10 ways to tell if you are camping...

1. When you use buckets to shower
2.When you shiver from cold water showers
3. When you feel shocked by the feeling of warm water
4. When you use flashlights to find one's way in the dark
5. When you hear obnoxious teenagers early in the morning that are so loud that they sound like they're literally in your room
6. When you do you laundry by hand & dry it in the sun
7. When you clean up after dinner by candlelight
8. When you take a walk after the rain stops & your legs are splattered by mud
9. When your cell phone reception is poor
10. When you encounter animals when you walk around outside (ex. cows & wild dogs)

You may be camping, or.... you might be living in Bangalore, India.

(disclaimer: I am not intending to put down India in any way.  I love India & it is my home away from home.  I am enjoying my experience immensely and am taking the rain along with the sun).

Annie's Story

Through a mutual friend, I met a young woman in her mid-twenties that I will call Annie.  Two weeks ago, Annie and her 2-year-old son came to the YWAM base to pick up me and Catherine.  We took the bus to her home.  I was surprised to see that she lived at a spacious house, but when I stepped in the front door, I saw “Lighthouse” written on the wall.  I found out that Annie works at a YWAM slum school for children between the ages of 3 and 6.  YWAM rents that two-story house for around $200/month to hold the classes from Monday to Friday, 8:30-12pm. 

As Annie made chicken curry and chapatti (like naan), she narrated her story.  It broke my heart.  Annie completed her DTS and SBS (School of Biblical Studies) with YWAM at a young age, and at age 20, she went to Hong Kong to volunteer at a children’s home for orphaned infants.  After a year in Hong Kong, she came back to India.  Her parents arranged for her to get married.  Her parents are devout Christians, and they had chosen a pastor and evangelist for her.  She saw a photo of the proposed match and agreed to it—she knew what she said would not make much of a difference to her parents. 

She met her husband for the first time on the day of the wedding.  This still happens nowadays in India, but it’s more common to meet prior to the wedding and have the opportunity to get to know each other after getting engaged at a formal party.  She moved to her husband’s home and lived with her mother-in-law as well as sisters-in-law.  Annie was forced to do a lot of heavy labour and frequently bullied by her sisters-in-law.  Her husband would demand that she massage his legs until 3am every night, and if she was nodding off, he’d kick her. 

Just over a month after the wedding, Annie found out something catastrophic that changed her life forever.  Her husband had another family.  Apparently, he had been living with a woman for over 5 years, and he already had children with her.  He was forced into this marriage by his family.  His family only wanted the dowry Annie would bring.  He told her that his heart will never change.  If she continued living with his family, she’ll be there alone because he didn’t want to live with his mom.  He showed up with divorce papers one day, and she signed them and moved back to her parents’ home. 

Annie soon found out that she was pregnant.  Humiliated, her family tried to pressure her to get an abortion, but Annie adamantly refused.  Her father roughly woke her up one day when she was 5 months pregnant.  He dragged her to the hospital and demanded that she get an abortion.  Annie did not dare to weep aloud, as she knew this would be interpreted as disobedience, but she was crying in her heart.  The doctor said that if Annie got an abortion, her life would be in danger.  Her father stormed home with Annie.

Annie is now working with YWAM, staffing the preschool and kindergarten for children from slums.  Annie and one of her co-workers live at the base and pay staff fees for their food and accommodation.   I really connected with Annie, and we had great fellowship.  Last Saturday, Catherine and I brought the children that live near the base to the Lighthouse, and we bathed the kids.  Afterwards, the kids got to play with the toys at the Lighthouse.  It was so wonderful to see them play with cars and stuffed animals.  The only other time I saw them play like children was ball at the park.  Please pray for Annie’s finances, as she needs $100/month for her staff fees, as well as her son’s education and living expenses.

The collision of reality and expectations

Hello from Bangalore, India!

I left Vancouver about a week ago and I still feel like everything is so surreal.  Praise the Lord, the trip here was smooth and uneventful.  Thanks to everyone who’s been praying for us.  I usually get air sick, but I didn’t get motion sickness at all this time, despite the lengthy journey of 22h in 4 different planes.

Catherine and I visited Jangareddigudem for 24h and then took a bus to Bangalore for our DTS (Disciple Training School).  While in Jangareddigudem, we attended the dedication of a church, visited the school construction site, and had a pastor’s meeting.  It was so wonderful to see a new church building completed, knowing that will be a place where many people will have the opportunity to meet God face to face.  We also visited the school site and were amazed at how much it had changed since our last visit in Jan.  It’s fabulous to see how the Lord in action, from the school site in Jan 2010 to now, in Oct 2011.

