July 12, 2012

Today was a lovely day! The girls took a break from reality by going to Café Palette to have some good vibes, talk and paint. Someone alerted the media though that 6 American women were painting, so naturally the media showed up from a couple different newspapers to interview us and take our pictures. The men went bowling with some friends at a place called Go Bananas! To add a little fun to the day when we arrived home from our day Heath, Nathan, and Travis had surprise notes for the girls telling us how wonderful we are! Since girls are so great, we made up a game for the boys. They had to guess who painted which painting from Café Palette and of course Travis won the game!

 

July 13, 2012

Today we had a social hang out day! Our group wanted to go see The Amazing Spiderman, but they were only showing it in Hindi. We ended up just going to have a family lunch at KFC. The manager asked us if we wanted to have a tour of the kitchen and of course we jumped on that offer. So hairnets and all we headed to the kitchen of KFC! We went to a 4D movie called Under Earth where we were tortured by fake bats and rain that ruined our hair. That night we went to training at a small neighborhood nearby and got the chance to go pr@yer-walking. We had an Indian feast that night which was spicy and amazing! Unintentionally though we insulted the Indian family because we only ate our one huge plate of food and did not stuff our faces by eating three plates of food.

July 14, 2012

This is that day of the crazy auto adventure! Words cannot even explain this incident, but here it goes. Mary Emily, Rebekah, Kelsey, Alecia, Rachel, and I had just left a friends house and walked out to the main road to get an auto to head back to the hotel. We were aiming to get an auto for around 60 rupees (very fair price), but the men at the block were trying to make us pay the outrageous price of 150 rupees (come on guys, this wasn’t out first day in Indore). We ended up leaving that block and attempting to walk across the street to more autos (harder than you think). As we paraded across the street, with beggar children on our arms, a steamroller towering over us, and scooters driving between our toes we finally managed to get a ride home to the hotel! That night we got the chance to go to an Indian wedding. It was very western, long, and there was plenty of spicy food! The boys especially enjoyed the chicken appetizers and the pink drinks. Our group also really got a kick out of Nathan aka national geographic photographer (if you saw his outfit you would understand). 

(awkward family photo)

July 15, 2012

Today we went to a local church and had lunch with some Indian friends. We were actually present this morning for the inauguration of this house church. We had a day of much needed rest! Our group once again ventured to the mall for dinner. A few of us went to Easy Day (aka Wal-Mart) to get some treats for our train ride tomorrow night! We will be heading to Jaipur for our mid summer excursion tomorrow. I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for us as our adventure continues. 

Quote of the week: while the whole group was riding down the elevator, Alecia decides to state, “I have a statement to make. My kurta has pockets.”

Posted by Carly 

Settling In

If you come to India, wear white pants.  You will not be

culturally relevant or stay cool in the day. They will tarnish.

They will make you stand out. This will come as a welcome

and laughable disappointment as it serves to remind you

 that through grace alone your rags have been washed

clean, compelling you to be unashamed of His power.

 Over the weekend, we decompressed with time alone to

study,give thanks, set objectives for this summer, and sing

together(Rebekah leads cause when she opens her mouth,

I feel compelled to shut mine. so, so good). We made it out

to the park for a camel ride (these walk down the street

though, no bid deal), bumper cars,and Frisbee. Kelsey

 celebrated her birthday on Sunday and what a perfect

day for it to fall on! We sang happy birthday to her and

some new friends when we met in the evening. It was as

tender as a butterfly with sore feet on a gentle breeze

gingerly seeking a soft place to land (true statement).

In following days we have transitioned out of orientation 

into a new routine of study/teaching (Papa Heath!), outings, 

and event time each day. Monday was the first day following 

this routine. I experienced it sick in bed but with meds and 

prayer, was better the next day (Hallelujah!). The guys met 

one of our local brothers/translators and caught up over 

chai and the girls did outreach and prayed over the city 

from the heights of the mall roof. Evening was an adventure 

as everyone went to Inspiration school where Rachel

 presented on family life. Kelsey presented on college life. 

We also presented on American culture, education, and

 leisure acticities. Travis and Alecia(who has now made it 

into this blog) demonstrated how to shag! Then we broke

 into smaller conversations with the students, which

 was somewhat overwhelming. So many questions!

Tuesday morning, Carly had a waffle for breakfast and

thoroughly enjoyed it (best she ever had). A few of the girls

met with some students from Inspiration and the others met a

local sister, whom theywere able to begin teaching and to greatly

encourage. Also, Mary Emily was able to return 4 Rupees that

she accidentally stole. The guys traveled to Rajwada to meet a

man Heath knew 2 years ago and hopefully we will eat with his

family soon. We walked slowly through the frenzied market

streets p-walking and stopped in a music store our local brother

frequents. We spoke at length with the young employees and

neighboring shop owner. In the evening we all returned to

Inspirationwhere the students presented to us on traditional

Indian dances and things that could only happen in India.

