In a nutshell, India...

Throughout my time in India I kept a record of just general, little things I noticed about India.

India...

is colorful * is dirty * has crazy roads * has a strong atmosphere of spiritual thirst * is full of poverty * has beautiful tea fields * screams out for truth * has nutso rickshaw adventures & serves chai that is amazing and that is horrible * is opening my eyes to my abundance of blessing, especially materialistic blessing * namaste * has a group of people passionately pursuing their freedom, GORKHALAND * has so many people who just want to be seen by someone, anyone * has mountains that will kick your butt * has cows that are all over the roads, and always have the right of way * shamelessly stares at white people * taught me to eat with my hands and use a squatty potty * himalayan mountains are beautiful :) * is the place for westerners to go and constantly be watched * has a strong asian influence in the northeast * has people who always spit * n people have beast calves from their squatting skills * n christians know what it means to be minority * prays like the future is dependent on it * nepali people are the best bobble heads * n people know what it means to give of their first fruits * loves its rice and dahl * can double dish towels as head scarves? * kicks their dogs * knows how to dance in worship * carries its music on their mobile phones, always having it playing * has beiber fever * roads simply don't have rules, only horns * teaches patience and a life without a time table * drinks tea before 6am? * knows how to live with so much less * knows how to look good, even in a remote village * has ballin' vibrato * LITTERS * is in the same time zone, except the whole thirty minutes thing? * wants to take a snap with me * is excessively comfortable with boy on boy contact * expresses itself on giant bumper stickers on every car * does not have women drivers

let's take a walk through india.

This is going to be a condensed version of my past two months. I understand that it's still pretty long, but hey, you learn a lot going across the world trying to love people. :)

Week 1: February 14-20

Simply getting to Darjeeling was an adventure in itself. We flew with Thai Airways from Brisbane to Bangkok (8hrs) and then Bangkok to Kolkata (3hrs). We arrived in Kolkata around one in the morning. The first hurdle we had to jump was finding a hotel, in the middle of the night. We ended up finally settled down at 4:30. The next day was spent in the train station waiting for our train. It was astounding how many people shamelessly stopped and stared for ten or fifteen minutes, but I guess that's what happens when you're the only white people around. An overnight train took us from Kolkata to the NJP station.

On arriving, we discovered that strikes in Darj had closed all of the roads and shops. The next five days were spent in Siliguri, a city near the train station. We worked along side two women, Tarana and Rachel, doing ministry. They also very generously threw us into a variety of traditional Indian dishes. It was quite the experience. My team did three village ministries where we sang songs and shared a message. We put on three church services and were quickly exposed to the craziness and dirtiness of Indian cities.

Week 2: February 21-27

Luckily, the strike in Darj came to a hault. A week after leaving Brisbane, the thirteen of us were finally able to get to our original destination. The next two days were full of prayer, becoming accustomed to Darjeeling and resting after our crazy traveling. Thursday, we left once again, this time heading even farther north to the state of Sikkim (Darjeeling is in West Bengal). For ten days we stayed in this tiny village called Dong.

You have to know that India works on a very different schedule than the western world. Things aren't really planned outside of the general idea. You never know exactly when it will start or how long it will go on. A general rule of thumb is to be ready an hour early and be prepared for them to be two hours late. haha Our team got pretty good at doing nothing and being ready for everything.

The ministry in Dong consisted of a lot of walking door-to-door praying and evangelizing during the day. When I say door-to-door I really mean every door was half a mile from the next and straight up the side of the mountain. The nights always consisted of some type of church meeting that we usually preached, sang and/or shared testimonies at. It was fun creating relationships with the different church member, even if we couldn't communicate with them, due to their speaking Nepali.

Week 3: February 28-March 6

We stayed in Dong until Saturday of our third week continuing to build relationships with the locals. All the girls stayed in a one room concrete church building. We had people showing up randomly throughout the day. It became pretty humorous that people would be coming in and out of the church, sometime simply to look at us for a while, when all of us when in our sleeping bags getting ready for bed.

