Watch these video instructions that played at the Christmas Eve service this past year and tell me how long you think it took to shoot it?

Well, if you guessed roughly 3 hours – then you are dead on

Also by watching this video it looks like my two oldest children are complete pros – they ARE great but remember. . . this took 3 hours – lol!

Here’s the deal. My kids (6 and 5 at the time) are fantastic, and they did a great job, but this was no cake-walk. dsBen Sanders (the AMAZING videographer) and I had to have a different perspective than what I see from many parents today.

1. Making an experience memorable may not mean the whole experience is fun, though we did have some fun too!
2. In parenting, we need to have the perspective of what will actually be remembered – in this case, the finished product.
3. There is no way to teach that hard-work pays off. . . . unless you actually have to work hard for something.
4. Stretching me as a parent into more patience IS one way that God makes me more like Jesus.

Being a parent is not all about what you get out of it you know. . . in fact, most of it isn’t – because you almost never realize what exactly you are getting out it, until “it” is over. So, do what it takes to give your children memorable experiences, it will benefit everyone in the long run!

The other side of the world

 A time zone that is Ten and a half hours different from here is literally on the other side of the world. . . what an adventure. This past Christmas break I helped lead a team of volunteers from my church to a small little village in the Southeast state of Tamil Nadu, India. This was actually my second trip over there, but the first time to this particular village of Untouchables. In Indian Hindu culture, there are over 4,000 different castes, which separate classes of individuals from one another. People from lower castes are generally unable to marry outside of their caste, and much of their social interactions and opportunities are based on what caste you are born into. There is no way to earn your way up the caste system. You simply try to be  as faithful as possible in this life so that the gods will move you up in caste when you are reborn in your next life. The Untouchables or Irula caste of people are the lowest of the low. If their shadow even crosses the shadow of someone of high caste then the high caste person has now become unclean (which leads to many actions to be “clean” again) and extremely upset.  Literally, these people are never touched except by their own people, and usually their only employment is snake and rat catchers for local farmers. They are commonly called the backward caste (or b.c. for short) as well as the people of darkness.

Our church has been working with this particular colony for nearly 3 years, and things have come a long way. Our efforts to establish clean water, education, micro-enterprise, health, and housing are led by indigenous pastors that have been trained extensively. Our church simply provides complimentary services and knowledge in their efforts. In this way, we nullify any movement towards imperialism by our support. My team was heading over to do some construction projects in the village (i.e., 2 homes, handwashing stations, home repair seminar, plant two gardens, distribute greenLockers supplies, etc…)  while a second team went to provide health and wellness needs (i.e., blood pressure and diabetes checks and physicals as well as seminars on germs, disease, marriage,  and nutrition). The video below walks you through our trip from start to finish, and please email me if you have any questions at all about certain pictures. Obviously, there is no way to encapsulate all that occurred during our time there, but I wanted to share a few things that really stood out.

Apostle Thomas – We went to St. Thomas Mount for the first half-day that we were there in Chennai. You will see pictures in the video of the chapel that was erected on the spot where the apostle Thomas was martyred, the cave where he hid from his enemies, a spring that burst forth with water from a rock when he was needing water (and has flowed ever since, though it is on a mountain!), and the cathedral that houses his actual tomb and remains. Thomas is only one of three apostles that we know where they are buried, and it was so humbling to know that I walked on the ground of one who walked with Jesus!

Homes  – The first home that we built was for a homeless woman (Malika )who had 6 children, and had just lost her husband in an accident last year. She worked tirelessly with us the entire week working with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. On the night of the house dedication, one of our team members who is an M.D., found her flat on her back on the ground next to her new house – unable to move. His examination revealed that she had a badly herniated disk in her back, and she admitted to feeling the pain for weeks. . . . wow! She was so tough all week – not a single complaint. The next day we discovered that she did not sleep much that night, not because of her back, but because she simply could not believe that we loved her that much to build her a home! Her parents had abandoned her long ago, and with her husband gone, she was nearly hopeless, but now. . . everything has changed she said!

      -    As a follow-up - we just found out 3 days ago that she has since come to accept Jesus Christ as her LORD and savior, and she will be baptized when the next team goes over in March.

