SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE 30th September, 2001.

Friday 1 September 9:30 a.m. Cork Airport. I have to wait for the Aer Lingus check in to open in the brand new terminal building. How different from Belfast docks in 1840 as James and Mary Glasgow, waited for a favourable wind to get to Liverpool and then to Bombay. A clear bright day and I am pleased that the plane flies almost directly over Aghada Church (where the congregation have buoyed me up by their offering of 870 Euro for the church in Gujarat). Before approaching Heathrow we take a tour over South Central London. I meet with Chris MacWan, part time airport chaplain and church worker with Gujaratis in the Wembley area near the airport. He and I then meet the rest of the team off a Belfast flight and we have a time of prayer with him in the airport chapel. He teaches us some Gujarati phrases.

Our flight to Ahmedabad is 90 minutes late departing. We are struck by the friendly pleasant attitude of the flight attendants and take our first taste of Indian food, not bad and much less bland than what you usually get in flight. I watch a couple of 'Bollywood' videos, real tear jerkers such as two friends, one blind, one deaf who fall in love with two sisters. These reject their love until they realise, having been rescued from a villain, that it is they who were deaf and blind to love.

Satruday 2 September We land about 2 hours late around noon and are greeted and garlanded by the Bishop and some pastors and diocesan staff. They take us to the Catholic centre where most of the team are to stay, while the four 'vicars' will be the guests of the Bishop. Fr Cedric greets us. He is going to S Africa in a few days to take part in the centenary celebrations of Gandhi's protest over pass cards. (Gandhi was a native of Gujarat and his famous 'salt march' took place there. We don't manage to get to his ashram, place of meditation, but maybe next time ...) We have lunch in a restaurant and most of us eat Indian although Dr Ingrid gets and enjoys a cheese sandwich.

Initial impressions of India: like living in a sauna (it actually got worse in the second week); the might is right principle of driving, horns going constantly but not angrily, sacred cows giving way to none; Hindu processions, smells, beautiful flower garlands, friendly shop keepers and passers by, many persistent beggars.

In a menswear department we are offered chilled bottled water and Coke. I buy a ready made light grey suit which just needs the arms lengthened. They say it will be ready in 24 hours. Others buy bolts of cloth which are taken to the Bishop's tailor for measuring up.

The Bishop and his family are very pleasant. His home is in the old IP ('Irish Presbyterian') Mission compound in Ellisbridge, quite a prestigious area. The campus includes diocesan office, IP Mission Trust office, Bible Society office and book room, CNI (Church of North India) Ellisbridge church, and Gujarat United Seminary for Theology (GUST). There is near the Bishop's house a vacant and dilapidated bungalow which we were told is for the use of visitors from Ireland. A pity that for whatever reason it was not available for our team, as the distance between the Catholic centre and Ellisbridge (at least 20? minutes) created difficulties.

Sunday 3 September A long but good day. Ingrid, Jonny, Rebecca and I went to CNI Nadiad about (40 mins drive) with Ruben Christie, Diocesan treasurer as interpreter. Ruben has retired from the postal service. He spoke warmly about Alan and Frances Martin whom he had known as a young man. Once I got used to it, I enjoyed the rhythm of preaching through an interpreter. It gives you time to think what you should say next and it also challenges you to make your English clear for the interpreters who managed very well for over 95% of the time. I preached a sermon I had brought on the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6). It turned out to be the only one of the dozen or so scripts I had brought that I used. (It can be sourced if you want on Trinity Presbyterian Church Cork website.) A specific prayer request I had made to be able to connect to the situation in preaching was answered as I seemed to get just the right scripture passages (including Numbers 6) for the situations we met, even if it meant scribbling some notes in the back of the bus. I think the other 'collars' found the same.

CNI Nadiad is quite a large fairly modern building with seats for 200. When we arrived the service had already started; as in Cork the attendance was quite sparse, but as in Cork the numbers increased as time went by. In the end we had about 100 (more than in Cork). The singing was lively, with drums and a flute, not the most lively of the trip but certainly joyful and I had a sense of welcome and what preachers call 'good listening'. We began to learn the flexibility needed of missionaries as they asked us for a song in the service. So three of us did our best with a hastily remembered 'Give me oil in my lamp' while Jonny, the most musical of us, stuck to his video camera (thanks a bunch).

