St. Thomas: Apostle to India!

After lunch, we spent a good bit of the day being introduced to one of India’s national treasures:  St. Thomas, the Apostle.  You remember St. Thomas… he was the guy who is often called “Doubting Thomas” for his “lack of faith”, but who also was among the first after Jesus’ resurrection to proclaim “My Lord and my God” upon meeting the risen Savior.  Based on what most people can piece together, Thomas left Jerusalem after Pentacost and made his way to what is now present day India in about 52 AD.  For the better part of 2 decades, he proclaimed Jesus as Lord in this country, and was eventually killed by local rulers for that proclamation in about 72 – 75 AD. 

There are 3 spots in Chennai that are significant to where the apostle functioned, and we got to see all three of them.  They are outlined as follows:

St. Thomas Mount:  There is a small Catholic church and convent built on the spot where Thomas was finally killed at the point of a spear on top of a small mountain that overlooks the city of Chennai (and now is remarkably close to the international airport).  Pictures here include the inside of the chapel erected over the site of the murder, and feature an icon supposedly given to Thomas by the apostle Luke, a relic of Thomas (a vacuum sealed cross that contains a bone fragment of Thomas), and a cross carved by Thomas.

St. Thomas “Little” Mount:  While being hunted, Thomas took refuge in a small cave for several days.  There is now also a large church built over the cave, as well as a well that has given water for the better part of two thousand years.  According to legend, when Thomas needed water, he struck the rocks of the cave with his staff and, the rest is hydro-history.

Santhome Cathedral:  One of three of the world's cathedrals built over the bones of an apostle is in Chennai, India.  Santhome Cathedral is about 5 miles from both the Mount and the Little Mount, and is a beautiful structure constructed largely out of white marble.  

Like a Sleuth of Hungry Bears!!!

So we made it to the hotel, and were quickly (after being introduced to our rooms) treated to a fun "multi-cultural" meal for lunch.  I say "multi-cultural" because it was both Indian and also Chinese (great noodles!!!), and most of us were really hungry, so set to it with the ferocity of a sleuth of starved bears.

Featured here are a few of the tasty entrees.  There was Mushroom Curry, "Lollipop Chicken" (think General Tso's or a spicy version of Orange Chicken), mixed noodles, fried rice, and, of course, "Chicken 65"!  

Touchdown!!!

We finally landed in Chennai airport at about 7:30 am, grabbed our bags, and exited the terminal to the bright and smiling familiar faces of some of my favorite people on the planet!  Standing and greeting us were Raj and Prema (Raj's wife), their two kids (Bruce and Clarinda), Anandraj (another Life Mission staff member), Pastor Anbuannan (a "SuperPastor" from Vellavedu), Diako and Stephen (additional friends and volunteers), and a handfull of others who were new to us.  We snapped this picture before piling all our gear onto a huge bus and heading to the hotel for some refreshment time.  

And in case you're wondering what those gigantic flower garlands are that are hanging around our necks?  Well, that's a traditional Indian greeting, and the hospitality-driven nature of our Indian brothers and sisters does not disappoint.  Each team member is greeted with a fresh "lai" (erm... or at least that's what they call them in Hawaii, right?) that weighs about 2 - 3 pounds, and the flowers are so fragrant that they fill up your room with the scent of fresh flowers!  

Snoozin'...

This is what happens to you when you travel for 40 straight hour and still aren't finished yet.  Steve Holt (Technical Team) shown here racking out (for the better part of 2 hours) on hard marble, and, when he woke up, said, "wow... never knew marble slabs could feel so soft!"

Alternately is Amanda Harris (Justice Team) sprawling across a couple of seats and doing a very good job looking, for all practical purposes, as though she's genuinely resting.  When i snapped this photo, she cracked an eyelid for an instance, gave me that "what ARE you doing?" look that i see often (she IS my sister-in-law, after all), and then promptly slipped back into unconsciousness.

Cutting Through Customs...

Video posted by Ben Sanders

Here's a quickshot of us exiting Customs.  Surprisingly, we were able to get our "1,000 pounds of love" through without too much hassle.  The big issue was that they just wanted to make sure that we weren't going to resell anything, or that it didn't require any tax/duty.  It was kind of funny, actually, and they had a hard time understanding why 26 Americans would fly 9,000 miles with a bunch of sand and gravel for rural Indian villager from whom they were not going to profit or benefit.  

"When I Start Levitating, You'll Know I'm Done..."

