Tuesday 24. february

We got up at 9 today in Narsapur, and didn't take a shower, because the bathroom was occupied by one of our stomach troubled companions. We had toast, cold and warm fried eggs, oranges and some red, transparent things without much taste. Some of us liked it, though. Especially Gjert Rune.

We're leaving at 10:30 for bible school, so optimistic Christopher, Rolf Daniel and I had to change the short pants with shirt and long trousers. But it's probably not even 30°C outside, so that's fair enough. Rolf Daniel is a bit unwell due to yesterday's stomach trouble and his three colllisions with the door this morning. Apart from that, we're doing fine. And hopefully, we'll get some more water during the day.

Now we've dedicated a new building for the bible school, the "Frustol Building". So now there's a sign on the wall outside the second floor, saying "Dedicated by..." etc. Cool. It's pretty hot outside, but the surroundings are beautiful. The place is situated by the river, with green grass and palm trees. The house where we stay, the "Holland's Wharf", is simple, but nice and clean. There are few insects, except for the ants that occupied Lars and Tone's bag.

Benjamin and his wife are excellent hosts, they are really examples in showing willingness to serve. Lunch was mainly rice and chicken, splendid food, and we had bananas and ice cream for dessert. And we've got some more water, wonderful.

We were at the school and played the drama after lunch, with all the kids as public. It was fun, but incredibly hot, we were streaming with perspiration. But the response was great. As usual, lots of the kids asked us for autographs and addresses afterwards. It took Sofia and I long to get away.

Now we're supposed to relax until 17:30, then we'll be off for village ministry. So I guess I'll have time to write another letter...

Yes, I wrote another letter. And then we had something to eat before we travelled for 45 minutes in a van to a village.

Smiling kids under a roof of palm leaves. Wow, what an experience! We sang and played in the car along the way. One of the Indian girls could really play the tamburin, so she took it over from me. When we arrived, we were seated along a table and were served some crackers and grapes. Suddenly, while we were sitting and pretending to be eating, the lights went out and after a few minutes the gas lamps were lighted. We wondered if we could play the drama now, without electricity. Perhaps we could play in the light from the gas lamps, with a battery driven cassette player, but we didn't have to. They were apparently used to loose the electricity at this time in the evening, and after 10 minutes the lights were back on.

So we moved over to the meeting place, an open space lit by neon lights, with a sound system unlike anything. But there was sound, and we played and the Indians we brought sang as heros, so we had a great time. The place was surrounded by palms and bushes, almost like jungle. In the corner of the field, there was a toilet of the hole-in-the-floor kind which I tried before we left.

Rolf Daniel tries to accompany the Indian girls on the guitar. After we had been singing for a while and I had done some video recording, Rolf Daniel preached while we changed clothes, and then he introduced the drama. Then we played, with a microphone close to the loudspeaker on our little tape recorder. We have probably never played to such poor music quality. There was an Indian who explained the piece as we played, but Rolf Daniel shushed him. Later we realized that maybe having someone to explain wasn't so bad all the same.

After playing the drama, Inger preached the gospel, Tove gave her witness, and Inger pulled the net, that is calling for people to be accept Jesus and be saved. Several people wanted to be saved, and then we prayed for other needs. Inger preached that Jesus is the answer to all problems, so we had a great expectancy to the Lord, that he should confirm his word with signs and wonders.

Our helper and interpreter, Isak, was a nice fellow who used to be a computer engineer, but was now working full time at the bible school.

We got back to Narsapur around 22:30, and we had some food before we went to bed at midnight. Tomorrow we're getting up at 7:30, and either I'll stay with Lars Erik and Rolf Daniel, or I'll go with the rest to another city. I'll check it up tomorrow morning. It would be nice to find a post office to post a letter and send some post cards.