Well, the last day or two have been intriguing in all sorts of ways. Today I was speaking at a conference for 40 or so Indian pastors, all translated into Telugu. They were a fascinating mix of ages and denominational backgrounds, and I genuinely felt it to be a privelege to be able to share something with them. Interestingly, when I suggested they break into groups and pray for each other they seemed a little out of their comfort zones. And these are the pastors. But, all in all it was a postive time.
We've had a fairly prolonged power cut today. All quite normal it seems. But interesting inso far as in many ways Indian society seems quite reliant on technology; maybe "reliant" isn't the right word, "at home with" is better. Certainly more so than Kenya when I was there. But they also seem very accepting of the fact that the electricity sometimes goes off for hours at a time, and goes off for a short while most days it seems.
I've also seen first-hand just how passionate they are about cricket, they play it very seriously and very well. And it catches the imagination of all ages in a similar way to football in the UK, and seems to attract similar amounts of money. Before the power cut today I watched a few overs of a One Day International between India and Bangladesh with some of the older lads, and there was no shortage of advertising and sponsorship...
One final reflection on the adverts. If the people we seen in ads in some ways represent an ideal of what a society considers beautiful or attractive at least, it's interesting at least (and possibly worrying?) that the characters in every ad I saw were very fair skinned, many barely recognisable as Indian.
Anyway, tomorrow I go to COTR in Vizak for a few days, and may not be online while there. But I'll update this when I get back if not before.
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