— The following post was written on the night of 1/13/2017 —
*For the safety of our hosts and partners, some words have been changed with asterisks.
It’s 8:16 pm in Hyderabad, India (meaning that it’s about 7:45 am back home in Colorado), and almost all of the girls in my room are asleep; we arrived here at about 5:00 am this morning after more than 16 hours of travel (we basically lost Thursday as a whole… it feels like it never existed). Between cots and floor space, there are about 19 of us in the room on our Ministry Host’s main floor. I was blessed to be able to get a bed, and feel so blessed that God has been providing me sweet, gracious sleep thus far. One of the girls is sleeping with her feet up on her daypack because her ankles are swollen from traveling, and another one of the girls has been asleep since 5:00 pm. Needless to say, the group is a bit weary.
We have two more days of rest and training here in Hyderabad, and then we’re off to our respective ministry sites for the remainder of the 3 weeks that we’re in India. We’ve literally been here less than 24 hours, and I already have so much to process. You can’t see the sky in India. This blows my mind, especially since I spent the summer getting up at 2 am to go climb 14ers and spending the drive in awe of some of the clearest skies I’ve ever seen. Everyone told me that India smells, which is true, but the smells are constantly changing. Some places smell like trash, but you walk 100 feet and it smells like cows: walk another 100 feet and it smells like coffee. India is fast, busy, and always awake. The business of the streets at 4:00 in the morning is comparable to the after-dinner crowd of Colorado at 7:00 pm. This is unlike any place I have ever seen or experienced. What a place to start the Race.
There are seven 24-30-year-old Americans who are here helping to propel the work being done by Chr*st*an organizations in India. All of them were Racers between 2013-2015, and have since attended leadership training and have been sent out by Adventures raise up a base for Squads who pass through. India is a battlefield, and God is so evidently here. Adventures has poured so many resources and so much time into India. Why, you ask? Because over 18% of the entire world population lives here, and over 90% of the people here are unreached (which means they have never heard the Gospel). There are more people in India who have never heard the Gospel than there are on the entire continent of Africa. That’s a huge deal. India is a HUGE deal! And you know what else is a huge deal? That there are seven people here, around my same age, who saw the need for the Gospel in India and dropped everything to come here. They left their parents, their pets, their jobs (one of the guys here left a job working at Honeywell engineering private jets)… all because they knew that their lives would be adequate and “fine” if they stayed, but incredible if they gave up their personal plans and followed God’s ultimate plan for their lives. They decided that they didn’t just want to live lives that were “fine”; they didn’t settle for anything less than the Ultimate.
I wrote something in my journal upon arrival: “God, for the first time is what seems like a long time, I want to obey you, so allow me to hear you.” It took the India team a God-sized portion of strength and courage to follow God’s calling and find their identities in their Papa God as opposed to the world around them and the world’s definition of success and happiness. And I’m not saying that I feel God calling me to give up everything and move to India, but I am saying that if He did, I would want to follow that calling faithfully and with joy. Maybe for now, He’s just calling me to love people well: my team, our ministry hosts, the widows and orphans, and other people He puts in our path. But all I can do is listen and obey.
Please pray that God would grow my obedience and willingness to do what He wants me to do. We sing about God “calling us out upon the waters,” and I want to be eager to say “yes” to going out upon those waters, whatever they may be.
Also, please pray and ask God if he may be calling you to support me financially as I begin this year. I need approximately $2,300 more by the end of February to meet my next goal! Thank you so much to those who have already given and are continuing to give! I wouldn’t be experiencing God in these incredible new ways if it wasn’t for your generosity and kindness!
My team for the (first part of the) year consists of these four ladies and myself (if you’re curious as to why they are and what brought them to the Race, check out their blogs (linked on the left side of this page). Together, we make up Team Themelios.
θεμελιος — “Themelios” (th-mee-lee-ous)
1) laid down as a foundation, the foundation (of a building, wall, city)
2) metaphorically the foundations, beginnings, first principals
God started a good work when He put this team together, and He will carry it on to completion!
