Well let’s just say it’s been a hard few days… it started off with my decision to read the New Testament straight through. I’ve read the whole Bible in a One Year Bible way, with small passages from the old and new testaments each day, and I’ve read bits and pieces my whole life, but never in a continual manner. I finished Matthew, and realized just how inconsistent I felt it was, how the things I’d always told myself I believed weren’t necessarily backed up. People have used verses my whole life to prove points that, looked at in context, really don’t match up to what they were saying. I feel like we as a generation have made Christianity what we want it to be, something so easy and full of peace, but really I just felt a lot of frustration. I just didn’t understand so much, and it made me wonder, is my hard heart, like the people Jesus spoke of? I would find comfort in one passage, only to be brought back to my frustration in another. I want my view of God to be based on the Bible, rather than what I’ve always been told, what the world tells me about Him. Please ask me specifically about what I’ve been struggling with when I get home, because I know I’ll be tempted to just slip back into my “I don’t know the answers but that’s ok” mindset. While I know we can’t know all the answers, and even Jesus’s disciples struggled with faith, I want to really know what I can believe, otherwise how can I tell others?
I felt like I had come to so much peace while here, so much realization of who God was to me, but just by reading one book of the Bible I have lost so much of that, and maybe that bothers me more than anything. I don’t want my faith to be that shallow, that easily swayed. The other girls on my team embarked on this journey with me, and they are feeling very similar to the way I am, so please just pray for us, that we would open our hearts to what God has to tell us, and that he would use the next week and half to show us things we’ve never seen before.
Yesterday morning we woke up to paint the CDC and Kingsley told Jen and I that Meret and Tam were sick… we thought they probably just had a cold or something so the 2 of us just started painting… until I threw up. Well actually I went back to paint again after that, like I do, but then I realized that I was basically just splashing paint on the wall and had no idea what I was doing, so I went to lay down, and within with next few hours threw up multiple times and lost much of whatever was in my body, um, another way. Every fiber of my body felt like I’d fallen off a 20 story building and I couldn’t even lay down because it hurt too bad. Honestly I was thinking death sounded pretty great… I don’t think I have ever been that sick in my life. I finally fell asleep about 8:00 and woke up at 3:30 am… unable to fall back asleep because I was so hungry, but absolutely not for Indian food. I remembered there were some fruit loops at the bakery we got the despicable poisonous turnovers things at, so I just sat in a chair til 7:15, when I finally decided to walk across the street and see if that had anything at a little stand there (I’ve never been outside the gates alone… if I hadn’t felt so sick it would have been invigorating) They didn’t though, so I drew a picture of fruit loops and rang the doorbell, then gave my lovely drawing to Kingsley’s mom, who actually figured it out! Today I have felt much better, but I still just don’t feel good, and food doesn’t really work… we have a 5 hour car ride ahead of us tomorrow and the other 2 girls have very similar stories to mine, so we’re gonna need some intense prayer!! Don’t worry, we’re being very well taken care of though… they bought us cake, because you know, that’s what you want when you’re sick, and they were just sure we’d want to drink some oatmeal. Kingsley also offered to carry us to the roof, which could have been awesome if touch didn’t feel like death. He really is super sweet though, and I guess his parents and his grandma both called to chew him out for letting us eat food outside of the home!
Pray for Jen too… her 21st birthday is tomorrow, and she was already a little bummed that we’d be traveling for most of it… 3 sick friends really wouldn’t make it any better! Love you and MISS YOU ALL!!!!!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
I'll miss you Kotagiri!!
I got to get up and run one more time, then we said our goodbyes to the wonderful people of Kotagiri before we headed to Thermopaly (that spelling is crazy wrong but of well). We drove for 7 hours and as we went down the mountain it got hotter and hotter, but it really wasn’t a bad drive at all. We were going to visit Kingsley’s best friend Devaraj and his new wife Pushpa! Initially we were supposed to stay in a hotel “because they’re newly married”, (I laughed at this comment and Kingsley told me I am the initiator of all things bad.) but for some reason they changed their mind, so the four girls got to sleep on the roof!! They almost insisted that Devaraj sleep up there with us, but finally we convinced them that we would actually live, as long as we had Kingsley’s phone (I actually have no idea what that would have done, but hey, it made them happy). While sleeping on the roof sounds ideal, it actually sucks. Not gonna lie. But hey, we asked for it!
