TII

The past week and a half that we've been in India has been awesome. A lot has gone on mentally, and I have been trying to focus on love through actions and words. Poverty is very evident in India, and children know how to beg so well, and it truly breaks your heart. When we went shopping for the first time, many kids were asking us for money, but we could not give any to them. I found myself ignoring the kids so that they would leave us alone sooner and not continue begging. I realized how not giving them money doesn't mean I can't look at them. A few days later, we went shopping again. As we were waiting on a crowded street corner, a little boy approached me and another girl on my team and asked us for money. He was holding a baby in his hands and was covered in dirt. I wanted to personalize it, to know him, and to see how he was, because my heart broke for him. I asked him his name, and after a few times he finally said "Jamal." I knew that he would leave once he realized that we weren't going to give him anything, but I wanted to show that I cared in any way I could. After I asked how old he was, he left and continued walking the crowded streets.

Stories like these are not uncommon. I have seen more cripples, more beggars, and more widows than I have in my entire life. *Dad is the only way for them to have hope and to live freely.

While there is so much darkness in India, there is light here, and that brings me great joy. While wandering around in the surrounding community with a teammate, we started speaking with a woman, I'll call her Charlotte. Charlotte is a believer, and we were able to speak with her for about 2 hours. She welcomed us into her home, and Aunti kept bringing us dish after dish of food. I had no idea what some of the food was. Charlotte was the only one in her family who spoke English, but the rest of her family would communicate through her to us at times. We shared our stories and *Dad's stories with her, because she doesn't have the book to read about Him. It was really awesome, and such a joy and inspiration to know a national believer who is speaking with her friends and family about what is so important. As we were leaving, Aunti brought us bangles, jasmine for our hair, and put bindis (dots) on our foreheads. It was her way of showing us love and appreciating us. It was a great experience to spend so much time with an Indian family and to see a young woman who knows the one true *Dad and depends on Him for everything.

Anyway, on Tuesday we took a 16 hour train ride to the place we are staying now. India trains are pretty exciting, and I'd say it was a good experience and a fun time. I really enjoyed looking out at India from the train and observing the people, the villages, and the landscape.

We started working with RR on Thursday. Yesterday (Friday) was a really great day. First, I'll mention that our team of 18 girls is split up into 3 teams, 2 teams of 5 and 1 team of 6. My team helped out with a preschool in the morning. I picked up a new talent--making balloon animals! I'm pretty excited about that. I made a few and then 3 of us gave the ones we made to a few girls we saw outside of the school. It was neat.
Later we were able to make bracelets with the 8 women that are doing the stitching/bracelet making program with RR. It was awesome to talk with the women and work alongside them. I learned how to count to 10 in Hindi, too! But being with them was definitely my favorite part of the day. I'm really excited about the next 6 weeks that we have to work in the different areas RR focuses on.

Keep praying for the team. Spiritual warfare has been active, and p-s would be greatly appreciated for us.