End of India
These kids are incredible. And the ministry we worked with is doing its best to help them. It is taking kids from families who can’t afford to send their kids to school and helping pay school fees, its providing a safe place to go after school, it has tutors to help with school work, and they provide milk and eggs to the kids to be sure they get the nutrition they need. The pastors run the program and they are so wonderful. They invited us into their villages, some opening the church for us to stay in, some their own homes. We were invited as guests to many homes to eat meals, and were never even close to hungry by the time the next meal came. We were surrounded by crowds and long lines of people asking for prayers. Every home we entered we blessed on our way out. By the end of each day we were exhausted.
When I focus on the positives this was one of the best months. But there was a lot more that happened. As a team we pretty much all got sick and had “fun” experiences with the village squatty potties. Toilet paper is not a thing in this part of India. We used napkins. The mosquitoes were ravenous for foreign blood. One pastor even jokingly thanked us for donating blood and feeding all of India’s pets (the mosquitoes). We saw a few large spiders and lots of lizards. There were a few times where we were surprised with the opportunity to sing or give the gospel with no preparation. We were treated like celebrities everywhere we went: no privacy, crowds gawking and begging for “one photo”, we even signed a few autographs. The food was spicy and it would have been rude not to eat it, and there were mountains of it. Spending two holidays (my birthday and Thanksgiving) away from my family. This is four months now away from home. There are still 7 months left.
But it really has been great. I love my team so much and will be so sad for team changes at the next debrief in Cambodia. We have been through so much together that it is weird to think that the next time I post a blog I will have a new team. I’m sad to be leaving my team, but also excited to see what God has planned with the new one. I know I will love them, because I love every one of my squad mates! So, pray with me for team changes!
I want to thank everyone who reads these blogs of mine… I am always amazed when I see how many people have viewed my blogs. One blog had almost 300 views! Coming up soon, I would like to do a question and answer blog! If you have questions about my race so far, or any of the countries I have been in, I want to answer them! You can either post your questions below in the comments, or send me an email ([email protected]) or facebook message!