We had lunch in a restaurant, where Jonny taught me a good way to cope with spicy Indian soup: keep shovelling it in, don't linger between spoonfuls or your throat will be repeatedly scorched. In the afternoon we visited two country churches, Montgomerypur and Haripur, originally Christian settlements built by missionaries to shelter converts who were being ostracised by their Hindu families. We saw flood damage for the first time. In Mongomerypur, the back room of a cottage was open to the elements. The pastor prayed fervently for a girl suffering fever. We were told she was not seriously ill but we got the impression that the pastor's help was sought more than any doctor's, which might have been hard to find and difficult to pay for. To get to Haripur we ran out of road, washed away by floods and we transferred to a motor cycle rickshaw, ordered up by mobile phone, I suspect. I got to sit beside the driver which was a scary privilege. After about half a mile, we came to a walking track and walked another quarter of a mile in the welcome shade of hedgerows, to a cottage where we enjoyed a rest on plastic chairs in the shade. Very discreetly the women were taken off in one direction and the men in another to go to the 'bathroom' . Then they started to ring a church bell and I realised that there was a little church about the size of a garage at one end of the cottage outside which we were sitting. In a few minutes about 20 people materialised from the countryside. I read from Psalm 46 about God our help in time of trouble and prayed for those recovering from the floods. (Some of the money we have brought will go towards helping with repairs).

The we travelled for another hour to Baroda, south of Ahmedabad for the ordination service of Happy Paritha as deacon. It was an English speaking service, following an Anglican form. Perhaps inevitably some of my Northern clerical friends accused me of being too comfortable with the liturgy, but we all enjoyed the service, which was long but did not seem long. Most of the singing was exuberant apart from a disaster with 'Come thou fount of every blessing' which had an unsingable tune. Mark Brown preached on John 3 with three 'musts'. You must be born again'; 'the Son of man must be lifted up'; and John the Baptist's declaration -'he must increase and I must decrease'. The ministers were invited to help with the distribution of the communion elements to the people in the pews ( a recognition of the non Anglican elements in CNI). I made the mistake of putting the bread in my mouth as soon as I received it while everyone else waited to eat together. Happy's wife Sandra asked us more than once to pray for them. After dinner in a hotel in Baroda, we had a 2 hour journey back to base.

Monday 4 September We got up early, but not early enough for the Bishop who had organised it seemed more than a full day's programme. I felt sorry for Vinod, trying to cope with the Irish dislike of early starts and the need to be even handed - if we did not visit very church in a district the ones left out would be offended.

After a drive of hours over increasingly bumpy roads, we arrived at Gogha, the port where the Glasgows and the Kerrs landed from a small fishing type of boat from Bombay. We saw a hulk in the harbour which may date from that era. In the grounds of the church they showed us a bullock cart. Later at a hotel (a former Maharajar's palace in Bhavangar) Vinod showed me a more elegant version with a canopy, used for weddings, which he said might correspond to the type of vehicle the missionaries would have used. When we tried to photograph the ruined Customs House which would have been there in 1840, an Indian equivalent of Captain Mainwaring from Dad's Army intervened and indicated it was a military area. Some landing craft were docked there. Thankfully we were not arrested.

It was at the church at Gogha that I got it, the point of the whole visit, at least for me. A little band of a trumpeter and drummers led us in procession past the 'Glasgow Memorial Church' to a church on the site of the first one built there by the missionaries. I was deeply moved by the lively welcome and thought of the verse in Revelation 14.13 Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labour, for their deeds will follow them." I said to the people that I saw the deeds or works of Glasgow and Kerr following them in the people I had met today. (Glasgow and Kerr were the first IP missionaries in Gujarat.) I preached from Hebrews 12.1-3 [1] Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. [2] Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. [3] Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. I suggested that the missionaries of 1840 following were now part of the great cloud of witnesses, as it were, encouraging us from the stands while were were on the race track, still to finish our race, which was more like a city marathon than an Olympic gold medal challenge, with everyone who finishes a winner . (Later in the week I refined the illustration to be like a cricket match which was more in tune with their culture and made more effectively the points about team work, mutual encouragement, different gifts, persevering to the end.) I quoted TS Mooney's aphorism 'Hats off to the past, coats off to the future' making sure to explain it, as very few Indians wear hats, despite the scorching sun. I dared also to ask them to pray for James Glasgow's descendants as sadly not all of them profess Christian faith. I felt it important to do that, in case the Indians had the view that everyone from the West was Christian. This was confirmed in conversation with pastors later in the tour.

