Namaste!
It is good to say that I finally made it here again after a very long and hectic journey. It’s strange, I feel like I never left. Strange in a good way that is. The few days here have been pretty uneventful. Since my trip was almost 2 days with very little sleep, I have spent much of my time catching up on rest and getting my body adjusted to everything again. I forgot how much jet lag stinks. The time I haven’t been sleeping has been great though. I am living in the Mercy Home this time. The office told me to move in after a week or so, but the MH was so excited to have me and insisted that I move in asap. I love living close with the kids, but this has also been an adjustment. The kids have devotional every morning around 5, so my sleep is suffering a bit. The only time I can really get any alone time is at night so I tend to stay up late. I guess I’m going to learn how to close my door in the day so I can have quiet time then instead and get to bed earlier. I have already made a new best friend here, haha. Joseph, one of the warden’s at MH always told me last time that he wished his wife were here, that we would be friends. During May and June she was in here home state with her newborn baby (Noel) and now she is back. She is so fun and Noel is the sweetest baby I have ever seen! We just sit and talk for hours and play with the baby. I am so glad to have her here, someone my age that speaks English and I can relate to.
I’m sorry to say that I don’t really have much else to talk about yet. Today (Monday) I will be going to the Wadi Office to meet with the Sam sir (the director of all the Mercy Homes and other compassion projects) to make a schedule and plan for what I will be doing with my time here. I know Saji sir wants me to work a lot with the children, but they are in school until around 4:30 everyday and even go on Saturday until 12, so I need to figure something out for those times. Who knows what I will be doing, they really could ask me to do just about anything, which is okay with me. I’m just glad to be here.
Well I think that’s about it for now. Please keep all of us here in your prayers. I love and miss you all very much!!!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Back Again
I thought I'd update you guys.
After a lot of thought and prayer I decided to go back to India instead of school this semester. I have received much criticism about this decision. The general consensus is why not finish school first? My answer: Why not go back to India? I don't want to be limited in my education just to the classroom. It's no secret how I stink at that anyways. So to all of you skeptics out there, I will be learning in India too! And to those who are supportive of my decision, please encourage me...I'm a bit nervous.
I'm so excited I can't stand it, but I am also scared to death. I know God wants me back in India. From the moment I stepped foot off of Indian soil, He was already shaping how and when I would return. But with my return comes a lot of change from my last trip. For one, I will be without any companions from home. Kyle was a huge support to me and I will miss having him there with me. I will also not have him to stick up for me and make sure that I am being taken care of. India is a male dominated society and it can be quite intimidating at times being a female. Now I am a brave girl, but I also walk a fine line between being an American and visitor while also respecting their culture. My last trip also came with a few specific "jobs" that we were assigned to. This time I will be spread across a lot of areas, which I have zero experience. I am looking forward to all the possibilities but I am also scared of the responsibility that goes along with them. I guess in all this my biggest fear is that I will be more of a burden than a help. I desire so deeply to be used fully by God, but what does that look like? Near the end of our last trip I whined to God about how I didn't think I was being used. I felt like I had spent so much time doing my "jobs" that I had barely made any relationships. I was wrong. I did make some incredible friendships, and had huge impacts of the lives there as well did they on me. I love it when God shows me things like that! I hope and pray for the same with this trip. I hope that God will continue to use me as His vessel of love and light. I pray that He humbles me to be able to do that. I know that God will be leading me, my prayer is that I will follow Him, that this trip be His will for me and not my will shaped into His.
I will be praying for everyone back home while I am gone and I ask that you also keep India and myself in your prayers. I will do my best to keep updates on what is going on there. My email will also be the same as before.
cgmcdonough@gmail.com
I leave September 5th and will be back on December 18th. Pray for India. Pray for the Mercy Home kids. Pray for the Christians there. Pray for hearts to be opened to God. And pray for me...
I love you all very much and can't wait to hear from you (that means you should write me!)
After a lot of thought and prayer I decided to go back to India instead of school this semester. I have received much criticism about this decision. The general consensus is why not finish school first? My answer: Why not go back to India? I don't want to be limited in my education just to the classroom. It's no secret how I stink at that anyways. So to all of you skeptics out there, I will be learning in India too! And to those who are supportive of my decision, please encourage me...I'm a bit nervous.
I'm so excited I can't stand it, but I am also scared to death. I know God wants me back in India. From the moment I stepped foot off of Indian soil, He was already shaping how and when I would return. But with my return comes a lot of change from my last trip. For one, I will be without any companions from home. Kyle was a huge support to me and I will miss having him there with me. I will also not have him to stick up for me and make sure that I am being taken care of. India is a male dominated society and it can be quite intimidating at times being a female. Now I am a brave girl, but I also walk a fine line between being an American and visitor while also respecting their culture. My last trip also came with a few specific "jobs" that we were assigned to. This time I will be spread across a lot of areas, which I have zero experience. I am looking forward to all the possibilities but I am also scared of the responsibility that goes along with them. I guess in all this my biggest fear is that I will be more of a burden than a help. I desire so deeply to be used fully by God, but what does that look like? Near the end of our last trip I whined to God about how I didn't think I was being used. I felt like I had spent so much time doing my "jobs" that I had barely made any relationships. I was wrong. I did make some incredible friendships, and had huge impacts of the lives there as well did they on me. I love it when God shows me things like that! I hope and pray for the same with this trip. I hope that God will continue to use me as His vessel of love and light. I pray that He humbles me to be able to do that. I know that God will be leading me, my prayer is that I will follow Him, that this trip be His will for me and not my will shaped into His.
I will be praying for everyone back home while I am gone and I ask that you also keep India and myself in your prayers. I will do my best to keep updates on what is going on there. My email will also be the same as before.
cgmcdonough@gmail.com
I leave September 5th and will be back on December 18th. Pray for India. Pray for the Mercy Home kids. Pray for the Christians there. Pray for hearts to be opened to God. And pray for me...
I love you all very much and can't wait to hear from you (that means you should write me!)
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
We're Back
Hey everybody,
Just wanted to let you all know that we are safely in Orlando, Florida now. It was a long trip home (40 hours) and we've actually been traveling since Thursday. Thursday evening we took an 18 hour train ride to the capital city of New Delhi, spent some time there Friday and stayed the night there. On Saturday we took a 5 hour bus ride to the city of Agra to see the beautiful Taj Mahal. Then 5 hours back to Delhi and our flights back to the US began on Sunday. We are tired and happy to be home. Cant wait to see each of you. I will post again sometime this week or next week for some final thoughts about this trip. Also, I hope to leave the blog up so that we can still communicate about maybe some ways we can continue to help the ministry in India. God Bless.
Be sure to check out more of our pictures that we just uploaded.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559277213rAfytF
Kyle
Just wanted to let you all know that we are safely in Orlando, Florida now. It was a long trip home (40 hours) and we've actually been traveling since Thursday. Thursday evening we took an 18 hour train ride to the capital city of New Delhi, spent some time there Friday and stayed the night there. On Saturday we took a 5 hour bus ride to the city of Agra to see the beautiful Taj Mahal. Then 5 hours back to Delhi and our flights back to the US began on Sunday. We are tired and happy to be home. Cant wait to see each of you. I will post again sometime this week or next week for some final thoughts about this trip. Also, I hope to leave the blog up so that we can still communicate about maybe some ways we can continue to help the ministry in India. God Bless.
Be sure to check out more of our pictures that we just uploaded.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559277213rAfytF
Kyle
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Hey Everyone!
I hope all of you are doing really well. Also thank you so much for your emails and blog comments! It is so exciting to hear your thoughts on everything too.
