Megan here, the whole team traveled up to Calcutta and has spent the last day 3 days partnering with different ministries here. 11 of the team members left last night to travel back to Nebraska. Lori and I traveled up to Chandigrah to visit her aunt and uncle. Caleb and Melissa remain in Calcutta for 6 more days. Yesterday morning we had our trip debriefing and everyone summarized the trip in 2 or so sentences. So here most of them are....
Ashley: It was very hard to see the skinny children and the poverty and sex slave trade, but it was also great because it was very challenging for me. It was also encouraging because I was able to see how God has used us with Uddamarry to help change the lives of the children and bring huge smiles to their faces.
Amy: I feel like it was a successful vision trip for my future. I now know that God has called me to bind up the brokenhearted, set the captives freem and release the prisoner in Jesus' name (Isaiah 61:1)...specifically by helping women in the sex salve trade gain physical and spiritual freedom.
Megan: I have seen God's hand at work in the hard and dark places; the slums, streets, and villages of India. But those places is where His light and glory are more radiant and visible than I have ever seen before.
Jon: It has been an experience in which my eyes were opened to some great and terrible things going on around the world. In turn it has caused me to ask why and check my self for who I am and what I want to be.
Melissa: It was a trip that was heavy and hard and not only showed me the reality of peoples pian, but made it personal for me. But in the midst of the darkness and desperation I saw glimpses of light and life poking through the cracks of the Kingdom. I want to make those cracks bigger.
Roxanne: I have seen darkness previously I've only read about and I'm seeking God for what to do with what i know. The streets of Infia have my prayer and whatever He tells me to do but UDDAMARRI HAS MY HEART!
Lori: I was allowed to see proof that our Uddamarry relationships are stronger than ever. I was allowed to see a strong beam of hope shining out of a really dark hopeless situation by a hope-giving God.
Logan: Once you see the complete pverty all the distractions that consume our thoughts and lives fall away and you see Jesus all the more clearly through the smiles on dirty faces, the stories of redemption and all the little things which God shines so brightly.
Ryan: Seeing all the poverty in India, it seemed that it would be hard to see God in the midst, but you can see little glimpses of God moving through India. Our team made a difference and a huge impact on the lives in India. God did amazing things!
Paula: There was alot of hard things to see and comprehend in my mind but God is here in India. The contrast of light and dark is very clear.
Caleb: I saw the face of Christ in the people I met from the HIV+ in Thane to the children in Uddmarry to the prostitutes in Calcutta. It's hard to want to go back to school when there is so much immediate need but I believe God is going to use all of me through medicine.
Anthony: I don't think I can summarize the trip in 2 sentences but if I had to I would say: It is amazing to see God's love reaches around the world in the hearts of people. I feel so privileged to have met in schools, slums, and villages. God gave our team great endurance and strength and I am excited to see what the fire in our hearts is after this. TII - This Is India and God is here!
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Prayer
Here is how you can be praying for us.
- 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 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 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.
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