Day 12 India, Field Trip #2

Field Trip #2, St Thomas the Apostle
Not two days after saying we only rarely go on field trips, we took another today. Francis, the manager of the property, invited us to visit with him at his local Catholic church. Because we had treatment, and because they try to keep us away from crowds during treatment since it's hard on our bodies/immune system, we departed shortly before noon for St. Thomas the Apostle Church. What makes that slightly ironic is that my local church growing up in Elkhart, IN was also called St. Thomas the Apostle. Or perhaps that's more of a coincidence than irony, or so my lawyer friends tell me.
Francis hired a cab for us that took us through the same route as we took a couple days ago, but veered to the left of the large Hindu temple (famous apparently). We pulled up next to the church, colored in blue and white. The most amazing thing upon approach was the gigantic statue across the street. We found out later on our tour that this statue was 45 ft tall! You can see my Mom is quite small standing at the base of it. It is the largest statue of St Thomas anywhere in the world.
We took a quick walk around, then Francis arranged a tour for us with a guide. He escorted us around the grounds for about an hour, showing us three main attractions. Inside of the church was the original foundation, which we were told was built in 52 AD, nearly 2,000 years ago. Incredible. He told us that St Thomas came to Kerala shortly before that, having sailed from the Holy Land through the Red Sea, across to India. I'll have to do some research, because this seems like an incredible journey for that long ago. St. Thomas upon arrival performed one of his miracles. The locals were worshipping their Sun God, throwing handfuls of water up into the air. St. Thomas said that their god must not be the Highest since their water fell to the Earth. He threw a handful of water into the air, and the water stayed suspended, "as if they were stars." The second part was to go inside the cave behind the church, were there were statues depicting the life of St. Thomas, including his martyrdom. Finally, we went across the street to the local museum, that had many artifacts ranging from a few hundred years old to well over 1,000 years old. That type of time is hard for people to imagine, particularly Americans where our history is much shorter. It was an amazing trip.
The monsoon has officially arrived per the newspaper. It rained this morning, making for a wonderful walk in the warm downpour. The rain disappeared, leaving a heavy humidity this afternoon. Hoping it rains again soon :)

Only a few more days until I get to come home and see Raechel!