Tsunami Village

We still haven't had much time to blog. Our apologies. The schedule has been grueling. A van shows up for us shortly after sunrise each morning and drops us off as late as 11 p.m. each night. Still, we're trying to keep you updated as much as possible with photos and few words. Many of the details and reflections on how we can learn from the incredible work and acts of faith in India's Christian community will have to wait until we return home and give our big multimedia presentation. We spent Wednesday afternoon at the Madhaya Kerala Diocese's Tsunami Village, where the church built rows of homes for survivors displaced by the 2004 Tsunami. Walking around the village, Bishop Itty remarked that a good story would be "FEMA vs. the church." Seeing a need, the Anglican Church of South India found a way to build these suffering families a place to call home -- finding the money and the land right after the natural disaster hit India's southern coast. We're seeing a lot of that in India: A diocese constantly finding ways to aid those who need homes, comfort, education and peace in meaningful ways. Not a lot of money and material wealth, but a diocese rich in spirit and grace. And tremendous faith. Yesterday, Bill Lupfer was asked by an educator to reflect on what he has seen so far. He said: "The people of Kerala have a real commitment to living the Gospel the way Jesus teaches rather than what people are comfortable with." That about sums it up. Stay tuned.

The tsunami village is near the banks of Kayakulam Lake, which connects to the Arabian Sea. The 2004 tsunami washed over the lake shore with a rush of water. "A man came up to me after worship service and said, 'The sea is coming,'" said the Rev. Matthew Jilow Ninan of St. Peter's CSI Church. The wave, about knee-deep for an adult and waist-high for children, nearly reached the church, he said.

BISHOP MOORE VIDYAPATH

Wednesday morning started at the Bishop Moore Vidyapath school run by the Kerala Diocese. More than 2,000 students attend the school, where academic acheivement is among the highest in the region. The students speak Malayalam and impeccable English. A reading from Gospels, the Lord's Prayer and the singing of hymns and the Indian national anthem start every day. Bishop Itty led the students in prayer and told them about Oregon Episcopal School.

TUESDAY

We haven't had much time to blog the past two days (plus we have had some equipment problems). Sorry. We're on our way out the door to visit the diocese's Tsunami Relief Village. We spent Tuesday on boats and ferries amid the marsh lands and rice paddies, visiting the Anglican Church of South India's mission schools and churches along the Pumba River. While hot, humid and bug-infested (plus Joe has broken in out in some sort of rash), it was an amazing journey into the heart of Indian Christianity along one of the most holy rivers in Hinduism. The church is doing some inspiring things. The mission posts mostly serve day workers. who showed up with hands and feet blistered and worn, to welcome us. A full report coming Wednesday.
Some pictures:

A few photos for now

We're having Internet and equipment problems, so just a few pictures for now. Come back for detailed posts later (hopefully Monday night).

Joe with children from the mountain missionary school at Panakkachira ...
In India, parishioners give the "kiss of peace" during the peace, passed from the priests through the church, one person at a time.

More Photos ...

Sunday, the last night of the diocese convention, drew thousands of Christians from around Kerala to Kottayam.
We were all called to the stage, where the bishop presented the entire group from Oregon with prayer blankets.
Bishop Samuel Thomas (don't you love that smile?) wraps Heather's prayer blanket around her on stage.
Monday, we drove for hours into the high mountains of Kerala, visiting several diocese missions and schools set up for day laborers and their children. Anee stands at the entrance of church being built at the end of a long, rocky path in the upper elevations of the Keralan rubber tree forests.

Most laborers in India can't afford power tools, so most of the houses and buildings, including the churches, are constructed with hand tools.

New Life at Bethel Ashram

At one point, as we prepared to leave the Bethel Ashram orphanage, a young woman whose mother died in a construction landslide when she was only 10 and was raised by the sisters returned home from the hospital, carrying a newborn baby.

She gave birth three days ago. The sisters will help the young woman, now 25, care for the child while her husband is away, working in Delhi. Bishop Itty gave the mother and child a blessing on the front porch of the ashram. "He is Keralan," said one sister. "So, he is our bishop, too."

Bethel Ashram

At about 1 p.m., our van stopped at abusy corner in Kerala (is there any other kidn of corner in Kerala?) and picked up three sisters with the Anglican diocese-supported Bethel Ashram orphanage in Tiruvalla. We drove them an hour to the orphanage in Tiruvalla, passing collor-splashed Hindu festivals, elephants workign in lumber yards and a Christian burial procession, where the body of woman was wrapped in white and carried on a bed of flowers.