One day, we got to hike down to the river to relax and get a bath. It seemed pretty pointless that we bathed when we sweat buckets trying to climb back up to Dong. haha but I enjoyed it. Being away from my Colorado mountains has been hard so I LOVED getting to drive through the Himalayans. We drove part of the way back Saturday and stopped in a town near the border of Sikkim called Jorethang. We split our team up and helped run two different churches that Sunday.

Week 4: March 7-13

My fourth week of outreach started off by arriving back in Darj for second time. After our required day off, we found out our team would be splitting up. Half of the team stayed in Darj working with a Compassion school and painting a mural. Six of us, Katherin, Sara, Kody, Kezi, Jaewoo and I all packed up and headed to a small village called Seeyok. It saw in a valley of the Himalayans surrounded by tea gardens. Almost everyone in the village was employed by the tea company.

This part of outreach was very different because even though we were informed differently, we didn't have a translator. Therefore, it was very difficult to communicate anything. We stayed with the missionary who lived in the village. It was nice to stay in a family setting. We taught two days worth of school at a local English school. WE also spent a lot of time walking to houses to visit and pray with them. I have NEVER ate so much food in my life. They simply won't take no for an answer. The kids of the village became very attached to us and were constantly begging us to play ninja with them.

The missionary, Baldiv, who spoke just enough English to get by, took us to see a tea factory. So cool! I loved getting to see how it's all made. The week in Seeyok was really an awesome week. I laughed so much and was continually inspired by the way the people interacted. Every morning all the girls were woken up around six by a man bringing us tea. :) The whole place was remarkable. Baldiv and his family constantly had people coming in and out of their house. The Hindus, Buddhists and Christians all lived together in such peace and with so much respect for one another. A lot of our ministry in Seeyok was simply encouraging Baldiv and trying to serve and bless every opportunity we found.

Week 5: March 14-20

The team was reunited for a fifth week of India. This was the longest time I spent in Darj. All the way from Monday evening to Sunday morning. The group from Seeyok was given Tuesday off, in which I was able to gather up a few gifts for the family and post them home. The packaging included sewing and wax seals. :)

The YWAM base in Darj had their first ever DTS finish during this week. We had the pleasure of organizing and decorating for their graduation. A lot of our mornings were devoted to this. Graduation was Friday night and a huge hit!

Even though I got pretty sick during this week, I had one of my favorite experience of outreach. We went to a Deaf and Dumb school, where I was able to put my signing skills to use. I loved being able to interact with all the deaf kids and explain the games, skits, etc. My heart was full to the brim in an inexpressible way by those beautiful students.

Saturday, half of our team headed to Nepal, while the rest of us participated in a worship and intercession time with a local Christian band. The rest of us followed suit Sunday morning saying "Goodbye India and hello Nepal!"

Week 6: March 21-27

Nepal was quite the experience! We traveled on "Holi Day", a Hindu holiday. Everyone was COVERED in this powder paint stuff in shades of bright pink, white, yellow and red. Our main ministry in Nepal was this four hour conference that we put on for four days at a church in Damak, Nepal. These consisted of us singing, dancing, doing art and skits, preaching, giving testimonies and worshipping. It was cool to see how God worked through those four days. We all enjoyed Damak, despite it's flatness and mass number of mosquitos. I was able to create awesome relationships with the people who owned the restaurant we went to for most meals and with these three Hindu girls who talked to me every morning as I walked back from breakfast.

For two days, we went to a little village half an hour away from Damak to help with a program. Almost everyone on m team would describe this as some of the hardest days of outreach. Something about this was extremely uncomfortable both culturally and spiritually. God definitely did a lot of challenging growth in our team during this time.

Although Nepal is technically poorer than India, they knew how to spend their money wisely and present their country beautifully! We traveled bak to Darj for the last time on Saturday.

Week 7: March 28-April 3

Time in India seemed to fly by. Our last week, I was blessed with going back to the deaf school. They were able to teach me their fingerspelling, which made communicating much easier. I loved getting to know the kids more and play games again. I left rather heartbroken, knowing I wasn't going to see them again.

