I'd give her a HA! And a HI-YA! And then a OUU-WA! And I'd kick her, sir

This Friday was probably one of the best days ever.
In the morning, we talked to some friends who own shops along the beach. We love talking to them and playing with their children. In the afternoon, my group was working with what was supposed to be the English class. Our contact, however, learned that I was a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and asked if I would teach a self defense class if they postponed then English lesson. So, I pulled out a sleeping(a.k.a.punching) bag and taught the girls who showed up the proper way to punch, kick, block, fall, and take down someone. I showed them how to get out of situations when people attack you and several submission techniques. The girls were on fire. They were eating it all up. Some of them scared me a little bit with how quick they took to it. A few of those girls were born for martial arts haha. Watching them pair up and practice with each other was one of my favorite parts. It was so funny. It made me wonder how I looked when I first started.
I hope that the girls keep practicing. I pray that they never have to use anything I taught them. But, if they do, I pray that some of it sunk in, and that they can recall what they learned.

Peace, Love, and Kitty cats

Last week, one of my team mates and I had the most amazing opportunity to meet two women when we were doing community outreach. We were somewhat walking around aimlessly trying to look for people to talk to. We found a few kids running around and asked them their names. Unsurprisingly, they spoke no English. We were trying to formulate simple sentences in English or Hindi, when a mother and 19 year old daughter walk out of the house we were standing next to. The spoke perfect English. They must have heard us struggling and decided to come out and help. We could only talk to them for a few minutes because they had to leave, but we asked to pray for them before they did. They got so excited that they started spouting out several things that we could pray for them for, including their neighbors who we met shortly after. We prayed for hem right there and told them we would try to visit again.
The next day, we went to the same place and looked for them. We didn't know if we could just knock on the door, so we decided to have another loud English conversation in hopes that they would hear us again. Their neighbors heard (the ones we had met the day before) and invited us in. They also spoke no English, but we found out that their was a 3 generation family living in a one room house smaller than my bedroom. The grandmother is paralyzed in one side of her body and two out of three of her daughters are mute. We learned that they have the same DAD we do, and that made us all very excited. They served us the best chi I have ever had. Just as we were about the pray for them, the daughter from the day before walked in. We asked her to translate a little bit for us. We then learned that she does not have the same DAD that we do. After we left the neighbors house, we were talking to the daughter still, and she was so excited that we came back. She was not expecting us to. By that time though, we were supposed to meet the rest of our team, so we had to leave. She invited us to come by again the next day.
As soon as we got near their house the next day, they were there to greet us. The mom said they she was going to treat us like her own daughters. We definitely felt loved like part of their family that day. Lindsey and I are so excited to visit them this coming week. I can't wait to share with them more about the hope that we have. Please pray for these two women!
I'm sorry that story was so general! Ask me about it in real life in a few weeks, and I will be able to tell you in so much more detail exactly what happened. Expect to hear more about these two women in the coming blogs!

I JUST GOT HIT BY A BUS!

This isn't a metaphor for anything. It really happened. I got hit by a bus on Tuesday, literally. We were walking down the side of the street to get to lunch, and I had my rain jacket hood up. I couldn't hear anything that was going on behind me,including the sound of the bus horn. The bus apparently didn't have enough room, since traffic was three cars wide on a two lane road, so it decided to scootch over a bit. Now, mom, before you freak out. I'm fine. I didn't even get knocked to the ground, but my right shoulder was a bit of sore.
I don't have a super long story to tie into that one at all. I just thought it would be a great blog title and a completely unrelated intro to my next post.

One thing (among many) that has surprised me about this trip is how much I would be using music. I don't really consider myself having all that great of a voice, and my guitar skills leave much to be desired. But, I have been semi forced to lead worship for our group, several church services, and a leadership training session where I knew no one. I've been learning that DAD certainly does work through our weaknesses. Probably one of my favorite times that I got to us music was yesterday (Friday)at preschool. Through out the day, I had two little kids who were crying because they missed their dads (which hasn't happened since the first week of class)and one little girl who was sick and looked miserable. I set them in my lap and started rocking them and singing to them and got them to stop crying. That has to be one of the greatest feelings in the world. It also made me understand why we were working at the preschool a little bit more. None of us thought we would be working in a preschool and were having a hard time with it, but that, in a sense, calmed my spirit about where we have been placed. We are right where we are supposed to be.

