James’s Place in Cyberspace

Rating: 8/10

Rating: 6/10

The trip has come to an end. It was a rich experience, full of great people, fun work, eye-opening experiences, and God’s provision.

The day we arrived in Delhi, we got settled into our hotel, the magnificent Crown Continental in the Karol Bagh neighborhood, apparently known for its rip-off hotels (from the travel guide). It wasn’t nearly as nice as the hotel we stayed at in Dehradun, but hey, it provided us a place to crash in the evening, which is all we needed. From the hotel, we decided to go hang out at a market near the house of a missionary couple, Rick & Ellen. After wearing ourselves out at the market, we rode a bicycle rickshaw to Rick & Ellen’s place, where they and their daughter Amy were graciously cooking us a wonderfully mild dinner. We ate and chatted the evening away - they’re cool people! After dinner, three children came by, not knowing we were there, just to hang out with that family. One of them muttered something (in Hindi) about never seeing so many white people before! It was funny. Anyway, it’s cool how accepted and part of that community they seem to be!

The next day, Thursday, we were off to Agra, to see the Taj Mahal. And see it we did. We took, collectively, about 14 billion pictures. I’m sure you’ll see plenty of them if you ever look at mine. We had a tour guide that day, recommended to us by Deepak, a friend of ours who was part of the Delhi Vineyard. When walking to the Taj, he told us not to take a bike rickshaw from anyone offering - they’ll say the Taj Mahal is very far away, when the entrance is really only about 200 meters away. I did anyway, except I paid the driver extra to let me drive! It was a lot of fun, and kind of difficult, driving that rickety old rickshaw with practically no brakes. The driver was nervous I’d tip it or start going too fast - he was going “Tsk tsk tsk” all the way down. I managed to get to the end safely, though. So the Taj is pretty extraordinary - it’s a mausoleum that a shah built for his queen - a monument of love, they call it. It’s all marble with inlaid semi-precious stones. It’s all symmetrical, too. From the Taj we hit up a shop where they carve and inlay marble (very cool to watch). Then we visited Agra Fort, which I think I found to be, in my eyes, just as cool as the Taj Mahal. We ate lunch at a touristy Indian restaurant, where we ran into a couple of women that came from the same wedding two friends of ours were at in Delhi. That was a cool coincidence. They ended up being on our flight back to LA as well! After lunch, we’re all pooped, and ready to go back to Delhi. Of course, the train we get on is going to the wrong station in New Delhi, so we had an adventure later that night figuring out how to make it to our hotel.

The next day, Friday, was our last day to spend in India. We did more shopping (I’m getting pretty good at haggling by this point) and visited the largest mosque in India, the Jama Mosque. It’s beautiful, and I spent some time there praying that the place would be redeemed and that God would make Himself known there.

Saturday I woke at 4:00 after two hours of sleep, and an hour later we were off to the airport. Weirdly enough, I liked the flight, and if anything, I wish it would have been longer. I think I just enjoyed being around the teammates so much that I didn’t want the time to end. But, after a few movies (The Departed and Terminator 2), some sleep, a chess game, reading, and play time with chopsticks, we landed and once again breathed the “fresh air of Los Angeles”, as one of the team members put it.

Right now I’m in Delhi, having traveled by train from Dehradun this morning. I really wish I had been able to blog more while I was in Dehradun, but I always seemed to be on the move with my team. I know I won’t be able to do justice to my experiences in this quick little update at a Delhi Internet Cafe. I think I’ll just copy verbatim what I wrote this morning in my little journal.

As I write this, I’m sitting in a train running from Dehradun to Delhi, where we ill spend the next 3 days. It’s been an extraordinary, and eventful, week in Dehradun. The conference ended well, and I’ve heard multiple times about how much of a blessing we’ve been to take care of the children and allow parents to be free to receive at the conference. As fun as it was, it’s a relief to be finished with the job of teaching and looking after those kids.

Since then, we’ve gone to the village a few times to work on the water purifier. A few days ago, we installed the thing, with the help of a local plumber who spent the whole day with us, and only cost 200 Rupees (a little under five dollars). When we came back the next day, we were surprised to find the pump running (when it shouldn’t have been) - Sanjay’s father had hooked it up in his absence, backwards! It looked like he’d been messing with one of the tanks, too. We spent our time that day teaching Sanjay how to use the purifier, and he was a quick learner, despite the language barrier. Hopefully he’ll teach his father.

