Translating My Monsoon State of Mind

Work presses on through the brunt of the monsoon season. While I dreaded the rainy season before I came, my opinion has changed. After going without a drop of rain from January to June, I was really craving some rain. Fortunately, the rain also brings cooler temperatures. Combined with the sheet metal awning outside my window, the pleasant nights and the rapping and pinging of the rain make the recipe for a thorough sleep. Nevertheless, one frustrating irony remains. I, along with the vast majority of this city, get access to water for about two hours in the morning, and sometimes an hour in the evening. When it was hot and not raining, I felt content with this. However, it just feels wrong when it is pouring outside, for me to be unable to get water inside. In fact, the city just cut water access. I know it is due to planning for the water for the remainder of the year (for Bennett- think fat cows and skinny cows), but a morning without a shower can transform me into an ogre pretty quickly. Then, there is the increase in mosquitos, intermittent internet access, flooded sewage drains, and encompassing mold and mildew. Boo.

None of this affects the locals. They love the monsoon. Here, the heaviest rains summon people out on the street. Many simply choose to dance in the downpour. Teenage boys actually reserve their soccer games for the heaviest rains- they reschedule if it is too dry. It is entertaining to watch everyone enjoy the rain. I guess they've also been through it enough times to know that attempting to stay dry is futile. I depart home with water-proof shoes, a long rain jacket, and a golf-sized umbrella, only to find myself soaked by the time I travel the short distance to the office... horizontal rain is a cunning foe. Additionally, the rickshaws I love so dearly have no doors, and flooded roadways with congested traffic means you frequently get blasted by passing cars.

Now, I am coming to see all of this as attitude training. The professional and adult in me grumbles at the soaked slacks and whines when my drenched hair drips on my desk at work. But this is not always the case, I am happiest when the kid in me comes out: the rickshaw ride becomes an adventure surprisingly similar to an amusement waterpark ride, realizing that everyone that comes in the office is soaking wet starts to crack me up, and the fact that there is water everywhere stops ruining my day. I accept that it is just the way it is, and actually start to laugh about it. It is just another way that this country forces you to submit, something I'm finding to be a valuable lesson.

On another note, something unexpected has developed in the last few days. Before I left, a friend from my parents' congregation gave me a Hindi Bible. I have kept it out from the day I arrived, hoping to give it to the first local that took interest. This week, my friend Harish, who loves to translate for me and teach me Hindi, randomly picked up the Bible, opened it and declared, “First part- Old Rules; Second Part- New Rules, and then... finish.” I laughed at the translation of Old Testament and New Testament, and asked if he could translate certain parts for me. Unexpectedly, this translation contained a significant number of Sanskrit words mixed in with the Hindi, which fascinated Harish and made him all the more excited to tell me what it said. After a little bumbling around, he helped me find the passages for which I was searching. Here is what I tried, and the resulting translations (of which I was amazed at his ability to grasp the meaning of certain Christian concepts... I can't explain):

1.I John 1:9-If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

We are doing things that are bad. It's like those people always going and dancing and drinking and looking at the girls at the disco. But God is good and we are pleading pleading with God. Its like that.

2.Romans 8:1-Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

God will not be punishing people if the people are inside Jeshua. Its like that. Its like people that go and helping and giving and being nice- those are inside Jeshua (Harish volunteered that explanation!)

3.James 1:27-Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

If the child has no parents and also woman with husband that died, it is good for people to care for them. It is like rich people looking at poor people and saying, I am rich, you go away I am not staying near you, but not like that. They are helping people.

4.Ephesians 2:8-For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— [I wanted to know how he would define grace.]

If you believe then God will give you a gift. Its like when we are riding in rickshaw in Bandra and the people are coming and “sir, sir” [beggars] and you are reaching and giving. But it is God giving you a gift.

Even as I write this, I am floored by what he said. I don't think he believed any of it. I think he was just excited to translate. But, his ability to give examples and grasp the concepts humbled and encouraged me... God's Word is for all. I want to share these truths more fully with him, but it is really hard in this place. You can get in real trouble and lose close friends. I guess faith is believing that it is more than worth the risks. Nevertheless, I am trying to be prudent with how far I go each time, and this is by far the furthest I have gotten. I gawk at the bulk of variables involved in these conversations, which are bigger than my mind, and realize that nothing I say or do can change anything without God. Fortunately, He is a God of miracles, a God who speaks through His Word, and a God who answers prayer. And, just like dealing with the craziness of the monsoon, the key is in submitting.

Finally, and by no means is this a side-note, another operation brought a handful of perpetrators to justice and extracted sixteen more girls from a life of oppression. I will wait for press releases to discuss the details, as I am not certain which details I am permitted to disclose. Nevertheless, I wanted all of you to know how continuously we pursue these cases, and that work continues in spite of all of these surrounding occurrences.