Let me start by saying THANK YOU JESUS FOR GETTING US TO
CHENNAI, INDIA SAFELY! It took a
good 5 days, but here I am, sitting in one of two rooms with blessed air
conditioning, writing a blog.
First of all — it’s easily 105 degrees here and I have never ever felt
heat like this. I can’t believe I
thought Cambodia was hot. This
heat is entirely different…sometimes I don’t even register that I’m hot and
then all of the sudden four drops of sweat will run into my eyeballs and even
more down my back, soaking my pants and making an unfortunate sweat stain that
can only be compared to wetting oneself, and then my body will freak out and
get goose bumps and it’s about that time I know I need to chug a bottle of
water and sit in the air con room.
Anyways, I’ll start at the beginning of my journey. U Squad boarded the best airline ever
from Malaysia into Delhi. We ate,
drank and were all around very merry.
After we collected our bags, we departed on a really old bus through
Delhi, rode through what looked like really old streets with really old run
down buildings. I felt like I had
been slapped in the face with culture shock. Malaysia had been a very comfortable month with minimal
poverty, smells and, well, trash.
Indian land seems to be overlooked and not taken care of at all. In fact, the buildings, cars and train
stations look that way too. The
redeeming quality of this great nation is the care that goes into the
people. The women are adorned
jewels and the men are incredibly attentive. They exude a self-confidence that is so alluring. I felt insecure when we arrived at the
orphanage where we’d be staying for 2 nights and even though it was 2am, the
lady of the house was brightly dressed with all her gorgeous thick black hair
in place. I had only been on a
plane for 6 hours and taken a bus ride and I looked like a wreck! Let me just make a statement so I can
move on: Indian women and children are the most beautiful people group I have
ever seen and I can’t get enough.
So I had the honor of sleeping in an orphanage for 2 nights
while the train tickets for my travel to Chennai were purchased. I slept in my tent on the floor. We woke up at 5am to the 30+ orphans
singing THIS IS THE DAY! THIS IS
THE DAY! THIS IS THE DAY THAT
THE LORD HAS MAAAAADE!!! I loved on the kids during the day and
prayed and worshiped with them at night.
It was an incredible sight — these kids are between 4 and 10 and they
worship. I mean, WORSHIP! Without any adults too. One of the boys stood in front of them
and led them through several memory verses in Hindi and in English, then they
sang a bunch of songs and danced around and then things got serious when they
started praying. The Holy Spirit
fell right down from Heaven into this run down orphanage and these kids started
wailing and crying out to the only Father they know…it brought me to tears.
Streets of India.
Down the street from the orphanage.
Little beauty
Asha. She lives in the orphanage
and has some skin diseases. I heard
she was recently adopted to Florida though! Praise God!
Kids in the orphanage singing and dancing.
Eight year olds holding their own Bible study. Humbling!
This little boy is super anointed and led the worship and prayer.
This is me attempting
to play cricket with some kids that were playing in a cow dung field.
SUHwiiing! It’s outta there!
Sanjid Phillip works with the orphange. He’s also giant!!
6’9!!
We left the orphanage and headed to the train station where
my team boarded a 36 hour train ride that nearly left us all mad! The train was without air conditioning
and was a “sleeper car�, though no one slept a wink. There were 3 beds stacked on top of each other on two sides
of a wall, and folded down during the day for us to sit in. We were a wonder to these people so
men, women and children all day and all night would come and sit on our ‘beds’
and talk to us and ask us what the heck we were doing on a train because all
the white people take the 3 hour plane ride to Chennai. Well — that’s a question for the staff
at World Race because I don’t know!
What I do know, is that now I have officially been more dirty, tired,
and on the brink of insanity then ever before. I was covered in a brown filth and of course, it was 105
degrees on the train so I was matted in sweat, and when we finally arrived in
Chennai, our contacts were standing there dressed beautifully! We felt like such schmucks, but we
weren’t beyond repair. They were
very good about getting us to a shower.
Just boarded. Not yet covered
in filth.
Laying down. So much room!
So comfy!
Happy and healthy though — all that matters 😀
Desert Land
Getting some fresh air.
Oh, the second night on the train I made friends with a nice
Indian family and I think I married their son. They just loved me because I sang and danced and was all
around entertaining I guess. One
of the patriarchs of this huge family unit asked me if I wanted his last name…I
laughed and said no way, he was too old, so he said, “Then you must marry my
son�. So, I said okay! (it had
been about 28 hours into this never ending train ride and I was going
crazy). The next thing I know, all
these Indian women dressed in the brightest colors I had ever seen started
decorating me. They put two bindi marks
on my forehead, bought me a necklace and decorated my wrists with
bracelets. Then, one of the
younger girls pulled out a pen and gave me a beautiful henna design on my right
hand. So we sang some songs…they
told me they pray to the goddess of money and asked me who I prayed to. I said Jesus, they said that was
ok. Then they presented me to
their son…who was eight years old. They told me to kiss him on the cheek. Obviously I went for it — but the whole
ordeal frightened the boy pretty badly and he cried and threw a tantrum. Oh well. Next time.
My mother in law and aunts.
Isn’t Katy a pretty bridesmaid?
Embraced by my new Indian family.
Yeah! …Wait, what? What just
happened?
Well, like I said, I’m in Chennai now. I’m living with Pastor Davidos and his
family and I am very excited.
Today I preached at church for 20 minutes (brought the house down with
Psalm 16) and sang the congregation a song. My team prayed and sang and laid hands on the sick. Tomorrow (Monday) is our day off, and
Tuesday starts the official beginning of our ministry. I believe it’s going to be very long
days with 4:30am prayer, and night time open air preaching. We’ll travel around to villages and
preach and lay hands on the sick.
During the day we’re not sure what we’ll be doing because it is the
hottest time of the year in Chennai right now and the sense I get is that you
have to stay put and wait for the heat to pass.
Home Sweet Home
Where I’ll lay my head this month.
All right y’all.
I believe we’ll have internet one day a week while in India, so I’ll try
to post blogs on those days and load pictures on facebook. I love you all.
And I LOVE INDIA!!
