India (2)

On drives to and from the conference in Kolkata, as well as at other times, the men from Singapore were able to see some of the sights of India.  As they drove, the road was shared with cars, motorcycles, bikes, other forms of transportation, people walking, wild dogs, and bulls.  The following pictures don't show the amount of traffic, but do show some of the scenes along the streets of India.

Fish market on the side of the road

  

You can see a bull coming near the two cars parked on the left side of the road.

The bull closer up--Bulls are sacred to Hindus.

The Monday of their visit, they went to the Ganges River--also sacred to Hindus. (Emmanuel once said the Hindus have so many gods that they could worship a different one every hour of their lives and never get to them all!!)  

They were also able to visit a college established by William Carey, a Baptist missionary known as "the father of modern missions."  The college was established in 1818 in the city of Serampore.  Next door was Carey Baptist Church, founded in 1809.

The church

My husband, Elder Leong, Emmanuel, and Ishu Mahtani outside the college

On their last day in India they went to the village of Pachua Khali for a Bible study.  The home they met in had just gotten electricity a month or two earlier.  The roofs of the houses there were all made of straw and have to be replaced every year.  The village is located near the habitat of Bengal tigers, which sometimes come into the village and steal livestock.

Driving to the village--rice drying on the road

Some of the village houses

Some straw for the roofs

Outside the home where the Bible study was held

Straw in the yard for roofs, and rice drying on the ground behind it

The Bible study group

After the Bible study the men shared a meal together.

Then it was time to leave, and to me the following picture is the most touching photo of all.  One of the men from the Bible study group is urgently requesting that Emmanuel come back and teach them more.  It is not easy for Emmanuel to get to the village, but the people are so thirsty for the Reformed faith.  They were pleading with him to come back soon.

"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest" (Matt. 9:37-38).