Church in India

On Sunday I made the trip to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, of which I am a member of, located in the basement of a large business building. Surprisingly, when I arrived the service was all done in English including the hymns and the lessons. I was amazed at the strength of the branch which was completely ran by native Indians. While there they were preparing two young men to go and serve missions within the next couple of weeks who stood up and bore their testimony of the church. We were then entreated by two wonderful and entertaining talks of a Mother, daughter duo: Sister Margaret and Sister Ursala. I was impressed with the strength of spirit among the members. During the Sunday School lesson Sister Margaret shared her powerful testimony of the the atonement of Christ as she taught us about the Crucifixion of Christ. After our meetings we were then further blessed with the opportunity to see the baptism of a young American boy, John, whose father works at the U.S. Embassy in Chennai. It was a very special day and service at church, I definitely felt right at home and had the opportunity to meet some volunteers of Rising Star Outreach including those who are here long term such as the volunteer coordinators and those volunteers who were leaving the program. It was exhilarating to connect with fellow Brothers and Sisters of the church as well as interact with fellow Americans once again. The reunion gave me great hopes of encouragement that I made the right decision to come to India and work for Rising Star Outreach.
I would also like to briefly talk about my trip I made on Saturday to Chinamalai where a Church was built over the cave where St. Thomas supposedly stayed and then ran away from while escaping an attack of Brahman Priests only later to be killed on a Mount about 2 km from the site by being pierced by a spear. Along the wall near a tiny hole where he escaped a hand print can be seen which is rumored to be the hand print of Thomas himself. Also in the cave was a very red rock which also supposedly contains the footprint of Thomas. Near the cave was a holy spring where as the story goes was a place that Thomas with a staff hit a rock and water came out. Similar to the story Moses. However, it was very difficult to see the spring since the door to the site was locked and through the windows it was very dark. Along the site of the Church there were several statues depicting scenes from the life of Jesus especially his final hours of torture, crucifixion and burial. This was quite a remarkable site to see. The pictures below are from this Catholic Church where the cave is.