Last Update

Well, I have been back in America for about a week and a half now. It has definitely been interesting getting adjusted back to life here- there were many times where I felt like I wanted to go back to India because I felt more comfortable there. I'm still bobbing my head to say "okay" and I talk in a strange accent sometimes when I'm on the phone. But it's also been great to jump back into life in Waco. I'm excited for the new season I'm in. I'm kind of at the end of everything I had planned with my life, so now I can do anything- which is crazy. I'm super excited to move into my new house (though sad to leave where I was living, especially after being gone for 2 and 1/2 months)- I'll be leading a girls' discipleship house with girls from my lifegroup and continuing to lead in the college ministry here in Waco. I feel like Go.d did so much in me in India- especially with renewing dreams in my heart to see God move in incredible ways. So I'm excited for that to happen in Texas, because Go.d is just as faithful here as in India. I loved every opportunity I got to share with people in India and see new believers get plugged into the local church. It was amazing to see what all God was doing throughout the summer. Overall, I saw well over 200 people give their lives to the Lord through the different groups I jumped in with, but even more than the numbers, I loved the individual stories of people who really discovered Go.d and are so excited to follow Him now and share Him with others. The last couple of weeks we really focused on new areas of town that have never really had that many people come and share there before. So we had no idea what to expect, but Go.d did above and beyond what we could ever imagine.
Here are some of my favorite stories from the last couple of weeks:
- One lady my team met was an M but after she heard the story of Jesu.s she accepted Him and was so excited- she wished she could have time to do what we were doing, going around and sharing our faith. She shared with her husband and brother as well as the two other girls in her shop and they all were interested in following Jesu.s too. Our girls were able to meet with her almost everyday to go over discipleship lessons and one of the last days when they were in her store, she started sharing with a customer too. I love seeing people who really find Go.d and are so happy to share Him with others.
- We got to do a lot of sharing in one slum area near our hotel. There was a large group of teenagers that came and met with our guys a lot. One 16 year-old guy in particular was really hungry and would call our guys almost everyday to meet. But it was great getting to take him through lessons and then every new meeting he would bring new friends and take them through the lesson himself and they would study the Bible on their own too. Our friends in the city were really excited to have new opportunities to reach out to the poor in the area.
- Another girl who was an M got to hear the Go.spel and accept Je.sus. She was so excited about it that she started sharing the bridge diagram (a picture we use to explain the Gosp.el) with her friend in class and they both got kicked out of class for talking too loudly because they were excited. It was a Ch.ristian school so when they showed the teacher what they were talking about, he excouraged them to keep talking about it, just maybe not in the middle of class. This girl later got to go to part of a training we did later in the week even though she was studying for her finals (that's a miracle in India, because students don't do anything while they're studying for finals and she left for an hour to meet up with our group!). Now she's connected with some friends of ours in the city and will be continuing to meet with her!

Gosh, there are endless stories I could share from this summer, and I'm glad that I'll continue to get a chance to do so. I think overall I just learned this summer to trust Go.d and His words- that He is so faithful to do what He said He would do. Please if you ever see me feel free to ask more questions about all that happened. I love getting a chance to testify about all that Go.d did. And thank you so much for your support throughout the summer. I appreciate you guys so much! And thanks for bearing with the random communications =)

I'm back from India!

Okay, so sorry for not writing anything the past couple of weeks. Basically I haven't written since my college team arrived in Bangalore, and now I'm back home in America. The last 3 weeks went by soooo fast, but they were amazing! We saw the Lord do so much! Overall, during the 2 and a half weeks of our trip, we saw 120 salvations, multiple people start being discipled, and atleast 3 house churches started. But there could be more since a lot of our friends were interested in bringing their friends/ family together to learn about Jesus together. I'll try to write some testimonies in the next couple of days, but I was wanting to let you know that I'm alive. I'm visiting my parents right now and should be rolling into Waco on Monday. Wow, God was so faithful over this trip- I feel so privileged to have gotten to be a part of everything going on in India. Can't wait to tell you more!

