3-22-06, Rev. Reinke's India Update

We are now on the train to the southern part of India. The IELC Advisor and others invited us to speak at the graduation ceremony for the 1st year Seminary class. Then we will travel to the Lutheran Deaf School in Tuticurrin. Sleeping….

The train ride was over 14 hours long!! Ouch!! We saw mountains, and palm trees, and rice paddies and palm trees and houses and cows and rice paddies and hills and train tracks and ….. Smile. Our bathrooms are nice – drains onto the train track – ewww. It was a fun trip. I will let you know how my back is doing in a day or two.

Most of the hills look like rock mound. They do not look like what I think of as a hill with soil and trees and grass. They look more like the rock piles we have on the farm with all of the rocks from the fields thrown together.

We checked into the hotel and slept for two hours. Saw the sun rise over the Indian Ocean. Woke up with the sound of the Muslims chanting prayers at 6 am. Then the Catholic Church broadcast their Worship at 6:30 am on the loudspeakers. Good the Christians do have a voice and is not silenced.

1st year graduation at the Seminary is for the Catechist Class. It means these students have studied the Catechism – basic doctrines for one year. They will now go to work in churches in their areas teaching others the Catechism.

As these students are teaching in their churches, the IELC will evaluate how they are doing. Those who are good teachers and are serving well will be invited to come back and study for 3 more years to become Pastors in the IELC. You must show you can do it before you are asked to study to become a Pastor!

With Rev Christudoss we taught all the people a few basic phrases and shared with them what is happening in Deaf Ministry. It was great fun.

Then we went across the courtyard to the awards for the Sunday Students from the whole area who got the top marks. We also taught them some signs, shared how we work with the Deaf, and handed out some of the awards to the churches and students.

After we finished one of the men came up to talk with us. He has a student in his class that is severely hard of hearing and very bright. He wanted to make contact with Rev. Christudoss so he can come over and work with the girl.

THEN we got called into the office – smile. The IELC Advisor and the Principle (President) of the Seminary wanted to talk with us. Rev Christudoss and I had shared with the Advisor our work with DIT and about our plans to train the Deaf Leaders and Pastors. We also asked what we would need to do for ordination for them men, if the IELC and Seminary would be willing.

The Advisor had talked with the Seminary principle about our ideas. They are willing to support our plans!!!!

Our main goal will be to train the Deaf Leaders under DIT in India with the church and Seminary willing to commission and ordain the Deaf men. Plus they have invited Rev. Christudoss to come down to train the hearing students in Deaf Culture and Sign Language!! This is a BIG leap for them to be open and welcome these goals to reach the Deaf in India! THANK GOD! Now we will work to get the formal paper work and adoption the DIT goals and plans.

After the work at the Seminary we began the trip to the Deaf School in Tuticurrin. It is about 2 ½ hours by car. (only be an hour or so for us)

The “dorm” children were prepared for our coming. In most places they honor people with a shawl, but in this area it is with a towel. They give hand woven towels to place around your shoulders as a welcome.

This also is a very poor school. Two of the teachers and the principle (headmaster) from Tuticurrin came to join us in Ambur. It was good to see them safely home.

We shared the story of Creation and Jesus miracles with the pictures. As always it was great fun! The Deaf students also showed us some of the local dances they learned.

The same as the students at Vellor, some sleep in the classrooms. Others share a hallway to sleep at night. I learned more history how Rev Lutz helped to start the deaf schools in India. He really did a great work helping to reach the deaf children.

I am hoping our Deaf Church members and ILDA regions will accept some projects to help the Lutheran Deaf Schools in India and Ghana. They are able to teach Jesus in ways we cannot in America. We also had some discussion about this. Maybe someday Deaf from other countries will need to come to America with the Gospel?!

Now it is up to us to help Rev. Christudoss train the deaf leaders and teachers. We challenged them to pray with and for the children. To teach them everyday – same as in a Lutheran School in the U.S. to have daily Bible Story time. Most of the families are not Christian – what a great way to share Jesus.

It was after 11 pm by the time we arrived back at the hotel. It is not as scary driving at night in India, not as many people walking on the roads. But I do not think I would want to. The trucks with no tail lights. Not many road signs for construction.

Side note – Joshua enjoyed talking with one deaf girl – Newtra. On the way back to our hotel I was teasing him and he said “grandma is Lucia, mom is Dacia, so Newtra would match” smile Interesting for Dad and his 18 year old and his thinking of girls - smile