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| Goodbye Mumbai....Like my new profile pic? I was teaching this lil guy how to use a camera on our way to Calcutta...
such a cutie...
A quick recap of our last month or so in India (this is going to be a loooooong entry):
-Flew into Mumbai:
A Photogenx reunion! Four of the five teams met in Mumbai… I got to catch up with my Lora and the Reck sitting and sipping coffee all day. It was such a breath of fresh air. We stayed at the shadiest hostel on the face of the earth, but we also had a rockin’ worship time that made me remember how much God loves this nation.
the reck, tahnee, lora
- 32 hour train ride to Bhubaneshwar, India:
There we met with a YWAMer who is just starting the first YWAM base in Orissa. Orissa is one of the states that enforces anti-conversion laws, so needless to say they have had opposition on all sides. We even ended up being the last straw with a harsh landlord, and we got them and eviction notice. BUT (wait for it!!) this opened some doors to get the home/base that they had been praying for for some time. They are an amazing family that is has a heart for the youth to change India.
bobby and lil ritul... some of the YWAMers in Orissa
-Short break in Calcutta:
We picked up our last team member there in Calcutta. She had been doing some amazing work in the tribes of Brazil. We actually got to take some amazing photos and visited Mother Teresa’s first home for the dying and destitute. I actually got to go to the bookshop from the movie Born into Brothels… this is where the kids had their exhibition. And I got to meet these lovely girls from Calcutta University. They were so much fun.
punnya, priya, and somchanda at oxford bookstore
-Off to Darjeeling:
Seriously one of the most beautiful places on earth with some of the best tea on earth. The weather was cool and because of the monsoon there is this amazing fog that makes the West Bengal Hills look so romantic and mysterious. There’s a strong Buddhist presence there because of all the Tibetan and Nepali influence, but the people are friendly and kind. SO DIFFERENT from the rest of India. We really had a great time taking photos, just wandering the streets and meeting people from all over. I really feel like our time there was so ordained. Everyone and every opportunity we had felt like God Himself had placed us there for that moment. Who knows what fruit will come from our time there, but we sowed seeds like nobody’s business. There will always be a special place in my heart for Darjeeling.
the team at tiger hill with the himalayas in the background
-3 hour jeep ride and 42 hour train ride back to Mumbai:
A quick reunion with all the teams, and then slowly people have been going home. It was weird to suddenly be at the end of DTS, and even weirder how attached I had become to these strangers.
-3 hours to Lonavola for the University of Nations workshop:
This was an amazingly restful time. I got to spend time with my beautiful girls before they finished up outreach and went home, and it turns out this would be the last time I’d see most of the two-year track people as well. This was also our very first Photogenx Exhibition. Some of the class members busted their humps to get the classes photos into this showing… and let me tell you the pictures were AMAZING. I was blown away at the beauty the class had captured. After seeing the exhibition come together I realized, “Holy cow, these photos are actually going to make a difference!” It was awesome validation and the photos were even sold to raise money for ministry purposes. Here’s my exhibition entry….
kids of one of the sherpas in Darjeeling
-Now back in Mumbai:
With a heavy but hopeful heart, I will be returning home to Virginia. The condo has not sold, and I’m confident that going home is the right decision. I could not in good conscience move forward with the track knowing what was going on at home, but I can go home knowing that the track or something like it is waiting in the future. At first it was so difficult to come to terms with why God was changing the plan, but I think perhaps it was just His grace that I was able to leave my life behind to do the DTS portion of the track. Maybe it was just a test to see if I would give up everything I had and knew to chase God around the world for two years…. who knows. But I have a newfound trust that God does not have a second best plan for my life. I’m going home sad that I’ll be missing out on this opportunity, but excited to see some real victory take place in my life on home turf. Pray that the lessons learned will stick when I’m thrown back into the exact same circumstances from before.
But I’m excited to see you all! I have missed being a part of your lives, and I can’t wait to hear all your stories from the past five months. I’ll be returning before the end of the month and hope to share a good meal with each of you…..until then......
