We spent the night in the Orchid hotel when we arrived in Mumbai. It was very nice. The Texas team wanted to stay close to the airport since we got in at 2am and our flight to Bhuj left at 1pm.  As you can see from the picture, it was better than what we saw on many family road trips.

You know the old joke about the pool being on the roof and freshmen need to buy a special pass to get access? Well, that’s where the pool was at the Orchid. So I took a look.

This was an actual Indian. No actually it was a giant boxing dummy. It gave you the “thumbs up” when you punched it hard enough to drop his jaw.

Secret, the women’s deodorant did some test marketing here in Mumbai. It was apparently a combination of the “strong enough for a man” campaign and “sure” campaign.

From the roof of the Orchid where they have opulent statues and cool blue water with old British people swimming, you could see both sides of the spectrum.

We flew to Bhuj (pronounced similar to booze), a small military airport where we met with our peeps and tied our junk to the thing. I have to admit…I had my doubts about the tall bag on the right staying on. I tried to put my suitcase in the inside, but I got waylaid by a “helper” who lifted it to the roof for me.

We all had to wait for the train to pass. So I unashamedly took these guys picture. Then I waved so to seem friendly.

 
This is what the Dallas team came for. They are celebrating their years of work with the Kutch people. We helped set up a little…most of these chairs filled up.

All the gringos ran out side cuz we heard a cow was giving birth. I guess that is when an old guy dies or another god is born or something. So, we all wanted to get pictures of the divine deluge. We weren’t in time though, the wondering deity moseyed off…so we watched this batter play cricket with some boys half his size.

The conference has been really cool to see all the people excited about a common task. It is hard to comprehend that these people are setting out to do something no one has ever done. Equally as fascinating is the fact that there are thousands of these situations that need people to attempt.

Last night I had two strange dreams. I will be interested to see if I have more tonight.

This is my last night in the country. Tomorrow we’re working the conference then jumping on the plane to India. It will be a very long trip.

I love my fiancee.

Here are my notes from the conference so far:

Donald Miller
If you just spent time with God, your problems would either go away or seem insignificant.

3 dominant influences on the church in America (not bad things, except Darwin)
1. Free market economy (commercialization)
2. The enlightenment / Age of reason / Darwinism
3. The Bible

When the people were illiterate, the buildings told the story (built in the shape of a cross).

The age of reason summarizes down to truth and thus the churches started looking like classrooms.

During the industrial revolution and Emerson motivated workers to join the corporate family, churches morphed into conference centers. They “helped you be profitable for the Kingdom”. Yet, in business, if you aren’t profitable you are fired.

Now, our culture is focused on entertainment, and thus our churches look like theaters.

Now, sales tries to convince you that you are unhappy and that buying their thingy, you’ll become happy and people will like you. So, if our presentation of the Gospel looks like a commercial, where Jesus will make unhappy people happy, they will be let down just like every product will let you down.

Kimbell
The main thing I pulled away from Kimbell’s message was a strong conviction of how thoroughly I have built a Christian bubble around my life. So many non-Christians say they don’t know any Christians and I am doing very little to change that.

Todd Phillips
For 1800 there was no debate in the Church about the authenticity of the Bible. One hundred and thirty ago some guy questioned whether or not two authors wrote Deuteronomy. That led to higher criticism of the Bible which led to liberal theology. So, liberal churches pulled away from the Gospel, but liked the social teachings of Jesus. They thought social responsibility and no Gospel. The conservative church reacted and preached all Gospel and no social responsibility. And thus the Gospel was divorced from the socially responsible teachings in the Bible (2000 verses).

Feeling bad about the situation the poor are in is not compassion. It is not compassion until you feel bad enough to do something about it.

Why did God destroy Sodom? –> Ezekiel 16:49 (very, very jaw-dropping)

The individuality of American culture has turned the Bible into a self help book, instead of a call to selflessly serve the poor.

This is a great picture because the girls did all the work setting up the booth, but I set my camera up with a 10 second delay and then ran into the frame to look like I was working when Debbie (the ghostly blur) says to me, “oh we don’t need that” referring to the thing I was acting like I was working with, and Jennifer laughing at me posing.

This church is big. I mean Arthur Dent sorta got it by the end about how big space is, This church fills up most of that space. This is where the thing we’re doing is. That descriptive description leads me perfectly into my joke….The church had a millions of handicapped parking spaces and it’s an Assembly’s of God church. So I was like, they must not believe in healing at this church to have so many handicapped spaces.

The Connection Cafe where the young adults come to…connect to us.

The church had a laser tag arena on the campus where Donald Miller spoke. He spoke very well and challenged me regarding my personal devotion to God. I’ll have to put my notes up another time.

(It wasn’t really a laser tag place, but doesn’t it look like it could be?)

The last speaker looked like John Travolta. He spoke of the many young people who like Jesus, but hate the church.

Random things:

- I had the responsibility of moving the toilet paper roll thing to a new roll. There were four total and two of them, including the one currently exposed, were empty. So I moved the thing that made the fresh one come down.

- I acted like a little kid and tried to race up the stairs in front of everyone and tripped up and stumbled to the top…amazingly still making it first.

- I thought many times how much I would have loved it if Millie could have been here with us.

It was kind of chilly today around 50F and I think it will be colder tomorrow.

The bed I slept in at the nice couple’s house took up about 45% of the room. It was normal as far as length and width, but the height, whooowee, it was maybe three feet tall. So when I say 45% of the room, I mean 45% of the total room’s volume. I was afraid I’d sit up in the middle of the night and get one of the fan blades lodged in my skull.

I’ve spent the whole day at The Office working on paper work, meeting people and completing my first expense report. They gave me the green light (you would think an international organization would have a cooler word for it)…lets say varuush…They gave me the varuush to begin working which is I’m agreeable to, because that means I get to put money more money under my mattress and maybe get the lumbar support I need.

Jennifer comes in about 30 minutes. She’s real fun, so I’m looking forward to her arrival. Maybe, now that I’m here, I can give Jennifer the varuush.

Thoughts for today:
- maybe I should get a travel keyboard for my palm, so it’d be easier to keep a journal during the trip.
- maybe I should get a way to power my palm on the trip
- I need to get a deck of cards to teach the Indian children Texas Hold’em and the 2 days we’ll be in the sky.
- I hope I don’t hit my head on the fan blades.
- I can’t believe they have Taco Cabana here! (this was a big thought in my mind around lunch)

It is 1 am and the plane leaves at noon. I don’t have a suit case yet but I think I know what I’ll put in one. I fly to Orlando for a conf. then to India, then to C. Asia, then back home on March 10th. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.