We spent the afternoon at the Bethel Ashram. In the tradition of Mother Teresa, an order of sisters who have taken a life-long commitment to raise the girls who show up as infants and young children at the orphanage. It was another stop on our journey of witnessing the healing power of grace. There is only one boy, Jeevain, 2, who was abandoned when he was just 14 days old. He will stay the Bethel Ashram until he is 5, when he will be moved to an orphanage for boys.

Bill tried hard to get Jevain to smile with a game of peek-a-boo. Didn't work. Only his sisters could get him to smile. He hardly left Sister Molly's hip.

The ashram will raise and educate these girls untilt hey are women, when they can decide whether to join the order or enter the world outside.

ASHA BHAVAN

We visited Asha Bhavan, a center for "learning disabled women" that is run by the diocese's women's fellowship. Anne McCollum from Trinity Ashland presented the young women and girls prayer blankets sewn by parishioners in the Diocese of Oregon. They greeted us with smiles and songs. At the center, the 40 students start the day with prayer and then learn English and Malayalam for an hour before yoga, exercise, crafts and paintings. One of the girls, Susan, presented Bishop Itty with a framed pastel drawing that she made for him. The girls also make candles and art that they sell to help fund the center's activities. They are saving up to buy a keyboard and drums to start a music program (we're planning to help them with that before we leave). The center also has dreams of building a larger facility (it has grown too large for the small house it has used for years) but fund-raising is slow in India.

Bill visits with Anu

More photos from the CSM Industrial School

Larry, CEO of Samaritan Health Services in Oregon, gets a tour of the furniture showroom, and contemplates how he can get this table-and-chair set

back home.

The Hammer and the Heart

Saturday was packed full of soul-challenging experiences. Peace and justice are at work in many of the institutions and ministries run by the Anglicans in the Church of South India.

Talking together througout the day, we realized that we Oregon Episcopalians could learned great deal about hospitality and grace from the people of Kerala. Today was a good day to start our discussions and debate about spirituality for a broken world back home in Oregon.

We started the morning at the Madhya Kerala Diocese-run CSM Industrial School, where 48 students are learning carpentry and smithing skills. They make everything from tables, chairs and wardrobes to communion trays, crosses and bishops chairs that are pruchased by churches around the world. Money from offerings at Trinity Cathedral has gone to support this place.

Saturday night

Hello, all. It's Saturday night in Kerala. The humidity is an unforgiving blanket tonight. No central air here, just fans on the ceilings, spinning at full power. They don't help much. We had another incredible day of witnessing the healing power of grace. We spent the afternoon at the Bethel Ashram orphanage, run by an order of sisters who have taken a life-long commitment to raising the children who show up as infants and young children. At one point, a young woman whose mother died in a construction landslide when she was only 10 and was raised by the sisters returned home from the hospital, carrying a newborn baby. She gave birth three days ago. The sisters will help the young woman, now 25, care for the child while her husband is away, working in Delhi. Bishop Itty gave the mother and child a blessing on the front porch of the ashram. "He is Keralan," said one sister. "So, he is our bishop, too."
All of use are preaching at parishes around the diocese Sunday morning, so we're trying to finish our sermons before dinner -- since most of us collapse with exhaustion after dinner. Of course, Bill doesn't seem to be too worried about what he's going to say.
Pictures will have to wait. Stay tuned for pictures and a full report from the ashram.

Trinity Cathedral Kottayam

Kottayam is called the land of Latex, Letters and Cathedrals. One of those cathedrals is Trinity Cathedral.

While at the cathedral Friday afternoon, Bishop Itty tried out the cathedral's new $10,000 organ. Priests and members of the church's executive committee joined in, singing a traditional Anglican hymn in Malayalam.

Bill, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Portland, also met up with his counterpart, the Rev. T.O. Oommen, vicar of Trinity Kottayam.

Kottayam Sew Shop

On the second floor of the ministry center run by the women's fellowship, just above the Pesgah, the diocese employs local woman to work in its sew shop. They sew mostly vestments and choir robes.

The Pesgah

Women who live in the diocese's "Pegah" (retired women's home), coming out to greet bishop Itty and sing some hymns.

Lizyama stands in the door, wearing traditional Indian Christian dress for women.

A JEWEL BOX

In the middle of Kottayam, the Women's Fellowship of the Diocese of Madhaya Kerala runs an incredible outreach center to help the city's poor and elderly.


The Jewel Box restaurant serves tea, raising money for a variety of causes. One of the most interesting details is a painting of Jesus as a teen-ager that hangs over a table near the entrance. "I've never seen Jesus as a teen-ager," Heather, Trinity Cathedral's youth ministry leader, said. "I've never even thought about what he might look like then."

The diocese employes seven women who earn earn about $1,500 Rupes (or roughly $32) a month. The profits go toward medical, education and children's ministries.

