In India- 5/10/06

We arrived in Chennai right on time at about 10 pm local time. Our bodies were still on Sydney time which was about 2.30 am so we were pretty tired.

After clearing through immigration and customs, we were met by Pastor Premnath. Actually half of Chennai's population seemed to be standing there holding cards with the names of people they were meeting.

We loaded our stuff into the vehicle and then had our introduction to the strange road rules prevailing in India. The rules seem to be you can go where you like as long as there is a space to fit. There is no "3 second rule" and usually no marked lanes, and if there are, they are ignored. Drivers use their horns in the same way that ships used to have fog horns and planes have radio transponders- they seem to sound them every half minute or so just to let other drivers know of their presence.




We have been booked into a resort by our host. We have the luxury suite which has two single beds rather than just the double. It is a big room with a separate bathroom (including a Western-style toilet- thank you Lord!). The air conditioning, like the ceiling fans has been modified so that it just runs flat out.

We had a great lunch (Chinese) with Pastor Premnath Samuel and his wife, Priya. Premnath and Priya visited us in Narrabri a couple of years ago. Premnath has been involved in organising a city-wide youth outreach which involved all the church leaders in Chennai. Chennai has over 8 million people and hundreds of different churches and leaders were involved.

We have spent some time talking with Premnath and Priya today about the issues in their church and encouraging them in their walk.

Tomorrow we meet with Premnath's father Vincent Samuel who was recently honoured by the leaders of the city on the 25th anniversary of his ministry here. The church, Calvary Christian Community Church sits on land that really belongs to the railways department and over the last couple of years has been progressively chomped away as the railways have resumed more of the land- now the building is just 1/3 of its original size, but they have closed up the walls that were demolished and refurbished the remainder. What a challenge that must be!

Michael was able to make contact with John Christian who lives in Bhimavaram so we will be travelling up there by train as we anticipated on Sunday night. John was the one who called us the "Good Food People" when he travelled through.


Blessings

Keith