3 buses, 3 airports and 2 airplanes later, all 55 of us have made it safely to India!
Before we headed to India, we had 3 days of training in Atlanta. These days seemed extremely long, but we learned so much. We were told that all we were to do these next 11 months was to make disciples and be the church. I am so excited to see what this next year holds and all that God has in store for us, he is already doing some big things here in India.
I will never forget the feeling of stepping off the plane in India. We learned that security at the airport is not super intense, the metal detector goes off and they don’t mention a single thing, but as we walked outside and followed our contact to the bus, the wonderful smell of India hit you like a brick wall! Our first task in India was to fit all 55 of us plus our packs and 2 more people into a 50 passenger bus. It was a great way to start the race!
The first few days in India have been cultural training, we have learned that ankle and armpits are to be covered at all times. Ladies heads must be covered during prayer, worship and when you are preaching. The left hand is used only for wiping your butt and must not be used during any other time. They eat with their hands, but licking your fingers when finished is not allowed. Rice and curry are the staple food, and it doesn’t always sit nice in your stomach, but chai and biscuits are the snack of choice.
The last 2 days we have been able to explore and shop for our cultural appropriate clothing, all the girls got Kurtas and the boys got Lungis. It has been really fun getting to embrace the culture and be together as a squad for a few days!
Sunday, most of the squad was able to enjoy a local church service and they said it was great. While they enjoyed the service, my team leader, another team leader, myself and another treasurer (I have been picked to handle our teams money during the first few months of the race) had to go book bus tickets to our ministry site. It was quite the adventure, not knowing exactly where we were going and having no knowledge of the language. The Uber driver dropped us off at the side of the street in a market, telling us we had to walk the other direction towards the bus station. While there was no vivid bus station in site and the only thing that looked like a station was closed due to construction, we had discovered we had no idea where to go, how to contact anyone and what we were going to do. As we sat on the side of the road (there are no side walks here) we prayed that we would run into someone that speaks at least a little bit of English. As we sat and talked, looking around we saw two men wearing business suits, this is not a common occurrence here. We all immediately decided that they would speak at least a little bit of English and approached them, being white and standing out, we immediately drew a crowd. While they did not know exactly where the station was, they were translating and asking the others that had gathered. We eventually got an approximate location but was told it was on the other side of a 10 lane highway. We decided that crossing the road would be putting our elementary frogger skills to the test. Not knowing exactly how we were to cross the road we continued walking the direction they told us, until we saw an Indian family weaving through the traffic. We decided to follow them and weave through the speeding buses, autos and cars. Once we reached the other side we still could not see anything that looked close to a bus station, but as we looked around Caitlin spotted our host city on a sign. It was a little hole in the wall shop, but it was exactly where we needed to be! We found the station!
Getting the tickets was another task. We had 15 people that we needed to get tickets for, but 3 different receipts (receipts are life) as we all have different budgets we have to abide by. The English of the men working there was sparse, the head bobble was used way too much, but we eventually got exactly what we needed! Indians do not shake their heads yes and no they do a little side to side thing, so confusing but so great. Our first time figuring out logistics was a success!
While we haven’t done much ministry here in India yet, we are seeing the Lord at work already. Whether it was guiding us to the bus station or protecting his people he is extremely present. In India Christians are persecuted by shaming, stripping them of their clothing in the square and violent crimes. Don’t worry I am not in danger here as tourists are not at risk, but we do want to protect our Indian friends, so for security reasons no names and places we are visiting will be mentioned here! God is doing amazing work through these people and we want to help them out as much as possible. The goal of the organization we are working with has a goal of planting 20,000 churches and so far 7,000 have been established. God is at work here and I ask that you continue to pray for this country, as it has the largest unreached population in the world. I ask that you pray for my team, squad and leaders as we travel, for our safety and the people we come into contact with.
My team and I leave to meet our ministry host tonight! We are so excited to work along side these people and help grow their ministry. I would like to say thank you for all that you have done to get me to this point. I am still in need of funds to continue on the race, if you would like to partner financially, shoot me an email or press the donate button above! Thank you!
This is my team for the first 4 months!
Lots of love,
Quinn
