Summing it all up...

Well, having been back in the UK around 24 hours now, I'll attempt to sum up the last couple of weeks in India. Allowing 3 days for travelling, I worked out that I spoke 16 times in 9 days - to children at Liberty Children's home, two church congregations, bible college students and Pastors. And there was time to read, have an encounter with a barber, visit cities, play and watch cricket, go on an outing with the children....so all in all it was a full couple of weeks. The best I can offer by way of summary are the bullet points that follow. If you know anything about India some of them are almost cliches, but true all the same from what I saw.

• India is huge. And wildly diverse. Andrha Pradesh, the state where we were, is bigger than the UK in both size and population I think. The languages are different from state to state and I was surprised how few in Andrha spoke Hindi or English the national languages. To be honest, how the country hangs together seems a mystery to an outsider.
• You get a kind of sensory overload when you first reach India. Distinctive smells, bright colours. And noise, noise everywhere. Driving around with cars, trucks, rickshaws and motorbikes hooting constantly. Churches fitting loudspeakers on the outside so that all the neighbours can hear what's going on (and to let members know the service has started) seems to be the norm. Not a quiet place.
• Wealth and poverty exist side by side in extreme forms. There is money in India; the very wealthy, but also a growing middle class with disposable income (around 200 - 300 million people fall into this bracket according to one estimate). But there are also many people who only just get by, as well as many who don't even manage that.
• Spiritually again India is diverse. As far as Andrha Pradesh is concerned, Hinduism dominates, but there is a sizeable Christian community. Here at least the two co-exist peacefully (not always true of political issues though - see here). It raises issues though as to what the heart of the gospel is here. The key issue seems to be "Who is God?" in all honesty; Hindus almost seem to need to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord before they can go onto see him as Saviour.
• How does the church make an impact in this culture? Well, from what I saw, the two keys seem to be when Christians are practically caring for those in need, and when the power of God in healing is seen. Works and wonders, that then lead on to the Word...Probably lessons for us all there.

Anyway, I'm sure there's more to say, but that will do for now. And I will upload some photos soon, honest.