Some of the best things that happen on the race are things that are organic. They just happen. Someone says something and it sparks an idea, then someone adds to it, and before we know it we have a plan to do something fun, an idea for ministry, or a game. One of these things that happened last month we are terming the "Indian Checklist Game." The game consists of picking out all of the cultural things we would see along the side of the road on our many auto rides that were just different or stuck out to us. India is a wild place. No longer being there and looking back I am still amazed at it, and am amazed that I lasted a month there doing the intense ministry that was asked of us. There are so many people! The things you see are different, shocking at times, and fun. So anyways back to the game.
On auto rides we would begin picking out all of these things that stuck out to us as strange, cultural, funny, or just plain cool. Sometimes we would attribute points to it if you got a rare find or something really out of the ordinary. So here is a list of those things that we would see on a daily basis in India. Maybe it will give you a better idea of how we lived and what we saw on a daily basis.
Indian Checklist:
-Cow eating trash on the side of the road
-Banana Stand
-Coconut Stand
-Man fixing his lungi (underwear garment worn as shorts)
-Woman carrying something on her head
-Man peeing on the side of the road
-Cow in the middle of the road, blocking traffic
-Someone sleeping on the side of the road
-Hindu Temple
-Pile of trash on fire
-Statue of an Idol
-Mango Stand
-4 people on a motorcycle (double points)
-A monkey
-Near collision of two or more autos
-Man with walking stick
-Auto packed with 7 or more people
-A Goat
-A Chicken
-Dog eating out of a trash pile
-Girl with 2 braids folded up and bows in her hair
-Woman in a bright colored sari
This is just some of the imagery we became accustomed to on a daily basis in India. Talk about a sensory overload! It was an amazing month and God did a lot in and around us. I will miss it and definitely want to go back someday. We are safely in Nepal now after 4 days of relaxing travel. We are in a small town called Haripur which is less than an hour away from the north India border. We drove through the most beautiful mountain range I have ever seen to get here (The Himalayas) and hopefully we will get to do something adventurous this month. I have heard rumors that there is elephant riding nearby.
Our new ministry is with a local private school that is ran by a Christian family. We are living on the school grounds in a classroom so we hear the kids running by every morning at 6:15 to wake us up. Then we have tea, help teach classes (because they don’t have enough teachers to fill the classrooms), and work on interim projects the schoolmaster asks of us. All of the children are either Hindu, Muslim, or Buddist. There are no Christian students. The family just took over the school 3 months ago and are trying to get it off the ground. We are going to help them with lesson planning, teaching, setting up an accounting system, etc. There is a lot to do and lots of children and adults eager and willing to learn. Including all of us! Excited for what the Lord has in store for all of us this month.
God Bless you all! Miss you and love you!
