Borneo Briefings (Madras/Chennai Outpost) Autumn 2015 Exploring New Countries This article of Borneo Briefings is coming to you from … India! Our visas to work in Malaysia expired on September 1, and before we can apply for new ones we must be away from Malaysia for 90 days. With such a big block of time, we needed somewhere to go. Thankfully, Gurukul Lutheran Theological College offered us a place to stay during this time. Gurukul is a Lutheran seminary in Chennai, a large city in southern India formerly known as Madras. It works with the many different Lutheran churches in India, as well as a range of other
Transcript
Borneo Briefings(Madras/Chennai Outpost)
Autumn 2015
Exploring New CountriesThis article of Borneo Briefings is coming to you from … India! Our visas to work in Malaysia
expired on September 1, and before we can apply for new ones we must be away from Malaysia for 90 days. With such a big block of time, we needed somewhere to go. Thankfully, Gurukul Lutheran Theological College offered us a place to stay during this time. Gurukul is a Lutheran seminary in Chennai, a large city in southern India formerly known as Madras. It works with the many different Lutheran churches in India, as well as a range of other churches, such as the Church of South India. The Church of South India is a union of Presbyterian, Anglican, and Methodist churches. We are in India until mid-December. We have tourist visas here, and not work visas. This limits what we are able to do somewhat, but we are still able to visit with churches, talk with students and pastors, and assist with some class sessions. The community here has been incredibly welcoming to us.
There are certainly some challenges to spending three months away from home. The guest apartment that the seminary has been so kind as to provide has all that we need, but is normally used for people spending two or three days, not three months. There are many conveniences that it does not have that we are learning to get along without having. We all also miss being in Malaysia. The boys are missing a full term of school there, and so Wendolyn is spending much of her time doing homeschooling with them. Eric still has some administrative and teaching duties in Sabah that he is trying to keep up with online, although time with internet access is quite limited where we are. We also will miss out on graduation at Sabah Theological Seminary in November. This year’s graduating class was in its first year when we originally arrived in Kota Kinabalu, so it was sad to have to say goodbye early.
Even with the challenges in being away, there is great joy in discovering a new place. We have only been here for a few weeks, but already attended some amazing worship services and community meals. Eric has met with a local fellowship of Lutheran pastors and had a wonderful discussion with them about the issues the Indian Lutheran churches are dealing with. The seminary has a group of children, and every afternoon the grounds are filled with various sports and bike riding and other playing – our boys are already playing rugby and cricket.
The children are excited to play with our boys, and the local girls have been thrilled to practice their henna design skills on Wendolyn.
1 Seminary children put henna on "Auntie" Wendolyn
2 Dalit Christians ("untouchables") lead us into worship with traditional dance and drums
On to Australia tooOne advantage of being on the road for a few months is being able to find time for
important things that are often difficult to schedule. One of the major partners in the work that we do in Malaysia is the Lutheran Church in Australia. They support the work financially and through arranging for some people to come for short visits. Because they do not have anybody in Sabah for a longer term right now, however, there are limited opportunities to share with the congregations there about the work being done. To help with that, Eric has been invited to spend ten days in October meeting church leaders, speaking to seminary students, and giving presentations at congregations in Australia. He will spend half of his time in Adelaide in southern Australia, where Lutheran Church’s offices and seminary are located, and half to the north in Brisbane, where some interested congregations are located. It looks to be a wonderful week of building connections amongst God’s servants around the world, and enjoying a peek at the bounties of the Land Down Under.
Prayer requests:
The boys are wearing a bit thin from travelling – their calendar went like this: July 10- finish school in Malaysia, July 11-August 27 cover 4 states in the USA, two days flying through Korea, 2 days in Malaysia to unpack/repack, 3 flights to get to a Christian retreat center in Thailand, 3 weeks there, and now 10 weeks in India. They have been living out of one suitcase each since July, and for friendships have had to start over every time we move. They are troopers – but your prayers would be appreciated. Dante also has an email address now: [email protected] . If you would like to send him a word of encouragement or a riddle for a 10-year-old, that could be fun. We return to Malaysia on December 12 so we will get to have our own Christmas tree in our own living room – and that will be wonderful!
3Shown here, Eric meets with Christians in Sabah. His trip to Australia is to share information and stories about his work in Sabah with Australian Lutherans.
