Sri Lanka #3 (One month in)
I just brought my cousin Danesh to the doctor.On the way there, I recognized some people and was acknowledged by others. I am writing this email in my journal before I take an hour long drive that will only being after walking fifteen minutes through the mountain to a bus. As I am writing this, the husband of the house brought in a piece of wood with a hole in it to put over the squatty potty. Well...there's more to this but I have to leave because the internet cafe is closing for lunch. It's a constant adventure. Joel Watson, for some reason I keep on thinking of you-- know that I'm praying for you and wish you were adventuring with me. God bless.
One month in Sri lanka, two more to go (part II).
A lot of the stores were shut down due to prayer, and lunchtime, but I'm back.
As that husband brought in the piece of wood, my tha-tha (grandpa) was falling alseep in the middle of the room with seven people around him. The TV is on. The last commercial started off with a baby in the womb holding his elbellical cord, and suddenly it transforms into a tire swing. I have seen that commercial almost twenty times and I still have no idea what it is advertising. Everybody around me can seak English, but choose to speak Tamil or Singhalese. That leaves me trying to learn two languages with two months left. Though, I'm trying to learn two languages, I spend most of my time in silence. The family is used to it and I'm getting used to it. I journal, read, play guitar and engage in other activities. It's a unique experience I'm living because around the house I can't really speak any of the languages. So, the 12 and 13 year olds take advantage of this and I end up as the butt of jokes. This is funny because at the church I've been attending, a lot of the members have been holding me in reverence as the man of God with the gift to pray for the sick. It's an awesome contrast because it feeds my ego while keeping me humbles. I am discovering that examples like that are what I want balance to be in my life. Not that I'm average at several things...average at being crazy and seroius. Rather that I'm so crazy that it's only balanced out by me beeing very serious. It's a good lesson to learn--being what you are 100% wherever you are.
Just know that good things are happening in Sri Lanka, and when I get back to America I will be a different person. If you liked the old Pradeepan, you'll probably be able to find remnants of him. Don't worry, the new one is much better.
God bless.
Sri Lanka #2 (Ministry Details)
Last Sunday, as my mother slept, My step-dad Timothy and I decided to find an AG church. Well, we found and the pastor even rode down in his motorcycle to guide us. It wasn't connecting with that pastor though, for a monkey had chewed through the hotel phone line. It didn't matter though. I was just happy to get away from the Hindu worship music that had been playing through out the night.
Hindu music at night drains your spirit somehow.
When we arrived at the church, the pastor asked us if we were pastors, and we said yes. Then, he insisted that we take the whole service, so we did, and God was shown strong in our weakness. People were healed, restored, rescued, and converted.
We prayed for about 50 people, and they were all falling down, but the men wouldn't let them fall. They made sure they recieved the entirety of the prayer. (I've always joked that in my ministry people won't fall down under the annointing, rather they will keep standing after I drop kick them in the Spirit, or something.)
Peoples legs were lengthened, backs, stomaches....all healed.
The pastor asked me to travel with him from church to church, and God willing, we'll see the same results. I gotta go.
Sri Lanka #1
| Using the internet in Sri Lanka can be difficult. You've probably assumed that I made it to Sri Lanka. Well done. This country is beautiful, and so are the people. Though, I haven't taken one of those beautiful people to be my wife yet, I have met my family for the first time. My heart was fuzzing warmly as I witnessed my grandpa dance while my cousin and I played music. Also, I felt pretty good when a Hindu lady fell to her knees trembling as I led her in a prayer of salvation. Just last night, my step dad Tim and I prayed for about 50 people. I'll go into more details later. Just know that God is piecing my Identity together. The circumstances in Sri Lanka are causing me to feel deeply. Pray for me. As I'm getting more engagements to minister, I am having very difficult times with my mother. She tends to be the vehicle God pushes my patience, love and grace with. Praise God. Anyways, I just thought I would let you look into my adventure. And even though I might not admit it in person, I miss you people as I would miss real people. God bless. |
Battle of the Banquets
Battle of the Banquets.
