It's all in the eyes.

It's funny how fast this place can make a someone become a hard person. My friend was just telling me how she doesn't smile here as much as she used to. I could relate.

When I came back from vacation a few weeks ago, I could tell that I was smiling more and more specifically, smiling at people. Wow, how a smile goes a long way and serves as a bridge for the cultural and communication barriers. Generally, when I'm walking around the city and even in my tiny neighborhood, people will not offer a smile. This is not because they are not joyful. Oh, you will see them laugh and smile, especially with friends. Sometimes I will make eye contact with ladies in the street and smile at them for what seems like an eternity. Many times, at the very last second, the person will smile back and there's that instant connection - "Oh, you're not that different from me." Other times, they will not smile. They will stare, but that's a given. So, slowly, slowly I'm turning into those around me, not smiling or acknowledging those that pass me in the street. This makes me immensely sad. I want to smile at them and I could force myself to smile at them, but I don't want to show them some disingenuous joy. I don't know, maybe I should just smile at them no matter what I feel like. Sometimes, this place zaps me of that overflowing, bubbly joy and I feel like I have nothing to give. Maybe that's a cop out, but this is what I'm feeling today.

There are several people in my neighborhood that I cannot communicate with because they don't speak English, Urdu or Hindi (the only languages I know as of late), so how can I show them Christ? Will they say, "Hey, there's that white girl - she's always smiling. What is she so happy about?" or will they say, "Oh, there's that downcast, stone-faced white girl. Not much going on there." Will they know I follow Christ by my love and joy or will they just see another angry, unfriendly foreigner?

I was reading this passage today and thinking about the eyes. Can people see Jesus in my/your eyes?

Luke 11:33 (TMSG)
33“No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It’s put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going. 34Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. 35Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. 36Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.”

Thoughts?

Hoodies. Combines. Football. Pumpkin Pie.

Feels like Fall here today. That may come as a shock to you as most of you who are reading this are battling the summer heat, especially those of you reading this from other places in S. Asia.

Is it too early to be missing crunchy leaves under my feet, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, apple pies and turkey?

Those Blessed Genealogies

This week I've been working on a genealogy poster that tracks everyone from Adam to Isa (Jesus). Eventually, we hope to give this genealogy poster as a gift to those interested in knowing more about Isa.

Now I must confess, I've never really been into genealogies. I'm pretty sure that my crazy campus minister, David Skeldon, used to read our campus ministry group genealogies occasionally (i.e. 1 Chronicles 1-9). At the time, I didn't have a passion for the good 'ole ancient family tree that was going on in the Old Testament, but to David's credit I have to say genealogies are pretty amazing. (Dave: I'm sorry I didn't appreciate those genealogy readings more - it only took three years for me to catch the vision).

Along with creating the genealogy poster, I'm trying to include messianic prophecies, too. "Camille, what's a messianic prophecy and why should I care," you say? Thanks for asking.

The Old Testament books in the Bible (all of them written between 1450 BC and 430 BC) contained hundreds of prophecies about an “anointed one” (“Messiah” in Hebrew) who would arrive in their future. The Messiah would “deliver” or “save” all the Jewish people, bringing them to paradise or heaven. These prophecies also stated that the Messiah would save all the other people in the world “through the Jews.” For this reason, people who are not Jewish need to learn about the Messiah, too.

This is a helpful website that my friend came across that lists some of the messianic prophecies and where you can find them in the Bible [the quote above was taken from this website]: http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/m_prophecies.shtml

I hope you'll realize how cool genealogies and prophecies can be, especially when you start connecting the dots between texts written hundreds of years before Jesus actually walked the earth and the fulfillment of those texts.

The next step for me - translate all the genealogies into Urdu and Bengali :) This could take awhile...

Vacant: Garnished but not Furnished

This morning I was reading Matthew Henry's commentary on Luke 11, specifically verses 24-26. This is the verse that got me: "On return, it [corrupting spirit/Devil] finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant." It broke my heart because it perfectly describes so many of my friends and some family members. They are good people, people I love, but they are vacant. Praying that this passage and commentary below will move you to action and prayer for your own friends and family or simply compel you to go back to the Bible and read what it says for yourself.


