Hyderabad, India
January 30, 2013

Today has been a day of rest...kind of. We came by bus last night from Karimnagar, India. It was  about 3 hours away from here by bus. Now that is an experience. Mike describes India like a box of chocolates..you never know what you are going to get! and how true   that is. The bus last night was not too bad, but there was a communication mix up on arrival in Hyderabad and we ended up sitting at the bus station for nearly an hour until the director of the Covenant School's of Worship  decided we should just get in a pedicab and head out of that area. Just as in the US, the bus stations attract an interesting array of people.

We arrived at CSW amidst a power outage. That is very much  the norm for this country. I'm sure there has been a power outage every day since we arrived in India. Some are just momentary but at other times, they may last for several hours.

We must confess that we are tired of the food here. It is very spicy and who really knows what it is? And since we have been cautioned against eating fresh fruits and vegetables because of cleanliness, it has been a very starchy diet...that leads to other problems for us.
We only drink bottled water and soda and chai.

But we experienced so many blessings throughout this trip. The people of India are very friendly, open, gracious, and giving for the most part. We certainly know this is true of the believers. They do not call themselves "Christians". The hospitality from them has been overwhelming!

And they are so responsive to the word of God. They have so little opportunity for real training. The pastors readily admit their inadequacy and are  so grateful for the lessons we have been teaching. We have just scratched the surface...they almost always ask when we will be back.

We did speak at a couple of evangelistic outreach meetings in Vijiayawada where a total of17 people either indicated they were trusting Christ as Savior for the 1st time or rededicated their lives to Christ. Praise God!

I am ready to come home...it has been a long month but we felt the prayers of all of you and know that you were indeed a part of this adventure!

We leave again tonight for our final city meetings in a city called Kurnool. Every    city is different and wee never know what to expect! But God is faithful and has enabled us to meet the challenges of each.

God is faithful

We arrived in Vijayawadu this morning about 5:30. Since we understand so little of the language, when the bus stopped and they announced the stop we did not think it  was our time  to get off the bus, but suddenly two young men appeared at our compartment and told us to get off! So we did! Then we waited for a 'car' for about half and hour and arrived at this wonderful hotel just after 6am. This hotel is amazing! New interior, very hot water and lots of it; western style toilet and toilet paper, a great bed...and clean as can bd knew I needed this today! My nerves have been on edge for a couple of days and a couple of times, I was close to tears...actually shed a few here and there!

But yesterday while we were teaching, God spoke to me about loving those that most of us find hard to love and I decided I was going to review this trip and think of something each day that showed God's love to me! So here goes....

January 8: safe travels

January  9: arrived in Delhi safely...flights were on time and not too long

January 10: delightful trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and other sights; wonderful tour guide

January 11: changed hotels...what a relief...hot water, clean; great taxi driver who spoke English and took us shopping and then a tour of Delhi

January 12: flight to Hyderabad, met my Philemon our translator...great hospitality; kept safe when truck side-swiped our car

January 13: Village church; such a lovely welcome, they gave us an offering for coming and shared that they had been fasting for 41 days for our coming!

January 14: Family conference began...about 30-40 pastors and their wives and children come together for this...again sweet hospitality

January 15: evening church services are wonderful; amazing joy and love seen in the faces of the villagers; they treat us with such honor

January 16: Conference ends...today they gave me a beautiful sari and Mike received a traditional off white Indian suit, beautiful flowers

January 17: Moved to a different village...they so willingl give us their bedroom and anticipate our every  need and then some. Another suit and gorgeous red sari, flowers and shawls....they just keep giving and giving

January 18: Our lst day in this area...tearful goodbyes, a child's birthday party

January 19: Hyderabad...lunch at Chili's...wonderful refreshing lemonade and some shopping; Went to a fun market, bought earrings and cute elephant toe ring!

January 20: Ongole...church with other belieers; spoke in village church; again they gave us  the ost beautiful flowers

January 21: Tour Ongole...this ws hard, but we did visit 2 girl's homes that were wonderful, these young orphans had me in tears, they were so sweet and loving. Sarah's Covenant home was so hard  for me, but I know that God wanted us there and we met our adorable little boy that we sponsor! Quite a character...had to bribe him  with cookies, but after that he wouldn't let go of Mike!

