Day Nineteen

Sunday:
I am kind of in a state of shock just thinking about how fast time has flown. There have been days and different things that have made some days feel longer than others, but I just am having a hard time believing that I only have one more week here in Mysore. This time next week I will actually already be in Bangalore preparing to wake up in just a few short hours to catch my plane home. WOH! The three weeks I have spent here have quickly come and gone and I couldn't ask for a better place to have come and grown closer to my God and Savior. This morning instead of going to church where we have been going we decided to stay home and have a little house church. Stephany prepared a lesson for the girls about serving others and used the passage from John 13 where Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. She began with telling the story from the Bible and then we went onto the balcony and she had a representation for them and they were able to wash each others feet and pray for a heart to love and be kind to one another. It was so sweet to be able to watch the family have a time of growth within themselves and also within the Lord. Definitely a family I will choose to model my own family after. After we finished Sunday School with the girls they went and watched a movie while Tony, Stephany and I sang some praise and worship songs and then listened to a sermon by John Piper from Passion 2012. One of the songs that really stuck out to me was: Lead Me to the Cross. I have been reading John Pipers, "Don't Waste Your Life" book and one of the things that has really stuck out to me is the idea of having a single minded passion and that passion is Christ and His Crucifixion. So my prayer lately has been that God would reveal to me how to have a single minded passion for Him and His Son and then to have all joys rooted in that and springing forth because of my single minded passion for Christ and His crucifixion. Lead Me to the Cross cries out,

"Everything I once held dear

I count it all as loss.

Lead me to the cross

Where your love poured out

Bring me to my knees

Lord I lay me down

Rid me of myself

 I belong to You

 Oh lead me, Lead me to the cross." 

Oh God, help me to learn how to count everything that I hold close to me and my heart as loss. I want to be able to only boast in the crucifixion of You, my Lord and Savior and not in my own joys and gain, for each of the things that brings me joy in my life comes from the crucifixion of Your Son. Humble my heart, mind and soul Lord, Rid me entirely of who I am so that I am no longer living this life, but that You are living through me. 

This evening we played a good ol' game of hide and go seek. It was a blast to have a little bit of time for everyone to play and experience some time together. I am so thankful for this family and how they have welcomed me arms open into their family. 

Day Eighteen

Saturday:
Today Stephany and I went shopping! We took an auto from the house to the Mall of Mysore and from from the Mall of Mysore we went to Easyday Mall! It was a lot of fun to get out and shop with her! It was a lot like shopping in the states there was just a smaller selection, but I did manage to find what I came looking for! We stopped for lunch at the KFC here which I think I have talked about before. It is so much nicer and yummier than the ones I have ever been to in the states, that's for sure! Tony and Stephany went out for another date night so I was able to stay with the girls again. We pulled a fairly large slide that the girls have out into the hall of the apartment and the girls and a friend from upstairs rode bikes and played on the slide! We made scrambled eggs and toast and then we had some ice cream! YUM! David and I tried to skype tonight, but for some reason it wasn't working... We must have tried to start it all over atleast ten plus times...
Sorry my post was so small... (I am actually writing this Sunday morning since I was having a hard time on the internet last night so I am not remembering all the details.) I will post more tonight... 