Well another week has passed. It’s hard to believe that we’re already into the second week of June. As usual everything is a blur, sorry for the disorder, but I’ll try to recap everything for you. Last Saturday night there was a really bad storm, our first monsoon experience. I was all alone in my room and thought the building I was in would really just collapse around me, so I grabbed a towel and ran to Kyle’s room. He was in the apartment above him with the Thomson’s, so I joined them as well. Of course the power went out, so we just relaxed by candlelight and listened to the rain. When the rain finally stopped I went back to my room and tried to get some sleep. It was the first night here without power…and it was hot, really hot. Some of the faculty even slept on the roof of their building to escape the heat. The bad part about this power outage was not only that it lasted through the night, but also that it caused the water to go out as well, fun fun. This was the worst power outage we’ve had thus far because it wasn’t due to power cuts in Maharashtra but was caused by the storm. Although it was hot as blazes and we were all smelly for a few days with no water, it was kinda fun to be in it with everyone. We were all miserable together and could just laugh about it. It was a bonding experience for us and all the faculty. The power finally came back on Monday morning, but I was still without water until that evening.
Monday began the official school year for the MI Students, well at least the upper classmen; the “freshers” as they’re called here, start next week. Now that everyone is getting settled in I’ve been able to get to know a few of the girls pretty well. Two of them actually graduated last year but have come back to work in the library. Benari and Emmy are the cutest little Nagaland girls and so fun to work with. Neither of them has ever used a computer and they will need to enter books after we leave so I have been teaching them the system. It’s quite refreshing to be around people who don’t know what “shift” and “tab” mean. I’m giving them assignments to help their typing too. It’s fun being a teacher when your students really want to learn the stuff. So this is pretty much what fills the day time hours now. At night I go the Mercy Home as usual. There are many new kids there now so it’s also been great to spend time getting to know them.
Okay, well, I started this blog last week and didn’t get to finish, or post it for that matter, so now I will try my best to give you all the highlights of the past couple of weeks…
Good news, I finally started my interviews with the Mercy Home children! Before we left America we were told by the director of RIMI that he wanted us to interview the kids and native missionaries for 2 books that he wanted us to write about their stories. When we got here no one mentioned anything about this task that Saji gave us, and not wanting to order anyone around or make them change their schedule for us, we put the project on the backburner. A few weeks ago Saji emailed Kyle and I to remind us of the interviews and see how things were going. So we decided that we should get on the ball with the interviews. Back to the actual interviews: Joseph, one of the wardens, speaks English fluently, so he has been translating for me, thankfully! It is difficult to ask the kids such tough questions about their families and what it was like for them before the Mercy Home. I really hate making them relive these terrible memories, but I know how much their stories will inspire others to help here. The first girls I talked have no parents. Their father set their mother on fire during an argument, which led to her death. Their father was then taken to prison and died soon after while there. Another girl doesn’t know why she was sent. Both of her parents are living and her older sister is in school at an expense boarding school. She loves being at the Mercy Home, but wept talking about her parents and home life. Those are just a few short pieces of what I’ve heard from the kids this week. If you want to hear the rest you’ll have the buy the book! Support RIMI! And it’s just fun to say that I’m writing a book, for real, haha.
Last Sunday we went to Parseoni , it’s a small village about an hour outside of Nagpur city. It was a lovely drive, being away from all the city traffic and pollution. We saw tons of monkeys and it was gorgeous, tons of trees and flowers in bloom. We are outside the city a little ways, but the campus is right next to some rock crushing plants things and rock mines, so needless to say it is not the prettiest place I’ve ever seen. I asked Eshwarie if she wanted to come with me and then she found out where we were going…and freaked out! The church in Parseoni used to be the girls Mercy Home until the one on the MI Campus was finished. She was so excited about seeing everyone there; she misses it there a lot. Her younger sister and another girl who used to live there also joined us. I think we caused a bit of trouble since we had 3 extra people and had to change vehicles, but oh well, I was really glad they got to come with us. Upon arrival at the church our chaperone told us that we would be preaching that morning…thanks for the notice guys. I talked about Romans 8, my fave, and my depression (testimonies are quite popular), and Kyle talked about Elijah. I think I want to be a preacher when I grow-up, it’s fun. We sang and prayed for a long time before church was ‘over’. Everyone was served chai by the preacher’s wife and I played with the kids in one of the back rooms while Kyle began interviewing a few of the members. After about 20 minutes or so I heard screaming from the church room, the pastor’s house serves as the church, former Mercy Home, guest house, etc. I went in to see what was going on and Kyle and a few others we praying over a woman that was wailing. I squeezed in and began praying too. The woman continued to scream, cry, dry-heave, convulse, make growl-like noises. It was the craziest thing I have ever experienced, but I don’t think I have ever felt more moved by the Spirit to intercede for something like this before in my life. This went on for 20 more minutes or so until the woman sat up and announced that she was okay now. Kyle interviewed her prior to all this and found out that she comes from a strict Hindu family and just a few months ago heard the gospel and started coming to church. Since she started coming whenever she prays, and most times at church worship she is wrought with gut wrenching pain and demon control. Demon possession is very real and crazy here. Please pray that by God the people suffering from possession will be freed from that bondage. And buy the book to hear more about this woman’s story and more like it! (Nice plug, huh) After this all died down the pastor took us a few kilometers away to show us the preschool he started 2 years ago. It is in 2 small storage rooms that he rents from a local woman. I loved Parseoni and everything about it. The church members were mostly new converts who are so excited about learning and worshipping the Living God. The pastor and his family are so kind and humble. I would love to come back and work with them in some area. Really, I loved it there.
Monday was Shibu, the campus manager’s son’s birthday. Little Benny turned 1 and they had a big party for him at the Mercy Home. I spent most of the day helping them prepare it. It was great to sit around the kitchen with the women and cut vegetables for hours, pick the little bugs out of rice with the younger girls and roll chaipati with the Mercy Home kids. I think this was one my favorite days so far.
Now that time is getting short I am spending a lot more time at the Mercy Home and with the faculty families. I feel at home here and am really going to miss everyone when I leave. We have only 1 more full week until we leave for Delhi and then back to the states.
Thank you all again, as usual, for the encouragement and prayers. I am excited to be able to talk to all in person. Miss and love you very much and am praying that everyone stateside is doing well.
And Happy Father’s Day if you’re reading this…
I hope all of you are doing really well. Also thank you so much for your emails and blog comments! It is so exciting to hear your thoughts on everything too.
Well another week has passed. It’s hard to believe that we’re already into the second week of June. As usual everything is a blur, sorry for the disorder, but I’ll try to recap everything for you. Last Saturday night there was a really bad storm, our first monsoon experience. I was all alone in my room and thought the building I was in would really just collapse around me, so I grabbed a towel and ran to Kyle’s room. He was in the apartment above him with the Thomson’s, so I joined them as well. Of course the power went out, so we just relaxed by candlelight and listened to the rain. When the rain finally stopped I went back to my room and tried to get some sleep. It was the first night here without power…and it was hot, really hot. Some of the faculty even slept on the roof of their building to escape the heat. The bad part about this power outage was not only that it lasted through the night, but also that it caused the water to go out as well, fun fun. This was the worst power outage we’ve had thus far because it wasn’t due to power cuts in Maharashtra but was caused by the storm. Although it was hot as blazes and we were all smelly for a few days with no water, it was kinda fun to be in it with everyone. We were all miserable together and could just laugh about it. It was a bonding experience for us and all the faculty. The power finally came back on Monday morning, but I was still without water until that evening.
