The Light of the Gospel in South India

Welcome to Pastor John's church. (continued from 18May09) Since he has been preaching from the Book of Mormon for some months now, he asked us to bring copies for his people, and called a special meeting. Being near sunset and the chapel door facing west resulted in this sriking and symbolic photo. However, since the sun had not yet set, most of his people were still working in their fields. As a few sang enthusiastically, more gathered.

The denomination that built this church 12 years ago 2 km. from John's house could not find pastors willing to come to this rural slum area. In response to the congregation's request, John put the other two churches he founded in the hands of assistants and has been ministering here over five years.

He asked us to speak to his people about the coming of the Book of Mormon (while he translated) and then to give each of them a copy.

With this smiling, toothless little old lady in the red sari, the emotion of the event hit me when I placed a book in her eagerly outstreched hands- which were missing several fingers.

I don't know how many of them will be able to read it, even in Tamil, but they are sure proud to have it.

(to be continued)

Conference in Coimbatore, ogling in Ooty.

With another missionary couple and 12 young Elders, we travelled 8 hours by train to Coimbatore for a missionary zone conference.

The trains here are electric, quiet, cheap to ride, and this one was air conditioned, clean, and quite comfortable.

For the benefit of our family and friends who live near Salem UT, Salem OR, or Salem MA, we passed through Salem, Tamil Nadu which you see named here in Tamil, Hindi, and English.

We spent Tuesday in the lovely Coimbatore chapel, learning from our insightful mission president and his wife, and from some very dedicated young men.

Having better things to think about all day, the only time we thought to snap a picture of the group was over the lunch pizza.

The Chennai zone is capably led by Elder Manohar from Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh. In the course of his travels he has had to learn Telegu, Kanada, Tamil, Sinhala and in school Hindi and English. He has siezed opportunities for exposure to French and Spanish but doesn't claim competency in those. The embodiment of missionary enthusiasm, he has had to resist his mother tugging him to come home and be with the family. He would like after his mission to go to BYU-Hawaii and then get his MBA in the states.

After the conference we took a holiday to see a different India. Just west of Coimbatore (like west of Denver) the mountains rise abruptly into the Western Ghats, which separate the state of Tamil Nadu from Kerala. Nestled in the tops of the Nilgiris Hills lie several "hill stations" to which the British resorted to escape the summer heat.

With the same missionaries in less formal circumstances, we hired an 18 passenger bus to carry us up the face of the mountain on an adequate road with dozens of switchbacks where the busses honked politely before (literally) taking their turns.

The tall, straight pines of the mountain forest would lead you to think you were in the Pacific Northwest, except for the local fauna.

At the summit of Doddabetta, elevation 8600 feet (not Himalayan, but a respectable height), it never freezes or snows, but never gets much over 70F either; a refreshing change from the heat and filthiness of Chennai. Here they actually care about litter and provide "dust bins" (which is the generic name for any kind of trash container from wastebasket to trash can to dumpster) which are both rare and ignored in the city.

The view from the mountaintops is of forest interspersed with cultivated terraces. It is interesting to see that even in this most densely populated country there is still good land sparsely settled.

Vegetables grow well here, but by far the largest crop on the neatly terraced hillsides is tea, which grows on convenient waist-high bushes and is harvested by hand. Entire plantations of it mingle with forest and village.

In the distance 8 km. from the summit of Doddabetta lies the tourist "hill station" of Udhagamandalam, or Ooty as it is more commonly called.

One kid (Elder Schmidt) samples the local veggies, and another kid gets the leftovers.

We wandered leisurely in the botanical gardens in Ooty, where the orderliness of the Pax Britiannia is still apparent.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

1 August 2009: Groundbreaking for the first LDS chapel in Chennai. Led by Chennai First Branch President Sunderajan, speakers included "pioneers" who joined the church in the 1980's when all Asia was administered by the Singapore mission, and there was one missionary couple in Madras (now Chennai) who held meetings in their apartment.

They told a remarkable story of the acquisitiionof the land in 1998 when Sathidas Powell was branch president. The parcel had been inherited by an old man, and then had been in litigation for 22 years, by which time the heir was in his 80's. He immediately put it under contract with a large real estate development company who would put shops and apartments on it. They tore down the structures and cleared the land, then fell on some hard times and had to sell some assets to meet their cash flow needs. This is when the church was looking, and they grabbed it. It is located on a major street, easy to find, with a bus stop in front. Next door is a Catholic church built on a hill where the Apostle Thomas allegedly lived for several years after converting the local king (and before being killed by an irate brahmin on a hill about 3 km away). Across the street is the largest Assembly of God church in this city of seven million. With the development in the last decade you don't find parcels this large anymore, unless the price is astronomical.

Then there was the long process of approvals from zoning, building, city, police, fire, etc. officials, all looking for a little grease money which the church refused to give. One of the holdouts was the police chief, who happened to rent an apartment which he owned to a missionary couple who became his friends. He gained an appreciation for what the church is about, and approval was forthcoming.

Now construction is ready to begin, the lot is empty with no squatters on it (which is rare here, and unpleasant to deal with), and even the vendors who lined the sidewalk a couple years ago have gone elsewhere.

David Chelladurai was part of the team that translated the Book of Mormon into Tamil in the late 1990's. He told me that his father-in-law was having a hard time with the King James English of the Book of Mormon. After the work of translation was finished, it took the church five years to publish it. When he received his first copy (autographed by the Quorum of the Twelve) he thought of his father-in-law who had died waiting for it.

Even today, the Book of Mormon is available in only three of the 20+ Indian languages: Hindi, the official "national" language spoken in the north, Telegu (there are four branches of the church in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh), and Tamil ( 6 of the present 28 branches in India are in Tamil Nadu).

Dr. ADSN Prasad, founder of Pathway, joined the church in 1992. Our main assignment is to help him raise 200 of his kids to be community and church leaders in a few years.

Rosalin Berrymore has for years taken the bus on Saturdays over two hours each way from Chennai to Pathway ostensibly to teach music to the kids. She really teaches scripture stories wrapped in Primary songs and hymns. Without the church providing a Primary, she has single-handedly (with the help of recruits among the older children) laid the base for all we are doing in Seminary and Mutual.

Paul Vijayakumar joined in 1986 and served a mission in India. He accompanies us as translator on our forays into Tamil territory. In 1999 he and his wife started the Seventh Star Home for Destitute Children. We would sure like to find some combination of American donors who could reliably provide him about $1000 a month to take care of the 34 children they have taken into their home in addition to their own two.

There was much rejoicing and many participated with the cermonial shovel. There was some concern that we might get the cloudburst that we had seen each of the last five evenings, but it was courteous enough to wait until an hour after we had finished and most everyone had time to get home.

We had been assigned to get refreshments for 75 for after the ceremonies. When they ratcheted up the estimate to 100, we bought for 120. The ceremony was scheduled to start at 5pm, but "This is India". When it started at 5:30, all 75 chairs were full, and here halfway through I counted about 50 standing. By the time for food, someone had counted 200.

Early in 2010 ther will be this large, beautiful building, with parking on ground level, chapel on the "first" (i.e. above ground) floor, and classrooms on the "second" floor.

I watched the stream of onlookers on the sidewalk who stopped and asked the security gaurd what was happening here.

What a tool this building and location will be for the Restored Church of Jesus Christ in south India!

I think St. Thomas would be pleased.