Leprosy, Asraya and Village Outreach (= Par-tay!)

We had a crazy-busy day today!

We served breakfast to 5 communities of people who suffer from leprosy (they all arrived this morning at our doorstep. Will eventually post pictures of the tents that were put up on the road in front of and the "lawn" across from where we are staying).

After breakfast, we then went to spend one more afternoon with the women from Asraya. We were really excited to be able to share our hearts with them again, but also to be able to give them some small gifts (pictures of themselves, perfume samples, and bracelets).

We had a very quick stop to purchase some "Punjammies" -- these are the pajama pants that the women make in cooperation with the Princess Project (I think that's what it's called) in order to make a living. They can only sell the things that they make overseas since no one in India will purchase items made by women who were once prostitutes.


Afterwards, we raced home, took a quick bathroom break, and then travelled (I'm guessing it took about 1.5 hrs) to a village where we dedicated a well (funded by Jolene's church in Brantford), enjoyed some dinner, and then celebrated and shared the Gospel with many of the people who live in the village.

Honestly, the bus ride was one of the highlights for me! Our team + the Harvest India staff all crammed into one bus and somehow started a sing-along where we would sing something in English and the HI staff would then sing something in Indian for us. There was one song in particularly that we all really enjoyed and after some (but not too much) convincing, Ravi agreed to teach us the actions (as well as the meaning) of the song. We were then able to "perform" it for the village (while our Harvest India staff sang the words). So. Much. Fun!!


Last night was also a lot of fun. After having spent the afternoon with the Mother India youth, we eventually made our way to Suresh and Christina's house for dinner. It was Diwali yesterday (google it), so we celebrated with copious amounts of (dangerous and often unpredictable) fireworks! Whoo! I had as much fun watching the guys as I did watching the "crackers"! They were hilarious. They were having so much fun playing with the fireworks, running around, squealing, giggling and literally jumping up and down with excitement.

The food was AMAZING; the people were wonderful... definitely a great way to celebrate the festival.

We also enjoyed serving dinner to the boys from the Quarry school -- my goodness, children eat A LOT.


Can't think of anything else but mostly wanted to let y'all know that we will not have Internet access after tomorrow. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We have two days to spend with the women from House of Grace and Freedom Centre (similar to Asraya), as well as three days of a women's conference that we are hosting. Please ask that we would continue to see God moving! We are also trusting that we will remain safe as we travel to Peddapuram (not sure on the spelling) where we will be staying until it's time to head home / out on independent adventures.


See you in a few weeks!

Mother India

Have you heard of / watched the Mother India documentary that came out a couple of months ago?

We met the "stars" of the show today and were excited to be able to serve them some food and then to hang out with them and to hear some of their stories.

In (VERY) brief -- this is a community of kids who live on the streets of Tenali (near the train station). The documentary was put together by a couple of guys who wanted to see what it was like for kids on the streets in India. The people putting together the video did so originally with no intention to DO anything to change the way that the kids live, but when they saw that there were two very young children who had recently been taken in by this group, they contacted Suresh at Harvest India. As a community, these kids wanted to stay together, but with their blessing, Harvest India is in the process of adopting the two youngest children who the group felt would benefit more from being in Harvest India's care than from remaining with them.


Sarah and I were chatting while walking back from this encounter and we both agreed that one of the highlights of this adventure was how low-key the whole thing was. We were able to just sit and hang out with these kids for quite some time after we'd all eaten.


One of the women (you can see in the picture below) is pregnant now (she's standing beside her husband in the photo). Cathy (who works at a pregnancy centre at home) and Mel (who used to), took this woman aside and were able to speak with her (through a translator) about her pregnancy and about Jesus. We are so excited because this girl has not only agreed to come in for regular health check-ups with the Harvest India doctor/nurses, but will also begin to attend church on Sundays because... drum roll... she made the decision to ask Jesus into her heart and life. Whoo!

Visiting the Elderly

We were sooooooo blessed yesterday to have the opportunity to visit one of six homes for elderly Indian men and women. These are often people whose families have died or, just as frequently, whose families have taken their property and their money and have then kicked them out and refused to care for them. There is not a space in India for the elderly. Harvest India takes them in (many of the folks they take in are from a Muslim or Hindu background) and provides them with food, shelter and a loving community.

The home that we went to is currently housing 13 men and women. This visit was probably one of the biggest highlights for me so far. There was one woman who reminded me of my own grandmother (my dad's mom) -- she looked pretty frail but was quite strong, she was VERY enthusiastic (when everyone else said "Hallelujah" and raised their hands, she consistently shouted, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Haaaaaa-llelujah!!!" and waved her arms around with gusto). After sharing a bit of her story with us, she then started singing and dancing for a minute or two for us. She was funny and moving and sweet -- so many things. Most of us just wanted to take her home with us. 

