Overwhelmed by Lists?

I've become I writer of what some people call 'To-do' lists. I don't call them to-do lists. They are just lists.

Todays list includes:

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'Found'
Fence
Coffee Morning
Toddlers
Doers of the Word
What is the Godly Response to situations?
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The problem with my lists is that I cannot always pin down what I mean (you might look at the list and think, well, yep!). My list is not something I can always tick off, but is a guide for my thoughts. Perhaps that's why I don't call it a to-do list. 

It would be so much easier if life was a clear cut list of easy solutions that could be ticked off..... but it's not. New things bring new decisions to make, new directions to go in. We cannot package life into programmes and moments that have clear boundaries because other people work outside of the boundaries we imagine and when we look to God he is so much bigger, wider and greater than any boundaries we put up.

When you are working within non-existent boundaries the challenge is not to become overwhelmed. The easy response would be to walk away because the task is too big..... and sometimes that it is really tempting. Another response is to set boundaries that you wouldn't step over, but then we forget to take risks. The best (and sometimes most dangerous for our own limited vision) response is to dream dreams, take risks, don't be afraid to add more to the list or to not tick things off, trusting that God will walk with us....

When I was in Kolkata, I looked around and saw the city around me, and the task of transformation for those on the edges of society seemed almost impossible. The solution is hidden, the ideas unthought of........ yet when I looked harder I saw people taking risks, dreaming dreams, moving forward with boldness, relying on God to enable them to make a difference, to change lives. We too often limit ourselves by our own capabilities... but anything is possible. 

'The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.'                         
                                   Hebrews 11:1-3 (The Message)

Living Hope

Driving through Kolkata we enter Salt Lake - the up and coming IT district of Kolkata. All around us are shiny office blocks and new build flats in different colours. Hundreds and hundreds of young adults head for work. We drive on, through more building work, glimpsing lives that feel the closest to the UK cities that we have been since we've been here... Between the office blocks and high rise we have a glimpse of another world - old Kolkata - where people live in traditional small houses made of brick, mud and corrugated iron. Living in the shadows of the commercial future.....

We cross a bridge over a small stretch of water and we enter that world that lives in the shadows of the shiny new. As we walk down the mud path we pass through a settlement of small houses. These are brick maker's houses and the houses of people who collect useful rubbish to make stuff from or sell on - their poverty is clearly evident. We attract the normal stares that a group of white westerners attracts and the silence contrasts with the busyness of the Kolkata traffic jams we have just left. 

At the end of the track is a small building, built by the villagers themselves - the New Hope School - a school for local children. Set up by a visionary couple who are hands on in running the school alongside two young men from the local community it gives the children opportunity to learn where they might not have before. It is a place where they can hear about the Gospel and see people actually act out the Kingdom of God Jesus talks about. Some children are encouraged by the school to go to high school so that they can take their education further and their lives can be transformed from the poverty they now live in. It focuses on the development of the community.

There were four sewing machines in the room - strange for a school of young children. it was explained that they were trying to reach out further into the community - giving women the opportunity to stand on their own feet by teaching them a skill. Again the women are taught about the love of God and that love is demonstrated through the actions of the people who are teaching it. 

Of all the schools this one spoke to me most - working in the community, for the community and with the community, embodying that community with the love of Christ. Sometimes it is easier to take people out of where they are familiar with to change lives. This was about changing from within - transformational love. 

After visiting the school we made a surprise visit to William Carey's church. It was established in 1809. We got a chance to stand in the pulpit where William Carey had preached from. It was exciting to see some of our Baptist history right in front of our eyes. William Carey has inspired me from when I first heard about him as a teenager and when you see the impact he had in Kolkata and around it inspires even further. 

Inspired, humbled and probably slightly overwhelmed we were taken out for dinner to a Chinese restaurant. We couldn't help but see it as a sign of the contrast of our abundant wealth compared to what we had seen earlier in the day. 

Thunder, Maths and Whirlwinds

Somebody said that the second week would go much faster, and it has so far. Can't believe it's Wednesday already! Today we have experienced some dramatic thunderstorms - the thunder just kept coming and coming... very loudly! It then rained very hard for a while, I even had to get my rain coat out that I bought to deal with the weather in the North West. It means the roads are covered in puddles and my shoes that must not be named squeak as I walk.


This morning we went to visit the Divine Fellowship School for the Blind. The School was set up by a visionary man who saw how blind people were not accepted in Indian society as having any sort of future (they couldn't work, they couldn't get married....) to provide them with an education so that they could have a future. He started small but the school now has about 100 pupils.

We arrived to the sound of drums as the school assembly began and then we sang with them and acted out the parable of the sower (I was the seed that fell on rocky ground - I wasn't as good as the seed who fell on the path who got very scared by the birds!). We then had a tour of the school. 


