The Bus on the Way

FROM ANGHELIKA

It was Friday, February 12, 2010: field trip day to Planetarium, 10am

I'm sitting in the very bouncy back of the bus. Even though there is a lot of activity on the bus-  dancing, music and singing, (no stay-in-your-seat safety rules here) I am looking out the window. So much to see, and always something new. It is such a visually dense place: in any one square inch you can see the hem of a one-of-a-kind sari, a part of a cow, a bare foot, a tiny shop with tiny yellow cakes, and a thick plastic bag. I am trying to block out the noise on the bus.

Inside the bus, snack time is announced and the kids dig into their packs for food. As kids peel wrappers, you hear Teacher Deborah shout out, "Don't throw trash out the window! Don't throw trash out the window! It goes in the trash bag." Justin, the school's caretaker and minivan driver, pulls out a big blue plastic bag from the overhead shelf and ties it to the pole at the back door of the bus. One by one, kids stumble to the back of the bus to put their scraps in the bag.

From what I have seen of Chennai and Mahabalapurim, trash is thrown out anywhere and everywhere. Your eye cannot avoid it. Cows are often seen rummaging through roadside trash with a plastic bag stuck in their teeth. It makes me gag every time I see it. Yet here, 55 kids are learning to throw their trash in a trash receptacle, not outside on the ground.

Not only are these kids barreling along on the bus against such bad habits, but these kids are barreling against the culture in other ways too: just this week we observed how they are learning to think differently from the culture. 

At the academy we saw lots of progressive thinking. Out with rote memorization, in with the empowerment of making discoveries. Out with confusing idols, in with Jesus Christ. Out with restrictive social systems and limited opportunities, in with understanding we are God's own creation made in his image and made for his purposes.

The previous four days, I had the pleasure and honor of teaching these children and teachers that each one of them is a beloved creation of God, that Jesus came to reconcile them to God by forgiving sin and offering God’s perspective to life, that He is their good shepherd and teacher who watches over them for all time, and that they are empowered to do God's work by the Holy Spirit!

How will they turn out?

India will take generations to change. It will take the Gospel and much more accessible and forward thinking educational ideas to change its habits and old, suppressive belief and value systems that harm people, animals and the environment. 

However, these 55 kids on this bus, they are at the beginning of it.