Then we went to Wallacepur, about an hour's (?) journey. This is another farm settlement about a mile from the main road (named after a missionary called Wallace). Here I learned to 'expect the unexpected' Two horses had been provided and of course James Glasgow's great great grandson had to ride one. Others followed in a bullock cart. Paul rode the other horse with great aplomb, lifting his hands to greet the drummer, a Hindu who could have qualified to play a Lambeg drum with great zeal. I held on tight with both hands and managed one or two quick waves. Some of the girls joined in the dancing with water pots on their heads. In the church Stephen preached on Joshua 1. 'Be strong and of good courage for the Lord your God is with you' The Bishop suggested that I might bless the children laying hands on their heads and so began a practice which we repeated in nearly all our church visits. I used the words of the Aaronic blessing (which is used in our baptism service) and finished by urging the children to 'love Jesus, follow Jesus, serve Jesus always'. I found this to be very moving and others said so too. In the church we were shown communion vessels which had been presented by the children of Raffrey congregation in 1893.

Then we came to Bhavangar, where we were introduced to a song about joy 'anan, anan, anan, hallelujah'. Paul preached about Saul's conversion in Acts 9 beginning with a joke about a magic cream he had seen advertised in India on his last visiit which promised to remove all wrinkles. His point was that God cares more about what we are like on the inside than the outside. After dinner in the hotel there with four kinds of chicken dish, we drove to Rajkot and booked in late at night to a hotel which looked a bit dusty but had airconditioned rooms and en suite facilities. Breakfast was served in our rooms.

Tuesday 5 September We had a service in the church at Rajkot where I preached at Mark's suggestion on Hebrews 12.1-3. After the service I met Eric, aged 13. 'Uncle, will you give me your autograph?' His father informed me proudly that Eric had got 97% in bible knowledge, first in all Gujarat. He wants to be a pastor. We toured the IP Mission High School next door, where the girls wear green, possibly an Irish echo. Different parts of the school are named in honour of former missionaries. Zena was pleased to see the Rosie O'Neill building, as she had known her. Jonny was interested to see how money had been spent which his Sunday School in McQuiston had raised as part of the 2003 children's and youth project. Our younger team members interacted so positively with the children despite the language barrier.

Then we went to the Church of England cemetery, which was as emotional as I expected and maybe more so. One of the Indians with us said that James and Mary Glasgow's first child had been born on 16 March 1841 and only lived a couple of months. I asked him to repeat what he had said and then explained to the team that that was my birthday too. They supported me as I wept. We sang part of Psalm 23 in Stuart Townend's version 'and I will trust in you always ...' and then in the old metrical version as may have been sung at funerals in 1841 and 1843, when Jane Henrie Glasgow daughter of Rev James Glasgow was buried (strangely no mention of her mother on the grave). The inscription on Rev Alexander Kerr's grave is very clear and may have been renewed recently, but the earthquake toppled a cross on one tomb which had carried the inscription 'Baby' possibly the grave of the Glasgows' first child. What broke me up again was to see nearby a grave for a boy aged 1 year (1891) and then to walk around it and see that a second child was buried there who lived for 2 months in 1892. (Hugh Lindsay Scott and Arthur Holmes Scott.) The Glasgows were not the only missionaries to lose children.

As we left the cemetery we noticed a settlement of very poor people to one side of the gate and right up to and among the graves at one place. These are Hindu squatters, apparently relatives of the keyholder. The Christians in Rajkot are in a difficult position. They feel their graveyard is under threat of a complete takeover and that ashes from Hindu cremations have already been buried illegally on top of Christian graves. Whereas they may be entitled in law to evict these squtters the wisdom of such a move must be considered carefully in a context where Hindu militancy is rising and where the squatters are clearly very poor. A Christian lady asked me that we would pray for them and we need to pray that there is a settlement which meets the needs of the squatters while preserving the rights of the Christians.

Here is a poem about this.

The English Cemetery at Rajkot.

Grass grows among the graves
at the English Cemetery at Rajkot.