January 22: Vizag....much cleaner and our hotel was on a hill overlooking the Indian Ocean...looked much better from the top of the hill than down on the beach. A beautiful red hawk with a white hd soared right outside our balcony

January 23: Teaching for the first time at Vizag Covenant School of Worship...the young men told Mike that this was the teaching they had been waiting for.

January 24: More teaching...Mike was able to summarize some much-needed materials so were able to cover more than we thought! 

January 25: Here we are in Vijayawada...gorgious hotel! God did know I needed this today! 

I am in the hotel today...after having to squat all the time to use the baathroom and most bathrooms are noot very clean, I decided to ahng out in the hotel this moroning. Watching TV (Australian Open), erading, sewing, 

We are on the downhill  side of this trip...although we have 2 more cities in which to teach about 3 more overnight bus trips. But wwe will be going through Hyderabad a couple of times and be able to ret there a bit!

So gratefull for the words of encouragement, prayers, and comments! You don't now what it means to me to be able to communicate with you this way! 

Lovce to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Non-stop!

what a whirlwind we have been on since Friday! Took a late overnight train to Hyderabad, slept a couple hours, got up and went to church, slept a couple ore hours; spoke at a village church; and toured two girl's homes, Sarah's Covenant Home and School of Apostolic Ministry construction site...oh, yes! We left Hyderabad on Saturday night and took a sleeper bus to Ongole.

Monday night we boarded another sleeper bus and came too Vizag where we have been teaching today at one of the Covenant School's of  Worship here.. We teach again tomorrow and again travel all night to another city to do the same thing over again. In all we have 4 more cities to teach in. For two people our age it is a bit hard.

Our sleep has been haphazard at best! The  students are very receptive and for that we are very grateful! It is just very tiring...I am reminded of Mark 6:30-31. "The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, He said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place to get some rest."

We also are called to pray for nearly everyone we meet. At a church the other night I think we prayed for nearly 40 people. That involves laying hands on them and praying for their needs and they have so many needs.

The other day I tried to share a couple of humorous stories with you and kept losing my blog. I will try again to relate to you what happened Friday afternoon. We were  resting in our room in a small village and getting ready to travel to Hyderabad. We were laying down when we heard something in our room. Mike had already seen signs of a rat and we jumped up and ran out of the room. One of the women called her son to come in and check it out. I was in the kitchen of the home,  in my robe and didn't have my glasses on. Out comes this young man holding a gray object up by the tail. I screamed and grabbed onto the lady nearest to me. Everyone laughed as he had a gray stuffed toy by the tail.
There really was a rat, but he got away!

With nearly two weeks left to our trip, I would be amiss to not say....this is very hard and we need your prayers. You cannot imagine the filth, the noise, the demands of keeping up a schedule like this. We have had hot water most of the time, but hotels here are not at all on the par with the ones we are used to in other parts of the world. I read today that India is one of the dirtiest countries anywhere. There is trash everywhere and the sewers are right outside the stores and homes...usually covered by cenment...sometimes not and it stinks. Cattle and water buffalo roam the streets in the largest of cities. At night they just lay down by the median or side of the road to sleep.

I think I may overwhelm you if I say much more so I'll quit for tonight..Keep praying for us. Mike has had some diarrhea a couple of times. We both have these little read spots (some kind of bites?) that concern me. They don't itch though.

We miss all of you. Love each of you!

UNBELIEVABLE!

Unbelievable is how I feel about India today! I has been an unbelievable experience, but it has also been unbelievable that this is the third time I've typed this today! I do not know where the other two drafts went...can't find them anywhere. They are out in cyberspace somewhere!

I  must confess that I'm on the downside today! We traveled by train all night from Managuru...we did have sleeping   berths, but I didn't sleep all that well. We arrived at 5am and slept for a couple of hours. We shopped this afternoon and leave at 8:30 tonight to take a bus  to Ongole overnight. Ugh!

Tomorrow MIke preaches somewhere and then on Monday we tour the India Christian Mission sites...churches, schools and of course, Sarah's Covenant Home. Then tuesday we travel somewhere and begin teaching TUMI curriculum. We are  doing  that in four or five cities. There is a lot of traveling involved in that.

But I do want to tell you about the last week! What an awesome experience! We were in villages around Manuguru preaching and teaching in churches and homes. Probbly some of the most rural and primitive homes one  could ever find...but the joy of the Lord  is so overwhelming in the faces of the believers in these places. They have a love for the Lord that I've never witnessed in the United States. Their singing and worship is beyond description! and How they  opened their homes and hearts to us! The hospitality was also unbelievable. We made many new friends and they want us to come back. We ended up doing  a Family Conference for them....Mike taught TUMI the first day and the second day they asked if we would teach on Marriage and Family. So we team taught and they have never experienced anything like that before. But theey ate it up!

