The Dennis Life

Friday, Good Friday, or should I say GOD Friday. Day 5.

Historically, this is the day that Christ was crucified and entombed; the Passover Lamb, the Sacrificial Lamb, the Lamb of God, the Promise and Fulfillment of scripture. We are assured He will Rise Again in three days, and Rebuild the Temple, the Redemption of all mankind!! As always, God is Good for His Promises!!! It’s not just about the Cross and what it represents, but about Mercy and Grace and Forgiveness and Resurrection and the Living God on the other side of the cross; the Promise of Christ likeness, of being and walking like Him. OK, I’m preaching again but serious as Life itself. HE IS RISEN, and He Lives in each one of us; a Real, Living God Who Desires to Lift each one of us up into the Heavenlies and Dwell with Him…

Day 5 in India, a long way from home, and yet so close to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We love Him, we adore Him, we honor His Name!!

OK, this sounds totally materialistic from what I just said, but this is THE shopping day. I admit it, I’m human, I’m fleshly, I fall. Now look guys, I mean this with all honor and respect, and I know you were there to make sure we stayed together as a group and that we were safe. And I mean this sincerely, I really appreciate this because we’re in a distant land and we’re far from home, but come on! We’re girls, set loose in the market, and we’re ready to shop!!!

And shop we did…

We met at yet another hotel, and it was fine, near the Mumbai Gateway of India, the port opening to the land of India. LaMar and the guys had met with the senior pastor and founder of New Life Fellowship in India, and although he had just gone through surgery and was recovering quietly, I heard Sion say to Matt (forgive me for overhearing), “Glory!” I’ll take that as a positive and that this man who started the entire New Life Fellowship body in Mumbai, although recovering, was still at the top of his spiritual game… So we gather the rest of our group, and off we go to the Bandhra (forgive my spelling if it’s wrong) marketplace.

It is hot today!! And humid!!! Some of us had gotten a leisurely start on the day and just had breakfast, but some of the folks had been at it all morning and they were ready for lunch. So some of us ate, at a place they called All Stir Fry (they call it Chinese food, but it was much more like Mongolian BBQ), and some of us drank Coca Colas with big, cold, chunks of ICE!! Yeah, it was hot, and the iced cokes tasted really good. But, we encountered misfortune in a glass…starting that day, some of us started to encounter Deli Beli, you know, Montezuma’s Revenge (OK, please forgive me, I’m being really base here, the Tijuana Trots; let’s just call it what it really was). Unfortunately, as the week pressed on (we’re not sure if it was from the accumulation of everyday food, or the cokes some of us drank later at McDonald’s; you heard me correctly, there was a McDonald’s (just so you know I’m telling the truth here) smack dab in the middle of our market street!), some of us suffered from Deli Beli, and it was not fun. But here’s the kicker…

Who really cared! We were in India, we were shopping, and there were more spiritual wonders to come. What more could you want out of life!!! We’re people on a different kind of mission; a shopping mission, and we’re taking presents home to the people we love. We want to give them a taste of India, a reminder of our experience, a little piece of a culture unlike our own__real people with real lives__halfway ‘round the globe; it’s hard to imagine, but we’re here, and we’re shopping!!! I have to admit, although just like home, and the guys were, I have to say it, patiently tapping their feet, they were very tolerant with us gals.

First we started off at Amar Gems and Crafts, really, really beautiful hand-crafted jewelry made of precious and semi-precious stones, at a reasonable price… But it wasn’t until we reached the scarf store, with Rachel as our faithful haggler, that the buying fever began. You have never seen such beautiful silks and georgettes and colors and patterns and textures, and the Saris, and well…..it was exhausting, yet satisfying. How can you not come away with half a dozen more when the going price is so reasonable. We all came home with beautiful, colorful reminders and presents for our loved ones and friends; I can‘t wait to share with my family and the girls back home in my life group. A few more stops at various market stalls and we’re on our way to the leather district.