Last night I had a cool experience. When I went on an errand to the bazaar, I stopped off in a homeopathic remedy shop for a gift. I met a guy speaking English, his name was Joshi, who just got into town from working on a Carnival cruise ship. We talked for awhile, then he took me on his scooter (which seemed to only start by rolling it and popping it in gear) to other shops to find a container for parts of the other purifier we’re giving to the church. Then, after hanging out in front of a stand for awhile, he drove me back to my hotel, and we talked for some more in my room. Very nice guy - I hope he comes to LA sometime; I offered him my couch. Yesterday we had two meetings with the Dehradun Vineyard - a staff meeting in the morning and a ministry team meeting in the evening. After the evening meeting, we all went out (like 35 of us) to Kumar Restaurant where we Americans had one last chance to see everyone and say goodbye. It was a wonderful evening.

Now I’m going to try and catch some Z’s before we hit Delhi editor’s note: I didn’t, and played Scrabble with David, Kathleen, Sarah, and Emily instead. From here on out, it’s just the Taj Mahal, some shopping, dinner with a missionary couple here in Delhi, then back to America. Before I leave India, I really want to spend some time reflecting a little, too, about my experience in Dehradun.

Hi! I’ve got 10 minutes to give a quick update. So, we arrived in India safe - first by plane to Delhi, then by train to Dehradun. The first night we were there, we just hung out, ate dinner, and decompressed from the travel.

The next day was Sunday, and we began by going to a Dehradun Vineyard church service. It was an awesome experience - vibrant worship music (I tried singing in Hindi), people thanking God and sharing their needs and prayer requests to the whole church, and John giving a good sermon. Later that night, we joined the congregation for a New Year’s Eve potluck at Sunny’s house (Sunny is the pastor of the Dehradun Vineyard). Ashley baked a cake, I helped make barbecue chicken, and we also made mashed potatoes and good ol’ American mac & cheese. It was a great time, and I loved getting to meet a number of really cool people from the church.

On Monday, we went to a village outside of Dehradun (I can’t remember the name of the village). There, we conducted a program for the children of the village, played games that involved a lot of running around and laughing, and had lunch with a local church there. David, John, and I took off with Sanjay, the local church pastor, to survey sites for our two water purifiers we are to install. We really got some good planning done during that time - it’s fun getting to do something technical on this trip. During the course of our walk, one of the locals, Sanjeet, took us inside his house to look at something really cool: a cobra. He also had a python that I got to hold, but that doesn’t come close to seeing a real, live, angry cobra from three feet away. That has definitely been a highlight so far.

Tuesday was a pretty easy day (if any can be called that - it seems I’m completely fried at the end of each night). We started out at 10 to Doon Bible College, where we were to help prepare for the Vineyard India conference, which the Dehradun Vineyard is hosting. We cleaned out dormitory rooms which families would stay in, moved desks, tables, and chairs around, and covered up broken windows. The work really wasn’t all that hard, but it’s the sort of thing that, if our team wasn’t there, would have taken the others a long time to finish. After we finished, the team separated, and the men went back to the hotel to inventory and finish planning the water purifier installation. We ordered Pizza Hut, a little slice of home… Then I went over to Sunny and Rika’s house (which also doubles as the church office) and tried to set up the wireless network with the equipment I brought. It seems working with technology in India is never easy. During my time there, there were power outages, DSL outages, and power plugs wouldn’t stay fixed in the wall (I don’t know who designed the outlets they use over here, but they’re horrible). I’m afraid I might have fried a router while I was setting things up. At any rate, it still hasn’t been finished yet, and I suppose we’ll have to wait until after the conference is over to finish what should have been an extraordinarily simple job. Then, I caught up with the group at a restaurant called Yeti (the menu had a picture of Bigfoot on it), and hung out at Cafe Coffee Day, an Indian Starbucks clone.

Wednesday we went to Hrishekesh, a Hindu holy city, and destination for many Westerners (including the Beatles) seeking enlightenment. We visited a Hindu temple there, and it was an unsettling experience. You could feel the spiritual darkness in the air. After walking in, a man started shouting at us, telling us we had to bow to Vishnu and ring a bell before we could continue. We stood there for a few minutes as we tried to tell him we would not do it, and we were starting to walk back to the entrance when another man started talking to him, and he permitted us to continue. Weird. Anyway, we went from window to window, seeing shrines devoted to Vishnu, Krishna, Manuman, and Shiva. There were also a few mock-up offices containing belongings of some famous old Yogis. Also in Hrishekesh, I saw my first monkeys in India, and walked over the Ganges River on a cool suspension bridge.

Later that night, the conference started. We worshipped and mingled mostly. It was cool meeting people from all over India, including some American missionaries in Delhi and Bangalore. Sunny spoke and emphasized to the group that we are all part of one family, and he wanted us to share, encourage, and even sleep on the floor if we had to, just like at a large family gathering. Good times.

