - close to the border with Nepal - these last two days. It's so diferent - it's another culture - the Nepali culture. People look diferent, behave different, dress modern or traditional but very clean and usually keep their city clean.

Traveling in India is also hard. Bumpy roads everywhere and crazy but good drivers. Everybody is ready to overtake everybody. People here drive on the left side of the road in theory but in everyday life you just have to find your way may it be on the left or on the right side of the road. It doesn't matter, you just have to get there.

Nepali people are nice and Darjeeling is great, I want to go back there and do some sightseeing.
I bought a big knife, some hats, we visited the zoo and a local church. The weather is perfect for me - around 10 degrees Celsius. Nice.

We also publicly preached. It's very interesting for us to sit in the middle of a marketplace and to begin to speak. Speak about what? What to say? But God used this to speak to people through us. In 5-10 minutes usually we have a crowd of 100 persons listening to us.
People here in India worship idols and think highly of themselves. They belive they have no sin, or there is nobody to judge their sins, or everybody has sins but because of this they are just one face in the crowd so they can't be blamed.

4 days ago I was involved in a little accident. A car came pretty fast towards our riksha used here by the locals to get to places. I yalled but the driver seemed to go exactly towards this car.
The car hit us slightly and bended the riksha's wheel. That day was a crazy day with several of these events.

Thank you for your prayers.
Dan

sâmbătă, 17 octombrie 2009

miercuri, 14 octombrie 2009

Country of 1000 smells and 1001 colors



Hello India!

After a long trip (9 hours by plane, more than 18 hours waiting in airports and sleeping in the Dubai airport on the floor, 15 hours by bus in India) we are finaly in Jaipalguri.


Our night in Calcutta and the following day were crazy. India is the country of smells, of colors, of poor people and polution. In Calcutta there are no rich people. If they would be rich, they would probably leave the country. Civilization is way back. But this unique mix of... everything makes it special. Driving is crazy.... no,no, you don't understand what crazy is until you are in a car in India... yes, you think you will die every minute.

During my time here I haven't noticed any traffic rules... You just have to horn, loud, long...


What I do here is what I like most: talk with people, living the adventure of being in India.

I read about missionaries like Hudson Taylor or great people like George Mueller. I strongly advise you all to read about these lives.

These days I meet Daniel, the Romanian that gave up confort and fell in love with India.

His testimony among the people here is very good.


I talked to 4 families so far. Our concern is about their spiritual life, about knowing God. Other things don't matter that much. And this is what I actually do here.

It's amazing how they listen carefully. Some of them are deep involved in worshiping idols, have very good knowledge about culture, religion. And some don't.


Our time here is short and I feel I want to do more.


A... and another thing! There is no toilet paper in India... you have to use your left hand. I still have some toilet paper with me... but it has to last for the next 2 weeks.


I feel blessed and unworty to be here...

But on the other hand I feel God wants me here now. You may belive, or may not belive this - but it's real. This is why I am here.


Indian culture is impressive... hundreds of languages, belifes. strong communities.

These days I will also post some pictures...


Until then, please pray for us and for the people here.

I wish that you will be encouraged through this blog, these news, hearing that I am well, eating rice, lots of rice...

I am also using this blog to send greetings to my church - AGAPE, to our study group - Cenaclul TEI, to my coleagues...


thank you

Dan


marți, 6 octombrie 2009

So far so good

As I said to some of you October’s posts will be in English. This is mostly because I will be in India for a good part of this month and I’d like to share this – what I hope to become – amazing experience with international friends. You may find my written English somewhat Romanianized (“romanizate”). In this case after you get a good laugh try to move on J.

Visa – got it through a wonder. But we got it!
Vaccines - (5 of them ) – got it! My arms hurt, but now I can eat of the floor. I am immune to everything J
Money – some…
Toilet paper – plenty! (I could not find an anti-diarea vaccine J)

This is everything were gona (we are going to) need on our trip.
Today is Z-day minus 3. Friday we will take off, head to Istanbul and then Dubai, where we will have 12 hours to visit the airport. Then Calcutta: we still don’t know what’s gona be in Calcutta for us – hopefully a nocturnal 12 hours train ride to Jaipalguri. Then the real adventure begins…

Our team consists of 7 or 8 members – we still don’t know. I know only 2 of them – a guy that I meet 3-4 times and a girl from Bucharest.

I really don’t know what the Lord has for us there. It seems He made it possible for me to go, preparing me for what’s to come and taking care of everything.

It seems that before my departure I get a lot of “unexpected surprises” in my life. The effect I notice is of disappointment and bad mood. I see them taking away my enthusiasm little by little. I realize I have to pray more and ask Jesus Christ to strengthen me, and to keep me. I don’t react well to disappointment, as I am sure some of you know.

May the Lord be with us
Dan

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