Planes, boats and auto-rickshaws

Imagine you are at the fairground, enjoying the bump  a cars. Now instead of there being a lot of small plastic toy  cars, imagine you are playing dodgems with buses, lorries, coaches, cars, motorbikes, push bikes, auto-rickshaws, hand pulled rickshaws, pedestrians, dogs and the occasional nonchalant cow, and it goes a small way describing our  introduction to the roads of Kolkata, and the remarkable country of contradictions that is India.

A country of vibrant colours, smells, sounds (predominantly car horns) and activities. People everywhere, selling, buying eating, sleeping, talking, or just sitting. 

But a place of immense challenges. Modern office blocks overshadow crumbling, colonial mansions, BMWs quite literally rub shoulders with hand pulled rickshaws. The infrastructure is straining under the pressure of a huge population, and yet there is a warmth of welcome and hospitality that challenges our western reserve. 

Our first lesson in faith, to "let go and let your driver!"

We had to hold tight and trust the skill and experience of the man behind the wheel, to get us through the craziness of the city traffic, to the oasis of calm at the BMS compound.

Discussing it on one of our journeys, we likened this to following Jesus. There are times we really have to just let Jesus take the wheel, and trust him to steer us through the challenges of life!

This was put into practice on our first trip out to some villages, upriver. "Village" being a broad term. These were not quaint rows of cottages, more of a collection of dwellings from mud huts, to roofless brick sheds, to thatch and bamboo lean-tos, with the occasional, immaculate two storey "castle"!

We met with some faithful followers of Jesus, sitting on grass mats, with chickens and goats and cows wandering around. A context so far removed from anything most of us had ever experienced, and yet we read the Bible together, worshipped and prayed, and shared in a 3 thirds gathering,  just like we would in our own lounge!

We were humbled by the faithfulness, humility and welcome of these people, who having so little materially, were prepared to embrace us, and who day by day are persevering to share Jesus with not only their village but villages scattered in the jungle around.

We walked along a beaten track, accompanied by a group of curious, bemused children, with the universal language of smiles and giggles, doing the only thing we could do in the face of such immense need, which was pray! 

We left with more smiling and waving and a sense of connection with our brothers and sisters in Jesus, but also challenged by their faithfulness and obedience.

Then the journey back, imagine the dodgems again, but this time, in the dark....