When we first got there Pushpa came to talk to us, which was really cool… most people here doubt their English so much that they won’t even try to talk to us, but she was so sweet, and insisted upon giving us more mahendi! We were a little scared, considering the other stuff covering our bodies had just come off, but she only did our palms and they were very pretty, not to mention that it made her so happy. After that we went to a CDC for mentally challenged kids that was actually really awesome. The kids were so sweet, and if what Kingsley told us and the way things appeared is true, they’re really well cared for. We were supposed to only stay for a few minutes but we were having so much fun playing with the kids that we stayed for over an hour!
The next day we visited another CDC and some women with AIDS who also work with AIDS awareness came to talk to us. The craziest thing was that almost all of the ladies had gotten HIV because they’re husbands are truck drivers, and would sleep with prostitutes while they were on the road, then come back to their wives. All of these women had still stayed with their husbands though. They were amazing ladies and they really made me miss my AIDS hospice friends back home. After that we went to a leper colony, where Kingsley told us you contract leprosy from the flies… which were swarming us… I really know nothing about leprosy, but this was a very interesting place. You really couldn’t tell any of the people had it, and all we did there was sing our 2 Tamil songs for them… sometimes I just feel like a tourist here looking in on people’s lives like they’re a novelty, when I really want to get to know them, to somehow show them that I love them.
At lunch I fell asleep at the table… I may be able to sleep most anywhere, but even this is kinda crazy for me. We were supposed to go watch people make handbags, but Kingsley insisted we take rest, so I slept for 2 hours on the concrete, then we left for the CDC again. It wasn’t so much of a surprise when I blacked out in the road on the way in, but still rather inconvenient. The CDC leader had them take me to his amazing house (with a western toilet, the first one we had seen in about a week!!) and I recovered quite well there. That night Tam and I got to talk on the roof, and she just asked me the simple question “Who is God to you?” I think that’s a question that needs to be asked a lot more, really to anyone and everyone. It just opened up so much for us, but also made me realize how important it is that I know who God is to me. It started to rain then though, so we were moved to the porch, where I was watched intently, like really Indians standing over my bed to made sure that I was taking rest. Finally they left though and we were able to sing patriotic songs very quietly, since it was the 4th of July. Maybe not the most amazing 4th, but hey, definitely different. Some people come back from these trips hating America, but while there’s definitely things that America has wrong, I am still absolutely proud to be an American.
When we first got there Pushpa came to talk to us, which was really cool… most people here doubt their English so much that they won’t even try to talk to us, but she was so sweet, and insisted upon giving us more mahendi! We were a little scared, considering the other stuff covering our bodies had just come off, but she only did our palms and they were very pretty, not to mention that it made her so happy. After that we went to a CDC for mentally challenged kids that was actually really awesome. The kids were so sweet, and if what Kingsley told us and the way things appeared is true, they’re really well cared for. We were supposed to only stay for a few minutes but we were having so much fun playing with the kids that we stayed for over an hour!
The next day we visited another CDC and some women with AIDS who also work with AIDS awareness came to talk to us. The craziest thing was that almost all of the ladies had gotten HIV because they’re husbands are truck drivers, and would sleep with prostitutes while they were on the road, then come back to their wives. All of these women had still stayed with their husbands though. They were amazing ladies and they really made me miss my AIDS hospice friends back home. After that we went to a leper colony, where Kingsley told us you contract leprosy from the flies… which were swarming us… I really know nothing about leprosy, but this was a very interesting place. You really couldn’t tell any of the people had it, and all we did there was sing our 2 Tamil songs for them… sometimes I just feel like a tourist here looking in on people’s lives like they’re a novelty, when I really want to get to know them, to somehow show them that I love them.
At lunch I fell asleep at the table… I may be able to sleep most anywhere, but even this is kinda crazy for me. We were supposed to go watch people make handbags, but Kingsley insisted we take rest, so I slept for 2 hours on the concrete, then we left for the CDC again. It wasn’t so much of a surprise when I blacked out in the road on the way in, but still rather inconvenient. The CDC leader had them take me to his amazing house (with a western toilet, the first one we had seen in about a week!!) and I recovered quite well there. That night Tam and I got to talk on the roof, and she just asked me the simple question “Who is God to you?” I think that’s a question that needs to be asked a lot more, really to anyone and everyone. It just opened up so much for us, but also made me realize how important it is that I know who God is to me. It started to rain then though, so we were moved to the porch, where I was watched intently, like really Indians standing over my bed to made sure that I was taking rest. Finally they left though and we were able to sing patriotic songs very quietly, since it was the 4th of July. Maybe not the most amazing 4th, but hey, definitely different. Some people come back from these trips hating America, but while there’s definitely things that America has wrong, I am still absolutely proud to be an American.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
traveling in the Nazarenemobile
The next morning I got up and was allowed to go running, which was absolutely amazing!! The fact that there’s even space here to run without being hit by some sort of vehicle was a miracle. I got some awesome looks in my running tights, but everytime I would smile or wave the kids on their way to school would get these huge smiles on their faces and start giggling. We left for somewhere that I can’t remember the name after that to head for our elephant safari. On the way we stopped at this Chinese restaurant that played Kenny G music! The drives here are always absolutely amazing and I can remember thinking that I would be perfectly content if I never got out of our little Nazarenemobile. When we got to our safari site a monkey immediately stole Meret’s snack, then we were whisked away for our elephant ride. The problem was that we all had to pee like none other, so the safari leader talked some random people into letting us pee on the floor of this little building in their yard… can’t say I’ve ever peed while using the person in front of me for support until this trip, but it’s a memory I wouldn’t trade!
