Journey to India (in a nutshell)

It seems like forever since I've updated you all! We've been up to so much... so here is an update in a nutshell...

My heart has been twisted in some many directions. I ache for the people here in India. My heart loves to be here. I feel home. Last week we traveled to Bangalore for 10 days. Our first ministry we worked with was called, "Home of Hope". Check out this video. This is about what we did while we were there- (note- It's extremely graphic)



We have been doing a lot of work in the slums. We go in and work with the children for the first part and then we make house visits to pray with families. It is such an experience to be able to go into these tiny shacks and talk with the people about there lives, intimately! At one slum, praise be to the LORD, we saw TWO HEALINGS!!!! Two girls were healed of partial deafness. We took them to their parents to test. It was a miracle! I was privileged to be apart of that moment.

On a personal note, I am doing better with my health. I am still dealing with some chest congestion and a bad cough. Please keep me in prayer for that. I am having a blast being here in India. I think the more I spend time here and get down and dirty the more I yearn to be here permanently. Maybe one day:)

Last night as I was going to sleep I thought of all my supporters and the people praying for me. I want you to know that I am very thankful for you and I think and pray about you often. I would not be able to be here doing Gods work without your sacrifice. Thank you!

India, oh India!

Coming to India I assumed my stomach would get a bit sick before I left. It’s almost impossible to get around that. My bland, American body meeting spicy Indian food is certainly always a collision my insides do not know how to handle. But, as I am lying here on a floor mat in our living room while the rest of the team is out doing ministry, I am fighting of a nasty respitory track infection and gastronitis. No, no, this isn’t just your normal cold I get quite often. It’s an Indian cold; a different strand my body has never encountered. Last night around midnight is when I decided this was no ordinary illness. I was awoken by sharp pains in my stomach, a high fever, and a stuffed nose. Feeling that, oh so familiar, pain in my lower stomach I knew it was game time. So I acted as a contortionist out of my mosquito net and bee-lined for our bedroom door. It was locked. Locked from the outside.
“What? Is this really happening?” I tried the door once again. Locked. I was stranded in my own misery. I began to get anxious as the pain intensified. I banged on the door, I pounded on the thick cement walls, and I vigorously shook the door. No one was coming to my rescue. Heck, the three girls in my room hadn’t budged a bit in my frenzy. The sweat started to pour.
“What am I going to do? What am I going to do?!” I had no other options. I was stuck. I decided to get back up and woke up my friend Berkeley saying,
“Berkeley! We are locked inside this room and I need to get out! Please help me!” I think she heard the desperation in my voice because she flew straight up in her bed. I went to the door to show her our problem and with one hard shake of the door, it came unlocked. Just like that. I was rescued! Finally! Oh it was a glorious feeling in a time when I felt so ill.
I didn’t sleep much that night. The fever was keeping me from falling asleep. In the morning I declared to my Indian friend, Joseph, that it was time to go to the doctor.
The doctor was not nearly as eventful as my previous escape from my bedroom dungeon. It took about 30 minutes, 200 rupees ($4 US dollars) and a lot of translation, and I was done. The doctor didn’t even ask my name until the end of the exam. But all is well. A lady who lives across from us is a nurse and she accompanied me. She gave me the low-down on the prescriptions I have and what to do to get over this fast. She cringed when she found out we were taking cold showers. Hey now, I love the cold showers in this hot climate. Also she urged me to drink hot water, which she so lovingly boiled and is currently sitting next to me. So, I have, or should I say, I am experiencing something new here in India, and unlike everything else, I do not like this. I’m ready to get better.

I’m going to try to upload some pictures to my blog of the tribes we visited this week. We prayer walked, did a drama, told some testimonies and sang songs with the people. We then were able to pray for the tribal people. In one tribe I think we were able to pay for almost the entire tribe! Yay God! If you don’t see any pictures, its because the internet connection. I will try again soon. Peace!

I <3 India

Here is an entry from my journal....

***

As I sit here and write this, my heart is aching. It's early in the morning and I just can't sleep. It could possibly be blamed on jet-lag or possibly that I can't seem to shake these people from the HIV/AIDS clinic from my mind. Some travel for hours (and when I say hours, I mean like 7, 8, and even 9!). That is the distance between my parents home and the YWAM base in Monroe! some crawl up the stairs just to be seen, to feel human touch. some are widows, some children, some fathers accompanied by their grieving families, some are there for the first time and can't get through the exam without streams of sorrowful tears soaking their faces. All of them, though, are God's precious children... every one of them.

the state, Andra Pradesh, where we are currently working has the highest percentage of peoples living with the HIV/AIDS virus. I asked the doctor overseeing the clinic why this was and he didn't fully know. His conclusion was that it is due to the rich highways that pass through this state. Many truck drivers pass through these highways and see sex-workers. One out of every four sex-worker in Andra Pradesh is infected with the virus. These men then bring it back home to their wives. This is the main cause of transmission here. We have seen many cases of young girls, about my age- 25, who were married at a young age around 14 and received HIV/AIDS from their husbands. Most of their husbands have passed away and they are living now with children and a deadly disease. I've seen many widows. A hopelessness lurks over them. But when they come to the clinic the compassion showed there blows that cloud away and lets the light of hope shine all around them.

See, in the government hospitals, the doctors and nurses will not touch a HIV/AIDS patient. There is a big stigma here that people have engraved into their minds, that the transmission is easy. At the clinic we make it a point to touch each patient, pray with them and show them the truth that they are able to live a normal life. The people need to be taught that this disease is preventable. We have learned a skit to take to schools to teach on abstinence and the awareness of HIV/AIDS.

Please pray for our this clinic. Pray for the widows. Pray for the children. Please pray for the men. Please pray.

***

Since I wrote this we have begun to work with other ministries as well. I loved that we were able to start out our mission working with this clinic. I spent most my time shadowing a doctor and examining the patients. I saw many things I have never seen before... TB, external herpes, measles, oral thrush, and malaria. I've seen smiling, laughing children running in the halls who had no clue that their lives are going to be cut short. I've seen so much. My heart is breaking. But isn't this what I want? I do.

To India.. and BEYOND!

In just a few hours I will be boarding a flight. Destination- Hyderabad, India. I'm willingly leaving my chance for a snowy winter behind for the blazing hot land of India. The two places we will be working in are Hyderbad and Bangalore. (See map) 

My hope is to be able to weekly update my blo to keep you posted on our ministry, the team, and how God is radically moving. I can't wait! Peace to you all in this New Year!