Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

Can you help?

I’ve promised to follow up What You Wanted To KNOW About Student Blogging with a post that  focuses on responses to more general blogging questions.

The aim of the post will be to help educators and students with their personal blogging.

But first I really love to know what you really want to know about blogging or have always wanted to ask.

Please leave a comment to tell me the questions you would like answered about blogging such as:

1. What would you like to know more about?
2. What have you always wondered or been trying to work out?
3. What have you been struggling with?

And to make sure I don’t miss any really important topics

– please feel free to also share your most important tips for new bloggers.

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reflections in kerala

Our final stop in southern India was Cochin, located in the state of Kerala. It’s referred to as “God’s Own Country,” because it’s simply that beautiful. The language is Malayalam and it is the most non-Hindu state in India, with only 40% of the population claiming Hinduism. Our time there was one of Sabbath and tourism, spending one day doing each. On the Saturday of our time, we were given a Sabbath day. Some of us slept in, some of us journaled, some of us watched television. We did gather for a time in the morning to discuss the nature of ‘mission’ and its role in the Kingdom. It was an excellent conversation about roles and vision, grace and community. That night was also the night of the EPIC game of Telepictionary, which resulted in Andy’s new nickname.

Sunday was a definitive tourism day. We went to the oldest church in India, visited Vasco DeGama’s grave, helped some fisherman bring in their catch, toured old castles from the time of the Dutch and took in a cultural theater experience that evening. We also had the opportunity to visit Jewtown, which is literally an Orthodox Jewish community nestled in amongst Cochin. The synagogue there is the oldest among the British empire. It’s random and beautiful. (Side note: one of my Jewish friends and I were talking before I left and I told him I was going to Jewtown. He responded that it’s not an authentic Jewish community unless there are bagels and nagging mothers. I saw neither, so take that for what it’s worth.)

By the time we finished in Cochin, I was anxious to head north. The cultures in each Indian state are diverse (much like Phoenix and Atlanta have different cultures), but the divide between north and south is strong. There is significantly more Western influence down south – mostly due to the various East India Companies that settled and prospered there. Besides the British, no other country penetrated the north, and they did very little cultural change there.

So, onto the photo tour of our time in Cochin. Because of the cultural shifting point, this provides a great opportunity to pause. The next post will be a brief introduction to Hinduism, followed by a quick history of India which I’ve been meaning to type since before I left and then onto Jaipur.

This is Katie, CJ and Stroope playing in the Arabian Sea. We gathered on Saturday evening on the beach to watch the sunset.

Sunset on the Arabian Sea. My life is ridiculous.

See the above link for further explanation – but this is how they fish in Cochin. They let tourist come onto the platform and pull up the nets.

Gates of the synagogue. Pictures were not allowed inside, clearly.

Signage in the city

This is one of the more ridiculous stories from the trip. In Cochin at the resort we stayed at, we were offered the opportunity to do ayurvedic massages. Thinking this would be super relaxing, Mike, Kari and I signed up. Instead of a massage, it was an oil bath and instead of relaxing, it was traumatic. But, as they say, bad decisions make good stories!

I have no words to describe Kathakali. Theater, culture, awkward… all appropriate words. I’m going to let Wikipedia take this one.