Enjoy!!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Pictures
For those of you who do not read this blog on FaceBook, here are the links for the pictures of the trip:
Saturday, April 10, 2010
My Time Back In Churachandpur
As I mentioned the last time, after we finished the work project in Hmarkawlien, I went back to Churachandpur again.
For the first week, a large part of my time was spent in the studio. I had mentioned in an earlier post that we were working on a recording project with Grace, Jerry, and Christina. They are from Shillong, but were in Churachandpur for a few weeks so we could finish the project. The' Evangelical Free Church of India (the church denomination that Dr. Ro and Mawii started) had its annual general assembly a week after I got back to Churachandpur, and the CD was scheduled to release there on Saturday morning. We worked hard in the studio all week, and by Friday morning we were down to one more song to record. There was only one problem... the musician who was making the soundtracks for all of our songs was busy and, even though he had bent over backwards to help us try to get the project done in time, he had no time to finish the final track. I finally found another musician who was willing to help us out. He dropped everything he was doing that day and recorded the final track for us. We went directly from his studio over to the other studio where we had been recording and did the vocals for that final song. We finished around 4:00 PM, and the engineer worked on the editing until 9:00 PM. The duplicating and printing company picked the master as soon as it was done. They duplicated and packaged all night, and we released the CD at 10:00 the next morning! And it didn't turn out too bad. We were able to do a full 14 song album. It will be released in the United States, hopefully around the end of May. I will let everyone know when it is available.
General Assembly started on Friday night and lasted until Sunday night. Watkin Roberts' (the missionary who brought the Gospel to the Hmar tribe 100 years ago) son and wife arrived in Seilmat on Friday afternoon and were given a huge welcome. The depth of appreciation and respect that the Hmar people have for the Roberts family is amazing.
The 2010 General Assembly was another huge celebration of the Gospel Centenary. Is was a great weekend of worship, singing, dancing, and celebrating. There was another huge feast on Saturday afternoon... 19 cows, 10 pigs, and 100 chickens were killed and cooked. Three hundred cooks worked for two days to prepare everything. They told me it took two pigs just to feed the cooks!
On the Monday following the Assembly was the Trinity College and Seminary graduation. Dr. Paul Robers (Watkin Roberts' son) gave the convocation address to the graduates, most of whom were getting ready to do one of three things... further studies, becoming a pastor, or going to the mission field. After the convocation, the school students from Seilmat Christian Higher Secondary School (Bibles For The World's largest school) put on a performance for all the visiting guests.
After Assembly was over, my time in Seilmat was pretty laid back... the kids were in school, so there was not a whole lot to do during the day. After school, I typically went to one of the kid's houses for the evening.
One highlight during that time was my visit to Northeast Children's Home there in Churachandpur. A friend had asked me to go visit the place. NECH is an orphanage... they have close to sixty kids who live there. They also run a school there at the campus. I had a wonderful time there with the kids and the staff of the children's home. The place seems to be very well run, it's one of the cleanest places I have seen in Northeast India, and the kids are excellent singers! NECH will definitely be a regular stop during my visits to India from now on.
I left Churachandpur on March 18 and flew to Calcutta. I spent the night there and then flew to Chiang Mai, Thailand the next day. A good friend of mine lives there, so we spent a few days in Chiang Mai and then took a 24 hour bus ride to Pnohm Pehn, Cambodia, where we spent another week. After leaving there, I spent another day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and then arrived back in the United States last week.
It was another incredible trip... especially the India portion of it, and the experience of celebrating the coming of the Gospel to the Hmar tribe with the people whose ancestors were headhunters just a few generations ago, was something that I don't think my friends and I will ever forget!
Michael Esh
For the first week, a large part of my time was spent in the studio. I had mentioned in an earlier post that we were working on a recording project with Grace, Jerry, and Christina. They are from Shillong, but were in Churachandpur for a few weeks so we could finish the project. The' Evangelical Free Church of India (the church denomination that Dr. Ro and Mawii started) had its annual general assembly a week after I got back to Churachandpur, and the CD was scheduled to release there on Saturday morning. We worked hard in the studio all week, and by Friday morning we were down to one more song to record. There was only one problem... the musician who was making the soundtracks for all of our songs was busy and, even though he had bent over backwards to help us try to get the project done in time, he had no time to finish the final track. I finally found another musician who was willing to help us out. He dropped everything he was doing that day and recorded the final track for us. We went directly from his studio over to the other studio where we had been recording and did the vocals for that final song. We finished around 4:00 PM, and the engineer worked on the editing until 9:00 PM. The duplicating and printing company picked the master as soon as it was done. They duplicated and packaged all night, and we released the CD at 10:00 the next morning! And it didn't turn out too bad. We were able to do a full 14 song album. It will be released in the United States, hopefully around the end of May. I will let everyone know when it is available.
General Assembly started on Friday night and lasted until Sunday night. Watkin Roberts' (the missionary who brought the Gospel to the Hmar tribe 100 years ago) son and wife arrived in Seilmat on Friday afternoon and were given a huge welcome. The depth of appreciation and respect that the Hmar people have for the Roberts family is amazing.
The 2010 General Assembly was another huge celebration of the Gospel Centenary. Is was a great weekend of worship, singing, dancing, and celebrating. There was another huge feast on Saturday afternoon... 19 cows, 10 pigs, and 100 chickens were killed and cooked. Three hundred cooks worked for two days to prepare everything. They told me it took two pigs just to feed the cooks!
On the Monday following the Assembly was the Trinity College and Seminary graduation. Dr. Paul Robers (Watkin Roberts' son) gave the convocation address to the graduates, most of whom were getting ready to do one of three things... further studies, becoming a pastor, or going to the mission field. After the convocation, the school students from Seilmat Christian Higher Secondary School (Bibles For The World's largest school) put on a performance for all the visiting guests.
After Assembly was over, my time in Seilmat was pretty laid back... the kids were in school, so there was not a whole lot to do during the day. After school, I typically went to one of the kid's houses for the evening.
One highlight during that time was my visit to Northeast Children's Home there in Churachandpur. A friend had asked me to go visit the place. NECH is an orphanage... they have close to sixty kids who live there. They also run a school there at the campus. I had a wonderful time there with the kids and the staff of the children's home. The place seems to be very well run, it's one of the cleanest places I have seen in Northeast India, and the kids are excellent singers! NECH will definitely be a regular stop during my visits to India from now on.
I left Churachandpur on March 18 and flew to Calcutta. I spent the night there and then flew to Chiang Mai, Thailand the next day. A good friend of mine lives there, so we spent a few days in Chiang Mai and then took a 24 hour bus ride to Pnohm Pehn, Cambodia, where we spent another week. After leaving there, I spent another day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and then arrived back in the United States last week.
It was another incredible trip... especially the India portion of it, and the experience of celebrating the coming of the Gospel to the Hmar tribe with the people whose ancestors were headhunters just a few generations ago, was something that I don't think my friends and I will ever forget!
Michael Esh
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