So here I am, after months of praying and preparing for the World Race, actually sitting here blogging from India! It feels like I have been gone for months, it’s hard to believe it’s only been a week-what a journey it has been so far. Last week I was able to spend New Year’s in New York City, ringing in 2011 with my new traveling companions. It was pretty amazing because there were just two of us sitting in a McDonalds when a bunch of other World Racers just happened to be walking by and spotted me sitting there at the table. Then later when we were looking for a place to celebrate at midnight, we ended up in this random hole-in-the-wall place where we stumbled upon the rest of my team! It was pretty much a miracle when you consider how big the city is. We were blessed by a friend of mine from college to stay in a free missionary apartment in Queens and it was our first adventure just navigating the public transportation system and waiting around for buses.
The trip to our ministry site in Hyderabad, India took about 18 hours with a layover in Saudi Arabia. The flight was mostly uneventful, just a bunch of movies and attempting to fall asleep. It has been interesting adjusting to a new way of life here and learning to give up some of the comforts of our American lifestyle. Our showers are just a bucket of water we pour over our heads; we can’t drink the water or even brush our teeth with it and we can’t flush toilet paper- it all has to go in the trash because the sewage system can’t handle it. So far our meals have consisted of rice, stewed vegetables, and bananas-pretty much 3 meals a day. I thank God that I have been healthy and even getting up early to do aerobics! It has been so funny trying to get around the city of Hyderabad. There are thousands of little cars and bikes packed in the streets with no lanes, no turn signals, and pretty much everybody has the right of way. We have been cramming 4 or 5 people into a tiny little auto and trying to haggle with the auto drivers (epic fail though– yesterday we got taken for 1500 rupees which is about 10 times more than normal). Our whole squad of 45 people was together all week and it was so much fun. We were doing cultural training and teaching sessions among other things; I was asked to help lead worship the first day which I enjoyed. Today we will split up and go to our individual ministry sites for the month of January. My team “Rapha” will be headed to Ongole, which is in the state of Andhra Pradesh and working with India Christian Ministries http://www.indiachristianministries.org/
India is a place of great darkness but also great hope and promise. God loves each beggar that has come up to us asking for money, each child sitting by the side of the road playing in the dirt, each auto driver that is just trying to make ends meet for his family. I am excited to see what opportunities lay before us and how we will be used to touch this nation and the individuals he leads us to bless!