The old man and his new home – We ended up contracting a team of builders (4 men, and then 3 or 4 of our team members) to build a 3-5 year temporary home for a man whose home had collapsed during the rainy season. Raj said this would only cost around $80, and so we moved forward with it. It is one of my favorite memories because the man just watched the build not knowing whose house they were building – whether it was for him or the person who actually owned the land (i.e., he was simply squatting on it). He was so thankful when he received the home saying “I was an orphan, years ago, my wife left me, no one has ever wanted me. . . but today I feel cared for” – later on that night, I was walking past his new home on the way to the village celebration, and he had a single candle lit in the home, and you could hear him quietly singing to himself. . . just beautiful!

The mindset of poverty – Much of India’s population is either vegetarian of nearly so. This is a result of a multiple factors including cows being holy (i.e., no one eats beef), pigs being unclean, as well as the shear expense of meat for most people. Thus, vegetable gardens would be a great idea for a year-round sustainable food source; however, we had met great resistance to this idea in the village previously. We soon found out that since they have the poverty mindset of simply making it through the day or living to the end of the week that waiting a month for plants to grow and produce food was close to impossible to even comprehend. We built two gardens and planted them full of plants in hopes of their examples would be proof to the villagers of their value

      -    As a follow-up - we just got some pictures the other day of the gardens full of vegetables, and a local pastor said that many more families now want gardens!!!!

Little girl left under tree – One of the most heart-wrenching stories of the trip was the day that I noticed a little girl laying on some blankets under a big tree in the village. I saw her there for several hours, and so I inquired “where is her mother?” A villager explained that her mother had left to go to the main village for work, as she does every day. I soon found out that this less than a year old baby is left under that tree every day, and now no longer cries because she has learned that no one will be there to answer her . . . no one is ever there to pick her up.

greenLockers – I run a non-profit organization called greenLockers (www.greenlockers.org) that partners with a student organization in local schools to collect new and slightly used school supplies, clothes, and books during their end of the year locker clean-out days. These supplies are sorted and then distributed to local charities for free. On this trip, we had the distinct honor of distributing some of these supplies to a school near the Irula village. I cannot tell you how that filled my soul – to be used by God to love children in this way, and to see them celebrate. . . just priceless!

Joy and contentment – As many of you may know from being in poverty stricken areas in your own travels, there are simply no words that can describe the joy and contentment in many of their eyes, though they had nothing.

Break-through of honesty –After 3 years of working in the village we had a moment of true authentic relationship this year that reminds me much of the revival that just took place on Bethel’s campus this past week. The villagers put their overly hospitable, cultural masks down, and shared their frustrations and lack of knowledge with us like never before. This was truly a watershed moment of forming trust! For example, we built a latrine for the village 2 years ago, but they have not been using it. This means that women (who are not allowed to go to the bathroom during the day) must walk out into the field either at night or early in the morning – risking stepping on cobras and scorpions – to go to the bathroom. They have told us reasons for not using them for two years, but every time we addressed those reasons, they simply would come up with something else andnot use the latrines. This time, with tears in her eyes, a woman came up to us and simply said, “we don’t know how to use them, no one has ever told us how.” Soon others were confessing to other instances of vulnerability like needing to have a sign on the doors to know which are the men’s and which are the women’s, certain things about the clothes and shoes that we have been bringing over, and multiple other things. . . I cannot express to you how this was all such a breakthrough – just amazing!!!

Germ game and the basics – the medical team came up with a brilliant game to teach the children about germs. We have been trying for several years to get them to wash their hands because of all the sickness that has resulted from not doing so. There are even stories of people just falling to sleep right after eating (they eat with their hands) without washing their hands and then rats come in their huts at night and gnaw away the ends of their fingers, resulting in disease, infection, and death. So, this game involved several tennis balls that were covered with a white powder. The children passed around the balls until everyone had powder on their hands. The instructors then told them to rub their hands together until they no longer saw any of the powder. In essence, the children then saw their hands as “clean”; however, the powder was black light activated, and so when a black light was passed around the children, they clearly saw the white residue glowing on their hands. In this way, they understood that even though you cannot see certain things, they can still exist. For the first time, they understood the concept of germs – just fantastic!!!

