India

Well it’s an eventful year already and things are gearing up by the week. I will be leading the next India Mission trip in April for Every Nation Somerset West and there is something exciting lined up. This trip will be a two part mission of which the first part will see 4 of us (including Jorrie and Alret Van Der Walt – Empty Canvas Productions), travel North India for 10 days. I will have my guitar on my back, notebook in my hand and a laptop to update on what’s happening while presenting a planned 45 min documentary. I am pretty excited about seeing this amazing country again and not having to worry about filming it myself, but being able to take it in and present as best I can, the rawness of this place. The second part of the mission will be training the leaders of North India in Chandigarh.

There are so many mind blowing things about India like it’s complex history and cultural make-up and it’s influence on the rest of the world. Hinduism, Buddhism originated here… as did chess. We think South Africa is complex with 11 official languages while India’s constitution recognizes 28 “scheduled languages”, but more than 400 spoken languages exist. The Dalit or Untouchables are the bottom of the barrel in India’s caste system and are often discriminated against and persecuted; those with nothing. In fact they are not even in the caste system, but effectively outcastes and they number 170 million! Three times the population of South Africa live on the streets in India! And then India also have the largest film industry in the world, Bollywood, based in Mumbai.

The contrasts that exist in India is something un-known in my country and have a similarly contrasting effect on my emotions. You skip from horror to joy to sadness to fascination to horror to joy sometimes while walking down one street. It as a very spiritual place and although I don’t always sense spiritual things very quick the outworking of darkness is very evident on the every day life here, especially in a place like Varanasi (India’s most holy city), where I ended up in the hospital for 2 days. All I remember of those 2 days of fever and pain is the general sense that I wanted to get out and film and see and that I was missing out big time. But while I was fighting a bacterial infection in my hospital bed, Elize and Pierre went through very intense spiritual experiences at night sleeping on the bed next to me.

Still I want to go back and April feels too far away. But there is a lot of preparation and research to be done before we can go. I am researching India every chance I get and with the help of Gouttam Datta, the pastor of the Chandigarh church will be working on the planned route and what to film. We want to capture India in it’s broader sense, Indian culture and religion (only some of it) and the church in this context. We will possibly travel as far as the border of the Nepal at the foot of the Himalayas and definitely to Varanasi.

The plan is to make a 45 min documentary for the purpose of putting it in the shops to generate income for our India missions and to bless the church in North India. We will also make a shorter informative documentary for use within our church and also other Every Nation churches. One other new aspect to this mission is the filming budget which definitely pushes up the cost considerably, but then again what God wants He will make happen.

That’s a basic summary of this trip from 8 – 22 April. If any of you want to know more let me know.