Loud Kids and New Friends

Namaste!

It is good to say that I finally made it here again after a very long and hectic journey. It’s strange, I feel like I never left. Strange in a good way that is. The few days here have been pretty uneventful. Since my trip was almost 2 days with very little sleep, I have spent much of my time catching up on rest and getting my body adjusted to everything again. I forgot how much jet lag stinks. The time I haven’t been sleeping has been great though. I am living in the Mercy Home this time. The office told me to move in after a week or so, but the MH was so excited to have me and insisted that I move in asap. I love living close with the kids, but this has also been an adjustment. The kids have devotional every morning around 5, so my sleep is suffering a bit. The only time I can really get any alone time is at night so I tend to stay up late. I guess I’m going to learn how to close my door in the day so I can have quiet time then instead and get to bed earlier. I have already made a new best friend here, haha. Joseph, one of the warden’s at MH always told me last time that he wished his wife were here, that we would be friends. During May and June she was in here home state with her newborn baby (Noel) and now she is back. She is so fun and Noel is the sweetest baby I have ever seen! We just sit and talk for hours and play with the baby. I am so glad to have her here, someone my age that speaks English and I can relate to.

I’m sorry to say that I don’t really have much else to talk about yet. Today (Monday) I will be going to the Wadi Office to meet with the Sam sir (the director of all the Mercy Homes and other compassion projects) to make a schedule and plan for what I will be doing with my time here. I know Saji sir wants me to work a lot with the children, but they are in school until around 4:30 everyday and even go on Saturday until 12, so I need to figure something out for those times. Who knows what I will be doing, they really could ask me to do just about anything, which is okay with me. I’m just glad to be here.

Well I think that’s about it for now. Please keep all of us here in your prayers. I love and miss you all very much!!!

Back Again

I thought I'd update you guys.

After a lot of thought and prayer I decided to go back to India instead of school this semester. I have received much criticism about this decision. The general consensus is why not finish school first? My answer: Why not go back to India? I don't want to be limited in my education just to the classroom. It's no secret how I stink at that anyways. So to all of you skeptics out there, I will be learning in India too! And to those who are supportive of my decision, please encourage me...I'm a bit nervous.

I'm so excited I can't stand it, but I am also scared to death. I know God wants me back in India. From the moment I stepped foot off of Indian soil, He was already shaping how and when I would return. But with my return comes a lot of change from my last trip. For one, I will be without any companions from home. Kyle was a huge support to me and I will miss having him there with me. I will also not have him to stick up for me and make sure that I am being taken care of. India is a male dominated society and it can be quite intimidating at times being a female. Now I am a brave girl, but I also walk a fine line between being an American and visitor while also respecting their culture. My last trip also came with a few specific "jobs" that we were assigned to. This time I will be spread across a lot of areas, which I have zero experience. I am looking forward to all the possibilities but I am also scared of the responsibility that goes along with them. I guess in all this my biggest fear is that I will be more of a burden than a help. I desire so deeply to be used fully by God, but what does that look like? Near the end of our last trip I whined to God about how I didn't think I was being used. I felt like I had spent so much time doing my "jobs" that I had barely made any relationships. I was wrong. I did make some incredible friendships, and had huge impacts of the lives there as well did they on me. I love it when God shows me things like that! I hope and pray for the same with this trip. I hope that God will continue to use me as His vessel of love and light. I pray that He humbles me to be able to do that. I know that God will be leading me, my prayer is that I will follow Him, that this trip be His will for me and not my will shaped into His.

I will be praying for everyone back home while I am gone and I ask that you also keep India and myself in your prayers. I will do my best to keep updates on what is going on there. My email will also be the same as before.

cgmcdonough@gmail.com

I leave September 5th and will be back on December 18th. Pray for India. Pray for the Mercy Home kids. Pray for the Christians there. Pray for hearts to be opened to God. And pray for me...

I love you all very much and can't wait to hear from you (that means you should write me!)

We're Back

Hey everybody,

Just wanted to let you all know that we are safely in Orlando, Florida now. It was a long trip home (40 hours) and we've actually been traveling since Thursday. Thursday evening we took an 18 hour train ride to the capital city of New Delhi, spent some time there Friday and stayed the night there. On Saturday we took a 5 hour bus ride to the city of Agra to see the beautiful Taj Mahal. Then 5 hours back to Delhi and our flights back to the US began on Sunday. We are tired and happy to be home. Cant wait to see each of you. I will post again sometime this week or next week for some final thoughts about this trip. Also, I hope to leave the blog up so that we can still communicate about maybe some ways we can continue to help the ministry in India. God Bless.

Be sure to check out more of our pictures that we just uploaded.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559277213rAfytF