My team's almost here!

My team gets here tonight!  I'm leaving for the airport around 3:30am to pick them up, right after I watch the finals of the Confederation Cup!  I'm so excited for them to get here.  And I've been blown away at the faithfulness of God over these past weeks.  I've been here a little over 8 weeks which seems unbelievable that I've been here so long.  It's gone by so fast.  The past week I've been following up with contacts from the last group that was here as well as preparing for my team to come.  It's been more of a laid back time, but I feel very charged for my team to get here.  And I'm so expectant for what God's going to do!  He's done so much already, but I know He has more that He's wanting to do- I love God!

Yesterday we had a fun Indian experience.  Since we've been in the same city this whole time, we decided to go on a sight seeing tour to a city to the north called Mysore.  We were supposed to meet the bus at around 6 or 6:15am, but got a call from the bus driver at 5:40am asking us where we were.  This was extremely surprising because nothing happens on time here, and especially not early.  We figured they had nothing else to do at 6am, so why not be early?  That or the random tour guide that we found below the Middle Eastern restaurant told us the wrong time.  We were for sure the only foreigners on the tour, which was fun because we realized that this is what people here do when they travel- not the fancy tours catered towards westerners.  We took a non-AC bus (which we were nervous about but turned out to be fine because the weather was really cool and didn't rain) to different sites around the town.  

One of my favorite's was the Maharaja's palace, which was absolutely beautiful inside.  Sadly, you aren't allowed to take pictures inside, so you just have to take my word on it.  But I have pictures of the outside.  Funny side note: our tour guide explained that it cost 20 Rs (40 cents) for Indians to enter the palace, but foreigners had to pay 200 Rs.  We all laughed because we thought he was joking, but he wasn't.  I guess it makes sense since we don't pay taxes.  But the way he said it was funny because he just been telling about the history of the place, how the English had come in and conquered the area and killed the leader, and then he says, "to get in, Indians pay 20 Rs, but English, pay 200 Rs."  He added in "other foreigners" later, but it just seemed funny...

We also went to these gardens in the city that were amazing.  It was our last stop, so we got there around dusk, right before they turned all the lights on.  There were fountains everything that were great lit up.  Sadly, you had to purchase an extra ticket to take pictures here and we didn't have time to wait in the line, so I again don't have pictures of it.  I got frustrated over the different rules about photography, but I decided to submit and enjoy what I got to see.  It was hard though to not pull out my camera at the gardens and just take a picture real fast- no one would have seen.  But Watchman Nee's Spiritual Authority kept repeating in my mind...

The garden also had a "colorful, musical fountain" which was one of the main attractions.  It was like a laser light show, but with water, timed to American techno that I remember from junior high and different Indian songs.  It was great.

If I could go there again, I would have just gone to these places because the other places we went to were okay.  We went to some different temples and shopping places and a cathedral as well.  There were little funny moments that reminded us that we were on a random Indian sight seeing tour.  Like when we were driving up a hill to go to a temple and the tour guide told all of us to shut the windows or else monkeys would jump in the bus.  The tour guide on his own was pretty funny because none of us could really understand what he was saying, and he kinda reminded us of Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite.  He had a pretty sweet mullet too, which you don't see too often in India.  

The best part is that the whole bus ride, minus entry fees, cost 300 Rs, which is about $6 US.  Everything together- bus ride, lunch, snacks, and entry fees- added up to less than 700 Rs.  So I went on an all day tour to a city 2.5 hours away for about $14.  If only vacations could cost that much in America.  Only down side, we left Mysore at 8pm, but didn't get home until 1:30am because we were the last ones to get dropped off.   

