Waiting...waiting...waiting

One of the most frustrating things we came across in our Missions trip to India was the time it took to move anywhere.
And if anything involved state or government officials, you could guarantee that would make it all that much worse, and the whole process would grind to a snail's pace. It was obvious that speed and efficiency was not their forte.

For example; there were six of us in the Mission party. We needed to cross the border from Bangladesh to India, near Brahambaria, on foot. Apart from a couple of men in an old blue truck, we were the only people making a crossing at that time.
There were 2 huts on the side of the dusty road in both countries, with two big barrier arms blocking the road and a no-mans land in between - much like you saw in those old Cold War spy movies (but without the barbed wire and machine guns!).
The Bangladesh side took about an hour to process the group - not bad, given the poor resources at their disposal.
But when we passed through the barrier into India, well, that's another story...

They would look over every page of our passports and visas, ask questions, then write the answers manually in a book. Then the book would be passed to another, who would copy details from that book into another book. This happened about four times. Then finally the last person would stamp the visa.

Three and a half hours later in the exhausting heat we finally left the border area and collapsed into the waiting vans.

After many ordeals like this one, I penned my frustrations...

Whom Shall I Fear?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

(A study of Psalm 27:1-5)

In Awe

"The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork." (Psalm 19:1)

No matter where you go you cannot escape the glory of God.

It is even in those things we sometimes take for granted... 

Michael, Part 2

Hi Everyone

I thought I would give you an update on Michael, the young Jehovah's Witness man who turned up at my house last week

Click below to see the update...

Jesus Only Saves Sinners

The Cowboys vs the Indians. The Cops vs The Robbers. The Federation vs The Dark Side.

Good vs Evil.

That's how we all view our daily struggle for existence this mad world of ours - our thinking being that the harder we try to subdue the bad with our goodness, the better chance there is that good will eventually prevail.

But unfortunately that doesn't work with our personal character and God.
One of the most confusing paradoxes in Christianity is that the harder you try to be good in order to get to heaven, the less chance you have of making it there.

The Charlatans of Chandpur

In 2002 during a missions trip to Bangladesh, I passed through a town named Chandpur.

Like all towns we visited in Bangladesh, our party was the biggest thing around, with everyone crowding around us to stare at the 'rich' white people.

The opportunity to peddle their wares inevitably arose, and you felt like their lives depended on it...

Michael, Part 1

Yesterday afternoon I was quickly finishing off some gardening out the front of the house. We were leaving soon to go to dinner at my brothers' house.

I heard a group of  people talking on the footpath outside my house. Then they all headed up the hill, apart from one young man, who walked up my driveway and made a beeline straight for me. He was wearing a shirt and tie. My immediate thought was 'Mormon or JW?'. Turned out it was the latter...