Revival India & Nigeria
Last year, we received several invitations to speak both in Agoja Apakpa Nigeria and Sivaraj Grounds Puzhal Town Chennai India. This would be a fist-time trip to both of these nations. Departing from the Orlando International Airport on February 22, 2009, after over 23 hours of air-travel, I arrived on United Emirates in Chennai International airport about 2:15am in the morning.
After passing through immigration, I was truly happy to see the friendly face of my host John Jabez that honoured me with a special neck decoration with bright colors of red and gold. Our first stop was to check in at the 3-star Royal Plaza Hotel Koyambedu Chennai centrally located in the heart of Chennai. Being that it was the End of February, the days were hot & hazy temperatures in mid-80's.
Eating at the Salsa restaurant was an interesting experience with the waiters speaking in their native language Tamil. Most menu items where very spicy and required a cold glass of water to wash the food down. With extreme broken English, waiters would have short to the point cordial conversations. Several times I requested that they prepare long grain brown rice with Pompelli extra virgin olive oil. Being an international evangelist, I learned the hard way never to drink the local water unless you would like to waste time in the emergency room.
From the roof top of the Hotel Royal Plaza, I could see their holy cows walking down center of major roads hugging the dividers. These beasts seemed to very comfortable crossing the street and eating anything and everything they wanted. They locals feed these animals which are treated like gods in India.
India has been graced with Microsoft Technology although I hear that Obama will be taxing companies like Microsoft that want to outsource their software development to India. Every street has a temple where they worship their idols and adherents collaborate in the middle of streets while under the influence of some demonic spirit.
I was please to see a particular orphanage which hosted over 150 children both from India and the areas that border with China. The called the director "Ma" who has taught these children self respect, remedial studies, Tamil, English and the bible. When I arrive, they had performed several praise and worship songs in English that was quite impressive.
I spoke at several churches as well as open air revival services in Puzhal Town. Although they called themselves Christians, there was still evidence of Indian culture infused in these services at night. One particular venue will stay in my memory for ever. I was invited to speak at the Lamb of God church that has an attendance 4000 people. I though for sure that it would have been a large hall but in fact they used a multi-level building for several services on Sunday. As I entered people were sitting on the ground with a television set on each floor.
Before I left, we went downtown to a local clothing store for a shirt and pair of slacks. They were asking 690 rs ( 1 rs = 1 us dollar) and I was able to negotiate the shirt of 600 rs. A pair of slacks costed about $10 for cotton material. Most women buy cloth for their dress and simply wrap the cloth around themselves in whatever style they desire.
Streets were always bustling with pedestrians and motorists busily travelling to their destinations. Like Pakistan, both the small cars & motorcycles are the most popular forms of travel. Gangs of dogs filled the fruit and vegetable market across the street and would create a huge barking racket around 1:00 am in the morning. India does not control it's dog population.
Every morning I would recieve a phone call around 9:00am from the Salsa restaurant desperately wanting me to come down and eat breakfast.
For the most part, the native Indians were friendly and seemed to enjoy speaking with foreigners. Stay tuned for more on our trip to Agoja Apokpa Nigeria.
After passing through immigration, I was truly happy to see the friendly face of my host John Jabez that honoured me with a special neck decoration with bright colors of red and gold. Our first stop was to check in at the 3-star Royal Plaza Hotel Koyambedu Chennai centrally located in the heart of Chennai. Being that it was the End of February, the days were hot & hazy temperatures in mid-80's.
Eating at the Salsa restaurant was an interesting experience with the waiters speaking in their native language Tamil. Most menu items where very spicy and required a cold glass of water to wash the food down. With extreme broken English, waiters would have short to the point cordial conversations. Several times I requested that they prepare long grain brown rice with Pompelli extra virgin olive oil. Being an international evangelist, I learned the hard way never to drink the local water unless you would like to waste time in the emergency room.
From the roof top of the Hotel Royal Plaza, I could see their holy cows walking down center of major roads hugging the dividers. These beasts seemed to very comfortable crossing the street and eating anything and everything they wanted. They locals feed these animals which are treated like gods in India.
India has been graced with Microsoft Technology although I hear that Obama will be taxing companies like Microsoft that want to outsource their software development to India. Every street has a temple where they worship their idols and adherents collaborate in the middle of streets while under the influence of some demonic spirit.
I was please to see a particular orphanage which hosted over 150 children both from India and the areas that border with China. The called the director "Ma" who has taught these children self respect, remedial studies, Tamil, English and the bible. When I arrive, they had performed several praise and worship songs in English that was quite impressive.
I spoke at several churches as well as open air revival services in Puzhal Town. Although they called themselves Christians, there was still evidence of Indian culture infused in these services at night. One particular venue will stay in my memory for ever. I was invited to speak at the Lamb of God church that has an attendance 4000 people. I though for sure that it would have been a large hall but in fact they used a multi-level building for several services on Sunday. As I entered people were sitting on the ground with a television set on each floor.
Before I left, we went downtown to a local clothing store for a shirt and pair of slacks. They were asking 690 rs ( 1 rs = 1 us dollar) and I was able to negotiate the shirt of 600 rs. A pair of slacks costed about $10 for cotton material. Most women buy cloth for their dress and simply wrap the cloth around themselves in whatever style they desire.
Streets were always bustling with pedestrians and motorists busily travelling to their destinations. Like Pakistan, both the small cars & motorcycles are the most popular forms of travel. Gangs of dogs filled the fruit and vegetable market across the street and would create a huge barking racket around 1:00 am in the morning. India does not control it's dog population.
Every morning I would recieve a phone call around 9:00am from the Salsa restaurant desperately wanting me to come down and eat breakfast.
For the most part, the native Indians were friendly and seemed to enjoy speaking with foreigners. Stay tuned for more on our trip to Agoja Apokpa Nigeria.
posted by michael at
10:41 AM