Day Seventeen

Friday:
Friday has come and Friday has gone! Today I got to spend some time with Sarah while Rebekah and Stephany did some school. I love it when I get to spend a little bit of time one on one with the girls! It always makes things a little bit easier, but it also means that you get to do exactly what that one girls wants to do! So today, Sarah and I worked a little bit on learning how to lace things and then we read a whole lot of Dr. Seuss! It was a blast! Following school time we went out to eat at a pretty nice restaurant here in Mysore. I have to say I was really impressed and even liked the Indian food! Wow! Now I know what I need to be ordering in the States! (Mom, we can now go to Chutney's and I will have something I will even like!) After lunch I went straight to meet my girls from English class. Today was the last day we were meeting for English so I planned something a little more fun than sitting and learning (of course we had to speak English though). On my way to the hope center Tony dropped me by a grocery store and I ran in and got five chocolate ice cream bars to share with the girls! I went and found them as soon as I got there and they were excited to see me, knowing we were doing something more fun today! We ate the ice creams and then I showed them some more pictures of my family and friends since they requested more of that from yesterday's class. AND THEN we took some seriously silly pictures on my computer. I have not laughed so hard in such a long time and I am sure same for them. I was so happy to hear them laughing and just loving every second of hanging out together! After our silly pictures we painted nails again and then they gave me a tour of their living courters and let me see their rooms and where they live. There are four rooms in the girls dormitory and at least two girls sleep in each of the rooms. They have them separated by age so two of the rooms have two girls, one of the rooms have three girls and the last room is for a live-in auntie! I noticed there was no closets or dressers so I asked about where they keep their clothes and each girl is assigned a locker and that is where they get to keep their belongings. This really made me think. There is absolutely no way that I could fit everything I have into a locker that is no bigger than a foot wide by a foot deep by two and a half feet high. There is NO WAY! They are currently getting ready to get new sheets and I am so excited for them. I got to see the material they picked out today and it is a very pretty purple with some darker purple flowers on it. Man, I just want to take each of the girls I have gotten to know home with me! They have become so dear to my heart and my prayer for them is that they will come to know the Lord and that they will learn to live their lives for Him each and everyday. Please join me in diligently praying for these girls. I will actually get to see them one more time next week when I lead the Bible Study, but it was definitely a very hard thing for me hug these girls goodbye. Oh, how I deeply hope that they realize how much they are loved. After leaving the Hope Center today I found an auto and came home. Stephany and I took the girls to the park for a little while and then we came back up and we started watching a family movie of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We had to pause it and we will pick back up tomorrow since it was way passed the girls bedtime but I am really enjoying the movie so far. I cannot believe that I only have nine days left here until I begin my journey home. I am so thankful for the opportunity God has provided me.

This was my favorite picture we took today. 

Akshatha, Asha, myself and Arpitha

Each of these girls has found a special place in my heart and I pray for the day we will meet again. 

God, I pray that I magnified You in a way that showed each of these girls exactly who You and Your Son are. 

Day Sixteen

Thursday:
Well today was the day of the strike. Nothing different happened except that there were less cars out. There were few autos and no busses that we saw, but there was still some traffic. I wondered if I would end up going to to English Classes or not, but we went ahead and braved it and I got to go. I was so thankful that I was able to go. It has been nearly a week since I have gotten to meet with them since they have been working on College admission papers, so we did very little. We did a little bit of a review of what we finished with last week, finished reading out story we began and then I shared some pictures of my family, friends and home life with them! It was such a fun time and they absolutely loved getting to look at pictures. They requests that we do more of that tomorrow, so as a grand wrap up of our English Classes tomorrow will be a total day of fun and relaxation! I am so excited to spend just a few more hours with them. I am hoping to take them a little surprise tomorrow and then hopefully find them each something when I go shopping this weekend to take them next week. I have loved getting to know each of them and it really makes me sad to think that tomorrow is the last day we will get to spend time together in English Class. I am so grateful for the opportunity God gave me to be able to develop relationships with some of the girls here. They are girls that will forever be in my heart! Stephany made chicken burgers for dinner tonight and they were actually really good! So good that I will even make them in the states! WOW! :) I also got to play with some play dough with the girls tonight and that was just a lot of fun! After dinner we all went down and went for a walk around the neighborhood it was just a really neat time to get to see a little bit more of the city and right around where I am living for now. I also got to experience Indian Tea! It was actually pretty good. I debated back and forth for a while whether it was tea or coffee. It looks just like coffee but it tastes like tea! I was so confused!! Anyhow, it was a lot different from tea in the states, but I enjoyed Tonight Tony and Stephany and I are going to have a little game night, so that will be a good way to finish up today. I am just loving being here. I cannot believe my third week is winding down and I only have ten more days to spend here in India. This week has gone by really slow for some reason, but at the same time time as a whole is flying by. I cannot wait to experience the rest that God has in store and to grow and build the relationships God has given me here.

My Play Dough Masterpiece! 

