I'm new to this blog thing, but I just think this will be the best way to keep in touch with what is happening when we go to India next month! Did I say 'next month?' I can't believe it. Five weeks from tomorrow we leave! Is that crazy or what! But this began a long time ago...let's look back over the past few years.

In January of 2008, Mike, Ben and I were driving to KC so Ben could fly back to Chicago. I began talking about wanting to read Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life, so all of us decided to read it that spring. As Mike and I were reading we became convinced that God had a plan bigger for us than what we were doing and we told God we would be open to whatever or wherever he led us. Wow! Were we in for a big surprise!

By September of that year we had up and moved to Colorado to become director's of Deer Creek Christian Camp. Now that was a huge step, but it was only the beginning. In August 2009, Ben was able to journey to India with three other individuals and learn, share and work with Indian Christian MIssion, a church planting group and Sarah's Covenant Home, an orphanage for special needs kids. He was certainly challenged and changed by that trip and came back and opened our eyes to needs beyond our comfortable little borders.

A couple of years later, Ben decided to run his first hundred mile ultra marathon and to train he wanted to run at least 1000 miles that year. For extra motivation he decided to raise $1/training mile for Sarah's Covenant Home in India. He more than reached his goal so Ben and Mike flew to India and delivered the money. While there, they were asked to teach in many church plants using the curriculum of The Urban Ministry Institute which is the ministry Mike is using here in Denver. It was such a success and God blessed in such a mighty way!

James Rebbavarapu, the head of India Christian Mission,  then came to the US and we met with him last March. He asked us to come back to India for more teaching. His organization is planting churches so rapidly and the pastors are in desperate need of training. TUMI is the ideal answer to their needs.  We began to think and pray about going to India and doors just began to open in other areas of India. We had started attending Fellowship Christian Church and met many people from India who still have relatives back in India. Some of them are also planting churches and they asked if we would be willing to also take TUMI to them.

How could we say 'no?' So here we are in the final stages of preparing to leave next month! We leave January 8 and return February 5. We will be flying to New Delhi and then on to Hyderabad, from where we will visit at least 6 different cities.

Pray with us as we really take a leap of faith. The past few days I've been reminded time and time again of Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." It is only by his strength that we will do this.