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!