Irish visitors bring garlands and posies,
gifts of welcome and respect from Indian friends
to lay on the graves

of missionaries and children

in the cemetery at Rajkot.

It is explained
that a baby was born on 16th March
who only lived some weeks
and emotion overflows
that I share a birth date
with my great grand aunt.

Another grave nearby
for an boy aged one year and two days
and moving around I see
his parents lost another child
who lived for two months
and I weep to write of that.

And we who are parents wonder
could we like Abraham offer up Isaac
and the younger people are very quiet.

We pray, we sing, we look and walk away
with one last look back
at the grass and fading flowers
on Irish graves in the English cemetery at Rajkot.

The grass withers, the flower falls
but the word of our God always lasts

and I will trust in you always.

We moved on then to Junagadh where we met with joy and Joy, joyful singing even when we were being treated to eggs and jam sandwiches and Joy, a bright school teacher who spoke good English. We remarked afterwards that our hosts had made a great effort to provide food for western guests. Would any of our churches offer Indian guests even a Tesco curry? Joy captured the hearts of quite a few of the males on the team. It was hard to resist another biscuit when she flashed her eyes. She wants to come to Ireland, as is the desire of many to make a better future in the West. We learned afterwards that there may be a difficulty for her and her sisters to get married. Marriages are arranged by families. We visited a zoo at Junagadh and saw some lions, leopards and sloth bears fairly close up. We had coconut milk for refreshment; probably an acquired taste but more nutritious than the usual glass of Coke. I think I drank more Coke in two weeks than in the past 20 years.

Wednesday & Thursday 6 & 7 September. We arrived about 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning at a resort hotel on the island of Diu, a former Portuguese colony annexed by India in 1961. Providentially, the first place we tried had a power cut and a lot of mosquitoes. By the time we arrived at the more expensive hotel, they first one rang to say they had power back, but to no avail. We enjoyed the swimming pool and luxury, a four course meal for under £4. I tried the Indian ocean once but didn't like swimming in mud coloured water, the effect of the monsoon. The sea bottom was full of potholes and fissures, and my decision to stick to the pool was fully vindicated by finding a line of dead eels on the shore. It was a useful time of rest and recreation after a hectic first weekend. One of our young people was exhausted on arrival, fatigued, homesick, feeling spiritually inadequate. Our leaders gave some sensitive care and at team devotions on Thursday night she gave a moving speech of thanks to those who had helped her and said she would remember Diu as a place of transformation. Later that evening she gave some appropriate support to another team member who was struggling with some personal matters. Truly, as we had been warned in orientation, our experience in India was changing us, whatever we were offering to the Indians.

On the Thursday I and some others went on a sight seeing trip. We saw a headland, not unlike something on the Antrim coast, but several degrees warmer and a muddy sea (which they said becomes blue again in December). The headland had a variety of Hindu shrines. Paul and I spoke with a guide, a devout Hindu, a bit like a Southern Irish Catholic, friendly, tolerant and yet uncomprehending of the uniqueness of Christ. He showed us a memorial consisting of a model of an Indian warship torpedoed by the Pakistani navy in ?1973. The names of all the 149 lost were recorded on the memorial. I asked the Bishop what was an appropriate tip and he said a figure much lower than what Paul had given the man before I could communicate this. He said he would follow us and tell us about the next place but we never saw him again. We visited a former Portuguese fort whose battlements were named for various Christian saints. We saw some men breaking stones for a path. Someone asked them how much they earned a day. The answer: 70 rupees, rather less than £1 .

Friday 8 September. I had a final swim in the pool before breakfast and we left at 930, fairly punctual for us. Our journey back to Ahmedabad took about 9 hours including some short stops, but it didn't feel as long as Cork to Belfast (7 hours) probably because I wasn't driving and didn't know the distances anyway and had few responsiblities. It is nice to be part of a team and not to have to make too many decisions.

We had dinner in a 'dodgy restaurant' in Ahmedabad. Mine was all right but it may have been that Richard's choice put him out of action for most of the rest of the tour.This was a great pity, both because he had kept all the rules about eating well (no salads) and drinking bottled water and because he was making such a good contribution to team life, interacting with local people, giving an impassioned devotional one night when he challenged us about how committed we and he needed to be. I was also touched that he and Stephen agreed to room together at Diu to give me space after the emotional roller coaster from Gogha to Rajkot. Thankfully the expert care of Ingrid and our nurse Elizabeth meant that he survived a serious condition. Apart from some sickness for a couple of others, this was the only illness in our group; not a bad statistic when it is said that one in two tourists to India return with a serious illness. (In the following week, however quite a few of us came down with viruses.)