LUKE 11:24-26 (TMSG)
24“When a corrupting spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn’t find anyone, it says, ‘I’ll go back to my old haunt.’
25On return, it finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant. 26It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits dirtier than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse than if he’d never gotten cleaned up in the first place.”

Matthew Henry's Commentary:
That there was a vast difference between the devil’s going out by compact and his being cast out by compulsion. Those out of whom Christ cast him he never entered into again, for so was Christ’s charge (Mk. 9:25 ); whereas, if he had gone out, whenever he saw fit he would have made a re-entry, for that is the way of the unclean spirit, when he voluntarily and with design goes out of a man, v. 24-26. The prince of the devils may give leave, nay, may give order, to his forces to retreat, or make a feint, to draw the poor deluded soul into an ambush; but Christ, as he gives a total, so he gives a final, defeat to the enemy. In this part of the argument he has a further intention, which is to represent the state of those who have had fair offers made them,—among whom, and in whom, God has begun to break the devil’s power and overthrow his kingdom,—but they reject his counsel against themselves, and relapse into a state of subjection to Satan. Here we have,
(1.) The condition of a formal hypocrite, his bright side and his dark side. His heart still remains the devil’s house; he calls it his own, and he retains his interest in it; and yet, [1.] The unclean spirit is gone out. He was not driven out by the power of converting grace; there was none of that violence which the kingdom of heaven suffers; but he went out, withdrew for a time, so that the man seemed not to be under the power of Satan as formerly, nor so followed with his temptations. Satan is gone, or has turned himself into an angel of light. [2.] The house is swept from common pollutions, by a forced confession of sin, as Pharaoh’s—a feigned contrition for it, as Ahab’s,—and a partial reformation, as Herod’s. There are those that have escaped the pollutions of the world, and yet are still under the power of the god of this world, 2 Pet. 2:20 . The house is swept, but it is not washed; and Christ hath said, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me; the house must be washed, or it is none of his. Sweeping takes off only the loose dirt, while the sin that besets the sinner, the beloved sin, is untouched. It is swept from the filth that lies open to the eye of the world, but it is not searched and ransacked for secret filthiness, Mt. 23:25 . It is swept, but the leprosy is in the wall, and will be till something more be done. [3.] The house is garnished with common gifts and graces. It is not furnished with any true grace, but garnished with the pictures of all graces. Simon Magus was garnished with faith, Balaam with good desires, Herod with a respect for John, the Pharisees with many external performances. It is garnished, but it is like a potsherd covered with silver dross, it is all paint and varnish, not real, not lasting. The house is garnished, but the property is not altered; it was never surrendered to Christ, nor inhabited by the Spirit. Let us therefore take heed of resting in that which a man may have and yet come short.

In the News

Took these from today's newspaper. Some of the more interesting articles I've seen in awhile. Click on each article to view the larger size or just read the headlines - those are pretty exciting as stand-alones.

I was definitely in this traffic jam yesterday on my way back from a meeting.

Do you think this is for real? I don't think that he would have lived this long if it was true. Kind of ironic in light of the recent petrol and diesel shortage.

Calling the loadshedding like it is, finally. "God save us!" - haha. It's really not that bad, trust me.

Hmmm....

Hamburgers, Loadshedding, Peaches & Batman

Warning to readers: this is a post full of random happenings from this week and S. Asia life in general.

Today I went to go buy some meat from the meat man in my neighborhood. When I walked up to the meat stand I was suddenly overcome by the smell of incense and spotted pictures of Ganesh hanging on the wall. "Wait a second... there's something wrong with this picture. Have I mistaken this business for M.slim or has it been Hindu all along and what's up with Hindu's selling beef? " Anyway, I took my meat home to make some hamburgers. This was my first time making hamburgers since I've been here for two reasons 1) I'm not a big red meat eater 2) I'm kind of scared of meat here BUT I decided to take a chance and make some burgers. They turned out horribly! It wasn't the meat that made it bad, but my lack of hamburger cooking abilities. What has happened? How could I have gotten so bad at cooking a burger? Maybe it's because I'm not used to cooking with gas or the fact that I was so concerned about the meat being well done. Hard to say, but sad. I think I'll stick to chicken.

