Rain

In the state in which we are staying here in India, it hardly ever rains. Apparently, it only rains about 3 times a year! The other day, we were sitting on the porch. It had been cloudy for the past couple days. The clouds were grey and it felt like it was going to rain: breezy, humid, cool. You could almost feel nature around you, holding it's breath, begging for the clouds to release water. The sisters were talking about how it rarely rains where we are, and one of them said, "Please Lord! Let it rain!" Allie and I agreed enthusiastically. Then she said, "When I ask of the Lord, He never disappoints me. Please Lord! Let it rain!" And I thought to myself, "Oh that's nice, that she has so much faith in the Lord. It's probably not going to rain today though. Too bad, because I don't want her to be disappointed... Maybe it will rain tomorrow." Literally 3 seconds later, it starts raining. I almost started crying. We were all overjoyed and laughing. We were so happy and blessed that it was raining! The Lord answered our prayer! It was an amazing experience! But it really made me think of how little faith I have in the Lord. I know that I can trust Him and that everything will be ok in the end. But when I ask Him to answer prayers, I rarely expect Him to answer them because of all the times that my prayers haven't been answered. Or at least not the way I wanted them to be answered. I never even realized how little faith I have in Him answering prayers until today. And it really blessed and encouraged me to see someone whose faith is so strong in the Lord, and when she prays, her prayer is answered. And it wasn't even a long prayer! Five words long! But her faith was the size of a mustard seed. It amazed me. And I want that for myself. Don't get my wrong, I've had plenty of prayers answered. But many of them I still pray and ask the Lord about. I don't know how one even gets more faith in the Lord. But I know I want faith like that. I would really appreciate prayer! Thank you so much! This trip has been incredible, and I have learned so much so far. And it's not even half over! :) Praise the Lord :)

Flight home update

Everything is going well here! The girls are busy studying for some tests they have coming up... prayers for them would be appreciated!

I want to give you all an update about our flight home. Originally, we were planning on leaving sometime in mid-May, but that plan has changed. After coming here and talking to the Sisters and everyone involved, we realized it would be much better for everyone if we left earlier. School lets out much earlier here (March 31st!), and when summer vacation starts many of the girls who have family members still alive leave for a while to spend time with them. This leaves the Sisters free to get some much needed rest and spend time with their own families also. April and May are also the hottest times of the year where we are, so everyone likes to go on holiday in another part of India with cooler temperatures. We realized that if we were to stay until May 13th like we had originally planned, we would be a burden to the Sisters during the time when they're supposed to be resting, because they would have to either take us along with them on their trips or make some other kinds of arrangements for us. So we decided to come home earlier. We will be leaving here about a week after school lets out, which will give us some time to rest up and get ready for the journey home. The plan is to leave the children's home on April 8th, to arrive in Kansas City on the evening of the 9th. Leaving will be so bittersweet for us! I am having so much fun making friends here and getting to know all of the beautiful girls who live here, and it's going to be so hard to leave them. On the other hand, I'm extremely excited to see all my friends and family back home and get ready for what other adventures the Lord has for me! I know that this change is a part of his plan, so, although at first I was disappointed we were leaving earlier, now I'm accepting and even excited about it. And the great thing is, we still have lots of time to spend with the girls here! We haven't even reached the halfway point of our time, so I'm looking forward to having more fun and getting closer to everyone here!
You can be praying that we would face this second half of the adventure with as much energy, enthusiasm, and excitement as we did the first half! We want to finish strong! ♥

Dive In

When we went to Kerela, we got to go to the beach. It was so wonderful! Allie and I both ran to the ocean and played in the water. We were in skirts and t-shirts, so we couldn't get TOO wet, even though we really wanted to. We both wished we were wearing swimsuits, however, what is modest in America, is not modest here. Swimsuits aren't modest, so all the women at the beach were in their punjabis: a t-shirt dress and loose pants) and most of the men weren't getting in the water either. There were a few guys who were taking off their shirts and getting in the water. Almost everyone was just standing at the shoreline, but not getting in the water. And that's how it is a lot of times with Christians and their relationship with the Lord. They are Christians but don't know Jesus personally. They go to church but have never experienced Jesus. They talk about God and say they follow Him. But they don't love Him like the Father and friend He is. They don't dive in. They stand on the shore and say, "Wow isn't the Lord powerful. God is good. He is beautiful." But they don't know him. They don't know what it feels like to be washed in His love, to be knocked over by His power, to be refreshed by His grace. They don't dive in. And that makes me very sad. I have been reading "Beautiful Outlaw" by John Eldredge, and I am reading the chapter that talks about "clearing away the religious fog." He says, "Members [of the church] can explain to you theories of the atonement, or seven steps to success, but can't name one intimate encounter they've had with Jesus. Not once in their lives have they heard him speak to them. I've met with heads of Christian education departments, chaplains, and seminary faculty who by their own admission don't know Jesus personally. You can talk about sunshine and live your life underground; you can even go to the sea, but never dive in." I've never liked religiosity, and have striven for a relationship with the Lord. I have stories of His grace and have experienced His love. I hope you have too. There are so many people who are  so busy reading a certain number of verses in the Bible, listening to this many sermons, volunteering at their church, but miss relationship with the Lord.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Though i speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my good to feed  the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing."

Life in India :)

Although we still have a lot of time on our hands, we now have more of a schedule and are able to help out around the place more.

