home

Well, all 12 of us have safely returned to the US. After about 26 hours of traveling, Will, Tim, Elyssa, and I exited the Atlanta airport to go our separate ways for the rest of the summer. We had an amazing time talking with Will and Elyssa about their month of ministry across India from where we were. We feel so blessed to be back, life is so interesting and different in the US, please pray for us as we adjust back to work and studies. Thank you all so much for your prayer support and love, it might have been what God used to keep us alive, literally. There's no measuring it, but we could not have had the trip we did without it. Bless you all.

coming home

We're back from the village again, and our time there has been amazing. This week after Tim and I leave, Anand and a few other teachers will be moving the children out there to a rented room until construction on the permanent home is finished. The school has been started, and 20 different families are joyous that their children are receiving an education in their own village. The kids who have been in school up to this point have to send their kids off to schools in other towns, making it way more expensive because they have to come up with money for room and board.

We're enjoying our last few days in India with a trip back to our home in Bangalore tomorrow. We'll get to spend some time with our little brothers and sisters, as well as our fellow workers Will and Elyssa; it will be amazing to hear what their work has been yielding all the way across the country. Today is one of our host's birthday, so we'll be going out to eat and maybe even to the imax movie theater later today in the really modernized part of town. Please be praying for our travels these last few days, and the ongoing work to which we have had the opportunity to be but a small part.

a difficult week

Plans kept changing again, and it was the 3rd before we made it back to the village. Tim had been getting sick, so our first few days in the village were a lot of resting. We prayed with a few of our brothers and sisters in the village on Sunday, and Monday the 5th the school opened. Or rather I should say, registration began. It seemed like many of the people put off going to the fields to come see if it was really happening. Many parents paid part of tuition, so later that day Anand and I came back to Hyderabad to buy school uniforms, books, school supplies, and even sports equipment for the kids at the home. Tim was still feeling sick, so he stayed in the village, splitting us up. The plan was for Anand and I to wake up at 4 AM on the morning of the 6th and go back to the village.

It took me until midnight to fall asleep, and even then I stayed asleep only until 2, when I started having diarrhea at least once an hour. By 10 AM when I decided to go to the ER because I couldn't maintain any water, I had full body chills and the hottest fever I've ever had. The ER doctor gave me about 9 different antibiotic and vitamin pills to take, but as I began taking those and eating bananas and sliced bread, I began throwing everything up. I was pretty worried, and felt absolutely awful, but I also prayed more on that day than any other day this trip. I really found my Father in the place of suffering as He began to heal and give grace to get through it. Most of the day I felt so bad I just wanted to die/go be with Him, and there were moments when I wasn't convinced that wasn't about to happen. The 7th was a lot of the same, but mostly not as bad. I'm still not all the way better, but at least I can eat most foods now. Assuming I'll be back in action, tomorrow I'll go back to the village one more time, coming back the next day. Not really sure what Tim, Anand, and our shepherd friend J. Anand have been up to there, they have no accessible phone service most of the time. Despite the difficulties of this week, I'm trying not to look forward too much to coming home (we leave Hyd in 4 days, India in 6), so please pray for us to be fully here in the home stretch. Pray for our health, and spiritual protection (I suspect foul play with the suddenness of my sickness; we had not eaten anything that seemed at all suspicious). Pray for our safe travel, and our reunion with many friends in Beantown. love you guys

Hyderabad

Adaptability: without it, you won't last long here. We were in a village in one part A.P. the other night and Anand got a call from Jay Anand, the shepherd/leader in the village where the home is to be, that Anand was needed there. Tim and I needed to get back to Hyderabad. So we split up. Just Tim and I on a bus heading 4 hours across the country and exploring all over the city when we got here. It was fun. We learned a lot about navigation, how to get on the right bus, and just have an adventure with it. It wasn't a very reassuring day as far as travel goes, we hit a big bump going 30 something, and everyone on the bus got launched into the air. I was sitting up straight in the back, and my head hit the metal luggage rack above pretty hard. Lots of people were laying down and got thrown higher than the seats. My vision blurred for a few minutes, and I had a headache the rest of the day, but now I only have a nice goose egg on the top of my head, so we're past that now.

Within a little while we drove by an autorikshaw trying to go up a hill diagonally and it flipped over; it was full of people, but as pedestrians ran to help upright it, it appeared no one was seriously hurt. As Tim and I were walking back in the city, a bicycle cut off a scooter, the scooter ran into this movable metal divider in the highway, the divider angled into traffic moving in the opposite direction, and two guys on a motorcycle hit the divider, tumbling them and the bike to the street. The bicycle guy pedaled off almost immediately and the others just brushed it off and got on with their commutes.

After we split up with Anand, he came back to hyderabad today, and we're heading back to the village tomorrow. This time will be for about a week - I know I've said that before and it not happened, but this time we're going. Who knows, our departure date keeps moving, every day the plan seems to change multiple times. Adaptability is so important.

One fun story I've been meaning to share concerns a man from last time (I don't think I told this on the blog yet. Two years ago, I was walking with Eric and Anand to get breakfast one morning. A local political party leader who had given Anand and the brothers and sisters in the area a lot of trouble in their meetings (even showing up with mobs telling them to disband) spotted us and came over and started yelling with Anand. He was angry that we were there and started interrogating us, but we just brushed it off. After we got back from breakfast though, just to play it safe, we locked up the house and went to the opposite side of the city, and took a fun day with lunch at McDonald's and the afternoon at the surrounding mall. Upon getting to hyderabad this time, I inquired about the guy asking if he still caused trouble, and Anand told me about how he and the guy were now friends. While they don't agree on issues, the guy opened up a snacks shop, and he even now sells Anand snack foods at discounted rate - both because he buys a lot and because he agrees with the cause (that is the home, the fact that Anand has taken these kids off the streets and out of difficult situations). So the persecutor has now become a helper in what God is doing. It amazes me how much things can change in two years.

We are going to the village tomorrow, so please be praying for our efforts there. The whole area is very excited about the school.