On a Misson:
INDIA
Photos and story by LOGAN STALEY Design by KAYLA ANDERSON, AUSTIN DUNSTON AND DJ WORTHY
H
ave you ever been handed a baby and had your picture taken by a complete stranger, all because you were European American? If you ever travel to remote parts of India where they have never seen such a person, you can expect this to be a common experience. There are 1.53 billion people who live in the country of India. This is almost four times the population of the United States. When you want to travel to a people this far away you are going to want to invest in a trustworthy plane. A group of men and women with a desire to share the good news of the Gospel formed out of First Baptist Church and committed to traveling East.
8 | Eagle Eye
You leave the 34,000 person town of Cookeville, Tennessee, and head to the Nashville airport early in the morning and start your travel. Over 31 hours of travel chasing after the sun you begin to lose the concept of time. The mixed group of around 10 people left at 6 a.m., travelled over 31 hours by car and a few different planes and landed in a part of the world 11.5 hours ahead of Cookeville. The group packed into an unconditioned mini-bus and began to travel out into the country. With little sleep, your body feels that it is time for bed, but there are still eight hours of daylight left. You have to keep moving. The first location the team arrived at
was a temple of several different Hindu gods. It was seated on the top of a mountain, so there were several flights of stairs to climb. When you arrived at the top you were motioned to remove your shoes before entering the temple. Located around the pavilion there were different carved idols kept behind bars. Inside each little cell, there were coins and incense burning before each of the little idols. “I wasn’t at home anymore. I was blown away by the amount of care these people have for their culture, that on every step there were hand-engraved accents and Hindi script,” a member of the group, Dylan Heath, said in reflection.
