Hi from India!
I’ve arrived safely here to the Kollegal deaf school.
Pastor Jeff and his son Noah and I had a safe trip. It was a fun trip too! We left at 6pm Sunday from Atlanta, and then we flew all night, and 8 hours later we landed in Frankfurt Germany, where it was 9am! While there I went and claimed a box of CDs and DVDs that I had checked just to Frankfurt and gave it to a lady there that’s directing the Light Channel in Germany. I’ve never checked anything for only part of the journey, so I was thankful that it went without any problems. Then we boarded our flight to Bangalore. It was a big plane, a double deck, capable of carrying about 340 people! … the biggest that I’ve ever been in! Again we flew through the night, landing at 1:30 or so am. Once we got through customs and immigration we then found a place to wait for Alfred as he was coming in later. He actually found Pastor Wilson before we found him though, and so when we found them then we headed out to the car to go to Kollegal. The trip was good, and we got to see some of India… I have to say that at least in Bangalore it’s much nicer than where I was in Africa. The roads seemed relatively clean, at least most of the time. There were even LED lights on the roadway in some places to mark lanes. We were driving in early morning however, and as it began to get light, I began to see more people coming out. But in Africa there was a lot of people also, and so I didn’t feel culture shock like I did when I first went to Africa! I guess one of the things that I’ve noticed is that there is so much variety. In Africa there are cars, but most of them were from a certain era, some older and some newer… but not too many. Here in India the modes of travel are in stark contrast… You can see almost anything on the road! There are bicycles, motorcycles, cows pulling carts, motorized rickshaws, not to mention cars, a few very old ones, and quite a number of new ones.
Kollegal is a school that is operated by Asian Aid. They tell me that there are about 100 students that are going to school here. All of them are deaf. They come from all over India as this is the only SDA deaf school in India. About 80% of the students are from Hindu families. Many of them love Jesus but haven’t yet chosen to be baptized because they know that their parents will be upset with them, and they can’t communicate very well why they have new beliefs. I have been getting lots of video footage of the kids, and pictures here.
On Friday we are flying to Vishakapatnam to the Blind School there. The Gospel Outreach Bible workers will be there and Pastor Jeff and Alfred will be having meetings and teaching there. I wish it could have been here at the deaf school, but that didn’t work out, and God must have some reason… We will see.
I want to personally thank each of you for your support and your prayers for this trip.
God Bless,
Sincerely,
Daniel