Hyderabad--Where It All Began

Back in 2003, I leaned toward the plane window at midnight.  We were approaching our destination:  Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.  Fresh from the tiny village of Nenana, Alaska, we were excited to be going to a truly foreign country, and a crowded city of 3.7 million souls.

I was surprised.  City lights—which usually greet a visitor like a vast field of diamonds—looked more sparse than those of Fairbanks, which had only 80,000 people.  The airport was not much larger either, and barely functional.  It smelled of mildew.  The air outside was thick with the smoke of cooking fires.

Hyderabad Today

Much has changed in ten years.  Rajiv Gandhi Airport recently built in the suburb of Shamshabad is definitely world-class. Exclusive hotels and shopping are available.  Hyderabad city has whole districts of high-tech corporations and is the call-center hub of—possibly—the world.  Chances are that your tech support 800-number connects you here! 

And its 6 million inhabitants are fast becoming westernized.  McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut have sprouted up.  TV commercials show spacious modern apartments, private schools for children, the latest fashions and jeans, cutting edge appliances, air conditioning and western bathrooms.  You might think you were watching TV in the USA, except for the ads for “fairness creams” as well as L’Oreal hair color…

Tent Slum Family, Hyderabad

Yet, for many people, nothing has changed in the ten years we have been coming to India.  The population has far outstripped the infrastructure, and there are still miserable city slums.  And as soon as you leave Hyderabad, the villages—where 75% of India still lives—are in a world thousands of years old.  True, many huts have Dish TV, but no toilet.  Many carry a cell phone, but water still comes in a pot on a woman’s shoulder.  Cooking is still done over cakes of dry cattle dung.  Plowing and hauling are still done, in a large part, by bullock teams.

HIV+ Mother & Child

The number of lost souls continues to mushroom.  India will outstrip the population of China by 2015 in one-third the space.  That’s in just two years!  Five of every 100 children never reach their first birthday.  Half of the world’s lepers and HIV/AIDS victims are here.  It seems that mob mentality has taken over in the rush for advancement:  Grab the future for ME, and step on the ones below.  The caste system encourages this mindset—yet we know it is prevalent across the human spectrum, including the US.  Sometimes the sheer enormity of poverty and population—hidden behind the façade of progress—overwhelms the mind.

Many Indian groups are openly denouncing inequities and seeking to rectify them.   Even the government, especially around election time, makes noble resolutions.  But, the problems are huge and each step forward is so small.  As Karen May quoted from Mother Teresa:  We feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean…  What is the answer?

No Running Water, but a TV Dish

AIM does get involved in some social work:  A well here, a Children’s Home there.  But the true answer is to change humanity at the heart level.  Only Jesus Christ can do that.  When the hearts and souls are changed, then the love of God and love for our neighbor take precedence, and cultures are transformed.  We have clearly seen that change does not work from top-down; it can only be effective from the roots upward, like a living organism.

The Future of India

We are in India to effect real change through Christ.  Where do we begin?  We have a two-prong strategy:  One, change the lives of children—the next generation—and raise up leaders who truly care for their people, not merely for money and power.  If those trapped in endless poverty are provided with enough food and medical care to reach adulthood, taught Christ’s love, educated and sent out, they can change their world.

Second, enable local men, whom God has called, to spread the Gospel to their own people.  They are far better equipped in language, cultural understanding, customs and protocol—and worldview—than we will ever be.  They develop the strategies, they carry them out.  AIM comes alongside and helps them to accomplish God’s goal of reaching the unreached for His glory.

So today, after time along the coast and in the mountains, we are back inland, in the capital city of Hyderabad.  We met Ravi Sundar through Indian friends in Stillwater and Tulsa.  He was not on our original schedule, but we are enjoying time with him, his family, and his church—the seventh plant he has nurtured into maturity.  Shalom Full Gospel Church is already supporting outlying village churches and planting a new house church in a high-caste Hindu neighborhood.  We were privileged to minister with him in all three places.

Russ and Ravi at VBS

Russ spoke at the ongoing VBS at Shalom.  Some of the children from the slum across the road regularly attend Sunday School and VBS.  Fourteen young people came to the Lord after Russ’ Gospel presentation capped by Ravi’s further invitation.  The next day Russ spoke about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego with the help of Alice’s sketches done the previous night.  We helped give out certificates and Bibles while children asked Russ about his ‘robot legs’.

Russ gave his testimony at two Youth Group meetings and at both Hyderabad churches--later at an outdoor Gospel meeting in Panampally village.  We were invited the next day to participate in dedicating their new stucco church building.  It was HOT.  A crowd gathered at the door, listening to prayers, sermons and a ribbon-cutting from several pastors.  100 degrees F, 100% humidity, and hundreds of people pressing against each other…we almost suffocated.  An hour later, Alice had to spend time in the van with the AC going to revive.  But, as always, God’s grace is sufficient and we made it!

Victor, the Survivor

Besides his church ministries, Ravi is in demand as a Conference speaker.  And, he has a Bible College for poor village men.  Here they are educated for three intensive semesters—usually free—and sent out with the Gospel to plant churches and pastor the people.  One such young man is Assistant Pastor at Panampally.  Victor Paul is paralyzed on his left side from polio, but walks as best he can to work for the Lord.  He was so discouraged with his disability he once attempted suicide by fire.  80% of his body was burned and remains deeply scarred.  But, God has a purpose for each of us, and he survived. 

