Month Four: Anantapur, India
December 2015
1. House arrest — not being allowed to go outside for the first three days. We could go on the roof…but by 9 am you were dying from heat stroke. Then returned to the comfort of the living room with the fan. We simply were not allowed to go anywhere without your host for the first week and a half…eventually they let us go next door for sodas and wifi.
2. Overnight prayer…well we lasted from 10pm- 3:30am and then was sent to bed by our host.
– Hearing John Paul (host) say “10 minute prayer to me…when he really said 10 minute break.
– Learning a Telugu song ” Nive na rajuwu, Ni ve na prabhudawv, ni ve ni ve hu dewudawv” which is He is our King..(I didn’t get the translation for the rest).
3. Being sick with a 24 hour stomach bug where I ended up hiding on the roof during house church trying to find any little bit of shade to lay in…at noon. Plus the cute 6 year old bringing me cake and staring at me waiting for me to eat it.(I tossed the cake off the roof, so little Joel wouldn’t get mad).
4. Never knowing where we were going, what we were doing from the time we woke up until the time we got home. “OK sisters we go” was the most commonly heard phrase.
5. Sleeping six to a room, in the living room in a 2.5 room house. Then sleeping in a tent on the roof, finally moving into our own apartment. All within 5 days. When on the race be ready to move…a lot.
6. Going to the leprosy colony to pray for everyone. Jesus was there in this small village of outcasts and the sick. These people just simply radiated Jesus the joy, love, community, and faith. Oh, how I wish we spent more time there.
7. Getting saris!!
8. Long drives in our safari can. Every night we went to a different villages to do ministry. During those drives, we would have great conversations, lots of time with the Lord, and even more laughter.
9. Going door to door, praying for people and their families. At nearly every house you would be fed a blessing of coffee, chai, cookies, candy, bottom milk, chips, or a combination of everything. It was great, until you were on house 15 and stuffed to the brim. At the end of the night you would go to the pastors house where they would make you a huge dinner to eat. Blessings on blessings, on blessings.
10. Our little brothers Joel 5 and Noel 4. The playing, the crying, laughing, stomping parties with them, and you cannot forget tag.
11. Christmas in India. Our hosts wife Mone (Money) and our neighbor helped all six of us get into saris. The neighborhood women kept fixing our saris throughout the day,to make sure we kept covered. Church service was on the roof of our house. We had cake, prayed and took photos with everyone. My teammate Haley put on a Santa Claus suit and walked around the neighborhood. When she came into the house we had people knocking on our door asking for Santa Claus.
India was SUCH an intimate month with the Lord.