The best part of the day was back at home when our local brother

played his newly repaired guitar and we sang together!

On Wednesday, the guys met another brother and his

friend in the mall and after much debating discovered

we each had brothers in the other. It is so uplifting

 to find someone with sound beliefs living here. The

friend was from one of the cities we are visiting

next week so hopefully we will see him again! The

girls were in the mall coming down an escalator with

such grace and style that they stole the attention from a

cricket trophy photo shoot! They were flattered but humbly

and politely declined, walking on un-phased.

At night we attended a local gathering of the body,

personally one of themost encouraging things on our trip yet!

To hear them singing in their native language was phenomenal.

Being with them and hopefully encouraging them is why we

are here! We concluded the day with a family dinner at pizza

hut and walked home from the mall in the cool evening air

(which occasionally carries a whiff of stank). So far the

week has gone well and the work is going well. We are so

 excited for what more is to come for us and the people

of this city. We give thanks for you and your on-going support!

Posted by Nathan

Week 1 (Cont)

 Only a few days have passed since our last blog, but it feels like so much longer. We have seen and done so many things already that it is impossible to post about them all, but we are going to try to give you a little insight into our journey since arriving.


The girls shopping experiencing was a bit overwhelming at first, but we had our first taste of bartering with natives. We won some and lost some, but our skills are improving each time. The boys are still sore from their "man adventure" which turned out to be battling to the death in Squash. Heath dominated and despite his arms being so weak he must use both of them to drink a beverage, he says that the cost of victory was worth it. Nathan has tried to understand women's minds by creating flow charts to make dating and the feminine mystique as "logical" as possible. Overall, the boys are experiencing more culture shock from their female teammates than from the Indian culture.

After our separate activities, we all gathered to celebrate July 4th. The American traditions that may have seemed simple to us before were relished because they were little pieces of home. We basked in the joy of hotdogs, cupcakes, American flag decorations everywhere, coordinated red-white-blue outfits, dancing on the roof of the house while watching fireworks. We were all glad to survive after one of the fireworks fell over, shot the wrong direction, and started a field fire. Don't worry Mom and Dad, our fearless leader Heath ran over and stomped it out.

The next day, we were let loose in the wild country on our "Big Fat Indian Adventure." We split into smaller groups and our days consisted of: playing cricket in the slums with some children, visiting the market (Rajwada), trying many new Indian "delicacies," met an elephant, and almost played with snakes against our will. Everyone enjoyed these different adventures and the insights they gave into Indian culture.

Yesterday was a more trying time for our whole team. We traveled to Ujjain and visited a holy place of worship for Hindu's. The things we saw and experienced that day can never really be explained to someone who wasn't there with us, but here is our best shot. We were ushered into the temple and placed in never-ending "Disneyesque" lines, where people will wait for hours just to have 30 seconds with their god. Their time is so short because the priests of the temple are shuffling the people in and out so quickly. It was hard for us to see this as a religious place because it had all the qualities of a business. As we walked barefoot through the temple, our feet were soiled with the remnants of sacrificed flowers and milk that covered the ground of the inner room, where the idol is kept. Our team had many different responses, but each of our hearts were gripped and our spirits left that place broken for the lost who remained.

Today, most of us have been experiencing sickness, but thankfully were still able to enjoy the great day the Lord gave us. We separated into different coffee shops or locations throughout the city for half day with the Father to reflect on all that we have experienced and seen. After that time, we ventured as a team to a local park, where we found ourselves riding camels and ponies (Kelsey), teaching Indians how to play frisbee, and battling one another in the bumper car arena.

We then went to house church, where we shared in a delicious American meal together, as well as musical worship and teaching of the Word. We are now back at the hotel for the night after a typical near death experience in the rikshaws and Indian roads. It was our most exhilarating rides yet, because traffic was outrageous, our driver was fearless, and all nine of us were stacked into two rikshaws which usually seat maybe 3.

Our Indian adventure continues...

Much love,
Kelsey and Rebekah

Week 1 2012

India Blog Post July 3, 2012

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!! It’s unbelievable that this trip we have planned for and talked about for months is here; that we are here, in India. India is a crazy, amazing place to experience because even as I write in our hotel room tonight, I can still clearly hear the sounds of many horns blasting on the street. As much as movies, books, and pictures can attempt to prepare you for an Indian adventure, they will never do justice to the feeling that dwells in this land. There is a vibe here that makes you feel insignificant and important all at the same time.

