This was supposed to be done 5 days ago, that would have made the title make a lot more sense. But alas, in the beautiful and sometimes frustrating world of India, sometimes there is no internet connection for some unknown reason and sometimes there is no electricity (or ‘current’) for the same mysterious reason.
That being said…
100 days down, 82 to go…or as I write this, 105 days down, 77 to go.
This has been a remarkable, incredible and amazing journey of faith, of trust, of fear…everything. This has been the full package. This has run the gamut of emotions. In many ways, I have been looking forward to going home since the day we left…and in many ways, I feel like I could stay here forever with my Indian brothers and sisters.
I’ve tried to think of ways to effectively tell the story of what happens here…of every day life. In a lot of ways life is radically different here when the team (which comes in 10 short days!) is not here. Finally, last week I think I have a story that helps to tell the story a little bit.
I was folding laundry off the clothes line and a little boy named Keshore came by to chat. We talked a little while…or we talked as much as a 35 year old man from the United States who speaks fluent English as his only language can talk to a 6 year old little boy from India who barely speaks fluent Tamil and knows about 30 words in English. I asked him about his school work and what he liked to do and he sheepishly smiled when I told him that he was a very handsome boy and was very smart. It was obvious that Keshore just wanted to hang out. So he did. As I was getting close to finishing the laundry, Keshore grabbed one of the socks from the pile and neatly folded it in half and presented it to me.
Is this the cutest story ever? Yeah…probably. But it has a much greater purpose for the 100 day wrapup. The attitude here is “when one wins, we all win…” By that I simply mean that these people are in this together. They support each other, they root for each other, when one of them has something, they all have it and when one of them is without, they are all without.
There is a sense of unity here that I have never experienced before outside of my own family. This community (and wow…community has a new meaning to me here) bands together like few people can or do.
In the first 100 days…I am proud to say that we have become a part of this incredible community.
The children:
This trip is all about the kids. They have been amazing since the start. They have accepted us into their community like no other. Our goal when we got here was to show them how much they are loved by God…by us and by the sponsors back at home. They have shown us the same. It’s a beautiful story when people who have nearly NOTHING in common get together and become a loving family. We literally have hardly anything in common except for our faith…and THAT has been the building block of some of the most incredible relationships any of us have experienced.
The class:
One of our main objectives was to teach an English class. One problem: I had never taught anything in my life! I needed to become an effective teacher in the span of about 3 days. Passion does some crazy things…I worked my butt off to do the best I could for these kids who were counting on me. Now…there’s spoken English class every single day at school for about 390 kids (something that I don’t THINK was the intention but once it got started, it went really well!).
As a matter of fact, the class is going and has gone so well that there has been a teacher’s class added 3 times a week for about 8-10 of the staff. I looked in an advertisement recently and saw that a spoken English class that was offered locally in Dharmapuri was 6 sessions for $240 US Dollars! I like this advertisement better: Spoken English Class, 15 weeks, 45 sessions…FREE…because we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Free…because God has called us to give and to use opportunities to share our faith. God tells us to put our faith into action and so this is the way we’re being used right now.
The ministry:
There are so many stories I could tell about how we have been treated since we’ve been here. I will start with this one: I was asked to give a Christmas message at the local church in town. Not going to lie…I was a little intimidated when I looked out into the sea of faces and saw hundreds of people who did not speak my native language. I silently prayed and proceeded to give a message based on the Christmas story uniting us. That even though we look different and have different cultures and are from different background, we are united in Christ.
At the end of the service, they called Michelle and I up to the front of the church to present us with a special gift. They had given us a suitcase with their church’s name and logo on it. The pastor said: “This bag is for you. Inside it is empty but know that it is filled with our prayers and our love for you and your family. It is an honor for us to give this to our brother and sister in Christ”. WOW. Just WOW. The only mistake the pastor made is that the bag is not empty at all. That bag is overflowing! I don’t know how it is even able to be closed.
The conclusion:
This place is incredible. It’s amazing and I can’t wait to tell you about it in person! The first 100 days were everything I had hoped it would be and so much more! It has challenged me in ways I never thought possible. It has challenged my faith…it has challenged nearly everything I have ever believed about myself and about God.
It will break my heart to leave. It will break my heart to hug Sandia, Suganya, Gayathri, Yogesh and EVERYONE for the last time. I’m sure tears will roll when I am forced to say goodbye to Freena and Backi.
And then my mourning will turn into dancing when I see my mom and dad waiting for me in Terminal 6 of JFK airport.
I have 2 families now…and I love them both dearly.
Here’s to an amazing 105 days….I can’t wait to see what happens in the next 77.
Coming soon: The Christmas wrapup (AMAZING celebration!!)
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