Jingle Bells

If you remember when I get home, you can ask me how in the world the blog title relates to the story I'm about to share. But, I can't explain now.
One day after preschool, two of my friends and I were waiting for the bus when a woman walked by. She stopped a few feet a head of us then turned around and stared....for a long time. We said hello and asked if she spoke English. She gave a huge smile, shook her head, and proceeded to talk to us in Hindi. The man who had been waiting at the bus stop with us could tell by our confused faces that we had no idea what the woman was saying, so he translated the best he could. They asked why we were here, and we gave our rehearsed response:

We are students. We are learning how to tell stories and teaching preschool and English.

the woman seemed very interested so the man told us she had invited us into her house. We all looked at each other and then decided that, heck yes!, lunch could wait! We thanked the man who had translated for us. His response was so sweet.

"I am Indian. You come to India from America. You bless us. We are kind to you."

We followed the woman all the way to her tiny, tiny house in the middle of the slum. The whole walk I was ASKING for some type of communication to be able to happen. We pulled out the book that we had written a few Hindi phrases in from the girls at sewing class. It helped for quite a while and so did hand motions. She had picked up three sodas for us on the way to her house which we did not realize, and she cut up the best tasting mango in the world. She showed us the beach that is her backyard, literally 10 seconds from her door. We asked if we could pray for her. I thought we were about to leave, since we had exhausted all of our Hindi knowledge and she all of her English. All of the sudden, a swarm of kids pops into the doorway of her house and start pouring in. There were two girls who spoke very good English and could translate for us. Perfect! Just what I had asked DAD for! We each got to share our personal story and a story form the GOOD BOOK. We learned that the older woman has the same DAD we do! She asked if she could share her story with us in return. Then one of the girls who was translating did the same! It was amazing! We aren't sure where all the kids stand in their WALK, but they are all dying for us to come back! One girl said she would skip school if we would come back in the morning(which we obviously didn't encourage). When we finally left. Everyone walked to the bus stop and would not stop waving until they couldn't see the bus anymore. DAD opened a great door that day! I hope that we can minister to them more through out the rest of our time here.

Transitions

Our huge team of 18 girls is usually split up into two smaller teams of nine that go to different locations in the city. The plan is to alternate every week which team goes to which location. I was struggling with this for a while. I grew to love the kids at the preschool I was working at. The kids stole my heart, despite the fact there was a potty accident almost assuredly everyday. They had just started to get the Father Abraham song down pat, and then we had to leave them.

I'm not going to lie either, the other preschool is super different and really hard to be at. The children are much less respectful, to say the least. I have had to grow in patience and my ability to handle kids (which I always thought I was pretty good at). Its definitely been a learning experience for me.

Going to this preschool though has given me so many opportunities to talk to people outside of our direct ministry. The preschool we are at now needs a lot less help than last week, so each person only has to be there one or two days a week. The other mornings, we walk around in the community we are staying in. We try to make friends and share our stories. One woman in particular, has really touched my heart. She owns a shop on the beach but no longer insists that we buy anything from her. She enjoys our company and loves to listen to our stories from the GOOD BOOK. She does not know if she believes our stories yet but is very open to hearing them. We were blessed to meet all of her children one day. They are beautiful. We love to sing songs for each other, and she promised us she would give us henna before we go home. We also had an awesome time with the girls at sewing and English class. I can't even imagine what doors teaching them a trade and English will open for them.

Hopefully this will rescue many girls and prevent many from having THAT future.
Please keep praying for me that I will be reminded of DAD'S promises, that I will never be discouraged if plans don't turn out my way, and that remember HIS way is always greater.
I MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!

