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 =)