How it's going

Okay, so I meant to write more frequently, but I guess I kinda failed at that.  I feel like the days go by so fast here.  I had jumped in with a college team from my town for the 3 weeks they were here, minus the days I was a little sick, and it was so great!  God did so much while they were here.  We've gotten to see one new house church start for sure and are hoping to see more.  That was from a couple that some girls on the team met the first days they were in town.  That couple made decisions to follow Jesus and later invited the girls to their house.  There they got to share with the family members of the couple and they too decided to follow Jesus.  Now they are sharing with their family, all of who is from a region in the north of India that doesn't have a lot of believers.  We were talking about how fun it is to see new things begin among those that previously didn't know anything about Jesus.  It is refreshing to see how many people here are hungry to know God.  There are many that aren't hungry also, but God is definitely moving.

One of my favorite things that I'm getting to do now is follow-up with new believers, getting to start discipling and training them.  I have such a passion to see the church here grow up and become strong- well, actually I'm passionate about that happening everywhere (I love the Church!).  The other day I was praying and God reminded me of the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32).  He said that he has planted small mustard seeds of faith here, but they would grow up to be a huge, strong tree that will reach out and touch other nations.  Just like how the birds of the air perch in the branches of the tree of the parable, people form other nations will be drawn to the work that the Lord is doing in this country.  Please pray that the seeds of faith that have been planted in new believers' lives would grow up to full maturity- that God would do all that He's wanting to do in their lives!

I've gotten to meet with awesome women that are really hungry for the Lord and love sharing Him with others.  One woman I met with was from a Christian background but had never really heard about having a relationship with Jesus.  A girl from the college team had shared with her and gotten to pray with her to start a relationship with Jesus.  I went with her a week later to meet her, and when we asked if she had gotten to share about Jesus, she replied, "Oh yes, I shared with my husband, and my sister, and my sister-in-law, my sister-in-law's daughter..." and kept listing people.  We asked her if people had wanted to know Jesus when she shared, and she said that yes, most of them had prayed to receive Jesus, and her sister-in-law was so excited that she started sharing with her friends, too.  We asked her how many people accepted Jesus and after thinking a bit, told us that about 9 or 10 people, but her sister-in-law had shared with many people, so she wasn't completely sure.  What?!? God's so cool!  I met with her the other day with a girl from the team here and the woman is so hungry to know God and share what she's learning with others.

Another girl I met with is from a Hindu background but was excited to have a relationship with Jesus when she learned what it meant.  We went through the first discipleship lesson with her and she really understood the Gospel.  She made a list of friends she wanted to share with, and when I called her back the other day, she said that she had shared with her friends and they want to know more about Jesus, so they're going to come to our next meeting.  I love seeing God move because I feel like I'm not really doing anything except getting to talk about Him.  And I feel like I'm learning so much about God as I'm sharing Him with others.  I'm constantly learning how amazing the Gospel is and how good God is to us!

There are awesome stories of what God is doing, but it's also been difficult trying to find times to meet with people here because they are busy and don't normally make set plans of what they do.  Like I had talked to a girl about getting together on Tuesday night, but that meant for me to call her on Tuesday and see if she was free then, and when I called she had last minute decided to go out of town for a week and was already on the road.  It's so strange to me because I'm used to being able to make plans with someone a couple of days away.  But I'm learning to be a little more flexible and to trust God when I'm not able to immediately follow-up with somebody.

Today I'm going out with another team that's here to help meet people to do follow-up with.  I have a new roommate that got here a couple of days ago from Kansas City.  She's a lot of fun and it's been great going out with her.  I believe we're about to go out to lunch, so until later!

