So, you all know where my body is – it is on the other side of the world, in strange and wonderful surroundings, enveloped by colors and smells and sights still unfamiliar and engaging to my eye.

My, head – having a harder time than my body…

We’ve been talking some about the differences between Mission and Pilgrimage. And what is Ministry? What role does Ministry play in these two ideas? Is its role different? The same? As one member of our Team so aptly put it, Mission is more about others than ourselves. Pilgrimage is more about ourselves than others. In my head – Mission is a more external focus and Pilgrimage is more of an internal one. Mission is more about doing, Pilgrimages are more about being.

India is ALL about being. And it can be hard. I live in a culture that has elevated multi-tasking to an art. I like the schedule, I like being able to categorize and organize and label. It takes a lot of energy to not be doing.

So – Ministry – let me muse on that one a bit…

I think Ministry is present (or should be) in both M & P. There is Ministry in big moments and in small ones. And what Ministry is to me is different from what Ministry is to others. There is Ministry in sharing a cup of tea with beautiful people in delicate china cups. There is Ministry in letting yourself be escorted home the whole 150 feet by a group of teenagers that don’t want to say Good Night. There is Ministry in dancing with children and watching the Bishop do the YMCA. There is definitely Ministry in being a visual and tactile representative of the support offered from the other side of the globe. Heck – there may even be Ministry in losing your place in the song in front of thousands of people. (It is at this point that I can visualize Kyle Ritter waggling his finger at me at saying “Those waters right there – they run deep…”.)

However, it is at times such as these that I must acknowledge the reality of an altered measurement of time. And, in so doing, my vision (illusion?) of myself as being a low maintenance, semi-self-sufficient individual wavers a bit. It goes back to the butterfly flapping its wings. Everything I do affects others and everything others do affects me. India makes you learn that it is imperative to watch the butterflies. It’s the journey.

              The question is asked, if life’s journey were endless where is its goal? The answer is, it is everywhere. We are in a palace which has no end, but which we have reached. By exploring it and extending our relationship with it we are ever making it more and more our own.

Rabindranath Tagore

Thought Relics (1921)

Amy Congdon