India! We’ve been here almost 2 weeks now, and it has pretty much been non-stop with all that we’ve done. Our ministry here happens during the evening hours (because of the 100 degree weather during the day). We do something called “open-air” preaching in the streets of this village as well as surrounding villages with a microphone strapped to a bike. We also sing songs and pray with people who come up during this (for healing or prayer for family members) and many times we are invited into homes to pray on the way. Yesterday as we were walking to church a Hindu family saw Pastor (who wears all white-this is a sign of purity here, most cars are also white…which I found interesting), and asked us to come and pray for his 20 day old baby who has been crying all night for the past several nights. This was a neat experience, the baby had the typical white chalk markings all over his head and black dots, I held onto one of his little hands and prayed! After open-air preaching we do something called “cottage prayer” where we go to a home (usually a church member) and PRAY PRAY PRAY and also do an encouraging sermon and sing. We lead Sunday service as well and preach and sing for 2 hours straight with no AC and no fan (the village turns the power off from 9-12pm) and I think we almost all passed out and probably all sweated at least 2 gallons yesterday-I know at one point we were praying and I looked next to me and Charles was kneeling with his head in his hands (and not just from praying!), Ailson was sitting in a chair with a face as red as a tomato, and I was leaning over the podium-we love You Jesus! We will all be preachers and fairly decent singers by the end of this month! Our ministry is usually from 4-9 or 10pm, and I have found that cottage prayer is my favorite as we get to spend time with the families in the church and have a meal with them. As a team we have all been struggling with how late they eat at night here, it’s usually around 9pm and a lot of what we get served is onion based and so our stomachs have been a bit “off” lately :o). One thing that really saddens me is the amount of trash that is strewn everywhere, I don’t understand it, for as beautiful as the women here dress and the amount of respect the men have for each other, it really confuses me. It’s pretty dirty here, sanitation doesn’t seem to be a high priority…so please pray for our health! 4 (myself now included) out of our 6 member team have come down with a sickness that I won’t go into detail on, but it involves the squatty potty! During the day when we want to brave the heat, we walk 30 minutes to a place that has internet once a week, we have also gone to the seashore-2 of us almost had heatstroke (we are not used to this heat!) and we went to the market once to buy Sari’s, the Sari’s here are so pretty and cost a total of about $10 USD (one of mine is pure silk)-which is pretty cheap!. Jesus is allowing us to be stretched beyond our comfort levels, but this is always a good thing as God continually molds us into looking, thinking, and acting more like His Son, bring it on God! Lately I have been waking up in the morning and thinking to myself…this is my life, I have not been in America in almost 5 months…the longest I have been away before that is 2 weeks (in Trinidad-shout out to Roger and Kumarie-miss you and everyone else!). It’s just really strange to think that I still have 6 more countries and 6 more months to go before returning, it’s not that I’m sad about it, it’s just strange. I do miss my family and I miss the things they are doing and I am sad that I missed my brother’s wedding and will miss the birth of my first nephew…it’s just the way it is and I know that this is where I’m supposed to be at this time and in this season of my life, and above all of this I am grateful to God for allowing me to be a part of such an incredible mission. My fellow squad mates feel more like 41 family members than anything else and truly that’s what they are. Anyway, I regress…India is HOT, dirty, and covered in trash, but I have fallen in love with the people here and am so excited to continue serving in this country for the next couple weeks! Love you all! MISS you Mom, Pa, Zach, Amanda, Sheela, Jeremiah, Olivia, baby Roman, Cija, Ryan, Logan, and Ava, Jenni, Laura, Twin Lakes peeps, Spa peeps, Chapel Hill peeps,…just to name a few!!!
Thank you ALL for your comments too!!!
The “village” of garbage collectors that we live across from.
Some of our team greeting the people that live here.
They were happy to see us :o)
Lijo and I walking to pray with people near our house.
Our shawl honoring…notice how bad Charles looks, he was really sick, but came out of his room for this :o) He’s better now :o)
So cute…the kids all wear pretty things like this almost all the time :o)
Watermelon is cheap here, and the portions are HUGE!!!
Lijo and I drinking coffee, the cups here are tiny and the coffee taste more like sugar milk, but we are grateful, it is also really cheap!
Indian Sitar’s at the music store I purchased my mandolin from…they sound so cool!
Alison and I with our new guitar and mandolin! (We have each already broken a string!)
I love this pic! This is the place we purchased our Saris :o)
Saris are a complicated business…they are a large piece of material that has to be strategically folded and wrapped around you, but also come with blouses that have to be matched to your Sari and tailored to fit you.
The girls on our team with our Saris on the first night of ministry :o)
Praying over a family :o)
God is AWESOME!!!
Glori’s Mom and Dad at their 25th wedding anniversary party :o)
Praying over them :o)
Sari girls! I actually like having my head covered during prayer, it seems more respectful and helps me to focus!
Our team singing for the party :o)
Cute little girls at the party :o)
Beautiful! I guess I will have to get a double nose piercing! :o)
Look at their pretty dresses!
Open air singing/preaching :o)
Lots of kids came this night :o)
A nearby house.
A house we prayed in.
Some little girls singing…so cute!
Prayer, prayer, and more prayer!
This house was actually made of dung, but didn’t smell!
Love this pic!
Some ladies at a prayer meeting :o)
The two on the left of me are AWESOME worshippers of Jesus! Their Mom also sewed our Sari tops!
Me and Pastor!
More babies! The one next to me is Dickson :o)
Leo and Katy playing “tennis”
Elephant carved from this massive rock!
Many centuries old “Lion”
Pator’s sons Leo and Lijo.
Our team at a temple. (minus Charles)
More temple…
Goat! I want a goat when I get back!
Hindu stone “gods”-all hand carved.
Random pic :o)
Man walking a monkey…
India at the beach! (Much more covered than we are in America!) We should take lessons!
This is one of our favorite fruits on the race…it’s called jack fruit and it comes from these massive green things…
Here’s what they look like, they taste like gummy bears!
One of the many roaming cows in India :o)
Please continue praying for me and the team, I have been having a lot of personal spiritual attacks and am really weak in body and spirit lately…thank you, God is faithful and I know a season of “refreshing” will come :o)
