Happenings Of The Last Week

I considered writing "Odd Happenings ... Week" in the Title, but changed my mind when I realized that this past week hasn't been any "odder" than any other week in my life.

We've continued to have some little trouble with the "neighbors." A couple guys threatened O. on Saturday night. O. then attempted to lodge a complaint at the police station and spent most of Sunday and Monday working on that - basically sitting at the police station waiting to meet the head guy. Nothing happened and one of our co-workers later described the time spent at the police station as them sitting "like dogs."

After a prayer meeting on Monday O. got the brilliant idea to send me to the police station to lodge a complaint from my side. I wasn't really for this idea since I didn't consider our situation to be quite so dire and me lodging a complaint (as an American) holds a lot of weight. I would rather have waited to play this card until a much more dire situation presents itself.

But, O. really wanted me to do it, so I did.

P. (the 6-week old) and I went down to the police station late afternoon Monday and were hustled immediately into an office (they unceremoniously kicked the other people who were in there out so we could go in). I submitted my complaint, had a copy of it stamped to prove that the copy I gave had been received and then went home. O.'s been much less stressed out since then.

A foreign woman and a small baby (out in the heat of the day) get real high preference in India.

Then early yesterday morning (3:20AM to be exact) I got a phone call that one of the members of our staff had delivered her baby. I picked up the phone and this was my conversation:

Me: Hello
The husband: Madam, it's a boy.

Not real vocal that one.

The baby did have to be rushed to another hospital because he had passed stool while being born and had swallowed enough of it to have difficulty breathing. I talked to the doctor at the hospital where he is admitted and she says he'll have to stay for 4-5 days, which is a major bummer. The mom was released from the hospital yesterday, she's doing great.

I spent a bunch of time shuffling between hospitals yesterday with three of my children. I only forgot P. once, which is good for me.

E. & C. are, as of today, officially on summer vacation. Whaaaa.

Boring Sunday

I even watched Cricket* (the sport not the insect) today it was so boring around here.
By 5:30 I starting making dinner just for something to do. My brother-in-law (we call him "Gijaji") walked into the kitchen and got a drink of water. After getting his drink he proceeded to tell me in mixed Hindi and Rajasthani** that the daughter of one of our believers was in a bad accident near our house and was taken to the hospital. The neighbors who came and told him about the accident were still looking for her parents and hadn't yet found them. (It took me about 5 minutes to get this much information.) After getting a grasp of the situation I called our pastor, wondering if he already knew; I told as much as I knew (which wasn't much at the time) and handed the phone over to Gijaji to fill him in.

I made chai for Gijaji and then had him drive me over to the hospital. I walked up to the counter and said, "There was a little girl in an accident..." That's all it took and I was pointed to the room where she was being held. Her name is Esther and she is ten years old. Her parents are laborers who build houses. Other than some of our soon-to-be neighbors there was no one there with her.

Apparently she was hit by some vehicle, she doesn't know what happened and the the driver didn't stop. This all occurred on a busy road in the late afternoon but as far as we know there were no witnesses. Esther was knocked unconscious, she has an abrasion on her head, and a fracture in her left shoulder and some scratches, but this is the worst part (don't read on if you get queasy easily): Her little body got flung to the side of the road and as she lay there unconscious, a dog came and started to - eat her. I saw the arm with a large chunk of flesh bit out of it - the hole was the size of an egg.

Eventually it was a neighbor who noticed the dog dragging what he thought was a pile of clothing but turned out to be Esther.

He sent someone for her family but they had gone to the market. The neighbors then took her to the hospital and Gijaji came and told me and now the story has come full circle.

Isn't that horrifying! That something like this can happen in broad daylight on a road that I drive on about 8 times a day. Good for my neighbors for taking her to the hospital and staying with her. I knew that was a great place to build a house.

