Mark Chatham attends CWM Assembly in Chennai, India
Mark's Blog
Tuesday 30th June 2009 Posted at 09:38
Well, folks I'm back home in Glasgow! What an amazing time I had in India - the time seemed to completely fly by and I'm sitting here beginning to wonder if I've actually been and gone!
I'm sorry that I missed blogging for the last few days of my trip, however time was really against me and the programme was really full, so it was difficult to find the time to submit anything.
The whole experience was really amazing and it has been an eye-opener for me in terms of culture - it is completely different to our own. The welcome you receive from everywhere you go is always genuine and sincere, the Indian people cannot seem to do enough for you.
The thing that will probably stick with me the most is when I first arrived and seen women collecting water. I realised at that point that this isn't just something that you see on the TV or an idea that charities create to encourage you to give. It actually happens. I was seeing it with my own eyes. It was either this way or no way for these people.
India is indeed a land of contradictions; you simply need to venture outside our hotel's perimeter to see what I'm talking about. You could be forgiven for completely fogetting that you are in India at all when you are in the hotel. It was luxury in the real sense of the word. Only outside the gate, there are people sleeping on the ground along the road with nothing to cover them. No blankets. And this happens all over the country.
The insight I gained during my time in India will stay with me the rest of my life. It is a great place and I would definitely go back to experience more of 'life in India'.
I will post a full report of my time and more pictures from India in the coming weeks.
Friday 26th June 2009 Posted at 19:58 (local time)
Hi, just popping on to post some pictures - including those from the Cultural Evening on Wednesday night - I will update you at some point tomorrow on with the happenings of the past couple of days.
Thursday 25th June 2009 Posted at 18:02 (local time)
Yesterday the hotel’s Internet was down, so I couldn’t post anything to the blog :-( It appears to be up again now, so I will update you on the happenings of the past couple of days…
Tuesday’s worship followed the theme “Focus on Ecology” and was based on scripture from Genesis 9:7-17. Following this, we broke into our Bible Study groups to discuss the issue further by looking at questions such as “How do we respond to the claim of the ecologists who advocate that there is no return to the restoration of nature?” and “Identify an ecological issue in your region. Specify the response of your church to the issue.”
On Monday afternoon we heard good news stories from the East Asia and the Africa region, on Tuesday it was the turn of the Caribbean, Europe, Pacific and the South India regions to share with Assembly. Wayne Hawkins, Mission Enabler for CWM Europe, reported on behalf of the Europe region about church planting and emerging churches.
After a short interval, we convened into our Regional Sangati to discuss the nominations process among other business. This was a really interesting meeting and was a good opportunity for the European region to share in fellowship with each other – we could have done with more time in this meeting to discuss all the issues we wanted to!
Next on Tuesday’s agenda was the Youth and Gender Plenary which focused on the issue of Human Trafficking. This proved really hard hitting, and lots of discussion points were raised. We broke into small groups to talk about the issue further. The youth acted out various parts, from victims to perpetrators. I got the part of a European pimp, however I was assured that this was purely because I am a European youth, and thankfully not for any other reason! The sketch brought home to people the fact that human trafficking is a reality for many women, men and children and one which needs to be combated quickly. We, as Christians, need to make it our duty to stand up against practices such as these. The groups then briefly reported back to Assembly with their discussion points.
After this was the Indian Evening, and what an evening of entertainment it was! The sheer diversity of dance and was so great to see; there was everything from Bollywood to Ballet! This was a great opportunity to further experience the Indian culture and to fully embrace it. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the evening, so much so that it went on for about five hours! The last two hours of which the Assembly delegates were dancing their little legs off – Michael Heaney (General Secretary of the Congregational Federation ), in fact, being no exception, as you’ll see from the pictures below!
All in all, Tuesday was a good day of fellowship, exploring, sharing, and partying!
Wednesday 24th June Yesterday’s worship (Wednesday 24th) followed the theme Dalit and the displaced and was based on scripture from Isaiah 11:1-9. Dalits are outcasts in India and are involved in scavenging, cleaning of toilets etc. These people are not entertained in villages and so live outside the community, forming their own. They have separate wells and are not allowed to enter other villages or use facilities used by other castes. Dalit men and women are harassed and murdered.
After worship, we broke into our Bible Study groups to further discuss the situation the Dalits are faced with. Lots of points were raised here which we later briefly reported back to Assembly.
