Its feeling more like home

the team and i are really starting to get used to everything here now. we are really enjoying ourselves and are comfortable with everything. we walk to the market, take rickshaws to the mall, ride the train to downtown, and go running on a track with ease. saturday we got to go to downtown mumbai by oursleves. we rode a 40 min. train to the main train station in downtown. it was a halarious experience! so first off we were all on the "mens" car becuase we didnt want to leave phil by himself so us girls were getting some looks. also there is no seat numbers, no one checking tickets, and no organization while loading or unloading. the train stops and it is like cattle boarding a cattle car. pushing and shoving all the way in, shoulder to shoudler. we were all trying to hold on to each other and just laughing. people just hang out the door of the car when it full. the only thing keeping them in the speeding train is there arm hanging onto a handle. it is pretty crazy! the day was wonderful just wondering around and riding taxis figuring our way out around the city. we mainly went to this huge street market and got some awesome india souveniers. we found some other places we would like to go so we are planning to go back another time too.

on sunday they asked us to lead the worship service for the english service. it was great! we sang a couple of english chouruses they new then we taught them some american praise and worship songs. but very easy ones because we sing accapello(haha i know i mispelled that! :)) and none of us a very good singers. then phil preached in both services again. we were also asked to sing a special in the marathi service. we decided to sing "Amazing love" and they liked it. we got many compliments...i think they were just being nice.

this week we are continuing at the school. we make our lesson plans every night before we pray and do devotions together. we just found out we will be leaving thurs. for the orphanage. we are very excited but know that conditions will be a little tougher. bathrooms, food, and access to western like stores will be different. we are going tomorrow to buy toilet paper. we found a place that sales it here and we are going to stock up! ha no one uses toilet paper here. there is a hose in every bathroom and i guess they use that. we are not talented enough to do that without getting soaked ourselves! :) so we are taking alot with us.

At a loss for words

two days ago Coach jones, my volleyball coach from trevecca died. it was completely unexpected, he was only 51 years old. im am so upset and i really want to come home and be at the funeral with the whole team. please pray for me, but especially for his wife, his family, and his volleyball team.

Working in the school

hi everyone! sorry its been a while i havent been able to get on the internet in a while. then yesterday i got really sick and ws throwing up all day. yeah it sucked. i was the last team member to get sick so i guess it was just my turn. we started monday working at the school house in the slums. its more like a preschool becuase the kids range from 2-5. we do games, teach them bible versus, and to easy english learning activites. we are having a wonderful time and are meeting many great people. we continuously are giving our testimonies and participating in many of the services. we are now working on planning the youth service which is saturday night. we are going to try to teach them some easy english praise and worship songs since many of the younger kids speak very good english. thank you everyone for your continous encouragement and prayers!

and us in our new sarees!

pictures of Jyoti's brithday party and me in the entrance way to her apt. building

First visit to slums

Yesterday we went to the slums....finally! all week we have been wanting to go, but there have been other things to do. we had church meetings, prayer services, and birthday parties. it has been a great week in getting to know the people in the church. the slums were what i expected, but i still was shaken up. i cant prepare to see something like that. we drove into the slum through a muddy dirt road with mounds of dirt and trash. kids were running around in the muddy trash water that smelled of sewage up to their knees. many were naked running around and playing. this set the scene of what we would see inside. it was like walking around in an infomercial for adopt-a-kid. the houses were made of sheet metal and anything that they could find. chickens, starving dogs, and rats walk around freely. the church of the nazarene runs a small school and community development center in cement house located in the slum. it has been summer break for the past months but school starts back this monday. we are going to be teaching english to the kids and helping conduct activites during the day. we are very excited for what we will be doing in the next few weeks. we are now in the process of planning lesson plans for english. the fact that they speak only marathi throws in a little loop hole. and it is like an old-fashioned shcool house where all the kids are different ages. haha please pray for us! we will need skill, patience, and the cooperation of the kids.

Pictures!

sorry, i have not been able to download pictures from my camra. i finally got some on the computer!

Sightseeing and church

yesterday we went sightseeing around downtown mumbia and it was great! we saw the huge, beautiful, and ornate taj mahal hotel. then right beside that is the gateway to india which was gorgeous too! this was all on the harbor which was huge. the whole city circled the whole harbor, it is the biggest city ive ever seen, and the most people i have ever seen! there was a huge market down this street and we shopped there for a while too. downtown is very pretty with really pretty architecture. i saw the first white person at the taj mahal hotel, it was so wierd. i just waved at them even though i didnt know them. they waved back and had the same look on their face. haha it is definitely different being the minority! there were otehr tourists around taking pictures and stuff but they were all indian. it was so funny! three times people came up and asked if we would take a picture. i thought they meant take a picure of them so i said yes, but actually they meant could they take a picture with us. ha we all felt like celebrities! they just want to take pictures with us. one family put their babies in our arms and took a picture. random people just pull out their camra phones on the streets and take pictures of us standing there and shopping.

today we went to church. there is an english and marati service. phil preached at both and did very good! he is a really good preacher. it is really funny because they all call him pastor phil! now we call him that sometimes...he doesnt like it. :) its raining alot now but we dont mind. it has cooled things down ALOT! we are going to go get henna later today. i think i want it on my feet. Oh and yesterday i went and picked up my sari from teh tailor. it is so pretty!! i cant wait to go to the slums tomorrow! im ready to meet all the children and just love on them. the children are all so beautiful here!

