Jan. 13-19

India is a land flowing with milk and honey. I love how relational the people are here, warm and inviting, always opening up their homes for us. Along with that, I have come to realize that making plans for things is almost futile. We have all come to accept the fact we may not know what's happening up until it's about to happen. That mostly pertains to our ministry though.

This week has been mostly consistent as well as eventful. We are focusing the daytimes on teaching English at both the college and the preschool. We come back to the house for lunch in the afternoon, then the evenings are dedicated to village ministry.At some of the villages we visit, it is very peaceful, others are a little more exciting. We are either despised by some or admired by all.

We received breakthrough with the preschool teacher today. She finally invited us to her house. She is Hindu and our prayers are that she sees the love of Jesus radiating through us. I can't wait to see what the Lord does.

I ask that you keep us all in your prayers. 

Team India, over and out.

Dec 29-Jan 5

It has been another wonderful week with team India. Our YWAM leader and the trail blazer team left on Tuesday night. Wednesday was Ryan’s birthday. Thursday was Jennifer’s birthday. This week was full of celebration and a real test of our team unity. I am really beginning to see Gods handy work in the knitting of this team. We are all blessed to have each other as teammates!

On New Year’s Eve we went to a midnight praise and worship service where we all sung for and with over 100 Indian  Christian brothers and sisters. Jaima, Jonathan, and Odessa all gave good messages on hope, faith and love. It was all very good. Tuesday was a recovery day from New Years as well as the formal send off of the trail blazers team! Love, prayers, and amazing prophetic words and visions from God through us for them. Ravi took Jonathan, Jennifer and Ryan out on a walk that night. It was good to get out of the house. Ryan saw a flashing cross and asked Ravi if he would take us to the church. It turns out that the pastor was teaching on spiritual warfare. The pastor even spoke English and was able to translate for us. 

Wednesday and Thursday we split up. Half of us went to the preschool and the other half went to villages sharing the gospel and loving on people.  Ravi also took us to see a historical site, a cave made over 4 centures ago, on Thursday.

Its Friday today and we are really starting to all come together. We are experiencing the joy that comes from giving and receiving repentance and forgiveness  We are taking the initiative to utilize joyful repentance. God definitely glories in our weakness, so His glory can shine through!

Dec 23-29

Dec 23-29

It's hard to believe that 2 weeks have gone by already. We moved to a small country town called Chitradurga. It is beautiful here. We are surrounded by boulder mountains that are steeped in history.What a blessing it is to be here.

Once again a lot has been happening. The people here are pretty open to the gospel, and they all seem to want prayer. Our village ministries are definitely bearing fruit!

We are all stepping out of our comfort zones, but God is right there beside us. A friend of ours, is taking us to all the villages he shares Jesus with.  As a a team, we cast evil spirit's out of one girl, in Jesus name. She began manifesting and a demon tried to maintain control of her, but our God is bigger, so she was freed.

Jennifer and Ryan, in the 2nd village we visited, shared stories to the children; after which Ryan, led by the Holy Spirit,asked all the kids if they wanted to know Jesus.All wanted to. So with the help of Ravi, our dear friend and translator, we led them in the sinners prayer.

We will be very sad to see our good friends in the Trailblazers school leave us this week. They have been so encouraging to us as we have adjusted together to the new culture in India.

All of us are having crazy God encounters and seeing how all the cultural idol worship in the temples effects everyday life.  We are all praying for the people in the villages individuality and seeing miraculous healings and hope transpire. We are speaking at churches, visiting schools and villages, and seeing much fruit. God is truly on the move in India. 

Dec. 16-22

Dec. 16-22

            It has been a hectic yet fruitful week thus far. Luckily for us we got to Bangalore Wednesday night around 8pm. So we were able to sleep and were unaffected by jet lag. We are fortunate to be partnered with a team from trailblazers for a short while, they are a wild bunch!