Ted Bryant demonstrates Yoga relaxation techniques on the airport floor.

Posted by Ben Sanders

Digital Postcard: Greg Schermeir

Posted by Ben Sanders

In Country!

The teams have landed in Bangalore, India! They are hanging out at the airport, awaiting their last short bit of the journey, a 40 minute flight to Chennai. Everyone is doing well and in good spirits! They will start blogging again once they get a good internet connection!

Digital Postcard: Ben and Vanessa Sanders

Through Security...

So... we got to O'Hare in plenty of time, which is great!  And i'm now sitting here at a gate waiting to board, using Internet Wi-Fi through Boingo to blog for a few minutes as we wait.  Here's how the last 5 hours have worked out:

* We made it to O'Hare in record time!  Our driver (Lyle) did a great time, the roads were fine on the Toll-Road, and we cruised into United's terminal (1) at just about 7 am (Indiana time... from here forward in this post, i'll use Chicago time).

* O'Hare was PACKED!!! There must have been 2,000 or more people milling through lines to try to get to a check in counter.  We finally negotiated a Disney maze (you know... like the labyrinthine mazes they make you stand in to get on rides at Disney?) to find a TSA employee who told us that we'd have to go downstairs to check in through the Group Desk.

* So we did... negotiating the 2,000 people with all of our 1,000 pounds of love and gear, we traversed the milling masses and made it to the Group Desk.

* No Agent at the Group Desk.  

* Waiting.

* More Waiting, with repeated assurances that there WOULD be an agent shortly.

* Agents finally arrive and are great!  They bypassed 10 of our bags (which were each 2 lbs overweight) and didn't even charge us.  

* Except that they mis-directed one of my bags.  They didn't know which one.  I checked a bag for Raj and also my suit bag which contains all of my clothes.  So... either Raj will be happy (in which case i will SERIOUSLY stink by the time i come home) or i will be.  Time will tell.  

* We start the process through security.  

* More Disney mazes.

* To get to the next round of Disney mazes.

* Culminating in a final round of Disney mazes.

* Ted Bryant, while looking around, chuckled and said, "And...tell me again why the 'airlines are hurting for customers'?"  You wouldn't know it by looking around this morning. 

* Everyone through security just fine.  TSA employees are actually pleasant and helpful!  Only John Negri stopped for a thorough frisking, but they couldn't find what was setting off the machines, so he was allowed to leave without anyone breaking out the latex gloves.

* 1/2 mile jaunt through terminal and concourses to now arrive at our gate, sitting it out for about an hour before we start boarding.

Initially i thought we'd not have enough time.  Then, when the roads were clear, i worried that we'd have too much.  As it turns out, however, just call me Goldilocks because everything turned out "just right".

Ready to Rock!

It was 4 a.m.  And yes, everyone showed up, had their passports, and was ready to go!  Here's how the morning worked:

* Showed up at 4 (most people carrying coffee).

* Team gear all prepped, tagged and distributed to team members.  In general, each team member picked up a 50 pound "team bag" that contained sand, filters, tools, or team gear.

* Jeanna distributed team binders, shirts (every India team member gets a red GCC polo for "emergency" purposes if we need to ID everyone quickly or travel as an easily identifiable group).

* Quick prayer as a team with family and friends who joined us to send us off.

* Final address to team regarding passports, security, information in binders, and final details.

* Everyone got in the "India Team Congo Line" (i.e. everyone with all their gear in a single file line, ready to march out to the Royal Excursion coach waiting for us in the parking lot) - see video.

* Met with team leaders for final check and prep.

* Off we went!!!

1,000 Pounds of Love...

So how much does 5 complete bio-sand water filter kits, 2 complete "Indian Jiffy Lube" micro-enterprise sets, 1 portable ONE Prayer multi-media kit, and 1 duffel bag full of supplies for our Indian ground staff weigh?  About 700 pounds!  Add to that 3 hard-side "pelican" cases for our Media team, and about 4 "team" check bags, and you get about 1,000 pounds worth of checked gear spread across 7 large Army-green duffels, 10 blue "sport bags" (each carrying 50 lbs of sand), and an assortment of other bags.

Plus all our carry ons.  Holy cow!

So Dan Blacketor (who is leading our Construction Team) and i set out this morning to individually mark, package and pack everything that we currently have into their appropriate bags, and i thought you might like to see how we turned the GCC Atrium into a "staging area" for the better part of the afternoon.  