Health Update for Wendolyn and CaedmonWhat a year it has been. It was on August 13 of 2014 that Wendolyn was diagnosed with
cancer. Treatment concluded in March but symptoms from the chemo lingered until August of 2015. This was a difficult time as there could be no guarantee of when the side effects would let up, if at all. Thankfully Wendolyn and the boys were able to return to the U.S. for six weeks this summer. The grandparents gave the kids wonderful attention (they needed it) and Wendolyn got rest and connected with a cancer support group (she needed it). Shortly before returning to Malaysia, Wendolyn’s strength and energy returned (alleluia!) and it looks like, aside from routine screenings, cancer isn’t in charge anymore. That is wonderful news indeed!
Wendolyn wishes to thank the many people who prayed for her, sent cards and even a prayer shawl, and kept in touch online. The outpouring of support was good medicine! It was a reminder that “we are one in the Spirit” even across the miles and oceans. Our sons also saw firsthand how churches take care of people, showing Christ’s love, and we think that is a lesson that they will carry with them.
If you happen to know someone who is concluding cancer treatment, these two books have been immensely helpful for life after cancer: Dancing in Limbo by Halverson and Hunter and Picking Up the Pieces by Magee and Scalzo. Time after treatment has its own unique challenges, just when one steps back from the care and structure provided by doctors.
Caedmon, who was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder in February, is doing well. (Picture, left, on a flight to visit a child psychologist in west Malaysia). While in India, we are homeschooling, and so he does not have the pressures of school (sitting still, navigating the playground), but
Figure 4
when we return to Malaysia his international school has a space for him in their special needs program – mainly, peer groups that meet to learn how to play well together.
His disorder means that his brain does not receive enough information from his senses – he doesn’t feel blisters forming, or scrapes (yikes, germs in India!); he doesn’t feel hugs unless they’re super-tight; he doesn’t know his mouth has food in it until his cheeks look like a chipmunks. Notably, his hands are weak so handwriting is a bear. With therapy he is gaining better sensory input, and here in India everything sensory is in overdrive! Now that we understand his needs, we are able to provide for them, and he seems to be settling down. He will probably struggle with returning to school, so you can watch for the January newsletter for us to update you on that!
Dante asked to write his own update, so here it is:
Hi, my name is Dante. You may have heard about me from my parents or I may have visited you two years ago. I like anything that has to do with water (swimming water that is). My favorite subject is oceanography and I want to be an oceanographer for the coast guard. Right now I can snorkel and am good at it. When we get back to KK I can go scuba diving and I am sooo exited. But really not a fan of India. I can’t wait to go back to Malaysia.
Online Updates:We are slowly, slowly updating our blog. Give us another week before you visit it. That sounds terrible… but with the drama of this past year we haven’t kept up with the blog. Now we have more time but less internet. Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised next time you visit FlungForthAnew.wordpress.com or facebook/FlungForthAnew …. But if the information is outdated, please know we are preparing to update all pages.
Just for fun, Thailand snapshots! We spent three vacation weeks at a Christian retreat center in Thailand, meeting other missionaries from places like China, Afghanistan, Uganda, Laos, and many more nations. During that trip, Wendolyn learned to swim with her face in the water – finally! Here is a taste of what we experienced…
Buddhist temples and the sacred elephant symbol of Thailand
5Volunteering at an animal shelter the pool at Juniper Tree retreat center
Giving:As always, we are extremely grateful to all who give of their resources to make it possible for us to be abroad, sharing the Good News. To make financial gifts, please contact the ELCA and reference our number MSG0715. If you have questions about giving, specifics of our ministry, or Global Church, please do email us: [email protected] or [email protected] .
Other ways of Giving:
ONLINE Make a secure credit card donation by visiting community.ELCA.org/Malaysia.MAIL Make checks payable to ELCA Global Church Sponsorship with “Malaysia: Eric & Wendolyn Trozzo ” in the check’s memo line. Mail checks to: ELCA, P.O. Box 1809,Merrifield, VA 22116-8009.OTHER WAYS TO GIVEFor other ways to give, including multi-year pledges, gifts of securities or real estate and planned gifts, please call 800-638-3522, ext. 2612, or email [email protected].
True story… We were in the north of Thailand for three weeks, when we got an email from the Rev. Franklin Ishida. He is the ELCA-Global Mission unit Asia desk director and our supervisor. We see him about once a year, as he is located at ELCA headquarters in Chicago. His email said, “are you still in Chiang Mai? Because I am flying there right now.” He was coming for a conference on HIV/AIDS ministries in southeast Asia and happened to overlap with our time there. So we got to meet up, check in, and share stories. It is worth noting that throughout this year of disease and displacement, the ELCA
has always “had our backs.” The organization of the ELCA and Global Church really are top-notch which protects both ministries and missionaries. The Chicago staff are wonderful … and it is fun to see them when our paths cross outside of the USA as well!