Kyle

Hey Everyone!
I hope all of you are doing really well. Also thank you so much for your emails and blog comments! It is so exciting to hear your thoughts on everything too.
Well another week has passed. It’s hard to believe that we’re already into the second week of June. As usual everything is a blur, sorry for the disorder, but I’ll try to recap everything for you. Last Saturday night there was a really bad storm, our first monsoon experience. I was all alone in my room and thought the building I was in would really just collapse around me, so I grabbed a towel and ran to Kyle’s room. He was in the apartment above him with the Thomson’s, so I joined them as well. Of course the power went out, so we just relaxed by candlelight and listened to the rain. When the rain finally stopped I went back to my room and tried to get some sleep. It was the first night here without power…and it was hot, really hot. Some of the faculty even slept on the roof of their building to escape the heat. The bad part about this power outage was not only that it lasted through the night, but also that it caused the water to go out as well, fun fun. This was the worst power outage we’ve had thus far because it wasn’t due to power cuts in Maharashtra but was caused by the storm. Although it was hot as blazes and we were all smelly for a few days with no water, it was kinda fun to be in it with everyone. We were all miserable together and could just laugh about it. It was a bonding experience for us and all the faculty. The power finally came back on Monday morning, but I was still without water until that evening.
Monday began the official school year for the MI Students, well at least the upper classmen; the “freshers” as they’re called here, start next week. Now that everyone is getting settled in I’ve been able to get to know a few of the girls pretty well. Two of them actually graduated last year but have come back to work in the library. Benari and Emmy are the cutest little Nagaland girls and so fun to work with. Neither of them has ever used a computer and they will need to enter books after we leave so I have been teaching them the system. It’s quite refreshing to be around people who don’t know what “shift” and “tab” mean. I’m giving them assignments to help their typing too. It’s fun being a teacher when your students really want to learn the stuff. So this is pretty much what fills the day time hours now. At night I go the Mercy Home as usual. There are many new kids there now so it’s also been great to spend time getting to know them.
Okay, well, I started this blog last week and didn’t get to finish, or post it for that matter, so now I will try my best to give you all the highlights of the past couple of weeks…
Good news, I finally started my interviews with the Mercy Home children! Before we left America we were told by the director of RIMI that he wanted us to interview the kids and native missionaries for 2 books that he wanted us to write about their stories. When we got here no one mentioned anything about this task that Saji gave us, and not wanting to order anyone around or make them change their schedule for us, we put the project on the backburner. A few weeks ago Saji emailed Kyle and I to remind us of the interviews and see how things were going. So we decided that we should get on the ball with the interviews. Back to the actual interviews: Joseph, one of the wardens, speaks English fluently, so he has been translating for me, thankfully! It is difficult to ask the kids such tough questions about their families and what it was like for them before the Mercy Home. I really hate making them relive these terrible memories, but I know how much their stories will inspire others to help here. The first girls I talked have no parents. Their father set their mother on fire during an argument, which led to her death. Their father was then taken to prison and died soon after while there. Another girl doesn’t know why she was sent. Both of her parents are living and her older sister is in school at an expense boarding school. She loves being at the Mercy Home, but wept talking about her parents and home life. Those are just a few short pieces of what I’ve heard from the kids this week. If you want to hear the rest you’ll have the buy the book! Support RIMI! And it’s just fun to say that I’m writing a book, for real, haha.
Last Sunday we went to Parseoni , it’s a small village about an hour outside of Nagpur city. It was a lovely drive, being away from all the city traffic and pollution. We saw tons of monkeys and it was gorgeous, tons of trees and flowers in bloom. We are outside the city a little ways, but the campus is right next to some rock crushing plants things and rock mines, so needless to say it is not the prettiest place I’ve ever seen. I asked Eshwarie if she wanted to come with me and then she found out where we were going…and freaked out! The church in Parseoni used to be the girls Mercy Home until the one on the MI Campus was finished. She was so excited about seeing everyone there; she misses it there a lot. Her younger sister and another girl who used to live there also joined us. I think we caused a bit of trouble since we had 3 extra people and had to change vehicles, but oh well, I was really glad they got to come with us. Upon arrival at the church our chaperone told us that we would be preaching that morning…thanks for the notice guys. I talked about Romans 8, my fave, and my depression (testimonies are quite popular), and Kyle talked about Elijah. I think I want to be a preacher when I grow-up, it’s fun. We sang and prayed for a long time before church was ‘over’. Everyone was served chai by the preacher’s wife and I played with the kids in one of the back rooms while Kyle began interviewing a few of the members. After about 20 minutes or so I heard screaming from the church room, the pastor’s house serves as the church, former Mercy Home, guest house, etc. I went in to see what was going on and Kyle and a few others we praying over a woman that was wailing. I squeezed in and began praying too. The woman continued to scream, cry, dry-heave, convulse, make growl-like noises. It was the craziest thing I have ever experienced, but I don’t think I have ever felt more moved by the Spirit to intercede for something like this before in my life. This went on for 20 more minutes or so until the woman sat up and announced that she was okay now. Kyle interviewed her prior to all this and found out that she comes from a strict Hindu family and just a few months ago heard the gospel and started coming to church. Since she started coming whenever she prays, and most times at church worship she is wrought with gut wrenching pain and demon control. Demon possession is very real and crazy here. Please pray that by God the people suffering from possession will be freed from that bondage. And buy the book to hear more about this woman’s story and more like it! (Nice plug, huh) After this all died down the pastor took us a few kilometers away to show us the preschool he started 2 years ago. It is in 2 small storage rooms that he rents from a local woman. I loved Parseoni and everything about it. The church members were mostly new converts who are so excited about learning and worshipping the Living God. The pastor and his family are so kind and humble. I would love to come back and work with them in some area. Really, I loved it there.
Monday was Shibu, the campus manager’s son’s birthday. Little Benny turned 1 and they had a big party for him at the Mercy Home. I spent most of the day helping them prepare it. It was great to sit around the kitchen with the women and cut vegetables for hours, pick the little bugs out of rice with the younger girls and roll chaipati with the Mercy Home kids. I think this was one my favorite days so far.
Now that time is getting short I am spending a lot more time at the Mercy Home and with the faculty families. I feel at home here and am really going to miss everyone when I leave. We have only 1 more full week until we leave for Delhi and then back to the states.

Thank you all again, as usual, for the encouragement and prayers. I am excited to be able to talk to all in person. Miss and love you very much and am praying that everyone stateside is doing well.
And Happy Father’s Day if you’re reading this…

Hey,

Happy Father's Day, I think...

Thank you again for all the comments. We are able to read them and we really look forward to reading them. Its really good to hear from you all. Sorry its been so long since we were able to post. We sent a few emails on Saturday (June 9th) and then the internet started acting weird and we struggled with it for an hour just to be able to read the comments on the blog but we were never able to post. And yesterday, (Sat, June 18th) we were at an all day leadership seminar in the city of Nagpur. But finally we have a chance to post...

Shortly after we posted our last blogs on Saturday (June 2nd), we returned to the Mission India campus where, of course, the power was out. That's alright though, it came again at about 330pm. But then, a really strong storm came through (it was a little preview of the monsoon season that has been 'almost here' for quite some time now). The lightning, wind, and rain was crazy. During the storm, the power went out again. That was about 430pm on Saturday. Apparently, that power outage came from some damage caused by the storm and this damage did not get repaired for about 27 hours. Yeah, no power from 430pm on Saturday to 745 pm on Sunday. No AC or fan that night. Without power, no pumps to pull water from the wells either. More power problems left us without fan, AC, or water on Sunday night too. I'm not gonna lie to ya, that was frustrating. If I could have handled the mosquitos I would have slept outside. Those concrete buildings trap the heat from the day and it is actually hotter inside at night than outside (without fan or AC that is). Thursday the same thing happened... a storm came, knocked out the power, and it did not come back until about 8am Fri morning. Fortunately, though God has blessed us with moments of electricity when we could get some relief, at least. And we are also blessed to have access to bottled water so we are not dependent on the electricity for drinking water (although we are dependent on it for bathing water).

On June 4th, Carie and I got an email from Saji Lukos, the founder of this missions organization that we are working with. He wanted us to be sure that we each came back with at least 50 of those interviews he asked us to get. The regular college students just started arriving that week so we hadn't had much opportunity to interview up to that point, but we are making progress now. We've got a lot of interviews left to get in a relatively short amount of time, and to be honest, I'm nervous about getting this task done. But we are praying for God to give us the ability to finish it. If completed, this can be a very helpful tool for Mission India, both in raising funds and in sharing with people elsewhere what its like to be a Christian in India. So, would you please pray that we will be able to finish this task

On Tuesday (June 5), Carie and I had to switch rooms. I share an apartment with a guy named Chris from Georgia and our apt has one room with AC. Carie is in an apt by herself with two AC rooms. Well, another guy from the States was coming on Wednesday, so we all switched rooms. Now me, Chris and Robbie (Ohio) are in Carie's old apt and Carie is in our old apt. That night, after we switched rooms, we found and killed the snake that had apparently been living in Carie's room for who knows how long. It was under Chris's bed, hehe.

Sunday (June 10th) was a very good day. Mission India has three parts to their mission. 1. Leadership Training and Development, 2. Compassion Ministry, and 3. Evangelism Ministry. Carie and I have been working at the Mission India Theological Seminary in Nagpur, helping them in their library and spending time at the Mercy Home with the children. So our efforts had been mostly involved in the first two parts of Mission India's mission. Sunday, though, we were able to visit a village church and meet the pastor that worked there. This was a mostly Hindu village and the pastor had built the only church there 8 years ago. He was severly beaten when he was building that church. I was able to preach there that morning and it was so humbling to address Christians in such conditions. We got to get a taste of what real Indian village Christianity is like.

There are a lot of students on the campus now. Several of the students are from Nagaland, a state in the NE part of India. The people in that part of India look more like people from the Far East than what you would expect Indians to look like. Carie and I walked past some of them the other night as we were returning from the Mercy Home. They were out in the field with a light hunting frogs. We found out later that they caught no frogs, but killed 3 vipers instead. Tenzing (from Nagaland) gave us some Nagaland beef jerky... scary, but tasty. I offered some to some of the other Indians, but they did not want any cause they were afraid of what was in it since the Nagaland guys eat all kinds of birds and dogs and monkeys and snakes and stuff. I'm told small dogs taste the best, ha. Maybe I'll save one pack and try to get it back to the States for you to try some. If i'm able to get it thru customs, it'll still be good, right? It'll only be like 4 weeks old by then. Well, I will have had it for four weeks. Tenzing brought it from Nagaland which is a three day journey by train and he had already been here two weeks when he gave it to me, ha... maybe I should just throw the rest away.

