I am in Kochi

I am in Kochi on the west side of south India, at 12:30 pm. Sunday, 1/20

Yesterday we had a busy day in Chennai At 4 pm we went to the Gurukal Seminary to meet with Bishop Gideon. Since some of our group had gone shopping, they arrived eventually with our bus. The rest of us came by the 3-wheeled auto taxis, buzzing to the campus. John Califf bustled us into these vehicles. He set off in the lead, with the Wittigs and me crowded into the second taxi. At the first corner, John's vehicle turned left, correctly as I remembered from before. Our driver, however, went straight on, then followed several main streets, spiralling around the campus, peering into lanes to see if they went through, and so on. We did arrive, finally.

Bishop Gideon arrived, welcomed us all, and seemed happy to see me and Bishop W. We then all went upstairs to an airconditioned room.

Bishop G gave a brief but good history of Arcot, from its original Danish missionary being kicked out of the local church for insisting that even the dhalits/the unclean could come to church, and sit with all. Before, they would not let them in, just as the Hindu temples treat them. Denmark commissioned this missionary in 1837 to continue with his work. He founded more churches, a hospital, and so on. Arcot, then, sees its mission focused primarily on the untouchable and those w/o caste. Bishop G said that 80% of all Christians in India are from that caste; in Arcot, the figure is 98%.

Then he referred to the schedule. I got up and passed around the Kinko copies I brought. Bishops G and W went through the schedule, and we set up seven churches for seven of our pastors to preach at on the 27th. Gideon has Bishop Wollersheim preaching at the Arcot equivalent of the Jenny Lind Chapel, a small country church, one of their oldest. The two Bishps spent several hours at Jenny Lind last March, when Bishop Gideon visited NIS. Several of our pastors will preach at some big 200+ congregation. 15 min sermon, with 15 min translating time.

Then Bishop Gideon thanked us for sending him the Covenant document. We discussed when/where we sign. Then I worked with the Arcot "document writer" on how to reproduce, what paper, etc. I gave him my key drive with the documents.

Then we were rushed back to the hotel, where we left our big bags for storage/transport to where we will be on Wednesday or Thursday. We took our carry ons and went to the train station.

Wow! the train station was busy, loud with train sounds, many tunes played simultaneously, filled with rushing passengers and porters....you know, a train station. I was reminded of Paddington or Paris or the old KC Union Station. But busier!

Our first class sleeping cars were spartan and not private, but ok. One one side of the aisle were two bunks above and below, parallel to the rails. On the other side, going across the car, were two walls of 3 bunks each, facing each other. The lower bunks were set up as seats, and the upper bunks were folded up. At bedtime, the two uppers were let down, and the lowers had seat backs which dropped to form the bed platform. No curtains. Each car had 8 of the "compartments."

We were scattered across two cars, mixed in with Indian passengers. We all have stories about our new friends. Sleeping was not too bad, except of course I am 1" longer than the space! Still, I slept well except when the train would stop, from 10:30 to 5 am, then until 7 am. Our car only had eastern toilets.

The train was about 45 min late getting into Kochi. We got to the very nice ac hotel, had a brunch [I am eating a lot of omelottes!, this time with home-made grape jam!], and then time until 3 pm. Then we have a cruise, supper, and bed.

Tomorrow is a day trip to the south, and then...hotel? train ride? I lost my schedule!