INDIA THROUGH A LENS

I'm getting ready to go to India in less than two weeks. I gotta get my stuff together:

Shaving Kit... Check.

Protein Bars... Check.

Several Breathable Shirts... Check.

Thirty Pounds of Camera Equipment... What?

I have a confession to make to you, even though we've only just met: I have an addiction.

It began almost ten years ago when I took a used 35mm camera, a couple of lenses and three dozen rolls of Kodachrome to a place some ten time zones removed from my home in suburban Detroit. I came back to the lab hoping to goodness that I had captured even an infinitesimal fraction of what I had experienced. I still have those photos in an album and occasionally look back nostalgically at my Indian adventure so long ago.

But it didn't stop there. I went again a couple of years later. And it wasn't for more pictures (although this time, I had gone digital!). It was because I missed my friends. I'm sure you'll get to know a few of them as the stories on this blog unfold, but there are times when I'm with Jaya and the people of CEM that I feel more at home than when I'm in my own living room. Is it comfortable? Not always. But as you'll hear from so many who have experienced it, we go expecting to bless them and God turns it all around and we end up blessed and changed.

It was then that I started realizing the truth of my "addiction:" Since I can't bring any of my friends home with me, I need to pack as many of their images as possible into my camera and share their stories with my friends back in the U.S. The encounters that I have with my subjects are often brief, but each one of them conspires to re-shape my heart. I believe in this place so much that I humbly accepted a seat on II360's board a few years ago.

Since that first trip in 2002, any time I'm on the ground in India (this will be my sixth trip), you will almost always see a camera slung over my shoulder. In all of my travels, I have never experienced a place so intensely human and ultimately beautiful and redeeming as the neighborhoods and villages surrounding the CEM campus in Dowlaiswaram. And I'm never the same after my encounters with the people there.

My passion for photography that found its roots in India has grown into an avocation as a freelance photographer; and I count a couple of moments there among some of the best images I've ever captured.

We were walking through the marketplace near the CEM Campus one Sunday, and I started a conversation with a boy in a bangle shop without even saying a word. I liked the composition of the bangles with him in the shadows behind them, so I raised my camera and squeezed off a couple of shots. He was caught by the novelty of this big white guy taking his picture and started mugging for the camera.

Obviously, I'm looking for more natural expressions in my shots; so I simply lowered my camera a bit, looked him in the eye and smiled. It didn't take him long to figure it out and he began to relax and simply interact with me. I still count the resulting shot as the one I would have been willing to endure forty hours of travel time for.

Other encounters are much more brief, but can yield amazing results. On the last day of one of our trips, we were returning to the campus after taking the kids from the Grace Children's home to school. We had only a little time left before we had to get to the airport for our flight.

There is quite a large Hindu temple on the way back, and you will occasionally see beggars and other locals hanging around its entrance. There was one in particular who caught my eye as I walked - a man who had clearly given his life in pursuit of discipline. I crouched down, engaged with his eyes, raised the camera and got the shot. I would have loved to stay and get to know him a little bit, but I had a plane to catch. I didn't even realize what I had until I downloaded the image to my computer between flights on the journey home.

I've been by that corner since then, but I never saw him again.

I even get the honor of capturing love in action as it unfolds. One of the team's favorite moments is after the Sunday Service when they get to pray for the locals who attend. It can take an hour or more as we engage with them, hear of their troubles through translators, and seek God together in prayer. I'll let the interchange between one of our team members and a local woman speak for itself...

I will come home with literally thousands of images after a trip to CEM; but what I have realized is that it's the relationships and the stories behind those images that make them so rich. So my advice to anyone going to CEM is to bring your camera, but prepare your heart as well.

PS - There are some exciting projects we have planned for this trip to tell the stories of the elderly of Dowlaiswaram. Stay tuned!

Written by Chris Cook, Impact India 360
www.impactindia360.org

MORE THAN I EXPECTED

More often than not, there is a strong human tendency to promise more than one can deliver.  As humans, we have generally learned to take this for granted and adjust our expectations accordingly.   The fact that CEM is such a dramatic departure from this general principle is my favorite part about the ministry.  For everyone who has had the opportunity to visit the Christ Evangelical Mission (CEM) campus, the unanimous chorus is, “Wow, this is more than I expected!”  I will never forget my first visit.  I was absolutely blown away by the joy and the life that resonated from the several hundred individuals who comprised the campus.  Orphans singing, dancing, and praying; Bible School Students preaching; women vocationally equipped to care for their families; children receiving a top-quality education; medical care tenderly delivered to the very “least of these”; all staffed by a radiant group of  Indian staff.