The Grinch

GIDDY
I've been to Brazil 4 times. I've worked in the inner city projects of Tampa, I've seen poverty before. It's true that India doesn't really compare to those, but its not like I stepped of the plane and was shocked at what I saw. I wasn't heart broken like some of the other girls on my team were.
But, this week, on Thursday, something changed. My team went out to eat for lunch and saw a kid begging on the streets. A few of my team mates had met him a few days before and discovered his name was Giddy. So, we decided to invite him in to eat with us. As he walked to the door of the restaurant with us, he stopped and looked back at a man who was sitting on a motorcycle. The man smiled and waved him on in. As we were talking to the little boy through our broken Hindi, we discovered he had no family. No mother, father, brothers, sister, aunt, uncle, grandparents. Nothing. Then who was that man on the motorcycle? We asked how old he was. He didn't know. We asked if he went to school. The little boy, who looked no older than 10, said no. When we asked why not he just shrugged. We continued the rest of our meal watching him devour all the food on his plate. We played a few games with him and made a few faces at him. Despite his broken, rotten teeth, he had a precious little smile. I stared at him for a while thinking of all the potential he had and what his future would be like. I almost had to excuse myself from dinner to keep myself from tears. We made it through lunch and some of the girls wanted dessert form a place upstairs. I stayed back to think about everything that just happened.

What happens to little kids that get trafficked when they aren't working the streets? What do they do when they get older? How is it possible to get out of the trafficking cycle on your own? How can you not know how old you are or when your birthday is? The purpose of my trip is to stop things like this, but all I could do was give him lunch and some leftovers to take back to his pimp.

At that moment, my heart grew 3 sizes and broke all at the same time. I put my head in my hands and cried my eyes out in front of everyone. I couldn't hold it in anymore. The poverty and plight of India finally broke me. I hope I'm forever changed.

Through Different Eyes

I'm sure that explaining the work we did this week won't sound that intense but for some reason it caused me to keep breaking.

Monday and Wednesday afternoons we are working to start a health clinic program in the slum. The little kids get nutrition milk, which im guessing is something like pediasure. We teach the kids how to do simple things like wash their hand, brush their teeth and lot more. Then we share the GOOD NEWS with them. Several of the kids were from church the previous week and they remembered us which was so wonderful. Working in the clinic might become my favorite thing on the trip.

Every single day we have been and will be working in a preschool right on the edge of the slums. I love kids, but working with 2-4 year olds that can barely communicate their own language let alone learn and understand a new one was frustrating me at the start of the week. I was on bathroom (squatty) duty the entire week which discouraged me a little even more. I didn't see how this was advancing the kingdom at all. Then on Wednesday, one of our little trouble makers was in time out. He's the kind of little kid that is super hard to like. He never does what he's told. He isn't the lovable little mischief maker that will turn around and give you a hug a second later. This is the kid who will do the opposite of what you say just to make you angry. He know how to push all the teacher's buttons, loves doing it, and shows no remorse when he is in trouble. But, when he was sitting in the corner he looked up at me with his huge dark brown eyes. He still wasn't sorry but something changed in my heart. I saw what we were doing for those kids in a different light. I saw that, for lack of a better word, bratty little boy in a different light. I might be the only glimpse of the FATHER that any of those kids ever see.They might be the only glimpse of the FATHER that their family ever sees. I'm trying to view everyone I encounter through the eyes of JC, including that little boy. Easier said than done.


^The little stinker himself.^

On the Road Again

We moved to the second city were we will be doing most of our work. There is a prevention program which is just getting started. We will literally be responsible for getting the program started and up and running.
Here it is sweat, 24/7. The only relief from the heat is the rain. It's monsoon season, so there is a lot of it. My rain jacket I bought the day before I left was a good purchase. Thanks, Mom!
We traveled here by train which was an interesting an new experience....
One of my team mates and I were separated from the rest of the group, I slept next to a stranger, and it was extremely hot an loud. I was definitely being stretched.
We finally started our M*WORK! the first day wasn't what I had expected. There was a lot of waiting and a lot of cleaning. DAD still used our efforts, though, because we were working on a building where another team will be staying.
In the mornings, we are mainly working with preschools in the area. Helping, teaching, trying to keep children under control. I love kids!
In the afternoons, we have the opportunity to work with women in several different prevention programs: teaching the women to stitch, bake, make jewelry, tutoring them so they can finish school. I got my first taste of that yesterday with the jewelry making. The women and girls are amazing, and I can't wait to see how DAD is going to keep working.

