We spent our last full day here, yesterday, with this fine group of men and women. In the morning, Rob talked about the inter-connectivity of love, obedience, and faith. We broke for a lunch of chicken, rice, and dal… In the afternoon, I lead them through a study of the first couple of chapters of the book of Acts. We chatted about life groups: how our church did them, whether they might be a good thing here, and what that might mean for each of them in terms of commitment and benefit.

We wrapped it all up with a time of questions and answers and then they blessed us by each sharing, one-by-one, what the time meant for them. We tried to return the favor but there’s no way we can bless them as much as God has blessed us through them!

We have spent our last night in Siliguri and are eating breakfast. In about half and hour we hope to Skype with our life group back in California. In about 3 hours we head to Bagdogra for our long journey back home. Pray for our flights and connections and our time in Delhi – hopefully the smog won’t be so oppressive this time through.

Our schedule has changed – the original plans for today flew out the window and instead we will be going on a safari.

In a few minutes we will by FaceTiming a life group from home and shortly after that we will be in search of some lions and tigers and hathi!

That was the only hathi (elephant) we got to see on this safari. We walked down to the pond were the crocodiles were…

Then we boarded a bus (of sorts) for an hour drive through the jungle (well, actually more like a woods, but jungle nonetheless). The first area we went into was for Mixed Herbivores (each area had a paddock area where we had to open the first gate, drive in, close the first gate, and then open the second to drive into that area.

The mixed herb eaters we saw were deer, peacocks(and hens), and monkeys.

The second area we visited was for the Asiatic Black Bear (Balu)…

The driver tried REALLY hard to get his attention so that he’d face us, but the guy was just not that interested in cooperating.

We then drove into the Leopard area. The ones that were out loose did not show themselves, so we drove over by the caged area and saw one up close – but he was on the other side of the bus and I couldn’t get a good picture.

Lastly, we drove into the tiger area. We saw two tigers up close.

After our hour in the bus we walked a little bit. First into a garden of medicinal plants, but it was fairly overgrown. Then we walked over to an aviary. I apologize that the cage obscures the view of the beautiful birds, but still recorded it to get a taste of the wonderful sounds.

We bid farewell to the jungle and drove back into town, stopping at the Vega Mall to get lunch at the local KFC. Here’s our intrepid group, having a great time of fellowship around a tasty meal.

We headed back to our hotel, watched The Apostle Paul on Apple TV, planned what we might talk about with our friends tomorrow, and are eating dinner as I type this blog.

Tomorrow is our last full day here in Siliguri. Thanks for the prayers so far, they’ve been effective and kept us going. Please continue them!

Naxalbari is a community close to the Nepal border, about a 45 minute drive from our Siliguri home. A dozen of us went there today. We met in a home and did a refresher course on presenting the Good News with the eCube.

Pastor Birwa prayed for our adventure…

We split into two teams and set off into the village. There was a healthy Muslim presence in this village.

My group met with a young sister, to encourage and strengthen her. She took us to a couple of homes of friends and family. My friends shared the eCube story with a woman who was her neighbor, first in Hindi, and then some follow up in Sadri. She wants to talk to Pastor Birwa some more.

We then went a couple doors down the path and talked with some relatives of our young sister. One of our team shared his testimony. Another talked about some issues with the young man. A third encouraged him, in Sadri.

Rob will have to share the story of his adventure, but the following are some photos he shared with me of his walk through the village…

We had a late lunch and drove back to Siliguri. The following is a photo of the new version of the highway that goes through Siliguri. It’s been upgraded significantly and though traffic can still be horrendous in Siliguri itself, it’s a much smoother ride as you go west of town now – with center divider to keep (most) oncoming traffic out of your lane. There are still often 2 or 3 more vehicles than lanes a lot of the way though…

Tomorrow we’re going on a safari, I think…

At breakfast we met a group from San Diego. They come here every couple of years to work with LTC, our old friends. This day they were headed to a village to do a medical camp. We chatted a little bit and then went down to the lobby to find a familiar old friend…

Oh, and some great old friends (Alem and Harrish), who were coordinating the medical camp for our new friends.