Saturday 9 September A youth rally at Ellisbridge church just down the road from the Bishop's house. Vinod asked me to come and sit on the platform and said I could go after the formal welcomes, but the singing and atmosphere was so good I decided to stay. We had a beautiful meal, agreed to be the best of our tour, of chicken buryani with dal (lentil broth) and sweet rice. And they were catering for up to 500 people.

Vinod gave some remarks of welcome, describing today's youth as the LPG generation, Liberalised, Privatised and Globalised. He said young Christians needed to be 'petrol energy' to respond.

Mark preached his John 3 sermon in the morning, contextualising it with a story about a friend whose burning ambition was to visit Lord's cricket ground. But Kapil Dev opened the bowling and destroyed Englad for 149 all out and then batted to a score of a century and a half. The bottom fell out of his friend's world. What was there to live for? He needed to hear that he must be born again . Rev Nicholas Parmar added to this with an impassioned translation. After his talk, the Indians gave an 'altar call' and seven people signified their desire to follow Christ.

After lunch we met some students from the Seminary and visited the archives which Clara Anderson had set up last year.

We put on a programme in the late afternoon and I gave my testimony just to show that being James Glasgow's great great grandson did not thereby make me a Christian. I shared three verses from Isaiah which had struck me in my teenage years when I was finding life to be like Mark's friend completely empty. 2.22 Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he? when I realised the folly of life without God 40.8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. when I realised the reality of God 43..25 "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." when I realised the total forgiveness of God. I linked all this to asking (at my minister's suggestion) Jesus to become the centre of my life and realising some weeks later that I had a new peace and contentment.

After some singing Paul then spoke about Adam and Eve and created great amusement by selecting an Adam and a (very shy) Eve from the audience.

After another nice meal, the music became louder as they did a cultural programme and a bible quiz, so I went for a walk, daringly crossing the road and I found a phone shop where I was able to phone home for 33 rupees. (about 50 cent).

Sunday 10 September I went with Elizabeth, Rebecca and Ruben to CNI Victoria Gardens where I preached on my testimony (as the previous afternoon). It was quite a traditional service. They began with a hymn to the tune of Duke St, so I joined in with what I could remember of the Psalm 'O Lord,thou art my God and King .' In my opening remarks I tried to make links between Ireland and India, e.g. we have a Victoria Cross in Cork, we both had got independence from Britain (I waved apologetically at my Northern friends behind me, it would have been too complicated to explain.) I said I would pray that they would know Victoria Gardens church to be a place of 'victory' in Christ.

Then we went to CNI Maninagar, a younger church opened in 1970 with 650 families in a suburb where 60 % of the popluation are Christian and where there are at least six other churches. With 650 families this is the biggest congregation in ? CNI (? in the Gujarat Diocese). Rev Robinson Christian, the pastor, is presently without an assistant. He translated as I preached on Hebrews 12, changing the picture from a race to a cricket match.

At lunch, Robinson asked me how I would preach on persecution at home. I replied first that I would ask my people to pray for the persecuted church in many other countries and also point out that increasingly Christians in the west who make a stand have to endure some degree of hostility and marginalisation. Before lunch he took me to visit a family where the husband aged 44 had died that morning. He and I prayed with the widow Sonal and his parents, who as is the usual custom share a home. This was the case with three generations in Ruben's home which we visited later in the afternoon. Ruben's is the only Christian home in a Hindu district. He has a large red cross on his wrought iron gate and a beautiful wooden cross on his front door.

On our way to Jivandwar ('Door of Light') orphanage at Prantij, we detoured to visit another church in the countryside where we had another colourful welcome. I used the cricket match talk again. After refreshments, milky coffee, biscuits, cheese straws, savoury pastries, lovingly served, I was taken to visit a home where an elder aged 82 had died 2 weeks previously. It was again a privilege to be asked to minister. I shared Hebrews 13.7-8 with them Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Sadly we arrived late for the full tour of Jivandwar including the Celtic cross memorial to famine victims, but we were overcome by the friendliness of the children and the adult lepers still in care there. Rev Albert Carpenter who founded the centre along with Dorothy Shannon, now retired in Bangor, was there to welcome us and we were entertained with a good meal. Stephen and I were asked to lead in prayer for him. We left a number of toys including cricket bats.

