Waldron Mission Fund

 

Under the oversight of the elders of the Crossville church of Christ, PO Box 211, Crossville, TN 38557

Vol. 40                                                                     August 2006                                                                        No. 8

DAY 1

Monday July 24: Laura dropped me at McGhee-Tyson airport about 2:15 p.m.  At the Northwest check-in counter I got my boarding passes for the three segments of my trip: from Knoxville to Detroit, from there to Amsterdam in the Netherlands and from there to New Delhi, India.  The flight for Detroit left at 4:15, and arrived at 6:10 in the building that houses terminals “B” and “C.”  Checking the flight monitor I learned that departure time for Amsterdam was 7:10 from gate 34A, which meant I had less than an hour to change terminals.  Pulling my carry-on behind me I ran.  When I got to the proper gate the passengers were already boarding.  The plane actually left about 7:30 and the trip took just under eight hours. 

DAY 2

Tuesday July 25:  We arrived in Amsterdam at 8:40 a.m. local time, which is six hours ahead of Knoxville time.  Noting that the flight monitor indicated that my KLM flight to New Delhi did not leave until 10:10, I spent an hour on the internet catching up on some correspondence and forwarding other letters.  KLM is a partner with Northwest and is known as the Royal Dutch Airlines.  The flight, which left twenty-minutes late (10:30), lasted just over eight hours and landed at the Delhi airport at 11:25 p.m..  The flight had been uneventful and I had slept quite well.  Last week I had bought some seed to take to the school in Dindigul, S. India as we have six acres of ground which the students cultivate for the school kitchen, thus after getting through immigration I declared the seed at the customs’ counter and the officer said no problem.  By 11:55, I was at the Airport Hotel which is very near the New Delhi domestic airport.

DAY 3

Wednesday July 26:  It was 1:00 a.m. by the time I got to bed and I woke at 5:00.  The hotel furnished a car to take me to the nearby airport where I promptly got checked in for my Jet Airways flight to Guwahati (Gow-wa-hut-ti).  It is the capital of the Indian state of Assam and lies about 1,000 miles east of New Delhi.  At 8:15, I phoned Laura at Kingston.  For her it was Tuesday night at 9:45.  On the flight to Guwahati, which lasted two hours, I sat beside a man who was from Washington State in the U.S.  He had been born in Hawaii and his religious background was Catholic.  We had a good visit.  Taking his name and address I promised to send him a copy of the commentary on Revelation: The Lamb/The Lion.  We landed at 12:50 p.m. and I stayed at the airport two hours before getting a taxi to the local train station.  There I bought a second class ticket ($5:30) in an AC coach, which had berths (bunks) three tiers high.  I took the one on top.  On the way north I made the acquaintance of two men and got their names and addresses.  The train had left at 5:15, and arrived at 9:45 p.m. in Diphu.  There I was met by four of our students from the preacher training school in Shillong and brother Zimik the school director.   From the train station we went by auto-rickshaw (simply called an “auto”) to a small hotel and I got a room for the night.

In all there were eleven of our students in the area as we turned the school out for two months (June and July) for them to help among the refugees from ethnic fighting in the region.  In fact last fall there were press reports of 50,000 people being driven out of their homes by militants and even now many continue to languish in refugee camps and make-shift houses fearing to return to their own homes, which frequently have been burned or destroyed.

The people are unbelievably poor with little or no way to earn money.  Our interest in this work, which lies about 250 miles north of Shillong, began with the fact that a large quantity of clothing for such folks arrived in March from the church at Camden, TN through the efforts of George Laux, who has been here often to teach in the school.  When the local brothers delivered the clothes to the people, they said that their greatest need was mosquito nets, because of the threat of malaria from the anopheles mosquito.  From Crossville we sent the money to buy a thousand nets.  Brother Zimik was able to buy them wholesale at a cost of Rs 35,000\- ($787).  They were taken and distributed in four areas east and west of Diphu.