At 14:30, it was time for CWM Live, geared towards exploring mission in various different contexts. I attended three classes: “Training in Mission”, “Children in Mission” and “Cross cultural exchange programmes”. These provided an insight into the various different mission opportunities that exist, all supported by CWM. CWM’s Training in Mission (TIM) programme was especially interesting as previous participants were on hand to give their experience of the programme and each said it has changed their lives and perspectives. TIM is a youth leadership development programme where young Christians from CWM churches around the world come together to discover their own role in the mission of Christ's church through practical work and study. They spend five months in South Africa and five months in India. It was truly inspiring to hear their stories and how this has affected them and their relationship with God.
After some free time, we had our Cultural Evening at 20:00. What a laugh it was! We had entertainment from all over the world, which showcased the diversity of the CWM community. All six regions presented entertainment from their country and told of their traditions. From Scotland, myself and John Sanderson (from the United Reformed Church) MC’d the Europe region and explained the various parts of the Highland Traditional Dress. Many people had been wondering what the Sporran was, so I had the opportunity to dispel any rumours that it was simple a hanging handbag! I’ll upload pictures from the Cultural Evening tomorrow.
The youth delegates met up and had a few drinks, and so never went to bed until around 3am, so it proved a tad difficult getting out of bed this morning. But you’ll be pleased to hear we all made it to worship for 08:30, bright eyed and bushy tailed!
I will bring you an update on today’s events tomorrow.
Here are some pictures from the Indian Evening on Tuesday night:
Tuesday 23rd June 2009 Posted at 08:06 (local time)
Hi folks, just popping on quickly to post some pics from the last few days. Will update you on today's programme tomorrow morning. The 'Host Reception Indian Evening' is tonight, so look out for pics of that coming tomorrow!
Monday 22nd June 2009 Posted at 14:06 (local time)
Yesterday was great! I didn’t have a chance to blog yesterday as the day was jam-packed.
We allocated to different Churches and then traveled to join them for their worship! We arrived at the Church (my group went to CSI Immanuel Church, Ernakulam) and the sound of praise flowing out was amazing! Their worship and praise style is so lively and contemporary. We were each given a flower from the Church as a gift and given a very warm welcome by the Pastor and the members of the congregation. The Church was Tamil speaking, so although we never understood a great deal of what was being said, the Pastor did a good job of interpreting for us the most important parts. The sermon was conducted by one of our CWM delegates from Madagascar (Rev Dr Laurent Ramambason), and was translated from English line by line for the Tamil speaking congregation. We also had the opportunity to join the congregation for the sharing of the Lord’s Supper. You each go out to the front and kneel to receive your bread and wine. This was very symbolic and it gives you time to appreciate what you are actually doing and why you are doing it – whilst kneeling before God. Although we all come from different backgrounds, we are united in Christ and the language barrier did not stand in the way at all, we were encouraged to pray and praise in our own languages as God understands them all. The CWM delegates then presented our gifts to the Church Secretary who graciously received them on behalf of the congregation. We each spoke about our gift and what it symbolised. From Scotland, I presented a Quaich, a picture book showing a birds-eye view of Scotland and the Isles, and cause it’s always good to have something to munch on – some good old Scottish Shortbread! They laughed at that and seemed to appreciate the Shortbread more than anything – how is it that food always wins people over?!
After the Service, the pastor asked if somebody would like to go and speak to the youth fellowship who were meeting in the shed next door. Being the one of the Youth Delegates at Assembly, I said I would go. It was great to meet the young people who were singing praise songs when I went in. I was introduced and then one of the youth interpreted for those who don’t speak English. I was asked to speak about what the young Christians in Scotland and the UK do in our churches, youth groups and how we share fellowship. (Alan, I spoke about re:Fre5h, Fusion, eXplorers and our wee trips out to places – so I think I done okay!) After this, I was hurried back on to the bus full of people who were waiting on me…oops! We arrived back at the hotel in time for lunch.
After lunch, delegates had some free time before we met at 16:30 for our procession. This was a time for us to wear our National dress (yup, the time had come for me to don the kilt!), hold our Church flag and then process down the street next to the hotel. This was brilliant and so colourful, looked awesome. I was absolutely roasting in my kilt, not so much the kilt itself, but the shirt, waistcoat and jacket…. But the amount of compliments I received about how good the Scottish dress looked made it all worth it :-) So many people wanted my picture and one guy said “I wish I was Scottish so I could dress like that!”
