ARRIVING IN INDIA
Our anticipation was high arriving in India, we knew the trumpet call of Christ was near. As the plane descended, the smell of curry, sweat and humidity came up into my nostrils and I wondered, "do I have what it takes to endure???" The temporary discomforts of heat, bugs, strange foods, strange languages, strange customs, "would be endured with gladness and no murmuring", we were informed. The six yards of sari that I wore were soon drenched in sweat as our Ambassador car journeyed onward to our destination. Setting two deep in the car, being overcrowded was soon to be an everyday occurrence . As we arrived in a small village, Gandinager, we were now only fifty miles up from the tip of India. Truly, we were in a remote area of south India. Many of the Indians there had never seen white people before. Both of my children were blond and many of the natives just wanted to touch their skin or their hair. In their world only their gods were white skinned.
Daily, people arrived from many countries. There were some from Switzerland, Germany, Canada, USA as well as from different states in India.
We attended services twice daily on the house rooftops. The services went on for many hours as each message had to be translated into five different languages. Housing was provided there for six months while an 'ASHRAM' was being prepared for us in a desert area about fifteen miles from there. In each house several families were placed, trying to cope with cultural changes and with different personalities. Each day held new challenges. The constant battle with bed bugs, food too spicy for children and adults, and diarrhea wore on all of us. As time elapsed, P. Laurie kept us encouraged with his messages and new revelations. Finally, the time arrived to move to the desert and we were placed in small cement rooms with a large pundle in front, which was like a large cement patio with a palm thatched roof. This was a common area for all during the day. Foreigners were in one long block and the Indians were in another block. We met in the open aired tabernacle at sunrise and sunset. For meals we sat squat legged on the cement patio with our tin bowl and ate with our right hand as do the Indians. Breakfast consisted of a black bean called 'carnum' a food usually fed to goats, high in protein. The evening meal was usually red rice and a thick vegetable and dhal sauce. Saturday, the Sabbath, was a day of fasting for all, including the children. If they cried with hunger we just gave them another drink of water. We were required to read ten chapters of scripture daily. My son and daughter both learned to read in this manner. Following services in the morning, the women would rush to the large well to wash their clothes on the rocks and dry them in the breeze before the intense heat of the day. In the afternoons we would lay on our straw mats on the cement floor to rest until the heat or monsoon rains had passed. In the tropics darkness came at six pm. Before this, we all would have a simple shower by pouring water over ourselves from a bucket, and be prepared for service. Our evening meal consisted of a slice of bread and some sort of sauce; small pieces of meat in a sauce was only allowed once a week. Sleeping was simple, you just lay down with your clothes on, upon your straw mat side by side with probably six or seven persons in a small room. In monsoon season we had mosquito nets over us. This was our daily routine.
We saw many strange sights, there were oxen trampling out corn and women winnowing out the chaff for straw baskets. Oxen drew water from deep wells with a rubber bladder made from inner tubes. There were snake charmers that were called in to eradicate the cobras from their holes; then they were put into large gunny sacks and taken on local buses to the universities to be used for their venom. I once rode in a taxi with a dead woman sitting upright next to me, with her jaw securely tied with a red ribbon. Later as we stopped by a well, I was told to wash and prepare this woman for her burial, which was in the next few hours. This of course had to be done because of the intense heat. We saw small ribbons of lights in the night as oxen teams pulled wooden 'red river carts' on their way to the markets. We saw goat herders in the desert with only a lunge (loin cloth) and their staff. The goats would climb up the branches of the acacia tree for the green leaves. We witnessed low cast Indian women running after oxen to pick up the moist dung and put it in baskets on their heads. This would then be plastered on the sides of huts like hamburger patties to dry in the sun and be sold for fire fuel. These poor women in their tattered, faded saris had no blouses underneath, no shoes on their feet. In their ears were strange earrings made of small cubicle blocks, covered in gold. because they were so heavy, the skin of the ear lobe stretched like a stirrup down to their shoulders. Then there were the sacred cows that wandered through market places and pushed over vegetable stalls, no one seeming to mind. Thousands of Hindu gods could be seen, displayed on the outsides of their temples. All of this was India, yet, we were secluded in the ashram for the next five and a half years, waiting, waiting, waiting for the return of Christ. Here we had no electricity, no telephones, no newspapers, no radio or any other communication with the outside world.
After three years, suddenly my husband arrived. Before his arrival some of Laurie's spies had informed us that he was on his way to the ashram and we were told to quickly prepare. He, of course, was shocked to see how lean we were, and the heat rash all over the children appeared as though they had some terrible disease.
We were allowed to leave for a week with him to a resort area where he attempted to talk some sense into me. I was so filled with fear that I may lose my salvation if I left, yet, everything in me cried out to leave. I was also very aware that I was being followed by two of Laurie's men, as they anticipated that my husband may try to kidnap us. Finally, I asked my dear husband to forget about me and go on and make a new life without me. He saw only how brainwashed I was, and in frustration he decided to leave. Through tearful good-byes he promised to send me airline tickets whenever I came to my senses and wanted to return to the USA. We had no money of our own, and no way to leave otherwise.
(To Be Continued)
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