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