Monday began the official school year for the MI Students, well at least the upper classmen; the “freshers” as they’re called here, start next week. Now that everyone is getting settled in I’ve been able to get to know a few of the girls pretty well. Two of them actually graduated last year but have come back to work in the library. Benari and Emmy are the cutest little Nagaland girls and so fun to work with. Neither of them has ever used a computer and they will need to enter books after we leave so I have been teaching them the system. It’s quite refreshing to be around people who don’t know what “shift” and “tab” mean. I’m giving them assignments to help their typing too. It’s fun being a teacher when your students really want to learn the stuff. So this is pretty much what fills the day time hours now. At night I go the Mercy Home as usual. There are many new kids there now so it’s also been great to spend time getting to know them.
Okay, well, I started this blog last week and didn’t get to finish, or post it for that matter, so now I will try my best to give you all the highlights of the past couple of weeks…
Good news, I finally started my interviews with the Mercy Home children! Before we left America we were told by the director of RIMI that he wanted us to interview the kids and native missionaries for 2 books that he wanted us to write about their stories. When we got here no one mentioned anything about this task that Saji gave us, and not wanting to order anyone around or make them change their schedule for us, we put the project on the backburner. A few weeks ago Saji emailed Kyle and I to remind us of the interviews and see how things were going. So we decided that we should get on the ball with the interviews. Back to the actual interviews: Joseph, one of the wardens, speaks English fluently, so he has been translating for me, thankfully! It is difficult to ask the kids such tough questions about their families and what it was like for them before the Mercy Home. I really hate making them relive these terrible memories, but I know how much their stories will inspire others to help here. The first girls I talked have no parents. Their father set their mother on fire during an argument, which led to her death. Their father was then taken to prison and died soon after while there. Another girl doesn’t know why she was sent. Both of her parents are living and her older sister is in school at an expense boarding school. She loves being at the Mercy Home, but wept talking about her parents and home life. Those are just a few short pieces of what I’ve heard from the kids this week. If you want to hear the rest you’ll have the buy the book! Support RIMI! And it’s just fun to say that I’m writing a book, for real, haha.
Last Sunday we went to Parseoni , it’s a small village about an hour outside of Nagpur city. It was a lovely drive, being away from all the city traffic and pollution. We saw tons of monkeys and it was gorgeous, tons of trees and flowers in bloom. We are outside the city a little ways, but the campus is right next to some rock crushing plants things and rock mines, so needless to say it is not the prettiest place I’ve ever seen. I asked Eshwarie if she wanted to come with me and then she found out where we were going…and freaked out! The church in Parseoni used to be the girls Mercy Home until the one on the MI Campus was finished. She was so excited about seeing everyone there; she misses it there a lot. Her younger sister and another girl who used to live there also joined us. I think we caused a bit of trouble since we had 3 extra people and had to change vehicles, but oh well, I was really glad they got to come with us. Upon arrival at the church our chaperone told us that we would be preaching that morning…thanks for the notice guys. I talked about Romans 8, my fave, and my depression (testimonies are quite popular), and Kyle talked about Elijah. I think I want to be a preacher when I grow-up, it’s fun. We sang and prayed for a long time before church was ‘over’. Everyone was served chai by the preacher’s wife and I played with the kids in one of the back rooms while Kyle began interviewing a few of the members. After about 20 minutes or so I heard screaming from the church room, the pastor’s house serves as the church, former Mercy Home, guest house, etc. I went in to see what was going on and Kyle and a few others we praying over a woman that was wailing. I squeezed in and began praying too. The woman continued to scream, cry, dry-heave, convulse, make growl-like noises. It was the craziest thing I have ever experienced, but I don’t think I have ever felt more moved by the Spirit to intercede for something like this before in my life. This went on for 20 more minutes or so until the woman sat up and announced that she was okay now. Kyle interviewed her prior to all this and found out that she comes from a strict Hindu family and just a few months ago heard the gospel and started coming to church. Since she started coming whenever she prays, and most times at church worship she is wrought with gut wrenching pain and demon control. Demon possession is very real and crazy here. Please pray that by God the people suffering from possession will be freed from that bondage. And buy the book to hear more about this woman’s story and more like it! (Nice plug, huh) After this all died down the pastor took us a few kilometers away to show us the preschool he started 2 years ago. It is in 2 small storage rooms that he rents from a local woman. I loved Parseoni and everything about it. The church members were mostly new converts who are so excited about learning and worshipping the Living God. The pastor and his family are so kind and humble. I would love to come back and work with them in some area. Really, I loved it there.
Monday was Shibu, the campus manager’s son’s birthday. Little Benny turned 1 and they had a big party for him at the Mercy Home. I spent most of the day helping them prepare it. It was great to sit around the kitchen with the women and cut vegetables for hours, pick the little bugs out of rice with the younger girls and roll chaipati with the Mercy Home kids. I think this was one my favorite days so far.
Now that time is getting short I am spending a lot more time at the Mercy Home and with the faculty families. I feel at home here and am really going to miss everyone when I leave. We have only 1 more full week until we leave for Delhi and then back to the states.
Thank you all again, as usual, for the encouragement and prayers. I am excited to be able to talk to all in person. Miss and love you very much and am praying that everyone stateside is doing well.
And Happy Father’s Day if you’re reading this…
Hey,
Happy Father's Day, I think...
Thank you again for all the comments. We are able to read them and we really look forward to reading them. Its really good to hear from you all. Sorry its been so long since we were able to post. We sent a few emails on Saturday (June 9th) and then the internet started acting weird and we struggled with it for an hour just to be able to read the comments on the blog but we were never able to post. And yesterday, (Sat, June 18th) we were at an all day leadership seminar in the city of Nagpur. But finally we have a chance to post...
Shortly after we posted our last blogs on Saturday (June 2nd), we returned to the Mission India campus where, of course, the power was out. That's alright though, it came again at about 330pm. But then, a really strong storm came through (it was a little preview of the monsoon season that has been 'almost here' for quite some time now). The lightning, wind, and rain was crazy. During the storm, the power went out again. That was about 430pm on Saturday. Apparently, that power outage came from some damage caused by the storm and this damage did not get repaired for about 27 hours. Yeah, no power from 430pm on Saturday to 745 pm on Sunday. No AC or fan that night. Without power, no pumps to pull water from the wells either. More power problems left us without fan, AC, or water on Sunday night too. I'm not gonna lie to ya, that was frustrating. If I could have handled the mosquitos I would have slept outside. Those concrete buildings trap the heat from the day and it is actually hotter inside at night than outside (without fan or AC that is). Thursday the same thing happened... a storm came, knocked out the power, and it did not come back until about 8am Fri morning. Fortunately, though God has blessed us with moments of electricity when we could get some relief, at least. And we are also blessed to have access to bottled water so we are not dependent on the electricity for drinking water (although we are dependent on it for bathing water).
On June 4th, Carie and I got an email from Saji Lukos, the founder of this missions organization that we are working with. He wanted us to be sure that we each came back with at least 50 of those interviews he asked us to get. The regular college students just started arriving that week so we hadn't had much opportunity to interview up to that point, but we are making progress now. We've got a lot of interviews left to get in a relatively short amount of time, and to be honest, I'm nervous about getting this task done. But we are praying for God to give us the ability to finish it. If completed, this can be a very helpful tool for Mission India, both in raising funds and in sharing with people elsewhere what its like to be a Christian in India. So, would you please pray that we will be able to finish this task
On Tuesday (June 5), Carie and I had to switch rooms. I share an apartment with a guy named Chris from Georgia and our apt has one room with AC. Carie is in an apt by herself with two AC rooms. Well, another guy from the States was coming on Wednesday, so we all switched rooms. Now me, Chris and Robbie (Ohio) are in Carie's old apt and Carie is in our old apt. That night, after we switched rooms, we found and killed the snake that had apparently been living in Carie's room for who knows how long. It was under Chris's bed, hehe.
