Water and Light...

Last week, i had the privilege to baptizing a gentleman named Kassi. Kassi is the village elder for the small community of Irula with whom we have the great opportunity to partner near the town of Kalavai in Southern India. This was not only a tremendous event in Kassi's life, but for the life of the village as a whole since Kassi holds so much influence within it.

To illustrate, Kassi is the gentleman who, on one of my last trips to his village, said with great passion to me as we prepared to leave, "You know... the word 'Irula' actually means 'People of Darkness'. And for many hundreds of years, we have been People of Darkness. We have had no Hope. But now, that is no longer the case. Rather, since Pastor Sam (the indigenous church planter with whom we work), the teams from Life Mission, and GCC have begun to come and to help us... well... NOW, we are the People of Light! The Darkness is fading away, and the Light is coming!"

Indeed, the Light is coming... and Kassi is a part of it as it illuminates this small community of the truly "least of the least" in Indian culture. We are privileged to be part of that transformation with him, and look forward to seeing how we can continue to partner with them to bring Up There Down Here!