India, a country I was not looking forward to is quickly becoming a country that is stealing my heart. The country as a whole may not be my favourite thing, but I am learning to find the good in everyday and usually it is the small things that make me happy.
Before arriving in India, we were told that it was going to be a hard month. The culture is different then ours and there is a lot of Christian persecution. We came into this month expecting to have no running water, squatty potties and the classic cold bucket showers, but much to our surprise, it was completely different than what we are experiencing. The culture is very different, but we are blessed. We have been matched with an amazing ministry host in a part of India, where there is a large Christian community. We have an actual toilet, we danced for joy when we found this out, and we have an actual shower, even though bucket showers are the shower of choice. I enjoy the shower head as it easier to wash my hair! We were also given mats to sleep on, so the mat, plus my sleeping pad, makes my sleeping arrangements so much better. On top of all of this our ministry hosts are not strict on what we wear, until we leave the compound, we are so BLESSED!
The month started off hard, with 4 out of the 7 of us getting really sick and the sickness has not left since we got here. The enemy is hitting us hard. Some days have been hard, others have been good, but regardless of how we are feeling our spirits need to be lifted for the kids!
Dealing with the sick can be hard, but our ministry host Sendmi and Morong have been extremely understanding. We are blessed by them and they have set the bar extremely high for the next 10 months. One day we were down to 3 people, as 4 members of the team travelled to the hospital. When we sat down for breakfast, we were presented with cereal as well as some French Toast, my favourite breakfast of all and when lunch came around we sat down and ate mashed potatoes. I am not a big mashed potato eater, but it brought so much joy and memories of my family fighting over my mom’s mashed potatoes that I stacked them nice and high on my plate. I was also very glad that rice was not on the menu that day! These may only be little parts of our day, but it brings so much joy into the day.
One of my favourite things about the children is that they call us all Auntie, it’s like God knew I would be missing my littles and brought me 11 more children to love on. It was a little piece of home that I got to be reminded of. Walking into the house and hearing them yell Auntie Quinn and welcome me with great big hugs, warms my heart so much. These children will forever leave lasting imprints on my heart and it is going to be extremely hard to leave them in two weeks, not knowing if we will ever see each other again.
A hard part of this job is leaving people you have made such a good connection with, and this realization came when I was talking with one of the young boys. Shell is quite the young man, always smiling and playing jokes, but as he sat down and asked me if I will ever come back to India and visit him again, I couldn’t give him an answer and it broke my heart. These kids have welcomed me with open arms and we have to leave, and he said he understood that we couldn’t stay, but that saying goodbye was going to make him cry. In just one short week our relationship with these kids are more than just a friendship, but we have become part of their family and they will always hold a peace of my heart. Never did I ever think that India would hold a piece of my heart, but as I sit here typing and thinking about the kids, I know it will break my heart.
Everyday is different here, but everyday reminds me about how blessed I am. I have wonderful family and friends at home including 6 children that call me auntie. I am so lucky that I get return to my wonderful family, but for now I have to enjoy the time I have with these kids, as I may never see them again, and I know they will talk about my world race team for years to come. They consistently bring up past teams and the memories they had with them! We make an everlasting impression on them, just like they do on us! It really is the small and unexpected things that make the World Race experience what it is!
You can meet the children at my teammate Hilary’s blog here!
Lots of Love,
Quinn
Prayer Requests:
-The health of my team
-Morong and Sendmi and their strength the continue for these kids
-They started a prayer room and are waiting for more funds to finish it, pray for some funds to come through say that they can get it done
-Two new children, who are coming to live here, they are coming from a Hindu background
-My team, that we will continue to grow together and become unified
-My squad, we are spread all across India right now, some in areas a little more dangerous than our, so for safety and health
