wrapping up

Well. It has nearly been 2 months since my team and I stepped foot on Indian soil amped to see what God had in store. I was amped to be back in a country God has been placing heavily on my heart the last year and a half, and pretty naive to how different this year was about to be. It's been real eye-opening this season, as last year I somehow seemed to see only the good things in India. This year has been a reality check, and thinking about long-term life in India God seems to be showing me what it could involve, good and bad. India's an amazing country, with some of the most beautiful, colorful, hospital people I know. And boy. how the local churches blow me away each time I see their passion in worshipping and praying to Papa. It's also a challenging country. Rubbish is in abundance, and the pollution in the metropolitan cities is said to be like smoking 10 cigarettes a day. Having breathed in pollution the last 2 months, my lungs burning as they strain to find just a slice of the clean air I grew up with, my cold only worsening even though I've had it for 7 weeks, I can tell you that the air is indeed like smoking 10 cigarettes per day. We spend alot of time living among locals and did not see other white people for days at a time. In this areas we faced the language barrier, which can make simple things like finding a broom to do your work duty with exhausting. We left convenience behind-at times, the internet was a 15 minute walk, 15 minute train ride, and 15 minutes more walking away. We gave up personal space-I'll never forget the day Martin and I stepped onto what we thought was a full train, hanging on the edge, only to have someone grab me and shove me in as 10 more ppl also wanted on to the train. We gave up silence-the horns, dog barking, yells of shop owners wanting our money, yells of "chai, chai, chai coffee" on the train never seem to end.

But it was totally worth it.

Because through all this we were blessed to be a blessing, and to be blessed. We had the privilege of worshipping and praying and just plain hanging out with God's children in another nation. We had the privilege to tell children in an orphanage how much their heavenly Father loves them. To lay hands and pray for healing. To tell other travellers about our amazing God. To have our horizons massively expanded. The list could go on and on...

But internet time's up. I'm excited to be back in NZ in a few days, from where I shall post more as I process more. Bless you!