The tall blue cylinders you see are the container units for the bio-sand water filters we'll be installing.  These are "tester" units  and we will use them for demonstration set-up.  Later in January, 75 filters that we're shipping via boat will arrive for them to install village-wide.  

The clear bags are varying diameters of sand, gravel and rock.  Each water filter contains about 120 lbs of sand and various filtered forms of gravel and rock, and the answer to the most commonly asked question ("can't you just use sand, gravel and rock that you can find in India?  I mean... do they not HAVE sand and rock in India? C'mon!") is "yes, but we didn't have time to set up the appropriate filter operations to ensure sand and gravel diameter.  We'll do that in round #2 for next year.  

As for the Tech Team, we are taking 2 complete sets of wrenches, socket-kits, screw-drivers, battery-testers, spark-plug/ignitor testers, pliers, multi-tools, flashlights and a host of other things.  The idea is that we will train a small number of families how to open a secondary enterprise venture that looks a lot like what we're calling an "Indian Jiffy Lube".  It's not a full-fledged mechanic or repair shop, but if you just need an oil change for your motorcycle or to have it spiffied up before you head to Chennai for the weekend, they'll be all set to help.  

Media Team is taking everything they need to fully shoot and capture footage for 3 complete "GCC quality" media, plus "B-roll" for training and other materials later.

It's a good thing that the Justice Team is planning to travel so light.  With this much gear, i'm not sure how we would get it all there otherwise!  

After we finished packing our "1,000 pounds of love", Dan Blacketor and i passed out on the ground.  Lugging it 9,000 miles to India is going to be a different story!

Say Hello to Your New Friends... Team Gear!

Crew!  I was going to draft you a massive e-mail to explain the following.  Then i just figured that [hopefully] my little vid presentation from yesterday was easier to watch, so here's something else i figured that you should probably be aware of.  Let me know if you have questions.  Arrigato! -sj

India Update

Update on India/Bombay Attacks...

Dear December India Team Members and Friends!

By now, no doubt, you've heard about the tragic attacks and bombings going on in Bombay (Mumbai), India, pursuant to apparent Islamic terrorists targetting innocent Indian citizens and foreigners (if you haven't, please click http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,458270,00.html for update). As a result, i'm guessing that you probably have a variety of questions about the impact of this event on both a) our overall ministry in India, and b) our upcoming teams in December. While we are still gathering data and watching how events unfold along with the rest of the world, i wanted to drop you a quick line to give you some basic information that i hope will be helpful to you and to your support teams, families and friends as you field questions and attempt to direct your own prayers.

1) First of all, please let me state plainly and simply that we will never willingly drop a team of GCC members into a situation that is known to be overtly dangerous or hostile. While there is always a certain amount of risk associated with international travel of any kind, of course, we will monitor the situation in India closely for resolution, and will be paying attention to the US State Department for analysis about the relative safety of contiuing to travel to/from or operation within the country. If there is a genuine threat, if the US State Dept feels that travel to/from India is unadvisable, or we just don't have a good "feel" for our ability to maintain safety and security, we will simply cancel and/or reschedule our time there, and will keep everyone appraised of all necessary data along the way.

2) Also, be advised that the epicenter of this kind of terror is actually "far away" from where our teams typically operate. Think of what might happen if you saw terrorists attempting similar activities in New York, but you were planning on travelling to South Bend (the distance between the two is about the same as between Bombay and Chennai in Tamilnadu). While Bombay is a highly important city within India, and is a focal point for international attention, business, tourism and banking, it is some 700 miles from Tamilnadu, where we concentrate all of our work. In addition, Tamilnadu is nearly 100% Hindu, so there is a considerably higher degree of peace and tranquility than in much of the rest of the country where Hindu/Muslim conflicts occur regularly. Again, all of this to say not that we will ignore genuine international threats or concerns, but rather that what you are seeing on CNN is not necessarily indicative of what is going on in the rest of the country.

3) Next, our current airline tickets have us routing nowhere close to Bombay for any component of our travel to/from India. Most likely, we will either fly directly to Chennai (on the Southeast coast of the country), or to Chennai via Bangalore (in the South-Central part of the country) from our stop-over in Europe.

4) Finally, despite the above, please continue to pray diligently for India. As you have heard me say in your training DVD's, India is a country currently "in flux", trying to find its point of balance between the old ways and the new. In the last 10 years, it has attempted to bring itself out of the Stone Ages and into the light as a global super-power (economically, militarily, socially and governmentally), and the tension that occurs with that kind of seismic upheaval is always difficult, and sometimes (as in this case), violent and tragic. As you pray, please ask God that this horrific evil will result in a greater openness for those of us who are attempting to bring the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior into such Darkness, and that his Light and Love will triumph over the spirit of oppression and violence that is pervading India now.

