5 Minutes of fame

It is a hot and sunny morning here in Kolkata it is unusual for me to be writing this blog at this time but it was a late night last night, which I will get to in a moment.

Yesterday I broke off from the team to go and meet a friend and colleague of my dear friend Doug Armstrong. Swapan Roy works for Global Recordings Network (www.globalrecordings.net) in Kolkata and Doug said I might want to look him up. I already had an understanding of what GRN does, but hearing it from someone who works in the field and listening the stories of some of his adventures amongst the tribes in the interior brought it all to life for me; travelling 4 days for a 1 day meeting in hot, humid conditions and sometimes into hostile places is a testament to the courage and dedication of people like Brother Swapan, and quite a common attribute amongst many of the Christians I have met during my time in Kolkata. Once again I see Indian Christians living out the words of Paul “I am no ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for everyone who believes.” It was also nice to meet Swapan’s family (wife and two teenage daughters) and share a meal with them. I hope that I will be able to come back to India and spend some time travelling with Brother Swapan, I am sure that would be a great adventure.

Our main social activity during our stay here was to go and see a T20 cricket match between the Kolkata Knight Riders (the local team) and the Rajasthan Royals. It was an amazing experience made even more special by the fact that we became minor celebrities for the evening. People were quite surprised to see five white blokes decked out in KKR colours (some even had their faces painted) and asked for our photographs to be taken with them and videoed us when we were all dancing to the Bangla music played during “half-time.” Not much theological reflection, although Peter did invite one of our “fans” to church, but an excellent evening out. Oh, and we won!