Back in cold Chicago

We'll we returned back safe and with all of our luggage in tow! It will take me awhile to journal all my thoughts and upload some pictures. In the meantime I wanted to leave everyone with a few initial thoughts.

Christ is alive in many hearts there and the need and acceptance of Him is growing greatly everyday. It's amazing. I was able to attend a women's conference, as well as meet with a class at Christ for India. We heard from women who have suffered much to be able to worship our living Father. It reminds me how blessed we are to be here.

The children there are absolutely amazing too. They are by far the happiest most loving children I have ever met. They love the sing and hear stories from the bible. They listen so intently and hang on your every word. I am really looking forward to seeing how the Lord prospers them and the Children of Faith Ministries.

The food and hospitality we received is matched by no resort I have ever been to. No one is going to believe we were really on a mission trip. We went to serve and we were served. Personally, I was not ready to come home, and unfortunately have not felt real happy to be home yet. (I cried just about all the way to Dubai). I have grown another family in India and am looking forward to going back soon and often. I am starting to adjust again, but it feels strange to be back so soon. Two weeks should definitely be to minimum duration for such a trip, 10 days is much too short.

Ok, so that's all for now. I hope to have more information and stories up for everyone later this week.

Be blessed!

COFM India Day 4 - Getting adjusted

1/8/07 -Monday

The other transitions that we seem to be adjusting to are the different showers and bathrooms. Probably wouldn’t be considered standard at home by anyone’s means, but we’re feeling really comfortable here. I’ve been learning a lot of Telugu already too. I have the sheet Anand/Rosie gave us in training and I’ve been adding words to it each day. It’s exciting to see everyone’s face when they hear you speaking their language.

Breakfast was a wonderful puri, a potato curry mix; the sweet coffee is pretty good too. (Especially for someone who enjoys her coffee black). Today we had an opportunity to spend some time with the children at the orphanage. I am so thankful we had Lois with us. Lois used to be a teacher at a school for the deaf, and she is great at what she does. I don’t know what we would have done without her. Lois had lesson plans and activities ready for everything. To be honest with you kids kind of intimidate me, just don’t let them know that!

The kids are just amazing; they just soak up everything you have to share with them. I just hope I can retain everything they are teaching us. They love singing songs, and were very excited when Jeremy taught them American baseball. Actually, Jeremy wanted to learn cricket, but when they saw him pick up the bat like in baseball the kids really wanted to learn baseball. We had a chance to play with the kids quite a bit and they taught us something I can only call 1-2-3-4. It’s like one of those hand eye coordination clapping games we all used to play on the playground.

The ladies all had some time to sit and prepare for what we planned to speak about at the upcoming women’s conference. Each of us wrote out a short testimony, explaining our background and where we’ve come from. It’s encouraging to see that none of us are perfect. It’s easy to see why everyone needs the grace of Jesus.

In the afternoon we took a short walk out of the orphanage and down the street to see the area village. Everyone is so incredibly welcoming (well the direction we went in, we’re told the other is not so friendly). A couple of ladies we passed actually welcomed us into their home. They were happy to take some time and speak with us. Apparently they make sarees from their home. They were so impressed to hear Paula’s excellent Telegu that they gave her one.

After dinner, we took a short trip into town to purchase book bags for all of the kids, thanks to some wonderful donations from sponsors of our trip. Apparently, the children have been teased at school for not having book bags because they are “hostel” kids. They were completely overwhelmed to see us bring them in; they actually rushed up and quickly tried to grab them up. Paula scolded the kids and taught explained how to be polite. During our cultural training we were warned that waiting in lines is nearly non-existent in India. Resources constantly run low and you have to rush to get what you need when it is available or you will be left without.

Speaking of resources running low, the power goes out regularly. It can be difficult to plan your day sometimes where the power can go out at anytime and up to several hours a day. Electricity is water powered, and I understand there are some political ties to the outages but I haven’t quite figured it out yet.

COFM India Day 3 -Seeing the sights

1/7/07 –Sunday

Sunday we went to church with Anand. Here the women sit on one side and the men on the other, everyone sits on the floor. They had benches in the back for us to sit on. Service lasts about 2 hours and includes time for attendees to share any personal testimony. The entire service was in Telugu, but it was still fascinating to see how others worship. Jeremy got up and spoke about being zealous for the Lord, Anand translated. Jeremy did a great job speaking; I don’t even think he was nervous. One of the women commented later that she thought he looked like Tom Cruise. At the end one woman approached Jeremy and asked him to pray for her. The walls were decorated with scripture (“The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love” –Psalm 147:11.) and decorations for the New Year (which is in mid-January here).

We spent Sunday out and about seeing the area. Anand took us to a restaurant for lunch, lots of great food. Even the spiciest stuff still tastes great. At the end of the meal they bring you finger bowls to clean your hands, since everyone there eats with their hands. They also brought out a small tray of mouth fresheners, a mixture of fennel, anise spices, cloves and sugar type crystals.

