Bangalore, India

Aug 5th - Aug 17th: two weeks in India!

Bangalore is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka and is known as the hub of India's IT industry. Bangalore has an estimated metropolitan population of 6.5 people, making it India's third-most populous city. The local native language is Kannada, though many educated residents of Bangalore also speak English and Hindi. Home to prestigious colleges and research institutions, the city has the second-highest literacy rate among the metropolitan cities in the nation. However, as a large and growing metropolis in the developing world, Bangalore continues to struggle with problems such as air pollution, traffic congestion, and crime.*
*thank you, Wikipedia

Photos:
As could have been expected in the age of digital cameras, the team collectively took hundreds of photos on this trip. I've selected some of my faves and put them in this album:
Bangalore, India

The purpose:
A missions trip with several members from my house church in Cambridge. We went to team up with two ministries in Bangalore: ACTS and PATH

The team:

From left: Khan, Matt, Robin, Preeti, me and Karen. Okay, so Khan wasn't officially part of the team. He was our driver. But since we spent apx 3-6 hours with him each day, we'll call him an honorary member.

The scenery:
Was diverse, to say the least. We visited bustling markets and remote school campuses, marble-lined palaces and garbage-lined slums.



A market on Hosur Road. These flower vendors were everywhere.





ACTS Main Campus. South of the city, about an hour from where we were staying. To get here required driving for about 20 minutes over an indescribably bumpy dirt road.





Tipu Sultan's palace in Mysore, Karnataka. Ridiculously posh.






This photo was taken in one of the slums that we visited. Because of the lack of plumbing here, these people depend on this truck to get their water supply each day. Inclement weather can be devastating.



Some reflections:

"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them."
Revelation 12:11-12

Despite being overstimulating and exhausting on every level, the trip was phenomenal. Praise the Lord, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I left Bangalore with lots to think about, and I'll share just a few reflections here:

I was overjoyed by the faith of the people we met with. So many are turning from empty idols to earnestly seek and serve the Living God, and I am humbled and thankful that the Lord would ordain that I worship Him alongside so many that embrace Him with a pure and stark reliance that I have never known. I am also broken and brought to my knees by the seemingly hopeless enslavement of so many other women, children and men who were made in the image of God and are precious in His sight. Praise the Lord, He has given us hope even in such devastating situations and reassures us by saying "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

The trip was full of memorable moments, but I'll share two of the scenarios that are the most vivid in my mind. We spent most evenings attending meetings at different ACTS churches in the slums. For me these times of the trip were the most encouraging and re-energizing. My favorite church meeting was our second one of the trip on our first Thursday evening in Bangalore. The group was made of Kannada-speaking women, most of whom had come from a Hindu background and had faced/still face severe persecution at home for their decision to follow Christ. At the end of the meeting the women came up to us one by one to greet us and at times ask us to pray over them. I was moved to tears by the sweet faith of these women and the sense of how dearly loved they each are by the Lord. I felt totally unworthy to be the one praying for them, these women who live with faith and conviction amidst a world of trial I have never experienced and can barely imagine.

My second experience to share is from our evening at the Bangalore railway station with the folks from PATH. PATH provides a shelter and community for boys working as porters at the railway station, most of whom are runaways whose families can't support them. When we went to the station I was prepared to spend time with the boys and encourage them to go to the PATH shelter. I was not expecting to see the groups of women loitering with them. The women were not porters, they were prostitutes. Like the young men, these women were also victims to circumstance and caught in a devastating, inexorable cycle. Only there is not yet a PATH shelter equivalent for these girls. I was particularly drawn to one woman who was carrying her small son on her hip. I wanted so badly to tell her that she was loved and valued by God Almighty. That Christ willingly died with her salvation in mind. I wanted to take her with me, out of the train station and into a safe place where she and her son could escape the enslavement of poverty. I felt helpless, crippled by language barriers and lacking time and resources. I could only hold her hand, pat her son, look into her eyes and smile with sincerity. And pray. I was reminded as I left that petitioning on her behalf is a profound way to help and probably the most practical way for me under current circumstances. I was also reminded that the Lord hears the cries of the oppressed, and he cares more deeply than I can fathom. I am encouraged by the words of Psalm 10:

Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
"He won't call me to account?"
But you, O God, do see trouble and grief;
you consider it to take it in hand.
The victim commits himself to you,
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evil man,
call him to account for his wickedness
that would not be found out.
The LORD is king for ever and ever;
the nations will perish from his land.
You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
in order that man, who is of the earth,
may terrify no more.
Psalm 10:13-18