Sunday (June 10th) was a very good day. Mission India has three parts to their mission. 1. Leadership Training and Development, 2. Compassion Ministry, and 3. Evangelism Ministry. Carie and I have been working at the Mission India Theological Seminary in Nagpur, helping them in their library and spending time at the Mercy Home with the children. So our efforts had been mostly involved in the first two parts of Mission India's mission. Sunday, though, we were able to visit a village church and meet the pastor that worked there. This was a mostly Hindu village and the pastor had built the only church there 8 years ago. He was severly beaten when he was building that church. I was able to preach there that morning and it was so humbling to address Christians in such conditions. We got to get a taste of what real Indian village Christianity is like.
There are a lot of students on the campus now. Several of the students are from Nagaland, a state in the NE part of India. The people in that part of India look more like people from the Far East than what you would expect Indians to look like. Carie and I walked past some of them the other night as we were returning from the Mercy Home. They were out in the field with a light hunting frogs. We found out later that they caught no frogs, but killed 3 vipers instead. Tenzing (from Nagaland) gave us some Nagaland beef jerky... scary, but tasty. I offered some to some of the other Indians, but they did not want any cause they were afraid of what was in it since the Nagaland guys eat all kinds of birds and dogs and monkeys and snakes and stuff. I'm told small dogs taste the best, ha. Maybe I'll save one pack and try to get it back to the States for you to try some. If i'm able to get it thru customs, it'll still be good, right? It'll only be like 4 weeks old by then. Well, I will have had it for four weeks. Tenzing brought it from Nagaland which is a three day journey by train and he had already been here two weeks when he gave it to me, ha... maybe I should just throw the rest away.
Anyway, we are still working in the library, trying to get as much of the book collection entered into the computers before we leave. We are also spending a lot of time trying to get the interviews. So, like I said, please pray that we can complete that so that our time here can really serve some long-term help for the Kingdom work that Mission India is doing here. Bansal is helping me translate for many of the testimonies. I was worried that he was annoyed by having to help me do so many interviews so I said, "Thank you so much for doing this for me and helping me this way." He stopped me and said, "I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for the Lord... I'm ready to help 24 hours [a day]."
We are finally feeling a change in the climate. A major storm over near Oman, Yeman, and Saudi Arabia was delaying the Indian monsoon, but now it has come ashore from the Arabian Sea and should be on top of us full force soon. The temperature has already drastically changed. Temperatures are no longer above 110, but instead they are around 100. It feels so good! And also the breeze is a little cooler now, it feels great here now. Our last two weeks here will be very wet but the temperature will be much more bearable. The change in the climate has brought a LOT more creatures out though. We miss you all and we will see you pretty soon.
I really look forward to being able to share with you some of the stories of the Christians here, but that will be more fun to do in person.
Happy Father's Day, I think...
Thank you again for all the comments. We are able to read them and we really look forward to reading them. Its really good to hear from you all. Sorry its been so long since we were able to post. We sent a few emails on Saturday (June 9th) and then the internet started acting weird and we struggled with it for an hour just to be able to read the comments on the blog but we were never able to post. And yesterday, (Sat, June 18th) we were at an all day leadership seminar in the city of Nagpur. But finally we have a chance to post...
Shortly after we posted our last blogs on Saturday (June 2nd), we returned to the Mission India campus where, of course, the power was out. That's alright though, it came again at about 330pm. But then, a really strong storm came through (it was a little preview of the monsoon season that has been 'almost here' for quite some time now). The lightning, wind, and rain was crazy. During the storm, the power went out again. That was about 430pm on Saturday. Apparently, that power outage came from some damage caused by the storm and this damage did not get repaired for about 27 hours. Yeah, no power from 430pm on Saturday to 745 pm on Sunday. No AC or fan that night. Without power, no pumps to pull water from the wells either. More power problems left us without fan, AC, or water on Sunday night too. I'm not gonna lie to ya, that was frustrating. If I could have handled the mosquitos I would have slept outside. Those concrete buildings trap the heat from the day and it is actually hotter inside at night than outside (without fan or AC that is). Thursday the same thing happened... a storm came, knocked out the power, and it did not come back until about 8am Fri morning. Fortunately, though God has blessed us with moments of electricity when we could get some relief, at least. And we are also blessed to have access to bottled water so we are not dependent on the electricity for drinking water (although we are dependent on it for bathing water).
On June 4th, Carie and I got an email from Saji Lukos, the founder of this missions organization that we are working with. He wanted us to be sure that we each came back with at least 50 of those interviews he asked us to get. The regular college students just started arriving that week so we hadn't had much opportunity to interview up to that point, but we are making progress now. We've got a lot of interviews left to get in a relatively short amount of time, and to be honest, I'm nervous about getting this task done. But we are praying for God to give us the ability to finish it. If completed, this can be a very helpful tool for Mission India, both in raising funds and in sharing with people elsewhere what its like to be a Christian in India. So, would you please pray that we will be able to finish this task
On Tuesday (June 5), Carie and I had to switch rooms. I share an apartment with a guy named Chris from Georgia and our apt has one room with AC. Carie is in an apt by herself with two AC rooms. Well, another guy from the States was coming on Wednesday, so we all switched rooms. Now me, Chris and Robbie (Ohio) are in Carie's old apt and Carie is in our old apt. That night, after we switched rooms, we found and killed the snake that had apparently been living in Carie's room for who knows how long. It was under Chris's bed, hehe.
Sunday (June 10th) was a very good day. Mission India has three parts to their mission. 1. Leadership Training and Development, 2. Compassion Ministry, and 3. Evangelism Ministry. Carie and I have been working at the Mission India Theological Seminary in Nagpur, helping them in their library and spending time at the Mercy Home with the children. So our efforts had been mostly involved in the first two parts of Mission India's mission. Sunday, though, we were able to visit a village church and meet the pastor that worked there. This was a mostly Hindu village and the pastor had built the only church there 8 years ago. He was severly beaten when he was building that church. I was able to preach there that morning and it was so humbling to address Christians in such conditions. We got to get a taste of what real Indian village Christianity is like.
There are a lot of students on the campus now. Several of the students are from Nagaland, a state in the NE part of India. The people in that part of India look more like people from the Far East than what you would expect Indians to look like. Carie and I walked past some of them the other night as we were returning from the Mercy Home. They were out in the field with a light hunting frogs. We found out later that they caught no frogs, but killed 3 vipers instead. Tenzing (from Nagaland) gave us some Nagaland beef jerky... scary, but tasty. I offered some to some of the other Indians, but they did not want any cause they were afraid of what was in it since the Nagaland guys eat all kinds of birds and dogs and monkeys and snakes and stuff. I'm told small dogs taste the best, ha. Maybe I'll save one pack and try to get it back to the States for you to try some. If i'm able to get it thru customs, it'll still be good, right? It'll only be like 4 weeks old by then. Well, I will have had it for four weeks. Tenzing brought it from Nagaland which is a three day journey by train and he had already been here two weeks when he gave it to me, ha... maybe I should just throw the rest away.
Anyway, we are still working in the library, trying to get as much of the book collection entered into the computers before we leave. We are also spending a lot of time trying to get the interviews. So, like I said, please pray that we can complete that so that our time here can really serve some long-term help for the Kingdom work that Mission India is doing here. Bansal is helping me translate for many of the testimonies. I was worried that he was annoyed by having to help me do so many interviews so I said, "Thank you so much for doing this for me and helping me this way." He stopped me and said, "I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for the Lord... I'm ready to help 24 hours [a day]."
