Hello India!
Howdy to all of my loyal readers!
I am SO sorry that I have not really had a chance to update y’all on my life. Things have been crazy busy and I really have not had access to WiFi (which is still great for me, no temptations to spoil time on social media).
I have been in India for 10 days and have experienced 2 cities and 2 villages already in that short span of time! It has been an absolute whirlwind to say the least! This blog is going to give a quick overview of what has been going on, and boy has it been a lot! My next blog will be a more reflective/personal one!
We arrived in Hyderabad very early on the 13th! We kind of lived January 12th from the clouds, so it feels like it didn’t really happen! Our first true “India experience” was getting videotaped and taken photos of while in the airport. Instant celebrity status, it’s super weird and hard to explain! Our second “India experience” was cramming 57 people along with 55 people’s hiker’s packs and day packs, and a couple of guitars/ukulele’s on a 50 passenger decked out bus. We had like a 40 minute drive, crammed to our location. A lull had started to form where the bus got super quiet/people began to drift asleep! At 4:55am the driver began blaring “bollywood” music! Spontaneous dance party at 5am on an overcrowded bus, how else could you want to be welcomed to India?!
The next 2 days we had trainings on culture and ministry and got to explore the city a bit. After we slept for a few hours (after the bus ride), some people got up early and explored the town, I chose to stay at our spot and spent some much needed time with Jesus. Not going to lie, training on the 13th was BRUTAL to sit through! Jet-lag is no joke y’all! A bunch of us were falling asleep and we couldn’t help it! People even missed dinner on the 13th because they slept through it. So going to bed early also meant we were ready to start our days early as well.
The 14th and 15th, I started my mornings at Starbucks with my squad-mates. India has Starbucks y’all! I did not get chai though, because India’s chai is to die for so I got green tea frappes! Also, my favorite part(s) of the day is “chai time!” (Sometimes we have “chai time” 2-3 times a day!) It’s a real thing y’all, for real and I love it! The 14th we got to go to the mall and shop for “India apparel.” What a spectacle we were for everyone to see! 6 American girls cramming into Uber cars and they drive so crazy, we thought we were going to crash so many times! We had fun in the mall buying clothes (and I enjoyed my last “Pizza Hut” meal for like a year with some of my squad-mates!) On the 15th we had an awesome church service! The worship was great, the sermon was packed with a lot of great stuff I haven’t even begun to unpack yet!
Early on the morning of the 16th, my team and another team were supposed to leave for the city our ministry would be in; however, the vans didn’t show up until like an hour and a half after we were supposed to leave so we walked into town for breakfast before our 7 hour van rides. “India time,” is also a thing where schedules don’t seem to exist, they’re more like suggestions because hardly anything happens on time, which those of you who know me, know this is a real struggle to not have control over the situation. God is teaching me lots of things, releasing control/leadership is one of them, but I’ll dive more into that in my next blog!
When we finally got to our ministry base, it was dusk. It was also a beautiful church! The roof is my favorite part of the building! We settled in, had some team time, and went off to bed. The 17th we met with the man who runs the organization we are working with (for safety purposes; the name of the organization and the people working for it will be either renamed or anonymous). We were then told that our translator would be coming to take us out in town to shop! We met our translator and he brought a man and a woman to also help keep track of us all! It was a fun day, but a very long day. That evening, we had team time and feedback. I’ll explain feedback later!
The 18th, we packed our bags for 6 days; ministry at 2 villages. We are responsible for playing with kids, conducting interviews, and taking photos/videos of children that the ministry we work for, sponsor to go to a private school, where they learn a lot more than at the government schools, and the church’s run after school programs for the kids as well. These are pretty impoverished areas that we were working and living in!
We arrived at the pastor’s house of the first village we were working in around the late afternoon, after had been on a bus for 5 hours. We were greeted by a bunch of kids. We unloaded the car and settled in. We were told that we would have to “run” the after school programs by playing with the kids for an hour and a half and then we would sing songs with them, tell Bible stories/perform skits, etc. The entire village was so welcoming and hospitable. That celebrity status was SO real, it honestly is super uncomfortable a lot of the time. There is no such thing as boundaries or personal space here in India, so that is also an adjustment! I hadn’t really been feeling myself (more on that in another blog), but as soon as I started playing with the kids, everything was better. It was a beautiful remedy for sure!
