I sat on the couch, eating my breakfast of chapatis and fried potato. I had been able to download the almost finished version of “I want this city” by Jon with Pastor Doug Venn. Now I had a chance to watch it. I was amazed how everything came together to create a strong story line, and an incredible picture of a Mission that had so little resources, and are yet doing everything they can with what they have.
It was Sabbath morning, and we had just arrived on the train the day before. As soon as I finished breakfast, I headed over to the auditorium for the church service there at the Union headquarters. It was the International Women’s Day of Prayer, and so the service was given mostly by the women. It was a very good service.
“Do you want to watch Jon’s video now?” I asked Israel. We were back at the room now, enjoying the Sabbath afternoon. He agreed, and soon we had watched the whole half hour episode. “Those needs in Thailand are sure incredible.” I stated. “But here in North India it’s the same story.” I continued. I went to find my Sabbath School lesson, and read the figures for the North India Union. “It says there’s 204,000 Adventists. But there’s 668,000,000 people!” I got out a calculator and did some quick figuring. “That means that there’s one Adventist in every 3,220 people! That’s quite a figure!” I was struck with the realization of this, seeing that this was in fact a huge mission field! I hoped that my stay here would be able to help in some way to show this staggering need to the people in the Western world.
“It looks like I have pink eye!” I told Israel as I came out of the bathroom. I had pink eye for about a week or so a few months before when I was in Tennessee. But now as I saw the pink in the corner of my eye, and the puss, it looked like I had it again. The truth was that neither Israel or I had been feeling that good during the last few days. Israel had gotten some kind of headcold, and some trouble in his stomach, and I seemed to be getting the same cold and congestion as well. It was probably some strange Indian strain of a common cold. I knew that if I had pink eye when I went to fly home in just over a week, that they would probably not let me fly… I prayed that it would pass quickly. I had done some research before on alternative remedies for pink eye, and one I found was colloidal silver. I had just happened to pack some in my suitcase before I left thinking that it just might come in handy. Now I began using the dropper to put drops of it in my eye. As I had been feeling worse that evening, I decided to take the MMS that I had brought with me as well to get rid of this bug. I guessed that if I took it at morning and evening that I would probably soon be feeling better.
The next day I saw Natalie on Skype, and Israel and I were able to voice chat with her for some time. We talked about plans regarding Jesus for Asia in India, and Jon even left off his editing briefly and joined in by the end. It was good to talk to them again, although it was strange to talk to them from the India side. God worked out the expenses of staying at the Union, and we didn’t have to pay anything! The next day was Monday, and Israel went to the Bible Society to get the song books. We needed 1000 of them to disperse with the Bibles. By afternoon he was back, and we left for the Section headquarters in Hapur. I enjoyed the ride, riding in the back seat of the JFA van. It was a bumpy ride as the roads had many rough spots. I saw more of Delhi as we drove. I saw wealth, and deep poverty. At one point we passed a hill, and I noticed that there were trucks driving on it. I asked Israel about it and he said it was a garbage pile. It was huge, it could be seen for miles.