Kalam

Last night, while O. was moving everything in creation, I went with the ladies from church (12 of us and 4 babies) to another city where our pastors are working. From there we picked up 4 more people and 2 more children and went to a village called Kalam.

We've been making these trips with our women's ministry to encourage our pastors' wives in other areas to start something similar.

It was a great time. We held the meeting in a Hindu household and it was my turn to give the message so I spoke on Loving Jesus with the examples of Mary Magdalene and Mary (the sister of Martha). Since we were in the village there was a bit of a disturbance in the beginning, mainly because the women don't even know how to sit quietly. I did the trick my teachers used to use in elementary school. I shut my mouth and kept quiet for an uncomfortable amount of time and then everyone shut up and listened for the rest of the time.

I had a new woman translate for me and she did a good job but it was her first time and she is a new Christian so she was a little slow. She'll speed up with time. My message was a little long (mainly because translation doesn't double, but triples the time) and I really could have cut it in half, but I didn't and we still stuck within our 1 hour timeframe.

I really enjoyed the fellowship with the other women from our city who went along. Everyone participated in some way, which is something that is important to our leadersip team. Leading songs, acting in a skit, translating, preaching, praying or reading the Word in the local language, everyone had a part.

I am very thankful for my husband and our wonderful Bible students who moved and moved and moved and moved. God bless them.

I put in my many hours of work today.

In The New House

We are IN! One day before our March 30th deadline.

We're hot, dirty, a little frustrated, but I'm told we'll actually have water in the next few minutes. At least we have electricity.

Unfortunately, we just discovered that there is no door on our bedroom. Hopefully, we get that fixed tomorrow.

Whew.

Oh, and I've adjusted my computer in our kitchen/dining area which is fine but I am realizing that the problem of having it in such a populated place is that I get people reading over my shoulder all day and that just is annoying to say the least.

Once we're settled I'll take pictures of everything.

Not A Pop Or A Ffffffft

I'd been thinking over the past few days that our house situation was going to be like a balloon with the air let out of it. It can either go out with a big POP! or you can open the knot and let it out with a "Fffffft."

Was God going to reveal the house to us in a big bam! kind of way or was it going to be slower and more along the lines of "Oh."

Let's go back a few days to Friday when I was in our ladies meeting balling my eyes out because I REALLY didn't want to move into the one house we had found. (It was too far away) Everyone cried and prayed with me. I just prayed for God's will to be done because I really couldn't say anything to any of the people searching for a house for us because, well, we just didn't have time and all I was going to get would be a lecture on how we won't find what I want, blah blah blah. So I kept my mouth shut and prayed and commiserated with Martha and Phoebe who didn't want to move there either. It was far, we walk everywhere and our friends walk to us.

The the house owners came on Saturday and they were horrible. O. called me into the meeting with them and I stayed about 2 minutes and whispered in his ear as I left, "We don't have to take this house, I'd rather live in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom little place in a location we like than live in this house." 2 minutes after that O. stopped the meeting and said, "Thanks but no thanks."

There was rejoicing in our household and dancing in our kitchen (me, Martha and Phoebe). The 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom thing was really important to me but after that house fiasco I realized that location and living in the area we like and near our friends and work was MUCH more important.

So, we started the search again. There was another house that was small and had an alter room that O. was ready to rent and I said, "Please wait one more day." I REALLY didn't want to live there for various reasons. Sunday I was very discouraged before church. The thought of having to go from 3 bathrooms to 1 bathroom for 8+ people was stressing me out, to be totally honest. During announcements our pastor asked, "Does anyone have any prayer requests?" He never asks that in the middle of church. I think he knew. I said, "We need a house!" (It was already the 26th and we have to be out of this house before the 30th.) Everybody prayed and right after church one of our friends came to me and said, there is a duplex in this society (right next to our school, church) that is available. So I told O. and we jumped on the motorcycle and went looking and found -nothing. We couldn't find the house. Our friend went searching and O. and I went right across the way to the very first house we had seen 6 weeks ago.