We are finally feeling a change in the climate. A major storm over near Oman, Yeman, and Saudi Arabia was delaying the Indian monsoon, but now it has come ashore from the Arabian Sea and should be on top of us full force soon. The temperature has already drastically changed. Temperatures are no longer above 110, but instead they are around 100. It feels so good! And also the breeze is a little cooler now, it feels great here now. Our last two weeks here will be very wet but the temperature will be much more bearable. The change in the climate has brought a LOT more creatures out though. We miss you all and we will see you pretty soon.
I really look forward to being able to share with you some of the stories of the Christians here, but that will be more fun to do in person.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
oops
Carie's blog didn't come through on the email, but visit the blog site to read it... www.prayforindia07.blogspot.com
Also, check out this video...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7759130111070978160
Also, check out this video...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7759130111070978160
Carie's Blog... her account wouldn't work
Subh Prabhat Sab!
I’m sorry I didn’t write last week, we’ve been pretty busy…anyways things are going great here! It’s so hard to believe that we’ve been here for 2 weeks already! It feels like we’ve been here longer, but the time has gone fast. As Kyle probably mentioned, we spent our first week getting acquainted with everyone and adjusting to the weather and food and whatnot. We worked in the library some and also visited the Mercy Home. There are only a few kids there now but in a week or so there will be over 100. Apparently the Mercy Home is more like a boarding school than an orphanage. The way it is set up kids come and stay during the “school year” and the rest of the time they go back to their home villages to live with relatives or whoever will take care of them. Most of them are orphans though and they are accepted into the Mercy Home based upon need…so they are the kids that need our help the most. I haven’t really started officially interviewing any of them yet. When all the kids get here it’ll be much easier to set up a schedule or something like that. Most of the kids don’t speak any English so I need a translator for every interview, which means that I also have to work with someone else’s schedule. It’s an ordeal, but definitely worth it. The time I’ve spent with the kids there has been really good. I’m kinda glad there are only a few; it makes it easier to build real relationships. They have devotional time every night and it is amazing! They sing their little hearts out, praising God for the work He’s done in them, even at such young ages. I am very blessed to have gotten pretty close to the oldest girl there, Eshwarie. She’s teaching me “Hosanna in the Highest” in Hindi, it’s so fun! She’s the eldest of 3 children and doesn’t have parents that I know of. She has some kind of problem with one of her legs and has to see a doctor often. I’m not sure what it is or why she has it (communication is difficult), but be praying for her healing and that she isn’t in pain.
I’m terrible with remembering what happens each day so I’ll just guess it from here on out:
Last Saturday night was the graduation for the summer session students. I don’t know if Kyle mentioned it, but my teaching went really well. The students were really interactive and asked lots of questions, so I think they enjoyed it and got a lot out of it too. Back to the graduation, it was quite long, but nice. They even gave Kyle and I special seats at the front…I always feel so awkward when they call us out…but it’s nice and they are just giving us honor and respect for being here. After the graduation we all ate together, family style, with the students, faculty, and everyone’s family. Later, after most people dispersed from the dining hall area, Kyle and the boys had a dance party. It was stinking hilarious! The dancing in the Bollywood movies isn’t just show, they really dance crazy like! Sunday was worship and then laundry day. I washed my own clothes…in a bucket. Doing things myself really makes me appreciate the work, if that makes sense. When I wash clothes at home it’s no big deal, and here I feel so accomplished and proud of my work. Sungeeta, one of the students, helped me out and taught me the Indian way to do it. It was good to have the company and extra hands, especially since I was washing Kyle’s stuff too (I offered). We took breaks from laundry and talked for a long time, in her broken English and my broken Hindi. At one point she even broke down and cried while talking about her husband. Most of the women I’ve talked to are not happily married and feel trapped almost. She hadn’t talked to her husband in 13 days (though she attempted many times) and he didn’t even come to her graduation. “Love marriages” are very uncommon here; so many women don’t have much of a choice when it comes to who they marry. Their parents chose for them and it is dishonoring if they say no. Another one of the students, Vandana, also opened up to me on Sunday after church. Many times during the week she asked me to pray with her. She has been severely burned over most of her upper body. Her face is disfigured and her chest and arms are as well. One of the other girls told me that she and her husband had been fighting and either she or her husband set her on fire. It was hard for me to understand the exact details. But when the girl told me, it was as if it was an ordinary thing. I asked Vandana myself what happened when we were talking but she just cried and wouldn’t tell me. She said that she looks dangerous (her English isn’t very good) and asked me if I agreed. I told her that she is beautiful, no matter what. I know that’s cliché but it’s so true and she seemed to not have thought of that. She smiled when I told her what God says about inner beauty and kept thanking me for being so kind. Please be praying for Vandana. She has both physical and emotional scarring and only God can heal her. After talking with Sungeeta and Vandana I really want to open a women’s counseling center here. I know it could be really tough, but I also know how needed it is and how much God would bless it. Many of the women say they have good marriages but I don’t think they know what a good marriage looks like. Sunday afternoon most of the students left, including Sungeeta and Vandana. I was really sad to see them leave. Please pray for them specifically, as well as the women of India.
So that was the weekend in a nut shell. Monday and Tuesday were spent working in the library, that is, when there is power. The state we are in, Maharashtra, is one of the poorer in India, so to save money they turn the power off each day for a few hours. Last week we were lucky and had power all week…this week we haven’t been that lucky. It’s all in how you look at it I guess though. I’ve enjoyed very much spending time in the library getting to know the other workers. When there is power we are all busy preparing for the students to come and re-entering the 2 months of work that was lost last week—apparently the term “back up” is foreign to the librarian. So in the times without power we sit around and talk, read, sweat…the usual. Kyle and I have been trying to learn Hindi, so it’s also a great time to practice. The librarian, Thomson is hilarious. He’s jolly in an awkward sort of way. His wife, Catherine, is great too. She also works in the library. Most Indian women are very quiet and submissive, but she’s loud and laughs at everything. She’s from a Christian home but was never very faithful. She lost both of her parents in the 80’s and fell away soon after. After her parents died her eldest sister stepped up to take care of the rest of the siblings, all 6 of them. Being the youngest in the family she was in the house the longest and remembers the most. They were very poor and spent many days hungry because they couldn’t afford food. She wept telling me how difficult it was, but also how much her family trusted God to provide. Thankfully she can look back now and see how God was working even in the difficult times. In 2003 she was arranged to marry Thomson by her sister’s friend. The same year she fasted and prayed for 3 days straight and decided to come back to Christ. Thomson seemed like a good match for her, and a Christian, which is hard to come by, so they were married. They have a good marriage, filled with mutual love and respect. And their little girl, Deb, is adorable. She’s almost 3 and very bright. She’s teaching me Hindi and I’m teaching her Itsy Bitsy Spider. Sorry for the rambling about Catherine…anyways, the Thomson’s are great (that’s their last name actually and he goes by it).
Tuesday night we got a special treat…a real Indian wedding! The entire faculty was going and they asked if we wanted to join. Of course we said yes, how could we pass up an opportunity like that. Because it was a Christian wedding it wasn’t as fancy as the Hindu ones that are most often seen in films, but it was still really interesting. It was super long, with people getting up with screaming babies and roaming around all throughout the service. The bride was decked out in all white, from head to toe. She had a white sari and long lace gloves covering her entire arms, with a huge veil that covered her to her knees in the front. Following the wedding was the reception…with about a thousand people. There was tons of food but lines do not exist in India, so getting to the food was the difficult task. It was like shopping the day after Thanksgiving, everyone grabbing things and pushing people left and right. Kyle thought it was fun, but it made me nervous. And then the water…wow. There were 4 huge barrels full, about 10 cups, and a kid with a pitcher. If you wanted any, and of course I did, you had to squeeze your way in and grab a cup, stick it out for the kid to pour you some from the barrels and then drink it there. I tried to leave with the cup the first time (not knowing the system) and got yelled at in Hindi. There was water splashing everywhere from his just dumping the water in a line across all the hands stuck out waiting for their fill. Thankfully I’m not germaphobic and like sharing! I got to wear a sari to the wedding too. I borrowed a beautiful purple silk one from Jasmine (the principle’s wife). Catherine dressed me. They aren’t kidding when they say that sari’s take a long time to tie…its really complicated!
