INDIA182: Day 178 debrief. . .

THERE ARE 4 DAYS LEFT!!!

Asl;dfkjaslkfj as;ldkfjas; ldfkja;sldkfjas;dlfk PRIASE THE LORD FOR HIS FAITHFULNESS TILL THIS POINT AND ONWARDS!!

Thinking about it now, it still seems so surreal that I’ve almost made it for 6 months in India and the torn feeling of the excitement to see my family and looking to the places I’ve been and seeing how much more needs to be done. I’ll be back India! Very very soon!!

So on this lovely Sunday in the city of Jaipur, India, the Martins’ family, Gage, and I set out for church. Both of the girls were still dead in sleep from the jetlag and lack of sleep on the plane, so we didn’t bother them.

Simon took us to an Anglican church with stain glass windows and well dressed people, while Gage and I came in with the only close-to-fancy clothes we had: jeans and a buttoned up shirt. Haha

After the service, all of the congregation went out to have a good cup of chai and chatted in the courtyard. Simon filled me in on who every one was and his connection with the church and leaders. As we got back home, the girls were awake and partially confused on where we were in the morning. Haha Since the girls haven’t really gone anywhere in the city, the boys and I invited them to come to the park with us while we venture on our 3^rd day of skating!

It was a wonderful day to head out and take a stroll. The weather was perfect and the sun was just starting to set as arrived to the park. I quietly prayed for these peeps that were with me and the season they were stepping into with Jesus. It was great to just be out there with them; enjoying the end of the day.

And of course there was a movie night to totally wear us out. BUT no one would mind because it’s BATMAN!

Tomorrow. Kite Day. Too legit to quit.

Prayer Requests:

– please continue praying for the students that have come for this DTS to be filled with the love of God and shown what He has in store for them! May Your rain come down and refresh them Lord!

– May tomorrow be filled with joy and amazingness as it will be my last in Jaipur!

Much love from India!!

INDIA182: Day 178!

INDIA182: Day 177 + debrief!

WHADYOU KNOW? 5 DAYS LEFT! THE COUNTDOWN HAS STARTED.

Theme of the Day! 2^nd day of skateboarding ministry with the boys. + 2 new arrivals of students! YAY.

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Much of today was preparation for the DTS through cleaning some rooms that 2 girls were going to stay in and helping in on some cooking with Anima, whom makes home-made bread every day; and has been trying to tempt me into staffing through treats and things haha

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Starting from my second day here, it has been constant movies every night! WHOO! Haha And so our nights would end at around 11-12am, with a good sleep on the way.

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We came, we saw, we skated.

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The girls arrived later that night, dozed and tired. One is from Kolkata and the other is from America. And that’s all I know so far!

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Prayer Requests:

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– please pray that the Lord starts preparing these students for a 6 months journey with Him which personally transformed my life! May the Lord not hold back on His revelations and love and passion for these students that have not been brought here by chance!

– Also continue praying for the city here to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as walls of generational curses fall right now, from the Light of the world being shown in every corner!

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Much love from India!!

INDIA182: Day 176 + debrief!

Theme of the day: 1^st day, out of many days of skateboarding with the boys: MINISTRY THROUGH SKATEBOARDING + good food & company!

Today, I got know about Gage. He and I had a little chat the night before, but we were both really tired to remember much of what we said. Haha So all I knew about him till then was that he was American (the most important part haha), it was his first time flying over to Asia, and he was a cool guy.

I again accepted the chilled/relaxed atmosphere of the place and woke up with a good sleep, and a good cup of coffee. Simon, Gage, and I just started brainstorming ideas and all came up with starting a skateboarding park to attracted youth and bring Jesus!

All this talk about skateboarding brought me back to my days of skateboarding/longboarding down the streets of Perth, Australia. And since Simon’s sons had received skateboards from Australia, we couldn’t help but head out and make fools of ourselves on the Indian streets!

Oh yes! Before I forget, Simon’s family had staffed in Perth, Australia YWAM as well; But long before I was there. Haha small world ay?

Anyways, our skateboarding mobs around the streets brought much attention and curiosity of what these wooden boards with wheels were! Many of the kids were looking and asking questions and some even got the courage to step on for a spin.

And by the time we arrived back to the base, the sun was setting and the day had gone. Not a waste at all with good food, good friends and a good time!

Prayer Requests:

– pray for the youth here in this area to have a good image of who Jesus is, through our actions and expressions of love!

– Also pray for greater doors to open in this skateboarding ministry that be a bridge to connect with this lost and hungry-for-the-truth generation!

I hope you all are doing well and loving the new year of faithfulness, joy, and peace from the Lord! Thank you so so much for all the prayers. There’s not a prayer that He’s not heard from His children for His children!

Much love from India!!

INDIA182: Day 175 + debrief!