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| Bangkok is bangin'....Sawadeeka from Thailand! Sorry, no pictures for this entry... I'm currently sitting in a internet "cafe" that has 10 gamers going at it.... currently listening to the "pewpewpew" from shooting guns and the "shwooshswoosh" of swords waving. I'm a little worried about plugging my external drive into a shady computer that I paid 10 baht to use. As soon as I find a decent connection I'll post some pics. Bangkok is awesome. Minus the 90 percent humidity, pollution and mosquitos. Other than that it's awesome. Call me ignorant but I thought it would be alot more like India which holds to its traditions and customs so tightly, but Thailand, or Bangkok at least, is really into imitating western culture. A lot like Korea I think. The korean guys on the team say that Bangkok looks exactly like Korea in the 70's and 80's. It's a really fascinating culture. While we've been here we've been working with a ministry that gets women who are working in the red light district out of the bars, giving them a place to stay and a job. Some make jewelry, some greeting cards, some bags, some give massages, some are hair dressers. All of their work is really nice and these women have AMAZING testimonies. I realized pretty quickly that it was really a huge honor and privilege to be able to serve the women of the red light district for one week. God is really moving powerfully here. Some who have only been out of the bars for one year go back and share God's love with other girls. They run into old customers, old friends don't want to see them, but they keep going back. And there's so much victory! Some of them have brought their whole families to Christ just by showing them the changes in their life. They just share God's love. That's the crazy part about the people in this ministry, their vision is not to go into the bars and get these women to change... to get the women to call themselves Christian... but it's just to love them. Everytime they go into a bar they just want the women they were speaking to to feel loved. It's so simple but so powerful. Being in the red light district has opened my eyes to how high and wide and deep and long the love of Christ is. That He could love the men and women working there, the men that frequent the bars, the gov't that turns a blind eye, and the people who are reaching out to these women with the same kind of love is CRAZY. I want to have more of that love in me. Something interesting is how we've gotten to use our photography here. The first thing we did was take pictures of the girls modelling their jewelry so that they could start up their internet business. We also got to give the girls really nice photos of themselves. Apparently some of the women had gotten paid to have really degrading pictures of themselves posted on the internet, and had never had good pictures of themselves. It's amazing how simple and powerful a photo can be to bring healing in someone's life. But it was just fascinating to me how helpful we could be with our photography... I think I had been so focused on what images we were going to get out of the trip, I hadn't thought ahead to how our images would bless others. Something tells me our best images will be left along the way and I'm pretty happy about that. Oh and we got to teach photography to some of the girls (which was a challenge... try getting a word like aperture translated!!) but it turns out these girls had a natural talent. If only I could afford 10 digital SLRs! We leave for the hill tribes in a couple days and who knows what awaits us there! But I'll shoot you all an update when we get back to Bangkok. Please pray that God will only grow that love for His people, and that our team would grow more and more unified as we serve the people of Thailand in humility and creativity. Miss you guys!!! | | |
| Sydney baby.....
it's windy here! beautiful ellie...
the ferry ride downtown
the opera house from the ferry
the downtown market
the bridge from the ferry station
me at the operhouse! low light=blurry
hillsongs church... more low light
a church on the hillsongs campus
Landed in Austrailia two days ago. It was a long trip here, but Hawaiian Airlines 767! Man! So nice. Biggest plane I've ever been on.. two meals and a Ben and Jerry's treat... three movies... nice and roomy... quite impressive. The only thing was that Austrailia has all these crazy quarantine regulations so when we landed in Sydney, they say "please remain seated as we comply with quarantine procedures" and they proceed to spray aerosol disinfectant through all the overhead compartments. "pssssssssssssssssss...psssssssssssssss....psssss....pssssss." yeah. the finishing touch being that the airline stewardesses had towels covering their mouths as we sucked in clouds of lord knows what. I mean aerosols are bad enough, but disinfectant? come on.
