Mangoes

This is the view from my bedroom window. Unfortunately, these are not our mangoes or our mango tree, but it sure is pretty.

I took some other house pictures but they somehow didn't get loaded onto my disk today. You'll survive a little longer I'm sure.

Rajasthan

That's where the persecution against Chrisitans is centered nowadays in India. The president of the ministry where O. grew up is still in the central jail and not being treated well. I've heard reports of rats being put into his cell. They're also not allowing him to stay with the other Christian man currently in jail with him.

Pray.

We're waiting for God's deliverance. We're praying for it and sometimes it's so hard not knowing what the hold up is... Oh God, You can deliver Your people out from under this terrible persecution but You've stayed silent for so long.

So, we pray and fast and ache in our hearts and prepare for the future and make plans and change and pray more and more and sometimes get sick and stressed out and pray for each other and go on with regular life and laugh and love and pray.

I Need To Post

When there is more going on there is never enough time to post.

Today was our Friday evening ladies meeting and it was held at my house this week so I was very happy and very busy.

I made a custard drink with fruit in it. Serving fruit at gatherings is an inherited trait from my mom and dad who bring fruit salad to every family gathering (among other things). I realized as I stood in my kitchen carefully and swiftly cutting grapes in half (lengthwise, not horizontal) that I may be a half a world away or more but I'm still a product of my parents. And that's a great thing since I have great parents who are so much more than expert fruit salad makers.

O. Too

I did O. this morning. He's just missing facial hair which apparently is not an option altho it should be for men.

When I showed him mine yesterday and I asked who he thought it was he said: "Dora The Explorer?"

heh heh. No.

Looking Around Me

I feel like I am in this state of WAITING. I don't really know what for but I guess it's that I see everyone around us going through trials but we're in a pretty peaceful (for us anyway) place right now. Ummm, maybe I'm waiting for the "shoe to drop" as they say.

Something that is painful for us right now is being helpless in many areas to do anything. After our (very expensive) move we're not in any position to assist any of those in financial difficulty and the situation in Rajasthan with the persecuted church is a battle we are waging in the heavenlies and other than that there is not much else we can do.

Currently, I am full of compassion for our pastor whose entire family works under the organization who is being persecuted. They've been without money for 3 months, they've got lots of children in their children homes. His cousin's wife (cousins in N. India are considered as brothers and sisters) is in the hospital for the 2nd time because of some kind of fluid build up in her body. The doctors informed her family today that she's probably going to die.

His other cousin (sister) is getting married in May to one of our co-workers, Limba, and all the money they saved for the wedding has now been used in the last 3 months when they didn't get any salary or support. So, now there is a wedding sceduled for the end of May and not a cent to put it on.

This is just the beginning of the things he is dealing with.

I could go on and on with stories of others around us in some kind of problem. Praveen was telling us today that his wife, Christy, was up again last night at 1AM with terrible chest pain and she couldn't breath. They've done every test they can do on her 5 TIMES and have never found anything wrong with her.

We give it all to God. I think He's doing something in all of us. Bind us together Lord, bind us together...

Messing Around

Add 30 lbs and it could be me...

* I saw that my friend E had this on her blog so I checked it out. Hers actually LOOKS like her.

April

It's April. It's HOT. Drinking lots of water.

One good thing about having my computer in my kitchen is that I can write AND make dinner at the same time. OK, gotta go stir.

Work Among The Women

Both Vinita and Christy (who work together with me in our ladies ministry) suffer from Chronic Chest Pains that come suddenly and for which that there is no medical explanation. Thursday morning and afternoon Christy had a terrible episode. She was at the Doctor’s all day. Last night (Friday) Vinita had a bad episode with her chest pain. I was praying for them today and wondering why this same problem afflicts them both. It seemed spiritual to me.

Then I remembered that on Thursday while we were getting phone calls from Praveen about his wife Christy in the hospital I also had a bad afternoon where I was given some very painful information about what some people were saying about me. I cried continuously from Thursday afternoon til I slept that night (I’m a bit better now but I still get teary when I think about it.)

Satan does not want our work among the women to go forward. That seems clear. We decided today that we need to spend more time together praying for ourselves. That’s for sure.

New Church

Our pastor who has been working for almost a year in a city two hours from where we live is opening their church for the first time tomorrow. They’ve been having meetings during the week and in the evenings, but tomorrow is their first Sunday morning service. O. and I and some others are going.

In

We’re pretty much adjusted to the new house and I really like it here and don’t even miss my old house. It’s been a bit of a trial since the house wasn’t fully complete when we moved in, but at least we finally got a bedroom door yesterday. The main problem was a lack of drinking water but we even got that this afternoon – so there is not much left to do but live.

* Pictures coming. I tried to take some today but my batteries ran out…