We spent a lot of time in village churches last month in India, which was amazing, and we began to notice several trends that seemed to be universal in our part of the country. I want to share with you the 7 things you’re sure to experience if you happen to be in an Indian village church!
1. If you’re a woman, you’ll cover your head when anyone’s praying. They do it to show the utmost respect to God, but it can take time to get used to/not forget!
When someone started praying, you’d see eight frantic Americans quickly pull their scarf over their heads to avoid a faux pas!
2. As a foreigner and guest, you’ll be shown incredible hospitality…which can even be uncomfortable: for example, the villages made us sit in chairs while everyone else sat on the ground on a tarp. If they go all out, they might even drag out an AC unit out of their house and point it at you!
3. Power outages are a common occurrence. It honestly became normal to us. One time we were eating dinner, and the power went out, so several men from the village came over and held flashlights over us so we could see what we were eating.
4. Everyone loves/uses microphones. We could be in the smallest of churches, but you better believe there would be a whole sound system!
5. Speaking of sound, Indians do not hold back when it comes to their worship! It’s loud and drum heavy, and very very different than western worship. It’s beautiful.
6. Getting to the village will be an adventure in and of itself. Our trips to each village was between 1 and 2 hours and along the way we could experience herds of goats and water buffalo, unpaved bumpy roads, trains, flat tires, and more.
7. You’ll learn to eat the right way.
Dinner in a village has a very specific flow to it with rules you definitely want to follow: wash your hands first, sit down and recieve your plate; put your water bottle on your plate to prevent it from flying away in the fan breeze; receive some rice….and then some more rice; have some super spicy curry poured next to your rice; begin to mix the rice and curry (with your right hand and only your right hand!); figure out how to eat it without utensils; begin to sweat/tear up because of the spiciness; say no several times to more rice/curry; say yes several times to more water; eventually finish eating, fold up your plate, and wash your right hand!
