one of the hardest tasks of writing a blog is deciding what to post about.  i'm going to try and describe my last couple days in delhi...forgive me for my scattered thoughts.



//Our last week in Delhi was delightful.  We spent our last Monday going around to all of our favorite markets and bartering for trinkets one last time.  Wednesday night was our last Chat Over Coffee event (5-8pm)...Bethany and I spent nearly the entire time talking with our English student Poonam and our friend Kajul. We learned about the increasingly high suicide rate among 10th & 11th standard Indian students. The pressure to get good marks is so great at that age because it determines what university you can apply for.  We also learned that instead of craving chocolates/desserts, Indian women crave spicy and bitter food.  Especially pickled mango.

On Thursday morning, eight of us (girls) got henna on our hands and feet. Not only are the designs exquisite, it cost a total of $2 compared to $30-$100 in the States.  English class was equally wonderful...I love the relationships with our students and how it has steadily grown.  Vocab time is never boring with our beginners class. Quote of the week: "I like to eat toasters for breakfast" --16 yr old Shivdutt.

Our team had a debrief with Peter & Heather on Thursday night. I was so encouraged by their evaluation of us.  Peter said that our English camp was the most well-attended they have ever had, and there has never been such consistency and involvement from the students.  80-90% of them stayed for the after-class events and some of them have even started volunteering with the organization [the ultimate goal].  Peter also said they have never had this many local women attend...now I see why the Lord blessed our team with 9 girls! He was thankful that our team was self-sufficient and didn't rely on him and Heather for meals or demand a certain agenda.  I will write more about the debrief later, but Peter gave our team a 10/10 on our effectiveness for the goal of the Gospel and building contacts to the organization.  I can honestly say I have no idea how twelve acquaintances came together without conflict for a month, having never taught English and experiencing culture shock every day.  That's the beauty of the body of Christ.

It didn't hit me that I was leaving until we started packing Friday morning.  The Lord was so gracious to keep all my thoughts, emotions, and dreams on my current task...that I hadn't thought about going back to life in the States.  We spent this month loving people for the name and gospel of Jesus Christ.  Yes, that was the reason we were here in Delhi, but it wasn't our main means of serving this ministry. We were about the business of building connecting relationships to the organization's staff, and if an open door for the Gospel opened along the way [as it often did] then we gladly shared!  But we learned to be used by God as facilitators of future relationships [i.e. future opportunities] for the full Gospel to be shared.  I remembered that as I said goodbye to my English students Friday afternoon.  Many of our students brought us homemade food and gifts.  I received an Eiffel tower picture frame [?], wooden pen, necklace, and ring from my students! But the best reward was hearing that most of our students are going to continue coming to the organization after we leave.

Our last meal in India was a feast! I'm genuinely sad to leave behind the curry, veg dishes, tandoori chicken, naan, and spices of India!  I foresee some new experiments in my kitchen at home, watch out family! :]

This week we read an article in the Hindi Times about a woman dying on a busy street in Delhi.  The title of the article::Woman bleeds to death as car after car runs over her --She had somehow fallen off of a motorcycle or rickshaw. Instead of helping her, the cars and traffic continued at normal pace, running over her body countless times. This continued for FOUR hours as she bled to death.  When someone finally cared to move her mutilated body her face was unrecognizable. I’m not sure about you, but this seems too heartless to be true.  On top of that, yesterday I read about a bus driver running over two people and then fleeing the scene. More than making me scared to cross the street, these articles revealed the horrors of sin in society.  17 million people in one city, countless Hindi temples, mosques, and monuments to other gods. We visited a Sikh temple Monday. Apparently, Sikhs are distinguished by never cutting their hair, always wearing holy underwear, always carrying a holy dagger, carrying a special comb and wearing a steel bracelet.  Yes, it’s strange and hard to understand why anyone would choose to wear holy underwear.  Our friend Monty is a Sikh and yet he comes to every morning Bible study and to church too…he’s searching.  We’re praying.

/Tidbits from my week/

//Gave my adult students LifeSavers for a taste of America during our lesson on Food….Even after all of my hard work to convince them that I wasn’t poisoning them, I’m not sure a single student tried them!

//Played cat&mouse with our students who tried to follow us after class to see where we live…escaped underground through the metro system!

//Ate at one of the Top 5 restaurants in Asia = Karim’s. Dined on butter naan, tandoori chicken, lamb kebobs, dall, and green mush.