HEAR THE CHOIR SING

For every annual convention, the diocese creates new hymns for the crowds to learn and sing. Here is a movie of the choir ending Thursday night's gathering with a hymn in Malayalam.

Bishop Itty's first sermon

A bus strike in Kerala, where the Comunist Party is in control, dampened turnout for the convention and revival on Thursday night. Still, Bishop Itty preached for nearly an hour to a crowd of several hundred who had made the jounrey to her him. "Although were are separated by an ocean," Bishop Itty told people from our companion diocese, "We are united in Christ."

More photos from Thursday night ,,,

From the shoes on the front porch of the bishop's house in Kottayam, you can tell that the Oregonians have arrived -- jet-lagged but excited to be in India. (That's Heather stepping into the humid night).

SOME PHOTOS FROM THURSDAY NIGHT

Diocese of Oregon Bishop Itty and Diocese of Mahaya Kerala Bishop Thomas Samuel before tea on Thursday.

Diocese of Mahaya Kerala Bishop Thomas Samuel stands beside the icon written for him by member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral during his visit to Oregon last year. Bishop Samuel keeps the icon on a table in his home in Kottayam, next to his St. Thomas cross. We had tea with the bishop and several priests from the diocese before attending the Church of South India Convention on Thursday night.

A SHORT WALK TO A LONG JOURNEY

A SHORT WALK TO A LONG JOURNEY
With several hours to catch up on our sleep before attending Thursday night’s Church of South India convention as guest of the bishop, Bill, Larry and me (Joe) crawled out of bed at about 10 a.m. Karela time.
They are staying at the home of John Matthew and his wife, Annie, an active member of the local Anglican church. Annie greeted the three Oregonians with an Indian breakfast, featuring Masala Dosas (potato, coconut and spices wrapped in rice bread) and bananas grown on the trees outside their front door.
After breakfast, John Matthew took Bill, Larry and me on walk past the small forest of rubber trees near his property. We wound up at the front door of a seminary up the road. Francis, a young man in his seventh year of study to become a Roman Catholic priest at the cloisters community (three years philosophy, four years theology) gave us an hour long tour. About 260 young men attend the seminary. Francis graciously welcomed us into the seminary’s most public places -- its library and inspiring, icon-kissed chapel -- and some of its most private, including the a meditation room where only the choir of birds singing from the rubber trees breaks the quiet contemplation of students.

WE'RE NOT IN OREGON ANYMORE

We’re not in Oregon anymore ...
Yes, a little bit of India goes a long way. A sensory overload of color, sounds and smells awaits around nearly every corner. After a trans-Pacific flight that resulted in our small band never experiencing Tuesday, Jan. 23 (forever lost in the air above the International Time Line), we landed bleary-eyed in Cochin, India, late Wednesday night. A priest from the Kerala Diocese, Sam Ochin (“Father Sam”) met us with a driver. Wood fires around the city made the air thick and scratched our throats. The smoke turned a crescent moon on the horizon orange. The long journey from Oregon. There was still the two-hour trip on a narrow rural road to Kottayama. Bishop Itty received a ride in a car sent by Bishop Samuel Thomas. The rest of us -- Bill, Mary, Anne, Heather, Larry and Joe -- loaded our luggage into a waiting Volkwagen van and piled in, still trying to keep our eyes open. After a few minutes as passengers on India’s bumpy, narrow roads, we all became alert. Adrenaline starting pumping through our bodies as we watched our driver zig-zag around trolleys, motorcycles and an assortment of other vehicles, often maneuvering from lane to lane as the headlights of on-coming trucks and buses lit up the interior of our van. About halfway to Kottayama, the traffic thinned but wasn’t any less interesting. Speeding through a village we approached a truck carrying a strange, towering cargo. It was only when we were right behind the truck that we realized that the truck was hauling an elephant through the night. The beast, wagging its tail and shaking its ears, stood on the bed of the truck, anchored by ropes tied around it’s back.
Here’s a video of the encounter. Look closely. It’s dark. You can make out the shape of the elephant when the truck passes lights along the road.

We've arrived!

After 27 hours in the air (we lost Tuesday -- leaving Portland Monday and arriving in India just before Midnight on Wednesday -- en route), we've arrived. We're still trying to work out the Internet situation, but it's looking promising for regular updates. Of course, our gracious hosts also have us on a busy schedule. "You're going to have a hectic time here," promised Bishop Samuel Thomas, during chai tea time this afternoon. There are a ton of pictures (and even a video of an elephant we encountered in the dark of night during the two-hour drive from Cochin to Kottayama) to share. We should have it all up by this time tomorrow. Check back. For now, blessings from India.

Blast off

The Oregon Diocese crew leaves for India today. Keep watching for updates. Peace.