About half an hour later, Bharat and Bandana met us at the hotel lobby. We chatted a little and then headed to our meeting for the day. We met with about 10 or so men and talked about the what, why, who, how of their work here in India. One of them didn’t speak English and another was more comfortable in Hindi so Bandana interpreted for us. We took about half an hour for lunch–chicken and rice and dal and potatoes beans and cukes for me.

After lunch we talked about πρεσβύτερος, ἐπίσκοπος, and ποιμήν – and their relevance to the work they were doing here. We then chatted about the unique challenges they faced and started talked about possible ways to address some of them. We ran out of time around 3pm, said good day and headed back to our Siliguri home away from home.

Harrish came to the hotel after his day with our San Diego friends. We treated him to dinner at the hotel and caught up with each other’s lives. Dinner was tasty.

He is doing well. He works at LTC and how has to position that Arun had before Arun came to the USA with his family. After a great time of fellowship we bid our adieus and headed up to our room. I think I was asleep by 8:30 and Rob was already sawing logs as I drifted off myself.

We’ve found 1 channel on the TV that is is English so far. CNN, can only listen to it so long before it starts to repeat, but it does help me get sleepy!

I was up by 6, though my alarm was set for 7. Rob was already awake. We just finished breakfast and in less than half an hour should get picked up by the Pradhan’s. We are going cubing in an Adivasi village today.

That watermelon juice had the right flavor, but the texture was weird. I won’t be ordering it again.

This trip to India has been different than most of my others.

Because we had a very short layover on our way to India, we stayed overnight in the city of Istanbul, Turkey. Rob and I used our own funds to pay for a day of exploration of history and culture. We stayed in a little hotel in the Sultanahmet district, a couple of blocks from the Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) and the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque). We could see the Bosporus and most of the Ayasofya from the rooftop breakfast.

We took a tour of the Hagia Sophia and checked out the Blue Mosque (the line was too big at the mosque so we took a walking tour of Istanbul–through the Grand Bazaar, through the Spice Bazaar, across the Galata Bridge and up the hill to the Galata Tower. The line was too long (and not moving) at the tower so we walked back down to the Golden Horns and ate lunch on the water front.

We hiked back through the old part of Istanbul (according to my pedometer app, I walked 27,183 steps – 12.4 miles – 22 flights of stairs that day) to our hotel and hitched a ride to the airport. The driver said the “traffic is very big” – the first 3-4 miles took about half an hour, but the rest of the ride to the airport was smooth sailing, and check-in was a breeze.

We left Istanbul about an hour late but arrived at Delhi only a few minutes late. Our connecting flight to Bagdogra was 2.5 hours later. I thought we’d have plenty of time, but this was the most vexing time through security I’ve experienced in my 9 trips to India. To start with, the pollution in Delhi is horrendous – so bad that it is inside the airport. The immigration guy was taking literally 5-6 minutes for each person he was checking–I felt really bad for those who had connections to make and doubtless, some people missed their next flights (as you had to go get your luggage and check it in after this line (though I’m sure not many had to wait at the carousel to get theirs after their long wait in the immigration line.

We were able to carry our luggage on the flight from Istanbul so we hurried off the customs and to our gate, about half an hour before our flight. My eyes and through and lungs were burning from the smog and we hadn’t even been outdoors yet.

Shortly after we lifted off, we got into the sky above the crud in the air and had a smooth flight to Bagdogra. The air was clear and the temperature was in the mid 80s. Bandana picked us up from the airport and took us to the Hotel Appolo.

We checked in and promptly asked for another room as there were rat droppings in the bathroom. They had no other room with 2 beds so they put us in two separate rooms. My new room had mouse droppings, a couple of cockroaches and a stain on the bedspread.

Needless to say, we said a not so fond farewell to the Appolo. We booked a different hotel (on Hill Cart Road) and went to a meeting with Bharat. At the meeting were about 15 or so members of the Word for the World Fellowship. We caught up with old friends, made a few new ones, had some dinner together and talked about what has been happening and what they dreamed of happening in the future.

We had dinner together, said good night and checked in to our new hotel–no sign of vermin and clean bedding and linens! Good internet connection as well. We promptly fell asleep after a busy and profitable day.