Well, finally got to the village!
I was quite excited to be going again after such a long time
and to be able to revisit everyone and walk through the village was wonderful.
There have been quite a few changes there, for one there is
a small team of four boys in charge of the church things there now. They have been there for a few months now. They are actually so young I was quite
surprised. The youngest was 17 and the
oldest is 23!! Although they all say that they didn’t speak any English, with
my small amount of Tamil and their English, we managed quite well and a couple
at a time followed me wherever I went and joined in with whatever was happening,
so that was nice!!! I hope that we will be able to work together in the village
to make a difference.
The second big change is that there seems to now be a snake
man living and doing witchcraft in the middle of the village! I was quite surprised to hear about
that! There have been a couple fights
and hostilities around this matter and the church boys are a little scared
after having had stones thrown at the church when they were praying for him to
leave in the night and the snake man running after them with the cane when
coming from one person’s house! So it’s going to be quite interesting to see
what to do around this knowing that the Hindus and the Muslims are going to him
a lot and trusting his powers.
It seems like the devil is doing all he can to stop people
coming to Jesus there. But, I’m back now :)
I believe that the
foundations that we have been able to make the last couple of years will allow
for more trust between me and the villagers
to be able to talk and help them and convince them that the snake man is not
the best person to help them, but Jesus is.
In the afternoon I was able to have a fun afternoon
with the kids also and just reignite the relationships with everyone which will
make going there again a lot more easier and effective. It was a good
opportunity for the pastors to also come just as people rather than with a role
and just show the people that they are quite normal!! They work with the Christians in the village
so relationships with the people of other religions haven’t been made yet and
there is a big divide.
I realized this when I went to the teachers house, who
usually when I come is very excited and we have a nice time. But this time, I was with the main pastor and
it was really hard!! I tried to make
conversation with my Tamil and break the ice but it wasn’t really working and
it was really quite awkward... so seeing that it was going nowhere, I suggested we leave and I invited
her to come with us to the children and she came and as soon as there is fun, people
are open and barriers breakdown and we ended up having a really nice time and
it’s a step in the right direction.
I will be going again at the beginning of December and doing a Funday there too, so it should be good. It
will not be in the church but on the school grounds, so a lot more children and
adults will come, I’m looking forward to that!!!
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