Churachandpur (My Second Home)

A lot has happened since I last posted here, but I will attempt to give it to you in a nutshell...

The last post ended with us flying into Imphal, the capital city of Manipur. From there we made the hour and a half drive to Churachandpur, or more specifically, to Seilmat, one of the many villages that Churachandpur is made up of. Seilmat is where Partnership Mission (the India side of Bibles For The World) has its headquarters. It is also the location of Seilmat Christian School (Bibles For The Worlds largest school) and Trinity College and Seminary and Seilmat Christian Hospital (both run by Bibles For The World). But that is not the biggest reason why Churachandpur is my "second home."

It's because of the people. You see, approximately 90% of the former India Children's Choir kids live in this general area. Obviously, that makes it a very special place for me. Add to that their families and the many, many other friends I have made their during my trips to India... every time I go there, it's like a homecoming of sorts. I get excited when I land in Imphal airport, and then more and more excited during the drive down to the Churachandpur area. We alway have a wonderful time, and this time was no exception.

I won't bore you with all the details of what we did during our time there, but I will mention a few highlights.

As usual, as soon as we arrive, I start getting invitations for meals. So on a typical day, we would have our morning meal at one of the kid's houses and then spend some time with the family there. We spent quite a bit of time in the market... either shopping for ourselves or taking our sponsored kids shopping. So after the morning meal, and on most days a short shopping excursion, we would return to Trinity College (we stayed in the guest rooms there) and spend a few hours either relaxing or spending time with kids who showed up to hang out. Then it was time for the evening meal, again, usually at one of the kid's houses. After the meal and some time spent there, we would return to Trinity, and usually the kids were waiting for us. On a typical night, thirty or more kids would come there to hang out. Activities ranges from football to looking at pictures to sitting around talking to singing. It was a lot of fun.

A few days after we got there, Jerry, Grace, and Christina, the three former ICC kids from Shillong that I recorded a few songs with last year, came to Churachandpur, so we spend the next three or four days in the studio doing some more recording with them. We are planning to put together a "mini" album, so I will let you know the details on that a little later. Stay tuned... :)

On the few days that we didn't have invitations for a meal, we went out to one of the three little local restaurants that are in Churachandpur. And most of the time, there would be at least a few kids with us.

Our time to Churachandpur came to an end on Thursday. I will be returning there in a few weeks, but other guys in the group will not be, so there were some tearful farewells. A lot of the kids really got attached to them in the few weeks that we were there.

My group is in Shillong now, another city here in Northeast India. We all miss our friends from Churachanpur, but we are having a good time with another set of friends here in Shillong.

By the way, I know I promised some pictures early on in the trip, but the internet connections have been a little inconsistent, and I have just not had a chance yet. I am still planning to post some pictures, even if it has to wait till I get home.

Michael Esh

The Rock Barack River Trip

The Rock Barack River Trip was organized to recreate the a route that Watkin Roberts used to take back in the early 1900’s. He traveled the Barack River by boat and delivered rice and preached along the way.

Before I get into that, one huge highlight of the Centenary for me that I left out of the last post was when I got to represent Watkin Roberts during the carrying in of a page of the 1898 of the Gospel of John. That was the edition that Watkin Roberts first sent to the Hmar tribe. The grandson of the native missionary who accompanied Watkin Roberts, along with some other relatives, and I carried it to the front of the assembly hall and then handed it over to the grandson of the man who was the chief of Senvon at the time of Watkin Roberts. It was a neat experience.

After arriving at our campsite on Monday evening, we set up our tent and ate our dinner. The evening service was already in full swing by the time we got there.

Each day’s schedule was basically the same. The morning service was followed by the morning meal, and then we would load up the boats and head out. There was usually one scheduled stop during the day and then we would arrive at our destination.

Notice that I said one “scheduled” stop. I always knew that Dr. Ro and Mawii were well known and well respected in this region, but I had no idea that it was to this scale. In many of the little villages we passed, people would stand along the banks, just to be able to see Dr. Ro and Mawii pass. And some of the villages wanted them to stop. So we would stop and Dr. Ro would talk to the people from the boat. So besides the scheduled stop each day, there were also a few other stops. And they got a well deserved hero’s welcome at each stop.

On the second night, we camped out at a beautiful spot along the river, and one the third night we stayed at people’s houses in the village of Ankhasu. Our hosts there were awesome, and after two nights of sleeping in a tent along the river, a bed felt really good! On the fourth and final night of the trip, we had a big final service in Hmarkawlien.

Again, words don’t do justice to the experiences we had on the river trip. It was an amazing time with old friends and a great time of meeting new ones.

The next morning (Friday) we flew from Silchar to Imphal and then drove here to Churachandpur where we are now. Churachandpur is when most of the former India Children’s Choir children live and we have been having a great time hanging out with all of them.

Michael