Esther's mom and dad did arrive about 10 minutes after me and soon after, our pastor. I stayed til about 8PM when I started getting phone calls from my own children to come home. By that time the doctor had finally come, stitched up the bite and gave her injections. She'll be admitted for 24 hours for observation.

These kinds of things always seem to happen on Sundays. It just brings to mind my own E.'s accident in 2006, on a Sunday, and her miraculously non-injured body. Esther should be up and running in 10 days or so and thank God for that. When I got word that she was injured it sounded bad. But when I got there she was awake and talking. Eventually, she cried because she was hungry, thirsty, and because she was devastated that her flip flops got lost in the accident. I knew then she was going to be fine.

* India did kick Australia's butt.
** I'm not so good at understanding Rajasthani.

Stinkin' Mistakes

I got a Christmas Card in the mail today.

On the front of the envelope was stamped:

"Mistakenly sent to Bermuda"

That must happen quite a bit, I guess...

The Christmas Program

The Christmas Program last night was great. Short and sweet and a little over 200 people came. Good Gospel presentation, everything went smoothly, loads of dancing,...I had a blast.

Then I had a bad day today. This has got to be one of the worst Christmas Seasons of my life. There is just a lot of disruption in our ministry. I try to be encouraged and think that there must be a good reason that Satan is attacking us, but it's still hard to hang in there.

I could really use your prayers for wisdom and protection. Thanks.

Merry Christmas.

I'm Bossy

I freely admit it. I'm bossy. I tell people what to do all the time.

This character trait, while always useful in India, comes in especially handy at busy times like Christmas. Our three days of carol singing ended last night and I spent much of my time ordering people in and out of cars, move faster, sing louder, play the drums better.

You might think that this would make me a hated person, amazingly, I am well loved in addition to the fact that I am considered a "big" person. Meaning - respected - hence I have all the right in the world to boss other people around. They expect it of me.

Of course, I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone, especially at Christmas...

When Scrooge Came To India

I haven't even been able to write blog posts for the past few days because I've been in such a foul mood. Our Christmas carol singing got cancelled on Wednesday for no good reason and after a strife ridden 3 days was re-instated on Saturday afternoon. We will start tomorrow night and go through Wednesday - a smaller version of what we usually do.

I am glad to be able to sing and pray at our neighbors, but it was a lousy week.

The whole issue did expose some areas in our ministry that need to change, it also caused me to reevaluate my role here and I am still in the process of doing that. I'm pretty sad, change is generally hard. I'm not sure what the future is holding for me. We'll see in January, I guess...

Funny Things My Neighbor Said

I was visiting my neighbors tonight (see next post) and the really friendly ones on our right have just finished building their house and the wife was giving me a tour.

Upon reaching her "god room" she opened the door and said, "I don't let the servants in here, but you can go in."

Later upstairs in her attached bathroom I commented on her washing machine and she said, "I wash all our clothes. I don't let the servants do it. They're dirty themselves, how can they can they make my clothes clean?"

I said, "I wash my own clothes too, but it's because I made them dirty and I'm embarrassed to have anyone else touch them."

She said, "Huh, well, there's that too."

Gone And Back And Gone And Back - Again

I had a real hard week. Real hard. Like a breaking point. I told you I was feeling weird the other day, it must have been a warning tingle.

I took a mental break and went away with the girls and we visited to the zoo and the seashore and I went clothes shopping (fun). Many loved ones prayed for me and I've leveled back out.

But early on in my...I don't want to call it a break down, more like I hit the proverbial camel's straw or it hit me... whatever it was God gave me a verse:

John 6:67-69 "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

I'm Not Dead

Still no internet connection at the new house. Bleh. We're working on it.

We Got A House

Last Saturday we were told we had to move out of our current by the end of October. By this Saturday we have already booked a house. So, that is Good news.

We will be staying in this house for the next few weeks because we have a man coming from the USA and we could use the 3rd bedroom. So, we are basically renting 2 houses for the month of October - oh well.

