Wedding, Cricket, American Idol

That pretty much wraps up my day yesterday. I woke with Santhosh and Emrys early to leave for a wedding in a town about 1 hour away. The new doctor here on campus, actually he has been here for 1 year but new to me, was celebrating his son’s wedding. It was an experience for me. My first Christian Indian wedding. It was a Lutheran wedding so it was high on pomp and circumstance. However there were several village customs that are very animistic or even Hinduistic that I saw. Which is odd. Emrys told me the Lutheran missionaries only paid attention to the pantheon of gods here when they came – and not the customs, seasons and other things.

What is odd is that I am reading Galatians this summer here, and Paul mentions there (and also in Ephesians and Colossians) about the “Elemental Spirits of the world”. Now many interpretations of this phrase (1) the elementary parts of faith that should lead to the “high school” of faith in Jesus the Messiah, (2) Man made seasons and celebrations according to the solar clock in the sky, moon, stars, etc, (3) Demonically influenced celebrations, philosophies, and religious practices keeping one only elementary in his/her faith. No matter what Paul means, he does link these to simple practices that are very superstitious at the outlook. Special times, seasons, days, hours, numbers, rocks, jewels, spices…etc. And for Lutherans to be so gun-ho about Romans and Galatians… I would think that wouldn’t be the case.

We had a filling lunch before leaving the wedding. Some good conversation back to the Hospital Campus. And I assumed a role on the couch and watch England and West Indies cricket yesterday. England was 26 for 4 wickets (wickets are like an out, you get 10 before sides change). 26 is awful. Usually a good match is 126-4. But they staying in there with one person racking up 146 runs. (usually 40-60 runs is a good showing). England ended up 377 for the first inning. And they were able to get West Indies out with around 160 runs to forced them to stay on batting to begin the second inning (two innings for a 5 day match). So it was entertaining.

Took a quick nap, and watched the “Rock n Roll” American Idol night. I liked it much more than last week. I guess everyone is behind Adam. But I am pulling for Allison. However I am sure that Adam will get it (maturity factor for a career) and Allison will probably release an Album in 18-24 months when she is older. Anyway. I enjoyed both of their songs and the duet.

And then sweet sleep last night.
Easy day. Hot day. But relaxing.
Tomorrow we have a “Days Meeting” hosted here. Just like it says – Christians from area villages are meeting here for a whole day of teaching, singing and fellowship. This way a small fellowship of 8 people in a village of 100 people, can gain encouragement from being around 80-120 other Christians of the same people group in different areas of the country side. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Prayers: Continue to pray for Kathryn’s hands. And if you haven’t checked out about McKStellan… you better today! Please join the prayer network for him also.

Praises: Today was filled with drama in the office because of a “mentor nurse” that we only learned of on Tuesday that was suppose to arrive tonight. At least the stress didn’t ruin our evening as a family. This I am glad about.

Thanks again for reading my words. And for your thoughts.