One of the more visceral moments for me during our time there was when Dave and I led our "discipleship training" workshop. When we originally planned the thing, we understood it as being basic equipping for regular attenders of the Bible Faith Mission churches. So most of our stuff was remedial and we wanted to provide simple tools for people to nurture their relationship with God.
The night before the workshop we found out that the workshop was to be attended by all the local BFM pastors - about 60 people. That sent a little chill down my spine - the kind of chill you get when you realize you studied the wrong material for the test.
So instead of making any wholesale changes, we decided just to go with what we prepared and just make minor tweaks. I spent the entire morning reminding my pastor friends about the passionate love of God demonstrated through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. When I was done, I felt like I had completely missed the target. Not that I was teaching wrong information... but that it wasn't the message that they needed to hear. Especially from someone at least 10-20 years their junior.
At the end of my talk, we had some question and answer time. I think we all knew that there was an element of the ridiculous. I've been in full-time ministry for 9 years, 4 of which were in seminary. Many of these guys have been doing their thing for 10 to 20+ years. Planted many churches in the hardest conditions on income that couldn't provide for both food and housing. And I was about to answer their questions.
The first few questions were pretty basic. But then one brother rose up and asked, "How are we supposed to continue to love our enemy when we are in constant fear of persecution?" Stories were shared of pastors being beaten, Christians killed, churches being burned down by militant Hindu groups and people in their churches returning to Hinduism so they can get government subsidy to survive. Dalits ["untouchable" lowest caste] receive some government subsidy for basic needs. But when they become Christians, the government takes it away. You're already looked down upon as a Dalit. But when you become a Christian you are further marginalized and oppressed. This is the reality for them as Dalit pastors.
How was I supposed to respond to that? I think everyone in the room knew there wasn't an answer - definitely not from me. Another question arose, "Is it wrong for us to wish harm on those who harm us?" After which they laughed a little - they knew there wasn't an answer to that one either.
Finally one guy got up and asked, "How come the rest of the world's Christians don't come to our aid?" And right at that moment, I felt both a bit of their desperation and the shame of a Christian world that has seemingly forgotten their brothers here in India.
I didn't know what to say but begin with the truthful fact that we hear very little if any of what is going on among pastors and churches in India. But afterwhich I had to honestly confess that many of us in the West are very selfish. We hear of other international travesties and are left relatively unphased because it doesn't affect the daily routine. And so I apologized to my pastor friends. I apologized for not heeding their cries for at least prayer. I apologized for my selfishness. I asked for forgiveness for not being more aware of what is happening in India. And promised that this will be part of the message that we bring back to the US.
And for the first time that morning, I think we connected. We understood each other - the proper roles we needed to play that morning. It wasn't for me to teach them marvelous truths... it was for me to listen to the heart of my friends. To somehow remind them that they weren't alone. And to receive a needed admonition for forgetting our brothers/sisters who toil for the kingdom among Dalits in India.
After Dave's afternoon session of studying the Bible and prayer, I felt like God was directing me towards 2 Chronicles 7:14:
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
I've always thought that this needs to be the prayer of the church in the West, myself included. I feel that we as the church in the West are very far from humility and a desperation for the heart of God. So I shared that as a confession from us in the West; but I sensed that it should also be the cry of my Dalit pastor friends. That though they are reminded constantly of their low status and are under the fear of constant persecution, all of us... followers of Jesus everywhere are called to humbly repent and desperately yearn for God to bring a healing that only He can bring.
It was probably the only other time we were really on the same page. It felt like we were family for once... that we were no longer foreigners, that we were both longing and crying for the same thing and to the same God. Both Dave and I got a few affirming nods with the stuff we taught that day. But again I think we needed to understand why we were there that day. And when we did, God gave us a glimpse of everything we had hoped we would see.
To be continued...
FYI - This photo is me demonstrating Galatians 3:26 by putting on a new dhoty [a skirt-like thing] which is standard issue for many men in southern India.
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