Untouchable No More: We're back and what a trip it was!

8.02.2008

We're back and what a trip it was!

We're home...well, at least those of us that were Lincoln bound and the Norfolk bunch should be shortly. We managed to squeeze a 36 hour trip into 51. Our intended trip of Hyderabad to Frankfurt to Washington D.C to Chicago to Omaha turned into Hyderabad for 3 hours more than we anticipated onto Dubai to London to D.C where we stayed the night on the cold concrete

floor of the airport terminal before heading to Chicago on a flight that was also delayed by weather and then sprinting through O'Hare to catch our next flight on to Omaha which they held up 30 minutes for us, which was kind of them because we might still be there if they hadn't. Evidently there was a strike by some employees on one of the airlines we were supposed to fly and a flight got canceled so we had to be re routed. It was a mess but we made it a little weary and our heads spinning a bit but we're here. Some of us head back to work on Monday, some are getting ready to start school or enter her freshman year, other's are looking for a job. I know I have much to say to wrap up, but it might be a couple of days before I can put all the words together, so check back. Hopefully (and I haven't talked this over with the team yet, but I hope they will do this) other members of the team will share some final thoughts as well. I also intend to get some more photos and maybe even a video or two up. It will be good stuff I promise. I don't know what will happen with this blog between now and the next trip, but we hope to keep it active, so don't be a stranger, check back every now and again. I hope you all enjoyed reading it, we sure enjoyed living it and bringing it to you!

- Dave

1 comment:

Pam Speidel said...: WoW, what a trip! When you get rested up, we would love to see more photos and hear more about your work and ministry there. Thank you for sharing the experience with all of us. Smiles, Pam :); August 2, 2008 at 8:49 PM

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Prayer

Here is how you can be praying for us.

- Pray for the Freedom of those oppressed by the Hindu caste in India.

- Pray for the continued support of the school. It is growing rapidly and despite all the expansion they've seen in facilities they're quickly outgrowing their facilities. They have big dreams to expand, pray for the support and funding to make it happen. It won't be on their own, they'll need a lot of help, but God has been faithful to provide thus far.

- Pray for the continued advance of the Gospel in an ever increasingly oppressed land.

Praise

Here is what we are praising God for

- We came together as a team. Held together by our Creator, we became a close-knit bunch.

- The school continues to grow! And there is no student in India who is getting a better education. (We may be a little biased but after seeing it first hand, I wouldn't doubt if it were true.) They continue to add students and teachers and have been able to expand the opportunities to teach and educate. And their dreams for the future are big!

- The Gospel is advancing!

much more to come...

Who we are

We are a group of adults and students from Nebraska who have been introduced to the idea that we are involved in an invisible world called the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ invited us to join Him on this narrow road that leads to a greater joy and fruit. Consequently being ruined for 'normal' living!

In 2003 we learned that there were millions of Indian Dalit who were cutting social and religious ties with Hinduism. The Christian Church offered what help they could. 'Educate our children' was the request. 'Even if our world-view is Biblical?' was asked. 'Yes!' was the response. So a group of Christian organizations committed themselves to operating schools for Dalit children. Our group knows a good challenge when we hear one. And this was big. More than 200 high school and college kids raised the money to build a school in 4 months!

The following summer it was decided we should go see where the school would be built and become acquainted with the teachers and students who were studying in a rented cattle barn. Hearing the teachers and leaders tell us that we were the first Americans they had met who 'followed' their money made us see this relationship differently. God had prompted us to send some money, but He was also very interested in us having our own lives change.

Each year we have taken a team of 10 or so to be in the school for a week. We plant ourselves in the classrooms to watch the teachers creatively educate these swarms of beautiful and unruly children with very few props. To watch the children grow and become brilliant and bilingual!

We return from our time there with our value system tweaked. We are more grateful for what we have, less consumer-oriented. We find that we are really impatient with ourselves for being petty or self-absorbed. India haunts us because we find that the same Spirit that is growing us up in Him here is at work there wrestling people away from death and slavery.