I’m going to attempt to give you some details on our journey here, but honestly the days have all run together; time travel does that to you. Our lives the past two days were spent sitting in airports or sitting in airplanes, but many little laughs and joys were shared in the process.

While waiting in Atlanta, many last minute phone calls were made, Chinese food was eaten, tears were shed about leaving our LaLa’s, peeks were stolen to compare one another’s answers on our Personal Development Plan (PDP) and Kelsey kept the rest of the team waiting… as usual.

While waiting in Heathrow, Travis slept like a mummy on the cold floor then did pushups in the middle of the airport to warm himself up, Rachel and I randomly ran into a friend from Greenville who now lives in Amsterdam, and Nathan was taught how to play Spades by the ever lovely Carly.

While waiting in New Delhi, Mary Emily dropped her boarding pass without realizing it but was saved by Travis, most of us purchased items with rupees for the first time ever, and Heath (our fearless leader) proved that he was definitely out of it because he was so tired.

The most exciting thing that occurred during travelling happened today in Delhi’s airport. Before we were even able to discover the joy of the aforementioned experiences, we basically had to repack many of our bags in order to make the weight limit. Apparently, the amount of checked bags we were each allowed went from two to one, so quite a bit of rearranging occurred which involved many of Rachel and Kelsey’s belongings being dispersed into many different bags. We worked so well as a team that even this seemingly frustrating circumstance wasn’t a big deal and we overcame it like it was nothing. I was so proud to see how well we all worked together and stayed levelheaded without getting annoyed or negative because of the change in our circumstances.

On our last flight, everyone was so tired, dozing in and out, that half of us don’t even remember that flight. Needless to say, we all need the rest that our very comfy hotel has to offer. Tomorrow, the girls are going shopping and such, while the boys go off doing some kind of “athletic adventure.” We are here. We are safe. We are tired. We are going to bed. Goodnight. Love from all of us to all of you.

Posted by Rebekah

Smells Like Bacon

In India, we often joked that Americans smell like meat because when asked to describe the smell of America, people apparently say meat. This was only a joke until, to our surprise, when we arrived at the airport in Chicago it actually smelled like bacon. Weird. Anyways, we have been safely back in America for 2 days now! It’s hard to believe we just spent 6 weeks in India, but it did happen. In the next weeks and even months, we will continue to process what we saw, learned, and experienced. And though we are glad to be back, I think most of us still have India on the brain in some way or another. Some days I find myself filtering America through Indian eyes whereas before, I filtered India through American eyes. I think that just goes to show that G0d gives us the ability to adapt to another culture because we have the universal g0spel to deliver to them.

Before we flew out, we spent a few days in Delhi shopping in the markets, debriefing, and adapting to the real heat, which is similar to South Carolina weather. J Amy Chasteen came to Delhi with us for a few days, and we loved getting to see her! We had a great time talking through our trip a bit, laughing about the funny things (of which there are a lot), and just enjoying each other.

There is too much I could say in a concluding blog post for a six-week trip to a third world country. But I think I would say, G0d has shown himself faithful. He provided for all our needs and has blessed us immensely by teaching us new things and hopefully changing our hearts to reflect His more. Thank you for all your pr@yers and support throughout these past weeks! It was evident that He was holding us tightly everywhere we went. We will miss the place, but our hearts are burdened for the people. For now...

Namaste, India.

Flight info

Parents,
We will be leaving from Delhi in a few hours at 12:30am India time. We are flying American airlines and our flight number is 293. Our flight from Chicago to Charlotte is also American number 285. Sorry for not emailing you, my computer is currently down. See you in the states!

Upward ponderings on the Taj Mahal

Six of us who hadn't been to the Taj Mahal before took a road trip yesterday to see it. Left at 6 AM and got back over 12 hours later. Long and tiresome but definitely not regretted.

Reading Isaiah 40 for my QT on the way there was appropriate: "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.... Surely the nations...are regarded as dust on the scales.... To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare Him to?... He...reduces the rulers of this world to nothing" (v. 6, 15, 18, 23). This I had in my mind while we were there. The yards and architecture is awe-inspiring; but the inside, being just the mausoleum of the Shah and his queen, felt quite empty. "All this for this?" was my thought.

I was seeing firsthand one of the Seven Wonders of the World, standing in person within its very immensity. Then in subsequent thought, the word points me to the "incomparably great power" that is our God (Eph. 1:19, end of Job). Set above all is He. My concept of God's majesty has been informed and greatened by reading Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy:

All our thoughts about Him will be less that He, and our loftiest utterances will be trivialities in comparison with Him.

The Taj was a pretty tremendous thing to see. I can say I've seen one of the most majestic man-made structures the world has to offer. Yet I am left to dwell upon this thought: "What image will you compare Him to?"