//Almost got emotional after our last time doing action songs with the slum kids during Sunday school…I liken it to a mini mosh pit :]

//Fell down the marble stairs for the third time. Warning: baby powder on the bottom of your shoes makes them extremely slick.

//Considered 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 and gave my “Comforts from the Cross” book to my Indian friend, Mehnaz, who just left to go home to her Muslim family for the first time in over a year.  She was saved less than a year ago and she faces so many emotions, fears and trials during these next two weeks at home.

//Incredibly thankful for my overall health. Most of the Indian people I know have been sick at least once this past month, my friend Jessie was just diagnosed with kidney stones and my other friend Kajul has been to the hospital twice.

A couple nights ago we had a 3 hour team debrief in the lower room of our hotel (aka Lower Caf).  I think we were all a little stunned that the trip is more than halfway over.  But I want to give YOU a debrief of our insights and comments on our time so far.

THE GOOD. I love everything about Indian culture. I love those never-ending contrasts that surprise me everyday because they make me stop and think.  Living isn't easy here, and you can't make it through a day without examining your heart. I have loved building relationships with the organization's dedicated staff, who love others extravagantly and work 7-9 hour days alongside of us. The church here is equally amazing and has welcomed us with open arms. Besides people, India also possesses an exotic array of food, last week we tried both Mexican and Italian (with an Indian twist of course). For our day off yesterday, P&H took us to the COUNTRY's best mall in South Delhi! For the first time, I felt like I was in America in an air-conditioned So-Cal mall!  I never imagined I'd find that here! Guilty pleasure of the week: Coffee Bean!

THE BAD. It's been hard to be mindful of the extreme cultural differences here in guy/girl interaction. We had a meeting about it Saturday...because as our time here passes, it's hard to not get relaxed around our students, etc.  We've had a couple issues with some zealous male students, one of them sees Faith "in his future" and keeps asking Andrew how to pursue girls and find love.  We might have to ask him to leave English class this week.  It's hard for me to understand, but sometimes all it takes is one conversation or one look/smile for an Indian man to start thinking. We were reminded of the importance of not having one-on-one conversations with any guys and not giving out any personal information. This becomes difficult when there are only 6-8 girls in all of our English classes combined!  This last week, our friend Esther had her purse stolen by a motorcyclist and Julie was followed home by a man. Thankfully, our Father was watching over them, both situations could have been much worse!

THE UGLY. I have the blessing of being on an incredible team, there has been neither fighting nor drama during our time here despite spending every waking moment together. The flipside of spending every moment together is the ease of which I sin with my tongue.  We all confessed the complaining words that slip out way too often.  Whether it's a flippant remark about the weather or a subtle comment about getting "ripped off", I have been so convicted about how often I choose to remark about the negative instead of the positive.  And the positives have been showered upon us.   Our team has resolved to help one another by turning any complaints into positive comments. Being here has revealed to me that complaining is a habit in my life, even in the States.  India has consistently shown me the depths of my sin, but by His grace I am not consumed!

THE BEST FOR LAST. Last night, there was an Indian wedding! The groom was staying at our hotel.  Kids and adults were running all over our hotel in these beautiful outfits and there was cameramen and a crowd waiting outside.  We heard the band start playing on the street and rushed out to join the crowd!  The groom mounted a white horse that was DECKED out in jewels, and the band was going crazy! I guess he rides the horse to "go find" his bride, so cute!  When the procession started down the street, our team was invited to go. We ran upstairs to throw on our finest attire, but then the wedding party got on a bus so we decided to not get on the bus (safety first!)

So many more memories come to mind, but I'll save them for another day...thank you for the continual prayers and gracious words.  You are such an encouragement!

This is an incredibly happy post, but as with all things in India, our trip to the Taj revealed many new contradictions.  So I'll stick with the happy theme, but some of what I write about might make you sad (& rightfully so).

Our team took off bright and early (6am) Monday morning for the Taj in our two taxi cars.  In our car, we crammed an extra guy between the two front bucket seats and only the 2 little AC vents in the very front worked.  Kayla, Kelly, and I experienced major heat and a mild case of heat rash in the way back seat. The drive there took 4 hours at least, and I felt like I was on a ride at Six Flags the entire time. We listened to Hindi chant music the entire ride there and back, and twenty seconds didn’t go by that our driver wasn’t honking.  In India, when you see brake lights ahead, that doesn’t mean slow down…that means squeeze in between them, drive on the dirt shoulder, lay on the horn, etc.  We practically lived on the dirt shoulder and also “passed through” many, many red lights.  This puts LA driving to shame! Sleeping was impossible due to the condition of the roads, the crammed car, and constant braking. We saw camels, oxen, horses, goats, and monkeys on leashes! These men had them acting like trained dogs almost, they would have the monkeys crawl all over our car when we were stopped and then try to sell pictures with them to us. Everyone comes and bangs on our car windows to sell us junk and stare at us. It’s really sad when the beggar kids stand and bang on our windows because you know giving them money does no good and yet it’s heartbreaking.  I feel myself becoming hardened to seeing them in the two short weeks I have been here, and even though it's almost necessary, I hate it.