            As a group we have plunged into a couple different scenarios already. We have visited an orphanage and got to sing and play with kids. On Sunday, Jennifer Ryan and Brooke (a trail blazer) spoke in church. We also spent some time in a village. While visiting homes, we were praying for and seeing healings. We also brought an older gentleman into the kingdom; God is so good!

            That isn’t all though; we have the distinct privilege of spending Christmas here in India. Prakash set it up for us to do some caroling at 1 of the biggest malls in Bangalore.  It started off with us singing outside the main entrance off to the side with a group of Indians to assist us. Soon though the manager of the mall decided to put our group up on the main stage because of the crowds we were drawing. We got up there nervous and excited with a playlist in mind. Although once we got started the Holy Spirit took over. We worshiped and praised God for an hour on stage in front of hundreds of Indians. In the famous words of Dan Baumann “Go God!” God has so much in store, and I can’t wait to share more; until then go with God! 

Home at last!

We made it! We graduated from our Community Transformations DTS, and are better Jesus lovers for it! Wow, how do I even begin?

I think what I will do is post a series of "The Time When..." posts. That's the plan, and I think you guys will enjoy it.

Between internet failures, censorship due to persecution in the area, and communication blunders, our weekly newsletters that were faithfully typed up never made it to those requesting updates. Please accept our deep apologies for that, as we were deeply dismayed to find out they had never been emailed out.

So, here's to a series of posts of things that happened!

Little Blurb from the East

Hey guys! I have to say thank you for your patience with my spastic posting since we've been away from home! 3rd world country problems for a 1st world girl. Sporatic wifi/internet connectivity, lots of moving around, lots of things keeping us busy, but mostly a lot of living in the moment...imagine! haha

Lately I've been:

Teaching at a pre-school

Teaching English at a college

Visiting about a dozen homes every few days

Drinking chi

Speaking

Dodging the "holy cows" (they have no sence of personal boundaries or right of way)

Stepping over wet cow manure on the sidewalks from all the "holy cows"

Sitting on floors made of dry cow manure

Inhaling a lot of smoke/pollution; as they burn their trash on the sidewalks

Eating a lot of chapoti

Eating a lot of curry

Sleeping on beds stuffed with coconut shell lining

Washing my clothes by hand

Wearing brightly colored sarees loaned to me from friends

 Holding dangerous animals (like this King Cobra)

 Shopping like an Indian at the fruit stands on the street

 Checking out the gods they worship. (this is in my top 3. I call him play-doh pumpkin god) 

 Holding babies

 Petting baby animals (this adorable calf is just 2 wks old!)

 Observing Social Norms (this little boy wondered right into my frame as I was waiting to take a picture of the door on the other side of the street. I had quite the giggle after I shot this) It is quick normal for men to "relief" themselves on the sidewalks, so  this little guy was just following 'ol pop's example, I'm sure!

Life has yet to show a boring side here in India. It's so hard to believe that we are half-way through our time here. With the first part being so wonderful, we are looking forward to an even better 2nd half of our trip!

Much love!

Happy New Year and it's Birthday Time!

Just a quick post to update the ol' post: Enjoy! ;)

The day before my birthday, a friend did my arm in henna

Front and back

Birthday blessings from Grandma

Indian birthday cake :) Kind of like dry pound cake :)

Party Decorations from my wonderful team!!

A dozen roses! I love the variety best :)

Making Flower Garlands

We visited one of the largest temples in India.

Posters they posted for devotees

The darkness here is so dark

Worshipers adding their coins to the pots

Counting the coins

The largest idol. At least 5 stories.

India's version of materialism: buying gods and idols

 We visited some of the ancient forts nearby.

There were so many monkeys there!

We are loving every moment here! The people continue to amaze me with the way they embrace all of us and welcome us into their homes. Besides the culture shock of squatty potties, sitting (appropriately) "Indian style", and hand washing our clothes while squatting again, we have enjoyed all the amazing things India has to offer.


Happy New Year! We love you!