Once we deplaned (I still say that's not a real word) we realized it's really cold. It's winter in Sydney! So we're here ready for Thailand and India... literally a t-shirt and flip flops to our name at this point. We were a pretty mangy bunch as we scrounged together any random article of clothing that could cover our heads, feet, necks, arms. We looked like hobos. Or as we say here ponas. (People Of No Address... it's more politically correct) But it was amusing, and we didn't care because Sydney is awesome! So eclectic and diverse. We got to spend some time at the flea market and strolled around downtown. I could so live here. And of course we hit Hillsongs today which was really cool... and so we move into the sappy portion of tonight's programming:
It's always been a dream of mine to go to Hillsongs. I know so typical... but I just always wanted to worship there. On the way there, I was getting all pumped about it as I thought about that dream, and then I was getting so excited about all the other dreams God was going to fulfill during this crazy two-year adventure. I was thinking "God you're so good for fulfilling all my dreams!" So we went to Hillsongs, and we worshipped, and we left. It was neat to worship there, and now I can say I've been there, and tomorrow we'll be at the famous annual conference. But later in the day we saw the most amazing Austrailian sunset. Tonight's sunset was this smoky bluish grey on the left of the horizon and the most golden apricot color on the right... and the clouds were rolling in like flames. I was almost in tears over how beautiful it was... and I thought about God and His creation and about how His art is a reflection of His own beauty and majesty. Now that's church. I went back to my thought this morning about my dreams... and I thought how pale and shallow that dream of going to Hillsongs was compared to God Himself, and I can't believe how excited I was about all those pale and shallow dreams. I'm realizing that yes He is so good for fulfilling all my dreams, I believe He will, but I'm more grateful that He's changing my dreams to be about Him and not my own shallow experiences. Lord I'm learning! Thank goodness I'm learning... slowly but surely I'll get there.... | | |
| In less than four days......i'll be leaving for outreach! I can't believe all this is happening so soon. Who would've thought that I would be here. It's a little crazy.. actually it's really crazy right now. I'm having trouble with the last of my finances so if you all could pray that everything would work out so that I can go ahead as planned that would be great. It's a really complicated story, but I know that I know that I know I'm supposed to be going on this two-year track, so let's pray that I get off on the right foot.
I've been thinking about what to write to you all in these last couple days before I leave, but I've decided that there's no reason to be so final and dramatic about it. You all will be there with me. There is no doubt about it. So as I write those entries from around around the world know that you are in my thoughts... and I'll be wishing that you were there to see the sites, taste the foods, maybe not so much smell the smells... but you get the idea.
I will miss you guys while i'm away though, but i can't think about it too much because i will cry... and i'll have to take back everything i just wrote. OH this heart of mine...
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| unconditional...1. not conditional; "unconditional surrender" [ant: burst]
2. not modified or restricted by reservations; "a categorical denial"; "a flat refusal" [syn: categoric]
3. not contingent; not determined or influenced by someone or something else
this morning the speaker had mentioned that the reason he went into missions was because he had this encounter with the unconditional love of God, and he wanted to have a part in helping people discover that love for themselves.
and when he said that i thought about how many times i had heard that: the unconditional love of God. and how many times i had used that phrase.... and how little i had believed in His unconditional love in the past. then it suddenly struck me how powerful that word is. unconditional. there's no wavering in it... there's no weakness to that word. there are no conditions, there's no fine print that you have to read through to make sure you're not getting scammed. there's nothing you have to do in return. no one can change anything about it. there's no restriction and contract in it, no fee if you screw up.. not even if you back out of it too soon or without reason. there's only trust and choice in it. and i love how the definition uses "unconditional surrender" as the example. if God is offering us unconditional love how can we not offer Him our unconditional surrender? so crazy...
so this guy this morning told us that He took that unconditional love to where he felt God was calling Him, and he ended up in a prison in iran... for nine weeks... and i know that doesn't sound like that long... but if you heard the story... that's a long time. he ended up sharing that Unconditional Love to the guard that beat him everyday... and wouldn't you know that that guard couldn't deny that kind of love. it's really a crazy story, but man! if you had to choose any purpose and vision in life wouldn't it be just sharing the unconditional love that He pours out on you everyday?
i dunno.. purpose and vision.... these are two other words i don't fully understand. but something is brewing in this heart and life of mine. who knows where i'll be, but i hope that i would be rooted in the Unconditional. | | |
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