We ran the after school program 3 nights for the village. Also in the few days we were there, we visited the sponsored student’s homes to interview them and their families (we were fed a lot of food/drinks and had to sit on chairs/their beds, treated as guests of honor), and got to see the school that the sponsored students attend. The whole community was so loving, welcoming, and accommodating. They wanted to know about us and our families and also wanted to be prayed for a lot. I loved the village! On the morning of the 19th, while trying to have quiet time, a bunch of the kids came in, and I had them draw in my journal. Despite really wanting quiet time, it was an awesome distraction. I now have those pages to treasure and my teammate Jordan took a polaroid of me surrounded by the kids, all drawing in my journal!
I struggled leaving that village because I felt like God was really moving there, the Spirit was doing Big things and I wanted to stay and be there for that! I also loved pastor and his wonderful family! The next village, it was very difficult for me to not compare to the village we had just been in. The poverty level was significantly greater, and a few more visible children with disabilities, which I found interesting! However, there seemed to be more Christian families in the second village, but a dark presence kind of loomed over the village. I felt it almost instantly. The new pastor’s family were really great though, they took care of us really well, a little too well sometimes, we are not used to people bending over backwards so much for us haha! We ran the after school program one night, kind of did stuff for the church service (I preached a mini-sermon, more on that in a later blog), visited the homes of the sponsored children (again were fed SO much food/drinks we were stuffed), and saw the school the sponsored kids attend. Oh I need to backtrack a bit. Apparently, we Americans barely eat what typical “Indians” usually eat. We felt stuffed after every meal, yet still were told to eat more or that we weren’t eating enough. I’ll admit, some of the food has been tasty; also, my mouth has never experienced so much spice/hot things ever. I may be building up a slight tolerance for hot/spicy foods, which is kind of cool!
The second village was easier to leave; however, the kids definitely still melting my heart, there was just no escaping them! Between both villages, I don’t think I have ever played that many “hand (shake/clapping type) games!”
We made our trek back to our home base this afternoon/evening(23rd) where my team has the next 2 days “off,” which are VERY much needed! Tomorrow (well today, the 24th it’s just past midnight) we are using as a Sabbath day to reflect, spend time in the Word and in prayer, and just relax/get our bearings back. We will also sing as a team tomorrow, which we have yet to do so worship will be on the roof at 3pm! Thursday will be our adventure day, we hope to go to the beach (bay), possibly get Henna, and 3-4 of us possibly getting our noses pierced!
My team is growing closer to each other, which is awesome, but definitely still have room to improve unity, which will come with time for sure! We have had one of the squad leaders, Tammy, with us for the past 6 days and we sadly give her up tomorrow. She was such a vital role for our team at the ministry sites, she will be missed!
I think that is all for now! Any other stories I may write individual blogs about! Oh, a HUGE thank you to all who have sent me letters! I have LOVED reading them so far! If anyone missed out and wants to send me a note please EMAIL me! Just comment on this blog and I’ll send you my email so you can send me a note! I love y’all so much, thanks for reading! God Bless!
Prayer requests:
*team unity – it’s coming, but we love and appreciate prayer
*spiritual warfare has been crazy, you’ll read more about it in my next blog but attacks are happening all the time
*continued healing over past issues – my teammate had a deliverance done, which is a hard thing to go through, but a great way to get over past issues that have plagued us for years. A couple more of us (hopefully all of us) will be getting delivered too!
*prayers for the communities we have been in and the ones we will be in
*good health, several squadmates, have gotten sick (dehydration) and were sent to the hospital since we’ve been in India, none on my team, thankfully, but we’ve had our own health stuff without hospital visits
*our family/friends – it’s a big transition for them too and communication with them has not been easy
THANKS SO MUCH!