During the rest of the week, we went and made hospital visits, spent time in prayer over the base and packed and cleaned. The trip back was anything but short. After a four hour drive down the mountain, a night in Siliguri, a thirteen hour train to Kolkata, a three hour flight to Bangkok, an eighteen hour layover, and an eight hour flight I found myself back at the base I have come to know as home for the past six months.

Namaste, India. You have taught me much. :)

while in india...

I won't be bringing my laptop with me to India. So, I don't know how often I'll be able to update my blog. Sorry, dear friends. I will try, but can't promise much. Keep me in your prayers. :)

BUT, my team does have a website that will be update more regularly. During my time in Darjeeling, you should be able to visit that to be updated and find out more about what we are doing. We should also be posting specific things you can be praying about for that week, etc. :) It's a pretty cool website. One of the guys, Philip on my school made it. Make sure to go check out our team portion. The individual shots are awesome (Thank you Lauren Tercero.)

www.ywamteamindia.tumblr.com

one last breath of lecture phase.

6 days. 144 hours. 8,640 minutes. 518,400 seconds. Roughly. It's so close, I can almost taste it!! :) This time next week I'll be on a plane on my way to Darjeeling, India. Yesterday, I went through the clothes I have here and figured out all that I'm going to take with me. haha I don't think I'll be bringing much! I really only have a pile of clothes about a foot high. Everything we wear in India has to cover both our ankles and shoulders. Considering I packed for six months in toasty Australia, I'm not exactly prepared. Luckily, things in India are very cheap and it's ok if I wear my clothes multiple times.

Two weeks ago, Joy Allen spoke on Fear of the Lord. It was an awesome week. haha I love Joy. I kept thinking about how good of friends she would be with my mom. She did an awesome job having us process in class about the stuff she was presenting us with. Last week, her husband, Jordan, spoke on Missions. I liked that he presented it as a way to live your everyday life in a missional way. Right now, I'm fully convicted of the fact that I need to fully invest in the place I am here and now. At this point, it's really difficult for me to live in the moment. It's good for me to feel passionate about effecting the people that are directly in contact with me. I think it will be really important as I'm both in India, but also when I get home, even if it's just for the summer. Then both of them spoke on the Unity and Body of Christ for a day. God created the church for a reason. We need one another. So often we get caught up in our petty differences. I love that there are lots of different types of christians and denominations here. Even if we like these different ways, we all understand that God has called all of us. This bond alone is strong enough to create amazing relationships and in the end enough to impact the world. Then Mable, one of our staff members, spoke on Stewardship for a day. She's amazing. Wow, she truly speaks it as it is. I loved how she made me passionate about being responsible. haha Is that even possible? This week we have a guest speaker from the Sunshine Coast here speaking on Bible Study. Even though we've only had one day I know I'm going to learn so much... haha as always. He's pretty hysterical.

During Joy's week of teaching we had this thing called "Missions Sim." Basically, it was a mock outreach prep, in which we had two days of every rough thing that we may come across during outreach. haha It was intense, to say the least. We had fifteen minutes to pack and weren't allowed to pack anything not on the list. After which we went through a mock airport experience. Almost everyone lost things from their bags, including most sleeping bags. There were beggars waiting outside the airport (note: all of this was a simulation done by other staff around our base). We went to the market, where we bought all of our food and shelter stuff (a tarp and three poles). We cooked lunch and created our tarp tent in one of the staff house's backyard. It was pretty quality if I do say so myself. That afternoon we did door-to-door ministry where we drank tea made of weak tea, butter and pepper. Then we did training and evangelism. For dinner we went to a host house, where we had to eat everything put in front of us. I ate A LOT and my lips almost fell off because of the spicy curry, but some of the other teams had it worse. That night was an adventure. haha It ended up raining, of course. Let me say, it is difficult to fit 13 people under one tarp! I didn't sleep much at all that night, but our team bonded a lot and laughed tons! We were woke up bright and early for an Indian prayer session. Then had breakfast and did a couple other ministry things. We had some more team bonding time when we had to have bucket showers. By the time we finished the whole simulation we were absolutely exhausted. haha But it was really good for our team. We learned a lot and feel better prepared for what lies ahead of us.

