Spreading joy and laughter in India

Dec. 26—Joy and laughter is the message Maggie Valley resident Carolyn Olliff took to India on a recent 10-day journey to the state of Tamil Nadu.

Olliff accompanied her friend and mentor, Cherie Parker, a professor with Moody Bible Institute who has previously been on mission trips in India with Gospel for Nations. The organization is a cross-cultural ministry that takes the gospel of Jesus to the nations of the world, particularly the least-reached nations.

During the three-day flight, they prayed for the nations that are part of the troubling news so often read about as they flew over them — Turkey, Yemen, Ukraine, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

After 40 hours of being awake, they landed in Bengaluru, India, where a pastor with Gospel for Nations met them with a vehicle and interpreter.

On her very first stop in India, Olliff knew the trip was meant to be and that God had her back.

"I left my purse in a bathroom stall. It has my passport, Visa and credit cards, license, phone and everything," she said

The party turned around immediately, but it took about 45 minutes to get back to where she left it. Fortunately, the woman who found the purse had turned it in.

"There was not one thing missing," she said. "It was an incredible gift. If my purse was taken, we would have been at the consulate office, and it would have been a burden to the mission and the trip would have been very different. It's incredible how God works in all things. God is in control."

Olliff said the people in India were very surprised the purse had been turned in because it would have been normal if the entire purse or at least some of the contents had been taken.

"There's more than a billion people in India, so everywhere is very crowded," Olliff said. But, "My first experience in India showed me there was honesty all around and they are a kind-hearted and sweet people."

Connecting with pastors' wives

Only 2% of the Indian population is Christian. Hindu is the dominate religion with 80% and Muslim is 14%.

While Parker and her husband met with Christian pastors in Tamil Nadu, Olliff's task was to meet with the pastors' wives — something that had never been done before by Gospel for Nations.

Olliff's mission was to teach the pastor's wives how to take care of themselves, what it means to be shaped by God and how to be a pillar of support for their husbands and the church.

"It was new for them, being taught to exercise and getting together with other pastor wives," she said. "We made sure the wives had group projects so they could get to know each other because they live in compounds and villages, so they are very separated."

During one of her talks, where Olliff spoke through an interpreter, she shared how her mother would made chores more lively by turning up the music and having the children do the pony as they worked. She re-enacting the 1960s-era dance for the group.

"Their dances in India are very smooth and lateral," she explained. "So they all laughed and laughed when I showed them the pony. That was their favorite part."

She also shared stretching exercises and showed the women how to use their Bibles to do bicep curls — which was a metaphor for how the Bible could improve physical as well as spiritual strength.

"This made them giggle with laughter throughout the room," she said. "The main point was to get them laughing, because great laughter and joy in the Lord is the bottom line. They may not have gotten the moves to the pony, but the joy will be remembered."

Indian culture

In every village they visited, the Americans were treated to either tea or coffee served with cream and sugar. Food included butter chicken, naan flatbread and plenty of vegetable dishes. Oh, and the Kentucky Fried Chicken fare in India is far better than Olliff said she's ever found in the U.S.

The women dress in saris and generally don a head covering when they pray. No shoes are worn, only flip-flops that are always left at the door.

People in India use a bucket of water for bathing instead of a tub or shower. By every toilet, there is a hose for washing as India bathrooms are paperless. (The Americans brought their own toilet paper, however, so didn't have to adapt to the custom.)

"Everybody is right-handed because people use their right hand to eat and their left hand for cleaning their bottoms," Olliff explained, noting her left-handedness drew more than a few stares.

One Indian asked her why nobody had taught her to become right-handed, and thereafter, it became a standing point of laughter as she attempted to eat with her less dominant hand.

During the visits, the group ministered to and honored many pastor wives who had become widows during the pandemic.

"As Christians, the pastors ran into Covid to help those who were ill," she said. "Many died. At every conference, we brought widows up to talk."

There are still leprosy colonies in India, and Olliff and her team visited one with 79 individuals. The modern name for leprosy is Hansen's disease. Had the colony members lived in another country, they would have been able to get medicine to treat the illness and live among the general population.

That's not a priority in India, though. Most with leprosy that Olliff met didn't have fingers and functioned with a club-like fist. Others couldn't walk well and many had cataracts. The Christian community has been providing surgeries to straighten their hands and feet or correct their vision, but it is only treating the problem after the fact.

Leprosy has a stigma in India and is still associated with sin by some. The country has the largest number of individuals in the world living with leprosy.

"Leprosy is curable, but they don't have medication. Between the water supply, living conditions and no meds, they have to live in their own colony," Olliff said, explaining those with leprosy are only contagious if there's an open wound.

While visiting, the team not only brought a Christian message but offered counseling, something Olliff is trained in. She has her own counseling practice in Haywood County.

What the community has is each other, which means everything to them, she added.

"People in Hindu neighborhoods don't really bother churches, but if, they say to a church, 'Don't go there, the church won't go there," she said. "The Christians are good about running into the community to meet the needs. Pastors serve the leper colony, Hindus don't. Christians run into hard situations and go dangerous places."

Is there another mission trip to India in the works soon? Time will tell.

"I've been throughout the Middle East, and I felt less trepidation there because India is a relatively a peaceful culture," she said. "I would go back."

But one thing is for certain. The success of the effort to provide training for the pastors' wives has ensured a new path has been forged.