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were also spent in the library during the day and at the Mercy Home at night. I like our routine and its flexibility. Now I’ll just tell you random things that you might like to hear…I haven’t talked about Sunanda yet! She is an old, well she looks old, she’s actually only 46, Hindu lady that works in the library. She’s so funny, always trying to talk to teach us Hindi. She speaks NO English. She jokes around with everyone all the time, and is real feisty. Her chai (the Indian tea) is the best. Kyle and I get so excited when it’s chai time. She asked me the other day why I don’t comb my hair…she thinks my curls are just messy. I probably should have been offended, but it was hilarious. I’m really glad that she works in the library here. She is surrounded by Christians and has the opportunity to learn about Christ through action, not just words. Be praying for Sunanda that she is open to what she is seeing and hearing about Christ. I’m so blessed to have made lots of friends here already. At night Kunti (pronounced Coon-tee) the girl’s warden and I watch Bollywood movies on my laptop. She takes care of me and kills all the big bugs that I’m too scared to get close to. The movies are strange and I can understand very little, but the time spent with her is fun. Another one of the girls, Suman, always joined us, but now she is back home. I miss her, but she’ll be back soon for school. It’s lonely in my apartment at night, so I definitely enjoy the company very much. I also made another friend, Charlie the dog, yes I named him, I’m a nerd. Most of the dogs are scared of people, but he knows I won’t hurt him so he likes me, we’ve bonded. Funny story. I was playing with him after dinner the other night and talking to Kunti about how all the dogs are scared and run away. She told me it was because the students kill and eat them! She said, “You must tell them you are friends with this one, so they will not eat him.” I hope they don’t eat Charlie! (Escape to Candy Mountain Charlie!)
I almost forgot to tell you all about Kyle and my Indian boyfriend! His name is Bansal and he’s amazing! Indian men are very affectionate with each other so he always holds Kyle’s hand when they are walking together. Kyle is a great sport and respects their culture very much as not to offend. I just love Bansal. He has such a big heart and is so kind to us. I think Kyle wrote about his story in his last blog, so continue to pray for him.
We are having a lot of fun getting to know everyone and experiencing a new culture, but, it is also very difficult. India has a HUGE Hindu population and everywhere we go we are surrounded by its influence on the people and the culture. India is a dark place. It may sound strange but being out in the city just feels different. Everywhere you turn there is some kind of statue to a god or goddess, temples line the street, even the buses and rickshaws have Hindu gods painted all over them. People sleep under tarp tents in the street, yet their village spends loads of money to build elaborate shrines for their god of choice. Something is wrong with this picture. We have heard amazing testimonies from the Christians here, but it is going to take more than that to change this country. Kyle and I feel a great burden for this place and we ask that you do the same. Please pray for Light to be shown in this dark country. Pray for His Kingdom to move here and that His people rise up and claim this land for His glory.
I love you all very much and am so very thankful for your encouragement and prayers!!!
* * *
Okay everyone, I am so sorry that this is probably the longest blog in history. I was planning on using the on campus computer this week since we didn’t make it to the city…but…someone left it on and it was smoking really badly, so that idea was out. Anyways, bear with me as I continue telling you the happenings of the trip.
Sunday we went to Wadi (right outside Nagpur) for church. I just love church here. Everyone is so filled with the Spirit and it’s definitely encouraging. That night we got to go the market in town. What an experience! Everyone was shouting so you’d buy their stuff and there were tons of vegetables that I’d never seen before. I will be back there next week, that’s for sure. Monday we went to Fun & Food Village (what a name). It’s an Indian waterpark, ha! The staff wanted to take Chris (the other American guy here) somewhere special since he is leaving soon to go back to the States and we got to tag along. There are not words to describe an Indian waterpark. We had to rent swimming costumes (that’s what they are called here), and they were so funny! It is reversed from the States. The women’s costumes are these baggy dress things with pants that you wear underneath. The men’s on the other hand are these tiny little shorts. And I’m sure you’re all wondering, yes, they made us wear them too. Kyle brought his own shorts (much longer), but they wouldn’t let him wear them…hilarious! The swimming costumes were unpleasant but the company was great! We had a lot of fun going on the slides and playing in the wave pool with the staff and their families. I even got Catherine and Sucheta (one of the teachers) to go on the water slides with me…for their first time ever! They were being adventurous since I was there so make sure they didn’t drown; neither one of them know how to swim. It was great spending time with them and really getting to know them both better. On the way home from Fun & Food Deb was sleeping in my lap and peed on me, twice. The next day Catherine was telling Sunanda about it and apparently there is a Maharashtran folk tale that if you get peed on twice in a row you will be married soon and then have a very blessed child. So mom if you’re reading this then start saving for the wedding! Anyways, Fun & Food was a day I will never forget…and I have video and pictures to remind Kyle for years to come too, haha.
Wednesday night we were invited to one of the teacher’s homes for dinner. He and his family live in a village in the city so we had to take 2 rickshaws and then walk to get there. It was the first time that Kyle and I had been into an actual village here and it was a lot to take in. It is one thing to see the poverty from a distance but being in the middle of it is another. Satich, his wife (Kuruna), their son, and Satich’s parents live in a small 2 room home. There are 2 beds in one room and the other is the living room area with an attached kitchen. The men stayed in the bedroom and I was taken into the kitchen with Kuruna while she cooked. I just love spending time with the women and learning from them. She doesn’t speak much English so we stuck to conversation about the cooking. When it was dinner time we all sat around the living room on the floor, since they don’t have any furniture and they served us. It was such a humbling experience to be taken into their home and served like that. I am being taught so much about true service and hospitality each day.
Friday was yet another day in the library. I’m on Indian time now, so I was late getting there, but made it just in time for tea, perfect. The afternoon was a little more laid back since the librarian was in a staff meeting so we spent some time talking with Samuel and Sunanda. Samuel listened to Share the Well, by Caedmon’s Call. It is an amazing album about their mission experiences, a lot about India. Kyle and I have been inspired from it but hearing the take on it from an actual Indian is even better. Samuel was listening to one song called “Mother India” and felt so connected. He had his eyes closed and was singing along, but not just with his voice, his heart was singing too. Everyday is so refreshing. When I get discouraged that my work here is not true service and that I’m not being of any help, I see things like Samuel listening to “Mother India” and am instantly shown how God is using me in so many ways. God is faithful. After the library we went to the Mercy Home. To our surprise Binoj was there. He is over the construction being done on campus and had been in the hospital since Monday. He had been having terrible stomach pains and went to the hospital thinking it was something with his appendix. After a day of tests they found out he had severe kidney stones. He was being given medicine for the pain but there wasn’t much they could do. We had all been praying hard for him. Friday morning they did more x-rays and all the stones were gone! He is in no more pain and was released that afternoon. Healing is such a strange thing for me. It is done so much throughout scripture but I still have trouble believing it. I have been reading through the book of Mark and just last night I read the story from the 9th chapter where the father asks Jesus to heal his son from a demon. Jesus tells the father that “all things are possible to him who believes.” The father then replies back with “I do believe; help my unbelief.” I feel like the father in the story. If I believe then why do I doubt? Reading the story again and listening to Binoj tell of God healing him really convict me. I do not want to be one of the Pharisees who asks for a sign and then doesn’t even believe it when they see it. God is also teaching me a lot about His power and how I need to just trust Him. So Friday was again another great day in India. Saturday we will venture into the city to do a little shopping and site-seeing. Obed, one of the newest faculty members is going with us. We are excited to spend the day with him and get to know him better.
