So, we arrived in Mumbai, India on December 29th for a few days of debrief and to celebrate New Years together as a squad. We actually stayed outside of the city, but drove by the biggest slum in Asia on our way out of the city at 1:00am when we got into India. Our cultural session with our contact taught us that the women are NOT to EVER leave the hostel or go anywhere without at least one man to accompany them. We were told not to speak to any men and to simply put our hands together and say, “nam as stay”(a polite greeting) if they extend their hand for a handshake. It is a bit threatening and definitely inconvenient, but life has gone on since then and been really great actually!
The 24-hour bus travel to Chennai, our ministry site for the month, had a bit of a hiccup with smoke billowing beneath my legs at one point. They accused me of smoking on the bus, but realized the underside of the bus was on fire because of a faulty wire. We had a 3 hour wait for another bus which made our travel day 27 hours, but we made it safely and, other than our clothes smelling like smoke, our things were all in tact. Momma Shanty met us in the driveway with a bundle of wooden flowers and a welcome sign as a greeting and we all immediately felt at peace here at IGM, Indian Gospel Mission.
Indian Gospel Mission is a solely family run organization that runs four orphanages, a tailor school, a carpentry school, a medical outreach, and a feed the hungry project. My team is here to be a blessing to the 24 girls we live in the compound with, the 55 boys we are going to help serve at the Pandur orphanage, and the staff/family of IGM. We have been leading study time, loving on the girls, sharing at church, sanding a wall that needs repainted, bagging tons of rice for the feeding project, sharing testimonies, preaching, visiting villages to give food and show the Jesus Film, and loving on the children for the time we have been here.
We are blessed with great home cooked meals, beds, a living space, precious hosts and a refrigerator for cold drinks and apples! My favorite meal so far is vegatable curry with rice and the runner up is noodles that taste just like Ramen! YUM Internet is extremely limited and I miss being connected, but God is great in all circumstances! Be praying for opportunities to share the gospel as we go to the medical and feeding outreach opportunities that are outside our living compound walls!