As exciting as the trip was, the hardest thing I have ever seen was on the way to the Taj.  There are these motorized rickshaws and Indians cram like 12-15 people in and on them.  There are usually three people sitting/hanging off the back holding on by one arm.  We were on the “highway” probably going 40 or 50 mph, and we saw a woman lying in the left lane with one of those rickshaws stopped fifteen yards up the road and people running back.  We’re pretty sure she fell off the back of a rickshaw as it was going because we saw skid marks on the road right after her body.  As we drove by, men rushed onto the road and scooped her body up, but not before we saw her.  Her beautiful face and the whites of her wide-open eyes are still in my mind.  Our driver said matter-of-factly, “she’s dead”. We sat there in shock, we are all praying she was merely unconscious, but Anil (the volunteer with the organization who took us) said she was dead also.  It happened so quickly and everyone handled it so nonchalantly, I still can't understand.  Lots to think about, pray through. More on that later.

When we got to Agura, traffic got even more crazy.  We finally parked in this parking lot and were immediately hounded by vendors, tour guides, etc. I used one of the worst restrooms ever and had to pay 10 rupees for it ha. Let’s just say I would MUCH rather go in Mother Nature and not put up with combined smells, bugs, urine everywhere, etc. The ridiculous tour guides threatened to beat up our friend Anil and tried to fight him because he’s a native Indian and he brought us, i.e. stole their business. They also threatened to kill him, which was utterly ridiculous. But thankfully nothing happened because when we left, we had our taxis come pick us up right outside the Taj.

While Anil only payed 15 rupee to get a ticket for the Taj, us Americans were charged 750 rupee EACH. We walked through these beautiful green gardens to get to the Taj and upon seeing it for the first time, I was stunned! It was so magnificent and much bigger than in pictures!  I feel like the pictures I post still won't do it justice, it was breath-taking. It was so funny because families kept trying to get their kids in a picture with our group. If we started taking a group picture, the Indians would all whip out their cameras and start taking photos too. And I won't be surprised if there are random Indian children in my pictures, shoved in on the side by their parents.  So we had to keep moving.  We were in several videos and asked to be in family pictures. Because there always seemed to be a creeper following us, we kept moving.  We spent three hours walking in and around the Taj and the mosques around it.  It was all so nicely maintained and exquisite in the architecture and marble and etchings. So. Much. Art.

However, it was around 115 degrees and we were all soaked!  Not to mention our water bottles were almost boiling.  We stopped at a Pizza Hut on the way back for a taste of home and also got iced coffees to cool down. The ride back took around 6 hours with 2 hours of that traveling through Delhi alone!  But it was so worth it! The long day drained us all and Tuesday was hard to be energized because we started kids camp at 8 and also taught our adult lessons in the afternoon.  But it was so neat to rely on Him and to have His strength be more than enough!  No one on our team is sick anymore, no one is insanely homesick, and we are all in good spirits!  This week is probably our hardest and craziest, so thank you for your encouragements and for remembering us often.

More thoughts to come...

The most exciting update: today I was in Delhi Times…and in the Fashion section of all things!  Their incognito photographer snapped a shot of Julie, Jessie and I when we were at the Indian University of the Arts…I had no clue!  The article was about how sling-style bags are in style, so thanks Mom for donating your bag to India !

For those of you who wonder what I’m doing over here, I am with a team of eleven people from Masters and we are working with a nonprofit organization here in Delhi. We are currently teaching English twice a day, 2 hours each lesson.  In the morning, we teach kids from Nandlal (local slum) and in the afternoon we teach university students/adults.  It was overwhelming (and still is) teaching students who study for an average of 5-8 hours every day for their university studies.  In many ways I feel that they are more knowledgeable than me in every subject but English.  Our team is really relying on our Father’s strength and peace for every day of teaching.  We also attend nightly events that the organization has…for example, tonight we had Focal Point.  Focal Point is from 5-7 and we discuss many topics, hear some songs, and have refreshments.  Between teaching many classes and attending many events, our team is staying really busy!  Monday is our free day during the week, and this next Monday we’re going to the TAJ MAJAL!!  OW OW! 