I got to record some with my band, which was a blast! Time has flown by. I can't believe lecture phase is just about over. At this point I feel like I have a million things to get finished before I leave, but it'll all be good. But dang it, I still haven't seen a kangaroo! And I've lived here for three and a half months! What the heck! haha Maybe it's just not in books for me. :( I think I'll live.

pictures are worth a thousand words.

I figured I could just post some good pictures representing my time so far in Australia. :)

Me, Lauren, Brittany, Rebekka, Emma, Ali, and Kezi on our first day in Australia

[late Oct.]

First city adventure [late Oct.]

Student Retreat in Toowoomba :) [late Oct.]

SDF Graduation [early Nov.]

Hervey Bay sunrise [mid Nov.]

Australia [late Nov.]

Chelsie, Brittany, Bec, Katrina, Emily, Lauren, me, Kezi [early Dec.]

Anna and I at school Christmas party

Chris, me, Kezi, Emma, Erica, Rebekka, and Katrina on Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

Our laundry-filled room due to the rain [late Dec.]

Sunrise at the lighthouse in Byron Bay [early Jan.]

Brisbane [late Jan.]

Katrina, me and Kezi [late Jan.]

The beauty of being at a music, art and dance school is you get a lot of creative friends. All of these pictures are the beautiful work of Erica Engle and Keziah Clayfield. Thank you friends. :)

yes, i live in the sunshine state.

Getting back onto base was really nice, but a little chaotic. Since we got back our base has been completely full. We have had my school (55 people), Frontiers DTS (25), Beach 2 Bush who just got back from outreach (25), regular staff (15), new staff for the upcoming schools (10). That's up to 130 relatively. haha Our base was not made for this many people, but it's ok, we made due. The rain seemed to have taken it's toll on our room. Due to the humidity and constant moisture our walls started to grow mold, so we bleached them and tried to clean it out. Ants have also taken a liking to the base. It seems that everywhere you go you can find a line of ants. After 3-4 girls in my room finding piles of them under their mattresses, we had a deep cleaning of our room. It seems to have helped.

Tuesday, after we got back from the outreach weeks, were when the floods really started to hit and effect Queensland (the state that I live in). There was a lot of tragedy from all the water. Quite a few people died, so many houses destroyed and an enormous amount of lives are now frantically being rearranged. Brisbane was hit relatively badly. I live in a suburb of Brisbane, called Mitchelton, which is up on a hill and we were not flooded luckily. A lot of the city was though. The sharks got out of the Brisbane river and were literally just swimming along on the streets of the city. It was very difficult to see all the devastation. The following Saturday we were able to do some flood relief work. I went to a house where the water reached the door handle of the second story. Needless to say, almost everything was absolutely destroyed. We helped him haul all of his belongings to the curb and then cleaned a lot of the debris out of the yard. We even found a small fish in his backyard! haha It was extremely muddy and very smelly, but it's ok, clothes wash. :) It was so cool to see how the community came together. When we were working there were people walking all over the streets giving people who were cleaning up food and drinks. Everyone was wanting and offering to help one another. 15,000 volunteers showed up at the Brisbane City Council doors on Saturday offering their services. They had to turn some away because they simply didn't know where to send them.

That first week back we had lectures on destiny by our school leader, Jason. God has spoken a lot into my future since being here. I struggled so much with my decision to come here, but God has been SO faithful in directing me where I should go after this season of my life is over. Jason did an excellent job and really challenged me. Last week's lectures were on worship. One of our staff members, Hannah Lenz, taught us. One thing that really stuck with me from her is learning to be aware of the power that words have. It's interesting to think about what you are saying and realizing whether or not you are speaking life or death over someone. Thursday into Friday we had a 24 hour worship session. It was so cool. I feel like I am always asking for stuff from God. I loved being able to just GIVE BACK to Him for those 24 hours. This week Joy Allen is speaking on fear of the Lord. I'm so excited to see what I learn from this topic.

I have been thinking a lot about how much I have been complicating my relationship with God. I've been spending the last few days just allowing the simplicity of my relationship with Him to truly soak in. It's been a very peaceful couple of days. :) I love that knowing God never truly ends. God is a mystery that we cannot comprehend. I love that about Him.