Now the guys really got excited about that, more so than jewelry, scarves and broom skirts; I just don’t understand. But we weren’t ending our shopping spree until we’d exhausted rows of leather stores on either side of the street. If I’d been in the mood to shop for purses, I would have been in trouble…as it is, I bought a cute, little, tiny, sequined purse that screams of India (and my sister Gail laughed and carried on about that when I returned home with it on my arm, right off the plane__it’s a family joke that I love little purses, of all kinds, and her daughter Heather has taken after me; it’s in our genes, what can I say!!?!)…

So I mean, we’ve spent all day shopping! I have to admit, the guys hung in there and had just as much shopping endurance as the girls. That’s pretty amazing.We arrive back at the hotel around 6:30pm. Alison, Cheri and I say goodbye to the guys and go up to our room. We’re hot and dewy (I think that’s the way we say it in the southern U.S.) from the day and decide to primp and freshen up for dinner. We’ve decided to try something different than Indian fare, and think we’ll try the Chinese restaurant downstairs in the hotel. Apparently, Chinese food in India is akin to Mexican food in California; a good thing.

Before I forget, on our way to and from every venue and the market today, we are picture taking fools. We know better now than to try and dig our cameras out of our purses or pockets. We have them at the ready, every time we get in the car, they’re up and aimed. I’m determined to snap a picture of a “sacred cow.” I see several, but the car is moving too quickly and I often get the cow’s blurred, sacred behind! Delete that one and wait for the next opportunity. But what I’m most interested in is elephants! Two different members of our groups have actually witnessed elephants with riders in traffic lanes!! Buddy actually saw (and I believe him because he’s Reverend Buddy) a guy come up to and stop at a traffic light like the rest of the traffic, ON HIS ELEPHANT (I actually found myself saying, “Please Lord, bring me some sacred cows and elephants.” Trite, I know, but I want a picture of that!!!) National Geographic here I come…

Before I share tonight’s experience, I need to recall the loveliness of the hot showers in our clean, air conditioned, hotel room. Every morning, more fragrances of India filled my senses. The shower had containers of shampoo, conditioner and body shampoo that had faint essences of sandalwood and musk. And each morning as I drew back the shower curtain, I was greeted by a lovely lithograph of wild and colorful tulips. Truly surreal; the starkness, windiness, grayness, and dustiness of the outdoors, against the cleanliness, scent-fullness, stillness, and prettifulness (Spencer’s concocted word), of our hotel bathroom. Green marbles and richly colored pecan-colored woods, and white basins. And after the shower, lathered with Aryuvedic lotions and powders provided by the hotel. Aryuvedic potions, for those who don’t know, are like Bath and Body shops back home that provide Aromatherapy creams and perfumes to sooth our senses. Like I’ve said before, a land of contrasts!

So freshened and relaxed and ready for dinner the gals and I head down to dinner. And Cheri, true to her fun-loving form, wraps one of the scarves she bought today around her head turban style, and off we go. We enjoyed a lovely, quiet, really delicious dinner. That was great, but the best part was the sweet, heartfelt encounter we had with our waiter. As we engaged him in conversation, we found ourselves having a “real,” personal moment. He began talking about his home country, and how it wasn’t true fellowship and sharing until you sit together and use your hands to share and eat the food around the table. He expressed that sharing a meal was truly fulfilled when you eat the foods of your homeland, lovingly prepared by the hands of your family, with your hands while sitting around the table with the people you love. He asked how long we were there for and wished we had been there longer, and he invited us to his house to eat hand-prepared, delicious Indian food with he and his mother and father. What a sweet, sweet young man. We told him how much we appreciated his offer and the rest of our meal was served by a new friend and not just a distant, native from another land. The people are so vulnerable and unrestricted by personal boundaries.

As if the day were not full enough, we arrived back at our room and companionably, just like little girls in front of the Christmas tree, took it in turns and shared everything we’d purchased that day at the market. We oo’d and ah’d over each other’s goods talking about who we might or might not give them to (depending on whether we were willing to part with them or not).

Self-satisfied, and talking about maybe one more excursion to the Bandhra market tomorrow, we drifted off to sleep…peaceful…quiet…content…God is so, soooo Good, and we shopped ‘til we dropped; that’s what I’m talking about…