I have now been staying at Bangalore YWAM (Youth with a Mission) for just over a week.  We just finished our first week of class, and class was mind-opening and engaging.  I’ve met a few good friends here as well.  Some of my fears are coming true, however.  The roommate situation has been challenging, as I’m sharing a room and bathroom facilities with 3 individuals from a different cultural background.  They’re very sweet and are always sharing their food with me (brownie points!).  At the same time, they’re super energetic and hyper, and we have very different lifestyles.  When I go to bed at 11pm, they’re often still up and chatting and giggling.  I’ve usually been able to fall asleep, but I’ve been waken up in the middle of the night a few times.

Another thing I’m struggling with is the diet.  I was ecstatic about how cheap my tuition (including room and board) was for 5 months—a mere $950 USD.  Now I know why it’s so cheap.  The budget for our meals each day is a measly 66 cents!  The breakfast budget is 13 cents, and the lunch and dinner budget is 26.5 cents each.  Yes, things ARE cheaper in India, but not THAT much cheaper!  We basically eat a rice diet.  Our meal consists of a LOT of carbohydrates, some protein (in the form of lentils and sometimes chicken) and a tiny bit of vegetables in the form of the tomato and onion paste they use for the sauce of our curries.  I’ve been trying to supplement my diet by buying my own fruit.  Often times I spend $1 on fruit & I feel extravagant :P  Imagine that—$2/day for food!  This week, Catherine and I are going to try to cook some veggie dishes & keep them in the refrigerator to supplement our meals. 

Now I understand why it’s so cheap to sponsor a child in a developing country.  Yes, living expenses and food are cheaper in developing countries.  But it’s also so ridiculously cheap (usually $35-40/month) because the kids usually eat a rice diet.  They consume white rice to fill their bellies.

The internet has been frustrating me.  I have this 3G connection, but it’s SO absurdly slow.  Sometimes a page takes ages to load, and uploading pictures onto facebook is next to impossible.  One can spend a whole afternoon to upload 4 pictures.  I’m trying to figure out what times in the day will have faster connection speeds.

I’ve met some local kids that I’d like to reach out to.  They have had holiday from school this week because of a Hindu festival, and I’ve seen them roaming the streets barefoot a few times.  I was invited to visit their homes and have met their parents.  One family has a 10-year-old boy, 9-year old girl, and a 3-year-old boy.  The 2 older siblings take turns carrying their baby brother around.  For some reason, the baby brother doesn’t smile very much.  His long fingernails are caked with dirt, his hair is dirty, and his shirt torn.  When I asked his brother if I could hold him, the little one reached out his arms to me and instantly rested his head on my shoulders.  My heart melted.  I met their neighbours with a little boy and his 4-year-old sister.  This girl is bubbly and giggly.  Every time I leave her family, she starts wailing.  This family is from Andhra Pradesh, and it’s cool that I can communicate a little to them with my limited—very limited—Telugu (the provincial language of Andhra).

In general, I’m enjoying my time here, worshipping, intercessing, doing chores, and socializing.  There are 23 students in our class, so there are many different groups of people to hang out with.  We also have some characters in our class, so it makes things interesting. 

For more photos...

To view more photos of the ministry in India, please click on the links below.

Photos of Ministry in India

FIA (Faith in Action) India Missions Trip, Winter '11

God's Calling to India

Ok, now onto WHY I'm going to India and HOW I made this decision.  After I visited for the 1st time, I had a burning passion for India and I strongly identified with the ministry and their direction.  This passion not only did not fade over time, but it grew stronger as the days went by.  In fact, starting from last June, the Lord has spoken to me on 33 occasions through the Bible, songs, sermons, and even a dream!  Here are some exerpts from my journal:

Confirmation #4  Sunday Sermon

Hebrews 11

 ⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹

Pastor Theresa preached on Hebrews 11this my 1st Sun back at DICF.  The whole summer, voices of caution have been telling me that I should have more financial security before stepping out of my current situation.  Also, I thought a lot about how I don’t know much about Indian culture.  It’d be difficult to lose some of my rights and mobility as a woman in the West.  I also thought about how my living standards will drop drastically if I go to India.  I was thinking about whether I can stand not visiting Van once a year and whether I can stand having Indian food all the time.  His response is urging me to step out in faith away from my hometown like Abraham.  Moreover, He was telling me that Abraham followed God to the Promised Land, the place of God’s will, and lived “like a stranger in a foreign country.”  Furthermore, Abraham “lived in tents,” not in a luxurious and comfortable home. 
 

Confirmation #11-13: Sermon, song, blog

On Oct. 31, Pastor Theresa was out of town, so John shared about handing over our lives to Him and He will give us a new abundant life.  He illustrated this with a volunteer handing over an old plastic cup for a beautiful ceramic cup with a floral pattern.  He shared about Luke 9.

