Village Church

I wasn't at the church service in the village, so today's guest blogger is... Mr Ben Gee:

On Sunday a third of the team went to visit a village church linked to the Dehra Dun Vineyard. We went to a village called Mathurawala which was about an hours taxi drive from where we were staying. The church was lead by a guy called Sanjay who was one of the members of a leadership training team that was being run by Sunny.

We all met a lady called Sue Sheila from the Dehra Dun Vineyard who took us to the village. Sue Sheila was tiny, even compared to Sunny’s 6 year old daughter. She had a beaming smile and was quite a chatty sort.

The taxi ride to the village was a bit bumpy, but it was good to get out of the city and into the country side. The village was in the middle of open fields and had a great view of the mountains. We got to the church a bit before the service, and were able to greet those who arrived.

The service was conducted in 2 rooms simultaneously, the leader often standing in the doorway to be heard by both areas. There were about 30 or so people in the room we sat in, and some children and toddlers too. Everyone sat on the floor in close quarters, it was very homely.

The service was very simple, but powerful. Worship was done just using a drum, tambourine and a pair of finger symbols. All the songs were sung in Hindi but we had song books that gave the English phonetics so we could join in.

Ruth gave the sermon accompanied by Sue Sheila doing the translating. She spoke on the way relationships are paramount in the Christian walk, both with Jesus and with each other. While she spoke the rooms were silent and everyone listened intensely.

After the service Kevin started showing the kids some balloons we had brought with us. They were all very excited (and so was Kevin). We all had a laugh with making the balloons screech, zoom around when half inflated and batting them round – even the kids who innocently became balloon targets had smiles on their faces.

It was a real eye opener for me, seeing that even though they did not have the facilities or equipment of home, they were still able to come together and experience Gods presence in such a real way.