We spent the rest of the day with Johnson, Anand’s brother, while Anand went off to take care of a few things. We had an opportunity to go to Johnson’s office and email home. It’s a great luxury to be able to let our families know that we arrived safely. Johnson and his wife Lily took us around and showed us some great area sights. We visited the beach on the Bay of Bengal and walked around Kailasagiri. Both are just beautiful areas of scenery, including a full view of the city at Kailasagiri, which means Hills of Heaven. At the beach we saw some ruins of where statues were of seasonal gods. Hindus have so many gods, that some are only worshipped for a season. When the season is over they tear down the statues and throw them in the bay. How lucky are we to have the real living God that is with us for life!

Another thing we learned in training is that the people there will be fascinating by seeing Americans and we will be followed and stared at. That’s for sure! We almost felt like celebrities. Anywhere we went a line of people would follow and everyone wanted their picture taken and to talk to us. That is going to take all week to get used to.

Transportation is interesting to see. We have a van with Hari, our driver, to take our group around. Normal transportation here would be on a bike (what we would call a motor bike), or an auto rickshaw; both get crammed with quite a few people. It’s pretty common to see a little auto rickshaw stuffed with 15-16 people, we’ve seen bikes with up to 6 people on them.

We’ve been adjusting really well to everything. We went to sleep pretty early so we may still have some adjusting left to do. Meanwhile, we came home and found a lot of construction had been completed. The bathrooms are completely done now and we are starting to have railings on our staircase and porch. That really helps ease our train of people slowly making our way to the third floor!

COFM India Day 2 -Meet the children

1/6/07 –Saturday

What an amazing greeting! We arrived at the Vizag airport, which is also a military base, just before 2pm. We could see Anand just outside the door, but the guy with the gun wouldn’t let anyone in the baggage area. So after we got our bags we went outside to meet Anand. However, we ended up being greeted by a whole team of people! Most of Anand’s family all came to meet us at the airport. They also had long strands of flowers, called garland, and bouquets for us. After traveling for two days, it was probably a really great idea to have flowers to cover up our smell!

We probably had about 3 cars full of people and luggage to bring back to the orphanage. Riding is certainly an adventure here. The main roads are paved but the others are certainly something else. When we got to the orphanage the children were lined up on the front porch waiting to meet us. It was very exciting and so joyful to see so many happy faces. Everyone shuffled inside to the first floor room and the kids had a great time singing songs for us. Paula is also visiting the orphanage right now. She is from Australia and is volunteering as part of an internship of sorts. She has been working with the children on English.

Anand brought us around the building for a quick tour. I think we’ll be more comfortable then I anticipated. I’m not sure how the showering thing will work out, I think some may adjust a little easier then others. The girls will be sharing one larger room, there’s a large bathroom attached but the toilet is leaking. Jeremy and I are in another room, there’s a bathroom outside of it, but construction is still in process to put a toilet in. Dinner comes up, a great rice and curry dish. One of the last things we were worried about adjusting to. However, again I think this is going to be easier then we thought. The food is just amazing, a great mixture of spice.

After dinner we still had some daylight time to spend with the kids. They are so happy and love to tell you their names and play games. They have been enjoying having their picture taken. They have such simple surrounding and they are so extremely happy and loving – we should learn such contentment from them.

COFM India Day 1 -Traveling

1/5/07 -Friday

Left for India on Jan 4^th, so we’ve been flying for roughly two days, however the time change pushes us forward a bit. I can’t even keep track of day and night anymore so my internal clock is a little confused. Jeremy is tracking home time on his watch as we change time zones. Home is eleven and half hours behind us. We had a nice layover in Dubai; even got some nice pictures of slightly different bathrooms here. There are still western toilets where we go so there are still certain comforts. We had a chance to wash up a bit, but we’re really looking forward to a shower. Two days of traveling can really make you gross. Jeremy and I sat next to a man named Asir on one of the flights. He is from Muscat but also attends Indiana University. He exchange a few tips with us and prepared us for some cultural differences in India. Though, we had already been educated on most of it during our cultural training with Anand and Rosie. (They did so well covering everything).

Asir told us a great story of cultural differences. On a previously flight he sat next to someone who didn’t speak English. Asir was getting irritated when the man was mocking everything he did. When the food came the man would take a sip of water when Asir took a sip of water. He would eat his salad when Asir ate his salad. Asir started to realize that this guy didn’t know anything of the culture and was trying to fit in by doing everything he did. Asir decided on a little test. Dessert was a chocolate mousse with whipped cream on top. Asir took a bit of the whipped cream in his hands and rubbed it around. He then patted it on his face and sighed as if it was the most relaxing treatment he had ever received. We were nearly in tears as Asir said the man took a handful of whipped cream and did the exact same thing. Needless to say the flight attendant shared a good laugh with them when she came by and saw two adult men with whipped cream all over their faces!