The new house has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (also a 3rd outside -weird). It's very nice and in a great location. It is fairly new although it has been lived in before and has a "worship room" that has been worshipped in. Worship to Hindu gods. Yuck. I really don't like that but we'll pray.

We're very thankful that we have a place to move for the few months remaining til we get into our OWN house. Yay. Thank you for your prayers.

Our own house work has basically begun, - putting in the well for water first and getting permission to take temporary electricity. Building will start very soon. I'll put up pictures when it does. Getting kicked out of this house has had the added benefit of kicking our butts to get our own house work started - at last.

Sending Emails

When an Urgent Prayer Request needs to get out fast, I send out emails. I LOVE email. I lived abroad long ago in the dark ages before Email was a household commodity - when letters from home took 2 weeks or a month to reach me. And, of course, they only ever came from Mom. (A month is FAST compared to the Real Dark Ages when missionaries would plan 2 months in advance just for a phone call!)

Back to the point - writing urgent emails (so urgent that I just realized I forgot to spell check and I KNOW there were spelling mistakes in there - dang.)

We (meaning our family and our ministries) have been threatened by a Hindu family of 4 brothers for the last 7 1/2 years. They spread all kinds of gossip about us and what we do. They talk to lawyers and attempt to bring court cases against us. They get the Police on their side. They threaten us (and our co-workers), often, with bodily harm - all this because we are Christian. They'd love to just be rid of us.

O. makes plans to ship me and the girls out of the country on a moment's notice - just to be ready. (Not like that's likely to happen, but he likes to bring it up every so often.)

Through this and the various other disturbances that we have been facing in our ministry over the last 7 days, we keep our eyes fixed on our Living God and repeat to each other that He has Already Won the Victory and for us to stand still or step backward is a victory for Satan and that is something that we are not willing to do.

The Journey

Let me just say that Delta is going to get a nice long letter from me! The whole thing about G.'s infant ticket purchase at the counter not being a problem - Ha!

We had to stand and wait at the counter for 45 minutes while the check-in girl was on hold with somebody trying to figure out how to sell an infant's ticket. I neared livid, let me tell you.

We did eventually get it and they charged us $30 bucks less than it originally was so that was nice - we all ate dinner.

However, there was no infant seating left on the plane. There are only 3 bassinets on the entire plane and every one was taken. So, lots of babies - like mine had to be held for the entire 16 hour flight. Yeah. I was so - not happy. Hence the nasty letter to Delta, that is just unacceptable.

Once we dragged our ton of luggage and 3 children off the plane we did get ushered through Immigration lickety split - the perks of traveling with babies, but this was the part of the journey I was dreading. E. does not have an Indian visa, she has a visa extension on a piece of paper by the police station. I figured immigration would not like it and I was praying - man was I praying.

He did not like it but he let us go, she is only a 6 year old girl for heaven's sake. I let out a huge sigh of relief and didn't even take offence when he told us to stop increasing the population - he really did.

Back

We're back in India and happy to be here. More on the journey home later. Just wanted to check in.

Leaving - Today

I almost wrote, "Leaving Tomorrow" as a title but since it is after midnight, I guess we are leaving today.

Yes, we fly to India tomorrow. It is a 15+ hour flight. I don't worry about that, I am concerned about baggage check in, about immigration in India, about getting all our bags to the train and then out of the train and to our home.

I am glad I am not doing this alone. I'm happy to supervise the children.

Then there is the jet lag. But we'll all recover - eventually.

Pray for us. I feel pretty good, I know we are already being prayed for and that's the only thing that makes it all bearable.

Let's not even talk about parting from family at the airport...

All My Ducks In A Row

I was feeling pretty good about having all my paper/legal stuff ready to get back to India. The passports, visas, tickets... Ahhh the tickets.