It's brand new, it still has work left to be done on it. It's in a new development and it has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It's about a 1 minute walk from our school and church and it is considerably smaller than our present house (that's good). I liked it originally but I didn't like that there was a lot of construction going on around it. O. at some point told me that they were not willing to rent that house but only sell it. He now claims he never said that, it was a misunderstanding. I don't know what happened, maybe I was talking about that house and he was talking about another, but the house had been out of our minds for - God only knows why - until it was His time to reveal it to us.

So, it wasn't a Pop! but neither was it a Fffffft. Maybe this was more like the air being let out of a balloon and the balloon flies out of your hand and soars around the room for a while before falling to the ground.

Whatever. We got a house. Glory be to God!

Moving Details

We plan to move on Wednesday. This works out well because I have a speaking engagement on Tuesday night so I'll be free to do that. Plus we'll need our vehicle to go since the meeting is in another city.

God IS over all of this.

Here's another little tidbit. After we put down the deposit on the house, our neighbor (from where we live now) came and said the house we looked at last week that is across from our present house and only for sale - is now for rent! God's timing. It's a great house in a great location but for some reason God didn't want us to take that one. It was His way of showing us He has a purpose for moving us out of here.

We would have snatched up that house in a second just because it's so convenient. But it does have a "mandir" or small temple area inside and it has been lived in before. I love the fact that our new house has never been lived in. This is a big deal to me because of the idol worship that goes on in homes here. There are some people reading this blog who know exactly what I'm talking about.

I Was Hoping For A Happy Post

Not so. We're down to the last 7 days to find a house. The one we found is far-ish away and it looks like we have to go with it.

I encourage myself that if it's not God's will He can and will shut the door.

There is an empty house in our current neighborhood. It's right across from us and today we looked into it only to find that the man wants to sell it and is not willing to rent. I can understand.

It would have been real nice to just shuffle on over there tho. That was a let down.

Eventually I'll get to post the happy news of a house found. Not today.

Finding A House

The deadline of March 31 is nearly upon us and we still have nowhere to move. I believe today is the day. We actually found a place last night that is sufficient for our needs. It's a little far and it has an alter room built in it for idol worship (no idols, they've been removed) but it creeps me out all the same.

We have a great guy searching for a house for us today and he's really good at stuff like this. Hey, he found 4 houses last night alone.

It's in the Lord's hands, looking forward to giving you (and getting) the good news of having found a house. Nearby - please...

O. will be home - maybe tonight?

Discovering Doughnuts

Here is E. opening the box of doughnuts (Yes, I do know how to spell it).

She's looking at a piece of doughnut and she has no idea what it is...
"DOUGHNUTS!"
These pictures are NOT re-enactments. She really looked like that after she took her first bite and knew what she was eating.

By the way, she just came upstairs and told me she wants to call Grammy tonight and ask for more donuts...

Gone Again

O. is once again away in support of the Christians being persecuted in a Northern state. The President of the ministry in which he grew up has been in jail since Thursday. O. and two others from our ministry couldn't sit and do nothing, so they're there.

On Tuesday there is a rally scheduled in the capital city of that state where 15000 Christians from all over India are expected to attend.

Pray. One of the main problems seems to be that the government officials feel as if they have their hands tied because the anti-Christianity groups are so vocal and violent.

Monkeys Visited On Thursday

Several months ago I had a request for closer up Monkey pictures. Well, about five of them passed by on Thursday evening. I ran and got my camera. I live to please.

All of these pictures were taken WITHOUT zoom. This is outside of our front door.

This picture is taken from my living room looking out. You can see how close we are.
These are not nice monkeys. I got hissed at and teeth bared at me when I took the first picture (which is not posted here).

Donuts

This is what donuts look like after they've been vacuumed packed and shipped from the US to India.

We'll eat 'em. Or at least E. will since she's the one who requested them.

* I did open one packet that had a chocolate donut and a rabbit-food covered donut in it. The rabbit food had completed surrounded the chocolate donut in the transition and had somehow sucked the moisture out of the chocolate donut into itself in a weird Star Trekian type maneuver. The chocolate donut was left with a hard chocolatey center strangely reminiscent of the cookies they used to feed us at VBS...