Anyway, we are still working in the library, trying to get as much of the book collection entered into the computers before we leave. We are also spending a lot of time trying to get the interviews. So, like I said, please pray that we can complete that so that our time here can really serve some long-term help for the Kingdom work that Mission India is doing here. Bansal is helping me translate for many of the testimonies. I was worried that he was annoyed by having to help me do so many interviews so I said, "Thank you so much for doing this for me and helping me this way." He stopped me and said, "I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for the Lord... I'm ready to help 24 hours [a day]."

We are finally feeling a change in the climate. A major storm over near Oman, Yeman, and Saudi Arabia was delaying the Indian monsoon, but now it has come ashore from the Arabian Sea and should be on top of us full force soon. The temperature has already drastically changed. Temperatures are no longer above 110, but instead they are around 100. It feels so good! And also the breeze is a little cooler now, it feels great here now. Our last two weeks here will be very wet but the temperature will be much more bearable. The change in the climate has brought a LOT more creatures out though. We miss you all and we will see you pretty soon.

I really look forward to being able to share with you some of the stories of the Christians here, but that will be more fun to do in person.

oops

Carie's blog didn't come through on the email, but visit the blog site to read it... www.prayforindia07.blogspot.com

Also, check out this video...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7759130111070978160

Carie's Blog... her account wouldn't work

Subh Prabhat Sab!
I’m sorry I didn’t write last week, we’ve been pretty busy…anyways things are going great here! It’s so hard to believe that we’ve been here for 2 weeks already! It feels like we’ve been here longer, but the time has gone fast. As Kyle probably mentioned, we spent our first week getting acquainted with everyone and adjusting to the weather and food and whatnot. We worked in the library some and also visited the Mercy Home. There are only a few kids there now but in a week or so there will be over 100. Apparently the Mercy Home is more like a boarding school than an orphanage. The way it is set up kids come and stay during the “school year” and the rest of the time they go back to their home villages to live with relatives or whoever will take care of them. Most of them are orphans though and they are accepted into the Mercy Home based upon need…so they are the kids that need our help the most. I haven’t really started officially interviewing any of them yet. When all the kids get here it’ll be much easier to set up a schedule or something like that. Most of the kids don’t speak any English so I need a translator for every interview, which means that I also have to work with someone else’s schedule. It’s an ordeal, but definitely worth it. The time I’ve spent with the kids there has been really good. I’m kinda glad there are only a few; it makes it easier to build real relationships. They have devotional time every night and it is amazing! They sing their little hearts out, praising God for the work He’s done in them, even at such young ages. I am very blessed to have gotten pretty close to the oldest girl there, Eshwarie. She’s teaching me “Hosanna in the Highest” in Hindi, it’s so fun! She’s the eldest of 3 children and doesn’t have parents that I know of. She has some kind of problem with one of her legs and has to see a doctor often. I’m not sure what it is or why she has it (communication is difficult), but be praying for her healing and that she isn’t in pain.

I’m terrible with remembering what happens each day so I’ll just guess it from here on out:

Last Saturday night was the graduation for the summer session students. I don’t know if Kyle mentioned it, but my teaching went really well. The students were really interactive and asked lots of questions, so I think they enjoyed it and got a lot out of it too. Back to the graduation, it was quite long, but nice. They even gave Kyle and I special seats at the front…I always feel so awkward when they call us out…but it’s nice and they are just giving us honor and respect for being here. After the graduation we all ate together, family style, with the students, faculty, and everyone’s family. Later, after most people dispersed from the dining hall area, Kyle and the boys had a dance party. It was stinking hilarious! The dancing in the Bollywood movies isn’t just show, they really dance crazy like! Sunday was worship and then laundry day. I washed my own clothes…in a bucket. Doing things myself really makes me appreciate the work, if that makes sense. When I wash clothes at home it’s no big deal, and here I feel so accomplished and proud of my work. Sungeeta, one of the students, helped me out and taught me the Indian way to do it. It was good to have the company and extra hands, especially since I was washing Kyle’s stuff too (I offered). We took breaks from laundry and talked for a long time, in her broken English and my broken Hindi. At one point she even broke down and cried while talking about her husband. Most of the women I’ve talked to are not happily married and feel trapped almost. She hadn’t talked to her husband in 13 days (though she attempted many times) and he didn’t even come to her graduation. “Love marriages” are very uncommon here; so many women don’t have much of a choice when it comes to who they marry. Their parents chose for them and it is dishonoring if they say no. Another one of the students, Vandana, also opened up to me on Sunday after church. Many times during the week she asked me to pray with her. She has been severely burned over most of her upper body. Her face is disfigured and her chest and arms are as well. One of the other girls told me that she and her husband had been fighting and either she or her husband set her on fire. It was hard for me to understand the exact details. But when the girl told me, it was as if it was an ordinary thing. I asked Vandana myself what happened when we were talking but she just cried and wouldn’t tell me. She said that she looks dangerous (her English isn’t very good) and asked me if I agreed. I told her that she is beautiful, no matter what. I know that’s cliché but it’s so true and she seemed to not have thought of that. She smiled when I told her what God says about inner beauty and kept thanking me for being so kind. Please be praying for Vandana. She has both physical and emotional scarring and only God can heal her. After talking with Sungeeta and Vandana I really want to open a women’s counseling center here. I know it could be really tough, but I also know how needed it is and how much God would bless it. Many of the women say they have good marriages but I don’t think they know what a good marriage looks like. Sunday afternoon most of the students left, including Sungeeta and Vandana. I was really sad to see them leave. Please pray for them specifically, as well as the women of India.
So that was the weekend in a nut shell. Monday and Tuesday were spent working in the library, that is, when there is power. The state we are in, Maharashtra, is one of the poorer in India, so to save money they turn the power off each day for a few hours. Last week we were lucky and had power all week…this week we haven’t been that lucky. It’s all in how you look at it I guess though. I’ve enjoyed very much spending time in the library getting to know the other workers. When there is power we are all busy preparing for the students to come and re-entering the 2 months of work that was lost last week—apparently the term “back up” is foreign to the librarian. So in the times without power we sit around and talk, read, sweat…the usual. Kyle and I have been trying to learn Hindi, so it’s also a great time to practice. The librarian, Thomson is hilarious. He’s jolly in an awkward sort of way. His wife, Catherine, is great too. She also works in the library. Most Indian women are very quiet and submissive, but she’s loud and laughs at everything. She’s from a Christian home but was never very faithful. She lost both of her parents in the 80’s and fell away soon after. After her parents died her eldest sister stepped up to take care of the rest of the siblings, all 6 of them. Being the youngest in the family she was in the house the longest and remembers the most. They were very poor and spent many days hungry because they couldn’t afford food. She wept telling me how difficult it was, but also how much her family trusted God to provide. Thankfully she can look back now and see how God was working even in the difficult times. In 2003 she was arranged to marry Thomson by her sister’s friend. The same year she fasted and prayed for 3 days straight and decided to come back to Christ. Thomson seemed like a good match for her, and a Christian, which is hard to come by, so they were married. They have a good marriage, filled with mutual love and respect. And their little girl, Deb, is adorable. She’s almost 3 and very bright. She’s teaching me Hindi and I’m teaching her Itsy Bitsy Spider. Sorry for the rambling about Catherine…anyways, the Thomson’s are great (that’s their last name actually and he goes by it).

