India: October 18-20

Destination: OM (Operation Mobilization)
Team: Aaron Bailey, Luke Greenaway, Tim Barley, Adam Burke
Duration: October 18-28, 2009
Assignment: Education, Encouragement, Evangelism, Adventure
Today’s Log: October 20

Hello everyone! This is Luke I am writing you from the flat (i.e. guest room) that Tim and I are sharing at the OM (Operation Mobilization) headquarters in Hyderabad, India. Our flight from SFO was amazing with lots of food, sleep and fellowship. After 16 hours of sitting next to each other on a plane, Adam, Tim, Aaron and I become very comfortable with one another and bonded as a team, ready to touch a new part of the world with God’s love and the message of Christ.

Our first stop was in Dubai where we had a 9 hour layover. We all enjoyed walking the streets, walking through a local mall, and driving to the Burj Dubai, currently the tallest building in the world (it’s still under construction and will be completed in December 2009). Our next stop was Hyderabad, India. We walked off the plane and the first thing we heard from the people and saw written on the signs was the saying “Glorious India.” We’d find out very soon if that was true or not!

Our driver from OM headquarters picked us up and we drove to the OM campus. Let me tell you--that was the drive of a life time! What a local in India considered a normal drive through town was more like a suicide mission for me! I heard more bus and car horn honking than all the horns combined I’ve heard in my lifetime. The drivers are so aggressive and they swerve around other cars and motorcycles, coming literally inches from smashing into each other. Fortunately for us our driver, Subrahamanyam (try and say that three times fast!) has been a cab driver in India for over 15 years took very good care of us.

When we arrived at the OM campus, we were taken to our flats. The room Tim and I share is about 15 feet from Aaron and Adam’s. We were soon greeted by a lady named Manju who is the guest relations coordinator (she will be taking care of us the whole time here). She brought us to meet the associate director of OM India, Raja, and we talked with him about many of the current projects and ministries of OM over some Indian tea (which Tim says it’s the best he’s ever tasted!). Then Manju took us to lunch where we ate a meal consisting of rice, noodles, meat, yogurt, banana, and some soup which was poured over rice—a real taste of India!

Manju then took us on a tour of the whole campus we met sooooo many people--there is a college, supply center, and three warehouses filled with Christian books and supplies that are distributed all over the country. We learned about how the Gospel is spread through Bibles, CDs, books, movies, and OM is involved with all these areas of production and distribution. It was amazing to see how the Body of Christ is working as a team so effectively in India.

We then had dinner and decided to go out into the street to see what the night life consisted of. Not much other than more traffic, strewn garbage, stray dogs and lots more people. We spoke to a few locals outside of the OM campus and they were all people interested in what we were doing in a place like Hyderabad. Aaron and I have been taking a lot of pics so we will see if we can get them up on the blog for you. Everyone is well and happy and tired and speaking of tired I’m actually going to bed right now.

Good night until next time…