Today, Victor is cheerful and helpful, but a little sad that no one will accept him as a full pastor—even though he has gone through Ravi’s training.  Please pray for God’s guidance and provision for this eager young man.  We were invited to his home,

Sharing a Cool Bottle of Sprite and Fellowship

where his parents and sister provided us a midnight dinner after the Gospel Meeting.  The home is a tiny round mud hut with an extended thatch roof; the family sleeps on cots under the ‘porch’.  An outhouse stands in the right corner of the hardened clay yard, and a water well not far away on the left.  We had been warned about eating village food but could not refuse their gracious hospitality.  Both of us are still alive and well.  God is good…

We have been going to India for ten years, and on this journey for ten weeks.  Only months ago we thought our ministry was over—‘Impossible’ the doctors said.  But our God is the God of the impossible.  We praise Him for continuing to use us in spite of the challenges.  After all, what is adventure without risk?

Some of this was covered in our email update…but it bears repeating in more detail.  God desires to be known and worshipped by all the humans He has created.  It is our duty to make Him known among the nations!

--Alice Sharrock

Tribals--Part 2

Soura Tribeswomen at Market

We reluctantly packed to leave Orissa on Saturday morning.  But before we left, we made one more stop—the Saturday Market in Paralakhemundi, where tribals come to buy supplies and trade livestock.

People stared at me and I tried not to stare back, but it was an amazing experience and I wanted to make the most of my half hour.  Some of the Soura women were buying fabric and supplies.  They were very shy about photographs, but a few finally relented.  Women were selling turmeric roots, dried fish from the coast, and bundles of twigs which are the local toothbrushes.  I bought two pottery vessels from a lady of the Kunbhar people group (technically a caste since they are Hindu); some baskets from three Medni tribals;  and wandered into the cattle fair. 

85% of the men there were tribals.  Cattle were being bought and sold for milk cows, oxen teams and beef.  (Apparently local tribes eat cattle, unlike Hindus.)  I saw a man standing, storklike, with one foot on the opposite knee, like the Masai of Africa—while sucking on a 

Waiting for a Buyer

cool ice popsicle. Some cattle were decorated with headpieces; others had prospective buyers feeling their ribs, then handing over cash.  Business swirled around me and cattle trotted by.  I truly felt in a different world.

Indian society is extremely complex to an outsider.  Four main castes with thousands of subdivisions make up the mainstream kaleidoscope.  Priests (Brahmin) and rulers/military (Khashtriya) are the top two levels.   

Fishermen, for instance, belong to a caste of their own, as do laundrywomen. They are usually born, live and die in their family trade or social position. Marriage between castes is abhorrent to most Indians, although we occasionally see “Caste No Bar” in the “Matrimonial Classifieds” of major newspapers.

At the bottom are the Untouchables or Dalit (Crushed Ones).  They are considered

Tribal Cattle Market--Paralakhemundi, Orissa

subhuman and traditionally do the nasty jobs, such as sweeping streets at night, or gathering up human waste.  Crime such as rape or murder against a Dalit is seldom prosecuted. The government ostensibly favors the legally recognized “Scheduled and Backward Castes” with quota entries into government jobs and schools; however, this benefit is seldom enforced.

Then there are the tribals, or Adavasi.  Although there is much academic debate about all I have learned, the tribes are regarded as descended from the aboriginal peoples of India.  Their genetics vary from Negrito to Austral-Asian to Dravidian.

The following criteria are often used to determine tribal status of a people group:

Stone Walls and Dirt Roads--Soura Country

1-Geographical isolation – they live in remote and inhospitable areas such as mountains and forests.

Plowing with a Wooden Plow--Before Dawn

2-Backwardness – their livelihood is based on primitive agriculture or a hunter/gatherer tradition, with a low-value closed economy and rudimentary technology that results in poverty. They have low levels of literacy and health.

3-Distinctive culture, language and religion -- often animism or spiritism.  Anthropologists feel the worship of trees, rocks and snakes derived from the early tribes and were added to folk Hinduism.

4-Shyness of contact – they have a marginal degree of contact with other cultures and people.

Strangely, tribals are not deemed unclean by Hindus, while the Dalit are.  In fact, many flatlanders regard tribals as guardians of wild places, forests and streams; “Dongria Khond”, the tribe we were trying to contact, means

Russ and Soura Tribesman--Puttasingh

“hill dwelling protectors.” 

Most of the tribals considered land as belonging to everyone (like Native Americans) and were fairly egalitarian.  This was disrupted by the Muslim Mogul conquerors in the 1500’s and further upset by the British in the 1700’s when much of India was portioned out to landlords.  Tribals and lower castes became virtual serfs, which continue to this day.  Tribal lands were opened to settlement in the 1970’s; by the time the tribals realized they had to file claims, the window of opportunity was gone.  Many wild peoples have been dispossessed but have little political power. 

Lombadi Gypsy Lady

Today, many tribals are still unreached.  Some, like the Lambadi gypsies we met in Tenali, are nomadic and difficult to pinpoint.  Others, like the Dongria Khond, are hostile and remote making it complicated to reach them with the Gospel.  Plus the government limits access to many groups, especially by missionaries.  We might gain admittance with a medical team…

India has over one thousand languages; Orissa alone has 150.  One village often cannot understand the next village.  There are over 2600 people groups in India; three-quarters of these are listed as Unreached (less than 2% evangelical Christian) and over 300 are still totally Unengaged.  

These are some of the many challenges facing the missionaries God has raised up under Bihit Parichha’s leadership.  Yet they are willing to risk, to learn, and to go—usually without any means of livelihood.  Please pray for these men who are committed to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are considering offering sponsorships; if you or your church would love to send an indigenous missionary into the mountains, please contact us at aimission@hotmail.com   India has more unreached people groups than any other country.  Let’s change these statistics!

--Alice Sharrock

 

Two Soura Girls Asked for Prayer Before Their Exams