Tuesday night we got a special treat…a real Indian wedding! The entire faculty was going and they asked if we wanted to join. Of course we said yes, how could we pass up an opportunity like that. Because it was a Christian wedding it wasn’t as fancy as the Hindu ones that are most often seen in films, but it was still really interesting. It was super long, with people getting up with screaming babies and roaming around all throughout the service. The bride was decked out in all white, from head to toe. She had a white sari and long lace gloves covering her entire arms, with a huge veil that covered her to her knees in the front. Following the wedding was the reception…with about a thousand people. There was tons of food but lines do not exist in India, so getting to the food was the difficult task. It was like shopping the day after Thanksgiving, everyone grabbing things and pushing people left and right. Kyle thought it was fun, but it made me nervous. And then the water…wow. There were 4 huge barrels full, about 10 cups, and a kid with a pitcher. If you wanted any, and of course I did, you had to squeeze your way in and grab a cup, stick it out for the kid to pour you some from the barrels and then drink it there. I tried to leave with the cup the first time (not knowing the system) and got yelled at in Hindi. There was water splashing everywhere from his just dumping the water in a line across all the hands stuck out waiting for their fill. Thankfully I’m not germaphobic and like sharing! I got to wear a sari to the wedding too. I borrowed a beautiful purple silk one from Jasmine (the principle’s wife). Catherine dressed me. They aren’t kidding when they say that sari’s take a long time to tie…its really complicated!
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were also spent in the library during the day and at the Mercy Home at night. I like our routine and its flexibility. Now I’ll just tell you random things that you might like to hear…I haven’t talked about Sunanda yet! She is an old, well she looks old, she’s actually only 46, Hindu lady that works in the library. She’s so funny, always trying to talk to teach us Hindi. She speaks NO English. She jokes around with everyone all the time, and is real feisty. Her chai (the Indian tea) is the best. Kyle and I get so excited when it’s chai time. She asked me the other day why I don’t comb my hair…she thinks my curls are just messy. I probably should have been offended, but it was hilarious. I’m really glad that she works in the library here. She is surrounded by Christians and has the opportunity to learn about Christ through action, not just words. Be praying for Sunanda that she is open to what she is seeing and hearing about Christ. I’m so blessed to have made lots of friends here already. At night Kunti (pronounced Coon-tee) the girl’s warden and I watch Bollywood movies on my laptop. She takes care of me and kills all the big bugs that I’m too scared to get close to. The movies are strange and I can understand very little, but the time spent with her is fun. Another one of the girls, Suman, always joined us, but now she is back home. I miss her, but she’ll be back soon for school. It’s lonely in my apartment at night, so I definitely enjoy the company very much. I also made another friend, Charlie the dog, yes I named him, I’m a nerd. Most of the dogs are scared of people, but he knows I won’t hurt him so he likes me, we’ve bonded. Funny story. I was playing with him after dinner the other night and talking to Kunti about how all the dogs are scared and run away. She told me it was because the students kill and eat them! She said, “You must tell them you are friends with this one, so they will not eat him.” I hope they don’t eat Charlie! (Escape to Candy Mountain Charlie!)

I almost forgot to tell you all about Kyle and my Indian boyfriend! His name is Bansal and he’s amazing! Indian men are very affectionate with each other so he always holds Kyle’s hand when they are walking together. Kyle is a great sport and respects their culture very much as not to offend. I just love Bansal. He has such a big heart and is so kind to us. I think Kyle wrote about his story in his last blog, so continue to pray for him.

We are having a lot of fun getting to know everyone and experiencing a new culture, but, it is also very difficult. India has a HUGE Hindu population and everywhere we go we are surrounded by its influence on the people and the culture. India is a dark place. It may sound strange but being out in the city just feels different. Everywhere you turn there is some kind of statue to a god or goddess, temples line the street, even the buses and rickshaws have Hindu gods painted all over them. People sleep under tarp tents in the street, yet their village spends loads of money to build elaborate shrines for their god of choice. Something is wrong with this picture. We have heard amazing testimonies from the Christians here, but it is going to take more than that to change this country. Kyle and I feel a great burden for this place and we ask that you do the same. Please pray for Light to be shown in this dark country. Pray for His Kingdom to move here and that His people rise up and claim this land for His glory.

I love you all very much and am so very thankful for your encouragement and prayers!!!

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Okay everyone, I am so sorry that this is probably the longest blog in history. I was planning on using the on campus computer this week since we didn’t make it to the city…but…someone left it on and it was smoking really badly, so that idea was out. Anyways, bear with me as I continue telling you the happenings of the trip.

Sunday we went to Wadi (right outside Nagpur) for church. I just love church here. Everyone is so filled with the Spirit and it’s definitely encouraging. That night we got to go the market in town. What an experience! Everyone was shouting so you’d buy their stuff and there were tons of vegetables that I’d never seen before. I will be back there next week, that’s for sure. Monday we went to Fun & Food Village (what a name). It’s an Indian waterpark, ha! The staff wanted to take Chris (the other American guy here) somewhere special since he is leaving soon to go back to the States and we got to tag along. There are not words to describe an Indian waterpark. We had to rent swimming costumes (that’s what they are called here), and they were so funny! It is reversed from the States. The women’s costumes are these baggy dress things with pants that you wear underneath. The men’s on the other hand are these tiny little shorts. And I’m sure you’re all wondering, yes, they made us wear them too. Kyle brought his own shorts (much longer), but they wouldn’t let him wear them…hilarious! The swimming costumes were unpleasant but the company was great! We had a lot of fun going on the slides and playing in the wave pool with the staff and their families. I even got Catherine and Sucheta (one of the teachers) to go on the water slides with me…for their first time ever! They were being adventurous since I was there so make sure they didn’t drown; neither one of them know how to swim. It was great spending time with them and really getting to know them both better. On the way home from Fun & Food Deb was sleeping in my lap and peed on me, twice. The next day Catherine was telling Sunanda about it and apparently there is a Maharashtran folk tale that if you get peed on twice in a row you will be married soon and then have a very blessed child. So mom if you’re reading this then start saving for the wedding! Anyways, Fun & Food was a day I will never forget…and I have video and pictures to remind Kyle for years to come too, haha.

