India Trip, Day 3

Friends,

While you are struggling with bitter cold in Northern Virginia, we are enjoying 95 degrees and sunshine here in Hyderabad. After breakfast this morning we drove into the city. I must say I caught up on my prayer life on the way in! To say they have an interesting traffic pattern would be to assume there is some pattern to it. The narrow streets, motorcycles and mopeds weaving in and out of busses and cars, pedestrians everywhere, and the occasional cow or goat wandering amongst them makes the beltway at rush hour seem like a quiet side street. (It would seem to me that the most important accessory on a moving vehicle here is the horn!) I understand Vejayawada, where we go tomorrow, is even more "exciting." I'll start praying tonight.

We visited a 16th century monument and mosque in the middle of the city. There was a three story spiral staircase leading to the top of the monument with a breathtaking view of the city. It was breathtaking, not in the sense of its fascinating architecture or the beauty of the city's natural environment, but because of the sheer volume of people in the streets below. In every direction, for as far as you could see, the city streets were teeming with people selling, buying, walking, riding (sometimes four to a motorcycle)...a mass of humanity like I have never seen! With every step we were solicited with everything from sunglasses to scarves, socks to pomegranates, to one gentlemen who scolded me for a block for not taking home to my wife the pearl necklace he dangled from his hand. (Sorry Cindy, I resisted!)

We had a two hour orientation this afternoon and made plans for our work together this week. Our team consists of two Australians, three North Carolinians, one Texan, and four Northern Virginians. We are bonding well and excited about our opportunities to work with ServeTrust ministries, beginning tomorrow.

We worship tomorrow with a congregation in Secunderabad, a city about an hour from where we are staying now. After two services we will head back to the airport for the flight to Vijayawada where Leena will take us to minister with the railroad yard community devastated by fire last week.

God is at work and I am fortunate to be here to witness and share in what is being done. Thanks for your prayers. Will talk with you again tomorrow.

Jim Abernathy