After the long travels and hectic three days in Delhi, I took my time to get out of bed.

I was greeted with a warm cup of coffee as I finally arrived upstairs. The day before, I got to experience Anima’s home grown vegetables. She would grow out outside in the terrace. They had a huge area that just looked over the city! BEAUTIFUL.

Being focused in the media, I got to help out with the eldest son, Abhishek with some graphics and IT things. It was really impressive how he was in a TV broadcasting graphics designer before he went to Kona to do a DTS. The other son also was like the next Shakespeare. I am yet to read his series that he’s working on though but am truly excited.

One of the atmospheres that I had quickly grown to love, was the chilled/relaxed state we were all in, at the base. But so much fun would happen, it seemed like the day would slip away unnoticed, until my head hit the pillow.

Sometime in the afternoon, I got meet up with Gage; the first student for the upcoming media DTS. There wasn’t much conversation for the first few hours because of the major impression of jetlag that covered his face. Haha

I didn’t have much time left after the brief introductions to connect with Gage, because Rakesh was right on time to pick me up. We set off on a motorcycle that Rakesh borrowed from the pastor he was staying with. I, for some reason, had a slight nervousness with Rakesh riding the bike and looking back at me when he was trying to talk to me. Haha But, praise the Lord, we arrived to the pastor’s house unscathed.

The remainder of the night consisted of endless chats with Rakesh, blocking things that were thrown at me by the pastor’s naughty son, and amazing food with the whole family. Rakesh had explained earlier, that the pastor is a good friend and a student buddy of his, while they were studying in theology. Now, he comes to visit the pastor every month or so to see them. And the pastor also got to explain about the orphanage he was building this area, a little outside the city of Jaipur, to build greater relationship with the villagers and people!

By the end of the night, I had got to pray for their ministries and bless their children in what was to come in their lives!

Prayer Requests:

– please pray for pastor Timothy here in Jaipur to receive greater wisdom and discernment in this coming up orphanage ministry.

– Also pray for Rakesh’s ministry, and he would be shown greater faithfulness and fruit, as he continues to prepare for what God has called him to do!

Much love from India!!

INDIA182: Day 174 debrief. . .

My day started with a shrill scream from my alarm. It was 6am. I had my bags packed the night before and just had to throw on a few jackets before heading out.

Not much of the bus ride to Jaipur was remembered. We had a quick stop in a dahba (restaurants on the side of the road) for some breakfast and then we were off again. I have discovered that I have a tendency to get dozy in moving vehicles. (Not if I’m driving though, don’t worry) haha

Anyways! The 4 hour journey there seemed a short one. I was greeted by towering walls that stood on the tip of these hills (I truthfully thought of the Great Wall of China when I first saw them) and many colorful kites blowing in the wind. Transportation to the base was a little tough, BUT God came through! After arriving to the bus stop, Simon (the base leader) told me that a taxi driver he knew was around the same location I was in. So I took a quick walk down a tourist location called the amber fort which was an enormous castle that used to contain one of the mugal kings that had reigned over this area and most of north India, before the British had come over and conquered these parts.

The taxi driver was currently in that location, because he was taking care of a tourist couple from the UK. So this delay gave me a little more time to rest in the car and stretch my legs, before they had come back from the amber fort. What I had found out about this couple, was that they had been traveling around the world for more than a year! They had traveled from the north of Africa down and just arrived in India about a month ago AND were planning to head over to Thailand to finish off the trip! We had a blast in the taxi talking about the different places we’ve been and the experience we all had! It was so cool to see this couple traveling so much, for so long, and still excited to see what was next.

After we had dropped the couple back to the hotel, I arrived to the base! YES!

Out walked a well built man that did look like an Indian. So this was Simon! I immediately asked him whether he was from Tonga or somewhere in the islands but surprising found out that he was full Indian! This is crazy! I had never seen such a well-built Indian! Haha

Simon’s family lived on the roof of this apartment flat where the base/classrooms/bunks were a floor below. After dropping my bags in the guest room, I got meet the rest of the family. Simon has three sons. 2 of them were there while the middle one was doing a dts else where. His wife, Anima, was from Mongolia and we immediately clicked like mother and son. Haha As I strolled about the house and chatted with the family, I felt so at home! As I had discovered, they were planning to start a media DTS here. I had discovered this, because of the pressured question of whether I like to staff for it when I first arrived! I politely declined and laughed at the fact that the DTS was starting in a week with the first student arriving tomorrow! But through it all, I was really glad to be there.