Wednesday night we were invited to one of the teacher’s homes for dinner. He and his family live in a village in the city so we had to take 2 rickshaws and then walk to get there. It was the first time that Kyle and I had been into an actual village here and it was a lot to take in. It is one thing to see the poverty from a distance but being in the middle of it is another. Satich, his wife (Kuruna), their son, and Satich’s parents live in a small 2 room home. There are 2 beds in one room and the other is the living room area with an attached kitchen. The men stayed in the bedroom and I was taken into the kitchen with Kuruna while she cooked. I just love spending time with the women and learning from them. She doesn’t speak much English so we stuck to conversation about the cooking. When it was dinner time we all sat around the living room on the floor, since they don’t have any furniture and they served us. It was such a humbling experience to be taken into their home and served like that. I am being taught so much about true service and hospitality each day.
Friday was yet another day in the library. I’m on Indian time now, so I was late getting there, but made it just in time for tea, perfect. The afternoon was a little more laid back since the librarian was in a staff meeting so we spent some time talking with Samuel and Sunanda. Samuel listened to Share the Well, by Caedmon’s Call. It is an amazing album about their mission experiences, a lot about India. Kyle and I have been inspired from it but hearing the take on it from an actual Indian is even better. Samuel was listening to one song called “Mother India” and felt so connected. He had his eyes closed and was singing along, but not just with his voice, his heart was singing too. Everyday is so refreshing. When I get discouraged that my work here is not true service and that I’m not being of any help, I see things like Samuel listening to “Mother India” and am instantly shown how God is using me in so many ways. God is faithful. After the library we went to the Mercy Home. To our surprise Binoj was there. He is over the construction being done on campus and had been in the hospital since Monday. He had been having terrible stomach pains and went to the hospital thinking it was something with his appendix. After a day of tests they found out he had severe kidney stones. He was being given medicine for the pain but there wasn’t much they could do. We had all been praying hard for him. Friday morning they did more x-rays and all the stones were gone! He is in no more pain and was released that afternoon. Healing is such a strange thing for me. It is done so much throughout scripture but I still have trouble believing it. I have been reading through the book of Mark and just last night I read the story from the 9th chapter where the father asks Jesus to heal his son from a demon. Jesus tells the father that “all things are possible to him who believes.” The father then replies back with “I do believe; help my unbelief.” I feel like the father in the story. If I believe then why do I doubt? Reading the story again and listening to Binoj tell of God healing him really convict me. I do not want to be one of the Pharisees who asks for a sign and then doesn’t even believe it when they see it. God is also teaching me a lot about His power and how I need to just trust Him. So Friday was again another great day in India. Saturday we will venture into the city to do a little shopping and site-seeing. Obed, one of the newest faculty members is going with us. We are excited to spend the day with him and get to know him better.

Well that’s about it I guess. Again I love you all very much and look forward to reading your comments. They are so encouraging! And keep praying for india!

Here are some pics of our trip so far...

http://travel.webshots.com/album/559277213rAfytF


Hello everyone,

And greetings from your brothers and sister in Christ in India...

Let me begin by thanking you all so much for leaving us comments and sending emails. We really enjoy hearing from you and its been good to hear in the emails from many of you what God is doing through you this summer wherever you may be. I really wish I could respond to each comment and respond in detail to each email, but we either have to be taken to the city to use internet and then the driver must wait for us, or we have to use the dial-up in the office here on campus (convenient, but really slow and it blocks the phone line). But know that we DEFINITELY appreciate the comments and emails nonetheless. I do miss you all... like I said in the last blog, won't it be great in Heaven when we can be together with all our brothers and sisters from all over the world at the same time and with God forever?

On Saturday, May 26th, I was blessed to spend some time with Sunil Korad. He is the Chaplain here at the campus. He has a 4-year-old daughter and a wife who is carrying another child scheduled to be born in October. He is here alone now, because it is too dangerous for his pregnant wife to be in this heat. They are back in their home state of Orissa. Anyway, I asked Sunil if I could hear his story and he invited me in. Immediately, he began apologizing that he had nothing to serve me (his wife is not there so he doesn't have much food in the house, ha. She calls every morning to make sure he's been able to eat breakfast). I told him it was fine, but he just said, "No, you are a servant of God, I must give you something." After finding a mango, he knelt by the couch and peeled it and gave it to me. They are definitely teaching me about humility and servanthood. Then he showed me family pictures and told me his story. Sunil really is a man dedicated to working for the Lord. He has such a passion to serve God here in India and bring more people to Jesus. In addition to being the chaplain here, he also teaches some classes. On the holidays, he and many of the other faculty go out to the villages to preach the Gospel. This can be very dangerous and he said that if the people know you are coming to bring the Gospel, they will persecute you and drive you from the village. But he forms relationships and slowly shares the Word with them. He truly believes that if he only proclaims the message, people will believe because the Gospel is so incredibly powerful. He told me, referring to Jesus' first miracle at Cana, "You need only pour the water and Jesus is there to perform the miracle." Pray for Sunil, that he will be able to continue his service to the Lord. Pray for his family, that they will be able to afford to send their daughter to school, and that his wife and expected child will be safe as they travel here on a 22hour train ride in the end of June.

Sunday, May 27th, we were able to worship at the Wadi church. Wadi is a little suburb outside of Nagpur where the Mission India office is located. That evening we got to go to a vegie market. That was quite interesting. As I may have already said, Nagpur is a city of about 4 million people (pretty small for an Indian city) but the travel book we have says about Nagpur, "You won't want to spend much time here, it's not that interesting." So, basically, its not a tourist city, and therefore, white people never come here. So, the people at the market were quite shocked to see us.

Monday, May 28th, we had a special treat. We, along with the faculty went to a waterpark about 30 km from Nagpur. This was to be a relaxing day before the school semester began (June 1st) and before things got REALLY busy around here. That day was quite unusual and it'll be easier to explain it when we get back, ha. That morning, though, the engineer over the construction that is going on here at the campus, Binoj, was in terrible pain. So he had to go to the hospital. That night, after dinner in Nagpur we went to the hospital to visit him. Binoj is from Kerala and only speaks Malayalam and a tiny bit of both English and Hindi. The people at the hospital only speak English and Hindi. So, Bansal stayed with Binoj to help him communicate with the doctor. They thought at first that his appendix was infected, but after x-rays he was found to have numerous kidney stones. The staff here and Binoj's family and Christian friends began praying for him. Friday, another x-ray showed no kidney stones. Binoj gives glory to God completely and believes that God removed the kidney stones.

I feel terrible that when he was talking about God miraculously healing him, I had to fight away feelings of doubt about that. I've been reading C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters" and I want to include a quote that really convicted me about my doubts. This is supposed to be a letter from a veteran demon, Screwtape, to a temptor-in-training named Wormwood about the best ways to tempt his target human... "You can worry him with the haunting suspicion that the practice [prayer] is absurd and can have no objective result. Don't forget to use the 'heads I win, tails you lose' argument. If the thing he prays for doesn't happen, then that is one more proof that petitionary prayers don't work; if it does happen, he will, of course, be able to see some of the physical causes which led up to it, and 'therefore it would have happened anyway', and thus a granted prayer becomes just as good a proof as a denied one that prayers are ineffective." -CS LEWIS

Why do I even pray at all if I don't believe my prayers can be answered?

Wednesday, May 30th, we had power for about 2 and a half of the 6 and a half hours we were in the library. When we did have power, though, we were able to get a lot done. The library computer system will be a great blessing to the operation of this campus.

That night we were blessed to be invited to the house of one of the faculty members. His name is Satish (I have no idea how its really spelled). He is the dean over the Marathi program here at the campus. India has to be the country with the most variety in everything. Each of the 30 states has its own culture, government, people groups, and language. So not only do we have difficulty talking with the Indians sometimes, but they can't even talk to each other much of the time. Add in all the tribal languages and India has more than 1600 languages!! Just the faculty here on campus represent English, Marathi, Malayalam, Uriya, Telegu, Nagamese, and Hindi (probably more that I don't know of). Anyway, Marathi is the native language of the people here in the state of Maharashtra. So Satish is in charge of all the Marathi studies here at the Nagpur campus. Well, we rode rikshaws out to his village. It was called "8 mile". When we got there we were hit with sights of overwhelming poverty. The village didn't look that big, but there were more than 25,000 people living there. A huge problem in India is overpopulation. We spent a long time talking with Satish and his family before supper. The bedroom in their house, where we sat and talked, is also the site for a house church that Satish's father has led for more than 30 years now. He was born into a Hindu family and when he converted to Christianity, even though he was the only child in his familly, his parents completely rejected him. Years before their death, though, they both came to Christ. Then Satish's family fed us, which is always humbling because of how humbly they serve you when you are the guest. After dinner we headed back to campus in another rikshaw.

