M@tch's bloggo

All Nations Church Sunday 22, 2011
http://anconline.org/index1.html

Following Jesus in the Hindu world... w/Raghav Krishna.... a coffeehouse interview style

Talking about daily prayers and rituals... the Pugham (sp) way...
Prayer room dedicated in the house...
The hindu way has values w belief in god... "high caste" in their society... 
He's from a low middle class upbringing.
God was very lofty to him... the ultimate... and this life wasn't all... he seeked god... he spent time in the prayer room.
General life- as a child he used his pencil box as a prayer room but as he got older he started to see hypocrisy.
Community society values growing up. Low individualism. Its apart of everything.
Instilled in various ways. 
Hindu defined. As deep rooted as gender. Community identity. From their names u can tell where they're from. Their beliefs are diverse- poly and monotheist. They believe in open-minded ways. Social identity. 
Being a Christian is shameful thing in their families.
The history of Christians in India. Fictional explanations are the examples. In Ballywood movies Christians are the villains... the Hindu culture rejects Christians.. they believe their immoral. 
Christians were seen as pushy..sly & cunning.
Moslems were militant. 
He came to faith in Christ... 
He was shocked that some Christians were not forceful. Seeing the difference between faith and actions were wide. 5 or 6 out of 100 made an impact on him. He was looking for ppl living a truly spiritual life...
Compared authenticity in Christians to Hindus. Saw evidence in different ppl. 
His first year he didn't understand who Jesus was. But then found him and during an exceptional hard time went through a honeymoon period.
He found Jesus's teaching very drawing. He knew something real and powerful about Jesus. And authenticity. After two or three years his polytheistic thinking faded to just Jesus. Learning about Jesus and the Bible left the others to become irrelevant.
Learning the Jesus loved him was the top point.
Basic things spoke to him.
Host families spoke to him. He had a big challenge- it was scary. Assimilating was important to him.the idea of community identity was difficult. Unit social settings was foreign for him w Christians. He had to put down Hindu community. 
He visited India... 3 days... Christian Hindus offended him. Made him uncomfortable. He had to find community. Separating Christ from Christianity. He's a Hindu Christa bukta. Christ follower. He was born into a Hindu family- his birthright. The spiritual identity is Christa bukti. His beliefs come from the Bible. It's inerrant. Jesus is the only way and is needed for all peoples. 
The Hindu community can accept u if u follow Christ. Christianity can be separated from following him. He has to really communicate that. It's a work in progress. 
Advice for people who have a heart for rea hing other people. Try to live an authentic life and love your neighbor. Reach out to coworkers. Take small steps. Don't be afraid to make mistakes and invest in long term relationships. Approach in Bangladar would work w coaching and background work. Connecting w Bukdas. 

Pray for him. He's going back July 3rd. 
Communicating to his neighbors is very important. That God would prepare ppls hearts there. So they could befriend them. His family. For how he could express his faith to his family.