 ²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. ²⁵ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

I went home that Sun afternoon and googled Edwards' song "Arms Wide Open" to share with my good friend in Canada.  This is what I found:

If anybody’s looking for love in all the wrong places

If you’ve been searching for love, come to Me, come to Me

Take up your cross, deny yourself

Forget your father’s house and run, run with Me

You were made for abandonment, wholeheartedness

You were made for someone greater, someone bigger, so follow Me

And You’ll come alive when you learn to die

Confirmation of the same verse!

 Then I looked at Misty Edwards' website to see how I can buy her cds because I couldn't find them at any Christian bookstore last summer.  I clicked on a blog that looked interesting, about the meaning of life.  It's incredibly long, so I skimmed the 1st paragraph and quickly scrolled down the page and came across this:

"We must love the Way He loves if we are going to become His heart’s desire. In the gospels you hear the voice of the Bridegroom beckoning us into abandonment, “Take up your cross and follow Me. Leave it all behind and come after me. Say goodbye to houses and lands for my sake and follow Me.” This is the voice of a Bridegroom who gave all for the sake of love (Eph 5:29-32). Jesus Himself defined love like this “Greater love has no one than this, that to lay down one’s life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13) He loves us with all of His heart, soul, mind and strength and what He wants is a people yoked to Him in this kind of love. We are equally yoked to this shoreless ocean of Love not by the size of our love but by the all of our love. Though our all is small the point is all. He wants to be loved the way He loves, completely given in abandonment."

Confirmation once again!
Now me question is: follow you where, Lord?

Confirmation #25

Tues, Mar. 1^st , My dream

Be careful what you pray for because it’s gonna come to pass!   Starting from prior to the missions trip, I started praying for God’s heart.  I prayed that He would break my heart for what breaks His.  Also, after my friends visited, I started praying  for more signs.  Last Tues, the whole day, I had the song “Where You Go, I Go” stuck in my head.  The beginning of the lyrics go like this:

Where you go I go
What you say I say
What you pray I pray

That night, I decided to read a chapter from Living Water before sleeping.  I read “Working in God’s Harvest” before going to bed, and a line jumped out at me.  “Have you ever felt you would die unless you shared the goodness of Jesus Christ with others?  If not, it is time to kneel down and ask God to give you a fresh revelation of the joy and the presence of the Lord.” 

I had a dream that night.  I dreamed that Catherine and I were living on the top floor of a high-rise in China.  When I looked out the window, I saw the apartment grounds and  complex I’d normally see from the window of my apartment in Richmond, BC.  I was simultaneously in China and Canada.  I saw this lady in a sari (haha, an Indian woman in Richmond, of all places!) washing her laundry on the balcony and near here were some children from a minority group—they were wearing some traditional clothing & I thought they were maybe Tibetan.  The building they were in was burning, but they didn’t realize it.  We then caught the lady’s attention & notified her about the fire.  She disappeared from view.  This was when we realized that our building was also on fire.  Cath and I started to head to the stairs, but I was like, “wait, let me grab my money.  It’s light and I can easily carry it.”  We went back to grab our money, and then we went to the staircase again.  Then I wanted to go back and grab a book to read so I wouldn’t get bored while waiting for the fire fighters to combat the flames, but Cath decided to go ahead, so we agreed to meet at the bottom.  When I went back to our apartment, the whole building toppled over without collapsing or crumbling, and because I was on the top floor, it was relatively easy for me to get out.  I kicked a window open to escape.  I began searching for Catherine.  I kept running into people and asking them where Cath was.   Tears were streaming down my face and then I began sobbing as I searched.

I woke up at with tears on my face.  Immediately, I knew that the burning buildings represent the world and how time is ticking.  I felt the presence of numerous Indians—especially the woman in a sari—confirms my call to India.  Cath represented God’s beloved people that are unsaved and lost.  God wanted me to understand how He feels about His lost sheep. 

If I’m crying over Cath—the lost ones—how much more is God crying over his people?  I then opened Living Water & the text I read all connected with my dream.  When I found the paragraph with the piercing question aforementioned, I noticed the paragraph above it:

When a person first comes to faith in Jesus Christ and is radically transformed, that person is overcome with joy and can’t wait to tell his family and friends about his experiences.  Such a person does not have to force himself to do this, for it is the most natural thing in the world.  The desire to serve God is not something a Christian has to conjure up in his own strength.  If a person escapes from a burning house, will he not do all he can to help those still trapped inside? (my italics)

Confirmation #27

Late Mar, ’11, Pastor Bill’s Visit

After the sermon, the pastor told a story about his son in the World Trade Center when 911 happened.  When his son was escaping from the 84th floor carrying his secretary, he saw firefighters heading up.  He informed them that it was hell up there, but they said that they were willing to die to save lives from the burning building.  This story totally connected to my dream about saving people from a burning building.   I teared up thinking about God’s heart for those people & I also involuntarily shuddered because of the similarity between Pastor Bill’s story and my dream.  God wants us to run into the burning fire (what many people of the world would think of as an enormous sacrifice and a waste of our lives) to save souls.

