The convergence of the people of 194 countries of the world is a remarkable phenomenon on the face of the earth. It is a show of spontaneous harmony of humanity. And indeed a marvellous occasion for people coming from all corners of the world with different hues and colours in their varied customs and cultural life. These delegates from across the world are not mere citizens but all are leaders in their respective places holding responsible positions in various capacities of life. People from countries of 10 to 15 or 20 to 30 or 40 to 50 or a little more gathering is taking place around the world as international meet. But this magnitude of people from all the countries of the world coming together delegate-wise is amazing. Everyone has come with strong faith for a common purpose to witness and praise the living God. This was made possible only because of the omnipresent God who inspires His people as it is His programme and purpose to keep His flock together for His glory. Such an event took place in Dallas in the state of Texas in America in July 2012 for a complete one week with the theme, ”Be doers of the word” taken from James 1:22.
This occasion marked a milestone in my life experience. It is a personal satisfaction of a dream. As because all the countries delegate wise are made to gather in large lawn of mansion with a tall stand and on top of the stand is written the name of the respective countries. The leader of the delegate held the stand with the countries name on top of it. The Indian team consisted of 22 members. Consequent upon that, all delegates encircle in the lawn and had handshake with one another delegate-wise in a rotating manner exchanging warm greetings to each other. Meanwhile the electronic board displays all the names of individual delegates countrywise inside the large hall of building throughout the session to confirm the veracity of official members in the Board of Trustees for daily planning and detailing. This has fulfilled my dream as a geographer. Even though practically so far I have travelled to only about 2 dozen countries of the world. As geography being the study of the world, this is like part and parcel experience of the practical aspect of the subject matter. But definitely I will be covering some more countries of the world in the days to come. Because travelling is my one hobby of life and my subject is a contributory factor toward this direction.
Though this write-up has been brought out not immediately after the spectacular trip, the intention is to arouse some sense and curiosity in life, perhaps personal or of other people, to give some kind of meaningful lesson and objective life. For instance, fulfilling the kind of one’s aim and ambition in life. Such is the manner in a week’s time members became so warm to one another and working closely as if we will never be parted again. This common purpose in participation full of lively activities throughout the days is indeed inspiring and exciting. The days’ activity would begin at 6:00 am and would last till 9:00 pm i.e., working 15 hours every day. Of course, there were brief intermissions for breakfast and lunch. Every programme was timely. Start exactly on time and end up as per schedule timing. This shows the world is so disciplined and obedient. The whole proceeding was systematic and smooth sailing.
For any programme, one is expected to be ahead of time by at least 5 minutes. Practically nobody used to be late for any function. If a person happened to be late, then certainly he or she was considered to be the odd one out and looked upon as not fit for decent society. As such, time management was very effective and consciousness of the same was highly appreciated as there is no time to waste. The tempo was high all throughout from the very beginning to the end. The spirit was high to its fullness. Such international gathering is in fact invigorating to life. Daily, various activity groupings kept changing so that by the end of the session a national delegate with its by-sub-groups have completed in close interaction of working daily schedule with all the sub-groups of other nationality. That was the way the cycle was completed – in family like manner get together. The cycle itself reflected the tight working schedule emphasizing the preciousness of time. In this context the saying of Ricardo may be mentioned when he said, “time is money, time is riches, time is progress and development.” No doubt, time is the most important resource. India is rich in natural resource. But the people are not resourceful enough. So also African countries. In all these countries, time consciousness is lacking. As such, time management is inefficient. In other words, the importance of time as a precious resource is not properly appreciated by the so called ‘third world countries’. Even Oceania falls under this category.
The clock keeps measuring our time, about how much volume of work a person does or performs in a day, for how many hours in a day. Some people work 16 to 18 hours a day, others 12 to 14 hours or at least 9 to 10 hours in a day. Still many people work for only 5 to 7 hours a day. American style is that because of long working hours every day, every Saturday is a holiday – what is called weekend holidays. So every weekend they plan a family get-together. If we work only 1/3rd of how much other people work our production or result will also be only 1/3rd of other hard working people. So that makes us lag behind as the so called ‘third world’. In such a scenario, how can one expect to have good progress or rich production put of it? This is the question facing many Indians and not just Nagas alone.
The Gideon International Convention held every year in July in US alone rotating among 54 republics due to its expensive nature of management accommodation problem due to large number of delegates normally about 10,000 people. It is a matter of difficulty to afford it. As such, the volume of delegates are managed by means of hosts comprising of individuals and families. In this manner each individual or family takes 5 to 10 members of guests every morning and evening for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The beauty of hosts is so well designed so that each day every morning and evening a different individual or family hosts the different groups of members either taking them to their homes or entertain in the hotels. This is the most beautiful and interesting part of it. In this way the organization does not take the burden of feeding the large number of delegates. Organization arrange only for their accommodation. The system is good and well knit thereby making things easier. The organization is interdenominational in nature. It published Holy Bible and distribute it free of cost throughout the world in different languages to the believers of Christ who find it difficult to get a copy due to prohibition or due to poverty. Because prohibition still persists in communist countries and other authoritarian ruled nations.
Out of the 7 days, 3 days were set aside for practical experiment for delegates in witnessing the gospel in the fields and sent to different directions during the day time far away from the venue of convention. Thus, the various teams of members spread the news of the gospel for 3 days, each day in different places. People are so diverse in nature and so also the response and the reactions of different people in different places are interesting when accepting the word of God. Here, what we see is that, the world community that knows God has become one citizen, but on the other hand the people or nations who are yet to receive the good news is divisive and strive torn. These places pose a big challenge for believers to reach out. And these are the target to set the eyes on for mission by Christians. Thus, faith fund collection is an important aspect of a Christian’s life to test the inner urge of individuals for various challenges of ministry. This test of faith is dependent on the relationship with God. Voluntary will and not force. An example of believers faith is that in one pastoral dinner, a gathering of about 10,000 people a special offering for pastors was made in which the collection was about 1 million US dollars where I have given an offering of US $ 200 only. This is the manner that the believers are doing in the world for the cause of God with faith, knowing and fully assured of thereby winning the world. The work is going on non-stop. The grace is amazing.