Satish, that day which happen to also be his birthday, had been in a motorcycle wreck. He crashed on the Mumbai Highway, an extremely dangerous road where the majority of wrecks are fatal. However, he said the Lord spared him and when people came to see if he was ok after the wreck he began preaching the Gospel to them. He said, "Satan was trying to discourage me, but 20 people heard the Gospel today."

Friday, June 1st, while we were working in the library, Samuel asked to listen to my mp3 player. So I turned on Caedmon's Call - Share the Well. If you are not familiar with that one, it is about Caedmon's Call's ministry in India. Samuel loved the music, and he was able to explain to me what some of the Hindi phrases on the CD meant. He especially loved the song "Mother India." I think it was the only song that was slow enough for him to be able to understand all the English, but I agree, its an excellent song. It talks about a lot of the suffering in India and the almost 1 billion people here that still do not believe in the true God. Samuel said, "Ah, I love that song... because I know the suffering of my India." Then we listened to it together and during his favorite line he would close his eyes and raise his hands and sing along. That line was... "Father, forgive me for I have not believed. Like Mother India I've groaned and grieved. Father, forgive me, I forgot your grace. Your Spirit falls on India and captured me in your embrace." Then we let Sunanda, the Hindu lady that works in the library, listen to some. I think she was surprised to hear Hindi music cause she started singing along with it. Maybe one day she will believe the things she was singing... "You are my owner, so I am saved. Thank you. You are my owner, so I am saved. Thank you. You created me."

Well, the regular session students are beginning to arrive. Classes will begin shortly and I'm told now that there will actually be around 300 students here. I'm excited to hear their stories and get to know them. I haven't been able to get very many of the interviews yet due to the holiday and everyone who is still on campus generally being busy, but I pray that I'll have plenty of time to talk with the students over the next month and get a lot of inspiring testimonies.

Oh, and I'm about to buy an umbrella, cause the rainy season begins in the next few days. Hopefully that'll cool Nagpur down a bit. Also, let me just say that we have been here three weeks and it was within the last 12 hours that I learned my shower has a water heater. You just have to turn it on. That's a good piece of info to learn, ha.

Well, we are praying for you, and we will talk to you again soon.

Namaste again,

Things are going well here at the Mission India campus. Carie and I are healthy and in case the story about the 50 degree heat wave worried you, fear not, our air conditioners work nicely, ha. In fact, I wake up in the middle of the night almost every night freezing! Our room temperature with the air conditioner is 25 Celsius which is about 78 degrees F. That is normally hot to me, but thats really cold to me at night.

I ended the last blog with a request that you pray for the Christians of India as they face so much persecution from the Hindus all around them. I want to add one more request to that. In the second most populated country in the world, its overwhelming to think of the number of people that do not know Christ and are trapped in a false religion. There is no question that they deserve to have the love and grace of Jesus Christ just as much as we do. Eight hundred million people in this country serve false Hindu gods and goddesses! Another 120 million are Muslim (more Muslims than any other country in the world)! Changing all the people's hearts is an impossible task. But if I (if we) could just believe what the Word says... "what is impossible with man, is possible with God"... amazing things would happen. So pray for those who are following the lies that satan is feeding them, that they would know the ONE TRUE GOD. Not just in India though. I want to believe that the missions that feel impossible in the U.S. are possible with God, too. Its difficult to say which is harder to fight... Hinduism or nominal Christianity. So let's all pray that God will amaze us with his power and use us wherever he sends us or wherever we are to do things that we never thought were possible.

Saturday, May 19th was the graduation for the summer session students. The summer session was a month-long program for anyone who wanted to participate. The actual college session starts in the beginning of June. But, the graduation was very nice. Carie and I were given seats of honor with some of the faculty up near the front. After a time of worship and a message from the Word the certificates were given out and the faculty prayed over the students that wherever they go, they would take the knowledge of Christ they had attained to represent Him to the people of the world. After the graduation we had a great time hanging out with the students before they would have to leave the next day.

Sunday, May 20th, Carie and I were asked to sing an English song for the church and we hesitated at first, cause... uh... we can't sing. And I actually told Bansal I did not want to because we were not good singers and he said, "None of us are good singers, its for glory to God." Ouch. We accepted and sang "Firm Foundation". What a lesson in humility though. All the students left after church. I will miss them. A few of them will come back to visit before Carie and I leave, but most we will not see again until that day in Heaven when we will have the AMAZING blessing of seeing all our brothers and sisters that we have had so say goodbye to. That'll be nice. What an understatement!

Monday, May 21st I met a Hindu priest... sort of. Let me just say that meeting a Hindu priest is very odd to me, but this was even stranger. The summer session of classes is over and we are waiting til June 1st for the regular college students to begin arriving (until then Carie and I are just working in the Library in the morning and afternoon, then in the Mercy Home in the evening). So, with the session over, this Hindu priest shows up at the campus and says he wants to enroll... here... at the Mission India Theologcial Seminary. What!? This guy is a Hindu priest, but he claims to have come to know Jesus THROUGH THE HINDU SCRIPTURES. He says that since he came to know this Christ-figure he has continued to live as a Hindu priest and has been pointing Hindus to the Savior. He is not a Christian yet but through his own scriptures he has come to believe in Jesus who he believes to be a Savior of some kind and he wants to enroll here to learn more about the Christian teachings about this Savior. How crazy is that? How could he come to believe in Jesus and want to know more about Him just from reading the Hindu scriptures? Another guy who works in the library with us said that he saw a book in the library a few weeks ago about things in the Hindu scriptures that might be considered allusions to Christ. However it happened that's amazing. Our God is so powerful that He can use the scriptures of the false gods to draw people to Himself... how amazing! Anyway, he stayed the night here and ate with us but had to leave until the new session begins. So I guess we'll see him again in June. I cannot wait to see what God is doing in his heart and his life.

Tuesday, May 22nd, was Samuel's birthday. Samuel is a guy that works in the library here at the Mission India campus. So, he came into the library that day with some candy for everyone. I like this custom, ha. That night we had a special treat... Carie and I got to go to an Indian wedding. It was quite exciting. The ceremony itself was quite American-ized except that everyone in the audience was in traditional Indian clothes and the bride was actually wearing a white sari instead of a white wedding dress. The reception, though, was quite unusual. There were probably 500 people in the church during the ceremony and 1500 people at the reception. There was music and lots of food. Getting the food was quite an interesting experience. There is a line, but you don't really wait in it. You just kinda shove your way through and squeeze up to the food and get all you can as fast as you can. It could be described either as stressful or fun, whichever way you want to look at it. It was outside, too, in the middle of the city of Nagpur (4 million in that city) so it was quite hot. Fortunately it was at night so it had probably dropped down to about 105 degrees. If you wanted a drink at this reception you would go over to a water table where there were about 10 metal cups... that all 1500 people were sharing, ha. And for those of you that know what gulab jamun is, you'll understand my excitement when I say that we finally got some... yes! It was so good! In case you do not know what it is, it is an Indian dessert that's kinda like little pancake balls soaked in this delicious syrup stuff. Wes Gunn thinks they taste like Church's Honeybutter biscuits. Anyway, they are good, I know that.