Every evening we went to a different home and had worship and  prayer. Well, we both also spoke each evening and one morning I sang!  and  they kept giving us gifts...flowerss, shawls (9 at last count!) and even money. We would be in the humblest of homes...thatched roofs but they always brought us figts and some kind of a snack.

And you should see the children...they  would come and sit on the floor and never say a word. Beautifully dressed...adorable! The young boys love to play the drum that accompanies their singing...they can really keep the beat  going!

I need to pack for our trip to Ongole! It has been amazing! Just keep praying for us...our health is good, but we are tired and we have two more weeks.

Sorry there  aren't any pics but I would have to have a computer to download them and we didn't bring one. Check out some of our pics on facebook!

Wow! We are in India! It is almost sensory overload! So many sights, sounds, and yes, even smells! 

So far I have seen monkeys, water buffalo, goats, horses, birds of all description, dogs absolutely everywhere! These are street dogs. They don't belong to anyone...they just roam and eat and sleep all over! 

There   s opulence and squalor right next to each other. It really is overwhelming!

We arrived late Wednesday evening and finally checked into our hotel about 1am Thursday!      Awakening by 5:30 am to catch our ride to Agra to see the Taj Mahal...a 4 hour car ride south of Delhi. We spent the day there. Words cannot describe to Taj! In the sunlight the mother-of-pearl catches the suns rays and it shines line diamonds. I already have it on my bucket list to come back during a full moon to see it at night! They say is is beautiful as it reflects the  moonlight.

Getting back to Delhi again quite late, we found  that our hotel still had no hot water in our room. We complained and were told to just turn on a switch and we would have heat in 5 minutes. Nothing happened. The room was ice cold, the bed was cold, the water was cold! This morning we arose to the same thing. We again told the desk we didn't have hot water. They sent someone up with a screwdriver who messed with the tank and suddenly the water became hot. But Mike ha already decided enough was enough! We checked out and moved to the Radisson BLu! Yes, we are paying more, but it is warm with a shoer that really works and it is clean! The other room left a lot to be desired!

After an afternoon of shopping we are back at the hotel...Mike is working on a sermon using Francis Chan's book Crazy Love. We leave for Hyderabad tomorrow and our work begins. If the rest of the trip is anything like the first few days, it will be exciting. I'm not sure if I will ever be able to download any pictures to this blog, but I will post some on facebook.

Pray for us as we begin ministering to the churches in India. 

Tomorrow!

I cannot believe that in less than 24 hours we will be on our way to India! Both of us feel a little panicked today! In fact, my stomach is churning. But the laundry is almost done and there are just a few minor details to square away! That means we have to go shopping one more time!

We fly Denver to Cincinnati; Cincinnati to Paris (wish we had more than 3 hours there); and then on to New Delhi. We arrive in New Delhi at 11:10 pm on Wednesday. Because we are going to the Taj Mahal, we must be ready to go at 6am on Thursday! That will be one short night! Hopefully, we can nap on the bus.

We will then fly to Hyderabad on Saturday, January 12 where we will be met  and driven 'somewhere' ten hours away. Up early for church on Sunday and then the fun begins. Our teaching will commence on Monday!

From temps in the 40's to temps hovering around 90, we are in for a real change.

I can't wait to post some pictures so that all of you can share our adventure a little better! My next post should be from New Delhi!

Keep praying!

It is 5 days til we leave for India...must admit I'm pretty nervous. Just read the India Christian Mission's manual for those who go to India to minister with them. Pretty intense...so I had to go shopping. Have to wear skirts almost all the time. I now have three and several tops. That means I will wear each skirt at least 9 times. Oh, well, I can also shop in India.

We have been watching the teaching videos for the past three weeks. Pretty well prepared...I had to laugh last week. It was so Navigator discipleship! It is nice to know that the basics still work.

My concern, though, is that we have to be prepared with a couple of "sermons"...It will be non-stop meetings from morning til night for about three weeks.

Just keep praying for us. Stamina is the key! I will update as possible. We will be out in the country quite a bit of the time so internet access may be sporadic.

We are eager to see how God is going to work!