Beshert just does not cover it!!

Beshert..just does not cover it!!!

Sunday..I preached two services at a CSI (Church of South India) Telegu church. This is a liberal inclusive Protestant including Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran and Baptist. Several of the students from UTC with whom I had become friendly served at this church. There was a small English service..maybe 50 people, but the 9:30 service in Telegu was packed with several hundred..nearly one thosand, outside watching on two tv screens. The entire service was in Telegu the dialect of Andhra Pradesh…these people had moved to Karnataka but worshiped in their own dialect. I used Isaiah 42:6, a light to the nations. There had been a dinner in my honor from the Biblical Studies dept and then coffee with some profs…then I packed. Needless to say, I did not write a sermon, but gave one…Victor, a wonderful new friend, translated the basic ideas of my sermon, in Telegu…I am certain was better than mine.

Just before the second service began, a German walked into the senior pastors’ office, he had been visiting areas in southern Karnatka which had been devastated by floods. We introduced ourselves to each other, he told me of many Jewish friends. Then he told me how the synagogue in his small town still stood and that he had been privately owned. I asked what that meant..he explained that someone on Stuttgard had bought it for the land and wanted to tear it down. The gov’t of both the state and Republic had denied him the right saying that the synagogue was German heritage. The gov’t paid for the synagogue’s complete rehabbing over 10 years at which point the owner, asked for the key back. The town has been fight him for 4 years in court but he wants a lot of money now for them to buy it. At this point we now need to enter the sanctuary for the service…which was entirely in Telegu…so all I thought about was how am I going to help this Lutheran Pastor and his town save this synagogue. The pastor and his town care for the Jewish cemeteries in the area. They have photographed all of the tombstones…and put them on line…in Hebrew, German and transliteration. After he told me how much he appreciated my sermon..I told him how much I appreciated meeting him and that I promised that I would help him free the synagogue from this legal limbo. Okay…maybe, just maybe, I was SUPPOSED to come to India for 2 months ONLY to meet Pastor Rolf Hoche! I need something else to do…some more $$$ to raise…another passionate distraction, since I don’t have enough. Imagine…helping a Lutheran German pastor acquire the rights to a saved shul…because we met in a Telegu Church in Bangalore! You believe this story don’t you???

I wish that was all that happened today…but after the service, the pastor surprised me by taking me to a Jewish burial ground which is now maintained by two Muslims! Really, I am not making this up. The land was donated in 1904 by the then King of Mysore, the last grave was in 2002. There is ONE Jew left in Bangalore from the original six families. He is married to a Northern Indian woman (not Jewish) but pays for the cemetery to be maintained. We called but he was out…next time! The synagogue once a home, is now a hotel….next time! I said Kaddish in the Jewish Burial Ground in Bangalore India…after preaching in an all Telegu service and meeting a Lutheran pastor who is trying to save a shul in his town. I would believe anyone telling me this story…I could not get the Sunday NY Times…had nothing else to do. Beshert just does NOT cover it.!!!