Monday 11 September Up early to catch a train to Surat in the South. The Bishop reckoned that with the floods the road journey would be very difficult. We (a team of ten) enjoyed our four and a half hours

in the airconditioned sleeper class. Some of our group made good use of the upper bunks. I walked along part of the 20 coach train which always took its time leaving stations, making life easier for late comers. The doors were always open because of the heat. All human life was there: beggars, shoe shiners, railway police armed with rifles, notices forbidding all obscene talk, gestures, touching, staring at women. This was sexual violence which would be severely punished. The Bishop said this arose from recent legislation. Rev Nicholas Parmar from the Bible Society was with us. I chatted with him and the Bishop about James Glasgow's stay in Surat in the 1850s. He had brought his wife and surviving children home in 184? and left them there because of health problems, returning alone for 10 years, working mainly on a translation of the Bible into Gujarati, still substantially the version used in churches today, although a modern version by Tom Lyle and others is used privately. Including the sea journeys he was separated from his family for 11 years. As the Bishop remarked later, we married men had now been away from our families for about 11 days and we were missing them .

Surat is city of 4 million, densely populated. CNI Christ Church Chowk Bazaar is near the river. It is an old Anglican church with a marble floor which made the flood damage easier to mop up. The water had risen as high as the base of the pulpit. Near the church we saw how the floods had pushed over a whole concrete and metal fence. We met pastors whose homes had been flooded out. One had to be airlifted off his roof after 4 days there.. He spoke of his ordeal with smiles. Another had lost all his books and papers, a trial to any pastor.

In the service there I thought at first that the music was more traditional than most of what we heard, but as they got going there was a volume of passionate singing, not unlike a Welsh choir in full voice. I changed what I was going to say and said that I could only understand the word Alleluia but I could hear tones of faith, joy, suffering in how they sang. I read Psalm 40.1-3 as a passage which reflected their experience. 1 I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD. I suggested that this was an example of how God's word is real and relevant. I then moved to Isaiah 40.8 and told part of my own story of encountering God's word, how despite being a great great grandson of James Glasgow my life was empty until this verse (which I would like as an epitaph) impacted on me. I expressed regret for their loss of so many bibles; lifting up and dropping a posy I had been given and then lifting up a bible I reminded them that though the flower falls the word of our God endures. We had a moving ceremony to hand over different types of bibles - large print for the elderly, standard versions, Good News in English for young people and children's bibles. Afterwards an elderly gentleman, John Hamilton Christie, asked to be remembered to the retired missionaries.

We then drove to another church, CNI Muglisara originally a Presbyterian foundation, higher up overlooking the river. We had lunch in the pastor's house, notably including some flavoursome potatoes. This was followed by a quick tour of the site of the first printing press in Gujarat, brought in for the printing of the Bible. We also saw a derelict bungalow for missionaries which may have been where James Glasgow stayed. It had a very imposing portico overlooking the river, to get any breeze that might be blowing. I had a sense of atmosphere that I was standing where he had once lived. We made a brief foray into the playground of the IP Mission High School founded in ?1840. An early building is still in use. The whole complex looked in need of repair, but the boys were well turned out and very friendly. I noticed quite a few with arms around each other's shoulders, something common among men and boys in Indian culture which would be unthinkable in our uptight society, except as Mark reminded us in a rugby scrum.

Then we drove for a couple of hours to Vyara which is like a mission centre on the edge of the Dangs tribal area - there is a church, a girls' hostel, a Vacation Bible School training centre and a Bible Society bookroom. This was funded by the Bible Society of Northern Ireland and by individual gifts including the offering from Linda Jackson's commissioning service in 2001. All these gifts are recorded in loving detail on plaques, as is the Indian custom. The whole complex is strategically located off a main road and is a good stopping off point.

We were danced into the church by beautifully dressed girls and some of our girls joined in. We sang 'My Jesus, my saviour' we received a couple of garlands and a posy and children sang us a welcome song, showering us with petals. I preached on the Aaronic blessing and wrong footed the Bishop, my interpreter, by beginning with a blessing in Irish. We had been told that a number of languages were in use there, Gujarati, Hindi and tribal languages, so I thought a bit of diversity from us would be appropriate (although no Ulster Scots).

