(Reposting from day 1 – it got lost somehow)

Soap. Soup. Salvation.

That’s what the pastor at Broadway/Arcot Lutheran Church in Chennai told Karen today. It is what our Grandfathers did. We do the same thing. Soap – provide healing, care, personal needs, loving our neighbors as Christ told us to do. Caring for them in the most basic of ways. Soup – feeding the body, and so many of them around Chennai need food. Living authentic, genuine love for others. Salvation – and when they ask why, telling them it is because Christ told us to.

It doesn’t have the fancy affect of lights and music and big, publicity laden plans. Soap, soup, and salvation. It is simple. It is hard, because it involves genuine love and relationship and ongoing commitment. There is no hook. It is for the long haul, because you aren’t tricking or demanding anything in return; you are just being who you are. A follower of Christ with a genuine heart for the world.

It took years for Arcot Lutheran Church on Broadway (the congregation after which the diocese is named) to receive even one person by baptism. Those same 5 initial missionaries simply kept the faith and loved and fed those around them, steadily trusting that whatever happened is in God’s hands.

How quickly we want results these days – in any endeavor. Show me now, make it happen now, funding depends on it.

But what we met today was depth. It was genuine. It was steady and trusting and clear. It was faith.

They live it in their hospitality: “I saw God in the way they welcomed us.” (Elyse O, 15, Rock Island)

They live it in gentle boldness: “We’re supposed to keep this (our itinerary) quiet, and Bishop showed up to welcome us in his robe, his cross, everything, right there at the airport!” (Cole B, 18, Rockford) (There is a clear and dramatic increase in anti-Christian sentiment in the government.)

They live it. Period.