Day at the Church of North India in Delhi

Day at CNI by Geunhee Yu

We left Newark airport by Continental Airlines at 8:45pm on Monday, March 8. Having flown 14 hours straight to get to Delhi at 9:30pm on Tuesday, Marcy 9, Vijay, the Global Ministries Southern Asia area executive, welcomed us at the airport. When we checked into the YMCA hostel it was 11:30pm. We already lost one day because it was time to go to bed. We all didn’t sleep well because of taking several long naps on the 14 hour plane ride. We got up early Wednesday morning in spite of our lack of sleep to participate in the morning chapel service at the Church of North India (CNI) headquarters. The CNI is a union of 6 denominations which included the Disciples of Christ. About 50 CNI staff and visiting pastors attended the service in which I (Geunhee) preached on Acts 3:1-10 “Rise up and Walk!” During our visit at the CNI headquarters a seminar for CNI ministers was held on “Dalit and Tribal Pastoral Praxis.” We were welcome and included at the seminar by the General Secretary of the CNI. One of the CNI ministers placed a stole upon each of us as a part of that welcome. After listening to several of the pastors share their stories about how they were dealing with Dalit and Tribal discrimination in their congregations, we each had the opportunity to share our stories on the challenges of the Disciples racial/ethnic ministries in the U.S. and Canada. We learned that about 80% of the CNI church population comes from the Dalit which is the lowest caste, the “untouchables” in India. Discrimination against Dalits and Tribals is a serious challenge to the church’s ministry. Our sharing enriched the conversation and helped us understand the evils of the “caste” system in both of our respective ministry contexts. On our way back to the YMCA hostel we visited one of the CNI projects in the “red light” district of Delhi. There they are providing an after-school and evening program for the children of sex workers. Their hope is that through providing this safe space with extra educational help these children will be able to liberate themselves from the oppressive environment in which they are forced to grow up.