When we were thinking about these two days, I guess we had at least two questions:
First, how do you get from Kolkata to deepest rural West Bengal?
Start at one of the central train stations and get on a local train, which has no doors on the carriages, but on which people will come along selling everything from oranges to notebooks. Go two hours to the end of the line (a river town called Hasanabad). Get onto the back of a flat-bed bicycle rickshaw to the riverfront. Then either take a boat way up the river, since there is no other way to get to some villages, or cross the river (standing room only on a long, pointed, precarious shallow boat) and travel for an hour by brick roads, in the steaming heat. Either way you end up in the most lush, peaceful villages set among paddy fields, palms, tamarind trees and hibiscus. It couldn't be any more diffent from the press and noise of the city.
Second, what do you do when you get there?
Well, what we did was accompany a team from Big Life Ministries, who visit the villages telling the good news of Jesus Christ and starting Christian fellowships. Life is tough there and the people are very poor, but very welcoming. The team set up a medical camp to help with local ailments. We shared our testimonies - in a concrete hut; with a group of villagers beside their paddy fields and fish ponds; with others under a great tamarind tree in the middle of their village; and with a group of Christians established in yet another village about two months ago and where another two people were baptised while we were there. It's impossible to capture what a privilege and a gift from God it was to be so welcomed. We'll be praying for the Big Life team as they go back to these villages over the next several months to follow up and support those who are starting their journey of Christian faith.
First, how do you get from Kolkata to deepest rural West Bengal?
Start at one of the central train stations and get on a local train, which has no doors on the carriages, but on which people will come along selling everything from oranges to notebooks. Go two hours to the end of the line (a river town called Hasanabad). Get onto the back of a flat-bed bicycle rickshaw to the riverfront. Then either take a boat way up the river, since there is no other way to get to some villages, or cross the river (standing room only on a long, pointed, precarious shallow boat) and travel for an hour by brick roads, in the steaming heat. Either way you end up in the most lush, peaceful villages set among paddy fields, palms, tamarind trees and hibiscus. It couldn't be any more diffent from the press and noise of the city.
Second, what do you do when you get there?
Well, what we did was accompany a team from Big Life Ministries, who visit the villages telling the good news of Jesus Christ and starting Christian fellowships. Life is tough there and the people are very poor, but very welcoming. The team set up a medical camp to help with local ailments. We shared our testimonies - in a concrete hut; with a group of villagers beside their paddy fields and fish ponds; with others under a great tamarind tree in the middle of their village; and with a group of Christians established in yet another village about two months ago and where another two people were baptised while we were there. It's impossible to capture what a privilege and a gift from God it was to be so welcomed. We'll be praying for the Big Life team as they go back to these villages over the next several months to follow up and support those who are starting their journey of Christian faith.
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