This is where the 11th guru stays during the day – the Sikh holy scriptures. The scriptures are taken out of the temple each day in order for the guru (the scripture book) to rest, and brought back into this “holy of holies” each morning. No cameras, cell phones, etc are to be used in this area of worship, which is essentially a man-made island in the middle of the lake of holy water in the center of the Golden Temple in Amristsar, India.
Home sweet home
This the home of our driver in Amritsar and Firojpur. His mother, wife, oldest brother and his wife, 2 young children and a baby, live in this home. The courtyard in the foreground is their work area, garage, and home to their 3 cows. This entire family is a believing family with incredibly strong faith. The Mother is proud of her son who serves many pastors and guests by driving them around. Pray for our young friend – it appears that he lives in Firojpur in order to serve, but his wife and young son live here – far out in the country. It was an emotional site for us to watch him greet his wife and son – it was truly a homecoming, but it is obvious that his wife needs him – she was very sad.
Our first impromptu listening group in Punjab
After lunch at Pastor Howell’s home (in Firojpur, Punjab, India), a women’s bible study group listens to a drama on the issues around female infanticide in northern India. Even in this country where there are no laws prohibiting multiple children (such as China), this issue is large in certain states of India, as the Hindu culture puts such a high priority on the need for a son who can light the fire of his parents funeral pyre when the time comes.
This picture is taken in their rear courtyard, or carport, as it appears with various motor scooters. Young men look on – not just because of the young women, but fascinated by the audio player perched on the seat of the second bike.
India shows Pakistan how its done
Each night at sundown, the Indian and Pakistani border guards put on an amazing show of lowering their respective flags, which are no more than 10 meters apart. 5 guards from each country take turns marching toward each other in a ferocious manner and then retreating with tough looking faces and gestures; appearing to dare the other to cross the border (which is a painted line at that point). As the only white man in the crowd, I was given a seat of honor in the gallery to watch this incredible spectacle. As my friend, Raja, told me – “It would not be hospitable of us to keep an obvious guest of our country from watching this event in the VIP section”. Indian and Pakistani crowds in their respective galleries cheer their guards at each stage.
SOS Audio
We just launched SOS Audio as a new initiative to promote the needs of programs in 5 countries that we’ve highlighted. This is by no means an exhaustive list of countries we’re working in, but it’s a start!
Mao's Restaurant
The Mao family restaurant certainly had good food, but frankly it was a bit strange to see the honoring of a man who we have considered controversial at best and responsible for the opression and deaths of many, at worst.
Home of our SD Cards
In case you’d like to see some of the places where we buy our technology, this is the SD card manufacturing plant in Shenzhen, China. Most of the workers are at lunch, but there are a few still here on this shift.
Sunday Morning Sunshine
As we were driving 4 hours northeast out of Dhaka, I was struck by the absolute beauty of the fog hanging over the rice paddies.
TWR and T4G Make Plans for the Future
What a way to begin the year – laying out plans with new partners!
Pictured from left – Kyle McLellan (T4G), Pete McLain (CEO of T4G), Tom Tatlow (Trans World Radio), and Tom Watkins (Trans World Radio).
Mozambique and Indonesia, here we come!
Nepal Partnership
A new partnership is formed! T4 Global cannot be effective in and will not work in a country without good indigenous partners. We really don’t implement “T4 Global” projects…we help our indigenous partners implement their projects to help their communities. True Neighbor Nepal (TNN) and Himalayan United Christian Fellowship Nepal (HUCFN) are two of our partners implementing training initiatives in the Himalayan mountain region in Nepal, with our assistance. We have finished the first pilot project in Nepal and had our first meeting to begin planning for a larger scale up project in 2008. This picture is in the home of Dwarika (right holding his son) in Kathmandu.