Church, School, and Crazy Cults

Jenny and I eating baby mangoes at the
principal's house in the city

On Friday I went to the seminar on the problem of rape in Mizoram. Unfortunately, the entire seminar was in Mizo, but I brought along the kindle, so I just read The Lord of the Rings for three hours straight. haha. I didn't stay for the whole thing. Jenny and I ducked out during tea and went shopping for the rest of the afternoon. I wasn't planning on going back out on Saturday, since I had spent all day Friday in the city, but Mom, Jenny, and Rengpuii wanted me to join them on a little outing. Apparently the principal has a house near the city. The house they're living in now belongs to AICS, which makes sense. In about a year from now, she will be retiring and moving to the other house, so she wanted to plant a couple of trees now. The Baptist Church of Mizoram has a forced retirement age of 62, which is why she'll be leaving AICS. Anyways, we went to her other house in order to plant a couple of trees. It was a fun outing, and I was able to see a new part of the Aizawl area.

Preaching on Sunday at a local church

I preached at a local church on Sunday morning. A few days earlier I had given the pastor a copy of my manuscript so that he would be able to look it over in order to translate it. I didn't know what to expect when I got there, and I arrived when the singing had already begun. Being late wasn't my fault, I promise. When I got up on the stage, the pastor told me to present my entire sermon, and then he would give the translation. I saw that he had my entire sermon typed up in Mizo. This wasn't what I expected, but it worked well. After the sermon, I asked two AICS students who had attended if his translation was good. They said that it was almost word for word, which is encouraging. After church, I had tea with the pastor at his house. He said that I will be a great preacher someday and that my sermon was very applicable for the Mizo context. :) Then we had tea again at a church elder's house. After another service in the afternoon and Singspiration at night, I was exhausted!

The daughter of the church elder where we had
tea on Sunday. Isn't she too cute?!

Nothing new has happened in terms of my classes this week. Yesterday I had the opportunity to do a devotion at a local elementary/junior high school. I spoke very briefly on fear and Paul and Silas. It was a simple message, but I could tell that they were all paying attention and enjoying it. This morning (Thursday) I preached at chapel. The theme I was given was "Stir us up, oh Lord!" from a gender perspective. I felt really good about it, and it's always encouraging when students and professors come up after to thank you. As you can see, I've been busy every day, and I have many more busy days to come. 

I meet with my supervisor every week, and this week I asked him about a building called "Solomon's Temple." It's a large white church-like building on the top of a hill nearby. On Sunday we drove past it, and someone mentioned a few things about it and I was curious to learn more. Apparently, it's a cult led by a charismatic man. Initially, he simply wanted to break away from the Presbyterian and Baptist churches, which were, according to him, becoming to worldly. Eventually, though, his "holiness" driven move grew into some crazy beliefs and ideas. Now he has a large following and a lot of wealthy members. Other cults have sprung up in Mizoram, including one which has given Mizoram a name in the Guinness Book of World Records. The largest family in the world (200+ people) is in Mizoram! My supervisor told me that they live close to Aizawl, and someone else told me that the father figure has about 34 wives (some of which he supposedly inherited from his father...ew). Thought y'all would be interested in that.

I've been getting homesick lately, but I'm over halfway there. And I wouldn't trade this for anything, even if it's hard... or maybe especially because it's hard. <3

I couldn't help but take a picture of this beautiful flower.
It may be humid here, but look at what grows!

I bought this cute rubber shoes for less than $4 (I got two other
pairs as well). Oh wait... what's that by my foot?

Here, Lara, this is for you. Looooooove youuuuuu. <3