A Glimpse of India

After being back from India for two weeks, I'm finally fully-recovered from jetlag. India is 10 and a half hours ahead of U.S. central time, so for about a week after we arrived we'd wake up around 2 or 3 a.m. ready to start the day and then be exhausted by 5 p.m. The same thing happened when we returned to our own time zone.

I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to go to India, and that I didn't chicken out on going once we found out I was pregnant. (I think most people know from Facebook, but if you don't...we're expecting Baby #2 in early April).

A couple market shots from our time in Delhi.

It was challenging being away from Colton for two weeks and being in my first trimester with all the travel, strange smells and lack of familiar food. I wouldn't necessarily recommend going on this type of trip pregnant if you have some other options. But for me, if I didn't go during this window, I may not have ever gotten to go, since by April I'll have a new little person to take care of.

Fortunately, I didn't get any food poisoning (several on our team got sick a couple times from airline food on our domestic flights in India). I just had regular morning sickness to contend with.

Even though it was a somewhat difficult trip for me, I think God used those hard times to teach me to depend on him. When I was sure I was going to throw up, I would pray for his help in that moment. When I was so tired during our visits to bible colleges or Bridge of Hope Centers that I didn't know how I could keep my eyes open, I prayed for God to give me strength. And he was always there helping me.

My inner mantra on the trip was often, "Suck it up," or when I felt tempted to grumble on the inside, "Stop whining," (this last one was said in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice.) And since I was imitating Arnold only in my own mind, it was pretty much the best impersonation ever.

Being in a country like India, with so much poverty, human suffering and spiritual darkness, made me feel so incredibly blessed and even spoiled that I live in the United States. Our country has so much to be thankful for and yet it's so easy for us to be discontent.

As we traveled throughout India, we got to see the amazing work God is doing through people who love him.

One of my favorite places we visited was a boy's home in Delhi. The night we were there, we met three little boys who'd just been rescued out of slave labor. When the government officials found them, they were tied together in a shoe factory. The officials brought them to the boy's home where GFA missionaries are caring for them and others like them. The boys were so happy to be there and were already learning about Jesus and finding new hope in him.The two boys in the top right and the one on the far top left are the boys who were just freed from slavery. A total of 8 were rescued from a company that was illegally using bonded children as workers.

Another place we visited that made an impact on me was a remote village church in Udaipur, Rajasthan. To get there, we had to travel over rocky mountains in a jeep for about an hour and a half. At times we had to get out and walk because the terrain was so rough.

The area where the church was planted is known for witch doctors and spiritual darkness. As we listened to the believers' testimonies through a translator, it's was incredible to hear how God had changed each of their lives in a radical way.

While we were at the village church, we met a woman holding a tiny baby in her arms. I assumed the child was a very sickly newborn because it probably weighed 5 pounds. His skin hung from his limbs, and his eyes and tongue protruded from his face. Then, I found out the child was actually 1 year old, and I was shocked. Like most others in her remote mountain village, this mother had no access to medical care for her child. She brought her child to the church that day for prayer. I have remembered that child since and continue to ask for the Lord to heal and restore him.
This is the 1 year old baby from the village church. Please pray for his healing.

Rajasthan means "Land of the Kings." Now that India is a democracy, these long-tailed aristocrats are the reigning royalty. This picture was taken outside our hotel in Rajasthan. On our last day there, we visited the former king's palace, and while we were eating some snacks, a monkey like these charged us to get some chips. It was a little scary!

Cows (as well as goats, dogs, people, and rickshaws) are all over the road in India. Cows are considered sacred by the Hindus, and I guess that gives them the clout to do as they please. We even saw cows laying down sleeping in the middle of busy highways.
Of course, in India the cows on the road are a small concern to American passengers when compared to the constant game of "Chicken" that all the Indian drivers play. You know those silly little lines on the road that we call lanes? Meaningless. Stop signs? Traffic lights? Pointless. Why would you bother when you can just as easily honk and swerve?

At one of the Bridge of Hope centers we visited, we got to serve the children a meal of rice with veggies. They were able to eat us much as they wanted. It felt good to see these little ones getting filled up physically and spiritually.



Toward the end of our trip, we visited the GFA seminary in Kerala. The campus is very large, and Casey and I got lost a couple times walking to the dining hall for dinner. Kerala is tropical and is the land of bananas and coconuts. It is very humid there, and it was often raining.
At the seminary, we toured the Administration building and met some of the people who are our counterparts back in the United States. The women in this picture work on tasks like translating reports they receive from the mission field so they can send it to the U.S. office where we edit it and share the information here.
I hope to have a couple of future posts with more pictures. Casey took a couple thousand pictures and I only had a few minutes to look through them on his computer this afternoon.

Thanks for praying for us while we were in India. God really used the time to show us the tremendous needs in Asia and how blessed we are to get to be a part of what he's doing to reach the lost and hurting.

If you'd like more information on the work we do at Gospel for Asia, or are interested in becoming financial supporters, you can email me at sum_short at hotmail dot com.