The elephant ride itself was fairly uneventful and the fact that the poor thing frequently got beat by a man walking behind made it not really that amazing, but it’s still cool to be able to say I’ve ridden an elephant I guess! After that we went on a bus safari and mostly just talked to the little boys sitting beside us, because the safari basically had a few deer and bison on it, and a “wild” elephant that was chained to a tree. After dinner Kingsley let me drive his stick shift car through the forest, and at one point we even saw a real wild elephant. Apparently they are very dangerous though, so our hired driver drove after that, and we eventually came upon at least 8 more elephants! The next morning we heard that elephants and bison were outside our door at 6 in the morning, but we were fast asleep… the minute we woke up Kingsley had us wading through a freezing creek… Meret fell in and grabbed me, to which I kindly responded, “If you pull me in I’ll punch you in the face.” Let’s just say we were all a little edgy. Meret was able to fashion a skirt out of Kingsley’s shawl though and we headed on our way with her jeans flying our the window to a stand full of more types of amazing bananas than you could ever imagine! Pretty much for the rest of the drive home it rained, but even that was amazing… it was just so beautiful and peaceful and I didn’t want to be anywhere else. We also stopped and got homemade chocolate, fresh plums, mangoes, and carrots… who knew carrots could taste so good?! When we got back to our little cottage we ate the various foods we’d accumulated on the side of the road and gave each other pedicures… definitely one of my favorite days in India!!
The next day we visited the self-proclaimed best rose garden on earth… it was pretty awesome, but the best part was being invited to play a way cooler version of duck duck goose with a huge group of Indians, ages ranging from children to older adults!
When we got home we went back to the wonderful church/house and celebrated Jen’s sister’s birthday there… love those kids!! We also found out while we were there that’s it’s totally cool here to marry your cousin… hmmmm
The next day we thought we were leaving Kotagiri but Kings changed his mind and decided we would paint a church! So after a lovely 4 mile run we headed to begin the biggest scraping job of our lives. Kingsley had it in his head that we had to get every single bit of paint off… it was looking like Jesus would come back before we finished the job but thankfully a delightful lunch came first. Really though, I was getting rather discouraged, but then Jen started singing hymns and it was like the time flew by… Brian Lee, you were right all along, you can have fun doing ANYTHING as long as you’re with the right people! After lunch we went to work in the fields picking beans with these hilarious ladies! They were just sure we would understand Tamil if they spoke a little louder, but quite unfortunately that wasn’t true! One stuffed a leaf of some sort in my mouth, which I tried to chew, but was then hit by another lady and told to spit out, because apparently it was some kind of drug, and “Christians, no!” accompanied by very exaggerated hand movements! Eventually it got to just be us picking and an audience of people watching us, while occasionally they asked us to show off our dancing skills.
We were told before we ever left for Mumbai that we would have an opportunity to do laundry, but that was actually a lie, so underwear and other clothes now have levels of dirtiness for us… Jeffrey you might not love it here. It really is amazing though and Kotagiri has been such an amazing part of this trip, and so much of our team bonding has happened here!