O's Birthday Pix At Last

Ignore this first picture. I had post issues as usual. If I remove this picture, I lose all the pictures and it takes so long to get the stinkin' pix up here in the first place... It's just not worth it.

O. was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Divinity recently from a university in South India. Here are our co-workers presenting him with his diploma. I guess he's "Dr. O." now.
A nice picture of O. with some of our Bible Students.

O's family. His father, sister, brother-in-law and brother came in for his b-day. This picture is only missing 1 nephew who was downstairs eating dinner, I think. This is the only half-way decent picture we got of our family all night. Here we are pictured with our pastor's family. Unfortunately, C.'s hair is blocking out much of poor Raja's face.

Giving Blood

I did something today that I haven't done in a long long time. I gave blood.

I was once a regular giver, those were the days before I started my overseas travel. After that, well, I kept visiting countries that put me on the Banned List (can't give for 3 years). There never seemed or actually, there wasn't ever, a stretch of 3 years between the banned countries and... - that's my excuse for not giving for a long time.

I went today because Sangart (I learned today it's Shankar - oh well, let's stick with what we know) needed 2 units of blood.

Here's how it works. If someone you know is in the hospital in need of blood, you go to the blood bank, give your blood and then they give you a pint of someone else's blood that matches the type of the person in need. It's an exchange.

I'm O Positive.

Here's the kicker. You actually have to PAY to give your own blood. Yes, you read that correctly. It cost us $12 bucks today for 2 of us to give our own blood.

However, you walk out of the bank with 2 packets of blood of your loved one's type, that you then ferry yourself over to the hospital. So, all in all, I got my 1st short visit to Sangart. We prayed and left, he needed his blood.

He'll start dialysis tomorrow and be home next week, - we hope!

4 Police In Church

Today 4 police came and interrupted our church service. The neighbors complained that we were too loud and we were disturbing students studying for exams. We turned down the volume a bit and continued on.

The Refresh Button

I'm not in the mood to write today, hence I'm writing. My thought pattern is like this: Maybe I'll feel less like writing tomorrow and the next day and the next day...

I had to explain something to my mom the other day and I figure there are other people out there with the same probelm.

When you open my blog and it looks like it did yesterday and the day before and the day before... hit the Refresh button on the top of your screen. It will bring up all new posts (if there are any.)

O.'s Pix

This is the cake cutting from a party our Primary school put on for O. It took forever to get this picture up, so there will just be this one for today.

O.'s Birthday

Was yesterday. (The 8th). It was a great day and the most relaxed I've seen my hubby in a long time. I have pictures that are refusing to load so we'll just stick with this now til I can get it figured out.

Pictures Coming Soon!

Rain

Our pastor is back from his trip with O. He told me this morning that while he was in the state where the persecution is occuring, that it rained. Hard. For one hour. With hail.

He was there. He saw it.

India has a rainy season. It's from June to September and it is DRY the rest of the year. No rain except in rainy season. This is March. 8 years of experience talking here.

Anoop also told me that the rain was hard enought to destroy crops (it's harvest time). This sounds suspiciously like judgement to me. (especially the hail.)

Then, while he was reading our Hindi newspaper he read about the Anti-Christian rally that was supposed to take place on Saturday but it turned out that it took place on Sunday - it got rained out. No kidding and it was in our regular newspaper - rain and all.

Hagrid

This is just a lighthearted post after several heavier ones. I came across this site today when it was recommended by someone. http://piratemonkeysinc.com/result.php

It's a personality test where you answer 20 questions and in the end you are matched with the Harry Potter character that most closely resembles you (in personality.)

And yes, I am Hagrid. Funny.

"ISFJ's are protective, patient and reliable. They work hard and may be underappreciated because they do not seek out praise. ISFJ's are very loyal to their friends."

That's nice and pretty much right on the button for me.