After the procession was worship. This was led by one of the Pastors from a Church in South India and the sermon by Moderator, Rev Dr Roderick Hewitt. During this worship, we experienced two Indian dances which were really entertaining and sang some good praise songs.
Dinner was again great (man, you should see the food that is put on here…really is something else!). Pictures don’t do it justice, but I’ll try nonetheless.
The youth delegates met at 8pm for fellowship, and to talk about electing two new Youth Trustees for the CWM Board for the next three years. We also ended up doing some Hakka – we received our tuition from the delegate from New Zealand.
At about 11pm, it was back to my room as I was absolutely roasting in my kilt, I felt like my legs were literally cooking. You could be forgiven for thinking the smell of bacon was coming from me.
Today is the official start of the Assembly and round-table discussions and sharing have started to take place. I will let you know either later on tonight or tomorrow how these went.
Saturday 20th June 2009 Posted at 21:50 (local time)
Just a quickie tonight. I'm just back from the exposure visit where I visited a Centre for children infected and affected by HIV/Aids. It was a really interesting trip where we got to interact with the children and ask and answer questions. We received a gift from the children and they were all extremely excited at the prospect of giving us a gift. They literally ran at us and couldn't wait to present us with them. The children are helped with their education, health and livelihood. It was a three hour drive to the Centre and on the way we passed through many rural and urban areas, each one very unique. As people spot you on the bus, they smile, wave and get their friends attention too. You feel like a celebrity with the constant waving from the bus!
On the way to the Centre, we stopped at a Church for some refreshments (Coca-cola!) and the loo!
We experienced some more erratic driving today, I could never drive a car here...or I could but it would come back with a few more major dents than it left with! The only rule they have with regard to driving is: keep to the left. There are no traffic lights to follow, no rules on over-taking (you probably under-cut people more than anything else), nobody has priority, it is just a free-for-all! And I suppose in some ways, I kinda like that idea!
Tomorrow we're spending the whole day in the local Churches, for worship. I'm really looking forward to experiencing worship in a totally different way - I will let you know how it goes.
Here's a few pictures from yesterday and today:
Saturday 20th June 2009 Posted at 08:14 (local time)
Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!
Where do I start?! The journey to India went really well – all plain sailing (or plane flying!) Having to wait twice at two different airports (Heathrow and Bangalore) only made the day even longer – and a tad more tiring, but, alas, I have arrived!
I did manage to catch about two hours shut eye on the flight to India, after I watched a movie and exhausted the audio library! I also caught about an hour’s sleep when I arrived at the hotel.
The first thing that stuck me about India is how they appear to have no day-to-day rules whatsoever! Certainly no health and safety anyway! On the way down the road (and I’ll talk about the road in a sec), we could see trains going by with people literally hanging onto the sides and out of the doors – and they were absolutely heaving with people – I will never complain about rush hour in Glasgow again!
Also en route to the hotel, I experienced driving – the Indian way! It was mental. There is basically a road, the same width as one side of our motorways back home, so three lanes. Except here, there are no road markings or lanes, you just drive all over the place – and there is about five ‘lanes’ of traffic all weaving in and out to get from A to B as soon as! The sound of horns is constant, and I mean constant. You simply couldn’t drive here without making use as much use of it as you do the steering wheel. Here, however, it isn’t a bad thing for somebody to “peep” repeatedly at you – it simply means they are coming through – no buts or maybes.
The level of poverty as you travel through the streets is really harrowing: families and children rummaging through rubbish dumps, children playing on rail tracks, stray dogs wandering the streets, people just lying on piles of sand. I saw numerous women carrying buckets of water on their heads after collecting it from the communal tap – however far this is away from where they stay. It was then I realised that this actually happens every day – it isn’t just something you see on television – this is the reality for millions of people throughout the world.
I will say at this point, sorry for the delay in this blog post – I came to the Business Centre at the hotel to write this last night, but it was closed! Never knew it closed just after dinner, so I doubt if I will have time to write another tonight – if not it will be tomorrow morning.
We received an amazingly warm welcome to the hotel by the hotel staff – and they have been excellent since. They are so generous and will do everything for you they possibly can.
We are right on the sea front and the beaches are amazing, I lay on a hammock yesterday! Oh how great it was!
Today is the first of our exposure visits, I am visiting children who are affected with HIV/Aids, so I am really looking forward to meeting the kids and hearing what goes on to help those affected. I will let you know how it goes later on.
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