Accidentally in love

April 10, 2011 | by archiveworldraceblogs

Alright, if you’ve read my previous blogs I’m sure you’re tired of hearing about how I love every country, but… I love India.

Before coming here, I was super skeptical about what this month was going to look like. The general trend throughout the squad was that is was the most anticipated country, so naturally that made me not want to go, call me cynical, call me an antagonist, call me a pain in the butt, but the fact of the matter is I was just tired of hearing about India. On top of that, I’ve heard some pretty crazy/scary stories in terms of spiritual stuff happening in India. So all in all, no part of me wanted to come here, but as it turns out, I love this place.

 

Here are the reasons why I love India:

1) They have tea time three times a day, maybe four if it’s a really strenuous day.

 

2) A “strenuous” day may include one or more of the following activities: making arts and crafts with disabled kids in the park, checking out college art exhibits, attending weekly worship jams in the YWAM basement, eating American fast food, hanging out and drinking tea with young adults all morning who are all sitting around jamming on guitars, telling the David and Goliath story (for the tenth time), going to birthday parties, doing the Hokie Pokie with a mob of little Indian kids at church, eating at Hard Rock Cafe, leading a college ministry-like Bible study, or hanging out with and talking to people in coffee shops all afternoon.

 

3) The people. Even if it weren’t for all of the sweet God stuff, I would still love the World Race because of all of the amazing people I have gotten to meet. And let me tell you, India has some of coolest people.

First, there is Paul and Anita. Easily two of the most down-to-earth understanding people I’ve ever met. They have basically taken this group of misfit vagabonds in, fed us, and have constantly been pouring into us. We’re supposed to be ministering with them but I feel like they have been doing most of the ministering to us. They have provided us with some way cool ministry opportunities (ie. hanging with disabled kids in the park, talking with people at the art exhibit, etc) and Capstone Church, their ministry, is this awesome, open place for people to just come as themselves and be loved on by God and by the people at Capstone.

 

 

There’s JoJo, one of our two contacts this month. She’s on staff here at YWAM and has graciously accepted the not-so-little task of taking responsibility for our team. She has taken us under her wing to show us the Indian ropes, always sure to keep us on track with the cultural customs and she was even patient enough to take us shopping for our Indian kurtas. She’s awesome and a ton of fun to be around but unfortunately with all of the stuff happening at YWAM and the presence of another team, she hasn’t been around as much lately.

 

 

And finally, there’s Thelma, the second of our two contacts and my new Indian bff. On top of taking care of us and escorting us all around Bangalore and taking our late night phone calls when we get lost in the city, she has hooked us up with Paul and Anita and basically made this month amazing for us. She is this vibrant, awesome woman after God’s heart. She is the kind of person who sneaks away from doing arts and crafts with kids to go talk to strangers in the park about God’s love. She’s super fun (sometimes an abusive pain in the butt) and has the same sick sarcastic sense of humor that we do. She’s one of those people that, even though I’ve had an unfortunately short time with her here in India, five years from now she’ll be visiting my coffee shop in Chile. I love this girl.

 

 

Plus, due to a little confusion, Team Eleutheroo (the same team we lived with in Cambodia) is now living down the hall from us, so dance parties and late night NERTZ tournaments have become a common occurrence.

 

 

If you were here, you’d love India too.