it's all about the little things!

This past week God has been teaching me a lot about patience and grace. Things usually don't go as planned here in India. Our days are often filled with lots of waiting, traveling, and improvising new plans if old plans fall through. It's often during these moments that I ask God, "Why am I here?" "Did you really send me halfway across the world to spend so much time hanging out with people?" Why yes. Yes He did. I'm here to love and during this waiting I get to love on women, kids, or people in the street! This waiting also leads to wonderful conversations that would not have happened otherwise. For example, on Tuesdays and Thursdays we teach a Bible story at the after school program in a slum. The first day was amazing. There were 100 kids packed into a room all beaming! We had countless kids call us 'auntie' or 'aca' which is a respectful term for an older person or sister. And then...the best part came. 100 kids sang, no...shouted, praises to the Lord both in English and Tamil. It was quite possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever heard in my life. Talk about joy and gladness..these kids have got it! Then we came back on Tuesday and God tested my patience and my grace. First, Darci and I waited to teach the little kids. and waited... Then we finally got to teach but I'm not sure a single child was listening, it was madness. Then we headed over to the older girls class but it started down pouring. Between the wind, rain, and squeals of all the girls it was impossible to hear anything. So we joined the boys but it was so crowded and loud that no lesson was taught. I was pretty bummed because I really have started to form relationships with some of the older girls. BUT! God still had a pretty awesome plan. During that time I got to sit and chat with about 5 of the older girls. We talked about how sin came (which was going to be our lesson) and why God had to send his Son. They were all full of questions and very open to talking about faith. Two told me they were Christian and the other three were Hindu. One girl pulled out her Bible and I showed her my favorite passage and she marked it to read! This is a small step, but it's an awesome step that wouldn't have occurred had things gone according to our plans.

This week God has reminded me that it really is all about the little things. God has given me something wonderful to learn or experience each day. On Monday, we had the opportunity to play games with the AIDS patients which was so fun! They were so happy and it was a blessing to see them smile, clap, cheer, and laugh because that's not exactly the norm around there. My joy came from helping one girl walk back to her room. Small thing, right? but so much joy. Her left side is partially paralyzed so it's very difficult for her on her own so I got to hold her hand and talk with her a bit. I learned she has two children living at a nearby orphanage and I'm not sure if her husband is living anymore so she has been in my thoughts and prayers often lately...she's the sweetest.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday it was great to hang out with the women at the stitching center and see relationships beginning to form. Two of them are teaching me all I need to know about how to survive in India :) There are three younger girls there too so that's been cool to be able to hang out with them as well.

Friday we served at the hospital again. One girl sang beautifully to us and we were blessed with some good, broken English conversations. All we know in Kanada is 'channagiday' which means good or pretty so we say that allllll the time and people always laugh at us. We also spent the afternoon at the aftercare center. Instead of teaching a lesson we just told them how Jesus came to serve us so we wanted to serve them that day because we love and care about them. For some reason, when Jill explained that to them it almost brought tears to my eyes because even though I barely know these women I really do love and care about each of them! We painted each others nails and I got to know some of the women better. One women is transitioning to another center so it's very cool to see God at work in the lives of these women! He truly is bringing redemption and restoration even though it can be a slow and long process. God is at work in this city!

Prayers for this week:
- I'm doing so well and this finally feels like home but satan seems to attack me in the quiet moments in the house so pray that God sustains me during those moments! This does not happen often, but when it does I often don't feel well physically or spiritually which is difficult to work through.
- that God continues to work in India! We've met a lot of different young people from the States here this week and it's so cool to see God working through this generation. Lately my prayer is that our generation would bring a revival, not only in India, but until the ends of the earth are reached.
- continued growth for the women in the aftercare center, both mentally and spiritually
- open hearts at the stitching center. I often get to pray for the women there and it's so interesting to see some praying to God alone and some Hindus praying fervently, but simply to one of their gods.
- we have a short term team coming this week so pray for their safe travels and that God would prepare their hearts
- and finally, that God would lead here and we would follow his calling. Our team cannot do it by our own strength, and when we try, God always reminds us! His thoughts are higher than our and His ways our higher than ours so pray that we would listen to His thoughts and follow His ways.


- Kels