I was most fascinated by the teaching of writing (in Braille) and Maths (of course). The inspirational methods of teaching to suit the pupils needs are fantastic. For Maths to write out a sum they had a metal peg that must have been a dodecagon with a line across it which was turned 36 degrees to represent each different number which placed in a peg board. The operator signs were done in a similar way but with the other end of the metal peg. I then just wanted to know how they took Maths further and regret not asking.

The school fits in with the theme that keeps coming back - that of transformation. These are people who might not have had a future, but given this opportunity to learn are able to get jobs (and so often are welcomed back by their families) and go to university. All of this again motivated by the love of God. 


I was reading again when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is. He says love God and love your neighbour as your yourself. The Divine School is an example of a vision motivated by that love for neighbours, seeing the potential in all, using that love to change lives.


The school has expanded a lot since the beginning... from a few small classrooms to a new two storey with the potential to be three storey building. The vice principal was very aware of and blessed by God's provision.

This afternoon we went shopping with Rebecca, who has come back to India for a second time after coming with a BMS Action Team. This was a totally different experience to the market. We were sat down as we looked around with a cup of chai..... less pressure, more browsing time! The shop looked like a whirlwind had hit it after we left - I think they showed Louise every top in the place.....but it was nice to be looked after and see another bit of Kolkata shopping.

Bags and Choices

It's Friday and I've been here five days. This morning the noise felt really loud.... you would have thought I'd got used to that by now! Was woken up by some loud bangs in the night (which can't have all been one of the team who got stuck in the bathroom and had to be broken out....!). 

A later start this morning, which was nice.... felt a little bit more human. A gentler day too, but also challenging in lots of different ways. We went to visit freeset. This business was set up by a New Zealand couple and their family who were called to India to work and felt led to work in the red light district in Kolkata - providing opportunities for women who would be on the streets to work to produce fair trade bags, and now t-shirts.... It's a huge factory, with lots of things going on. When we arrived they were having their morning devotions, which we joined in with by doing the actions to the Bengali songs..... before going to work on the hundreds of sewing machines, cutting machines, screen printing machines etc etc plus those who were finishing and cutting by hand. 

I spent the day sitting on the floor cutting the threads off bags to finish them off. It gave time and space to process what has been happening this week. 

Freeset is about women being given the choice to change their lives. They are not made to give up their former life, only encouraged to. There are still women who work on the streets for all sorts of reasons while working there (which makes me very sad), but freeset enables life transformation that might not otherwise be possible. I was surprised by the choice thing.... but if people are going to be free then they need to be free to make their own choices. 

Transformations......

Today has been long..... we were picked up by bus at 8.10ish (same as yesterday so should be used to it....) by the Good News Mission School's bus which this time contained two extra adults so was full to overflowing. We let the children off at the school we visited yesterday and then stayed on with the babies and toddlers to head to the Good News creche. I was handing a crying girl for the journey, who later fell asleep as she settled on me. How she did that I don't know as the journey was to the outskirts of Kolkata down some of the most pot holed and narrow places I've seen a bus go down (encountering the normal Kolkata traffic).


We arrived at the creche and the children were undressed, washed, dried and dressed again in different clothes while their own clothes were put in the wash. They then settled down to some singing, praying and the story of Jonah (a story I've been thinking about a lot lately....!). These are street children who would, if they weren't at the creche would be spending the day on the streets. The Good News Mission gives them hope of getting off the street. Sounds simple, but is life transforming, and quite amazing. Those who are marginalised are given opportunity. 

We left the children with their breakfast and went first to the Good News School, which is about 17km out of Kolkata. The children there are from the local community where they are given space to learn in a free school. They are hoping to build a bakery beside the school so that they can provide bread for all of the Good News Mission Schools rather than buy it in. 

After that very organised school we then went to visit the Boys and Girls Hostels (separate Hostels). These hostels take in street children who live and learn as part of the community - girls on the site of the hostel and boys in the original mission school. The students are encouraged to value education and are being taught that there is life beyond the streets. Alongside they are taught about the hope that Jesus brings and how they can depend on God. The prayer times in both of these places was amazing - the children all prayed at once, loudly, and you could feel the faith and hope in their prayers. I have been part of prayer sessions like that, but these ones were particularly powerful. We were asked to bless the children as the prayed, which was a huge privilege. 

What we encountered today was a huge living opportunity for transformation. The vision for these children is much bigger than what we saw yesterday - it goes right from toddlers to hoping that people will end up going to university - in which the mission continues to support them. The impact on their lives is massive. The sad thing is that there are children who start on the programme but end up leaving to earn badly needed money for their family. How can those children's lives continue to be transformed?

I've taken loads of photos today, particularly of the children who kept on asking for photos. I look like an explosion (my hair has done that crazy humid air thing), am very tired (the bus driver got lost in a bus with no windscreen wipers in the rain on the way home..!) and am ready for bed as I prepare for tomorrow....... I'll probably add some photos to this post tomorrow, but for now it will be just words! 

In writing this I have realised how huge today has been. God is doing big things....