Wednesday, May 23rd was an interesting day. The power went out early in the day around 11am and stayed off until 415pm, so it was HOT during that time. Also, we were unable to enter books in the computer in the library. So we both took naps and I tried to learn some Hindi. Well, at about 6pm some of us were going to go to a vegatable market nearby when suddenly we realized that since the summer students left on Sunday no one has watered any of the plants. So I helped the faculty that remains on campus carry buckets of water to all the plants. There were a lot of them to water. They have such a servant mindset here that they do not want their guests doing manual labor at all (also I think they know that Americans can't do much manual labor here without a trip to the hospital, ha) and you have to convince them to let you help sometimes. (Sidenote: I realized in the last couple days that I should try to just deal with the fact that they want to serve me cause that really is the way they show love and service is not seen as a burden in the least bit... instead they see it as a blessing that they get to show love in this way. So, its been hard to be served so much, but I'm trying to get over that and accept their acts of love) Anyway, they were trying to only fill my buckets half full so i didn't have to work as hard... there were 18 year old girls in sari's carrying full buckets and they are giving me half buckets, ha. I eventually was able to graduate to full buckets too. That was really fun, though. Then came the really interesting experience...

After cleaning off the mud I learned that some of the faculty were still going to the market. So I walked over to the gate and Thomson was there on his motorcycle. My mother will not like this part of the story, but he invited me to go to the city with him and of course I accepted. Riding on the back of a motorcycle in Indian traffic, dodging bicycles, cars, buses, other motorcycles, cows pulling carts, cows roaming free, and people is an experience I don't think I'll be able to forget! Thomson's not-quite 3-year-old daughter rode with us, too. But she got really tired halfway to the city so we turned around to take her back. Because she was falling asleep, he handed her to me and we rode back to campus with Thomson driving, me holding tightly to him, and his daughter squished in between us. It was hilarious. If you are reading this Nathan Capps, it reminded me of that picture on your computer of the two people on the motorcycle with the little kid squished in between. She was asleep immediately. Anyway, after we dropped her off at the campus, we drove the the city. In the city we went to a few shops, got some coke (different brand called Thumbs Up), bought a live chicken, watched them kill it, cook it and bag it up for us, drank some sugar cane juice stuff (very strange) from a vendor on the street, and rode back to campus. VERY interesting experience.

In the trip to the city and back I was able to observe more of the Hinduism that rules this country. Each shop had a little mini shrine to some god or goddess with incense or candles burning. As we rode back to campus I saw some of the worst poverty I've ever seen with people living in terrible conditions. But right next to their communities would be these nicely built buildings that served as shrines to Hindu deities. I asked Thomson who builds these shrines and he (former Hindu himself) told me the people in those communities build them. They are living in indescribable poverty and they spend their money to build temples to false gods. Its so sad because they are worshiping these gods, begging them to free them of poverty or heal their diseases or just to end their suffering. Unfortunately, unless the devil answers their prayers just to pull them deeper into the lies he's feeding them, no answers come from these prayers. God please draw them to You somehow.

Words cannot completely say how much I love Thomson and his family. He, his wife, and his daughter are such a great family and they are so kind to us. They have both faced a lot of suffering in their lives. Thomson comes from a Hindu background and his wife a Christian one. His father died when he was 2 and his mother was too sick to care for him. Thomson's wife grew up in a Christian home but both her mother and father died when she was young. They, like most of the couples in India, had an arranged marriage but it was arranged by friends since they did not have parents to do it for them. They are so happy that God brought them together. We'll share more of their story with you later.

Today, Friday, May 25th, was another day plagued by "load-shedding" from the power industry. You may know what that was, but I didn't so in case you are like me, I'll explain. In the Indian state of Maharashtra (the state where we are working) the power companies, in an effort to save money, shut off the power for about 3 hours per day. The first week and a half that we were here they did not do it, but now it has become an everyday thing. And of course they decide to shut it off somewhere between 11am and 3pm... the hottest time of the day. So we have been sweating even more than usual, ha. It is more than just inconvenient, though, because the load-shedding has caused the computer system in the library to lose about 2 months worth of data (about 3000 books entered). So now we are trying to have all the books entered so the students will be able to have access to the materials as they begin their Biblical studies. So they are trying to find a sponsor to pay for two more data entry stations so that five people can work at the same time on this project. Anyway, the students for the regular session will be arriving on campus in one week. There will be about 200-250 students at that time.

Thank you for your continued prayers. We are praying for you as well.

2 Corinthians 4:7

Namaste (hello) everyone,

Sorry it has taken so long to post for the first time, but the situation here is a lot different that we thought it would be. It is good, though. You can probably expect me or Carie to post about once a week, instead of twice (like i think i told some of you). In fact, we will be typing stuff up throughout the week and carrying it to the internet cafe on a thumb drive once a week to save time. So, if Carie and I post blogs that say much the same things, that is why.

After 35 hours of traveling we made it to the city of Nagpur, India in the province of Maharashtra. It is quite an overwhelming place. We landed in Nagpur at 8:45am on May 12th and stepped out of the plane into 109 degree heat... 8:45am! We did not understand exactly how hot this would be before we came. And one might normally want a breeze in weather like that, but the wind doesn't help, its like a heat wave, ha. It feels like you are standing in front of a space heater. We have an air conditioner in each of our rooms so we can escape the heat if necessary, but I cannot imagine what all the people here that cannot have air conditioner do. I was told that once a heat wave came through that was 50 degrees Celsius (thats 123 F) and killed 1000 people in one day. It has been about 46 or 47 Celsius during the day each day since we've been here. I'm drinking right at 2 liters of water a day and if the supply were unlimited, i'd be drinking a lot more than that.

The people here are so interesting. On the way here we had about 8 hours to kill in the Mumbai (used to be Bombay) airport. So we spent a long time with a Muslim girl from Saudi Arabia named Mahavesh (I may have spelled that wrong, Carie knows how to spell it right). She was completely covered by her burka... all we could see was her eyes. She started showing us some Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic by writing it in Carie's journal and while she was doing that, she began to read Carie's journal out loud. She was reading things about God and His plan for us in India. We wondered what she thought about this as she read. Perhaps a seed was planted of some kind.

Manohar James (the principal at the RIMI campus where we are staying), along with some others, picked us up from the airport. They took us to the Mission India office for a tour and then to the RIMI campus. As we were driving, we were blown away by the traffic in India. I thought Honduras was bad about that. There are so many cars, trucks, bicycles, and motorcyles fighting for a place on the road. Cows are constantly seen on the sides of the road. Lanes mean absolutely nothing to the drivers. Manohar summarized the driving situation by saying, "Whoever has courage goes, everyone else just waits forever." Ha. It's very easy to spot an idol on the streets as well.

We learned a little bit more about how much persecution Christians face here in India. They are such a small minority and many of these Christians have suffered so much for their faith in Christ. Their faith is so encouraging. One way they minister is by offering technical classes here at the Bible college. Secular students come to learn some skill and come in contact with the story of Christ.

I have been very humbled already. It was a fight to stay motivated the first few days because it is SO hot and SO difficult to eat and stay healthy. Things are getting much better as I am learning, once again, to rely on God. Pray for our health and our motivation to serve God any way we can.

Sunday, May 13th was actually my 21st birthday. It was very exciting to spend my 21st in India. Even better... it was Sunday so I was able to worship with the Indian people on my birthday. After many songs and prayers, Carie and I were able to speak to the church for about 5 min to tell about ourselves. I told them that their brothers and sisters in America were praying for them. Then Manohar James gave a lesson. Then Manohar called me to the front and they all sang Happy Birthday to me and prayed for me. Then I handed out candy... apparently, when you celebrate your birthday in India, you are supposed to give everyone candy. So Manohar told be to be prepared for that the night before.

