Hey y’all,
The last month and a half I’ve been MIA on the ole World Wide Web, and for a good reason.
The entire time traveling from Ecuador to Toronto for a few days and then to India I was very sick, probably the worst time to be sick. Being super ill while traveling to the other side of the world wasn’t the most fun thing i’ve ever done, it was hard, it was long, it was exhausting but regardless, I’m here, I made it to India.
The day before we left Toronto we got news that the Indian state of Manipur, where we were supposed to fly to the next day, was extremely unstable and it was no longer safe for foreigners because of political unrest.
So, we flew to India anyway.
We went to Assam, the next state over and from there we split up into our teams and went to our different locations. As I write this I am actually in the state of Tripura.
My team as well as another team got assigned a village called Damcherra, It’s in the north eastern most part of Tripura, I can walk into two other states in a matter of minutes from where I sit now. Anyways, we are staying at a Christian school by the name of King of Kings English School. The first week our ministry was to put on a VBS for the local kids, we taught them songs and dances, taught them bible stories and played a lot of games with them. It was a blast. The second week was harder, this time we split into two teams and went to two different neighboring villages to put on another week of VBS, we did the same thing with those kids except this time each team had more kids and less of us to manage them. It was difficult but it was still a lot of fun. That weekend we went to a village called Manik-Bond to help construct a church. Our job was to bring sand from the river bottom up to dry out so they could use it for their church foundation. We used long pieces of bamboo with burlap bags attached to them to load sand into on the opposite side of the river and then we brought it back across the river and up the hill to dump off and dry. It was hard work but very worth it. The next day my team and I got the privilege of attending that same church for their first church service in the unfinished building. It was an awesome experience to say the least
This last week School has just started back up in Damcherra, to start the school year off they split the kids into 4 different teams to compete against one another. Our ministry was to split ourselves up amongst the teams and bond with our team through competition. As you can imagine I was ecstatic about this. Of course my team not only won but absolutely dominated the soccer tournament. Yep, thats right, dominated. It’s been the highlight of India so far.
Yesterday we helped with the construction of yet another church. We worked all day long in the hot sun and sweated our butts off because we were working for the Lord and there is nothing more rewarding than that. The church members were so grateful for our help.
This next week we have a slower more relaxed ministry, we are to mingle amongst the students at the school and teach classes, I know I’m not much of a teacher but at this point, I’m sure i’ll survive.
So what’s India like? Well I’ll tell you.
It’s hot, real hot and at night it can get real cold. There’s no wifi, literally none. You wash your clothes in a bucket, you take a shower every 2-3 days… from the same bucket you washed your clothes in, you go to the bathroom over a hole while battling the big spiders that make there way in the squatty potties every once in a while and when I say big I mean the size of your hand big (no joke). You always carry your knife because you never know when or for what you’ll use it but it always comes in handy. Everywhere you go, literally everyone and I mean everyone stares at you, even the animals. A lot of the people here have actually never seen foreigners which is a weird thought. Also, some areas have never been seen by white people which is also weird to think about, being the first white person to ever visit a place. The food is something else too, its not bad, most of it is actually very good but its something else thats for sure. I’ve tried some very strange things but thats for another time. You literally have no idea what will be around the next corner, yesterday when I turned the corner while walking home I was surprised by two massive Asian elephants casually walking down the street… While in India you can’t expect anything because 100% of the time you’ll be wrong. You never know what to expect.
This past month has been everything I never expected it to be and I thank God for that. I have learned and experienced so much, I have witnessed God moving in and around the people here and its been so beautiful. You see, coming into India I subconsciously had this picture in my mind that we would be the ones to bring life to Gods Kingdom here in India but I was terribly wrong. Ive been blown away by the Christian community here and the amount of new churches going up because their old churches can no longer hold all the members. Here’s the deal, The Christian community here is growing exponentially. We just get to be a small part of it by loving on the people and helping in any way we can and they are so grateful for it.
So, India has been good, actually it’s been great. I still have two more months here before heading to Africa and I pray they go by slower than this month did because each month is passing by quicker and quicker. Since I’ve been absent the past month on the Internet I’d love to hear from everyone, all about how home is and how everyone is doing, how I can pray for you all and just what life is like on the other side of the planet!
Okay, so I wrote all that ^^^^^ a few weeks ago and didn’t feel like writing another blog so I’ll just add to this one.
About a week we had a squad debrief and got new Teams. I love my new team a lot. We’ve been partnered with another team in a small village by the name of Darchawi. It’s a Christian village with two churches. Our ministry here consists of speaking in churches, visiting homes and praying with families, going to surrounding villages and inviting people to church. It has been such an awesome experience so far, we’ve seen God heal people inside their own homes and we’ve seen people come to know Christ as their Lord and savior. God is so good. I continue to be amazed everyday at how awesome our Lord is.
So that has been my life the last month and a half. It’s been life changing to say the least. I hope everyone reading this feels blessed by it. I so greatly appreciate everyone that has been continuously remembering me in their prayers. I love all y’all.
Peace.
-Love, Trey