Everyday moments in India

Here are some highlights from the past couple of days (please note, this is just from a couple of days, so they might not seem like huge highlights, but here's my life):
- I am feeling a lot better. I'm not sure why I was sick, and the fun thing about India is that I will probably never no, but oh well and praise the Lord!
- 3 days ago we went to a place outside the city that is a spiritual retreat center. There is also a church there and a school. We got to help out with the school and do a spontaneous VBS-type thing for them (of course it's India, so they told us to do an hour long program and gave us 30 minutes to try and come up with something...). The best part was that it was for the whole school, so age 3 to high school all sitting together. We were able to split them up a bit, so I took a group of high schoolers. It was funny trying to think of a game that high schoolers could play and that's easy to understand. We decided to play heads-up 7 up, the classic, but they never quite got the point and kept cheating and opening their eyes. Then we did a skit of the Prodigal Son parable and shared the Gospel, and a lot of students responded! God so moves in weakness!
My favorite part of going out there was getting a chance to see the country-side, which is so beautiful! So different from the city, obviously. I feel like I'm only getting to see a small part of India, but it's all so different so it might be impossible to experience everything.
- The past two days have been pretty cold here. I mean, cold for India so weather in the 70s or so. I actually had to put on a sweater last night because it was so cold riding in the rickshaw with the wind. I'm loving it! It's cooler because of the rain, so hopefully this is a nice preview of the upcoming weeks that I'll be here during monsoon season.
- I went to a large park yesterday called Cubbon Park. There we found the "Govt. Aquarium" which was so great. It cost 5 Rs, so like 10 cents to get in. It reminded me of the Brazos River exhibit at Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, where they show off the everyday fish that you'd find here. I got to see a Tilapia, which I've never seen one alive before- I've just eaten it. There were some pretty cool ones there too. All in all, it was a very fun, random India experience.
- So I'm used to getting asked, "And do you have boyfriend?", but the other day I got asked, "And when will you get married?" I answered that I didn't know, and then the girl looked at me with a confused face and replied, "Haven't your parents told you yet?" It was one of those strange cultural moments- totally wasn't expecting that one. I started trying to explain how American dating worked, how we want our parents' blessing, but that we normally pick the person ourselves. I feel like I have a lot of little moments like that where I realize how different American culture is from Indian culture. Indians still have arranged marriages, which is strange to me as an independent American, but it makes sense in this culture. And it's done in so many different ways depending on your family background- I feel like every person I meet has a different story. This couple we were talking to are distant cousins and are secretly dating until they were done with school, and then they plan to tell their parents and convince them to let them get married. I don't believe that is typical at all, but I just didn't know what to say that whole conversation- it was just awkward. Good times.
- I found a drink that I like at Cafe Coffe Day- the Caramel Freeze. It's a cold coffee drink with caramel and toffee nut syrup, and it's only 65 Rs. Up to this point Coffee Day hasn't been my favorite, but it's started to be redeemed...
- I saw a giant butterfly made out of thrown away paper cups at a mall today. Picture coming soon...
- Tonight I lost my roommate. I've had this awesome girl from Boston staying with me the past couple of weeks- which has been such a blessing- but she has a group that is getting in tonight, so she moved into the hotel where she'll be staying. So I'll be on my own until the 13th when another girl comes from Kansas City. It's fun to have different roommates, but it was a little confusing figuring out how much we all owe for staying here. All they gave us was that our apartment costs 41,200 Rs. for a month, so about $825. But I'm sharing it with 2-4 people the whole time I'm here based on which week it is. But of course, I enjoyed figuring it out.

One month down...

Well, I have been here a little over a month now. I think yesterday or the day before marked one month exactly. I was thinking the other day how some things just seem common place to me now. Every country has there own way of doing things and you just start getting used to it. I wanted to share a few with you, so here are things that should be strange but just don't phase me anymore:
- the fact that the drain from my bathroom sink is connected to a rubber tube that leads to another drain on the ground. And I have no idea where that one leads...
- the fact that my kitchen has little ant-like creatures that crawl around on one of the cabinets, but it's okay because we just keep our food on the other cabinet.
- the fact that every room has a ton of light switches and it's impossible to learn what they all go to... like our kitchen has about 10 light switches on one panel and I have to keep pushing switches until I finally find the one I'm wanting
- the fact that there are always cows walking around on the streets. They don't really surprise me anymore, but it amuses me when they are walking across the street and the cars have to stop and figure out how to get around them
- the fact that when I see a rat on the street, I have zero reaction
- the fact that I bobble my head without realizing it now, even when I'm talking on the phone and the person can't see me (Indians tilt their head to the right and left to say okay- they don't nod)