It can be taken for granted that all who taken the time to witness firsthand the CEM ministry have left humbled by the community that they have participated in.  My own personal sense of humility was only deepened by the fact that there is not one iota of entitlement in any aspect of the ministry.  Every member of the CEM campus, both those who give and receive ministry, if such a distinction be used, demonstrates a genuine sense of thankfulness.  It is actually quite embarrassing to receive expressions of such heartfelt thanks when one realizes how little one’s own personal investment cost and how much one has received in only a short stay in this Jesus-centered community.  If you’ve never visited the CEM community, I encourage you to take the trip. However, I must warn you that you do so at your own risk.  Many of those who visit this campus find it hard to get excited about any other ministry after their visit. While this is a legitimate hazard of a visit to the CEM campus, the counter is you’ll have great joy in pouring yourself in this little corner of God’s Kingdom.  You will actually get more than you expected.  That is always a pleasant surprise!

Written by David Curlin, Impact India 360

www.impactindia360.org

HEART OF STONE

Ultimate joy comes not from what you have, but what you can give to others. Midlife often allows the opportunity to transition from success to significance, and typically, the materialistic aspects of life become less important and universal spiritual values take on a greater focus. There is a kind of "magic" when pursuing timeless values like excellence in giving nothing less than your best. If most of us are honest, we, at one point in our journey, have or will ask the terrifying question, “Is this all there is?" This is not to say that all or even most of us live a life of "quiet desperation," yet many of us, at one point or another in our journey of excellence, have felt this gnawing discontent questioning the very core of what we believe. In this apparent crisis lies the tremendous opportunity for personal transformation. Obviously, there are many paths that one can consider yet for me, India has been the catalyst for an extraordinary heart transformation.

My personal journey began in 2003 when I went on the first of thirteen short term trips to India. I had hoped a short term experience to Dowlaiswaram would allow me to develop the capacity to unconditionally care for others without an expectation of reward or reciprocation. India provided an excellent venue to develop my "compassion" skills.  I was exposed to a level of poverty and joy that both overwhelmed and haunted me.  Over the past eight years, I have received far more than compassion skills. I have been inspired by the courageous spirit of people.  Indians are the most joyful, kind, and honorable people I have ever encountered.

Each trip I experience Jesus changing a piece of my heart of stone into a heart of flesh that beats loudly and continually for these precious people He loves so dearly.  One such time, a hunched over woman, who I have seen now for the last four years, came to us for hope, and prayer for the healing of her backbone which was ravaged by years of skeletal fluorosis. As I laid my hand on her hardened back, I could not speak. Instead, I felt my heart soften, and in midst of emotion Matthew 25:40 came to mind "In as much you have done it to the least of these.....you have done it to me." I saw Jesus incarnated. He was in the desperate need of this woman.

Each of us has experienced some level of dysfunction, with cruelty and pain hardening our hearts along the way. The good news is that Jesus promises not only to replace hardened hearts but to reveal His power through our weakness. As his glory shines we catch a glimpse of what is real.  Each trip to India has been in part a continuing miracle of God's promise to do intensive heart surgery. He replaces a heart of stone with a heart of flesh that beats passionately for all things eternal. Although painful, like any heart surgery, it is worth it in the end. 

Written by Sal Aragona, President, Impact India 360

www.impactindia360.org

WE HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE

C.E.M Hospital in Dowlaiswaram, India 

We always seem to arrive at the same intersection of life.  Faith vs. reason.  The spiritual vs. the practical.  The affliction we have as man is this:  from our perspective, the odds always look insurmountable.  If we could have asked Joseph when he sat in the darkness of prison or Moses when he stood on the shore of the Red Sea, what the future looked like, they surely would have said “not so good.”  But they had faith, and trusted in the promised God had made.  They stepped into the uncertainty and amazing things happened.  Time and time again throughout history, we see how faith trumped reason.

Our partnership with Jaya Sankar has been no different.  There have always been challenges along the way that made the future look not so good.  But as his partners, we have come to know that Jaya is a man of strong faith.  He has moved on faith so many times as to make the Board uncomfortable. Yet in the end, he has been an amazing steward of the resources that God has provided, and he continues to impact his community in extraordinary ways.