The Orphanage

We spent an entire day at the orphange yesterday and i will never be the same. we drove an hour and half out of mumbai in to a smaller city. the nazarene church and orphange are all in one building. the pastor of the church and his wife and the pastor who runs the orphange and his wife also live in the same building. the children sleep in a room upstairs. they just got bunkbeds a few weeks ago, before that they were sleeping on the floor. but there wasnt enough money to buy mattreses or sheets so they have a peice of wood laid down in the middle of the bed with a small carpet over that and the children sleep there. there are 16 children in all and we were told that some are HIV positive. all of the children only speak marati, the language spoken in the state we are in, but it didnt hinder our time with them at all. we were with them from 10 AM- 9 PM. we did many things including: played soccer, played with balloons, hot wheels cars, painted the girls nails, sang songs (they knew several in English), ate lunch, and ran around throwing kids in th air. the children were so full of life and happy to be with us. they wore us out! haha it was great though, we just arent used to the heat. they have filtered water there to drink but nothing is cold it is all a litte warm. they went and got us a bottle of cold coke but the wrapper was off the bottle and the expiration date was well exceeded but none of us cared! it was the best coke i have every had! Pastor Omega, who is in charge of the children, is such a Godly man who truely understands the mission of God. he loves the children so much and they love him. they are always wanting attention. the children are so well discplined! i have never seen children so well behaved, seriously. they wake up every morining at 5:30 AM and pray, sing worships song, and recite scriture. the children know many versus by heart. they recited to us Psalms 100, 102, and 32 by heart. we were all floored! also 2 of them named all the books of the bible for us too. these children are so smart. they also pray, worship, and recited scripture in the evening around 7 PM. we got to be there for this time. the children were on their knees with hands raised and eyes closed for 30 minutes! they were truely worshiping, i could see the holy sprirt in their lives. i was talking to pastor omega and he said that he has requested for a refridgerator, freezer, TV, and mattreses but they just isnt enough money. i cant even believe he is running an orphage without a refridgerator or freezer! everyone here has such a stong faith, yesterday at the orphange challenged me in many ways. please pray for these beautiful children, pastor omenga, and his wife.

Out and about

today they let us sleep in and catch up from the jet lag. it was great just getting to hang around the house and talk to their daughter, Sammy, who is twenty and the "adopted" daughter Aalnkaa. she is 17 but comes from a very poor home so they agreed to let her come and help out around the house to make some money. there is another girl here who is just visiting for 3 weeks. her name is Mara and she goes to point loma. she has become part of the group and we love her. today we got to walk around on the street where the house is and explore all the shops. i bought material to make a sari, the garments are gorgeous! tomorrow me and the other girls are going to get our measurements taken so they can custom make our saris or punjabis. they cost about 400-500 rupees which is only like $10-20 dollars. i still have not seen another white person yet. everyone stops and stares at you all the time. it makes you kind of nervous sometimes. it is a beautiful city, but poverty is always around the corner. the people are all very nice and most of them speak english. tonight we went to a prayer service at someone's house in the church. phil preached and did very well. he was pretty nervous, i think. tomorrow we are waking up early and going to an orphanage where 16 orphans live. we have many gifts and things to play with, and i also brought some nail polish so we could paint the girls nails.

I'm in India!

we just got into india tonight. we are staying with Pastor Wankhede in his house. they cooked us dinner tonight and it was very good! it wasnt too spicy either! lol it is definietly warm and humid, but we have fans going everywhere. the misquitoes are out, and im practically swimming in DEET. i am very excited about this summer. the pastor and his wife are very sweet and talk to us about any questions we have.the church is right below where we are staying. it is nice to be so close because we will be attending and doing many things in the church. while at the airport these 2 beautiful girls around 7 and 10 walked up to us asking for money. of course the pastor said not to give them anything becuase they are just learning how to become professional beggers. but i did learn how to say "What is your name" in Hindi from someone on the plane so i asked them. they were pretty surprised i was talking to them. i know i will encounter many of these situatons, but it wont get any easier having to say no. we have tomorrow off to catch up from the jet lag. india is 12 hours ahead of Eastern time.