Another thing I have gotten used to, sadly, is getting sick. There's really no way of knowing what will make me sick, so I just eat without fear, knowing I'm in God's hands. I know it's just a fact of life when you live overseas. And it's nice because it comes and goes quickly in my experience, and for people who might be traveling here later, don't worry- I feel like I'm the only one that has been persistently getting sick and most people I traveled with didn't get sick at all. Yesterday was funny because I got sick after lunch and ended up throwing up in a Cafe Coffee Day. It wasn't too bad because I was able to get to the bathroom and got it mostly in the toilet (sorry, I was trying to decide if I should include this or not, but just decided to because it happens). It was sad though because my friend was trying to tell the girls who worked there what happened in nice terms, but they weren't understanding so I had to come and explain to them, with hand motions, what happened. Suddenly I could see the light dawn in their eyes and I just apologized- It wasn't exactly my fault, but still isn't fun for them. There's nothing like humbling yourself after you get sick. I probably won't go back to that particular Cafe Coffee Day. But I came home and was still having problems. I talked to a lady that has lived in North India for awhile and is a pro with sicknesses. She suggested I take a "dewormer" because I've been having stomach problems for a bit. I guess that means I might have a worm. Dewormers are great, though, because you just have to take one and it clears up everything. You just take a 2nd pill after 10 days as a follow-up, but it only really takes one to do the job. I was feeling better this morning but took it just in case. We'll see if everything gets better, but I feel confident it will.

There is a group of college students here right now, so I've been going out with them during the days. It's been fun getting to know them and God has been doing so much in the past couple of days. I feel like I'm seeing breakthrough in listening to the Holy Spirit's voice and being led by Him throughout the day. A couple of days ago, I went out with a girl from the trip and we just asked God where we should go. It was such a restful time of going out and seeing things that God had spoken to us come to be. There were so many awesome conversations we got to have that day, but I'll just tell you one so this doesn't go on forever. We had stopped at a coffee shop to get something to drink and reconnect with God. When we were ready to leave, we asked God to speak to us about where to go or anything else directional, and then we just waited to see if he said anything. I feel like whenever I do this, I always have random pictures come to my mind, but lately I've been taking them seriously and starting to see that a lot of times they do have a meaning. This particular time I had a picture of a star on top of a Christmas tree come to my mind. I shared it with my friend but was thinking, yeah right, where am I going to see a Christmas tree in India in June? My friend felt like we should stay in the mall we were in, so we just started walking around. We got up to the 3rd floor, and I turn my head and see an ad on the wall that has Santa Claus on it. I was thinking, Are you serious?!?, and went to look at it. It didn't notice a Christmas tree, but it said the "Visit upstairs for International Brands" or something like that, so we went up a floor. And sure enough, on that next floor there was the picture of the star with a Christmas tree that I saw! So both my friend and I were like, wow, God wants us to talk to someone here. The only problem was that it was the men's department and there weren't many girls there. But I saw a girl and felt like I should go over to talk to her. She was there shopping with her brother and I got to share with both of them about Jesus. They are both from an unreached people group that is normally hard to share with. They had heard of Jesus before and the brother had even seen a film about Him. I got to explain more and they were both interested in meeting again to talk more about Him. I texted the guy the other day to see if they wanted to meet, and he replied, "we both are so interest in Jesus Christ & believing him... I really would like to meet u". So I should be meeting them tonight with a friend who is visiting town and actually speaks their language. Pray that God would really reveal Himself to them and they would know that Jesus is the only way to get to God (John 14:6).

And pray for continued grace and breakthrough to abide with the Lord and be led by Him. I personally don't care whatever fruit comes out of it, but I just want to follow what the Father's doing here. There's such freedom in knowing that regardless of the outcome, I can just be obedient to God and enjoy His presence. That's all that matters. Until next update! (Maybe I can make them more frequent so they aren't so long... I'll work on that!)