The elephant ride itself was fairly uneventful and the fact that the poor thing frequently got beat by a man walking behind made it not really that amazing, but it’s still cool to be able to say I’ve ridden an elephant I guess! After that we went on a bus safari and mostly just talked to the little boys sitting beside us, because the safari basically had a few deer and bison on it, and a “wild” elephant that was chained to a tree. After dinner Kingsley let me drive his stick shift car through the forest, and at one point we even saw a real wild elephant. Apparently they are very dangerous though, so our hired driver drove after that, and we eventually came upon at least 8 more elephants! The next morning we heard that elephants and bison were outside our door at 6 in the morning, but we were fast asleep… the minute we woke up Kingsley had us wading through a freezing creek… Meret fell in and grabbed me, to which I kindly responded, “If you pull me in I’ll punch you in the face.” Let’s just say we were all a little edgy. Meret was able to fashion a skirt out of Kingsley’s shawl though and we headed on our way with her jeans flying our the window to a stand full of more types of amazing bananas than you could ever imagine! Pretty much for the rest of the drive home it rained, but even that was amazing… it was just so beautiful and peaceful and I didn’t want to be anywhere else. We also stopped and got homemade chocolate, fresh plums, mangoes, and carrots… who knew carrots could taste so good?! When we got back to our little cottage we ate the various foods we’d accumulated on the side of the road and gave each other pedicures… definitely one of my favorite days in India!!
The next day we visited the self-proclaimed best rose garden on earth… it was pretty awesome, but the best part was being invited to play a way cooler version of duck duck goose with a huge group of Indians, ages ranging from children to older adults!
When we got home we went back to the wonderful church/house and celebrated Jen’s sister’s birthday there… love those kids!! We also found out while we were there that’s it’s totally cool here to marry your cousin… hmmmm
The next day we thought we were leaving Kotagiri but Kings changed his mind and decided we would paint a church! So after a lovely 4 mile run we headed to begin the biggest scraping job of our lives. Kingsley had it in his head that we had to get every single bit of paint off… it was looking like Jesus would come back before we finished the job but thankfully a delightful lunch came first. Really though, I was getting rather discouraged, but then Jen started singing hymns and it was like the time flew by… Brian Lee, you were right all along, you can have fun doing ANYTHING as long as you’re with the right people! After lunch we went to work in the fields picking beans with these hilarious ladies! They were just sure we would understand Tamil if they spoke a little louder, but quite unfortunately that wasn’t true! One stuffed a leaf of some sort in my mouth, which I tried to chew, but was then hit by another lady and told to spit out, because apparently it was some kind of drug, and “Christians, no!” accompanied by very exaggerated hand movements! Eventually it got to just be us picking and an audience of people watching us, while occasionally they asked us to show off our dancing skills.
We were told before we ever left for Mumbai that we would have an opportunity to do laundry, but that was actually a lie, so underwear and other clothes now have levels of dirtiness for us… Jeffrey you might not love it here. It really is amazing though and Kotagiri has been such an amazing part of this trip, and so much of our team bonding has happened here!
Monday, July 6, 2009
the earth is filled with His glory
By the time we left Mumbai we were all feeling pretty homesick, not to mention that we were super tired of hard boiled eggs and toast (hotel Indian food is rather disgusting). I knew that if some change in my attitude didn’t happen quick the next 3 weeks were gonna be absolutely miserable. God totally answered my prayer though, and allowed us to visit Kingsley’s grandma after we left the airport. She and her husband were so incredibly sweet, and they both spoke amazing English, possibly because she is half swiss. She and her daughters made us the best meal we’ve had since being here, and we got to really enjoy just being part of a family again. We left there at about 10:30 to begin our drive up the mountain… we were all kind of dreading it, but it was actually one of my favorite experiences of the trip. As we drove higher and higher up the mountain listening to John Mayer and Jason Mraz the scenery became absolutely breathtaking and the air became cooler and cooler. After what seemed like no time at all we arrived at our awesome little wooden cottage surrounded by more greenery and flowers than you can imagine! The only set back to that night was that as Meret layed down on her cute little bed it crashed through the floor… when we told the pastor who owned the house he simply replied “it’s an old building, these things happen”… the Indians we interact with have such amazing attitudes! As a result of the hole in the floor, which led directly to the ground, our room was quite chilly at night, but thankfully they had given us five blankets each, so we weren’t too cold!
Considering that we arrived at about 4:00 am it really wasn’t a surprise that we slept through our alarm, but it did result in some frenzied getting ready for church… luckily I remembered to through on my running tights under my chooty though! Yes, they did look hot, but hey, I was warm. In order to get to the church we had to climb about 50 steps, and we heard that just recently had they even put steps in, before they just had to climb the hill! After about a 3 hour nap we headed out to another church, where we fit at least 25 people in an 8 by 8 house, with 6 people sitting in chairs… if Americans were as flexible as Indians, I would say we should all have church like that. The spirit was just so there, and after giving our testimonies once again they prayed for us… I have never felt so loved, appreciated, and believed in as I do when these wonderful people pray for me. Sudas, the man who helps Kingsley, was about to go into the ministry, but recently he decided to back out, for reasons that don’t quite make sense, I think we’re missing something because of the slight communication barrier, but his mother was at this church and extremely sad… please pray for Sudas and his mother.
