Things I've felt the the need type at one point or another over the past three weeks. Fair warning: these are in no particular order, and are not meant to make a whole argument. They also have been written at various points in the journey, and are not necessarily in chronological order. Just thoughts I wanted to share with the world.
1. Sarah MacDonald was right. In the book Holy Cow (a travel log/memoir about her two years traveling through India learning about various religions) she mentions that 'India makes you incapable of doing things for yourself.' She is right. Indian standards of hospitality dictate that, when you are an honored guest (which we have been honored to be at Augusteen and Lalitha's), everything is done for you. Seriously Everything. It is a wonderful way of showing hospitality, but the good Mennonite girl in me feels very unsettled about sitting in a chair observing as anything I could possibly need or any thing I could do to help gets done for me. And I do mean sitting in a chair. Even after a two hours car ride, the first thing that happens when we arrive at a new location is someone produces a plastic lawn chair, puts it underneath me, and demands I sit. And gives us a coconut with a hole cut into the top and a straw to drink the coconut water with. One or two in a day is lovely, our record so far is 7 in a day (Sam only counted 6). One note on that, though- I am grateful that coconuts can be presented to guests to honor them- since this area of Andrah Pradesh is basically made up of coconut forests, they are free to anyone with the ability to climb a tree to gather them. I am glad we can be honored without great expense to our host some times.
2. India is a Man's world. Especially the cities and all modes of public transportation. My understanding is that Indian demographics are about 45% female/55% male. But if you watched the streets, restaurants, malls, trains, planes, etc, you would think it was 80% men. They are everywhere. Whats more, they often are everywhere and NOT DOING ANYTHING. Sitting around drinking tea while busy women hurry around them, filling glasses, doing laundry, watching children, and tending to various other things. I find it a little mind bending. Also, the men (or at least many men, especially the Shiva worshipping 18-25 year olds in the north) seem to think that any woman who is out and about in the world (or at least any Western woman- even one clearly traveling with a male companion and dressed very conservatively) is open season for copping a feel. I'm DONE with it. The end.
2a. Given that India is a man's world, it is interesting to be in the middle of a tiny little feminist revolution going on among the Christians in the Province of Andrah Pradesh. Lalitha is an excellent person to be with- she is subtly challenging the hold men have over the church in particular in many ways, from referring to herself as a pastor (a title rightfully hers, as she holds more theological education than most of the male pastors, and she teaches and preaches frequently), rather than pastor-amma (pastor mama/ pastor's wife), to only covering her head for prayers, rather than through a whole worship service (I have been following her lead on this one), to grabbing herself a chair putting it at the front of a congregation (the honored place for visiting pastors, where Samuel and I are both asked to sit), even when chairs are only offered to Sam, Augusteen, and myself. She has repeatedly commented on the egalitarian nature of my relationship and lifestyle, and shared her concerns for the women in India. In honor of the work she is doing (and in honor of my own strong convictions on this issue) I have been focusing the content of my sermons on Bible stories about women being church leaders, places where Jesus analogizes God to women, and texts that speak to the equality of everyone in God's kingdom. Lalitha and Augusteen have both mentioned that they believe the women who hear me speak are encouraged and given a new and important perspective, so I hope they are right. I feel bad that I can't do more to help the status of women in India, but maybe telling women and men that everyone is equal in the eyes of God is a good start.
3. I was very surprised to find myself being asked to do as much teaching and preaching as I was with Augusteen and Lalitha. You all know that I don't claim the title of pastor as my own- I generally leave that to Samuel, and that I often find myself suspect of what is going on in 'mainline Christianity,' so being asked not just to speak to children, but to preach in worship services in places that have rarely if ever had women speak before has been a new, stretching, and unexpected experience. Discovering that I have the ability to preach 15-20 minutes (and a decent 15-20 if I do say so myself) with 15 minutes warning (as in, sometime during singing, Augusteen
4. Because of these experiences, I have been thinking about the fact that I am not the first woman in my family to live out the role of pastor in a foreign place. I have been thinking a lot about my great-grandmother Matilda Kliewer Voth, who spent her adulthood as a Mennonite missionary in rural China, raising her children as she was doing the work of seeding churches and taking an important role in the running of the Mennonite Mission in China. What strength of character, faith, and good humor it must have taken. I hope that my time this week has honored her.
5. Samuel mentioned before that we are asked to pray blessings individually on pretty much everyone who comes to a service we speak at. I echo Samuel's sentiments regarding his feelings about this, so I won't repeat them here. One thing that I have noticed, however, is that anyone who wants a blessing for a "woman issue" comes to me. I have had widows, women who are childless, women who's children are ill, all come and ask me to pray with them. And I've also had pregnant women. Lots of pregnant women. In the US, when we pray for women who are pregnant, the first prayer tends to be for a healthy baby, however each time a pregnant woman came to me, the concern was the same: "please pray for protection for a safe birth." The reality of women giving birth in a place removed from medical attention is clear in this place (rural Andrah Pradesh), which has a higher rate of fistula and a higher rate of maternal mortality than India in general, much less the USA, where most women have access to quality obstetric care at least at the point of delivery.