We are there again at the crossroads of faith and reason.  With Jaya’s vision and guidance, we have helped build a hospital in his community to provide medical care to the 80% of people who live below India’s poverty line in Jaya’s village.  With the building complete, we now face an uncertain future as to how to guide this aspect of Jaya’s ministry to self-sustainability.  The funds for caring for the poor have been slow to come and difficult to raise in this uncertain global economic environment.  I have the recurring tendency to look to “man” to solve the problem.  Jaya looks to God.  Recently, Jaya has had a clear vision that God will provide for the ministry.  While I think the odds look insurmountable, somehow I realize I will be having a future conversation with Jaya, questioning how he did it and marveling at what he accomplished.  For his part, he will have one simple answer – “faith and trust in God.” God seems to move only after we step into the mystery of it all.  Jaya knows this very well.  Yes, we are at a crossroads again, but Jaya is moving through the intersection and heading down the road called “Faith.” 

Written by Jeff Petherick

Treasurer, Impact India 360 

WHAT DOES GOD THINK?

I’m in the fog I always find myself in after a trip to India. I’m awake when everyone is sleeping and sleeping when everyone is awake.  That gives me a lot of quiet and alone time, which is good I suppose since India always stirs things up in my mind which I need to process.  India has a way of assaulting my perspective-still after 14 trips. I struggle on the return home. It takes a while to adjust to life here, even after just a week in India.

India is home to over 1.2 billion people. Many of them live well below the poverty line.  Most of the people I encounter in Dowlasiwaram are below that line, which is $1.25 per day.  As I write this my mind is filled with countless images of these people walking the streets, struggling with the difficulty of life, malnourished, sick, and weary. I see them now…hundreds, thousands of faces pacing by like a steady parade of suffering. Every now and then, the masses melt away and there is just one person.  As I walk, we look at each other, and our eyes meet- we connect. White skinned and dark skinned, rich American and poor Indian, Christian and Hindu, English speaking and Telugu speaking- yet for a moment, just 2 people.

This year, the face that was burned into my memory is of a woman, probably in her 60s, leathery and wrinkled skin from life lived under the brutal sun. Short and bony with her harsh life etched into her face.  I can see her still. What is her name? Her story?  Does she have children? A husband? Where does she lay down her head at night? Is she sick? Has she ever seen a doctor? What’s in her future? Does she have any clue about Jesus, or is he just a god of western culture? Or maybe, like many Hindus, she has added Jesus to the other many manifestations of deity in her religion. What does she think as she looks at me as we pass each other on the noisy street? And what does God think?

That’s been the question for this time at 2o’clock in the morning when I wish I could sleep like everyone else-what does God think? Or rather, how does God handle this? 1.2 billion is not just a big number. The number is made up of individual lives like this woman, with a history, a life being lived, and a destiny. Most suffer. Most know nothing of God’s love. Most are caught up in the idea that their life will continue to recycle as they try to attain good karma. Just getting by, doing the best they can and suffering a great deal in the process. What does God think when he sees this? I was in proximity to thousands of people like this woman during my time in India. Most I just passed by. This woman caught my attention and has occupied my thoughts. God, on the other hand, has in his mind all 1.2 billion. He knows their names, their circumstances, their pain, their suffering. What does he think? I am bothered by the thoughts of just this one woman? How does God handle all of them in India, and around the world?

So I return to my city of 8 ½ million. This morning the trains were running slow, it’s Presidents Day, an excuse to cut service I think. While waiting, the subway platform fills with people.  When it finally arrives, it is already jammed full.  We push in forming one mass of humanity.  As we roll down the track, I look at the people of my city, diverse in ethnicity, age, economic status. From the looks on their faces, I see lots of people also living with deep concerns, suffering, pain, and emptiness.  And this is just one train on one subway line. Millions will ride today. What does God think? How does he, the God of love, who loves no human being more or less than another, handle the reality of the massive numbers of people who are far from him? How does he deal with their pain and suffering? As a parent, I know how I feel when just one of my three children is in pain. How does his heart not just explode?

What do I think? How do I feel? I’m overwhelmed, again. Whether in India or NYC, for me it has to boil down to one life at a time. One woman with leathery skin, suffering under the weight of a difficult life, in desperate need of God’s help and presence, she I can help.  I can’t help a train full of people. I can’t even bear the weight of the thought of all the people. I don’t know how God handles it, but I can’t.  Maybe I can help touch one life today, one life this week. I can accept that it is this that God wants from me. I don’t know what to do with the billions except to leave it to Him.

Written by Craig Mayes, Communitas, New York City

http://www.communitasnyc.org