And guess what!? Do you remember a guy named Rakesh from the Goa DTS? Wanting to be able to meet up with me again, he traveled to Jaipur to see me! I felt so honored and excited to sneak up on him that evening as we went out to grab some good Indian food! He chatted and chatted and chatted; updating each other with our ministries and our families and what had been happening since 5 months ago. It’s really been that long! And towards the end of the night, we set up the next evening to meet up again! Tonight was a blast from the past as the early days in India seemed so far away, yet Rakesh and I just simply picked up where we last saw each other! Haha

A little reunion with a great friend in a wonderful place! THANK YOU JESUS!

Prayer Requests:

City of Jaipur

A big tourist destination

Disunity in the churches: Derived from the past kings that have ruled in this place and fought over land and reign.

Very strong Hindu state, ruled by kings for many years; Last area to be captured by the British. Hindu kings ruled with a lot of authority

Result: A lot of abuse towards the common people; many wars, violence, murders/killings which is a spirit in certain areas of Jaipur.

There is a dominant spirit. Higher class ruling over the lesser people and looking down on them.

Atmosphere: Greed, lust for wealth, selfishness, anger, pride, and disunity.

Anger and pride is also shown a lot in the ‘warrior caste’ (Rajputs)

65% of the people here will not put their money in the bank.

Women are much oppressed here. There are children marriages that still happen here, though it’s illegal. Many killings of girl babies in this area, mostly from abortions because of the view on girls: not carrying on the family name, having to pay for a lot in marriages. . etc. In some villages here, there are no girls at all.

Please pray according to your discretion.

– May the Lord be shown more and more as He brings forth radical followers of Jesus here in this place!

– May the Lord’s light shine greater in this area of disunity and mistrust! May the people that know Him here be the bridge and start of who Jesus is!

Much love from India!!

INDIA182: Day 174!

Twentieth location: Jaipur, India

INDIA182: Day 171, 172, & 173 debrief. . .

Theme of the daysss: Being a tourist + prayer walking around the many many sites in Delhi.

 

While most of the mercy ministry team was busy and still in the holiday spirit of not doing anything, God had brought me a courageous young boy (15 years) to travel with me and communicate for me when I had just a little ounce of knowledge in speaking Hindi. I had also felt a calling from the Holy Spirit to call him along this three day trip with me around Delhi.

 

The boy’s name is Sonu. For the past 3 days in Delhi, we have been connecting more and more through first meeting in church, and then to the movie theater, and now travelling about Delhi. During the first day of the trip, we were to venture to a site called the amber fort. It was my first time traveling on monorail in India and I was quite impressed at it! Sonu had said that they are already building more of then in the different major cities in India for a better/faster way to travel around.

At the foot of the red fort, I gave Sonu a debrief of what I was doing here for the next 3 days and what prayer walking meant and what interceding meant. Before all of this, he had only gotten to experience prayer walking once in his life. We then started off in the fort, because I could pull off looking like a northeastern Indian, we got head straight in without questions and a cheaper price! PRAISE THE LORD!

 

For the next two days, we would head about towards different temples, sites, and areas where the host family had recommended me to go. During this whole time, I had felt a great spirit of greed and bitterness in the areas we were heading into. I would also ask Sonu many times of what he was feeling or what he was hearing from the Lord. I could see a greater interest and growth in this kid’s spiritual awareness and want to hear the voice of God more! It was such an encouragement to see such a young boy come with me and Jesus to these places!

 

In one of the sites, it was a hanuman temple. This place was specially recommended to go to from the host family. I immediately felt a dark presence as I stepped in the area. I had rarely felt such darkness than I did there. Hanuman is a god in Hinduism providing strength and blessing. It was huge crowd pushing and pulling to get inside the temple and offer their sacrifice or prayer so they would be blessed. Sonu and I just stood outside and prayed for this place. There was enough to be felt outside of the temple.

 

3 days of full-on ministries visiting sites and seeing the beauty of these structures but also arriving to areas where such greed, lust for money, and anger could be seen. Though Sonu didn’t say much from the experience, it had really opened his eyes to the spiritual world that is so entangled with the physical.

 

By the end of the last day, we headed out to a mo mo (dumpling) restaurant and had fills of them. With warm stomachs in a cold night, we chatted about the experience a little bit more. And though it was the end of a good 3 days spent, I had to jump straight into bed for some rest for my bus trip to Jaipur tomorrow!! So few days, and yet so much to do!!

 

Prayer requests:

 

– please pray for the sites in Delhi, especially the hanuman temple. May the light of the Lord shine forth in these areas and break the darkness impelled within.

– Also pray for strength from Lord, as I travel to Jaipur tomorrow to visit a media ministry there that I have been recommended to meet for a couple now! I’m excited!

– Also continue praying for the mercy ministry here to have greater and greater understanding and revelations of God’s love.

– And pray for Sonu. May his life be led by the Holy Spirit and continued to be molded, starting now, into more of an intimacy with God day by day!

 

Much love from India!!

INDIA182: Day 173!