The lamb incident has been the talk of many circles here in Tulsa. In fact, someone approached my pastor and said, "I heard your worship leader went to sacrifice a lamb and then smeared the blood on all his people." My pastor was a bit concerned. Oh well. Since the first talks of Din-Din, four groups have formed to either kill him or save him. I got a call from Dean Boyd three days ago, and I'm not going to lie, I got excited. Dean Boyd is the master of the confrontation meeting, and I was going to take literal notes on how to deal with trouble (no figurative language here). However, the call from Dean Boyd was a hoax constructed by the Lambert on YB. I turned the Lambert for my effort, and had him call some of the other wings that wanted to kill the lamb. They never were informed that it was a hoax. I hope they don't get in trouble or get us in trouble. We're all lamb loving friends, and there is no reason for chastisement.
He brought me to His banqueting table.
Two events were fused together last night: the GUTS battle of the bands, and the banquet. It was a great night, and I would like to tell you about it. Let's start off with my date, Beth Zimmerman.
(Our hands look the same)
(She'd probably like the better picture of herself up)
To start off, we meet at 5:45 (an hour earlier than everyone else) because we were going to play at the battle of the bands. Neil met us there too because he wanted to follow us in his car.
(Yes, Neil is a stud)
(p.s. Neil dressed up only because we dressed up for our banquet)
Then, We all drove to GUTS and walked right in the rock band sub-culture. A lot of people don't know what it's like to be back stage with other bands. It's completely different than most of the life experiences a person has. I'm not going it explain it though. Maybe another time.
The facility was amazing. It had a great sound system, bright lights, fog machine, cameras, people, free food, and...
A banner with our name on it!
(My band's name is Symon)
Dressed to the max, as a group, we were groped with all the eyes there. It was in a good way, somehow.
Whenever our band plays, we have to wait till the last minute for everyone to show up. Truthfully, it has not happened in any of our shows that we've been ready 10 minutes before the show.
That's rock n roll.
As usual, we pull it off at the last minute, and play. But, this time we put a twist in our performance. Like I said earlier, I incorporated my banquet with my battle. We empower Beth, armed with a bass guitar, to announced and jam out with us--she was not plugged in. The audience didn't notice anything, and it was fun. Really fun. It seemed like she had a blast, and for that I'm glad. It was hernight after all. However, we didn't win, and it's not because we weren't the best band. I'm not saying that we were, but the competition was popularity and advertising based. Power to the people. Basically, whoever got the most people there, did the best.
Guts had four judges give public critiques of each band immediately after a band's performance. In ours, one of the judges called me the "most likeable bass player." Yeah...my band definitely beat me up after hearing that. Even Beth got a few punches in. Most likeable bass player, I'm grateful and all, but don't they know I have a lamb, and would kill it if I could find it. Just like a ninja, I might uppercut them if they did so much as drop a fork. Likeable, ha.
Right after the show, the lovely Beth and I cruised to the banquet. Good times. We ate food, danced, flexed and did other memorable things. The social coordinators planned this thing incredibly, but good company is what made the night. I have the best friends. You just can't beat good company.
(An example of good company)
Memorable activities.
Awards-
Roderick Hudson, my space sharer got the "Somebody's going to get raped, and it's not me" award. I'm not sure about how I feel about that.
Matthew Cooper, got the "When I was aborted award."
My layout for sharing events might be deceptive. I'm not going to list all the awards. Sorry.
Pradeepan Jeevamanoharan, got the "Ralph Nader" award. If you don't understand this joke, go to this site, and read the history. www.letpradeepanrun.com
Karaoke-
Beth had never done this before, and I generally enjoy it, so we sang "our" song in front of the masses. The song is "Up!" by Shania Twain. We had never heard this song before, and, naturally, didn't know the words. We made them up by singing about how the year was. I even started encouraging my chaplain through song. I know, not the most entertaining story, but the next one is good.
Cream-
I got the cream, used for the coffee, and danced with it!
(Cream!)
(Cream?)
We definitely had cream. Okay, maybe that's not a good story either.