Anyhow, these are just a few of the confirmations the Lord has given to me, calling me to India long term.  Now I'm just stepping forward in faith, trusting that He'll provide for all my needs and that there is hope in His calling (another verse He gave me as confirmation)!

What, you're going to INDIA?

This is the most common reaction I get when I tell people that I've quit my well-paying job at Maple Leaf International School in Dalian, China and am saying goodbye to my travel lifestyle (14 weeks of vacation a year is a pretty sweet deal) to go volunteer in India.

What brings me to India?  Well, ever since I was a teenager, my dream was to build an orphanage or school for the impoverished.  I saw 2 possible paths for my life.  One was settling down in Vancouver and purchasing a Toyota Yaris (yes, I already knew which car I liked); the other, doing Christian humanitarian work overseas.  My mom always told me that I had to learn Chinese so I could go help the impoverished in China when I grew up.  As the years passed by, I found myself getting more and more involved in philanthropic work.  I organized World Vision's 30h famine in my high school and university years, volunteered with underpriviledged children from the inner city with Union Gospel Mission, and distributed Christmas presents for people who were homeless in downtown Eastside.  After I graduated from the UBC Education program, I got a job with Maple Leaf in Dalian, and I thought that I was on my way to working with the less fortunate in China.

When I was in Dalian, I looked for opportunities to reach out to those in need both in my community and in the impoverished areas  in China.  Catherine (the wonderful roommate the Lord blessed me with) and I started the Maple Leaf Angels club.   Our club distributed Christmas shoeboxes to the underpriviledged in our community, fundraised for a local orphanage, and had an English reading buddy program with the local middle school.  I searched for an organization that I could identify with--one that shared my vision and faith.

Handing out Christmas presents to junior high students.  We made more than 80 gifts last year.

Baking to fundraise for various charities.

Last winter vacation, Catherine and I travelled in India for 3 weeks.  Prior to going to India, we prayed that God would provide the opporutnity for us to serve people and glorify Him.  When we told our church members that we were going to India, they excitedly asked if we were going to visit Grace and Aish.  I would always hesistatingly reply, "um maybe we'll see them there, but India is a big country..."  Frankly speaking, I wasn't planning to go visit them because I felt we were just acquaintances and I didn't want to inconvenience them.  Church people, however, gave us a bunch of stuff to bring to them.  I thought we'd just mail it once we got to India.

After we arrived in India, we realized that Hyderabad (where Grace and Aish were) was on our way to southern India, where we were going to spend most of our time.  We decided to stop by Hyderabad for a night to deliver the goods and be on our way the next day after church.  God had other plans for us. 

We stayed at a YWAM (Youth With a Mission) base our 1st night in Hyderabad.  This was quite a miracle, as I had been very interested in DTS (Disciple Training School) with YWAM since 2007.  Grace convinced us to stay an extra night at the base and then to visit her hometown, Jangareddigudem. 

Visiting Jangareddigudem was a huge turning point in my life.

The team that was serving there was a huge inspiration to me.  The selfless way they loved others and helped the less fortunate deeply touched me.  (Ok, this blog is gonna be much longer than I anticipated because of all the background info I'm getting into :P) Basically, Grace's dad started the ministry as a missionary doctor.  Grace's dad would go from village to village spreading the gospel and giving free consultations and treatments.  As the numbers of believers increased, they would plant a church there.  After he passed away, Grace's brother Vimal became the overseer of the ministry.  There were 12 pastors in their network, and they pastored the village churches that Grace's dad was able to plant through medical outreach.  There were 10 kids living with their family, and their mom took care of these boys.  They also had a senior's home where the volunteer cook prepared food and took care of the 11 seniors.  The seniors couldn't afford to support themselves, as they only received $2 a month from the government. 

Grace and Vimal's mom with the boys

Medical outreach in a remote village

On our second and last day in Jangareddigudem, Vimal took us to a plot of land where they wanted to build a school for orphans and the impoverished.  Cath and I decided to fundraise at home in Vancouver last summer to raise support to build the school.  By the grace of God, the money we raised combined with money from BridgeStones international was sufficient to build this school.  Now the school is under construction!

Blueprints for the school

Vimal on the land designated for the school

Yea!  When I go back in late Sept, I can participate in the construction of the school!