DAY 4

Thursday July 27:  The small room where I stayed the night had no AC, but in spite of the heat I was able with a ceiling fan to sleep.  One thing that concerned me was that I got two mosquito bites during the night.  Ordinarily that would not have bothered me, but as indicated above this area has been notorious for malaria over the past five months.  In fact several thousand have been sick with the disease and many have died.  As a precaution I do take an anti-malarial tablet each week. 

After breakfast in a local restaurant, Zimik, another brother and I walked to a refugee camp that lies three miles east of Diphu.  The tropical sun is something else, so I was wringing wet with sweat when we arrived.  The houses were not in rows as one often sees in such camps but were scattered across some low lying hills.  They are simple, being made with bamboo frames and panels woven from split bamboo with sheet metal for the roofs.  The panels are plastered with mud and the floors are earth.  Some people are living in houses covered with blue tarpaulins.  There is no running water, no electricity, no cabinets and no furniture except for a plastic chair now and then, no toilets or bathrooms, no kitchens. The wives and mothers cook on open wood fires or miniature kerosene stoves.  Food is scarce.  Emaciated children play with make-shift toys as children in poverty are want to do the world over. While there I visited with one of the village heads; a man of about 45 whose name is Benjamin.  He is a Presbyterian and has welcomed our help and the efforts of our brothers to hold Bible classes. 

After leaving that camp we were able to get an “auto” that took us through Diphu and seven kilometers (4.4 miles) beyond where another group of brothers have been working with the poor at a place on Lumding Road.  When we determined to send the young brothers here it was emphasized that they should seek to help widows and the fatherless.  So in this place they have gotten a small house built for a widow and her two young daughters.  Her husband died last December from malarial.  The mother, who is small, attractive and about 30 years old, has a knot about the size of a walnut on the right side of her head.  When I asked if a doctor had seen it, she said, no, so I arranged for one of the young men to take her into the city to have it checked.  As we later learned the local doctors or the clinic is unable to x-ray the lump or give her any help.  This will mean that some how she must go the 250 miles to the state capital.   

From that area we started to a third area where the student preachers have been working with the poor, but in route we came upon one of the our students standing beside the road, who was obviously very sick and needed a doctor.  We put him in the “auto” and rushed him to a small Catholic hospital east of the city.  After tests were done, it turned out that he had malaria.  We left him in the hospital and sent another student to stay with him.

During the day as we were passing through Diphu I had shifted my bag to another lodging place that had AC, so I was looking forward to a night of rest in a cool room; but when I reached it I learned that the power for the whole region was shut down.  Fortunately the place is small with only two guest rooms and they have a generator that can run the ceiling fan in my room.  It wasn’t real cool, but I was thankful for the fan just the same.

DAY 5

Friday July 28: Dear old “jet lag” was with me this morning so I woke at 2:00 and read till 5:00.  Got ready for the day and went out to look for a tea stall, but couldn’t find one. I did find a phone call shop open, so I phoned Laura, but could not hear well.  Zimik came just after 7:30 and he knew a small restaurant that was open. We had a snack and a cup of tea, then took an “auto” to the refugee camp that we had visited yesterday.  We arrived at 8:00 and by 8:40 our student preachers had called together about 60 people with whom they have been working.  The village head, Benjamin, whom I mentioned above, was there and a number of other village leaders.  As all the people were from denominations I used John 17:20-21, as my text and strongly emphasized the urgency of unity in Christ with the scriptures as the only rule and guide in our faith and practice.  It was translated into the Karbi language and was well received.

We walked the 2:5 miles to the edge of town caught an “auto” to the train station where I reserved a ticket for my trip to Dibrugarh on Saturday night. Zimik went with my translator to the little hospital where the brother with malarial was taken yesterday.  I took lunch at an open air restaurant and went to my room to rest briefly and escape the heat, but the room was hot as the power was still off.  Zimik returned shortly and we were off by “auto” to the next preaching appointment, which was the place we visited yesterday on Lumding Road.  When we arrived I found a bench and  Again I preached for about 45 minutes with translation.