Connection so deep, so fast – One thing you find out fairly quickly in this beautiful culture is that they assume that you are telling the truth. This is of course, very different from U.S. culture where the average person assumes some level of skeptism during a new conversation. For example, in the village in India, if I complimented someone’s outfit or smile, they would respond with a grateful “thank you” and feel very blessed. If the same conversation happened here between two strangers the one being complimented might automatically think thoughts like these, “why did he say that?”, “what does he want from me?”, or “he doesn’t really mean that, he is just being nice.” I cannot tell you how much faster relationships can form with this one simple difference. Truly I tell you that I am closer to some Indians that I knew for only 1 week than some friends I have known for years.

Focus – One of the most refreshing things for me on this trip was that my only responsibility was to wake up each day and then work as hard as I could on the projects, knowing that I was making an impact in these people’s lives. I did not have to worry about the next day, week, or month. I simply had to focus on what God wanted me to do that day and then do it – nothing was hanging over my head. Of course, when I returned home, there were not only tons of emails to respond to, but I immediately needed to start preparing for events and classes weeks and months in advance. This was a difficult transition at first, but then God graciously convicted me in one of my quiet times with Him. He told me “Ted, I have not changed, why have you?” In essence, His expectations are the same for me here as they were in India. I need to wake up each day and ask Him what He wants me to do, and then do it. Of course, some of those daily assignments will deal with the future, but that future is not my burden to carry, it is God’s, and He carries it effortlessly!

Baptism stories – We had the unbelievable honor of baptizing a handful of people at a one of the local churches in a nearby city. I am always amazed at their commitment to Christ in doing this public display of faith, regardless of the consequences. There are five questions that I had to ask each person before baptizing them:

1. Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal LORD and savior? Same as here in the US
2. Do you agree to never again worship any idols of any kind? You have to understand that there are over 330,000,000 gods in Hinduism with altars everywhere – I wish they would ask this one over here for the idol of money!
3. Do you agree to always follow Jesus Christ even when your family persecutes you and your village excommunicates you? Note that the question is not IF, but WHEN you face persecution, they know full well of the risk they are taking.
4. Have you been forced in any way to be baptized today? If a person accuses a pastor of forcing them to be baptized then the pastor automatically gets 3 years in prison for that crime.
5. Why are you getting baptized today? The most common response went something like this “For years I was beaten by my husband who was an alcoholic, one day I was in the hospital waiting to die and someone told me about Jesus. I prayed to Jesus and the next day I walked out perfectly healed, and so I figured that I should learn about and follow this Jesus no matter what.”

******* Don’t waste time – Finally, there is always a strange juxtaposition of death and life when I travel to India. In 2008, my aunt and uncle, who were missionaries and pastors fully alive and on mission for Christ, were tragically killed in a car accident the day before I left to go to India.  That day was supposed to be a huge family reunion celebrating each other, instead we wept and grieved all day. This year, my friend Scott Johnson, who I had taught Block with for 5 years went to be with the LORD while I was over in India. Those of you who have been through someone dying know that there is nothing easy about it. At this point, however, I do know what I have learned from those two experiences. Namely, I don’t want to waste time, not a single moment!” I discovered through all of this that somewhere deep inside me, I did believe that my actions in life could have some control on how long I was here. . . clearly that is ignorance – I am on assignment here by my King, and He is in complete control. This commitment does not mean that I become more busy, in contrast, it means that I am fully present wherever I am, whether that is on vacation, with my family, or in front of my students. I know now that only with intentional, daily steps of disciplined actions can I ever become that man that I was created to be. I will never drift to the shores of integrity, strength, and character – no,. . . drifting only washes you back onto the shore you left from, a shore that is named lukewarm, and I don’t plan on ever seeing that dock again!

Here is a video recap of the entire trip

India ’10 ’11 from Ted Bryant on Vimeo.

Here is the link to the blog that walks you through the trip step by step!

http://www.gccindiateams.blogspot.com/

Peace be with you all