Monday, May 14th began our normal schedule... sort of. We will be working in the library here for much of the day and then in the Mercy Home in the evening. This week, though, we were teaching in the summer classes. Carie taught on Christian Family and I taught Missionary Biographies. It went very well. I have really enjoyed my time with the summer students. They are so kind to me. They are real servants. Much of that is the culture and how a host is supposed to act in India. Like, they will not let me get my own food, or wash my plate.

I enjoy working in the library. I am entering books into their computer catalog. This library will be a great resource for the students at this campus. In addition to secular books it will have a lot of Christian literature (which of course is not incredibly common in India). I cannot wait each day for afternoon tea time in the library. The tea is amazing! Indescribable even. Why did that custom not last in America? We came from England, too. Ha

I started playing this really fun board game with the students called CAREM. It is kind of like pool. There is a giant square board with baby-power-like stuff on it to make it slick and then there are these checkers-looking things on the board (black and brown). There is also a striker (red checker thing) and you try to use it to get the other checkers into the pockets in the corners of the board. Its just like playing pool but you flick the striker at the chips instead of using a pool stick. It's very fun. They also told me about another game that I have not played yet, ha. It is called "White House". In this game, one person is George Bush and everyone else acts like evil foreign leaders and George Bush has to kill them. Then, another person plays the part of Osama Bin Laden and George Bush has to kill him too. HAHA, I laughed SO SO hard when they were telling me this. That was hilarious.

Wednesday, May 16th I finished my Missionary Biographies class. The students seemed to really enjoy learning about William Carey, David Livingstone, Robert Moffat, Hudson Taylor, and David Brainerd. I am so excited that I can now begin collecting the testimonies of the Christians here. I haven't had much time to do that while preparing for classes. But now I do and I am excited cause they have some amazing stories. I will share some of those shortly. The students are younger than I thought. There are some adult students, but most of them are about 16 years old. Maybe that is because this is the summer session. When the regular session begins on June 1st, perhaps the students will be older. I don't know. But I have really enjoyed the company of the students that have been here since we arrived.

Last night (Friday, May 18th) Carie and I spent several hours over at the mercy home. We played with the kids and then Carie sat around a little fire thing and helped the girls make chapati (unleavened wheat bread made over open flame - thank you hindi dictionary). When I came in an sat down to watch, they all got up and put a plate between Carie and myself and started putting food on it. Then they gave us glasses of water... yeah, regular water, not bottled water. Oh well, God will keep us healthy, ha. Anyway we started to eat chapati and lots of rice with daal (cooked lentils with spices) and some kind of curry stuff. It was really good, but they kept putting it on the plate. And they would offer more and we would say we were full but they would say "just a little more?" and we would accept. We kinda had to cause we don't really speak Hindi and they don't really speak any English. So the food kept coming. And they just stood there and watched us eat. We were eating then but everyone else was going to eat about an hour later. We ate so much before we convinced them we had had enough. It was good though Then they would not let us clean our plates. They treat us so well and we tried to thank them as best as we could and they said "You are our guests... and that means God." They really believe in showing love for God by showing love for fellow Christians. Then we were able to join the children for the devotional. We prayed and sang some Hindi songs. There was one point when they were singing this slow Hindi song and we looked around and all the little children had their eyes closed and they were singing with all their hearts. I felt so blessed to be there with them and I just prayed for God to bless them so much and to keep them from facing so much of the suffering that is in this country.

Let me just tell you a little bit of one of the stories I heard the other day to finish this blog off. My new friend Narendra Bansal works in the library here. And those of you who know Ben Blanchard should know that Bansal looks just like him. Ha. I will be sure to show you pictures when I get back. Anyway, I asked him to tell me his story the other day and it really humbled me. It would take a long time to tell the whole story and since you are probably tired of reading this blog by now I'll tell a short piece of it. He told me that he grew up in a Hindu family, worshiping the gods and goddesses. He also told me that his brother suffered from a brain tumor and they began to pray to the gods and goddesses, crying, begging for help for the boy. One day they went to the temple, to see the Hindu priest. Bansal told me that the priest heated up an iron rod to the point that it was glowing red and began to beat the boy, attempting to use some of his magic to heal him. Bansal said that after 3 or 4 days of this the boy died and Bansal lost all belief in Hinduism. Then months later, a traveling minister came to his town and told him about the one true God. Bansal did not believe at first. Then, the traveling minister showed him a film about Jesus and that was the beginning of the road to Christ for Bansal. He said that when he saw the film, he remembers thinking, "He had no fault and yet he's dying for us, the Son of God, he's sinless and he's dying for us." Well, the rest of the story is long and I will share that later, but just know that Bansal inspires me. I saw an intense passion in his eyes as he told me that he wanted to share Christ with as many people in India as possible. It seemed like he was almost in tears. That's ok, I was almost in tears. Then he humbled me... after talking about all the suffering in his life and his passion for serving the Lord, he told me he was going to fast and pray that God would use me as a servant for Him my entire life. I almost wept.

Well, I hope I haven't bored you too bad. Feel free to leave comments, and PLEASE pray that GOD GETS 100% of the glory in all we do here and that he would be able to use our weak efforts in mighty ways. And please pray for the Christians of India who are so severely persecuted by their Hindu neighbors. Specifically pray for Bansal.

We love you all.

I'm excited... and a lot of other emotions too

So Carie McDonough and I leave for the country of India on May 10th. But why would we go to India? Why would we want to spend 2 months in temperatures above 118 degrees during monsoon season? Why? Because India is a nation of more than a billion people, and 800 million of these people are Hindus! Also, there are also more than 100 million muslims in India, making it the country with the highest muslim population in the world. Only about 2% of the people in India are blessed to know Jesus as we do. That's why we are going to India.

For several months we have been studying the culture, the religion, and the language (most people speak English but Hindi is another main language in India so we have studied some basics in that language), but I know we are nowhere near prepared enough to do anything on our own. Our prayer is that our feeble efforts will be turned into amazing results by the Almighty God we serve. We cling to the passage in 2 Corinthians that tells us God's power is made perfect in our weakness.

So what exactly will we be doing? I'm glad you asked because I actually found out today myself. We are working with a missions organization that is completely run by Indian people. So, during our two month stay, we may be the only Americans working with that organization. This organization plants countless churches, builds numerous children's homes, and trains Indian preachers to be able to spread the Gospel in India. Carie and I will be working at the main campus in Nagpur, India (dead center of the country). This part we already knew, but new information came today.

I received a call from the founder of this missions organization today about a special project. His name is Saji Lukos, and Brother Lukos today asked Carie and I to help him produce two more books as fund-raising literature for the ministry there in India. While in India, Carie will be collecting 50 stories about children in the Indian children's homes and I will be collecting 50 stories about the lives of Indian missionaries I will interview. Each of these two projects will result in a book that will be produced and sold to raise money for the missions organization and to raise awareness about the ministry in India. I look forward to being able to help in this way. We are going to hear some amazing stories about how these missionaries came to know Christ, and many times gave up everything to follow Him. The interviews alone will have immeasurable influence on our lives. Beyond that, I am thrilled to know that our efforts will both provide funds for future mission work and spark interest in the ministry in India for other people that might read these books.

Well, we are overwhelmed, excited, nervous, humbled, and ready to see what God's plan for us in India is. We beg you to pray for us and pray that God will reach the lost of India through whatever means necessary.

so soon

So there are only 10 days until Kyle and I leave for India...please pray for us!