Nandilal

We kept Mike and Rob busy for the week.  There were lots of people wanting to know all kinds of things.   The Woodstock students would get around Rob and throw lots of questions at him.  Mike encouraged us with his words of wisdom.  It was an amazing time.

Chandra was also busy.  The most important thing for him was to share his new life with his friends.  He loved his labouring job because he loved the men he was working with.  A young man, Nandilal,  was one of them.  He was Nepalese but had never lived in Nepal.  He was born in a small village in Himachal Pradesh, near the town of Solan.

Nandilal was the first of six children.  Scattered in between the surviving siblings were 5 miscarriages.  Their house was small and the walk to anywhere was kilometres away.  There was no electricity and the toilet was as far as the eye could see; anywhere you couldn’t be seen.  Even if you were, it was part of life.  No big deal.  A landlord owned the house they lived in.  They worked his land and paid for their rent that way.  They mainly grew tomatoes.  The amount of cash they were given was minimal but they were grateful for the roof above their heads.

It wasn’t long before Nandilal came with Chandra to meet us.  He had already put his faith in Jesus and wanted to meet Chandra’s new family.  He was a simple, lovely man with a big smile.  He had been talking with Chandra about his family in the village.  They had never heard about Jesus.  Chandra didn’t hesitate.  Within a few weeks they were making their way to Himachal.

Chandra was introduced to Nandilal’s younger siblings, Ravinder, Amar, Bhagat, Raju and his beautiful sister, Champa.  They all sat for hours talking about Jesus and what he had done in their lives.  There were lots of questions and plenty of debate about this new “God” they had never heard of.

By the time Chandra got back to Mussoorie, he was in love.  He couldn’t stop talking about Nandilal’s beautiful sister, Champa.  The only problem was that she was the one who argued the most about Jesus.  She didn’t believe what she was hearing.  We encouraged him to write to her and to see what happened.

A few months later they went on another trip.  Chandra let her know how he felt, but told her it wouldn’t work if she weren’t a believer.  She didn’t find him at all attractive and made fun of him with her family.   There was a lot more discussion and some family members put their faith in Jesus.

Chandra and Champa

Soon after that trip, Chandra got the letter he had been waiting for.   It was from Champa.  “Now that I know the love of Jesus, I know I can also love you.”  With that was an invitation to talk to her parents.  Chandra didn’t waste any time.  Before we knew it they were engaged and we were planning their wedding in Mussoorie.

Aman

It was winter and we were waiting to experience the first snowfall.  Our friends had told us all about it.  We were excited to see Mussoorie covered in white.  By early October we were already freezing cold.  The “bukhari-wala” came and installed a round steel pot-bellied oven in our lounge, called a bukhari.  Electric heaters were out of the question with our fluctuating electricity supply.   He bashed a hole in our wall for the chimney and filled in the gaps with cardboard and plywood.  We filled the back of our jeep with chopped wood from the bazaar and put it in our stairwell.  The clothesline from our first monsoon was still on the ceiling and there were clothes hanging all over it.  The bukhari heated up the lounge but the rest of the house stayed ice cold.  The thin steel got so hot that it glowed red which made us feel even warmer.

I really wasn’t prepared for how cold it got.  Our cold marble floors didn’t help.  A few weeks into winter I got chilblains in my toes.  They swelled up to twice their size and they were a very pretty purplish-pink; like small pork sausages.  My socks were too tight so I had to wear Tony’s big rugby socks.  I couldn’t wear my shoes either so I hobbled around in Tony’s sandals.  It was so painful.  When the sun came out I sat on the roof hoping to thaw them out.

One freezing cold night Tony and I were invited to someone’s house for a meal.  For some reason our house was full of people.  Some were spending the night with us on their way out of Mussoorie and others were there to say goodbye to them.  There were bodies everywhere.  The bukhari was firing bright keeping everyone warm in the lounge.  As we walked into our carport we noticed a young Nepali boy huddled in the corner, right near the jeep.  He had a thin shawl covering his head and that was it.  He was shivering cold.  We couldn’t understand what he was saying but he made it clear he didn’t want money or food.  He wanted a job.  We asked him if he would like to go upstairs and he said no.

We had a lovely meal and drove back home.  He was still there.  We insisted that he come inside to get something to eat.  He was shy but happy to be in a warm room with lots of friendly people.  He heard stories about Jesus from different people who could speak his language.  There was no space for him to sleep in the house so we gave him some blankets and he spent the night in the stairwell.

The next day was Sunday and he wanted to come to the meeting.  He sat and watched, convinced that everyone was worshipping the overhead projector.  He also thought Tony was the guru because he was leading the worship and people were facing him.  Chandra had a long chat with him and he said he wanted to give his life to Jesus.

Aman had lost his brother in Nepal.  Someone had told him he was working as a labourer in Mussoorie and he had come to find him.  He had walked many kilometres.  He didn’t find his brother but he found shelter under the right house and his life was forever changed.

Alison was 20 and had quite a story to tell.  She wanted to be in India and help us in whatever way we needed help.   She moved in with us until she found her own place and  became my friend and little sister.   We really needed help with our music files and she played keyboard and loved to worship.  Tony appreciated her being the second member of our worship team.

When she was writing to us, she sent a photo of herself.  Jason was staying with us for a few days so I showed it to him.  He smiled and said, “Oh, maybe I should stay a little bit longer.”   On the first Sunday Ali was with us, I saw them talking to each other and I nudged Tony.   We knew something was going to happen.  Jason left soon after that.  A few days later, Ali and I were chatting and I casually asked her what she thought of him.  She calmly replied that he was “a nice guy, nothing more than that.”   I was sitting up on the rock the next day and Ali came up and sat next to me.  It looked as if she had been crying all night.  Her first words were, “Lin, I lied to you and I am so sorry.”  I couldn’t even imagine what she meant.  Then it all came out.   I found it all so funny.

She told me that a year earlier, Dudley Reed had shown the slides of his trip to India in her church.  There was a slide of Jason.  The minute she saw it, God told her he would be her husband.  She didn’t tell anyone about it.  When Jason left she didn’t know how or when she would see him again.

Letters from Ireland started arriving but Jason wasn’t showing any signs of commitment.  Ali needed to know what was going on.  Tony gave him a call and asked him what he was thinking and revved him up a bit.  He was just being cautious; very cautious.  Things started moving a bit and we were relieved that he was at least making some moves.

She moved into a little flat up the road from us.  It was just four steps up off the road.  The only place she had to hang her washing up was on the railing on her little veranda.  She would often find cows walking down the road with her underwear in their mouths.

One evening Ali and I were in our kitchen making tea.  It was Diwali and we were commenting about how nice and quiet it was at our place.  All the fireworks were going off higher up the mountain.  As I touched the switch on the kettle, someone threw a huge “bomb” under our house.  It was so loud.  We jumped off the ground and screamed and screamed.  We looked at each other as if we were surprised to still be alive.  We collapsed on the kitchen floor and laughed until we thought we would die.