Okay, I have time to write an update...

Yay! I finally have some time to sit down and write a good update for y'all. Right now I'm sitting at a laptop in my apartment, eating a peanut butter and honey sandwich and drinking a Diet Dr. Pepper (sadly, they were out of the regular kind at the import store). So I guess you can say I've acclimated well to Indian culture...just kidding!. I actually really like Indian food, but we happened to have this around the apartment. The bottom floor of my apartment building is an organic grocery store, so I can always go down there and buy really great fruits and veggies. And our apartment even has a water purification system, so I have a nice little set up here.

Here's a quick update of the last 3 weeks, since I've done a bad job at posting consistently:

We have seen God do so many amazing things over the past 3 weeks! I feel like everyday people would come back with awesome stories of God healing someone, or someone deciding to follow Jesus or being really interested. It's amazing to know that no matter where I go in the world there are people who want to know more about Jesus- it's not coming to a different country and telling people, "well, no, actually you need to believe this" but there are people everywhere that are legitimately wanting to know God more and are so excited to find out how they can! Here are some of my favorite stories from the trip:

- I met a girl one night at a mall when we were asking directions to an Italian restaurant (which was really good, by the way, I've been so spoiled by food here!). When she found out we were from America, she immediately asked us, "Oh, do you know Hillsong music?" Apparently they are really popular here and we immediately got to talk about God more. She was Hindu but has been going to a cathedral every Sunday because she feels peace there. My friend and I got to have dinner with her the next night and she told us how she had read the Bible a lot as a child and has always wanted to know more. We got to share the Creation to Christ story with her, which is a story talking about God's plan for us from beginning to end (really great for people who aren't from a Christian background) and at the end I asked her if she wanted to have a relationship with Jesus. She immediately replied, "Of course! I've wanted this my whole life!" and then added, "wait, this isn't religion, is it? I'm tired of religion because it's just a bunch of rules that don't make sense." We got to explain how it's more about a relationship with Jesus and being led by the Holy Spirit. There are things that God calls us to obey, but we get to know His heart through it all and can know it's for our good even if we don't understand everything. She was really happy to hear about all of that and prayed to start a relationship with Jesus. I've gotten to follow-up with her for discipleship and look forward to continuing to do so!

- One day we were eating at a restaurant and someone felt like God was wanting to heal someone there, so we asked the waiters if anyone who worked there was sick. They said that only one person was sick, but he was at home. So we prayed for him, and one part specifically my friend prayed that he would have a dream or vision of Jesus and be healed through that. Well, that guy was at home and felt as if he'd be sick for another week. But that night he had a vision of a Shepherd walking through his room and immediately felt that he was healed. He actually got up from bed to see if someone was still there because it was so real to him. He came to work the next day completely fine and found out that we had prayed for him the day before. He got in touch with our guys and we got to follow-up with him. He had been really seeking the Lord for the past couple of months and now was super hungry to have a relationship with Him. He asked Jesus to come into his life and is now so hungry to share Jesus with others. He said, "Just teach me the Bible and tell me what to say, and I will do it." We said he should make a list of 5 people he wants to share with, but he said he definitely had more than 5 he wanted to share with.

- Some of the guys from our team got to meet a guy from a country in the Middle East that is really hard towards the Gospel. We'll call him Bob. They got to talk to him about Jesus some, but Bob wasn't very interested in following Him. But that night he heard someone call his name in the middle of the night and started thinking more about Jesus. He met with one of the guys in my group and told him about that night and our guy got to tell him that it was Jesus, because He wanted to have a relationship with him. Bob that day had a bad pain in his chest, so my friend got to pray for him and while he was praying, he felt Bob's chest literally pop up for a second. After he prayed, the pain was completely gone. Well, needless to say, Bob had really experienced God and decided to give his life to Jesus. He got to come and worship with us a couple of times and said he wants to go back to his country and share Jesus with his people. Praise the Lord!