A few of them shared their stories with us and each time it was very moving to hear just how grateful they were for what little they have (while Harvest India provides for their needs, this is literally all that they have --  a bed, food, and some people around them who love them). Most of them recognize Jesus as Lord after having moved into the homes and so they then become the prayer warriors for Harvest India. 

There was another sweet woman who was pinching all of our cheeks and noses and who thought it was great fun to tickle Brian (for like 5 minutes -- love it!)

At any rate, I absolutely loved the time that we spent praying and laughing with, hugging, and taking pictures of these precious people.

Yesterday afternoon while Chris did some teaching at a local Bible school, some of the girls went shopping and a few of us stayed back to prepare for our next ministry time with the women at Asraya. Sarah and I are really excited about meeting with them tomorrow. She and I, as well as Eva, will be sharing what God has placed on our hearts for them. Please remember us in your prayers! Please pray that God would continue to break down walls that may be in place between us and the women we want to love & serve. We are so grateful that God is with us and goes before us -- preparing our hearts and preparing the women of Asraya for what He will do. Whoo!!

Will try to post an update before we move on to Pedappuram but I can't guarantee that I'll have the time.

We will also be meeting with women at the House of Grace and Freedom Centre which are similar ministries to Asraya. Please pray, again, for Sarah and I as we plan and prepare for our time with these women!

And now... a few pictures (however many I have time to upload...)

Motorcycle rides!

Sewage (it's  not in pipes underground here... this is another reason why flooding can be so detrimental here):

One of our favourite quiet places: 

Marketplace: 

Cow. In the middle of that ^ Marketplace. A few minutes after this, it lay down. In the middle of the road.

Harvest India prayer warriors (woman in front of first image is now commonly known as the "Hallelujah woman"; the woman in blue and green behind her is the one who loved to pinch our cheeks/noses and tickle us... Brian, especially.):

Anything for a photo... :)

Sunday Blessings

It's been a pretty amazing/intense/crazy/exhausting/exciting few days!

I'll try to fill y'all in on as much as possible, starting with today, but we'll see how long I can type before it's time to head to bed...


It's Sunday evening now, and we had a great day today. Our team split up to attend two churches this morning and were then able to spend the rest of the afternoon getting some much needed time to rest! I can't speak for everyone else, so you're stuck (again) with my own take on the day...

I had a bit of an upset stomach this morning (along with a fair number of others on our team -- none of us think it's anything in particular that is causing our discomfort, just a combination of new foods, inconsistent sleep, lots of sun/heat, etc.) but took some drugs and prayed that I would be able to make it through an entire church service without having to run to a bathroom. This was particularly important given that our team was to sit up front for the duration of the service and bathrooms are not as easy to come by in the smaller villages as they are on the Harvest India campus.

At any rate, we arrived after the service had started (apparently this is pretty standard practice) and walked in during one of the worship songs. I absolutely love the Indian-style worship. It is SO different from our music at home, but still very beautiful. I wasn't aware until we arrived that we were visiting the church that is pastored by one of our favourite Harvest India translators, Daniel! He's a pretty busy guy, it seems! He works with Harvest India quite a bit (he's been one of our primary translators this trip), in addition to pastoring this church in his village, teaching at the Bible College, AND to top it off, he (along with his wife and sister) also run a small orphanage in his village.

Anyway. So that was an exciting surprise. Daniel had us introduce ourselves, and then the kids sang some songs for us (SO CUTE!!). One of our team members shared a brief testimony and Brian (!) preached a short message. It was quite the service! I was supposed to pray after Brian's talk but was finding myself overwhelmed (and unsure if I could stand long enough to pray without either throwing up or passing out -- not sure if it was the heat, the food, or if it was just God informing me that I wasn't meant to pray) so another of our team members prayed instead :)

We (and all those in attendance) were then given a handful of this crunchy, salty snack food (delicious!) after which we walked out and prayed for / blessed each person in the church. I love how much these people love to be prayed with / touched. They are such beautiful, precious people. Just before we got up to do that, however, this one little girl walked up to me, took off the necklace that she was wearing, and proceeded to tie it around my neck. Whoa.

It was such a strange moment -- on the one hand, it was so incredible that this little girl would share something like that with me. On the other hand, it was also very difficult to accept, knowing that this was likely something very precious to her. At any rate, I was totally overwhelmed.