Well I’m off on my 2-week trip to Dehradun, India, with a team from the Vineyard Westside. Right now, I’m sitting on the floor at the Hong Kong International Airport, where we just arrived from a (suprisingly pleasant) 15-hour flight from LA. I was able to trade with another passenger to sit next to David, which also meant I got a window seat as well! Not much of a view, though, as we were over the ocean most of the flight.

I’m getting very stoked for my arrival into India. I really feel that God will use this trip in ways that we won’t expect. I know I’m gonna be changed…

They’re boarding the flight now, so I ought to go. From here, it’s a 6-hour flight to Delhi, then a 4-hour train ride into Dehradun. More later!

    -James

Many moons has it been since my site has been online. The reason? I was hosting it off of my own computer that I left with a friend at IIT. The school changed their IP address assignment policy, and down went my connection. Rather than try to deal with IIT’s Office of Technology Services, I decided to call it quits on my trusty ol’ web box. When I visited Chicago in September, I yanked its hard drive and brought it back with me. Now I’m paying for hosting like everyone else (using GoDaddy). The control freak in me is chafing at only having FTP access, but I’ll manage. The gallery should be coming back online shortly, and I’ll be updating regularly now, so check back often!

Wow, this was an impressive little film. Enid and Rebecca are two best friends who have just graduated high school. They seemingly spend their days cynically viewing and mocking the status quo around them. When they decide to play a prank on a lonely middle-aged man, though, it begins an unlikely friendship for Enid, forcing her to reexamine her ideals. The relationship between Enid and the man, Seymour (played by Steve Buscemi), is awkward and dynamic and kind of uncertain - not unlike actual relationships outside the movies. I think this film is ripe for some heavy analysis, but it’s been too long since I watched it, so I don’t feel up to the task. Maybe after the second viewing.

Rating: 8/10

Cool! A smackdown between the “emergent church” movement and the traditional church, represented by two huge evangelical authorities. Very respectful, very thoughtful, and very long. I haven’t read it all yet - I have to wait ’til I’m off work.

Chuck Colson’s original article
Brian McLaren’s response
Colson responds to McLaren

I haven’t written a personal blog entry in quite some time - a real, down-&-dirty rundown of what’s in my head - so I figured I’m about due. It’s not that I haven’t had anything to write about; rather, I didn’t want to be a downer to anyone reading. I feel like I’m moving out of a funk in my life, a funk probably due to factors both external and internal. I’ve been in Los Angeles for eight months now, and it has changed from the paradise of wide-open possibilities that I arrived at last September. I felt so excited then, so strong and capable, ready to give of myself to those around me and to experience all I could out of this new life. Little by little, though, I’ve become worn down. I started hearing discouraging things from people I cared about, people telling me that I argue too much, I’m boring and my interests aren’t important, I’m not respected, I’m controlling, I’m not adventurous enough, and on annd on. A few people close to me became positively enraged when I tried to be friendly to them. I was chewed out for mistakes I made at work. So what did I do? I withdrew. I didn’t want to pursue friendships, talk about my interests (or even pursue interests, for that matter). My words were useless, my passions were meaningless. I did what I could to avoid subjecting myself to the cruelty of others.

Of course, by the grace of God and the encouragement of other peoiple, I couldn’t stay in that place of isolation. I think it started to break when I went to Texas and saw my family. I felt acceptance around them. What’s more, I saw people enjoying each other and living their lives freely. My cousins involved in pro wrestling, my aunts gladly sacrificing their time for my grandmother, my brother starting schooling and buying a house - moving forward despite his past troubles. Life’s too valuable to live with defensiveness, self-centeredness, and self-imposed limits.

Then there was the time my friend Ken spent with me in LA. That was just plain refreshing for me. He was laid-back and happy hanging around me, even though my skewed attitude could have easily become a wet blanket. He’d tell me to stop being cynical about girls and to stop doubting myself. We had good times, and for that week I didn’t work as hard, which was nice.

I’ve also been hanging out with a new friend, a girl named Jeanelle, who’s been a pleasant presence in my life right now. We seem to get along well, and I’ve enjoyed learning about healthy living and animal rights advocacy. In return, I’ve introduced her to Over the Rhine.

Now I’m on a plane to Chicago (actually, I’m typing up what I wrote on the plane, a day later). I’m spending the weekend celebrating Sarah Fenlon’s wedding and to catch up with old friends. This, too, will be an affirming experience, I’m sure. I think what I need to concentrate on, at least for ahwile, is putting myself in situations where I can be validated, be encouraged , and feel safe. I’ve got the rest of my life to endure hardship and tackle interpersonal challenges - now I’d just like to gather some strength.