Part 3.  Cochin with Pastor Sundaram

    Monday night we were joined by Elder Sundaram, the special assistant to Elder Ron Watts.   He would be our companion for the rest of our stay in India.  Elder Sundaram was very acquainted with the work for Deaf, as he had been the President of the South India Conference when Sathiyamoorthy first began his work, and where he later suffered some series setbacks with family problems.  (Sathiyamoorthy is now pastoring two small hearing churches in Bangalore).

House church in Baby's covered rooftop home church - money left for new tin sides for shelter

 We grew to very much appreciate Elder Sundaram.  He was such a helpful companion, and one could see that his heart was also with Deaf Ministry.  Monday night we headed off on the train to Port Cochin on the west of India by the Arabian Sea.  This was the area where St. Thomas first began his work, and we got to see where Thomas had built a Christian church in the first century, AD.

Inside Cochin church with Pastor Jordan writing on blackboard

 The next day, Tuesday, we met with some of the deaf group in their rooftop ‘house church’.  The local volunteer’s mother had allowed them to use her concrete rooftop which was covered with a tin roof, for their church.  They had rented cloth to go around the sides, and it looked quite functional.  Later, we left funds for tin to be placed around for walls, and other funding for Bibles, chairs, an over-head projector and a sewing machine for one of the young well educated deaf girls who was unemployed.   That evening we visited about five of the homes where the deaf members (or interests) came from.  One family was Hindu, another Muslim and another Catholic or orthodox.  One deaf brother tries to earn some funds by making flower vases from coconut shells. He gave Jeff and I each a gift of one of his vases.

Jordan & Blake hold gifts of coconut shell flower vases from the Julian family (left & right of us)

On extreme right is lay Bible Worker P.M.Baby next to Pastor Sundaram who travelled with us from the Division

  Tuesday we met the interpreter they had hired to translate Jeff’s ASL into the local dialect of sign language.  However, the interpreter did not know American Sign Language, and I could not interpret well enough into English to be fluent.  So, the interpreter backed out, and went home. 

  We wondered what to do!  That night I got a terrible migraine headache, and it got so bad that I vomited about 6 a.m., something I had not done for many years.  So, Jeff went to do his best.  Jeff found that by signing Indian Sign Language he learned in Andhra Pradesh with the ASI picture rolls, that he could make himself quite well understood.  We were thrilled, for it solved a difficult problem.  By noon, I was able to go with them and in the afternoon gave a talk on the story of the great controversy -- one of the local ladies interpreting into local sign language for me.

A church in Cochin on the location where Jesus disciple, Thomas, built a church in the 1st Century AD

In Cochin we enjoyed a couple of ferry rides, some local bus rides (sometimes it was standing room only), & the nets of the fisherman at the mouth of the harbor, while waiting for the tide to change so they could put down their large nets. And - for a few moments, seeing a snack charmer with his cobra.

The Cochin fishermen (near the Arabian Sea) lower nets into the water when the tide is right

  We got a very quick look at Elder Baby’s Union office in Cochin, and then it was a quick supper and off on the train again to Thanjavur.

Go To Part 4