Beach to Bush graduated last Friday, so it's been sad to say bye to all of my friends from that school. Hopefully, I will be able to see some of them again this summer. My friend, Emily's, birthday was on Saturday so we went to this place in Brisbane called the Pancake Cafe. It was delicious. It was nice to be able to just go out with a couple of friends to dinner too. I love her a lot and can't wait to go to India with her. India feels so close... a little less than 3 weeks now! I cannot wait!! :) :)

I miss home a lot, but am still so happy here. I guess I just appreciate my family and friends more now. It will be such a bittersweet day when I do leave Australia. But, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. For now, I have so much to look forward to.... I mean, India! Come on!!! :)

The smashing of the rubix cube.

Christmas went rather well. :) It was such a fun time around our base. On Christmas Eve, I went into the city with some friends and saw the new Narnia movie. I haven't laughed so much in a long time. The whole train ride was spent singing Christmas carols! That night we all snuggled up and listened to a recording of my grandpa reading the story of the birth of Jesus. It made me a little sad, but more so joyful that I was able to share that tradition with my dear friends from all over the world. Christmas was a blast! I woke up early and skyped the family. I felt SO blessed from all the cards and Christmas greetings from back home. It was so helpful and encouraging. :) The whole day the school felt so giddy. haha We had a big Christmas brunch and then opened up stockings. The rest of the day was spent watching Christmas movies and playing games. I got to partake in this British Christmas tradition called Christmas crackers. haha It was ridiculous.

Our school was split in half for the following two weeks with about 25 people in each group. The other group has actually yet to get back. I didn't realize how much I love these people and being apart from them has been a heart wrencher. I know the reunion will be sweet. The first week I spent in Hervey Bay. It is still a very beautiful place. The small group made for a very homey feel. We had lectures on Biblical Worldview. I learned a lot about the gospel of the Kingdom, not just the gospel of Salvation. I learned heaps and loads. New Years was amazing. We spent the night worshipping on the beach. Reflecting on the past year, God has worked and done SO much. I can't even begin to explain.

The second week was spent in Byron Bay doing outreach. We were involved in this thing called Impact Summer. Byron Bay is a big backpacking, tourist town with a huge hippy influence. It was a beautiful place. The best beach I have to by far. I learned a lot about what it means to live like Jesus did. As a follower of Christ, I'm called to love and give of myself to the sick and the broken. That's what this week was. We brought the body of Christ to the people. We had huge free bbq's and pancake/chai nights. It was all about just listening and sharing with the people that showed up. We had people dancing, singing, performing dramas, and giving testimonies during these times in the park. I thought for sure that people didn't want to listen or watch any of it, but I don't think I could have been more wrong. People crave fulfillment and purpose. People want to have someone to listen, someone to love and accept them. It was amazing how many people we were able to share the love of Christ with. We had one day where we set up a huge volleyball tournament and then had a free bbq after. The thing was, we weren't trying to force anything, we were simply providing opportunity for God to work and move. Boy howdy, did he. During that week, my outreach team for India also grew a lot closer. It was amazing how much we have learned to rely on and love on one another. Through this whole experience God has taught me so much about His character and how my life can be a reflection of that.

I am so excited for the year 2011. Seriously, I feel like God is going to do some awesome things in and through me. I'm so passionate and ready to be open to all that He has in store. I read the book Blue Like Jazz over the two weeks as well. It's excellent read, very down to earth and authentic. Read it if you get the chance. :) All of a sudden my time in Australia seems very short. A lot is going on within our base this next month with different people and schools coming and going. I know I'm going to blink and I'll be in India. Eek! I can't wait. I am SO very thankful for my friends here. It is blowing my mind how much I love the people here. In a DTS, being friends with a person for a month is the equivalent to a year because we live in community 24/7. Therefore, I've known these people here for years! :) haha I'm absolutely exhausted. We woke up this morning in Byron and went and watched the sunrise at the lighthouse, which is the most eastern point in Australia.

"No matter how the wind may blow, it cannot shake the sun." - JJ Heller, Back Home