Eight people from the Ashbourne area recently visited the Diocese of Patna in India.

The visit was a great success and has strengthened the existing links between the Ashbourne area Churches and the Patna Diocese. The group first visited Delhi and stayed at the Church of North India (CNI) headquarters. There they met members of the "Messengers of Peace" group who had visited Derbyshire in 2005. They were making a CD of some of their songs and copies have been brought back. The Revd. Christopher Harrison, Chairman of the Derbyshire - CNI link met with senior members of the CNI to arrange a visit by church members from across Derbyshire sometime in the near future. Karen Neal, a nurse, visited St Stephen's hospital and was given help and information for her ten-week stay at St Luke's hospital, Hiranpur.

While Christopher remained in Delhi the rest of the party travelled by overnight train to Patna where Bishop Philip Marandih and staff from Christ Church School met us. The school normally has its Sports Day in October but had moved it to February especially for us!! That was typical of what we were to experience throughout our stay.

Then it was off to Bhagalpur where the Bishop lives. Bhagalpur is a bustling city at the eastern end of Bihar, the poorest state in India. Very different from our first few days in Delhi! The streets are crowded with cars (not many), scooters (carrying up to six people!!), auto rickshaws, cycle rickshaws, cycles, cows, goats, dogs and people all sharing the road. There didn't seem to be any pavements, the roadside stalls came right to the edge of the road. There didn't seem to be any traffic rules either except perhaps one, "if you see a space its yours" How they managed to avoid accidents we will never know.

Our first visit from Bhagalpur was to St John's school, Taljhari which is the school where we have set up a scheme to sponsor board and lodging for girls from the surrounding villages. We received a wonderful welcome with garlands and the pupils dancing and singing. We saw one of the local villages as well as the school. It is a very poor area with a substantial number of orphans. We were able to tell the Bishop that we have raised sufficient money to start the sponsorship scheme with 60 girls. We saw the accommodation, it is spartan but clean and the girls will receive a simple but nutritious diet. The cost of sponsorship is £5.00 per month. (details from Elizabeth Hurfurt 342859)

Then on to Barhawa and St Thomas's school with another fantastic welcome. We were met by pupils singing and dancing in front of us as we approached the school and then they washed our feet! The next day took us to St Luke's hospital Hiranpur with a similar welcome, this time from the nurses. It was all rather overwhelming. The Ashbourne - Patna Partnership had financed the re-roofing of part of the hospital that leaked badly during the monsoon season. Karen was to return there for a further 10-week stay helping and advising the nursing staff. Much more is still needed there but we were encouraged to meet three new, young doctors who had recently been appointed. We left Hiranpur to return to Bhagalpur.

Saturday saw the Diocesan fete. The Bishop had been training 20 catechists (similar to Anglican Readers or Methodist Local Preachers) who were soon to be sent to outlying villages and the fete was to raise money for bicycles for them. We were besieged by children wanting our autographs and to talk. Two young men in particular wanted to know why we had come to Bihar and implored us to tell everyone about Bihar and how poor it is. The fete was a great success with sufficient money raised for the bicycles and enough to purchase some vestments for them as well. Church on Sunday where Ashbourne Parish curate the Revd. Dr. Jo White preached the sermon as she had in Patna. We all had to introduce ourselves and John Hurfurt brought a message from the partnership to the congregation. Later Karen left for her stay at the hospital in Hiranpur.

Monday and Tuesday saw more school visits together with visits to a weaving project and a sewing project. Part of our brief was to look for opportunities for volunteers such as Karen and to prepare a booklet on our return. That we shall do and we hope to encourage students in their gap year, those taking early retirement or indeed anyone who is interested to spend six weeks or more in the schools or hospitals there. Opportunities to help with small-scale craft and industrial projects also exist. The schools vary from large ex-mission stations to tiny, cramped primary schools in the centre of Bhagalpur. All could do with help in one form or other. But all gave us a warm welcome and we were impressed by the cheerfulness and confidence of the children. These Christian run schools charge fees and the majority of the pupils are Hindus. Nonetheless we were greeted with hymns and prayers. The differing faiths live together with remarkable tolerance.

Wednesday saw the departure of three of our group (Revd Jo, her husband Hilton and Janet Hall) and then more school and hospital visits for the remaining three.( John and Elizabeth Hurfurt and Sheena Bryden)

All too soon our visit to the Patna Diocese was over and we returned to Delhi to meet a friend who worked with the CNI Diocesan Board of Health as an AIDS project worker. After a spot of sightseeing including the Taj Mahal we left for her family home in Lhudiana in the Punjab. This was predominantly a Presbyterian area before the formation of CNI in the 1970s when six churches united and the Sunday service there was markedly different from Patna. CNI seems to have managed to encompass many of the traditions of the founding churches.Its service book allows considerable scope for local interpretation. Punjab is one of the richer states of India. Travel there was much easier, the roads were good in marked contrast to our experiences in Bihar where we averaged about 20 km per hour travelling by road. We had a trip to Amritsar and the Golden Temple, calling in on the way at Suranussi, the school from which we had received a visit by the dance group Sahgaman a few years previously. The day finished with tea with the Bishop of Amritsar who was keen for a link to be re-established between his diocese and a Derbyshire town.

At this stage Sheena was taken ill with severe gastroenteritis and was admitted to the Christian Medical College hospital. We had intended to visit the hospital as one member of the Methodist Church congregation, Joan Constable, and her late husband Guy had been there in the 1960s. Dr Guy had been the Principal of the college and Joan still knew several people there who we were to visit. These people turned out to be very senior indeed, hospital director, college principal, professor of dentistry etc. Sheena received very good care indeed and was discharged just in time to take tea with the Moderator of CNI and Bishop of Chandigarh, the Rt. Rev. Joel Mal.

And so to Delhi and home. A wonderful and humbling experience, the local people have so little but they went to great trouble to make us welcome and we received presents galore. Their hospitality was mind blowing, especially given their circumstances. Other impressions included;
the speed at which it got dark;
the eerie experience of driving through darkened villages at night, the only electric light coming from the occasional battery operated fluorescent tube;
the sheer noise and hubbub of city streets although we were not hassled;
the looks of amazement as we walked around Bhagalpur in particular, where they saw very few white faces indeed. We nearly caused traffic accidents as motorcyclists turned to stare at us while continuing riding!
the smiles on the faces of so many of the children we met.

There was a presentation about the visit on Saturday April 1st at 7.00 pm in the Methodist Church Ashbourne. Indian food was served.
Members of the group will be pleased to give similar talks any interested clubs or organisations. Please contact any group member.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR CLARIFICATION CONTACT JOHN HURFURT 01335 342859