I'm sure that what is above has most likely not answered all your questions, but hopefully, it has at least answered a few. Please feel free to contact your team leader first, or me directly for additional information if it would be helpful for you (cell: 574.339.4125). Thanks, and we'll continue to give you more information as we have it.

All for One!

Jack Magruder
Director of Life Mission
Granger Community Church

Sleep & Luggage Simulation - October 11th

So you want to go to India with a GCC ministry team? Excellent! But before you go, we're going to make sure that we do everything we can to equip you not only for service, but for what you're going to experience physically while you're there. One of the ways we do that is through a combined Sleep and Luggage "simulation" beforehand. Here's what it looks like:

Friday Night - Sleep on your floor. No fair dragging your mattress onto the ground, but it doesn't matter whether you have carpet, hard wood or linoleum. The idea is that you will most likely be sleeping on the floor in India, so just changing your sleeping position and normal level of comfort will help you get a feel for what that will be like.

Saturday Morning - Wake up early and head to GCC to participate in 2nd Saturday. The idea is that you are dong something "active".

Saturday Afternoon/Evening - After finishing 2nd Saturday, we meet back at GCC, grab a quick bite to eat together, and then head to Potato Creek State Park with everyone's gear packed the way they're going to be taking it to India. At Potato Creek, the teams will hike (with their luggage) through Trail I for a distance over mud and trails of about 2.2 miles. It's not that big of a deal, but if you get tired of carrying your 26 lb makeup kit during that time, better to find out this side of the travel timeline than in India and having to toss it on the field. When finished, team members are dismissed to run home, get a quick shower, and head back to church, where we meet to sit together at the 5 pm worship service at GCC.

Saturday Night - Sleep on your floor...again. By this point, you should be a little sore from Friday night, plus good and tired from the day.

Sunday Morning - Wake up and see how you feel. Whether good or bad, it's probably a airly decent indicator as to how you're going to feel on an average day in India. Once you figure out how you're doing, send Jack an e-mail telling him such. If you're grouchy and sore, then you'll probably want to increase your physical fitness regimen before you go. If you're "just fine", don't get cocky, but be glad that you're on the right track.

The simulations are "required" and are not optional, and we are offering them for the December India Team window on three separate dates (each revolving around the Second Saturdays in October, November and December). For the October option, the following people participated (see picture above - left to right): Ron Twedt (Justice), Mike Ryan (Tech), Elaine Ryan (Construction), Ted Bryant (Justice), Jennifer Kukla (Water), Nancy Leist (Construction), Greg Schermier (Construction).

Dates to Remember...

INDIA TEAM…DATES TO REMEMBER…

Little India for a Day & Meal Simulation

*Individuals must choose one of the two options. Team Leaders will need to let me know which date the people on their teams plan to attend by Friday, September 12^th.

*Saturday, September 27^th, 8a.m.- 6p.m (Option 1)

*Saturday, November 15^th, 8a.m.-6p.m. (Option 2)

Immunization Clinic #1/GCC -Wednesday, October 1^st, 5p.m.-6:30p.m.

Sleep & Luggage Simulation

**Everyone must choose one of the three options for the Sleep & Luggage Simulation. Team Leaders will need to let Jeanna know which Simulation their team members plan to attend by Friday, September 12^th.

*Friday, October 10^th -Sunday, October 12^th (Option 1)

· Friday, October 10^th-sleep on the floor

· Saturday, October 11^th-meet at GCC at 8:30a.m. for 2^nd Saturday. After serving at 2^nd Saturday go to lunch as a team and then go to Potato Creek for the Luggage Simulation (will end between 3p.m.-4p.m.). Meet back at GCC for the 7p.m. service. Sleep on the floor Saturday night.

*Friday, November 7-Sunday, November 9^th (Option 2)

· Friday, November 7^th-sleep on the floor

· Saturday, November 8^th -meet at GCC at 8:30a.m. for 2^nd Saturday. After serving at 2^nd Saturday go to lunch as a team and then go to Potato Creek for the Luggage Simulation (will end between 3p.m.-4p.m.). Meet back at GCC for the 7p.m. service. Sleep on the floor Saturday night.

