Last month I wrote to you while on the first leg of a visit to Chennai in southern India. Our time there was followed by much joy and several special events in the villages on the Bhil field in central India, beginning with celebrations at the airport in Indore where a large group gathered to welcome us.
Later, we were warmly welcomed at a dinner by Bishop Laxman Maida of the Diocese of Bhopal and laden with garlands. I had a gold-coloured crown topped with a peacock feather placed on my head.
The new wing of the Jobat Christian School was dedicated in loving memory of PCC deaconess Mabel Booth. Funding was made possible through the Women's Missionary Society. The community is excited to have such a new school, which they proudly claim to be the most modern building in Jobat. In anticipation of its opening, fall enrolment increased by 50 students to 230, and I had the privilege of cutting the ribbon and unveiling the new school plaque.
A few days later, more than 3,000 people gathered in Amkhut to celebrate the acquittal and release of the prisoners who were imprisoned in January 2004 and not released until May 31, 2006. The men were jailed following an incident in Amkhut. The Christian community, including the school, was invaded and attacked by Hindu extremists from a bordering region. Several other villages were also attacked, with churches being damaged, homes of Christians being burned, people being beaten and one church burned. A Hindu man was also killed, and the Christians who admitted to owning a gun were imprisoned. About 15 men, plus the Amkhut minister and school principal, were jailed. The minister and principal were released on bail after a few months.
(More information on this incident is available in the International Ministries section on the PCC website, www.presbyterian.ca.)
Our tour continued with a visit to the school at Ratlam, where a new dual library/computer room was dedicated. This classroom was made possible in part by a gift from the Robertson Auxiliary WMS of Milton, Ont.; the balance came from the national Women's Missionary Society. This new classroom has helped meet government requirements for schools in this area.
Following our time in the Vindhya Sapura area, Rev. Ron Wallace and I travelled to Srinagar near Kashmir, to attend the Church of North India partners meeting. We had an opportunity to meet school children and a small group of Christians in a congregation in Srinagar. They shared their struggles and pain with us. Their building had been burned twice by terrorists. I was one of four in the group of partners to be presented with the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Medal by the All India Gandhian Worker's Society of New Delhi. It represents our joint concern for peace.
I give thanks to God for the release of the prisoners and the joy that they shared with us. The WMS is to be commended for its continuation of its “second mile giving” by making it possible for the new Jobat School and the Ratlam classroom to become a reality.