Well that’s about it I guess. Again I love you all very much and look forward to reading your comments. They are so encouraging! And keep praying for india!
I’m sorry I didn’t write last week, we’ve been pretty busy…anyways things are going great here! It’s so hard to believe that we’ve been here for 2 weeks already! It feels like we’ve been here longer, but the time has gone fast. As Kyle probably mentioned, we spent our first week getting acquainted with everyone and adjusting to the weather and food and whatnot. We worked in the library some and also visited the Mercy Home. There are only a few kids there now but in a week or so there will be over 100. Apparently the Mercy Home is more like a boarding school than an orphanage. The way it is set up kids come and stay during the “school year” and the rest of the time they go back to their home villages to live with relatives or whoever will take care of them. Most of them are orphans though and they are accepted into the Mercy Home based upon need…so they are the kids that need our help the most. I haven’t really started officially interviewing any of them yet. When all the kids get here it’ll be much easier to set up a schedule or something like that. Most of the kids don’t speak any English so I need a translator for every interview, which means that I also have to work with someone else’s schedule. It’s an ordeal, but definitely worth it. The time I’ve spent with the kids there has been really good. I’m kinda glad there are only a few; it makes it easier to build real relationships. They have devotional time every night and it is amazing! They sing their little hearts out, praising God for the work He’s done in them, even at such young ages. I am very blessed to have gotten pretty close to the oldest girl there, Eshwarie. She’s teaching me “Hosanna in the Highest” in Hindi, it’s so fun! She’s the eldest of 3 children and doesn’t have parents that I know of. She has some kind of problem with one of her legs and has to see a doctor often. I’m not sure what it is or why she has it (communication is difficult), but be praying for her healing and that she isn’t in pain.
I’m terrible with remembering what happens each day so I’ll just guess it from here on out:
Last Saturday night was the graduation for the summer session students. I don’t know if Kyle mentioned it, but my teaching went really well. The students were really interactive and asked lots of questions, so I think they enjoyed it and got a lot out of it too. Back to the graduation, it was quite long, but nice. They even gave Kyle and I special seats at the front…I always feel so awkward when they call us out…but it’s nice and they are just giving us honor and respect for being here. After the graduation we all ate together, family style, with the students, faculty, and everyone’s family. Later, after most people dispersed from the dining hall area, Kyle and the boys had a dance party. It was stinking hilarious! The dancing in the Bollywood movies isn’t just show, they really dance crazy like! Sunday was worship and then laundry day. I washed my own clothes…in a bucket. Doing things myself really makes me appreciate the work, if that makes sense. When I wash clothes at home it’s no big deal, and here I feel so accomplished and proud of my work. Sungeeta, one of the students, helped me out and taught me the Indian way to do it. It was good to have the company and extra hands, especially since I was washing Kyle’s stuff too (I offered). We took breaks from laundry and talked for a long time, in her broken English and my broken Hindi. At one point she even broke down and cried while talking about her husband. Most of the women I’ve talked to are not happily married and feel trapped almost. She hadn’t talked to her husband in 13 days (though she attempted many times) and he didn’t even come to her graduation. “Love marriages” are very uncommon here; so many women don’t have much of a choice when it comes to who they marry. Their parents chose for them and it is dishonoring if they say no. Another one of the students, Vandana, also opened up to me on Sunday after church. Many times during the week she asked me to pray with her. She has been severely burned over most of her upper body. Her face is disfigured and her chest and arms are as well. One of the other girls told me that she and her husband had been fighting and either she or her husband set her on fire. It was hard for me to understand the exact details. But when the girl told me, it was as if it was an ordinary thing. I asked Vandana myself what happened when we were talking but she just cried and wouldn’t tell me. She said that she looks dangerous (her English isn’t very good) and asked me if I agreed. I told her that she is beautiful, no matter what. I know that’s cliché but it’s so true and she seemed to not have thought of that. She smiled when I told her what God says about inner beauty and kept thanking me for being so kind. Please be praying for Vandana. She has both physical and emotional scarring and only God can heal her. After talking with Sungeeta and Vandana I really want to open a women’s counseling center here. I know it could be really tough, but I also know how needed it is and how much God would bless it. Many of the women say they have good marriages but I don’t think they know what a good marriage looks like. Sunday afternoon most of the students left, including Sungeeta and Vandana. I was really sad to see them leave. Please pray for them specifically, as well as the women of India.
So that was the weekend in a nut shell. Monday and Tuesday were spent working in the library, that is, when there is power. The state we are in, Maharashtra, is one of the poorer in India, so to save money they turn the power off each day for a few hours. Last week we were lucky and had power all week…this week we haven’t been that lucky. It’s all in how you look at it I guess though. I’ve enjoyed very much spending time in the library getting to know the other workers. When there is power we are all busy preparing for the students to come and re-entering the 2 months of work that was lost last week—apparently the term “back up” is foreign to the librarian. So in the times without power we sit around and talk, read, sweat…the usual. Kyle and I have been trying to learn Hindi, so it’s also a great time to practice. The librarian, Thomson is hilarious. He’s jolly in an awkward sort of way. His wife, Catherine, is great too. She also works in the library. Most Indian women are very quiet and submissive, but she’s loud and laughs at everything. She’s from a Christian home but was never very faithful. She lost both of her parents in the 80’s and fell away soon after. After her parents died her eldest sister stepped up to take care of the rest of the siblings, all 6 of them. Being the youngest in the family she was in the house the longest and remembers the most. They were very poor and spent many days hungry because they couldn’t afford food. She wept telling me how difficult it was, but also how much her family trusted God to provide. Thankfully she can look back now and see how God was working even in the difficult times. In 2003 she was arranged to marry Thomson by her sister’s friend. The same year she fasted and prayed for 3 days straight and decided to come back to Christ. Thomson seemed like a good match for her, and a Christian, which is hard to come by, so they were married. They have a good marriage, filled with mutual love and respect. And their little girl, Deb, is adorable. She’s almost 3 and very bright. She’s teaching me Hindi and I’m teaching her Itsy Bitsy Spider. Sorry for the rambling about Catherine…anyways, the Thomson’s are great (that’s their last name actually and he goes by it).
Tuesday night we got a special treat…a real Indian wedding! The entire faculty was going and they asked if we wanted to join. Of course we said yes, how could we pass up an opportunity like that. Because it was a Christian wedding it wasn’t as fancy as the Hindu ones that are most often seen in films, but it was still really interesting. It was super long, with people getting up with screaming babies and roaming around all throughout the service. The bride was decked out in all white, from head to toe. She had a white sari and long lace gloves covering her entire arms, with a huge veil that covered her to her knees in the front. Following the wedding was the reception…with about a thousand people. There was tons of food but lines do not exist in India, so getting to the food was the difficult task. It was like shopping the day after Thanksgiving, everyone grabbing things and pushing people left and right. Kyle thought it was fun, but it made me nervous. And then the water…wow. There were 4 huge barrels full, about 10 cups, and a kid with a pitcher. If you wanted any, and of course I did, you had to squeeze your way in and grab a cup, stick it out for the kid to pour you some from the barrels and then drink it there. I tried to leave with the cup the first time (not knowing the system) and got yelled at in Hindi. There was water splashing everywhere from his just dumping the water in a line across all the hands stuck out waiting for their fill. Thankfully I’m not germaphobic and like sharing! I got to wear a sari to the wedding too. I borrowed a beautiful purple silk one from Jasmine (the principle’s wife). Catherine dressed me. They aren’t kidding when they say that sari’s take a long time to tie…its really complicated!