We got to talk to so many people and saw many decide to start a relationship with Jesus. I love getting the chance now to do follow-up and start discipling/training new believers. Please pray:

- that new believers would begin to spend time with Jesus and grow in their faith

- that we would be able to connect with people because many have busy schedules right now

- that new believers would be excited to share Jesus with their friends and family

Okay, I have pictures I want to post, but I'll do that as a separate post, because I think it'll mess up what I've written so far... Hopefully I'll get the hang of this by the end of summer.

Overall, here is what the Lord taught me the past couple of weeks:

- I felt like God showed me every place where I run to different things to get security and comfort apart from Him. The biggest one was looking for comfort in this culture. India has felt different from everywhere else I've travelled. Normally I can connect and adapt to the culture really easily, but here it's just different. Maybe it's because the culture here is a mix of so many different cultures, but I just haven't felt comfortable here. But God is showing me that I just need to look to him to find security and not in my own ability to be "culturally relevant". It's such a place of weakness because I never have any idea what I should do here, but it's okay because I'm also learning...

-that it's not what I can do in my own strength that matters. I really have nothing to offer- it's only through abiding with Jesus like in John 15, and hearing from Him and saying what He tells me to say. I've gotten to see so many amazing things happen, but every time my reaction is, "wow, that was so God- I feel like I just showed up at the right time and got to jump into what God was already doing and just go along for the ride.

Okay, so this is already a pretty long post, but please be praying for me for direction for the next couple of weeks. I really want to be led by the Holy Spirit. So pray for greater breakthrough for me in hearing the voice of God and being led by Him. Thanks and I appreciate you guys so much!

Long awaited update!

Sorry I haven't posted anything in such a long time. The trip has been so busy so far. Well, it's actually quite laid back and very refreshing, but I haven't had spare time to go to an internet cafe. But I just got stood up for a meeting with a girl (eh, it happens...), so I have time to get to the cafe. But the cafe is closing in 12 minutes, so this might end suddenly. My group with Elevate is leaving on Thursday to go back to America, so after that time I will be on my own except for a married couple that is also staying the whole summer. I'll be moving into a service apartment, which I can't wait to have a kitchen where I can cook food rather than eating out everything meal! I'm also to move to the apartment because it is in a quieter neighborhood (right now we are staying in the commercial/ shopping center of town, which is great because there's always tons of people here, but it's starting to ware on my nerves. But I'm sad to see the rest of my group go because I've gotten used to them being here in India with me. Most days we split into smaller group (normally 2 or 3) and go out to meet people. Most are surprised that we are tourists and are staying only in one city rather than going to see the tourist sites, but I much prefer actually meeting people over seeing buildings, which in this case would just be Hindu temples. Okay, I got to go, so this is part 1 to an update. Sorry, communication will probably be limited until I'm in the apartment. Love you guys!

