OTC, Bangalore-2008

India Evangelical Mission Outreach Training Institute

The Outreach Training Centre of the Indian Evangelical Mission is located an hour or so drive beyond Bangalore in the countryside toward Chennai. Bangalore is in Karnataka, a state whose people have been resistant to the Christian message. The OTC is in TamilNadu which has a very different response pattern. Significant numbers of a group of lower caste communities responded to the message up to 300 years ago. From them have come large numbers of educated people so that Christians are in good standing within the State. It could be that Chennai itself is up to 25% Christian in composition.

The OTS is an outgrowth from an original training centre headed up by a Canadian Interserve missionary, John Garrison, who began preparing workers for rural locations many years ago. His centre was nearer Bombay in an old mission property. The IEM is a mission with strong roots within the Tamil community having its HQ in Bangalore so it is not surprising that they favored this area for a permanent campus. We are housed in the Guest Bungalow which gives us a room with attached bath and a common dining, living area along with a kitchen for making tea. Most meals are eaten with the students in their mess hall. Food is really basic as this is a type of Boot Camp to prepare the workers for the more rural inaccessible environments they may find themselves in. Rice is the favored cereal with some wheat chapattis made in the evenings. Meat is a luxury appearing only at intervals. To provide chicken for the 50 eating would cost $25 per meal so vegetables sourced locally make up the diet. The lectures are in another block. There is electric power here. The common power cuts are offset with a standby generator. Nearby there is a large poultry farm which can produce flies and an odor should the wind blow the wrong way! A tractor and trailer constantly plies the access road bringing in the necessary feed stock.

The journey out from Bangalore passes through newly built up areas linked to the IT sector. Huge blocks of high rise apartments spread for acres amid industrial buildings. The buildings are big glass mausoleums air conditioned with their own independent generators to house the 24/7 ant like labor which service these centres. The whole thing is mind boggling in its extent particularly when there is very limited present infrastructure like transit links to meet the needs of people working there. A 9 lane highway is building up and plans for a Metro are beginning to emerge. Even more amazing are the self contained gated residential communities that by pass the hassle of India by being self contained providing their own water, electricity, sewage garbage disposal.

The paved road serviced by the national tax base ends abruptly at a village where the roading is under the control of the local authority or Panchyat. Suddenly the road is a pot holed wonder barely passable until the national tax base road emerges a half mile or so beyond the village. The endemic corruption and poor administration evident in these villages and small towns ensures that these intermittent stretches of road bedevil the traveler all along the way.

The group this time at the OTI is largely from NE India. This is the most Christian part of India even though population numbers are comparatively small being in the hundreds of thousands rather than the millions of the larger states. These people are tribal in ethnic background being from Mongol stock so quite different to the people of mainland India who are Dravidian or Aryan having come from the Middle Eastern areas.

Unlike previous years where the whole morning was given to me to lecture this time only 2 out of the 4 periods are mine. The other two periods are being taken by another person. The deemed wisdom being that 2 lectures per day is a heavy enough load! It is possible that time may be given in the afternoon for other less strenuous activities.

The diet here is also more Spartan being mostly vegetable curry, rice and chapatti with meat only occasionally. We have upgraded to being Daniel and his 3 companions at the kings court not by choice but by decree.

Celebration

One of the staff members celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary in style. Theo Srinivasan is married to an English doctor he had met in Thailand when involved in mission there. The first encounter was at an orientation for OMF in UK and the eventual happening 12 years later so a long considered involvement.

The celebration was enthusiastically entered into not least because this was followed by a mutton curry, the only one this week! A cake was cut, vows reaffirmed, a recount of the joyous day in Sheffield unfolded, followed by the replaying of the wedding hymns and prayers. Then ensued a cultural presentation by a Nepali woman with a traditional folk dance. A more boisterous presentation came from the Thangkul Naga group who had a dance reminiscent of a Maori haka.

Building Plans
The facilities here are in demand from many Church and other Christian groups for weekend retreats and seminars. To facilitate this ministry extensions are being made to the dining hall. The plan is to make a Conference hall and a dormitory . Work has begun with a grant of $17,500 but another $30,000 is needed to complete this phase and for the completed project probably another $60-70000 beyond that. With this completed the ministry will expand to service many other Christian groups. The attraction is partly the quiet of the rural location but also the modest fees they are charging for the usage.

Asia Christian Academy
A visit was made to the nearby Asian Christian Academy a more conservative institution associated with Dallas Theological Seminary. The friends there received us very well inviting us to think of returning and teaching again in 2009 when we come this way. Since our time here in 2007 a new chapel has been built.

Dramas
As part of the course the students were divided into 3 groups and encouraged to produce dramas an additional means of cultural communication. The South Indians worked on Pongal a harvest festival common in the area of Tamil Nadu. The mixed group the festival of Diwali or Deshera related to the triumph of good over evil when the wife of Rama – Sita is rescued by with the help of Hanuman the monkey God. Ways to depicting a Christian interpretation were explored. The NE group returned to Harvest Festival also common to their area.

Janette spent time with the woman in the afternoons. Not surprisingly the greatest interest is in the emerging roles of the now more educated spouses, their relationship to their husbands, their role in the ministry, decision making and other areas that are encroaching on the traditional long established males roles of these societies.

A Sobering Note
One chapel period in the evening was devoted to prayer for colleagues who are in the areas of Orissa where attacks are being made against Christians. There is much joy in the response to the Gospel from these marginal peoples for whom Jesus is a liberator from age old bondages of caste and class. But as in history this is producing a backlash from those who are affected by the consequent religious and social changes.

The mission is looking to recruit at least 47 new workers to replace those who are retiring from the active ministry. Some of these new people will be sent to these areas of challenge an opportunity.

The situation in places like Orissa, from what I can glean in India here from numerous sources is dire and desperate. It is not merely a backlash against Christians the situation in reality is more complicated even though it does not make the suffering any less intense.

According to articles based on data from anthropology the roots of this trouble lie in the fact that there are two rival groups; the Kandtha who did not become Christians and the Pana tribe who have embraced the Gospel. Both speak Kui and are long term rivals. It sounds like the situation in Ruanda where the Hutu and Tutsi butchered each other as well as the Kenya happenings with Kikuya and others. A complication is in the Scheduled tribe classifications of the Indian govt. The Panas on becoming Christians do not lose benefits but the Kandtha if they become Christians do, as their category then changes in the Indian government understanding. This is the biggest hindrance to them embracing faith and could be the main reason why they have not taken advantage of the Gospel. The Pana have now also inputs from Christian mission in social services.

As well there are traditional land rights which in history have favored the Kandtha but with these changes there have been shifts which the K group perceive as advantages being gained by the Pana coming out of their uplift resources. The death of the Swami which brought on these troubles has significance because the K group saw him as their hope of uplift as under his tutelage social services were instituted with the support of Hindu groups.

No one of us embraces persecution but the REAL church as in China only emerges from such things. The Church is these parts is trammeled with the incubus of Western mission and western money. The status of many Christians does not reflect their true social situation so arouses envy and strife. Just how to bring about the ideal church is a challenge and mystery but this other situation certainly has its complications as well such as we are now witnessing.

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