After we'd prayed for the people in the church community, we were able to enjoy lunch with who I assume are the leaders of the church. SO GOOD. We were also honoured in that one of the menu items was beef (which they would have had to have killed in secret at some point -- beef is rarely served here as it is quite expensive and difficult to obtain). To top things off, just before we left, Daniel and his brother presented each of us with a beautiful wooden cross to hang in our homes and remember him and his church by. Definitely couldn't keep the tears in at that point.


I just can't get over the generosity/servant hearts of the people we meet here. I feel like we are walking away with so much more than we could ever hope to give. I'm grateful, however, that we are seeing God at work and are constantly being reminded that none of this is about us.

I had a brief conversation with one of the men (Peter) who we see a lot around the house where we're staying and he told me that he was an orphaned child (at the age of 1) who was adopted by Suresh and Christina (they run Harvest India). He then told me (very excitedly) that he has his own family now. A wife and two children -- a son who is three and a daughter who is a year and a half. He has finished Bible College through Harvest India and is serving with them until he is called by God to pastor his own church.



So Sunday... we went to church and by the time we were back at the guest house where we're staying it was about 4pm. I took a nap, we had some time to debrief once the other team arrived back (around 4:30), and otherwise we were able to spend our evening just relaxing and continuing to get to know one another.


Saturday (yesterday), the highlight was definitely visiting the Mercy Camp. Harvest India provides food for the poorest people in this area every Saturday morning and so this week we were given the opportunity to serve that food. We were then introduced to the doctor who provides free health care and medication to these people and to pray for him and for those who were in the health centre while we were there. What an amazing man!


On Friday we spent the morning playing games with the children at the elementary school. I was super excited to find out (afterwards) that the game Heather and I taught (human knot) was a totally new game both to the children and to the translators. We'd thought they would like it (they really love to touch and be touched...), and were happy to hear that we were right! The kids were so sweet -- we really just had a TON of fun spending time with them. I also had a great time taking pictures!!! It's soooo much fun taking pictures of people who really want to have their picture taken! Kids were constantly coming up and saying, "one photo? one photo?" which really meant "as many photos as I can convince you to take of me?" I can't wait to post 'em for you! It'll have to wait 'til I get home though. Internet is reliable but not particularly fast.

In the afternoon on Friday we spent time with the Asraya (pronounced Ash-ray-ah) women. The most touching thing, for me, was when one of the women, as we were walking from their sewing room to the courtyard where we would spend our time together, grabbed hold of my hand (with both of her hands) and just would not let go. She held on to my hand as we walked, and as was sat down, and for pretty much an hour seemed to want nothing more than to continue holding my hand. Again, I was just overwhelmed by the ways in which love is so often expressed in something so seemingly simple as seeing, hearing, and touching.


I feel like words don't come close to doing justice to what we've experienced so far... But God is alive and active in India and we are so so so grateful for the many opportunities that we've had to be witness to what He is doing here in and through Harvest India.

Blessings, friends!

WiFi @ Harvest India

We have arrived at Harvest India's main campus and are settled in (and now just about ready for bed!). We were pleasantly surprised to discover that there is indeed wireless Internet which means that we'll all be able to touch base with friends & family back home on a pretty regular basis (that said, power is not always the most reliable or consistent thing -- it is often out for full days at a time).

Our travels today went well -- we began with a slow morning of breakfast (a little spicier than my usual breakfast food but the chai tea was AMAZING) and then met together as a team. I was super excited about this first meeting together because for the first time it felt like we all really started to open up and connect with one another. I'm looking forward to getting to know the rest of the team and am excited about how the diversity that we bring to the table!

Tomorrow we will be visiting the elementary school in the morning and then spending time with the women at Asraya in the afternoon. We'll also have the opportunity to be fitted for some Indian-style clothing.

Please pray that we will all get a good night's rest (and seriously praise God for the A/C that all of our rooms are equipped with!). Most importantly, please pray for the children we'll be visiting at the school and for the women of Asraya. We are asking God to help us to love them well and to reveal himself both to those we are spending time with and to us. We are so excited and have felt very blessed so far by the incredible hospitality of our Indian hosts (we were all honoured with lei's -- think Hawaii but instead of plastic, they're made with a LOT of real leaves and flowers which smell sooo good).

I've learned one word so far... "Vun-dah--lam-ah-nu" is how it sounds. I have no idea how to spell it. It means THANK YOU. I found myself saying it so frequently that it didn't make sense to not ask how to say it in their language.

Anyway. It's super late now (like 1am) and so off to bed I go!