Waiting for a bus in Kolkata, I noticed a sign in bold letters, “ WILD ASS SANCTUARY”. I could not help but laugh out loud and was sure the Lord must have a message for me. My imagination pictured a church sanctuary with a really intense outpouring of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, I felt a little guilty because my mother would never want me to use the “A” word or laugh at someone who did. Sorry mom, on this one I think the Lord wanted to use humor to speak to my heart. I imagined an unbeliever who was at the meeting showing up at a bar late that night and describing his experience at the wild ass sanctuary. Of course, there must be an area somewhere in India where you can go to see wild asses or what we would prefer to call donkeys. The bus station was offering guided trips to this area.

One of the wonders of India are it’s many languages. Though Hindi and English are prominent, in Kolkata, Bengali is an official language and the Muslim population uses Urdu. Kolkata is in the state of West Bengal and to the east is Bangladesh. Bill, our team leader, will be traveling with Rosia to the state of Nagaland so that Rosia can spend the next month serving at a ministry center before returning to Mexico. Nagaland is one of many states that are a part of India that wrap around the small nation of Bangladesh and boarders Burma. They speak Nagamese in Nagaland and it is more like a jungle(sounds fun). Last night we served in a children’s ministry and the regular service at Munda Para. The Munda people are a separate tribe and speak their own Munda language. It is a wonder that anyone can understand anything.

Pastor Michael comes from a high cast family in India and became a Christian many years ago through the ministry of YWAM(Youth With A Mission). He pastors a church in Kolkata and oversees an NGO(non government organization) called “Serve the Nations.” Though it is rare, in the official government paperwork for this NGO, it states that they have permission to teach the Christian faith.

This NGO has many outreach programs and we had the opportunity to experience this great event on a warm Sunday afternoon at a small park in downtown Kolkata. The Rickshaw Race included about 50 drivers of all ages who were set up in teams. There were team winners and an individual champion. As part of the festivities our clown team performed four skits to the racers and the crowd in attendance.

All over India there are temples, places of worship. I guess the same as in the US there are so many church buildings, places of worship. It seems interesting that we call church buildings, “churches”, since the church is made up of people, not brick and mortar. The apostles Peter and Paul both used a temple analysis when referring to individual people. 1 Peter 2:5 talks about believers being living stones, not cold, hard lifeless stones but alive in Christ. I love the lyrics of a chorus describing this reality:

Off to a great start flying from Cleveland to Erie on the first leg. Lynn just finished reading a book by an old friend, Kel Steiner, who was a big inspiration to us regarding foreign missions. Kel was a leader on the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Base in Guam and came to the Upper Room in the late 70’s to recruit workers. Many responded to this very likable adventure-loving Kiwi, and went for training and service in foreign missions.