Pre-trip meeting

We met Sunday to get last details on our flight information and schedule of events when we arrive in India. Looks as though we'll have 28 hours of travel time going there with a layover in Frankfurt, Germany. Last year the India team went over the Pacific from LAX to Taiwan. That didn't fare too well as the customs in Taiwan were really strict with missionaries. Although the team travels as "tourists" several of them were stopped and questioned. Half of the luggage that they had were filled with materials for the Indian people to prepare Bible studies, pastoral messages, bibles, and other Christian based materials, but thankfully their luggage bypassed customs. So we are traveling through Europe this year to avoid these little hangups.

Also I came to find out that on top of the chance of getting diseases (malaria, hepatitis, typhoid fever, etc) there is a high chance of getting lice. India is one of the dirtiest countries in the world, mainly due to animals (cows are sacred to Hindi people and pigs are unclean to Muslim so they roam around the streets), tropical climate and swamplands, and mosquitos and flies that spread disease from these animals to humans. We are prepared however, and have a great medical team traveling with us with experts in immunizations. I feel confident we will be safe.

We will meet at 3am on Thursday at Morningstar Church to head to the Portland airport to start our journey.

India Blog

This blog is dedicated as a journal of events leading up to, during and after my trip to Chennai, India. I will be traveling to a suburban area called Red Hills. My specific role will be to serve with the technical team in setting up audio/visual equipment and assisting with photography and videography to record the events that take place on this trip. This team will perhaps be the busiest of all teams going (including medical, drama, music and pastoral) as we will be responsible for capturing the essence of the trip on film and video so we will need to go with every team to every event in order to do this. The teams are assembled together under Reid Saunders Association, a partner ministry of Next Generation Alliance and evangelist Luis Palau. There will be several outreach events held in the area of Red Hills in order to share the truths of the Bible with a predominantly Hindu and Muslim population (less than 2% are Christian). This area was also greatly affected by the Dec. 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. Our purpose will be to bring hope to a culture that has none.

I am very excited about this opportunity to serve in this capacity. I know the Lord will use it to His glory and will bless me, the team and the people of India through it in many ways. I hope you will enjoy this journey with me by reading along with this blog.