We had a debrief meeting at the end of the India mission while we were in Hyderabad. During the meeting, we spent time talking about how we had changed, what we had learned and where we thought God was calling us. At the very end, we wrote a letter to our future selves. On Friday, I got home from summer camp and had that letter waiting for me. It was an interesting time to get the letter. Here’s the letter. I wonder how I stack up to my past self.…



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I'm sorry for such a long time between the last blog and this one (almost two months!). I have been busy and lazy and all of the above. I WILL finish up chronicling this journey. It's important to me. I just hope that I can continue to find time to work on it. I hope you enjoy this one. It's about a life-changing moment. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I should get them soon. They're "lost" for right now.… Continue

1/3/10



Our outreach the previous night ended a little later than other events, but Team B’s lasted even longer. At around 2 AM, team leader Craig walked into our room (someone happened to leave the door unlocked) and told me that their outreach had run long and that I was to wake everyone up an hour later. I said that I understood and immediately went back to sleep. I slept a little later than I would have normally then got up and took a shower. I then went out to wake… Continue

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1/2/10



I’m usually self conscious about things I say or do. I worry about if I’ll look like an idiot. Does this make me look dumb? Is this too forward? Is this the right thing to do? Preparing for my mission to India, I talked with my mentor, Jonny, about my opportunity to preach. One thing I mentioned was that I wasn’t worried about how I would look to the Indians when I preached. I was more worried about how my team would receive me. I was worried about what the… Continue

1/2/10



We got back from Suresh’s and had plenty of time to kill. This is was the first day that wasn’t packed from beginning to end, and we truthfully didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We gathered up a few people, including team leader Lorae, and decided that we wanted to walk down to a vendor and buy some soda. The walk wasn’t far. The streets were crowded with people walking about their business. We walked by people trying to sell their wares, shops where metal… Continue

1/2/10



I woke up the next morning. It was the fourth day waking up in India, so I had my routine down. I showered in a bucket, woke everyone up, wrote in my journal and read my Bible, and then went up to the roof for worship and devotional. Worship was different because we learned new songs for when we would be doing Vacation Bible School the next Monday. After the devotional, the team talked about how we’d been scolded the previous day and the manner in which it was… Continue

1/1/10



We left the red light district and drove back the way we had come. It was only about ten minutes before we turned from the main road into a smaller neighborhood. The roads were definitely not paved and at one point we drove down a road that was much too narrow for our car. We had to back up and go another way. After driving around the small neighborhood for a few more minutes we finally pulled up to a larger road with Team A’s cars parked at the end of it. We got… Continue

1/1/10



After the Dalith clothing giveaway, we were in the cars and on our way to the next event: free saris at a church in the largest red light district in Andhra Pradesh. As always, we had no idea how long the drive would take, or where we were going. Both teams drove for about twenty minutes or so and pulled off the road into a walled compound. We were at the Harvest India School for the Dalith. We got out of the cars and Pastor Suresh began to tell us about the… Continue

1/1/10



After getting in the previous night around 2 AM, I was grateful to be able to sleep in an extra hour. I woke up in the morning, took my cold bucket shower and then went and woke everyone up. After waking everyone up, I spent some time in my room journaling about the previous night. New Year’s Eve was a great experience and I was glad that I was able to do it. I continued to pray that I would make the most out of every experience in India. I have a problem with… Continue