We have
just rounded to the top of the echoing stairs at Sacred Heart School in Moga,
Punjab, and are preparing to enter a roomful of 800 elementary school children
who are awaiting our concert. The principal pauses to usher me in, and as she
does so, she says offhand: "None of these students is Christian."
I had
prepared to give a Christian children's concert.
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| Get on the Jesus Bus |
Earlier in the morning, the three of us met Dr Abraham Thomas, world famous director of the CMC Ludhiana. He formally welcomed us with chai and polite conversation in his office before we headed out on the 2 ½ hour journey to the city of Moga. David has fallen to the inevitable intestinal sledgehammer and will not be seen for 36 hours. Patrick is adjusting to India and cannot rise. So, it is toward a solo concert with a new back-up duo that I am headed at Sacred Heart School.
Our driver is a Sikh man who chats amiably with Rev Stanley while expertly dodging the early morning Punjab traffic. It is foggy. I am learning the rules of engagement of Indian driving – though I will never take it on personally. The rules appear to go something like this: The highway which, in Canada, is 2 lanes with a yellow line to divide and clarify who owns what, is in India a river of possibility. Vehicles are on the left, moving out to the right to pass those slower in front, now aimed directly and headfirst at an oncoming vehicle. Between them, by timing and keen awareness of the proximity of every other vehicle around them, they navigate so that a head-on collision is averted. Someone speeds to pass the bus in front of them, or another vehicle cedes their place, or someone moves off to the shoulder. At any time, there may be 5 cars or scooters spanning the entire width of the road.
This is
all done through the clever use of the horn. Where, in Canada, a claxon
indicates danger and outrage, here it is part of the give and take of road
conversation. In fact, it is required that vehicles honk as they move around
each other. A quick meep-meep means "I'm right here." Or "It's
mine!" if you are feeling competitive. Trucks have friendly reminders painted
on their back end: "Blow Horn".
All of
this seems to me to be part of the system for maximum engagement in India. All
is crowds, with people brushing and bumping up against each other at all times.
The people are so numerous and many jobs so low-paying; it occurs to me that
one can either guarantee that each and every job pay a minimum wage or you can
scale the wages so that the maximum number of people can be employed. We have
made our call in Canada. Here, it seems that many shops have 4-6 men taking on
a variety of roles in the business. Official bureaucracy, which can be such a
bane, also might be seen to be part of the Indian way of maintaining maximum
contact between people. The concept of a lane of road in which you need not
acknowledge the presence of those oncoming may appear to us to be the safest –
indeed the only – way to drive, but there is a western sterility to even that.
It's different rules.
Or, yes,
sometimes rule-lessness. We didn't we pull over for the siren-wailing car
behind us. Rev Stanley dismisses it: "That is a private siren. You can buy
them."
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| Welcome to Sacred Heart School |
So, here
I stand at an electronic keyboard whose pedal does not work, without my drummer
who makes me sound hip, facing a room of students that stretches back so far I
cannot see those at the back. Nicole and Isaac sit at a table beside me, to
video and to drum on the furniture. We begin, and Christian it is, as this is
nevertheless a Christian school. "Lucky Me" and "Like a
Rock" and other songs. I have to coach them to pare down: "How*did*you*go*and*do"
(that incrrrrredible thing) to "howdjago&do..." They enjoy! We
are a hit.
My
happiness is complete when the principal asks if we will stay to sing to a
second group of 800 children. This time, we increase the energy and add a
couple of silly fun songs in. Success! Indian children – though more darling
and polite – are not that different from Canadian kids.
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| 800 voices! |
We are
hosted at lunch by the principal herself, who tells us that this school
provides education to local children at no private school admission charge. It
was the vision of her parents, who founded the school.
This week, we offer two mornings of 20-minute devotions for nursing students and staff. The hymn and chorus books used on campus hold a mixture of songs of the gospel, American choruses from the 70's, Hindi short songs. This allows me to easily lead a variety of songs we all know and ask to hear new AND offer some Linnea pieces as well.
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| Mrs Renuka surveys the possibilities |
Mrs Renuka Prim is head of evangelism at CMC Ludhiana, and our designated caregiver. Everybody seems agreed that westerners can't cope with the pace and nuances of India, so it is up to her to take us out for shopping or repairing or whatever task, and she will not hear of us going off on our own. While David sleeps it off, Mrs Renuka takes Nicole and me out to choose fabric for a tailor to make into two salwar camises for each of us (brilliant tunic-like tops over loose praise-God pants).
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| Our Tailor |
We sit on a bench before a raised platform on which
the seller's staff stand and retrieve fabrics. "Nay, nay," she says
as a variety of colours and styles are dropped before us. She takes on the
negotiation of price on our behalf. I struggle with an un-Jesus-like impulse to
take home everything in the store.
One early morning, Mrs
Renuka, head of evangelism, comes to fetch us, so that David and I can join the
chaplains for their rounds in the hospital wards. The team of 4 chaplains
enters each ward in the building, moving into the waiting room where worried
and weary people draw near. There, they ensure that they have the names of all
those in care in the ward. Then, Mrs Renuka and I pull our dupattas over our
heads and one of the chaplains prays in Hindi. Filled with the mixture of
anxiety, tension, exhaustion and longing that hangs in the room, filled with an
overwhelming sense of people's reliance on God's healing, filled with a sense
that I am somehow participating as one who shares the chaplains' gift of prayer
and, above all, filled with a sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit, I am
overcome.
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| Talking to singers and friends |
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| Like a Rock |
After we perform my
"Jesus When Did I See You" rap, "Make a Joyful Noise" and
"Get on the Jesus Bus", the choir sings a piece by the Purkeys,
called "What If I Give My All" – which perfectly sums up how I am
feeling after this full year of trying to get just exactly where I am standing
at this moment. Here is a wee video of our singing "Like a Rock".
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| Our Audience |
Our shared concert is very well-received and the grand finale
is an extremely powerful "choreography" piece that enacts what makes
for a strong, healthy and fulfilled life for a young woman (and therefore for
India). The crowd bursts into applause in the middle of it. It turns into an energetic, celebration
hip-hop to an Indian pop tune and the evening closes marvelously. Though I
stand at the back of the full audience hall to watch the choreo and dance
unfold, I am supposed to return to the stage and somehow call it all to a close
with thanks and wise words after they triumphantly end.
I run.
*****
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