Growth

One big thing that DAD has been teaching me is the importance of community here. I'm staying with 18 girls. The only way to do that is to have extreme patience and be selfless. Something that my sister told me that I have tried to keep in mind on several occasions is to remember that I don't know what kind of day the other person has been having, so I should let things slide more easily; and they, also, may not know what kind of day I have been having, and they probably didn't mean for whatever they said to be taken so personal. I'm practicing living with grace, though I'm definitely far from perfection.
I've also learned that trying to keep everything inside so I don't cause "drama" isn't always a good thing. Community is for sharing each others burdens. If you never speak what you are having troubles with, then no one knows how to p*** for you. I learned this the hard way the other day. I woke up in the not best mood for no reason at all. I was easily irritated and kept comparing myself to my team mates all day. I didn't tell anyone until my leader pulled me aside that night. As soon as i told her, I felt like a weight was lifted. She p***ed for me, and I was suddenly released from being a grouch. I'm so thankful for the girls on my team who are not willing to take the "I'm fine" cover up as an answer.
I love all the girls in my group, and the only way that we have been able to connect so well so quickly is because we are all here for one goal and are striving for one purpose. That is true unity.

IS THS REAL LIFE?

I'm only getting to come to an internet cafe once a week, if that, so I'll be posting several times whenever I can get on.
The first city we were in was mainly the location where we did intense cultural and M*WORK training. The first non travel day we got in groups of four, were given a list of Indian things that we didn't know what they were and some Rupees, and were dropped off in one of the most crowded streets in the city. Our leaders told us to purchase all the things on the list, not speaking the language, then grab a rickshaw ride to a restaurant in the area. whichever group bargained the best and spent the least won. Lets just say that my group didn't win. We met a few nice people along the way though. They looked at us like the stupid Americans that we are and laughed as they tried to make hand motions for all the objects on our list. My team of four kept quoting "David Goes to the Dentist" because everything seemed so surreal(Go youtube it, and it will make more sense).
The next day we bought clothes for the remainder of our trip on the same street that we were thrown into the day before. We were again without leaders. I'm glad we got a taste of the city the day before so we wouldn't be completely culture shocked when it actually mattered. We learned what hand motions are bad and which ones are acceptable. Thumbs up is good, so I'm sticking with that, so I don't get too confused. We got a brief squatty potty lesson which I haven't put into practice yet. Everywhere we have stay has had a western toilet. Thank goodness! But, Dad, i haven't forgotten about your request. I'm keeping a photo diary of all the places I've been going to the bathroom- just for you. Get excited!
The Sunday we were there we went to church which was surprisingly like the ones in America. The day before we left we had story telling class. We learned how to tell stories from the GOOD BOOK that would translate across cultures. We were taught how to get in random conversations with people without being awkward and how to bring up the stories we want to share by weaving them into normal conversation. We learned how to connect our personal story with stories from the GOOD BOOK. It was one of the most useful trainings I've ever had. But, by the end of the week, I was ready to get to work!

Expectations.

Expectations; everybody has them, but sometimes we don't even realize it until they aren't met. Then, we get disappointed or frustrated. We were learning this in one of our training sessions and were seeking for our attitudes to be like that of Christ Jesus through the entire two months. We are God's vessels on the trip no matter what crazy things we end up doing.

This wouldn't have meant as much to me before training camp, but I was definitely thrown for a loop on the first day. I wasn't expecting to drag my luggage around Atlanta, sleep in a homeless shelter, drastically cut my diet by nearly half, or shower in a hose. At first, I panicked and wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into. If I had drastically different expectations of training camp, then what am I going to do on the field? Since my little "freak out" session though, God has calmed my heart, my friends and family back home assured me that I was in their prayers, and my amazing team mates have encouraged me more than I can express. I know without a doubt that God has called me here.

Im new at this...

The main reason I decided to start a blog was to keep everyone updated on how my trip to India is going. for those who don't know,I am going to Bangalore, India this summer with Adventures in Missions from June 4th to July 31st. I will be working with a organization called Rahab's Rope alongside a group of several other college-aged girls. The mission of Rahab’s Rope is to give hope and opportunity to women and girls who have been forced into the commercial sex trade of India by providing a safe and loving environment that will enable them to grow and develop both physically and spiritually.

I have been praying about this trip for a long time and would love ya'lls support! Here are some ways that you could pray for my team and me:
-raising money and preparing to leave
-safety as we travel
-preparing the hearts of the team and everyone we will come in contact with
-that our team would have boldness and unity

Thank you so much for praying for me! I am so excited to see what God is going to do this summer!