About a week ago, Jessy left for Kerela to stay at the house they are founding there. Two of the sisters went with her and are staying there. She got back a few days later. Now we only have three sisters here, so Allie and I try to help out as best we can wherever we can. It's hard a lot of the time because the sisters are doing things that we can't necessarily help with: a one-person job, or just something we don't know how to do or that only they can do. Slowly but surely however, we have been helping out with more things around the house. We wash dishes a lot and help make food when we can. We help clean and sometimes even help with laundry. They always seems to appreciate our help. It hurts me to see the sisters so tired all the time and us not able to do anything about it. Please pray that the sisters stay healthy and full of energy!

I would always help the fourth grader or the 6th graders with their English, but recently I've been helping the 8th, 9th, and 10th graders with their English too. It's been so fun! :) Some of them have trouble pronouncing words like "sharply" or "world." But even in the past week or so since I've been helping them, they've been getting a lot better :) Every day when it's time to study or eat, I have at least 5 different girls wanting me to sit with them. It makes me feel so loved! :)


I finally feel like I'm of some use to the sisters and the girls! I know a lot of why we came is just to love on the girls and spend time with them, but it's nice to know that I am helping them too :)

The adventures continue...

 Hello again! It's been a while since I was last on here, so I figured I needed to get on and post something! Overall everything has been going really well. I feel like I really have a place here and am able to love and serve on both the girls and the Sisters working here. Jenny and I finally have a bit of a routine, although time isn't very important here so we don't keep track of it perfectly. We have been having so much fun with the girls! The more we get to know them, the more their personalities come out and the more we get to encourage and call out the sweet things we see in them. They inspire me with the ways they work hard and go above and beyond what's expected of them. Most of them are trying so hard to do well in school and get good grades so they can change their futures! Getting an education is so important for them and it will make all the difference if they're able to graduate well and get good jobs so they can support themselves. Tests are coming up so prayers for them would be so appreciated!

Jenny and I have been having so much fun getting to be a part of life here! One of my favorite parts of the day is the evening watering of the garden. The girls get home from school at around 5pm, have a snack, and then head to this huge tank thing full of water. Each girl has a kind of plastic jug thing to carry water in called a kudam. They balance it on their hip and wrap their arm around the skinny part at the top and carry it just with the one arm. It's actually pretty cool. They'll draw water out of the big tank and then water the specific trees or bushes or plants that they've been assigned. The garden is beautiful here, with lots of banana trees, papaya trees, vegetables, bushes and flowers that need lots of water every day. We live in the hottest part of southern India, which means the plants will wither unless they're watered often. I love this part of the day because Jenny and I get to jump right in and help. Often one of the girls will be carrying two kudams or one kudam and a bucket. Jenny or I will swoop in and take one, despite their protests, and help them with their assigned plants. The first few days we were terrible at it! We would slosh water all over ourselves and pour the water the wrong way and the girls would correct us. Now, we're much better and are actually helpful. I'm starting to know which tree is assigned to which girl, so sometimes they'll just tell me "Allie akka, [which means 'older sister' in Tamil] water my tree!" and I'm able to go take care of it. This part of the day is so fun because we're able to laugh and talk with the girls while still working.

One of the things I have been struggling with recently is feeling like I'm not "doing enough", whatever that means. Like there is a list of things I should have accomplished by now, but haven't. It's not even something I can define, just a general feeling of being less than satisfactory.  Sometimes I feel like being here should be more dramatic, like I should be seeing miracles and healings every five minutes, or something like that. The thing is, that's not really how God works. His plans are not my plans and his thoughts are high above mine. And the exciting thing is, his plan is ALWAYS better than mine. I'm learning that having a big dramatic ministry isn't always the best way, and that's why he hasn't made that happen yet here. I can always hope and dream of seeing the lame walk and the blind see, but maybe that's not what the girls need right now. Maybe they just need someone who will sit with them and listen. Someone who will draw them a thousand pictures of giraffes and elephants and camels. Someone who will tickle them and chase them and "accidentally" splash water on them. Someone who will pray for them every night. Someone who will hug them when they're crying. Someone who really wants to know them and know how they feel. Someone who will just love them and love them in every way they can think of in every moment throughout the day. I think that's what God is asking me to do here. God IS love, so the best thing I can do for these girls is imitate him and just LOVE. So that's what I'm going to do.

Thank you so much for supporting us! I fell so encouraged just knowing that you are praying for us and supporting us. We appreciate it so much :)

Guess what!! :)

I got to pray for one of the girls today!! :) I was on my way up to our room to read my Bible and journal, when I saw one of the 10th grade girls sitting there alone studying. "Studying?" I asked her. She said, "Yes. Studying for exam." She told me that she needed to get 450 out of 500. Her father had come and had been talking to her, scolding and pressuring her to get 450 instead of 400, and she ended up crying. Then, she asked me to pray for her! I was so excited! I sat next to her and prayed a short prayer I hoped she would understand. But when I finished she said, "Your prayer very nice!" So I think, whether she understood everything or not, it still blessed her. And it blessed me SO much! I was so excited she shared that story with me and that I got to pray with her! She is a very sweet, outgoing girl. Many girls try hard in school, but when they don't meet their parents' expectations, the parents get angry with them. It breaks my heart to see any failing in their subjects, but overjoyed to see them succeeding. All the sisters care for the girls and desire for them to do well in their subjects too. If you could pray for the girls, that would be wonderful! Some of them don't understand the test questions, or simply don't understand what they are learning. But I have noticed that the girls' English has improved since we've been here, so that is very exciting :) My day was made being able to pray for that sweet girl. I hope I have many more opportunities to pray and share Jesus' love with the girls while I'm here. :)