I cannot believe it's only been 15 days since I first set foot in India! I could go home today and be forever changed by the things I've seen and experienced. But praise God I get to spend 50 more days here! :D
The first couple days here were a little laid back because we were trying to recover from jet lag. We went clothes shopping because we cannot wear american clothes whenever we are doing ministry (which is 6 days a week). It's taken me a while to get used to the Indian clothes but it's kind of fun now. It was very nice to be able to wear jeans on our day off though!
I love the food here!!! It's not as spicy as I was prepared for. My favorite thing I've had is the homemade peanut butter the Vijaya makes us for breakfast sometimes! It's the most delicious thing I've ever eaten.
We are staying at a YWAM base here in Hyderabad. Some of the ministry we've done in Hyderabad is: We went to a Christian AIDS clinic (I can't remember the Hindi name but it means Hope in english ), we will be going there every week to help out with different things. We've been to two different slums here. The first one we went to I got to do house visits with a couple other YWAMers and a translator. We prayed for a few people and had a good talk with one lady (who is married to the same man as her sister!) she was very open to Christianity and she has a pretty amazing story! We went to another slum this week, which is one we were planning on going to last week but had to change our plans because a 17 year old girl poured gasoline on herself and set herself on fire because of some family issue. I got to play with the kids this time! I love them so much......they were so precious. I braided the girl's hair, played guitar, danced with them and gave them piggy back rides. My favorite thing was just holding them. One baby girl I held for a while and finally got her to smile! They call us Acca which is a term of endearment for and older sibling. Joseph told them my name was Jyoti (which is the Indian name he gave me a couple months ago), it means light. I love when they call me Jyoti :) I really hope we'll be going back to that slum.
We went to two orphanages yesterday (where I got to play cricket for the first time), my heart was broken for the children. Many of them are sick and almost all of them have been affected by AIDS in some way.
We did some house visits this morning and got to share testimonies with some families.
We just got back from Mumbai a couple days ago. It was a 15 hour bus ride there. We spent 2 days with a bunch of girls whose mothers are all in prostitution. These girls have all been saved from living the same lives as their mothers. I really bonded with a girl named Mumtaz. She was the oldest and she stayed in my cabin. We got to take the girls kyaking and rock climbing and do other fun stuff like painting their nails :) It was hard to say goodbye to those girls!
We also had the oportunity while we were in Mumbai to go to the red light district.
I have so much more to say but I have to go practice with Kevin for worship tonight....
please be praying that we'll be able to process things the right way and that we'll continue to let God break our hearts.
