More about our trip - Steve

"Where exactly are you going?" I get asked that a lot. We are going to visit Ricky Gootam in the port city of Kakinada (sometimes spelled Kakinda) in the State of Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India.

Kakinada is about the same size as Tulsa and it's on the East coast on India on the Bay of Bengal. I've attached a link to a lousy map of India (the only thing worse was all of the other maps of India I found on-line). If you click on the map, it will blow it up so you can actually read it (Clay will still need his bifocals!). In the blown up version, Kakinada is visible just to the left of the first "B" in "Bay of Bengal." http://www.geographicguide.net/asia/maps/india-map.jpg

The local language spoken is Telugu. Although most Americans have never heard of it, Telugu is one of the 15 most spoken languages in the world (native to 74 million people--almost all in Andhra Pradesh). Andhra Pradesh has a population of about 76 million people (about 1/4 of the entire US population) and is only the 4th most populous state in India! India's total population is over 1.1 billion (about 3.5 times the US population)--second only to China and expected to surpass China within a few years.

Andhra Pradesh is 89% Hindu, 9% Muslim and 1% Christian (with 1% of "Other"). As fast as the church is growing there, it is still a drop in a very large bucket.

We will be flying into the city of Visakhapatnam (via Chicago, London and New Delhi), a couple of hours north of Kakinada. On the way back, we reserve that route, except we fly non-stop from New Delhi to Chicago--about 15 hours, over the North Pole I believe. I don't know exactly where we will we going while we are there, but I know we will be spending one day in Rajahmundry (visiting a preacher, Suman Singh, whom Derek and I have corresponded with by e-mail for a couple of years) and 4 days "in the jungle." We plan to lodge at Ricky's house except for the 4 days in the jungle, where we will be staying in hotels.

Our objectives for the trip are to learn more about Ricky's work and how 29th & Yale can help in that work, encourage the church there, use the funds our brethren here have entrusted to us to bless our brethren there and preach the Gospel. We also hope that the folks back here will be encouraged and excited by the faith of our Indian brethren and the amazing things God is accomplishing over there.

Four days and counting!