Thomas Taylor Ministries

Highlights from Mission to Nagaland, India

March 16 - 29, 2009

City of Dimapur to visit Spirit of Faith International Church and Bible School

(see the pictures below)

I went, by myself this time, to visit a friend John Roughton and to minister in his church and Bible school. Normally I would have had someone go with me but it did not work out that way on this occasion. This was both the best and worst missions trip I have ever taken! What a trip it was! I left from Virginia on the 16th and arrived in Kolkata, India on the 18th. Then I got up early on the 19th to take an Indian Airways flight from Kolkata to Dimapur, Nagaland, India.

Unfortunately, I did not need to get up early because the flight was delayed by two hours. That began the worst experience of my entire life! Because of the flight was delay we could not land in Dimapur because a haze covered the landing runway, therefore, we diverted to another city far to the north called Guahati. Imagine landing in the wrong city, no cell phone, you cannot communicate with anyone, and they tell you "we're sorry but there are no flights going from here to where you wanted to go." However, God's grace was sufficient. I used another guy's cell phone to call John to tell him the situation and he recommended I stay in a hotel. Everyone on the plane decided to take a train to get to Dimapur and some were going the next morning so I would go with them. They spoke a little English but it was so bad it might as well had been Hindi. I wrote the following in my journal thinking this was the worse day of my life...it was, up to that point, but the next day got much much worse:

You have not lived life until you have landed in Calcutta India and at 1:15am had to get a taxi and hotel. When you walk in the door of the hotel the man behind the counter lays down and goes back to bed behind the counter…without helping you.

You have not lived life until you have taken a cold shower in a Calcutta , India hotel.

You have not lived life until you have gotten to the airport the next morning three hours early because you cannot sleep to catch another plane that was over two more hours late and during that whole five hours everyone looks at you like you were from Mars and you might as well be because you cannot understand what anyone is saying.

You have not lived life until you board said plane and it never makes it to its destination city.

You have not lived life until said plane that was to bring you to your only friends in India takes you to another city far far away because of cloudy weather and, when you get there, they let everyone out and say, "There are no more flights to where you were going. We'll just give you your money back here…good luck, you are on your own now!"

You have not lived life until you don't know where you are in India and even if people tell you the name of where you are, you could not pronounce the name of the city or remember it three seconds later.

You have not lived life until every Indian person on said plane is trying to figure out what to do to make the airline take them to the correct city but you are even more clueless than the Indians because you don't understand a word.

You have not lived life until you landed in said foreign city and have no phone signal to call your friends in the correct destination city.

You have not lived life until you find people on said plane who have a plan and, since you are clueless and don't understand the language, you just follow them hoping it will get you to where you are going.

You have not lived life until four guys (and the driver) with several bags each all attempt to get into an Indian taxi the size of a coffee table.

You have not lived life until several mesmerized crazed Hindus are running down the streets of India , with painted faces and drumming, follow behind a pickup truck carrying a Hindu god the size of said pickup truck and they don't like said taxi you are riding in.

You have not lived life until you realize it is getting dark at said time and you are half-an-hour into the middle of said unknown unpronounceable city not knowing where you are going with four people you don't know (reminder…still no phone signal)

You have not lived life until said taxi hits a pedestrian pulling a cart. (Lightly thank God; it is not unusual that if a car seriously hits a pedestrian or cow an angry mob burns the driver and the car.)

You have not lived life until you turn down some back alley at dusk to go to a hotel in India in said taxi with said people you don't know with hundreds of people lining the streets…and still no phone signal.

You have not lived life until you get to said hotel and it is a decent hotel, and you get the opportunity to get a good warm shower and some rest in said hotel and the guys you don't know become your friends, and they let you borrow their phone so you can contact you other friends in India to tell them you will be taking a six hour train ride in the morning to meet them. Not so bad after all.

The people I am with in the hotel told me they bought tickets for their seats on the train at the airport already and that I could get a ticket at the train station since there were 500 seats available. So I go to the train station early in the morning to get a ticket and I found out 500 seats can be gone in a very short amount of time. I could talk for days about what happened at that Guahati train station. It was just awful.

For example, I get in a line. There are no signs explaining the trains, times, destinations, or which line to stand in so I just picked one. After I get to the teller they say in horrible English that I am in the wrong line. They point to the longest line and say to go to that one. I get in that one. I get close to the teller and I realize everyone has a little piece of paper that I do not have. You guessed it; I needed a paper to get on the train. Close to the teller everyone is in a rugby match yelling and waiving their paper and money begging for a seat. Just as I am about to enter the rugby fray the teller gets up and walks away. She doesn't explain anything. No signs explain anything. We are to conclude that since she walked away there are no more seats available. I missed the train. Great! This was the worst day of my life! The events after this would take too much time to explain. If you ever see me in person and have a few hours, I'd be glad to tell you all about it.

The short version is I spent the next three hours trying to get a ticket for the next available train. After much avail I got one! I come back hours later to get on the train and....it is cancelled. Mine was the only one cancelled due to a bomb that exploded near the train route. Great! Well, at that point I was so out-of-it I just laughed that my train was cancelled. I didn't even care. At that point God performed a wonderful act of grace. Through a friend of a friend of a friend kinda thing, another Christian named Ajau was living in that city who saved me. She came and found me and took me to her home, gave me a hot meal, and went and got a ticket for me. Praise God for Ajau! I show a picture of her below. She is the angel of Guahati. I got on a train around midnight and traveled overnight, sleeping, on the train for about 5 hours. Boy was John glad to see me that next morning!

Once I got to John, it was like going from hell to heaven for me. It was so wonderful. They took care of me and from then on I had no problems. I ministered, after a couple days of rest, in the church and taught for four days in the Bible school 6 hours a day. For this reason it was the best missions trip I ever had. It was extremely productive, even though I got there late, and the Word of God abounded. The students were so hungry and on-fire for God! Hallelujah! They are going to do great things for their nation. Thanks to everyone who prayed for me! I needed it! And thanks to all who gave financial support; your seed will abound unto many being added to the Kingdom of God and changed.

John Roughton is doing an awesome work in Nagaland!!! Check out John and the church I visited here.

John Roughton and Spirit of Faith Church

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