First days in India

I'm starting to get settled a little more into the city. I feel like I'm constantly learning more about the city and the culture here, but still have no idea what I'm doing. I figured out that it's rude to blow your nose in public (after many people stared at me horrified when I was blowing my nose at Pizza Hut- my alleriges are going crazy here because of all the dust). But overall I've heard it's a very forgiving culture, so it's okay if I don't do everything perfectly.
It's funny to me that the workers here at restaurants don't let you open the door for yourself or serve your own food. I keep doing it on my own out of habit, and then they get very embarassed, rush over, and push me out of the way at times. I got to go purchase a traditional Indian outfit that I can wear around the town or if I go out to a village. It was fun trying on all the clothes, especially the poofy pants that remind you of MC Hammer (hopefully I can post a picture of it at some time, but I realized I left my camera cord at home, so I'll try to figure out a way...).
I feel like I'm for sure trying to learn how to communicate with people here. Everyone bobbles their head to say "okay" and I've been trying to pick it up- it's a lot of fun to do. I've gotten to meet a lot of people so far from some many different backgrounds- Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Iranians, etc. I even met an Indian girl named Cristin, except she spelled it "Crystin". I got to pray for her and her mother at Pizza Hut (there's a Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and KFC right down the road from me- I haven't been to the McDonalds yet, so I don't know how they handle the whole no beef thing...)
One cool story is that we got lost the other day trying to find a mall and ended up walking past a hospital. We figured we might as well go inside and see if we could pray for patients. We discovered that it was actually a Christian-owned hospital and there were pictures of Jesus everywhere inside. The administrator that we needed permission from to pray for patients wasn't there so we had to come back another day, but we met a floor receptionist who was a Christian and we got to encourage him and teach him how to share his faith. We went back to the hospital yesterday and talked to the administrator. He couldn't give us permission to go from room to room to pray for patients, but he said that we could go to the Hospital's prayer hall and pray there. We said we'd love to do that and he had one of his assistants escort us over there. We got there and it was this little prayer room for us (see below) and we got to have a good time of intercession for the hospital and the people there. It was so much fun and we really believed that God moved through our prayers, so much so that we gave our phone number to the administrator and told him to call us if any miracles happened, because we have a God who loves to show himself and demonstrate his power!

Overall, even though I'm still getting used to everything here, I love the laid back pace of life and feel like I have so much grace to deal with the random cultural peculiarities here. And I'm so excited to learn more! Well, there are my random thoughts. Until later,

I made it!

Yes, we made it to India. After 19 hours of plane flight (not too bad) we arrived here at about 2am. Yesterday we mainly slept and then tried to get oriented to the city. We went on a scavenger hunt and got to see some of the city and meet some people. I think I'm still trying to get used to my surroundings- I go back and forth between feeling smewhat comfortable and having no idea what I'm doing here. I think this is the first time I've traveled somewhere where I really don't know the culture at all. But in general I like the city- we're in the middle of the big commercial district so there are tons of people. And even though it's hot here, the humidity isn't bad at all so I'm comfortable (remember, I'm from Houston, so i have a different standard of humidity and I was expecting the weather to be like Thailand...). I just have time to add a quick "hello, I'm here" but here are some funny experiences so far:

- I have fully embraced showering out of a bucket (fill up a large bucket with hot water and use a smaller bucket to dump the water on yourself). We have a shower head in our bathroom but it's only two thin streams of water so it's just easier and more refreshing to go bucket style- never thought I would say that. (There are my buckets and shower area to the right- it's just level with the rest of the bathroom, separated by a curtain.)

- I think I've gotten ripped off on every rickshaw ride I've taken and have fallen for all the tricks. But I feel like God has given me a lot of grace so I'm never angry, but I just feel stupid. My favorite was today when we finally got the rickshaw driver to agree to a normal price, but then he "missed" our street and had to take a huge turn around because all the roads were one way and then he didn't have change, so I had to pay about 3 times what it should have been... (but you can't get angry because it still only cost $1.

- I went to a Muslim beef market and had to dodge gigantic hawks that were swooping down to grab pieces of meat the vendors had thrown out on the ground- and of course the vendors laughed at us.

Finally leaving!

Alright, so I am finally leaving today for India. I actually need to be at the church in 3 minutes so this will be short. I just wanted to give you guys some quick prayer requests for me:

- Pray that I can really abide in Jesus on this trip. I know that nothing will come from me, but from my ability to just follow God as he directs me. And I really just want to grow closer to God and in my ability to hear his voice.

- Pray that I can have the words to say to the people I meet in India.

Okay, I'll put more later. Take care!

Cristin

I'm leaving for India!

Hey guys! I will be leaving for India next week and I thought that, rather than sending out the typical email, I would just make a blog so that people can easily stay up-to-date with what I'm doing over there. It should be fun and I hope to be able to post pictures and different stories. Again, disclaimer from the beginning, I'm not sure how often I'll be able to get on, but I will try to post things periodically. So, until later!