The book shop manageress asked for prayer for her son Isaac whom they were hoping to board in a school hostel at a cost of 20,000 Rupees a year, which might be around 300 Euro, not much for us but a lot for them.

The day ended with a drive up into hill country to a Catholic retreat house at Sapatura. After a meal, we retired at 1 a.m. to beds with damp mattresses. The others were able to lie on the plastic frames of the beds but mine was metal ... At 3 a.m. I tried the mattress and got up at 5 and sat in the corridor writing up my journal. A hot shower later compensated for any hardship. For once I was not worried about the lack of sleep as I knew I could catch up in the car or on the train journey from Surat.

I reflected in the early morning that the whole trip is a bit like what it must be like to be in an army. Long, often uncomfortable journeys, punctuated by bursts of activity plus waiting around in humid conditions for the next thing to happen. A sleepless night or two is just part of that and is endurable in the camaraderie of the team and with the thought that we will be home on Friday, only three full days to go! How different to be there for the long haul! (although you might not be rushing as much)

In the morning we met Fr Divanshu? a Jesuit who manages the retreat centre and the large school nearby, opened in 2003, funded by money from Spain which was reflected in the architecture of the church. We visited some classes and prayed with the principal and a couple of sisters in their chapel. We were impresssed by the facilities but thought that the children were more subdued than in other schools, maybe because they were from tribal backgrounds, or because of the all Catholic ethos. Bishop advised that the RC schools employ only Catholic teachers. Father D outlined their evangelistic strategy to me. They hold prayer meetings with healing ministry and wait some time before catechising anyone. He stressed that there were no forced or pressurised conversions, despite Hindu propaganda. We got the impression of friendly relations between the different Christian denominations although there is very little by way of joint worship, maybe a healthier way of relating than the usual options at home of either critical distance or uncritical ecumenism. Most of the rest of the day was taken up with the journey back to base. We saw a bit of the Dangs country in the wooded hills, some homes flying Hindu flags, and had time for a bit of quick shopping in Surat, ably protected by a pastor's wife, who got the best deal she could for us. On the train back, Mark had a long chat with a Muslim scholar, while Stephen and I met Arpit, a young serious Christian who was doing an apologetic study of various cults.

Wednesday 13 September Mark, Stephen and I went over to the Catholic centre where Paul had been staying to be available to the team, some of whom were finding the conditions difficult. I volunteered to stay with Richard, still unwell, but in good spirits, while the others went shopping. It took Jonny virtually all his time from 11 to 330 to get money changed. I think the difficulty was he had no Indian with him to help and smooth the path through bureaucracy. We are getting a wide taste of missionary experience: heat, sickness, strange food, smells, waiting around, frustrating bureaucracy, people unsure of what they should be doing, being asked to do something at a moment's notice . Mark and Stephen had gone to visit a home in the Maninagar district to see if its ministry to street children was appropriate for support from a Boys' Brigade project next year. They were very moved by interviews with the boys, one of whom wants to be an evangelist.

In the late afternoon we attended a commissioning service at Ellisbridge for nine evangelists. They were receiving certificates for their training in 'community transformation' in other words, holistic evangelism. They presented a drama of a witch doctor taking 551 rupees off a family but failing to heal a sick man while the Christian evangelist of course brings God's word, prays and the man is healed without charge. Stephen preached powerfully on Ephesians 6.10-20.

As James Glasgow's descendant I addressed the evangelists and remarked that James Glasgow had been reluctant to start a university in Gujarat, desiring rather to have a school for disciples of Christ. I said I thought he was pleased with what we had seen that day.

Later that evening Stephen brought us a challenging devotional based on Joshua 5, the Lord standing between Joshua and the place of great difficulty, Jericho. He challenged us on the seeds of doubt which the devil sows.

