IT'S SEPTEMBER

Cozy, but mine. My office located in the HMI library.

I arrived in India towards the end of July ... and now the month of September has begun, at least in my time zone.

After spending the first two weeks with Anna at the Henry Martyn Institute (HMI) hostel in a tiny, but air conditioned room, Anna and I moved into our own home, purchased needed household items and school supplies, and she began attending high school, while I began working at HMI.

Here at HMI, I hit the ground running, it seems in hindsight. I was asked to teach 3 classes, but said no to a fourth request that was completely outside my area of expertise. One of the classes is part of the institute's Master of Theology (M.Th.) program, the other two are part of HMI's post-graduate (PG) diploma program, which is mostly a period of intense language study (either Sanskrit or Arabic) and prerequisite for the M.Th. Program. The M.Th. degree, in turn, is both a teaching degree (for local and regional seminaries) and a prerequisite for admission into the D.Th. program.

For the last two weeks, I have been reading, thinking, teaching, and revising my brand-new syllabi. Here's the result: I have designed a course that I call "Introduction to Academic Writing" for the master's level students. We analyze other people's academic writing, work in teams, and cover everything from how the develop a thesis statement, write full sentences and paragraphs, avoid plagiarism, take notes, do proper footnotes and bibliographies, etc. I really enjoy this class.

The two classes I teach in HMI's PG diploma program are interrelated. One class is looking at different theologies of religion (seeking to explore different Christian answers to the question of why learn about other religions). The other class is looking at the history of Christianity, helping students situate their own faith communities in a global historical context.

Additionally, I am supporting the work of the institute in other areas - I soon will be traveling to different parts of India to represent HMI, hence freeing the director to focus on more urgent matters, lending a supportive hand to the HMI conflict transformation staff and their upcoming projects, and working on PowerPoint presentation on Indian Christianity for foreign visitors.

In between, I am a wife and mother who tries to stay dry during the monsoon season. Kumar is busy running errands, getting our local documents in order (gas, electricity, driver's license, ID cards, bank account, Indian income tax ID), etc. The British have brought bureaucracy; independent India has perfected the monster that the British created!!!

While I am sitting an writing this, a very kind IT person has been trying to connect my MacBook to the lab printer....for over an hour. This is definitely not Apple country!!! We may end up giving up and getting me a small desktop printer.

Location:Hyderabad, India