Thanksgiving in India
Well, I write from India about my thanksgiving experience. I had a WIDE variety of foods, including basically rice, and spiced corn sauce. Oh yeah, and flatbread. I drink tea 20 times a day and it rocks, it's the only food I am not sick of yet. The smell of the spice they use on every meal (and every meal is identical) is starting to turn my stomach inside out.I'm looking forward to mom's sweet potatoes during xmas, but that's another thing.Anyway, thanksgiving this year wasn't about the food. I had a terribly difficult day of recording, with only doing about 20 loops in 4 and a half hours. The average is 10 loops an hour, so we were going at less than half speed. I would hit the record button, spend 10 seconds editing the .wav file, and then listen for seriously 10 minutes before theyu would be ready to record. They were, according to our national host, discussing the finer points of the Bareli dialect. I am not kidding. They would go on a tangent in between each loop! My job is pretty easy, but I get so restless when there is nothing to do while they talk in a foreign language.The afternoon was better, with a brutal head massage from a barber here. He took this scented oil and rubbed it on my head, then started pounding my head from every angle. We have it on video, but until you see the video (if you ever do), just picture a person's cheeks flapping as they turn their head side to side very quickly. That's what my face looked like..... We sort of have "too many cooks in the kitchen" when it comes to national staff helping with our recording here, which is frustrating for basically everyone. But at night we heard stories from our dialogue directors. They are all pastors in remote areas of India where the Bareli language is used and the Gospel is not at all widespread. They told about seeing many healings, how they would cast out demons. My traveling partner, John Meyer (not the singer) told me about how this homeless lady showed up at their prayer meeting and he cast out a demon from her. He said that the Holy Spirit kinda took him over and he started shouting at the demon, and then the demon left and the woman prayed to receive Christ. He said that he never had cast a demon out before, and didn't even know that was going to happen when he set out to do it. He said his body shook for like an hour afterwards too.I couldn't fully understand the stories told by the pastors, but they were composed of many miraculous healings, etc. All of the pastors come from a Pentecostal background and speak in tongues, too.So, hear my theological rant if you will. I am a reformed baptist by doctrine... in almost all areas, including church government, salvation, the relationship of the local church to the church universal, the sacraments, etc. Even so, the reformed people that I respect most usually think that miraculous healings, and especially the apostolic gifts such as speaking in tongues, casting out demons, etc, that all of those things went away with the closing of the canon, and that now we have the Bible, and that is sufficient. Although I do agree that the Bible is sufficient, the Bible does not say that those gifts do not occur within believers now, and nor does it say that healings and miracles, etc, will not occur. It seems as though that was a rationalization of why we do not see those things in modern, secular culture. I think that even if we do not see those things happening in every church service, that does not mean our churches are failing. I myself would LOVE to see a miracle or speak in tongues, or experience something spiritual that I simply could not explain. Then I could go and tell stories about it to people that support me at home, or encourage believers. But I realize that more and more God works by faith, and that to some he gives these experiences and to some he does not, and that is perfectly OK. I take issue with people on both extremes, those that say you have to have these experiences or you're not a real Christian, and those that say those experiences are all fake. Neither is true - God simply works differently with different people. Jesus says, "You request a sign, but even now you have seen me [heard from me, etc, for us Christians that have the Bible] and you do not believe me." There will be no sign for our wicked and perverse American generation. Meanwhile, God is displaying his authority over the demons and evil spirits that reign in these remote areas by his miraculous, sovereign power. That is awesome!I have always struggled in this area, when it comes to understanding why we don't see these things in America. I think I am starting to realize that we have unity in Christ regardless of the nature of our spiritual experience, that some of us have to live by faith without seeing these miracles. It's a miracle every time a person is drawn out of their sin by the power of the Spirit into the new life God offers, so I can say my own life is a miracle. We just don't see the miracles that defy our naturalistic secular understanding of the world. Oh well.I hope you enjoyed my note.Oh, and one last thing. I am in a cyber cafe in India. In the background is the music "What you gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside your shirt. I'm gonna get you drunk, get you love-drunk off my hump. My hump. My lovely lady lumps."I can't help but laugh as I hear this all the way over across the world. And it does remind me fondly of my sister singing that song, and to a less extent my old British roomy. I miss the people back home, but would say that I am having a great time here.
posted by Brian at 10:23 PM
0 comments