1. Sarah MacDonald was right. In the book Holy Cow (a travel log/memoir about her two years traveling through India learning about various religions) she mentions that 'India makes you incapable of doing things for yourself.' She is right. Indian standards of hospitality dictate that, when you are an honored guest (which we have been honored to be at Augusteen and Lalitha's), everything is done for you. Seriously Everything. It is a wonderful way of showing hospitality, but the good Mennonite girl in me feels very unsettled about sitting in a chair observing as anything I could possibly need or any thing I could do to help gets done for me. And I do mean sitting in a chair. Even after a two hours car ride, the first thing that happens when we arrive at a new location is someone produces a plastic lawn chair, puts it underneath me, and demands I sit. And gives us a coconut with a hole cut into the top and a straw to drink the coconut water with. One or two in a day is lovely, our record so far is 7 in a day (Sam only counted 6). One note on that, though- I am grateful that coconuts can be presented to guests to honor them- since this area of Andrah Pradesh is basically made up of coconut forests, they are free to anyone with the ability to climb a tree to gather them. I am glad we can be honored without great expense to our host some times.
2. India is a Man's world. Especially the cities and all modes of public transportation. My understanding is that Indian demographics are about 45% female/55% male. But if you watched the streets, restaurants, malls, trains, planes, etc, you would think it was 80% men. They are everywhere. Whats more, they often are everywhere and NOT DOING ANYTHING. Sitting around drinking tea while busy women hurry around them, filling glasses, doing laundry, watching children, and tending to various other things. I find it a little mind bending. Also, the men (or at least many men, especially the Shiva worshipping 18-25 year olds in the north) seem to think that any woman who is out and about in the world (or at least any Western woman- even one clearly traveling with a male companion and dressed very conservatively) is open season for copping a feel. I'm DONE with it. The end.
2a. Given that India is a man's world, it is interesting to be in the middle of a tiny little feminist revolution going on among the Christians in the Province of Andrah Pradesh. Lalitha is an excellent person to be with- she is subtly challenging the hold men have over the church in particular in many ways, from referring to herself as a pastor (a title rightfully hers, as she holds more theological education than most of the male pastors, and she teaches and preaches frequently), rather than pastor-amma (pastor mama/ pastor's wife), to only covering her head for prayers, rather than through a whole worship service (I have been following her lead on this one), to grabbing herself a chair putting it at the front of a congregation (the honored place for visiting pastors, where Samuel and I are both asked to sit), even when chairs are only offered to Sam, Augusteen, and myself. She has repeatedly commented on the egalitarian nature of my relationship and lifestyle, and shared her concerns for the women in India. In honor of the work she is doing (and in honor of my own strong convictions on this issue) I have been focusing the content of my sermons on Bible stories about women being church leaders, places where Jesus analogizes God to women, and texts that speak to the equality of everyone in God's kingdom. Lalitha and Augusteen have both mentioned that they believe the women who hear me speak are encouraged and given a new and important perspective, so I hope they are right. I feel bad that I can't do more to help the status of women in India, but maybe telling women and men that everyone is equal in the eyes of God is a good start.
3. I was very surprised to find myself being asked to do as much teaching and preaching as I was with Augusteen and Lalitha. You all know that I don't claim the title of pastor as my own- I generally leave that to Samuel, and that I often find myself suspect of what is going on in 'mainline Christianity,' so being asked not just to speak to children, but to preach in worship services in places that have rarely if ever had women speak before has been a new, stretching, and unexpected experience. Discovering that I have the ability to preach 15-20 minutes (and a decent 15-20 if I do say so myself) with 15 minutes warning (as in, sometime during singing, Augusteen
4. Because of these experiences, I have been thinking about the fact that I am not the first woman in my family to live out the role of pastor in a foreign place. I have been thinking a lot about my great-grandmother Matilda Kliewer Voth, who spent her adulthood as a Mennonite missionary in rural China, raising her children as she was doing the work of seeding churches and taking an important role in the running of the Mennonite Mission in China. What strength of character, faith, and good humor it must have taken. I hope that my time this week has honored her.
5. Samuel mentioned before that we are asked to pray blessings individually on pretty much everyone who comes to a service we speak at. I echo Samuel's sentiments regarding his feelings about this, so I won't repeat them here. One thing that I have noticed, however, is that anyone who wants a blessing for a "woman issue" comes to me. I have had widows, women who are childless, women who's children are ill, all come and ask me to pray with them. And I've also had pregnant women. Lots of pregnant women. In the US, when we pray for women who are pregnant, the first prayer tends to be for a healthy baby, however each time a pregnant woman came to me, the concern was the same: "please pray for protection for a safe birth." The reality of women giving birth in a place removed from medical attention is clear in this place (rural Andrah Pradesh), which has a higher rate of fistula and a higher rate of maternal mortality than India in general, much less the USA, where most women have access to quality obstetric care at least at the point of delivery.
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