What’s mystifying about India is that it is both passive and aggressive.  Passive in the way people accept utter poverty, filthy surroundings, and being treated worse than animals.  Passive in the way that Indians are tolerant or refuse to tell you that you are wrong or offensive.  But India is aggressive in the way it repeatedly attacks every one of your senses. Aggressive in how the culture penetrates your heart and brings questions to mind that I have never asked myself.  And significantly aggressive in the way it attacks your physical body and (ahem) digestive system.  It’s aggressive in the spices, smells, quest for intelligence, traffic on the “roads”, the stares of curious Indians, and the contrasts that define each day.  I recognize new contrasts and experience new emotions every day I am here.  Natalie was totally right when she told me I wouldn’t understand everything I saw or experienced, and I might never fully understand.  My first day here, our friend Monty told me that “everything in India is work.”  I have found that to be spot on, from bartering for a rickshaw to brushing my teeth with clean water.  It can also be quite the chore to walk to the store in mid-afternoon sun and humidity!  Working hard for the little things make me cherish the little victories…like successfully bartering for a shirt or crossing the street without running.  I am facing many battles everyday…spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  But I have found Him to be more than sufficient for each one, and it’s incredible to see Him in new ways. 

It’s now almost 10 pm here, and the energetic ones in our group are getting ready to do AbRipperX in our tiny hotel room! I know Thane, Josh, Sarah, and Grahm will appreciate our effort haha.

Until you read again…

hello everyone! we arrived safe and sound....no issues with luggage, flights or customs! we were put to work as soon as we arrived...thankfully the team is pretty much recovered from the jetlag, now we are just waiting for other forms of sickness to set in :)

i have to be brief about what i write while i am here....so this post will be about the new things i've experienced so far, and it's only been 3 days!!

>>riding in a rickshaw and thinking i am going to die

>>eating in a fancy indian restaurant with my HAND (right only, it can be tricky)

>>seeing a cow walk down the street while sitting in a Mcdonalds that "does not serve beef or pork"

>>walking around an Indian University

>>teaching students who are smarter than me in every subject but English

>>being stared at for half a mile in every direction, and three stories up

>>drinking coke for breakfast

>>playing with slum kids in a basement

>>drinking 4 liters of water every day, and still being thirsty

>>talking about our Father with a Hindi man

>>using baby powder religiously

...so much more to say, so little time!

natalie [jon's wonderful sister] gave me a letter before i left. written on gorgeous indian paper, she encouraged me with the words of amy carmichael, whose devotion to the Lord was [and is] used mightily in india and around the world.

it strikes me how the words she wrote to encourage her fellow missionaries still encourages me today!

"
The fight to which we have been called is not an easy fight. We are touching the very center of the devil's power and kingdom and he hates us intently and fights hard against us. We have no chance at all of winning in this fight, unless we are disciplined soldiers, utterly out and out and uncompromising, and men and women of prayer. So first, give much time to quietness. We have to get our help, for the most part, direct from our God. We are here to help, not to be helped, and we must each one of us learn to walk with God alone and feed on His word so as to be nourished. Don't only read and pray, listen. And don't evade the slightest whisper of guidance that comes. God make you very sensitive and obedient.

Fill up the crevices of time with the things that matter most. This will cost something, but it is worth it. "Seek ye my face. My heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." Keep close, keep close. If you are close you will be keen. Your heart will be set on things that abide. You will drink of His spirit and you will thirst for souls, even as He thirsts. You will not be attracted to the world that crucified Him, but you will love the people in that world who have never seen His beauty and are losing so much more than they know.

You will live to share your joy in Him. Nothing else will count for much. All of this will be, if you walk with Him as with a visible companion, from dawn through all the hours till you go to sleep at night. And your nights may be holy too, every waking moment a loving turning to Him who is watching over your steps even as your mother watched over it when you were a tiny child.

Your dear ones: Commit them to Him. 'It is the wounded hands that part you.' That was said to me when the stabbing pain of the parting was almost too much to bear...then take the Word that comforted me: it is the Wounded Hands that part you, one on them, the other on you, and He will not leave them comfortless. It is hard to say goodbyes, like being torn in pieces without chloroform. But it is for His sake; that carries one through.
"

lately:
*intrigued with overcoming jetlag
*trying to comprehend utter chaos
*focusing on not using my left hand [taboo in india]