After church we were surrounded by the friendliest people we’ve met here, even though they really didn’t know English. Most people here want to give us things and watch us, but these people just really wanted to be with us. The girls grabbed out arms and directed our every step back down the steps, which was extremely kind considering it was pitch black and freezing out! My wonderful friend Jen compared the drive from Kingsley’s grandma’s house to our spiritual journey… we don’t want to leave what is safe, what feels like home, what is familiar. But sometimes we are called to, but if we do, God promises what he has next is even better. It may not be the easiest journey, or feel like it’s at the best time, but God absolutely has greater things in store for us. We can’t just remain stagnant, we must keep moving, trusting in the Lord with all our hearts, leaning not on our own understanding. In all our ways we must acknowledge Him, and he will keep our paths straight.
Considering that we arrived at about 4:00 am it really wasn’t a surprise that we slept through our alarm, but it did result in some frenzied getting ready for church… luckily I remembered to through on my running tights under my chooty though! Yes, they did look hot, but hey, I was warm. In order to get to the church we had to climb about 50 steps, and we heard that just recently had they even put steps in, before they just had to climb the hill! After about a 3 hour nap we headed out to another church, where we fit at least 25 people in an 8 by 8 house, with 6 people sitting in chairs… if Americans were as flexible as Indians, I would say we should all have church like that. The spirit was just so there, and after giving our testimonies once again they prayed for us… I have never felt so loved, appreciated, and believed in as I do when these wonderful people pray for me. Sudas, the man who helps Kingsley, was about to go into the ministry, but recently he decided to back out, for reasons that don’t quite make sense, I think we’re missing something because of the slight communication barrier, but his mother was at this church and extremely sad… please pray for Sudas and his mother.
After church we were surrounded by the friendliest people we’ve met here, even though they really didn’t know English. Most people here want to give us things and watch us, but these people just really wanted to be with us. The girls grabbed out arms and directed our every step back down the steps, which was extremely kind considering it was pitch black and freezing out! My wonderful friend Jen compared the drive from Kingsley’s grandma’s house to our spiritual journey… we don’t want to leave what is safe, what feels like home, what is familiar. But sometimes we are called to, but if we do, God promises what he has next is even better. It may not be the easiest journey, or feel like it’s at the best time, but God absolutely has greater things in store for us. We can’t just remain stagnant, we must keep moving, trusting in the Lord with all our hearts, leaning not on our own understanding. In all our ways we must acknowledge Him, and he will keep our paths straight.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
finally back!!!!!!!!
So it feels like I’ve been away for forever, when really it’s only been 2 weeks, but so much has happened in those 2 weeks! I’m just gonna post a few days at a time, partly so I don’t overload y’all with info but also because I just don’t have that much time on the computer! I got up at 6:30 this morning even though we arrived at 1 last night just to type these all up (yes I’m as compulsive about getting things done as ever), but Kingsley’s mother was praying so I didn’t wanna use the computer. But here goes… I’m sure I’ll forget things but I’ve tried to keep a few notes to remind myself of the highlights.
I’m not actually sure where I left off in my last blog… I’m not able to get online right now so I’m just making this a word document and then I’ll paste it later, but I’ll start with the night we got to Mumbai, after the train. Kingsley’s friend from Mumbai took us around to see the city, and we got to see the hotels that were attacked by terrorists and the train station from Slumdog. After that night we pretty much spent all our time in the hotel during the day, picking and choosing what we wanted to go to as far as the NYI conference went. We didn’t go to much of the business stuff, but we went to all the worship services and the global services, which were AMAZING. It was so crazy to think that we were really worshipping with people in America, people we knew, at the same time as them. The fact that it was at the same time meant that for a couple services we were up til about 3 in the morning though… everything really was catered to America, which frustrated our leader to no end. For some reason that I’m not really sure of she was from Germany, and she did not hesitate to make her dislike of Germans, or for that matter Indians, known.
During the worship times each region took turns leading the music and there were some really awesome ones… the crazy thing was that English was the common language spoken, because of the huge variety of languages spoken in India. For example, the only other people who spoke Tamil, the language Kingsley speaks, was from Sri Lanka! There were people from Lebanon to California there (they just decided it would be way cooler to attend in India than Orlando… I tend to agree with them!) For one song Kingsley began to dance, just him, exactly like dad!! Worship times were so fun though, but also so wonderful to just sense the spirit across the world, from Ecuador to Germany.
