Return Date - July 9th

We finally have a return date locked down. We leave India on July 9th, at 4:30 AM. It looks like we arrive in Boise on the 9th as well, even after more than 24 hours of flying, thanks to the many zones we will be passing through. Our arrival time is 10:30 PM, so that’s kind of rough, but we are all thankful to make it home on a Friday night so we can attend church on Sunday without being totally wiped out. We also go through San Francisco, which has got to be better than the chaos we faced in immigration last time in Los Angeles. The total lack of order there was really shocking. There were no lines and everyone was crammed in a hallway, pushing their way in. We get enough of that in India! :)

On a different topic, I thought I’d share a story about what happened a week or so ago. As I’ve mentioned before, we go to Pizza Corner every Friday night for dinner. It’s our little family outing, and we occasionally bring others along like the lady missionaries from the US, or folks from church, etc. It’s also where we met the Dutch family early on. Anyway, we almost always see one or two Europeans there every time we go. Often, it is just a single person sitting alone. The last time we went, I told Adam that if we see one of these lone Europeans, we should make it a point to invite them over and have dinner with us. We prayed that God would bring whoever He wanted that night, but secretly I hoped it would be a guy so Adam could do most of the talking! We sat down at our table and literally 30 seconds later, in walks a lone young woman. She looked right at us, then sat down at a table across the room. Adam and I both chuckled at it, and I got up my nerve and walked over and invited her to have dinner with us. Her name was Michelle, and she was Dutch. She was 22 years old and had come to India for 6 months to work teaching other teachers how to help kids with autism and other mental illnesses. She was working with a team in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu and had come to Kerala to go to an ashram here to do yoga for two weeks. We asked why she was interested in that and discussed her Catholic background. We then tried to share with her the dangers of yoga and why people who are Christian shouldn’t practice it. She kept stressing that she and her family weren’t ‘strict’ about their religion, which we eventually found meant that they didn’t go to church or much else. We shared stories about our experiences in India, and Adam and I talked a lot about what God was doing in our lives and what He’d done while we were here.

This experience with this girl made the practice of yoga among Christians weigh heavy on my heart, so I want to take a minute to address it. Many Christians want to believe that it is just stretching and breathing and that if you use the name of Jesus instead of Hindu gods, its okay. I wish people who want to adopt this practice could take a look inside one of the Hindu temples here, experience the utter darkness that comes out of there, and tell me if they think that adopting something that stems from this is godly. Or maybe look at the guy that we saw who was suspended by the hooks in the skin in his back, or the demon possessed guy in the Hindu procession, or the kids with the sticks drilled through their checks. This is Hinduism. This is where yoga originated from and been practiced for thousands of years. Are we in the west that lacking in exercises programs, videos, and outdoor activities? The Lord calls us Christians to be separated from such things. God condemned the Israelites time again for incorporating the practices of their eastern neighbors. Isaiah 2:6 says “For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with eastern ways; they are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they are pleased with the children of foreigners” Why would we want to compromise just for a workout? The ‘sun salutation’ for instance is the common pose you see advertisements. This position is designed for the practitioner to worship the sun! Another big red flag is that Indian Christians, like K.P. Yohannan of Gospel for Asia, have warned westerners in no uncertain terms that is pagan and not of God (see his book ‘Revelution in World Missions’).

Even though this girl Michelle did not seem like a true follower of Christ, it was very, very sad for us to see her taking the Hindu path and not the path of Christ. We gave her a ride to her hotel, and I gave her our contact information and told her that if anything went wrong at the ashram or if she just wanted to leave, she could call us anytime. We prayed for her and still hope that the Catholics that are on her team can steer her toward the truth.

I’d like to wrap up with a request for prayer for our girls. Now that we have a return date, it feels like we are going home soon, but we still have many days to go. Over the past few days, they are suddenly feeling much more bored that ever before and patience is running quite thin. We need to finish this well, and they in particular need endurance to see it through with grace.

We miss everyone and can’t wait to see you all!