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.