*Friday, December 12-Sunday, December 14^th (Option 3)

· Friday, December 12^th-sleep on the floor

· Saturday, December 13^th-meet at GCC at 8:30a.m. for 2^nd Saturday. After serving at 2^nd Saturday go to lunch as a team and then go to Potato Creek for the Luggage Simulation (will end between 3p.m.-4p.m.). Meet back at GCC for the 7p.m. service. Sleep on the floor Saturday night.

Passports & Visa Applications Due to Jeanna Tripp; as well as GCC Polo shirt sizes for your team-Monday, October 20^th

Partial Support Due ($2000)-Monday, November 3^rd

Immunization Clinic #2/GCC -Wednesday, November 5^th, 5p.m.-6:30p.m. #2/GCC

Full Support Due ($3000 + cost of any immunizations)-Monday, December 1^st

Financial Updates (Team Members can expect to receive financial updates on the following dates (I will copy the Team Leaders on each of these e-mails):

• Tuesday, October 7
• Tuesday, October 21
• Tuesday, November 4
• Tuesday, November 11
• Tuesday, November 18
• Tuesday, November 25
• Monday, December 1

Water Team Recon...

For those of you who are going on the December Water Team, you will be able to see a brief glimpse of what one of the villages where you will be working looks like. This village is called Kallavai, and it currently has between 65 - 75 families (300+) people in it.

Online Giving!!!

Crew! Wanted to let you know that we will be adding a great new feature to this team's blog! It will be the ability to direct supporters to this site so that they can give on-line through the following link: http://www.gccwired.com/missiontrips , or by just clicking here when they come to this post. You can also send that link to your supporters or friends via e-mail (how cool is that!?!?)

Once they get to the link, they will be able to specify you as the person they want to give to, and our internal systems will track their contribution from there, as well as automatically ascribe it to you. Later, you will see this show up in your support report, and can know exactly how much you have raised and where you are in the giving process. Our hope is that this will simplify things considerably as well as it will minimize the paperwork, stamps, return address labels, etc. that you may currently be using. We hope that this will help everyone (you, your supporters, our Accounting Teams, etc), and make things WAY easier, and all you have to do is direct people to this blog address to get started.

It will also help them to start thinking about coming here for information about you and the teams as we will be blogging everything from training to prep, travel and on-field activity. If you have questions about this process, or need help with it, please let us know through comments here on this post.

Welcome to the GCC India (Dec '08 - Jan '09) Team Blog!

Hi there! This blog will track the training and mission of people traveling from Granger Community Church to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ in Tamilnadu, Southern India, during our July - August '08 operational "window". In this window, three teams will be mobilized to aid church planters in a number of Southern Indian villages to do the following:

* Justice - Justice issues have become a pervasive issue in at least two of the villages where we will be working in '08. In one instance, there is a significant population of bonded child labor surrounding a brick factory, and in another, there is a prevalent "sex for work" scheme where young women are only able to acquire jobs to support their families if they are willing to sleep with the factory foremen. GCC teams mobilized in these fields will partner with International Justice Mission to provide "after care" for adults and children who have been liberated from the kinds of scenarios described above.

* Water - Clean water or issues related to water availability are major concerns. In these contexts, the teams will be able to follow up with contracted preparatory field work to significantly help the villages. Examples of this might include contracting to have a well drilled, but then building the taps and servers from the well when they get to the field, as well as train the people how to repair the taps themselves.

* Construction - In many villages, there is a complete lack of understanding for how to do basic home repair and maintenance (hey, i can relate... i can't even fix the handle on my kitchen drawer! I'm definitely NOT "Tool Time Tim"). This team will bundle with Indian families to both teach about ongoing repair and maintenance as well as partner with the families and church members to do the rehab as well.

* Technical - There are several “basic engineering” issues that have surfaced in many of the villages. For example, many people have gas stoves that are very simple in construction, but that when they break or malfunction, have no idea how to repair or maintain. They ran a “test” 2nd Saturday project for this issue and that people in the villages lined up in droves to have church members fix their stoves free of charge. It was a phenomenal opportunity to increase the church’s exposure as well as serve the community, and that they had a phenomenal opportunity to share the love of Jesus with people as they asked, “why are you doing this?” Similar kinds of issues could involve basic electrical work or plumbing. Most of these issues could be “learned on the field”, particularly with people who are already engineering or mechanically inclined, and would be hugely beneficial in a variety of contexts.

We hope that you will stick with us as we travel and engage the training process along the way!

All for One!
-"Samurai" Jack Magruder