Thursday morning we had a bit of a sleep in, not meeting until 9:00. What a luxury! We met in the morning in Larry and Myra’s room for prayer, worship and encouraging each other with some things that we had noticed particularly up to that point. It was nice to have a slice of time to rest and refresh.
We were met by one of the OM pastors who graciously agreed to be our tour guide for the day. We started out at Victoria Palace. It was built for (you guessed it) Queen Victoria and it was a lovely building that attested to India’s British influence. Inside was a museum and gallery. We didn’t spend an overly long time there but it was really nice to get a bit of the history of Calcutta and the surrounding area.
We went to (cough of embarrassment) Dominos for lunch. And then it was on to a ferry to get a view of the Ganges from the river itself. We were lucky enough to get to go past the famous cremation site. It was incredible to see the river and watch people wash their laundry, themselves, their dishes in the dirty, disgusting, swirling water.
Once the ferry dropped us off we went to the slum that OM is working in to meet the women’s self-help group that was meeting in the evening. We had a wonderful interaction with the ladies and Bonnie had the opportunity to share her testimony with them. It was a neat view into the work that OM is doing and also a great chance for them to hear some solid gospel truth from someone other than their pastors. Most of the women still ascribe to the Hindu faith and so it was amazing to be able to have the space to share. We packed probably 80 people into an 18x12 room. Squishy!
After the ladies went off to their various homes and jobs some of the youth that the pastors work with came and we were able to lay hands on them and pray for them. They shared that they have been meeting nightly to study the Bible together and seek the Lord. It was beautiful to meet other young people with such strong faith and conviction.
Finally, the pastor mentioned that his mother was in great pain in her joints and that her mind has been clouded for some time, since his father died. He asked if we would pray for her and said that he was sure that she would be healed. She came and sat in the middle of our group and some of our number prayed out. It was extremely special to be able to pray for someone close to the pastor and to hear the faith he had that the Lord would use us to heal his Mom.
By that time it was getting late and so we headed back to the hotel.
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