My roommate bought peaches in Delhi while she was passing through last week. We can't get peaches here, so this was a real treat. Yeah for peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream!

This Sunday at church this man stood up and announced that he wasn't a Commie devil. Later, after the service he asked me where I was from which automatically led into a conversation about politics and the upcoming election. He announced rather matter-of-factly, "If Obama wins then the US will align itself with Africa, but if McCain wins, the US will align itself with Latin America." Hmmm.

One of my friends is on a road trip cross-country in America this summer. I was talking to him online and he was telling me about how they use grease/oil from fast food places to fuel their vehicle. He knows a lot about mechanics, so I did not doubt his ability to make this work somehow, but at first I panicked. "Wait, is this what everyone is doing in the US now because gas is so expensive?!" Wow, I've been away way too long and I like to jump to conclusions, apparently. I think he was amused by my uninformed question.

Did you know that anytime it rains in my city the power goes out? I think it has something to do with the poor quality of the wiring. Just a guess. The power also goes out when the government of the state you're living in doesn't budget enough money for power. Bring on the loadshedding. The loadshedding is supposed to only be one hour a day, but really it's probably 6-8 hours a day. So with monsoon season well underway (meaning heavy and frequent rain) and loadshedding, our power has been less than reliable for the past few weeks. Luckily, we have a battery backup for our flat, so when the power goes out it automatically flips over to the battery. We can't run our toaster oven, washer, coffee pot or water heater when we're on the battery, but I'm thankful that it's enough to run the lights and fans. I feel pretty fortunate to have the battery backup even though that eventually runs out too sometimes.

Last night I saw the new Batman movie "Dark Knight". I went with a group of 15 other Americans which proved to be interesting as we watched the movie. Now, in India it's common for people to cheer and boo and shout at the movie, which is pretty fun actually. However, it was so interesting to hear what the Indians cheered and laughed at and what the two rows of Americans cheered and laughed at (okay, so we didn't really cheer. I guess Americans are reserved in that way, at least in the theater). There were two times in particular in which I recall our two rows laughing while the rest of the theater remained silent and they both had to do with American pop culture references. I'm going to be so out of the loop when I come back. Anyway, I don't want to write much about the movie so as not to spoil it for you, but I highly recommend seeing it. I'm not sure if I like it as much as the previous Batman, but Heath Ledger was phenomenal and stole the show as The Joker. Quite the performance. I can see how that role could have played a part in his death or at least the need for sleeping pills. Hope you can see "Dark Knight" while it's still in the theaters.

And a few pictures for you below to round out this delightfully random post:

How I got around in Thailand. This is a sung teow (sp?) - basically a covered pickup truck. Large groups of us packed into the back of these to get around Chiang Mai. Sometimes there were so many of us that some people had to hang off the back - fun!

Fancy suits. My roommate, me and my roommate's best friend at a wedding the week before I left for Thailand. We attended an engagement ceremony that morning, too. The engagement ceremony was basically like a wedding. Around 200-300 people attended and a Hindu priest sat on stage with the couple while he read the stars and the bride and groom-to-be's birth dates and times of birth to determine the best date (most auspicious) to have the wedding. We would call this "fixing the date" here. Did you know it's auspicious to have foreigners at a wedding? Woohoo. Their wedding date has been fixed for August and 1000 guests are expected to attend. Can't wait.

Highlights from Last Month

Dear Friends,
It's been a busy month and there's much catching up to do. Here are some highlights from the last month in South Asia:

I went to Thailand! Every year my company invites employees to Chiang Mai, Thailand for a week of training, networking, sharing and relaxing. This picture is from a traditional Thai dance and cultural dinner I attended one evening with friends.

At the cultural dinner with my good friend and fellow S. Asia dweller :)

Trying out the traditional Thai pose. Cheesy? Just a bit.

We rode around Chiang Mai on scooters! This was my first time to ride a scooter in Asia, a somewhat frightening and exhilarating experience at the same time. I survived without wrecking and yes, I wore my helmet. We drove around the city for awhile, then drove up a mountain to a waterfall.

Then I took a week of vacation in Phuket, Thailand with some friends. This was taken at our hotel's restaurant. It was beach front, baby!

Thai houses on stilts near our hotel.