The second day we were there the Mumbai YIM team got to come see us!! It was so wonderful to see them and hear their stories… their Red Light District stories were absolutely incredible. Their leader somehow, only by some miracle, got them in, and within a matter of minutes she was praying with people she had never met before… why have we so overcomplicated spreading the gospel? These stories are so intense but I really want you to hear them firsthand… I’ll try to find a link for one of the girl’s blog. Each night we were there we ordered Dominoes Pizza (yes that’s right!!)… the first night we accidentally ordered four boxes of breadsticks though instead of 4 breadsticks, but don’t worry, we ate them all!! Raj, the Mumbai team leader, also took us to Baskin Robbins every night… the ice cream was amazing but just the time with friends and Raj, who was so hilarious, made these some of my favorite times in Mumbai. It definitely made me homesick too though.
The last day we were there we made a super quick trip to the mall to pick up some things for Kingsley, then we ran out the door to a taxi to catch our flight. The drive of 1 ½ only covered 12 miles… sometimes when we’d be stopped a woman with a baby would come up to our window and point at her baby and her mouth, but Kingsley wouldn’t let us give them money, because he said there were Lords just waiting to take the money from them, almost like they were employed to beg, but that the money wouldn’t go to them anyway. The Mumbai team said they saw some kids begging and their Lord right around the corner… Slumdog was amazingly accurate. This part was so hard though… the women would stay at your window until you started moving again which was sometimes an incredibly long time… Mumbai is a rough city. It has absolutely beautiful buildings and is the economic capital of India, but if you move a few feet, literally, from the beauty, you find huge slums and people with absolutely nothing.
When we finally arrived at the airport Kingsley got out of the taxi and walked in, because you can only have four in the taxi at the security checkpoint, so when we went to get everything out of the back in the midst of trying to get the driver paid and the fact that the four of us girls were pretty shaken up, we ended up leaving the things Kingsley bought at the mall. After making it through security, which was nothing like in America, we also realized that we had brought a man’s bag with us from Bangalore, which is like 10 hours from where we were heading. Kingsley had also lost his phone the night before, so… it just really wasn’t Kingsley’s day. He was so cool about it though and stayed so calm, giving his standard, “no, no, it’s no problem!” Even if he does tell me that when I sing sometimes he thinks the car is having problems, and that when I braid my hair it looks like a rat tail, he’s really a great guy! Mumbai was a very emotional place, and I’m glad we went, but I don’t think I ever want to go back.
I’m not actually sure where I left off in my last blog… I’m not able to get online right now so I’m just making this a word document and then I’ll paste it later, but I’ll start with the night we got to Mumbai, after the train. Kingsley’s friend from Mumbai took us around to see the city, and we got to see the hotels that were attacked by terrorists and the train station from Slumdog. After that night we pretty much spent all our time in the hotel during the day, picking and choosing what we wanted to go to as far as the NYI conference went. We didn’t go to much of the business stuff, but we went to all the worship services and the global services, which were AMAZING. It was so crazy to think that we were really worshipping with people in America, people we knew, at the same time as them. The fact that it was at the same time meant that for a couple services we were up til about 3 in the morning though… everything really was catered to America, which frustrated our leader to no end. For some reason that I’m not really sure of she was from Germany, and she did not hesitate to make her dislike of Germans, or for that matter Indians, known.
During the worship times each region took turns leading the music and there were some really awesome ones… the crazy thing was that English was the common language spoken, because of the huge variety of languages spoken in India. For example, the only other people who spoke Tamil, the language Kingsley speaks, was from Sri Lanka! There were people from Lebanon to California there (they just decided it would be way cooler to attend in India than Orlando… I tend to agree with them!) For one song Kingsley began to dance, just him, exactly like dad!! Worship times were so fun though, but also so wonderful to just sense the spirit across the world, from Ecuador to Germany.
The second day we were there the Mumbai YIM team got to come see us!! It was so wonderful to see them and hear their stories… their Red Light District stories were absolutely incredible. Their leader somehow, only by some miracle, got them in, and within a matter of minutes she was praying with people she had never met before… why have we so overcomplicated spreading the gospel? These stories are so intense but I really want you to hear them firsthand… I’ll try to find a link for one of the girl’s blog. Each night we were there we ordered Dominoes Pizza (yes that’s right!!)… the first night we accidentally ordered four boxes of breadsticks though instead of 4 breadsticks, but don’t worry, we ate them all!! Raj, the Mumbai team leader, also took us to Baskin Robbins every night… the ice cream was amazing but just the time with friends and Raj, who was so hilarious, made these some of my favorite times in Mumbai. It definitely made me homesick too though.
