ACTS where we have been staying in their guest house is headed up by Dr. Ken Gnanakan. This is a thriving institution. There is a School with grades 1-12, a clinic and a Bible School with both resident students and a live Distance Learning program for M Div and M Th. Other initiatives have been taken; the Asia Theological Association which evaluates and credits many institutions, a theological book publishing enterprise, ecology initiatives amongst others. A significant staff, in all a real hive of activity. We have deeply appreciated their hospitality, the use of their guest house and help with travel bookings and other logistical needs.

We have made visits to old friends including those in the Bible Society of India with which Colin had links in his Hong Kong days. We were greatly encouraged to hear from Dr. Manuel A Prabakarn about advances made in printing within India to higher standards and quality. Greater variety and more desirable Bibles are being produced which include small concordances and other Bible helps as well as superior bindings.

Brother Manuel is also an active Church member sharing news of Church growth within Bangalore and then in the Indian diaspora which is spreading around the globe and taking with them lessons taught by the Spirit in India which are impacting their new environment. He has good contact with ex Gurkha Nepali soldiers in England who are reaching their own kind but increasingly British people as well. His own son in Louisiana USA has amazed his local pastor by building a strong house group. Interestingly that same pastor is coming to India to sit and learn about church planting from the mother Church in India. The Church is truly international if we are willing to learn and drop our ideas of a Western superior edge on teaching and practice.

Sunday morning we were at a local fellowship, the worship leader inspired from a night of prayer concluded at 06.00 and now it was 09.00. The evening at a Methodist Church the 3rd service that Sunday. Our friend’s husband is the organist performing on an electronic instrument and at other times on full pipe organ at St Andrews Presbyterian. The young people in their turn on a keyboard, bass guitar and drums the words produced on an overhead projector. We were impressed with the quality of the preaching from the Sermon on the Mount.

Colin’s first responsibility is to conduct a two day Spiritual Emphasis presentation at the Asian Christian Academy. ACA is an institution made up of a regular School with a thousand or more students, a small clinic and a Bible School with 150 students lo-cated at an attractive rural campus 50 km from Bangalore on the road to Chennai. The place was originally a barren stretch of land but now has fruit trees, a carefully managed water system and so an example to all around of what can be done with hard work and application.

The ministry is an initiative of Indian Christians trained at Dallas Seminary in Texas. Their students are drawn from Baptist and Brethren (Gospel Hall) groups of the more conservative type.

The Spiritual Awareness program follows the 3 days of semester examinations and is the prelude to the next Semester. There was an added challenge this year as the institution has been beset by the dishonesty of one of their trusted staff members who over 8 years has systematically embezzeled funds from the student fees and other sources. My choice of Psa 51 proved to be a useful one in this situation. My approach was different in content as well as presentation requiring some adjustment in learning to comprehend but we were encouraged by the happening.

The kindness and hospitality were up to the usual high standards. We shared the midday meal of rice vegetable curry and samba the South Indian spicy sauce although we balk at eating with our fingers requesting spoons as our skills are not up to preventing spill down the front of our shirts!

A visit was made to the Outreach Training Institute where we taught last year. Here 25 new workers are being orientated to the ministry of the Indian Evangelical Mission. A time with the staff and students brought us an invitation to return again next year and share with them.

Beyond the walls of the Church the Muslim fasting month Ramadan has begun from the 22nd August. The call goes out before the first sign of the dawn at around 05.00 to begin the fast which will remain until 19.00 when with the eating of dates the fast is broken. Special foods are made for this period of time. One of them a variation of the famous ‘Biryani’ is called ‘Haleem’ something we enjoyed very much. Not linked with Ramadan but a delicious meal of Nth Indian style kebabs with a friend was a special treat!

A very different and much less aesthetic approach for Hindus as this is the annual festival and recognition of Ganesh the god associated with wealth. Big brightly lit booths hold images of the deity which is worshipped and entreated for the 3 day period before being disposed of by immersion in the nearby river.

The newspaper world taken up with the Flu H1N1 virus, elections, meager annual monsoon rainfall leading to drought in important grain growing areas of the country with huge torrential short lived downpours producing flooding in other parts. Thankfully late monsoon rains have reduced the deficit to closer to 20% but even so due to the late arrival significant cropping has been lost. There is huge need for more infrastructure planning to prepare for these seasonal events. In agriculture a need to consolidate and pro-duce more capital intensive farming but beset with huge problems of the displacement of the peasantry who would then have to be absorbed in some other way.

Ecological and human concerns also becloud the utilization of vast areas rich in coal, iron ore and bauxite. Areas which are home to migrant marginal people who would be displaced. A challenge in UK in the late 1700s when the Commons were closed for more intensive sheep leading to the horrors of the early days of the Industrial Revolution.

The political scene is dominated by the fortunes of the BJP the nationalistic Hindu party which has now suffered two election defeats. Indians are voting against this communal approach to politics. As usual the hard liners say it is because you have not stressed ideology enough in an attempt to find middle ground and lost out at both ends. The aging leadership many of them in their 80s is now slowly loosing grip to give way to younger leaders. But they are also in danger of self destructing something most Christians would be happy to see!

The other concern is the rising Maoist rebellions of the impoverished inhabitants of the marginal land that has beneath it mineral resources desired by the industrial complex for exploitation but requiring the displacement of these subsistence people. The Urban proletariat is little better off in their slums but some-how see more of a future ahead so are not rebelling against the inequalities but seeking to move up the ladder. But these rural marginal backward peoples see no future the emerging India so seek to hold on to what little they have.

In sharp contrast the bustling exploding bigger cities are bustling with vigor. Huge infrastructure projects for roads, overpasses and transit lines are underway in the major centres. Hitherto unknown prosperity is spreading to those able to gain education and take advantage.