Books

There is a quote by Charlie "Tremendous" Jones.

"You're the same today as you'll be in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read."

I was thinking about that one day and decided that I was going to attempt to read a book per month for the next... well, I never set an end date...
This whole thing was to get into the habit of reading more, not to see how long I could keep up this one per month thing. So, I told a few friends of my resolution, and they decided to join me. Thus, our book club was born! Yes, we actually schedule out chapters and gather to talk about the past weeks readings. No, we're not really normal.

So, first month's (July) book: The Ragamuffin Gospel- Brennan Manning 
It had its good parts. It had its parts I didn't like so much. i did not agree wth everything that I read, but that is alright. I would recommend it if you are able to read with a critical eye and not accept everything without wrestling with some things first. 


August's books: Outlive Your Life- Max Lucado
Very good reminders for every Christian. An easy but powerful read. 
Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
THATS RIGHT! I'm attempting two books this month! let's see how this goes. I haven't started the second book for August yet, and it's already half way over. I'm not sure if I can give Mere Christianity the time it is due if I want to finish this month. 

Expect to see many more posts about random things I have been reading (much like the last one). Feel free to leave suggestions for our upcoming months! You could be altering the very character of five crazy college kids.

Books

From The Ragamuffin Gospel

"Trust clings to the belief that whatever happens in our lives is designed to teach us holiness."-Brennan Manning

Kelley

 













This is my big sister. She is the coolest. She is moving to China on Monday. I'm gonna miss her.

Can't stop listening to....

Bombay Bicycle Club- Fairytale Lullaby

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.