From there we again passed through Diphu to a place a little over seven miles east of town where the brothers have opened up a third work.  Here we were also well received and I preached to sixty people or more.  About half of the group was Hindu.  Their language is Assamese and we have purchased Bibles for them in that language.  The text we used was about creation from Genesis 1 and that of Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill (Acts 17:22-31).  Our brothers would call out the page number of the various scriptures and you would have been delighted to see young and old turn to the reference.  In one knot there were four young men all trying to read from the same Bible.  After the lesson was finished we returned to Diphu and as I went to my lodge you can be sure I prayed that the power would be on, but it wasn’t.  Yet, within thirty minutes it did come on and I felt like shouting, but thanked the Lord instead.

DAY 6

Saturday July 29: As you might well imagine I slept like a log after the long day yesterday and with the cool comfort of the AC.  By the way you may be interested to know the room cost was $13.19 per night.  I had nearly slept the clock around as I woke at 7:50.  By 9:10, Zimik and I had taken breakfast and were on a bus to go ten miles toward our next preaching appointment.  At 9:55 we got off the bus and hired an “auto” to take us over a dirt road, on which it had recently rained, that was filled with ruts and “pot” holes.  These auto-rickshaws, which have no suspension, have small wheels that take joy in dropping into such holes.  We endured this for two miles to the building where the local people had let our fourth batch of students stay while they worked for Christ in the area.  From there we walked a mile and a half toward a building that houses a Lower Primary School.  The walk was hot, but in many ways it was more pleasant than being bounced along in the “auto.”  The path lead through a jungle setting and was wide. In route we crossed an arched bridge made of bamboo over a full stream about twenty-five feet wide and passed two idols sheltered under large green trees.

All who live in that place are Hindu and, as is so often the case with Hindus, they have a very gentle and friendly nature.  Here we had our largest crowd – seventy to seventy-five.  There were many adults both men and  women.  They are tribal people as are most of the others in this northeastern region of India, being descendents of Asiatic peoples like the American Indians.  The sermon I delivered was simple, being about God who made the world and everything in it.  I showed how we are all of “one blood” as Eve was the mother of us all, and that God loves us for he sent Jesus to save us from sin.  When I asked about someone counting the families in the village one of our brothers spoke up and said that they had already made a survey and knew there were 72.  For these we have not purchased Bibles, so I told them we would get one for each household.  They cost Rs 80\- ($ 1.75) each.

At 9:30 that night I was on a train for a nine hour trip to the north part of the state (Assam).  Zimik and the students took a train south to the state capital (Guwahati) and the next day met Robert Laux (George’s brother) of Camden, TN who will teach in Shillong during August.

DAY 7

Sunday July 30: At 6:30 the train pulled into the station at Diburgarh, which is the city where we began our newest preaching school last May.  There are fifteen men enrolled from the state of Arunchal, which as I told you in June was like the state of  Maine in the U.S. and it joins hard to Tibet or China.  The two brothers, Tifusa and Tang Kam, who conduct the school are graduates from the School of Preaching at Shillong.  These two met me at the station and after I got settled into a hotel room they came and took me to the place we have rented for the SOP, which we called the Assam Bible School (ABS).  There were twenty adults present for the worship at 8:30.  I also preached for them at 5:00 in the evening.  It is difficult for me to contain my joy when I think of the wonderful work God is doing through these well trained and disciplined young men, who are examples of the faithful saints whom we have serving in nineteen Bible training schools across this nation, which includes seven conducted by the church at Banner Elk, NC.  Beloved you can rest assured that your gifts and offerings toward this work are a firm investment unto eternal life. As Paul wrote, “To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever, Amen” (Eph. 3:21)

 With love to all,

 Jim E. Waldron

Seven Days in July

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