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were also spent in the library during the day and at the Mercy Home at night. I like our routine and its flexibility. Now I’ll just tell you random things that you might like to hear…I haven’t talked about Sunanda yet! She is an old, well she looks old, she’s actually only 46, Hindu lady that works in the library. She’s so funny, always trying to talk to teach us Hindi. She speaks NO English. She jokes around with everyone all the time, and is real feisty. Her chai (the Indian tea) is the best. Kyle and I get so excited when it’s chai time. She asked me the other day why I don’t comb my hair…she thinks my curls are just messy. I probably should have been offended, but it was hilarious. I’m really glad that she works in the library here. She is surrounded by Christians and has the opportunity to learn about Christ through action, not just words. Be praying for Sunanda that she is open to what she is seeing and hearing about Christ. I’m so blessed to have made lots of friends here already. At night Kunti (pronounced Coon-tee) the girl’s warden and I watch Bollywood movies on my laptop. She takes care of me and kills all the big bugs that I’m too scared to get close to. The movies are strange and I can understand very little, but the time spent with her is fun. Another one of the girls, Suman, always joined us, but now she is back home. I miss her, but she’ll be back soon for school. It’s lonely in my apartment at night, so I definitely enjoy the company very much. I also made another friend, Charlie the dog, yes I named him, I’m a nerd. Most of the dogs are scared of people, but he knows I won’t hurt him so he likes me, we’ve bonded. Funny story. I was playing with him after dinner the other night and talking to Kunti about how all the dogs are scared and run away. She told me it was because the students kill and eat them! She said, “You must tell them you are friends with this one, so they will not eat him.” I hope they don’t eat Charlie! (Escape to Candy Mountain Charlie!)
I almost forgot to tell you all about Kyle and my Indian boyfriend! His name is Bansal and he’s amazing! Indian men are very affectionate with each other so he always holds Kyle’s hand when they are walking together. Kyle is a great sport and respects their culture very much as not to offend. I just love Bansal. He has such a big heart and is so kind to us. I think Kyle wrote about his story in his last blog, so continue to pray for him.
We are having a lot of fun getting to know everyone and experiencing a new culture, but, it is also very difficult. India has a HUGE Hindu population and everywhere we go we are surrounded by its influence on the people and the culture. India is a dark place. It may sound strange but being out in the city just feels different. Everywhere you turn there is some kind of statue to a god or goddess, temples line the street, even the buses and rickshaws have Hindu gods painted all over them. People sleep under tarp tents in the street, yet their village spends loads of money to build elaborate shrines for their god of choice. Something is wrong with this picture. We have heard amazing testimonies from the Christians here, but it is going to take more than that to change this country. Kyle and I feel a great burden for this place and we ask that you do the same. Please pray for Light to be shown in this dark country. Pray for His Kingdom to move here and that His people rise up and claim this land for His glory.
I love you all very much and am so very thankful for your encouragement and prayers!!!
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Okay everyone, I am so sorry that this is probably the longest blog in history. I was planning on using the on campus computer this week since we didn’t make it to the city…but…someone left it on and it was smoking really badly, so that idea was out. Anyways, bear with me as I continue telling you the happenings of the trip.
Sunday we went to Wadi (right outside Nagpur) for church. I just love church here. Everyone is so filled with the Spirit and it’s definitely encouraging. That night we got to go the market in town. What an experience! Everyone was shouting so you’d buy their stuff and there were tons of vegetables that I’d never seen before. I will be back there next week, that’s for sure. Monday we went to Fun & Food Village (what a name). It’s an Indian waterpark, ha! The staff wanted to take Chris (the other American guy here) somewhere special since he is leaving soon to go back to the States and we got to tag along. There are not words to describe an Indian waterpark. We had to rent swimming costumes (that’s what they are called here), and they were so funny! It is reversed from the States. The women’s costumes are these baggy dress things with pants that you wear underneath. The men’s on the other hand are these tiny little shorts. And I’m sure you’re all wondering, yes, they made us wear them too. Kyle brought his own shorts (much longer), but they wouldn’t let him wear them…hilarious! The swimming costumes were unpleasant but the company was great! We had a lot of fun going on the slides and playing in the wave pool with the staff and their families. I even got Catherine and Sucheta (one of the teachers) to go on the water slides with me…for their first time ever! They were being adventurous since I was there so make sure they didn’t drown; neither one of them know how to swim. It was great spending time with them and really getting to know them both better. On the way home from Fun & Food Deb was sleeping in my lap and peed on me, twice. The next day Catherine was telling Sunanda about it and apparently there is a Maharashtran folk tale that if you get peed on twice in a row you will be married soon and then have a very blessed child. So mom if you’re reading this then start saving for the wedding! Anyways, Fun & Food was a day I will never forget…and I have video and pictures to remind Kyle for years to come too, haha.
Wednesday night we were invited to one of the teacher’s homes for dinner. He and his family live in a village in the city so we had to take 2 rickshaws and then walk to get there. It was the first time that Kyle and I had been into an actual village here and it was a lot to take in. It is one thing to see the poverty from a distance but being in the middle of it is another. Satich, his wife (Kuruna), their son, and Satich’s parents live in a small 2 room home. There are 2 beds in one room and the other is the living room area with an attached kitchen. The men stayed in the bedroom and I was taken into the kitchen with Kuruna while she cooked. I just love spending time with the women and learning from them. She doesn’t speak much English so we stuck to conversation about the cooking. When it was dinner time we all sat around the living room on the floor, since they don’t have any furniture and they served us. It was such a humbling experience to be taken into their home and served like that. I am being taught so much about true service and hospitality each day.
Friday was yet another day in the library. I’m on Indian time now, so I was late getting there, but made it just in time for tea, perfect. The afternoon was a little more laid back since the librarian was in a staff meeting so we spent some time talking with Samuel and Sunanda. Samuel listened to Share the Well, by Caedmon’s Call. It is an amazing album about their mission experiences, a lot about India. Kyle and I have been inspired from it but hearing the take on it from an actual Indian is even better. Samuel was listening to one song called “Mother India” and felt so connected. He had his eyes closed and was singing along, but not just with his voice, his heart was singing too. Everyday is so refreshing. When I get discouraged that my work here is not true service and that I’m not being of any help, I see things like Samuel listening to “Mother India” and am instantly shown how God is using me in so many ways. God is faithful. After the library we went to the Mercy Home. To our surprise Binoj was there. He is over the construction being done on campus and had been in the hospital since Monday. He had been having terrible stomach pains and went to the hospital thinking it was something with his appendix. After a day of tests they found out he had severe kidney stones. He was being given medicine for the pain but there wasn’t much they could do. We had all been praying hard for him. Friday morning they did more x-rays and all the stones were gone! He is in no more pain and was released that afternoon. Healing is such a strange thing for me. It is done so much throughout scripture but I still have trouble believing it. I have been reading through the book of Mark and just last night I read the story from the 9th chapter where the father asks Jesus to heal his son from a demon. Jesus tells the father that “all things are possible to him who believes.” The father then replies back with “I do believe; help my unbelief.” I feel like the father in the story. If I believe then why do I doubt? Reading the story again and listening to Binoj tell of God healing him really convict me. I do not want to be one of the Pharisees who asks for a sign and then doesn’t even believe it when they see it. God is also teaching me a lot about His power and how I need to just trust Him. So Friday was again another great day in India. Saturday we will venture into the city to do a little shopping and site-seeing. Obed, one of the newest faculty members is going with us. We are excited to spend the day with him and get to know him better.
Well that’s about it I guess. Again I love you all very much and look forward to reading your comments. They are so encouraging! And keep praying for india!
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