We’re finally here! Despite modern transport, the trip from Asheville to Durgapur reminds me a lot of the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Even after getting the pharaoh to agree to letting the Hebrews leave most of the story of Moses is the journey to the promised land. It didn’t take us forty years to get here but after a total of two bus rides, two nine hour plane rides, three continents and three days (sort of) in transit, it felt a lot like forty years.  We left Asheville at 10:30 AM Tuesday morning and took a bus to Atlanta (thanks for the ride, Ian!), checked in with Lufthansa and presently flew to Frankfurt, where it was 18 degrees as we walked down the stairs from the plane (and us dressed for India). We went through security and paid in Euros for a cup of coffee and then flew to Kolkata (another nine hour flight). It took us about an hour to get luggage back after clearing immigration (which the Indians made very easy for us) and then we met up with a group from the Diocese of Durgapur who were so very kind to come out to meet us at two in the morning several hours from home. At the end of the three hour ride back to the Diocesan compound to be shown our rooms in the early dawn light Thursday morning surely seemed like delivery to the promised land. We have been incredibly blessed to be invited and to have arrived safely with our sisters and brothers in the Diocese of Durgapur and the feeling of the long journey merely makes us more thankful for the incredibly warm welcome and the feeling of arriving home.

Bill Doyle