Taking a step into my Destiny

It's been over a week and my heart still feels wrecked. I have been to many countries and never before have I came back feeling like this. This was my third time to India and I left with the thought, "I can't imagine never coming back to this country." It's been 6 years since God let me in on some clues to my future. It was a vision of me leaving everything behind for a life committed to serving the Indian people. I'm finally walking into a part of my destiny. I am praying and processing with my leaders here at YWAM-Charlotte about my move to YWAM-Hyderabad in September. 

I heard this quote from Mother Teresa, "The hunger for love is much harder to remove than the hunger for bread." And that's just what I want to do. I want to show how women can quench their desire for an undying love. I have worked with many widows and women who are desperately searching for a love that lasts. I want them to experience this love that Jesus has poured on me.

Please be praying for me in this time. There are several things that I need to wrap up and bring an end. I want to keep this forward motion... this momentum into my destiny.

The India update is in the works. So here are some pics to enjoy until I get it up here..

 

Lauren, me and Elby hiding behind our sari's 

 

Sunset over Hyderabad

 

Kids we worked with in the slum

  

                             Eating                She called me, "Foriegn Auntie"

 

Precious children

 

Tribal Children

Don't spit me out

I should be writing you all an exciting update about my time in India. Please know that I am in the midst of conjuring up a good blog for that. It is hard for me to try to compact all my thoughts from two powerful months into one short piece. I did, today, look through an array of pictures from the trip and my heart was overcomed with sadness. I promise I’ll get something up soon.

Onto today. I woke up at an early 6:30am. I had a pretty mediocre quiet time; it definitely could have been deeper. I then had a shower. Now, I am staying at a nice retreat center for a conference this week. The rooms are hotel-like. One would think that they would have endless hot water. But I guess this one was wrong. It’s a bit chilly here so the anticipation of having a hot shower was exciting. The shower came on. Ugh. That’s cold. I turn the cold water down a little. Still cold. I turn the cold water completely off. Lukewarm. Blah. It felt weird. I wanted to get out, but my greasy locks were screaming for some attention. My body shivered, but not like it did when I took those ice cold showers in Bangalore. It just quivered a little. Lukewarm equals gross. It was then that I understood the scripture in Revelations where it says-

 ⁵I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.¹⁷You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

Why would I want to be like that? Why would I want to be half there? It’s like coffee- its great hot, its great cold, but when it’s at that stage of in-between, it’s disgusting. At the end of my life, whenever that may be, I want God to look at me and say I was either hot or cold… not lukewarm.

In the hospital with Kristen

So the outreach is about over and our team is battleing with some stomach issues. Kristen, one of our students, was admitted to the hospital. She and I spent a nice 43 hours in a little hospital room. This is an entry from my journal on the first day….

 

Indian hospitals are extremely different from American hospitals. I say this as two cockroaches race across the white marble floor. My sweet Kristen is attempting to read her book with her IV still in her arm. I’m sweating and feeling a bit psycho from being confined to our hospital cell; and that’s what it feels like… a cell. Our friends came to visit, bringing us great treats. We now have a smorgasbord of rice, daal, gobi, bread, jam and an array or beverages like orange juice, apple juice, Gatorade and chilled water. All of this and  I’m not craving a single item. I have this vision of a Taco Bell burrito ple-aing through my mind. I can almost taste the ice cold sweet carbonation of a long desired fountain coca-cola on my tongue. Agh! I need to snap out of it. I think the cabin fever has gotten to my senses.

I asked the nurse if there was a TV we could watch… she just laughed, so I assume that was a no. All I wanted was to find out what the giant explosion we saw from our roof top tonight was. It was so big and so powerful that it shook our whole apartment complex. People were in a frenzy. I heard it was a chemical plant. I ventured out of our cell in attempts to find a news paper. I asked one nurse to we had been working with. She didn’t speak English so our communication was centered on a game of charades. I pretended to read a paper and threw out several paper names I knew of in Hyderabad. The nurse perked up and went into the office and came out with a paper in hand. Yes! I had successfully communicated with her! But much to my disappointment not only was the news paper a month old and ripped, it was also in the Telugu script. Hadn’t the past few hours of us not understanding each other tell her that I couldn’t speak a lick of Telugu let alone read the script? To my rescue came a sweet elderly man who had witnessed my unsuccessful attempt in getting what I wanted. He went out and bought me a paper. I was excited to actually have something to do. I’m not much of a news paper reader, but today I became a pro. I started off by reading the front page article about the giant explosion. No one was killed, praise Jesus, but two men were wounded. To my entertainment and to one of the wounded men’s embarrassment was a picture of this man laying with burns on a hospital bed in nothing but his blue underwear. Right on the front page for all the world to see. How embarrassing. I went on to read literally EVERY particle in the paper. Some stories were funny, others I had no clue what they were talking about. There was one article about 20 peacocks found dead and another that was a warning to young couples on Valentines Day to not be found displaying PDA or they will be forced to be married right on site (no lie… it’s true!). I found a soduko that I conquered in no time, too. After there was nothing else to read I had the brilliant idea to make Kristen a princess hat out of the paper. Krystal made a wand and we made Kristen the Princess of Shreyas Hospital. Three of our nurse friends came in and wanted in on the action. So we placed the crown of glory on each nurse and took endless pictures with Kristen. The doctor paged the nurses and then we were left bored, once again.

So as I conclude this journal entry… Kristen is acting loopy from all the drugs in her system and I am yearning for AC, a television and that delicious burrito that is still on my mind.

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!