Friday 20. February

We landed at 5 am this morning, Norwegian time. From now on we'll use local Indian time, which was 9:30 am when we landed. We got our luggage rather quickly, then we went outside and were taken from the international to the domestic airport by a van. It was an amazing ride, cars, bicycles, rickshaws and buses in a chaos beyond compare. The rule seemed to be "blow the horn and step on it". It was a miracle that all went well, I suppose there are a lot of accidents in India.

But we got there, in about 10 minutes, and we had enough time. As a matter of fact, we had plenty of time at the airport to sleep and eat crackers, several hours. I also bought some stationary and envelopes, and I mailed the air sickness bag. We got our luggage checked in, all our items, which had become 19 now that Lars Erik's bed sheets had lost their status as cabin luggage. Then we waited for another while, and I had a good sleep. The chairs were awful, but it helped.

We got easily through the security check, it wasn't very strict. I guess they looked for guns only. Takeoff was postponed till 16:00, the plane should have left at 15 and something. So we had to sit down for another while by the gate. It was very cold inside the airport. They must have been running the air condition on full blast, so we had to put on our jackets.

Then the plane left at 16:00 as it should. The flight lasted for about an hour, and we got a meal. We found Tone and our luggage at the airport in Hyderabad, then a couple of brothers took us to the hotel in the usual Indian manner; suppleness, frequent honking and inch-wide clearances. We stayed at the Welcomgroup Grand Kakatiya hotel, a rather luxurious place. There were lots of bell boys saying "Good day, Sir", "How do you do, Sir" and "Have a nice day, Sir". It was kind of solemn, but rather new to us.

The worshippers at the crusade. After showering and changing clothes in a hurry, order by rank and honour (first Rolf Daniel, then Christopher, then myself) we rushed off to the last night of the crusade which Benjamin arranged in the city. We were incredibly tired, at least some of us, we almost fell asleep several times during the sermon. Afterwards we should pray for the sick and other needs. We must have prayed for an hour or so, the lines had no ends. Praying was great and inspiring, but the routines were new to us. We had to pray fast to get time for everybody, while we wanted to spend time on everyone to make sure they were properly served.

I prayed and laid hands on a woman who was powerfully met by God, and she would have fell to the ground if I hadn't held her. But after a while, perhaps five minutes, I glanced helplessly at my interpreter, who merely stated that she was possessed. So I guess I have a few things to learn about spiritual things.

At the end, all the beggars came, lots of cute, dirty kids. I really wished I could give them a bath. We could not give them any money, though. If one gives to some of them, all the others will expect something, and in the worst case, they might get rather angry and perhaps beat you and rob you. Not the children of course, but the grown-ups.

After the service, we had dinner at the hotel, in an Afghan restaurant, and we had some really tasty food. Large nan breads, chicken and lamb. It wasn't too spicy either, even though the lamb was rather hot. A Malaysian pastor called Daniel ate with us, he had a church with about 850 members and he focused much on cell groups.

And now we're going to bed, and tomorrow we'll be sleeping till noon, I guess. There's no program till tomorrow afternoon, so we can sleep as long as we want to. Breakfast is served till 10, but who needs breakfast after such a dinner? And we do have our crackers, of course.