The last day we were there we made a super quick trip to the mall to pick up some things for Kingsley, then we ran out the door to a taxi to catch our flight. The drive of 1 ½ only covered 12 miles… sometimes when we’d be stopped a woman with a baby would come up to our window and point at her baby and her mouth, but Kingsley wouldn’t let us give them money, because he said there were Lords just waiting to take the money from them, almost like they were employed to beg, but that the money wouldn’t go to them anyway. The Mumbai team said they saw some kids begging and their Lord right around the corner… Slumdog was amazingly accurate. This part was so hard though… the women would stay at your window until you started moving again which was sometimes an incredibly long time… Mumbai is a rough city. It has absolutely beautiful buildings and is the economic capital of India, but if you move a few feet, literally, from the beauty, you find huge slums and people with absolutely nothing.
When we finally arrived at the airport Kingsley got out of the taxi and walked in, because you can only have four in the taxi at the security checkpoint, so when we went to get everything out of the back in the midst of trying to get the driver paid and the fact that the four of us girls were pretty shaken up, we ended up leaving the things Kingsley bought at the mall. After making it through security, which was nothing like in America, we also realized that we had brought a man’s bag with us from Bangalore, which is like 10 hours from where we were heading. Kingsley had also lost his phone the night before, so… it just really wasn’t Kingsley’s day. He was so cool about it though and stayed so calm, giving his standard, “no, no, it’s no problem!” Even if he does tell me that when I sing sometimes he thinks the car is having problems, and that when I braid my hair it looks like a rat tail, he’s really a great guy! Mumbai was a very emotional place, and I’m glad we went, but I don’t think I ever want to go back.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
trip to Mumbai!!
we set off from Tamil Nadu at 5:30 in the morning and were on our train by 9:30 after a quick breakfast with our favorite pastor that we've met. We said we needed to use the washroom so he led us to a small sink, but we really needed to use the bathroom, which was out back by some defeaning machine... so different from home!
Our train ride took 28 hours but we had bunks and I really absolutely loved it! The only somewhat annoying thing were the people that walked through every 2 minutes, no exaggeration, and yelled out "Tea!" "Caawfeee!" We had little picnics for every meal on our bunks that we couldn't sit up straight on because the bunks were 3 high, but it was actually really fun, and Kingsley even brought our jam that we consume like crazy!
When we got off we waited under a bridge where we saw a small child just drop their pants and pee on the sidewalk! Finally Kingsley's friend came and we got on another train that was absolutely stuffed full of people but we luckily had a seat and some men beside us were playing backstreet boys so even though the rain was streaming through the window we had a lovely hour ride in that train!
There's so much more to say but people are waiting for the computer so I'll write more later! We saw our first white people here though and absolutely stared like Indians!! love you all!!
Our train ride took 28 hours but we had bunks and I really absolutely loved it! The only somewhat annoying thing were the people that walked through every 2 minutes, no exaggeration, and yelled out "Tea!" "Caawfeee!" We had little picnics for every meal on our bunks that we couldn't sit up straight on because the bunks were 3 high, but it was actually really fun, and Kingsley even brought our jam that we consume like crazy!
When we got off we waited under a bridge where we saw a small child just drop their pants and pee on the sidewalk! Finally Kingsley's friend came and we got on another train that was absolutely stuffed full of people but we luckily had a seat and some men beside us were playing backstreet boys so even though the rain was streaming through the window we had a lovely hour ride in that train!
There's so much more to say but people are waiting for the computer so I'll write more later! We saw our first white people here though and absolutely stared like Indians!! love you all!!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
momma's birthday
Mostly the days here have been very similar since I last posted, except for mom’s birthday… that night at the CDC they totally surprised me with a birthday cake for mom and I got to serve it to each one of the kids!! It was so sweet and so many people told me to “send your mother my birthday greetings!”