In the middle of April I called to purchase a plane ticket for G. As an infant she still needs a ticket although she doesn't get a seat and she can't check luggage. The lady on the phone told me they would send me a paper ticket for me and G. I distinctly remember this conversation since the rest of my family would have electronic tickets and I confirmed that that would not be a problem.

So, the other day we were driving somewhere and it hit me out of the blue... I never got G.'s ticket.

Long story short, I spent 30 minutes on the phone (most of them on hold) with Delta yesterday and found out that although G.'s information had been entered in the computer they had never charged me for her ticket.

So, 1. this throws off my family budget since I thought that money had already been taken out. 2. I now need to purchase her ticket at the counter next Wednesday when we fly.

I got angry with the guy. What if there is a problem? G. doesn't fly, I can't fly, and it all goes downhill from there.

He assured me that he would not have told me that it would be ok if it were going to be a problem.

Hmmmm.

The good thing was that soon after my budget did get back on tract. So, that's good.

That's What They Mean By Social Security

I spent almost an hour in the local Social Security Office yesterday to get a new card for me and so I could discover C.'s (my 4 year old) number. I need her number because I realized her passport is going to expire in about 13 months and we will most likely be in India all that time and when I researched it it is a real pain to get a new passport for a minor in India.

Better to do it here and now.

The first step was getting an SS# for C. Apparently she had one at some point in her short life but beats the heck out of me where it is. Probably with her original Birth Certificate which is also missing. Nice.- Hey, we move houses - A Lot.

I, along with E., C., and G. drove to the SS office yesterday around 1PM. I was somewhat alarmed when I pulled up and saw a whole lot of cars parked in a line along makeshift parking spots by the curb.

Alarmed but still unsuspecting I hauled all 3 children out of the car (I told E. and C. to stand by the car while I got out G. from the other side but they didn't obey and followed me and E. dropped her purse in the street, bent to pick it up, thus causing C. to trip over her, fall and scrape her knee. I told C. she better not cry because had they stood and waited on the other side of the car in the first place- say it with me - this never would have happened.)

We made it inside, carseat and baby in tow, and I was now dismayed to see the place packed with people - mostly likely the owners of the line of cars. Dumb me who chose to go at the end of lunch hour. Really, how many people have a reason to go to the SS office?

Things did move along and I clung to my number - D402 - and practiced listening for it with the girls. Unfortunately, everything stopped when a women at the furthest window started talking very loudly on her cellphone.

According to her it was her 7th time there and everyone in the office gave her "attitude" and then she used a lot of foul language... blah blah blah (5 minutes later) ...and then the lady behind the counter said (with attitude) over the loud speaker. "Security!" Ah, South Jersey, USA.

She left, we got new cards ordered and I wrote down C.'s number. We came straight home.

On a good note, G. received her passport and Indian visa in the mail today. Yay!

G.'s Passport

Our new daughter, G., received her passport in the mail today. I don't know if you know, but passports look totally different these days. The first page is no longer the picture/info page, that's on page number too.

I think they look really really cool!

Now it's time for the visa.

Hello India Consulate.

Life International

Having a third child has been much easier for me than say - having my first or second child.

It would be nice to have a third child First but that wouldn't make any sense.

Why things are nicer the third time around:

Instead of worrying and checking if she's breathing all the time, I just enjoy her. And look at her. A Lot.

Then there is also the benefit of 2 older siblings who actually do help and entertain (read: wear out) the new baby so that when you rescue her from their clutches the baby slumps down on your shoulder in relief and immediately falls asleep for 4-6 hours.

But I think the thing I like the most about being on my third is that the way has already been paved (by me) for all the stuff we have to do to live internationally.

For example, I know I have to get the birth certificate asap so that I can apply for the passport- asap - and then pay extra to put a rush on the passport so that we get it- asap- so that in the end we can turn around and rush the passport with the visa application to the Indian consulate and get that all important visa.

Yes, newborn babies need Passports AND Visas.

So, we have a little less than 2 months to get all this done. I'm not sweating it. I've done it all before.