India is just as I remember it. The smells, the sights, the sounds. There are little to no trash cans. People just throw their trash along the streets. There are little to no pets. Stray dogs kicked around like the animals they are. There are little to no sidewalks. Motorbikes, rickshaws, buses honking to get their way around you, sharing the street with people, street pigs, holy cows.
I loved this place the last time I came. Seven years ago I spent mostly all of my time in northern India. It’s different down here in southern India. It’s darker and rougher. Muslim call to prayer heard throughout the city five times a day. Everyone stares because of the color of our skin. We’ve chosen modesty: not showing our ankles, wearing a scarf around always, long tops, nothing tight. Out of respect and so that we aren’t automatically labelled as Americans. Most people ask where we are from, perhaps considering we are from Europe or Australia.
Do I still love India? I haven’t decided. We have been here only a week so far. I think it hasn’t sunk in yet that I am here. My team keeps referencing back home as “real life” – and we have to check ourselves that we are living our real life NOW. THIS is our real life right now. And we need to embrace that! We don’t want to sit in the in between of not being ALL HERE, but partially somewhere else, like back home.
When I was in India seven years ago, I was on a team of nine others with YWAM. We spent three months in India and two weeks in Nepal. I remember moving on to Nepal and missing India. I don’t want to miss it this time. I want to capture it, be present in it, be all here. God made it very clear last time I was here that He was bringing me back at some point. Big prophecies to just me, no one else on the team. Things like a random man on the street grabbing my arm and telling me I’d come back, then disappearing back into the crowd. A “conversation” with some teenage girls who only speak Hindi, giggling about their nose rings or the noise on the street, just talking about nothing since we didn’t share the same language, and when they departed me, one girl told me “I will see you again” – unsure if she miraculously spoke in English or I miraculously understood her Hindi. But it was CLEAR. God was bringing me back.
So I am here. I am back. It has been a week. We have two weeks remaining. God, make it clear to me my purpose here. Make it clear why You brought me back. I want to be all here for You. Coming to You in humility and openness. Looking forward to all You have for me in the second half of this country.
I will try to post pictures soon. Internet is wonky in this country! 🙂 Our ministry this month is working at All Tribes Cafe. We are in Hampi outside of Bellary in India. Hampi is a tourist town, a lot of trekkers coming through from Israel and parts of Europe. The coffee shop hasn’t been in business for 6 months. We are little Snow Whites cleaning and disinfecting the entire shop! We are hoping that when we get the coffee shop up and running, we can invite locals and minister to our new friends. We brought Starbucks coffee from the US and a french press – so that beats any coffee in Asia which is only instant coffee. Hoping that brings people in! We are super excited! I will share stories soon, hopefully with my next post with a few pictures.
PRAY FOR continued health. There has been some team sickness due to local water being bad. Also we are being very careful with our malaria medicine. We are all COVERED in mosquito bites head to toe. PRAY FOR the locals. It’s a dark place. We are hoping to make some good friends so that the next team that comes through the coffee shop will already have regulars they can befriend. PRAY FOR my Logistics work (I will write a blog on this soon, to be more specific on what it is!), that my Logistics co-leader and I can get all of the teams to the Bangalore airport and across borders into Nepal with visas and everything goes smoothly.
40 rupees for 1 hour at the local internet cafe in Hampi. Ending now! Until next time…
Travel itinerary: Oct 1 early flight from Bangalore to Delhi, five hour layover, flight from Delhi to Kathmandu for MONTH 2 = NEPAL.