We don’t do a lot during the day except “take rest”, and the other day the 4 of us were exploring what God was doing through that. One thing that was mentioned was for prayer, because if we were at home, we would never make the time for it like we do here. Still, I had been feeling guilty, because I don’t think I’ve ever in my life felt like I prayed enough for others, or that it was good enough, but I had no idea what was “good enough”. Yesterday during the 1 ½ hour sermon entirely in Tamil (it was for pastor’s appreciation day… what a way to be appreciated) I had a lot of time to think and read my Bible though, and I came to Luke 11:1-13. This passage contains the Lord’s prayer, which is so simple and straight to the point. It made me think of the verse that talks about not babbling on and on like the pagans do. This passage also says to approach the throne with boldness, believing in what you ask. I think a lot of the time we don’t ask things, because we’re afraid of not receiving the answer we want. However, we know that if we do ask, God will answer, maybe not the way we had hoped, but he will answer. And we need to ask specifically, rather than just generalizing. Just because I pray “please bless Peter”, once more, does not make it happen. If we ask over and and over it’s almost like we’re not trusting that God actually hears and answers. And this frees me to pray for other people, rather than worrying that I did not pray for my mother to be blessed one more time. As for praying without ceasing, it’s more of just being aware that God is constantly there, and keeping Him present in every aspect of your life. Prayer is really about keeping the lines of communication with God open, something that is absolutely critical in every relationship. If I don’t talk to one of my friends for awhile, they’re still my friend, but we’ve lost something in that time we don’t talk. We can catch up, but we still missed out on a part of each others’ lives. I would really like to hear each of your thoughts on prayer and what it means in your lives!
In the CDC the kids get hit with rulers when their grades aren’t up to what the headmaster thinks they should be. At first I thought it was just their culture, a form of discipline I had to accept. But then the 6th standard kids took a test, and the average was 12 out of 50. Each one of them was hit and yelled at, and this I could not just accept, because somewhere the teaching had to have been wrong. If everyone was doing poorly, it could not just be the kids’ fault. This school is the only place most of these kids hear about God, and how is that showing God’s love at all? I don’t have the answers; this is just something all four of us have been struggling with here. I won’t be on for awhile probably… on Monday we embark on a 31 hour journey (3 hour car ride to the train, 27 hour train ride, and 1 hour ride to our hotel) to Mumbai. After we leave there we’re going to Karela, then to the mountain where Kingsley lives most of the year! We’ll be gone for 2 weeks and I may or may not have internet during that time. I love you all though, and will post again as soon as I can!
We don’t do a lot during the day except “take rest”, and the other day the 4 of us were exploring what God was doing through that. One thing that was mentioned was for prayer, because if we were at home, we would never make the time for it like we do here. Still, I had been feeling guilty, because I don’t think I’ve ever in my life felt like I prayed enough for others, or that it was good enough, but I had no idea what was “good enough”. Yesterday during the 1 ½ hour sermon entirely in Tamil (it was for pastor’s appreciation day… what a way to be appreciated) I had a lot of time to think and read my Bible though, and I came to Luke 11:1-13. This passage contains the Lord’s prayer, which is so simple and straight to the point. It made me think of the verse that talks about not babbling on and on like the pagans do. This passage also says to approach the throne with boldness, believing in what you ask. I think a lot of the time we don’t ask things, because we’re afraid of not receiving the answer we want. However, we know that if we do ask, God will answer, maybe not the way we had hoped, but he will answer. And we need to ask specifically, rather than just generalizing. Just because I pray “please bless Peter”, once more, does not make it happen. If we ask over and and over it’s almost like we’re not trusting that God actually hears and answers. And this frees me to pray for other people, rather than worrying that I did not pray for my mother to be blessed one more time. As for praying without ceasing, it’s more of just being aware that God is constantly there, and keeping Him present in every aspect of your life. Prayer is really about keeping the lines of communication with God open, something that is absolutely critical in every relationship. If I don’t talk to one of my friends for awhile, they’re still my friend, but we’ve lost something in that time we don’t talk. We can catch up, but we still missed out on a part of each others’ lives. I would really like to hear each of your thoughts on prayer and what it means in your lives!
In the CDC the kids get hit with rulers when their grades aren’t up to what the headmaster thinks they should be. At first I thought it was just their culture, a form of discipline I had to accept. But then the 6th standard kids took a test, and the average was 12 out of 50. Each one of them was hit and yelled at, and this I could not just accept, because somewhere the teaching had to have been wrong. If everyone was doing poorly, it could not just be the kids’ fault. This school is the only place most of these kids hear about God, and how is that showing God’s love at all? I don’t have the answers; this is just something all four of us have been struggling with here. I won’t be on for awhile probably… on Monday we embark on a 31 hour journey (3 hour car ride to the train, 27 hour train ride, and 1 hour ride to our hotel) to Mumbai. After we leave there we’re going to Karela, then to the mountain where Kingsley lives most of the year! We’ll be gone for 2 weeks and I may or may not have internet during that time. I love you all though, and will post again as soon as I can!
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