Thursday 14 September Our last full day of activity. Our meeting with the Bible Society was delayed by the late arrival of the team from the Catholic centre. This was (a) because the drivers had turned up 40 minutes late and (b) because Uday a pastor who had been most helpful took them to his home for 5 minutes which of course turned into 30. The Bible Society people were gracious about the delay and gave us tea and cake while they presented their work and then gave us gifts, mine being embarrassingly the biggest, a depiction of the Last Supper. We then went to the IP Mission Trust/ Gujarat Christian Service Society, where we sat in a circle, had more tea and cake and were invited to share some things about ourselves, some more than others. Martin Christie, the chairman, was pleasant and outlined the main areas of the trust's concerns in education and hospitals. His wife spoke about her conversion from Hinduism. A couple of committee members spoke, perhaps inappropriately for the occasion, in criticism of the Bishop who they said was ignoring the constitution. It looks like a classic clash between Presbyterian and Anglican structures/approaches and is a key issue which needs addressing in some way, first of all in prayer.

After lunch in the Bible Society, we visited Gujarat Tract & Book Society, founded by James Glasgow in 1852. It reminded me a bit of Methodists and their portraits of John Wesley as they had not one but two portraits of their founder. I gave them another one, a photo of the oil painting in our front hall (which was given me by Margaret Rankin). We received more gifts; this time my vase was larger than anyone else's.

Then we went to Victoria Gardens High School where I opened a computer hardware training centre. I started by making links with those descendants of James Glasgow (e.g. my grandmother, one of his granddaughters) who had a great interest in education. I then read Philippians 4.8, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things saying that God approved of the exploration of all of his creation and prayed that the centre would be used for whatever was good, pure, lovely etc. It then gave me great pleasure to cut a red ribbon and declare the centre open. I felt like a Moderator.

Our day of visits to offices concluded with a visit to the Diocesan office near the Bishop's house where we had our second ice cream within an hour. Here the Bishop spoke with emotion about our work as a team. He also outlined the structure of CNI in Gujarat and expressed his concern that the mission trusts did not integrate as well in Gujarat as in other parts of CNI. But we reflected later, maybe it is impossible to make this diocese with its Presbyterian roots conform to the pattern of others. I remarked in reply that when James Glasgow left Ireland the Presbyterians and Anglicans were poles apart but that in heaven I thought I might be able to explain to great great grandfather that although the present situation was not like what he would have expected yet he would be at home with the commitment to evangelism, to prayer and to the word of God.

Our last visit that day and of the whole trip was to the graduation ceremony of the counselling centre at Maninagar run by Julius and Anita Christy who had studied in Belfast. It was moving to hand out certificates to over 20 people of various ages. I brought the greetings in particular of my wife as a teacher of social studies. I said I thought the church in Ireland could learn much from this work which had been started in response to the trauma of the earthquake in 2001. Mark preached from John 4 about the 'sinful' woman at the well. He said that Jesus did not scold her as many pastors might be tempted to do, he counselled her. Afterwards I met the father of the man who had died on Sunday. He seemed remarkably cheerful. Dinner was served there with an Irish flavour, non spicy chicken legs, potatoes and peas.

Back at the Bishop's house we wrote our allocations of the gifts we had brought and formally presented them to the Bishop.

Friday 15 September. We were up early to say goodbye to Vinod who was flying to Bombay for meetings. Then we ourselves went to the airport where we got safely through all the many bureaucratic checks. One of the pastors (Uday?) said goodbye as we went through the outer security and I was surprised to find tears pricking. India is not an easy country to manage, but I do love Indian people and especially Indian brothers and sisters in Christ. My first visit but I hope not my last.

Some Statistical Notes

The State of Gujarat, situated along the north western coastline of India has a population of around 50 million (2001 census) of which approximately 235,000 are Christians. India's population in 2001 was 1,027,015,247, the second most populous country after China. The literacy rate for Gujarat was 69.97% and for India 65.38%.

The Church of North India, Gujarat Diocese was formed in 1970 from churches representing Presbyterian, Anglican and Church of the Brethren traditions. From 1841 missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland established work across large areas of the central and Western Gujarat. In 1880 missionaries of the Anglican Church Missionary Society established a mission in north-east Gujarat. Missionaries of the Church of the Brethren from USA came to southern Gujarat in 1895, with a congregationla tradition. Since 1970 the membership of the Diocese has grown to 65,000 approx. with 135 pastorates (100 rural, 35 urban) for 362 congregations. These are served by 101 Presbyters, 32 Missionaries, 17 Evangelists and 11 Deacons.

(sources: India Census website and CNI Gujarat Diocese Synod Report October 2005)