Conclusion
I had a great night, but it's sad as well. I'm not going to be on this floor that rescued me. A freshly scarred Pradeepan went to MOG for restoration, and got it. Also, Beth is going to possibly be living in Japan next year, and I won't be friends with her anymore. Well, I won't see her anymore at least. Bummer man. It was a great night. Well done everyone! ( I would like to meet bummer man)
I have another banquet tomorrow. A girl named Shirley Q. is escorting me to the missions banquet, where the men are required to bring swords. I saw Shirley in the cafeteria, and, though we had never met, asked her to the banquet. It went something like this..."Hi, we've never met before. My name is Pradeepan." Then, Shirley said, "Oh...my name is Shirley." Next, I asked for a last name and she said "[enter something Spanish here]" She asked me my last name and I said, "Jeevamanoharan." And we stared blankly unable to pronounce each other's names. She said yes though. Hopefully I won't be blogging a horror story in two days. I did some research on her after she accepted. She checked out. She's legit, and I'm still hoping for a good time.
God has given me the best life.
(We long for acceptance)
By the way, the banquet ended with a 9 person Snugglefest, and we're having another one tonight.
The Legend of the Lamb
Trapped a lamb,
but caught hypothermia.
I don't embody masculinity. In fact, I grew up in the Suburbs watching Mama's Family on TV / Recorded VHS Tapes. However, there is a desire to be manly, to conquer the natural world and all that's in it, inside of me.
A couple weeks a go, I decided to plan an adventure to rock my comfort zone, and all who would follow. This might be a rather shocking statement considering that my last entry hosted a picture captioned with "SnuggleFest." To me, the fact that I had a "SnuggleFest" is reason enough to have an adventure.
I thought to myself, "What is the best way to plan an adventure?"
I bought a lamb. His name is Din-Din.
(We take care of our Din-Din) I could have bought a buffalo for $2,000, but I purchased a lamb for $110. My friend's friend Joel Swails knew of an island an hour away from campus. He knew of an island off campus. We scouted the island out at night even though I had never met the kid. At our last turn before spotting the island, Joel exclaimed, "There it is!" while noticing a sign that said "Cemetery."
This was a strange start. The island was difficult to see because it was pitch black. I was soon used to it.
I got more than 30 people to say they would go to the island. The numbers dwindled when they heard about the lamb. The numbers dwindled when it was time to go. Similar to Gideon's situation, the numbers decreased even more when the time for swimming across the water came.
Maybe none of us should have swam across the water.
I planned this event, and planned it poorly...on purpose.
Eleven people showed up for the adventure, and seven people swam across (Nick, Luke, Pradeepan, Drew, Joel Watson, Chen, Symon, and Joel Swails).This was on Saturday and at 7:45pm we arrived at the lake. It was pitch black.
We didn't know where to swim, and...
THE WATER WAS FREEZING.
(Drew did not want to get in the water)
Putting the goat in the raft and ropes around the shoulders, Nick and Luke were first to swim to the Island.
I had told everybody that the swimming distance was only 100yards. Yeah, it was closer to 1000 yards. A significant difference when the water is 40 to 50 degrees.
While those two were off swimming, the rest of us figured out how to make wood float. It wasn't an easy task, but we managed. We each grabbed wooden palettes from some field, and attempted to put our belongings on them. Eventually, our belongings would drip with frustration.
Something funny:
While we were swimming across, the guys who were leaving met some campers. They wondered what we were doing. When they heard that we were swimming across, they asked if we had beer. Hearing that we didn't, they asked what school we were from, and started cheering "ORU ROCKS!" and "ORU is hardcore!" How's that for going into every man's world?
Back to Nick and Luke swimming to the island. When they finally arrived to the blind island, as we all would, they suffered from the first levels of hypothermia. Luke was dizzy, and dumb. Nick asked Luke to grab kindling for the fire, and while shaking uncontrollably, Luke asked "Why would we need a fire?" It was bad, Luke even tried to sleep (to his death!). Nick noticed this and pressed his body heat against Luke. Call it what you want, I call it hug.
Sadly, my event turned
into an extension of "SnuggleFest."
Those two were on the island with a loin cloth, towel, and a lighter. It took awhile to get the fire going, but they managed until it went out. Then, they stepped on the lighter, which caused it to sink in the mud. Thankfully, they blew on the fire enough for recovery. Us other five guys came to the island while pushing crates of luggage in the water. We were shaking uncontrollably, but had a fire to warm up to.
Here we were on the island. We had let the lamb go, and were in no mood for a hunt. Going into survivor mode, we cuddled around the fire.I saw disturbing things in those moments, like a six foot plus man wearing my community outreach hoody for pants.
