Monday, February 27, 2012

Drive to Pushkar through Tonk, Nasirabad and Ajmer

2/27/12

Yesterday I had two brief but prodjctive conversations with Bishop Warris Masih of Rajasthan Diocese, who is based in Ajmer. He was very welcoming. I had previously been unable to reach him becaue he was in the UK on church business. He has promised to arrange church guides to show me around Nasirabad and Beawar in the next few days. I changed my itinerary in order to go directly to Ajmer for four days there, because there is a Diocesan meeting of presbyters (CNI’s specific name for ministers of word and sacrament) on the 28th and 29th of February, so that will give me a great opportunity to network a little  to put faces to names and prepare each other for my visits in the next 20 days to so. [ I am typing as we are driving and it is a rather wild because we are on a minor road that Bumpi has not driven in more than two years. I thought it was worth trying because hand writing is totally out of the question.] So today is an important day for me. It marks the beginning of the pilgrimage park of my visit to India. I will be stopping in Nasirabad (my grandmother’s first post as a teacher in India in 1915, the place of my grandparents’ marriage, my father’s birthplace and place of baptism. Dad is among those reading this blog!). Today I will be doing my own look around with the help of Bumpi  my Hindi-speaking friend and driver, before I take a guide in the next day or two. 

PS I arrived at my hotel in Pushkar after a meeting and talk with Bishop Warris in Ajmer. As it turned out there was insufficient time for my own scouting in Nasirabad today. I have been invited by Bishop Warris to preach in Jodhpur (one of the mission stations Grandfather was in charge of ) on March 11 in the morning service with an interpreter into Hindi. I was surprised and regard it as honor which I am glad to accept. I will be Udaipur church for this next Sunday, March 4 and will simply attend the English evening service there. 

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