India...May 20

As we’re here, the relationships and conversations become more intentional, more personal, and more probing. I think that for many on the team, it will be very hard to leave some of the new friends next Monday when we return to the States. Wednesday was another great day. We began by touring what I would call “the mall”…similar to our “mall” in Washington, D.C. We were able to see various parliament buildings and what is known as the India gate, a memorial to many who have lost their lives during war. 




After our visit to the India gate we were able to go and visit one of the largest Hindu temples in the city. It has been very interesting and helpful to gain some perspective on what motivates different people. By now, we’ve visited a Hindu temple, a Sikh temple, a Jain temple, and a Muslim mosque. Following our temple visit, we visited Delhi University and St. Stephens College. Within about 5 miles of the PMI resource center, there are about 500,000 college students. Their classes just concluded, but there were still many on campus that we were able to invite to Chat Over Coffee.

We rushed back to PMI quickly after our brief University tour to find many students ready for English camp. To this point we have had about 80 different students participate in the camp. Close to 50 have been present each day. Teaching about idioms has been an intriguing topic, but the conversational sessions have brought about topics that far exceed English grammatical application. In fact, many conversations are occurring now that revolve around faith, love, and serving. The relationships that have been built through the English camp are probably the deepest aside from those we have developed with the PMI staff. Please join us in prayer for these intentional conversations that are taking place. 





Wednesday was packed back-to-back. Following the English Camp we began Chat Over Coffee. COC was first developed to be a question/answer conversation time based upon questions university students had after focal point on Sundays. This COC was a little different however. We began as usual with just casual conversation, but halfway through began a special program. We played some games such as “Gorilla, Man, Gun” and put on 2 random comedy skits. One of which, focused on the staff of PMI (hopefully I can load the video soon! – it was a spoof we did where each of us were one of the staff people from PMI and kind of acted things out that had happened throughout the week that were funny). They really enjoyed it! Finally we finished with some songs, then Peter interviewed us regarding our India experience so far. It was a night filled with much laughter and enjoyment!