Hello Friends!
It’s been a busy week of travel and getting settled in at my ministry site this month, but I am excited to share my experiences with you thus far! I arrived in India on 9/10. We flew into Delhi finally after having to make an emergency landing in Oslo, Norway because a passenger was having heart problems. After landing in Delhi, we had missed our connecting flight to Bangalore because of the delay, so the airline set us up in a hotel overnight. A nice welcome to the World Race! The next morning we flew in Bangalore and headed to our ministry sites. My team’s ministry is actually located 12 hours north of Bangalore in Kolhapur. Getting to the bus to take us to Kolhapur was an adventure in itself, including our first experience with squatty potties, drinking some of the best tea I’ve had, and playing with some adorable children. The pastor who was making sure we got to our bus station on the other side of town was wonderful in helping us get what we needed and introducing us to Indian culture. To our surprise, when we got to our bus we discovered that it was a sleeper bus, which was the greatest blessing. Our host Bimal picked us up in Kolhapur the next morning and brought us to our ministry site. We are staying and working at Mary Wanless Hospital. This is a Christian hospital that strives to offer affordable healthcare to the community. Most of the staff here are Christians and have been so generous and encouraging to us while we are here. Our ministry looks a little different every day. We had the opportunity to talk to a group of Sunday school teachers and give them some ideas for their Sunday school classes, we taught some children here worship songs and some games, we were able to visit a local youth group and share some worship and a word of encouragement to them and then go around and pray with people afterwards as well as visit the homes of some people nearby. We are staying at this site until the 20th, when we’ll head to an orphanage in Kolhapur for children who either have or have been affected by aids.
India has surprised me. I honestly wasn’t looking forward to coming here, but I am starting to love it! The food has been great and the people are so kind. God is doing big things here and I believe my team has been placed at this ministry at the right time to encourage and love on the men and woman who work at this hospital.
I just wanted to give you all a quick update on where I’m at and what I’m doing. I will be getting up a more detailed blog on my time here in the next week or so!
*For my mom: I am alive! Remember no news is good news! Miss you!