I remember taking a test like this over the summer with my mom and niece's and nephews. But that was for Napoleon Dynamite characters and not nearly as good as this one.

Just for fun.

A LONG Day

Yes, it was long. We prayed and prayed and prayed some more. O. and Anoop are fine, both are presently in their home villages or on their way.

The rally they went for never materialized which is fine. They did talk to the mayor of the city who basically said there was nothing the could do since the state government was against the Christian ministry under attack.

O. was mainly discouraged because there were very few people there today to do anything and he also got a phone call from one of the "senior leaders" in the ministry who said to him, "What are you doing there? You can't do anything, you're just an orphanage child*." I am not kidding, he really said that.

Well, O. let him have it on the phone and the man apologized but that basically sums up the attitude that keeps India from being reached with the gospel. I always say that 90% of persecution in India comes from other "Christians." The lack of unity among Christian people in this country is appalling.

We were discouraged. We prayed so hard, yet decades of disunity won't disappear in a day. It just pushes us harder to do our part to bring unity among God's people in India.

However, I did just get a phone call that the rally that was scheduled for Saturday to shut down the whole state and protest this Christian ministry Has Been Canceled! Hallelujah. Yes, you are listening Lord. AND today the leader of the group trying to destroy the Christian ministry threatened to have all the children in the orphanage removed. That's over 2000 kids with nowhere to go. So, the government's response to that was, OK, but you have to provide for every child. Uhhhhh. So that scheme was canceled, praise the Lord. AND food is now being provided from outside and prepared from outsiders for all the 2000+ kids. From the way I understood it, this may have been result of the original threat to destroy the orphanage. Funny how that backfired on them.

Keep praying. I'm wiped out.

* Just so you know, 5 of our top, really great co-workers, were raised in orphanges/children's home. So there.

O.'s Rally

For a couple weeks now we've know that the ministry/orpahange/children's home/Bible college/ slash / slash /... where O. grew up was under severe persecution by Hindus who basically don't want Christians in India.

This has been pressing on our minds and hearts because many people we know and love are being greatly effected. People are in jail, others who have 70 or 100 orphans/kids in their children's home and receive support for them through this organization have received nothing for Jan and Feb since all bank accounts are sealed. Then there are the people who run Christian schools who have had their government recognition taken away, so their schools are shut down a month before the end of the school year. And on and on and on.

A couple days ago O. got a call from his former chairman asking him to come to the city where the main center of the ministry where O. grew up is. There is to be a peace rally on Friday where Christians come together and march in support of the chairman and president of that ministry. They are presently in whereabouts unknown and will be arrested whenever found. Their lives are continuously threatened.

O. readily agreed to do whatever he could and he took Pastor Anoop with him (he also grew up there and his father, brother and brother-in-law all work under this ministry.)

Since yesterday O. has been giving me (and everyone else) instructions like "If I get put in jail..." "If I don't come back..."

We'll manage. Do what you gotta do.

We've been in prayer over this since it began and we'll be in fasting and prayer all day tomorrow. I don't have many details as yet but I hope to be in contact with O. through the day tomorrow.

Oh, the reason why the rally/march is being held tomorrow is because those doing the persecution are doing a march on Saturday and hoping to shut down the entire state , sort of like a state-wide strike. It's a very Indian thing.

One good outcome from this has been the increased unity of Christians in India. One of the main factors keeping India from being reached for Christ is the disunity and jealousy and territorialism among Christians. It's ugly. I'm looking forward to what God is going to do thru this.

Hallelujah, Those who are with us are more than those who are with them!

Update On Sangart

I haven't actually been able to see him in the hospital because he's a charity case and if they see me visiting they may expect more money. You know - "Rich American." (pause for hysterical laughter)

But from what I'm hearing from those who visit everyday, he's much better and happier! Well of course he is. He probably feels good or at least better for the first time in weeks. Praise the Lord.

We're still praying for him and he's not out of the woods yet.

Update: I heard tonight (Thursday) that Sangart is doing well, miraculously well. He probably won't even need the dialysis. If you're praying - you just keep on at it!