He had to do that because our supplies were ridiculous. A rabbit hat, war supplies, clothing, salt, damp sleeping bags, woman's devotional Bible, knives, and various small products.
Something frustrating
:
One of the only bags that made it over dry, was wet because a certain Kris Chen put an open water bottle in my backpack. I needed to get that out. We warmed up and decided to hunt the lamb. Taking sticks and machetes, we accomplished nothing. The lamb eluded us.
Lambs are hardcore.
We never found Din-Din. No lamb, no food.
Why do you think Mary had a little lamb? Protection.
Through out the night, I was paranoid of the lamb. Man, I needed this trip. By this time, we found Tuna, and it has never tasted so good. I hate fish, but loved it.
We sent Nick to get food. He was hard core.
Nick's adventure.
Nick ran into three police officers on his quest for food. The first one saw him ascend out of the water in a loin cloth. The second one saw him pounding on a gas station. The third cop saw him walking around Wal-mart with a loin cloth/water soaked crotch. He was gone for 2 hours, and the guys on the island thought he left. We didn't blame him. He only came because I asked him to help us butcher the lamb properly. He wasn't even planning to spend the night.
Sleeping.
I don't know that our night was actually spent. We were so cold that we couldn't feel the fire. Our only warning of injury was the burning smell of our shin hairs. However, if we were 7 inches away from the fire we would freeze. This made sleeping a chilly experience. Imagine 7 guys with limited and damp sleeping materials.
It was "SnuggleFest" to the max.
I hate "SnuggleFest." I'm not going to even put SnuggleFest in quotations anymore.
Leaving.
Luke and I had to leave earlier than the rest of the group because we work at churches. It was dark, and cold, when we started swimming. But the sun rose as we jaunted to the glorious mainland, and it was strangely relaxing (probably because our core body temperature was lowering at the expense of our bodies). As Luke and I pushed the raft back across, a mallard dove in the water only three feet in front of us. Combined with the sunrise, I couldn't help but praise the LORD.
This whole trip made me praise the LORD. I love Him, and I love that He lets me live life like I do.
He's given me creativity, and unlike a lot of people I've met, isn't afraid when I choose to use it. Praise God.
I don't regret doing this trip.
In fact, we are doing it again on the 16th. The lamb will die.
Now go on and make your adventures happen.
I wasn't afraid to make an adventure happen even though we could have died (which is why this is a cool story), and Josh wasn't afraid to make his adventure happen.
(Josh aged 40 years in a weekend)
-Pradeepan Jeevamanoharan
Went to the Enemy's Camp
Went to the enemy's camp.
(All school devo worshippers)
The way God develops relationships can be so frustrating, but...
He knows what He's doing.
Tonight our school had "all school devos," and we discussed the concept of being real. The place where we should be the most real is in the church, but sadly that's where most people's id crises happen. The preacher mentioned that Alcoholics Anonymous credited a large part of its success to forcing people to be real. Right from the start the alcoholics state that they have a problem. My name is Pradeepan Jeevamanoharan and I'm an alcoholic and so on. God is really challenging me to be real with Him and myself. To acknowledge when I fall and keep trying.
Some friends and I led worship for the service. God really met us where we were. I sin so much. I give up on God a lot, but He refuses to leave me. Man, Jesus precedes me and follows me.
I am at the point where I will leave Christianity unless I completely sell out.
God is teaching me how to focus my life around Him, and to really bring the Kingdom principles into my life.
That was the spiritual part of my entry...
This story brings a chuckle to even the most docile of my body. The preacher led an altar call in one of those emotional atmospheres that churches dream of. Stuff was going down. Lives were changing. During the prayer time, I mentioned to Symon that we should sing "I'm going to the enemy's camp." The song is a real toe tapper and not appropriate for an altar call unless you're going hunting or something later that night. Symon said that he would sing a slow song first and then go into the song. Thinking that he was being sarcastic as I was, I laughed and assumed my worship position.
He played the song in a worship style...somehow. It fit, and my respect points for Symon increased by 20 points. The crowd really got into it...somehow. God definitely was smiling, and the Devil was probably frustrated. God was glorified. Fantastic, the boy did it.
God moved. Amen.
(Symon, Neil and I lead worship)
SnuggleFest '05
(The guys slept over last night)