Day Fifteen

Wednesday:
So today was the day I got to go to the Palace! The girls slept until nearly 9:45 this morning so that allowed for a very quite morning! Stephany planned out such a fun school day for both of the girls today and I was so glad to be able to help! I should have taken pictures.. (I will next time...) First it started with singing some songs and then we got to work on some patterns, matching and cutting! The final activity we did was a little science experiment to teach about the primary and secondary colors. It was super cute and definitely something I will use in my classroom one day! :) For lunch we went to KFC. I was a little nervous since that is one of the places I don't typically eat in the states, but I was pleasantly surprised! It was way nicer and tastier than at home!! It had a little bit of spice (I am starting to grow to like a little spice) and was absolutely perfect! Following lunch Tony dropped Stephany and the girls off and then took Brad, Krystal and me to the palace to meet a group of people from all over the states. Since I had already eaten I just hungout and got to meet some of the girls who were on the team and then we went to see the palace! It was so much different than I was expecting, but then Krystal reminded me, "You are in India." Oh yeah... The outside was beautiful and we got to go on a tour of the inside for 200 Rupees ($4). They told us we were not allowed to take any pictures inside the palace so Krystal, Brad and I just put our cameras away in our bags and went inside. Once we got inside they made us run our bags through the xray machines (like the ones at the airports) to make sure we didn't have anything bad in it and they saw the cameras and made us go all the way back and check them into a locker before they would allow us to enter in. The problem was that we had already checked our shoes into the shoe holder (not allowed to wear them through the palace) so we had to walk back barefooted and WOWEE was the ground hot! I got some blisters on the bottoms of my feet.. Ouchy! I also got to go to a coffee roster today. It was neat to see the beans and such! Cannot say I would want to work in there, but it sure did smell good! I only paid around four dollars for a pound of coffee. So it is fairly cheap!
The baby birds we have been watching hatched! That is some exciting news! Rebekah could hardly wait to tell me when I came home from the Palace! So we went down and saw them this evening and they were so so tiny and waiting mouth opened for their momma to return with some food! I will try to take some pictures of the birds. Tomorrow is the day the strike is supposed to happen so it looks like we are going to have a day at home all day. We will see what ends up happening. 

Day Fourteen

Tuesday:
This morning started very slow for myself and for everyone else here. Sarah ended up getting sick during the night and threw up so she went to the doctor today and found out she has an ear and throat infection and then she threw up again this afternoon. Poor girl. I really hope she starts getting better and that nobody else comes down with what she has. I went today to go teach English again and when I got there the girls were filling out some college applications so I was told they would be done within 20 minutes and I was asked to iron in the meantime so I ended up ironing for about an hour and then was told that the girls would not be meeting today. I am hoping to be able to meet with them tomorrow, but I was told that they were probably going to still be doing applications tomorrow too, so that may not work out... We will see. I am excited for tomorrow though because I am going to get to go to the palace in the morning with Brad and Krystal! That will be really exciting. Thursday we were told that we should not go out because there is supposed to be a nationwide strike about the gas prices. I am anxious to see what will really happen.. I am hoping that it won't be bad because I was looking forward to meeting some national partners on Thursday, so we will see. My headaches are starting to come back so pray that they hold off until I leave India atleast... I have had them two days in a row now. I really hope that I don't have them tomorrow too..
This is a pretty short post and I apologize for that, just not a whole lot to say today. I will post again tomorrow night and talk about the palace and such!! :) 

Day Thirteen

Monday:
This post will probably be a little on the short side as I am already in bed and ready to go to sleep, but I knew I would forget stuff if I waited until tomorrow. One thing I realized I didn't post yesterday was we drove by the temple yesterday afternoon on our way back from church and I could not believe the amount of people that were there and the amount of smoke that was coming out of the building from their abundant burning of offerings to their "gods". It breaks my heart to think about that many people being so utterly convinced of one of the biggest lies that has ever been told! Heartbreaking! One thing that has been made very clear to me though is the lost in my own neighborhood and family. It is so sad to see people you love being ruled by lies. I just wish that people would realize what the "ULTIMATE sacrifice" is! Anyways, so today Stephany began school with Rebekah so I got to spend a little bit of time today just me and Sarah! It was so much fun! We got to do a little bit of our own kind of school! (tonight during her prayer she prayed to God thanking Him for the school we got to do together :).) Way too sweet! There was a lot of potential things that were going to happen today, but Sarah got a fever (I think she is doing better so thanks to those who prayed) so we pushed them to Thursday. So Thursday I am going to get to go meet some of the national partners here. How exciting! So today we ended up canceling English Class since I thought I was going to be gone. So instead I took a nap and Stephany and I made cookies for my Bible Study tonight! Bible Study was a lot harder than I expected, but it went well. The translator rambled a whole lot about I am not sure what since I cannot speak the language. Stephany said she was most likely just stating what was said in many different ways which is very common in this culture she said. Just have to remind myself that God can use anything to do His will.. I took them milk and cookies and they thought it was the funniest thing because one they don't drink just milk, let alone milk that has not been boiled. so funny! Krystal and I had them try it "american style" by dipping the cookies in their milk. haha Guess I shouldn't tell them that we drink our milk cold!! They think that if you drink cold stuff you will catch a cold. so no ice in drinks or anything like that. They like everything atleast room temperature. The one thing that made me smile was that the girls that are in my English class came and were upset about not meeting today and were excited to be meeting again tomorrow. YAY! :)
Well off to bed for me!
Miss you all!